Veiled Threat (23 page)
He sliced through the veil and was gone. I wasn’t sure if I was happy to see him go or not. A powerful ally, but a mercurial one for sure.
The next two days passed swiftly. I met with Raw, who’d assumed leadership of this new band of ogres, then met with Raw, Doran, and Berget. Eve flew to bring the unicorns close to the borders of Doran’s place. When I asked her about the harpies she shook her head. “I do not know, Rylee. They were non-committal.”
Everyone had a plan, had a way to try and stop the demons. But I knew it would come down to what I had to do. The rest of them would be holding off demons, like Pamela and Milly had done for Erik and me.
Holding off the hordes long enough for me to do what I had to do.
Whatever the hell it was.
Three days and Blaz came flying into sight, three figures on his back. Shit, had he really brought …
Frank insisted. He said he wasn’t leaving his family to fight demons without him. The boy has some spine.
Blaz landed and Liam slid from his back first. Shit, who the hell cared if we had a serious PDA?
I ran to him, threw myself into his arms and buried my face in his neck. His arms tightened around me and we stood like that, clinging to one another. Around us people swirled and talked, but for that moment it was just him and me.
No words were needed as I slid from his arms. We were together. That was all that mattered in that moment.
Blaz stood beside me picking at his teeth with his claws.
Chaos should have been your name. Everywhere you go, you bring change.
“Complaint department is over there.” I pointed at the ogre’s tents, which were colored in the tones of their skin. Not a single black tent sat amongst them, a distinguishing mark. Blaz laughed and rolled onto his back, stretching out fully. As if Blaz’s return was the signal, everything seemed to happen at once.
From behind Doran’s abode came the clatter of hooves and within moments the black stallion of the Tamoskin Crush slid to a stop in front of me.
Tracker, the time draws near. We stand with you against the darkness. Nikko is what you may call me.
I gave him my thanks, nodded and headed inside. As night fell, I called a council meeting.
Doran, Berget, Raw, Liam, Erik, Pamela, Alex and Blaz, Eve, Nikko, even
Charlie
came. Faris was a no show, off on some errand or another for Doran. Of Will and Deanna, I’d heard nothing. Which pissed me off to no end, but for all that it irritated me, there was nothing I could do about it. Not yet anyway.
Before the meeting, I met privately with Thomas out near Blaz on the outskirts of Doran’s property. He shook from head to toe, his lanky arms and legs all but knocking together. “Thomas. There are going to be a number of vampires at the council meeting, Faris included. Can you hold your shit together?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes. Frank and I spoke at length about what this trip would require of me. If the boy can do it, so can I. But I do not like it, nor will I ever trust the blood drinkers.”
“You only have to trust me. Not them. That and do your best not to unleash a zombie horde on us, okay?”
Thomas gave me a tight smile and held out his hand. “You have my word I will do my best. If I must, I will walk away.”
I took his hand and held it, my grip tightening. “Faris, he’s more than just a vampire to you, isn’t he?”
The necromancer’s jaw twitched furiously and then he jerked his hand from mine. “Yes.”
That was it; that was all I could get out of him. But it explained a lot if Faris had something to do with Thomas’s captivity.
From there, the council was to meet.
We gathered outside where the fountain spewed water, teasing the lazy koi.
Of course, the council meeting never happened, or at least, not the way I’d thought it was going to. No, Blaz was right, my name should have been chaos.
Doran lifted his hand to bring the council to order when the veil slashed open and Faris fell through, bloodied beyond belief. He was missing his left arm, taken at the shoulder; bite marks and wide, open wounds covered his body.
Confusion erupted and Liam moved first, opening a vein up in his wrist with a single slash and holding it over Faris’s mouth before I could even suggest offering my own blood.
“Drink up, bloodsucker, it’s the only time I’m giving freely.”
Faris drank deep and his wounds healed, but his arm didn’t grow back. The gaping hole sealed over with bright pink, new skin, but that was it.
He leaned on the tiles. “Orion is making a bid sooner than we thought.” Faris’s icy blue eyes found mine and for the first time, I saw fear in them.
“The doorway in the castle, the one that goes to the deep veil, it has been …” His words dried up as he shook his head.
Faris didn’t have to finish the words, I knew them already, but I asked anyway.
“He got it open, didn’t he?”
Faris nodded, the council members around us hanging on his every word.
“Yes. And he’s sending through his demons. Not in hordes, but carefully chosen packs. One of the packs did this to me like I was a child to be tossed between them. A toy to be broken.”
There was the sound of sucked in air around the courtyard, the uneasy stamp of Nikko’s foot on the tile. The idea of Faris being manhandled was … difficult to see, even in my mind.
“How bad could that be? Against all of us, the odds are in our favor, look at us,” Raw said, his hand on his hips, legs spread in defiance. I caught a flash of red in his eyes as his anger and pride filled him.
Erik let out a low laugh. “The odds are not in our favor, ogre. This is bad. Yet bad doesn’t begin to describe what we’re up against if Orion is sending his packs through. They will make way for the demons who will set up Orion as king. The four horseman. If the packs are coming through, the four horsemen will be next and we don’t want that. Trust me.”
I met his eyes, felt the blood pool from my face. He had to be shitting me, us. “Four horseman?”
He nodded and everyone else melted away. The four horseman of the apocalypse would soon be upon us, and Orion had set it in motion. He set them on us and now we had to face them.
This was not what we needed right now. But then again, when would there be a good time to have the four horseman show up on our doorsteps?
Yeah, never.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Coming August 2014 …
“Wounded”
A Rylee Adamson Novel #8
Authors note
Thanks for reading “Veiled Threat” I truly hope you enjoyed the continuation of Rylee’s story, her friends, and the world I’ve created for them. If you loved this book, one of the best things you can do is leave a review for it. Amazon.com is where I sell the majority of my work, so if I can only ask for one place for reviews that would be it. Again, thank you for coming on this ride with me, I hope we’ll take many more together. The rest of The Rylee Adamson series, along with my other novels, are available in both ebook and paperback format from Amazon.
Enjoy!
Shannon Mayer’s Amazon Author Page:
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About the Author
Shannon Mayer lives in the southwestern tip of Canada with her husband, dog, cats, horse, and cows. When not writing she spends her time staring at immense amounts of rain, herding old people (similar to herding cats) and attempting to stay out of trouble. Especially that last is difficult for her.
She is the author of the The Rylee Adamson Novels, The Nevermore Trilogy, A Celtic Legacy series and two contemporary romances. Please visit her website for more information on her novels.
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Shannon Mayer’s Amazon Author Page:
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Also by Shannon Mayer
The Rylee Adamson Series
Alex (A Rylee Adamson Short Story)
Contemporary Romance
Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Urban Fantasy
Copyright
Veiled Threat, A Rylee Adamson Novel #7
Copyright © Shannon Mayer 2014
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Or deliberately on purpose, depending on whether or not you have been nice to the author.
Original Cover Art by Damon Za
Mayer, Shannon