Kings and Sirens (The Blood Falls Book 2)

Atsila

The smell burned my nose. Burning flesh, piss, and something else. The darkness blinded me at first, but then my eyes adjusted. I heard roars echoing off the cave walls and some sort of wailing in the distance.

Then it was closer.

A rift glittered right in front of me.

A group of salishan attacked. I killed them all. This was no time to talk or negotiate. Rever’s life was all that mattered now.

The wail was closer again. I spun, trying to track it down. Another salishan rushed me. I tore out his entrails and tossed them aside. I didn’t bother to watch it die.

The wail moved further away and I ran toward it, only to have it move behind me again. I froze, attempting to track how and where the sound moved, only to discover that it wasn’t really moving.

All of it came from the rift, distorted by the differences in our realities.

I threw a rock at it, watching it disappear into the black that was more black than my eyes could comprehend. I gathered some snow and also tossed it at the anomaly. More of the same.

Then it shimmered, glowed, and Rever came flying back out. The rift closed and disappeared behind him.

I shifted back to samhain form and knelt down beside him. “Are you hurt?” I didn’t see any wounds, but I was shocked by what I saw nonetheless. Just a few minutes ago I saw Rever ripped from Leena’s hands. His hair was short and so was his dark beard.

The male in front of me had a long beard that hung to his chest and equally dirty hair that hung to his shoulders. His eyes were haggard and sunken. It was as if he’d been gone for five years instead of five minutes.

“Rever? Can you hear me?”

He groaned and nodded. “Atsila? That you?”

“Sure is. Are you hurt?” I touched his arm, half expecting it to zap me or suck me into a new, unseen rift. But none of that happened.

“Naw. Just tired is all. How long has it been? Leena good?”

“Leena is safe. Rever…you’ve only been gone five minutes.”

The male’s eyes slowly focused on mine. “Five minutes? Fuck me.”

The sounds of more salishan approaching reminded me we needed to get out of this place in a hurry. “You’re in no shape to move. I’m going to shift forms and put you on my back, okay? All you have to do is hold on for a few minutes. Can you do that?”

“Fuck me. I’m tired, not dead.”

So I shifted forms and once I felt him grab a fistful of my fur, I got us the hell away from the cave of horrors.

Hex met us a few minutes later with a full battery of reinforcements. Rhiannon took Rever, and with Leena’s help, promised to get him safely to the Doctor. I joined the others in returning to the cave.

It was the first time we took salishan prisoners alive. Thirty died, five came with us, the rest fled before we could get to them.

“Anything?” I asked the psychics.

“No. There is no rift here or anywhere nearby. Now.”

Another one spoke up. “But we can detect the traces of the one that was here. We’re gathering as much data as we can and we’ll analyze it. It won’t give us all the answers we want, but it will give us more than we have now.”

That would have to be enough.

“Any word on Rever yet?” I asked Hex.

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“We’ll leave behind monitors like we use at the Line. If they return we’ll know about it.”

“Good. We have teams monitoring all the abandoned encampments, but I suspect they’ll go back underground. Regroup. For now we have our prisoners to interrogate and finally get some some fucking answers.”

I knew what he was about to say and there was nothing I could do to stop it. But I tried anyway. “I should check on Leena and coordinate with the other Houses about what we’ve learned.”

Hex nodded, frowning. “Can you hand that off to Leena? She’s been an amazing liaison for us so far. I need your help with the interrogations.”

And there it was. I couldn’t refuse. “Of course.” My King would keep his focus on the safety of the Heida while I, the once and future King, would assume my responsibilities to the House by learning everything I can about the threats to our safety. It made sense.

I was just annoyed it would mean less time with Leena.

Hex pointed south with his chin. “Go. Your female needs you.”

I didn’t mention that at this point, I was pretty sure I needed to see her more than she needed to see me.