Free Rising Darkness (A Rylee Adamson Novel, Book 9) by Shannon Mayer

spoke. “I seem to be carrying the wolf’s soul somehow. And he is . . . influencing me when it comes to Rylee.”
    I kept my mouth shut. Faris’s secrets were his to share in his own time, if he wanted to.
    “This has something to do with your arm, doesn’t it?” Doran leaned toward Faris who squirmed in his seat.
    “Yes.”
    “I told you not to attempt it. I told you something like this would happen,” Doran bit out, then scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Fine. If Liam is with Faris, then I trust him to look after you.”
    I cleared my throat. “There is one other problem. When I Track now, the demons can pinpoint me. I’m hoping someone might know a way to throw the fuckers off.”
    Will let out a laugh, reminding me he was there. “Nothing is going to go right with you involved, is it?”
    I shrugged. “Really, no one here should be surprised that shit just keeps getting tougher. That’s the way the world rolls.”
    Alex let out a jaw-cracking yawn and lay at my feet. “Blocking demons, Rylee needs to hide. Wear a costume.” After dispensing his advice, he closed his eyes and went to sleep. A slow hissing of air escaping his back-end had me and Berget putting distance between him and us.
    “Seriously, what have you all been feeding him?” I blew a sharp breath of air out my nose to clear the fumes.
    “Wait,” Berget froze in place, and her eyes went distant. Before I could ask her anything, Doran shoved me behind him and Faris caught me, his arms snaking around me.
    Berget seemed to be seeing something and then she shook her head, coming back to herself. “My parents . . . .” she looked for me, and saw that Doran and Faris had put themselves between us. Her lips tightened, but she said nothing about their sudden change in positions. “They said the werewolf has a point. The demons are tracing Rylee’s essence. If we change her essence, then the demons can’t trace her.”
    “Essence?”
    She shrugged. “Someone has a portion of your blood. That has to be how they are tracing you. If you change the makeup of your blood, then they can’t find you anymore. Nice and simple.”
    “I can’t become a shifter, or a vampire for that matter.” I wormed out of Faris’s grip and moved closer to her. The boys didn’t trust her, but I did. I’d seen the edge of death with her, and her parents had spoken to me . They really did understand their best interest lay in letting Berget live her own life without their interference.
    Berget smiled. “True, but that doesn’t mean the process wouldn’t work.”
    I frowned, and rubbed a hand over my face. “Spell it out for me. I’m too tired to be smart.”
    “If you exchanged blood with a vampire, it would change the essence, your blood, for a period of time before your immunity kicked it out. It’s not a perfect solution, but you could do it whenever you needed to Track someone.”
    Shit. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “It would have to be you or Faris then.”
    “Not you,” Doran snapped, looking at Berget. His face softened along with his tone. “I’m sorry, Berget, but we can’t risk her. You know that.”
    Berget gave a slight nod, but her posture said it all. His lack of trust hurt her. And I knew she secretly, or maybe not so secretly, loved him. That was the other reason I would never turn his way, despite what I’d said.
    “Faris would be better anyway.” She didn’t give a reason, but Doran nodded in agreement.
    Doran glanced at Faris. “Are you willing to exchange blood with her?”
    I was surprised he didn’t jump on the table and dance. A blood exchange is what he’d been jonesing for as long as I’d known him. A way to bind us together. Fucking hell, and now it seemed I was giving him his wish. The blond-haired vampire inclined his head slightly. “If that will help, then yes.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Please.”
    Those blue eyes fucking sparkled when they looked my way. They said a number of things. One of