Free Shadowed Threads by Shannon Mayer Page B

Jack would protect them as best he could, but I hadn’t even thought to ask Will and Deanna to look out for my two wards. There just hadn’t been time. Hell, I hadn’t even found a phone to check on them.
    “Rylee, how high do you want me to climb?” Eve tipped her head so she could look at me.
    “To where we can’t be seen from below.” I needed a moment to think. Or maybe a few moments.
    Eve did as I asked, climbing high enough that the air thinned. I fought a sudden wave of anxiety when the breath I took barely filled my lungs. “High enough, Eve.”
    She banked and dropped down, and the pressure on my lungs eased.
    I Tracked O’Shea, felt nothing, knew that I would have to cross over to the mainland to try and get a bead on him. Hopefully he was there and not somehow back in the States. Based on what Milly had said, I didn’t think he was in the States. But without an ocean between us I should be able to track him. Either way, I would find out soon enough.
    Then there was Alex and Pamela. My mind kept circling back to them. Logically, it didn’t make sense to take them with me, to bring them into danger when it came to O’Shea.
    But my gut was telling me otherwise. They were both needed, for some reason, they needed to come with me.
    “Keep your blue socks close, you will need them to survive.” The memory of Giselle’s admonitions cemented my decision, but didn’t make it any easier.
    Not for one bit.

Chapter 9

    F uck it all to hell and back. How the hell was I going to do this?
    “Eve, we need to go back to Jack’s.”
    “For Pamela and Alex?”
    “Yes. They need to be with us.”
    Eve let out a screech that made me cringe and the skin on my neck crawl. Even though I trusted her, there had been more than one time that a Harpy had tried to eat me. Even Eve had at one point sized me up for a McRylee Meal.
    She tipped her body to the left and I clung to her with my legs. I really, really had to get a harness set up for her. But with the way my life had been going, there just hadn’t been time.
    There was never enough time, it seemed.
    Before long Jack’s mansion came into view.
    Along with the Beast, pacing below us. Apparently, we hadn’t moved fast enough this time around. Damn, I should have asked Eve to fly faster.
    “Rylee—”
    “I see him.” I slipped a hand into my pocket. These were for O’Shea, but if I had Pamela with me they wouldn’t be needed. “Land near the pond and then go get Alex and Pamela. Make sure Pam gets my jacket and her weapons.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I’m going to slow that big kitty cat down.”
    The Beast watched us as we circled to the opposite side of the pond. I slid from Eve’s back and loosened up my one sword, pulling it free of the sheath. Eve swept across the pond, screeching in the Beast’s face as she went by him. But he never even turned her way, his gaze solely centered on me.
    “Do you know that you’re being compelled?” I asked as the Beast crept around the pond, stalking me. I kept time with him, like a ridiculous game of ring around the rosie. The only thing left to be seen was which one of us would fall down first.
    His voice rumbled across to me, surprising the shit out of me.
    “Yes, I know I’m compelled. When I am free of the compulsion, I will kill the woman.”
    Sweet, at least Daniels’ death wouldn’t end up on my shoulders.
    “No chance we could break the compulsion?”
    “No. You will die. For that I’m sorry.” His black lips rippled back over his teeth and he sprinted around the pond.
    I pulled a grenade out of my pocket, yanked the pin with my teeth as I ran and threw it at him.
    “ Capio !”
    The grenade exploded in a haze of silvery light and sparkles, blurring my vision. The Beast leapt out of the magic made dust, fog, whatever the fuck it was. Shit, it hadn’t worked—or had I missed him? I bolted around the pond, fumbling for the second grenade. If this one didn’t work, I’d be forced to