Caged in Bone (The Ascension Series) (12 page)

“This is more complicated than you want to think,” Abram said.

Rylie zipped the half-empty backpack closed and slung it over her shoulder, but Abram grabbed it immediately.

“This situation is only complicated if you make it complicated,” Rylie said. “Please give the bag back.”

“You need to listen to me.”

“I
am
listening. Stephanie Whyte will be here soon. Bekah, too. The two of them can handle everything that you and Summer can’t. That’s four people in charge. Four people can handle the pack and a small town for a week.”

“Elise has left the Palace of Dis too,” Abram said. “Have you no idea how vulnerable that leaves us? This is a war, Rylie, and whether or not you two are capable of seeing it, you’re in charge. People need you. They follow you. When you leave, we’re crippled.”

Rylie’s heart clenched. What would Abram think of her if he knew that she had tried to sacrifice her wolf to stop the Breaking? Would he sympathize, realize that nothing mattered to her as much as saving Abel—even the pack—or would he hate her for her selfishness?

She couldn’t bring herself to tell him.

Rylie took one of his hands. So hard to believe that he was the tiny preterm infant that she had birthed in a muddy, rain-drenched forest. He was twice her size now. He had calluses on his forefingers from where he frequently rested a paintbrush—his passion—and other calluses on his palms and knuckles from hard labor and hard fighting—the things he did for survival.

He cupped her hand in his palm. She closed her eyes and let him hold her.

“This is about more than us and our family,” Abram said. “Come on, Mom.”

Mom
. She didn’t think she would ever get used to hearing that.

Rylie took the backpack gently from his hand and slung it over her shoulder. “Someday, you’re going to love someone so much that you’d give up everything for them, too. And I think you’ll understand why I have to do this.”

“Give up
everything
? Even if it means letting the world die?” he asked, voice harsh.

“What are you talking about, Abram? I’ll be back for the moon. The world isn’t at stake here.”

“I don’t know,” Abram whispered. “I don’t know.”

Rylie stared at him, trying to understand his fear. He had lost Seth too. They had been closer than anyone else in the pack. Maybe this was just his grief getting the better of him.

Gazing up at her son, she could almost see Abel in him—almost. But Abram was so much more sensitive than his father. He was gentle. He had taken a lot from Seth, and not just the Wilder family smile. He had gotten the temperance, too. The ability to see beyond the now to the bigger picture and how people fit into it.

She ached for Seth in that moment, looking into Abram’s silver eyes.

“I’ll come home soon,” she promised, wrapping her arms around his waist to hug him tightly. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll be with Elise.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Abram said.

The motorcycle glimmered
in the Christmas lights like a present waiting to be unwrapped. Its body was sleek, glossy blue, almost the same color as the Chevelle. The chrome organs sparkled. Its tires had been swapped out for winter, bulkier and studded for ice.

Elise ran her hands over the handles, the seat. She had borrowed this motorcycle once before. Riding it was a pleasure. But she didn’t immediately climb on.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she said.

Rylie settled the saddlebags over the rear of the motorcycle. “I said it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“This belonged to Seth.”

“It’s Abel’s, actually,” she said, cheeks flushed even though it was barely twenty degrees under the awning that sheltered the pack’s vehicles.

Elise arched an eyebrow. “And you think Abel would be okay with me borrowing it?”

“No,” Rylie admitted, “but the pack needs the pickups in this weather, and if you want to drive, this is all we have left.” She didn’t vocalize the question that she had already asked twice, smart enough to know that if she hadn’t gotten an answer the first two times, she wouldn’t get it a third.

Why drive at all?

It would be faster and safer to phase from town to town in search of Abel. Elise wouldn’t have to worry about sheltering during the daylight hours if she jumped between states.

But Elise’s stomach still cramped with hunger, and her skin was grayer than its usual porcelain white. She had eaten all of the brutes that the kibbeth had brought through the fissure. She had sipped Neuma’s blood and consumed her sexual energies until the half-succubus had almost passed out.

Elise was still hungry.

So hungry, in fact, that she wasn’t confident she could phase Rylie safely. And since the werewolf was bent on tracking down Abel, they had to drive.

Neuma slunk out of the shadows beyond the awning. She wore a fur-lined coat that hung to her knees, and Rylie tensed at the sight of it. “Down, girl,” Elise muttered, stepping away from the motorcycle to receive Neuma. “Is everything ready?”

“Yup.” Neuma handed Elise a small box. “Everything you asked for in there. Me and Gerard got a handle on everything through December still, so as long as you’re back by New Year’s, we’ll be good. Still sure you don’t want a guard along with you?”

Elise jammed the box into the saddlebags without opening it. “We’ll move faster alone.”

“Still, you know, going after the big witchy guy,” Neuma said. “Backup can’t hurt.”

“Are you suggesting that I can’t handle James alone?”

“Nah. I’m not saying nothing.” She glanced at Rylie, then back to Elise. “Can we talk in private for a sec?”

Rylie took a hint well. “I’ll say goodbye to Summer and Abram.” She headed up the path back toward the cottages.

They didn’t speak until she was out of sight. It might not have been far enough to elude Rylie’s hearing, but it was as good as they were going to get.

“I gotta set one rule for this fun little road trip,” Neuma said, curling her first finger through one of the belt loops on Elise’s jeans. “No sex.”

“You know that you’re not my girlfriend,” Elise said.

She barked a laugh. “No shit. This ain’t jealousy. It’s practicality. You’re like a baby succubus right now, doll, and you just don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t want you fucking anyone to death. It’d tear you up inside. So if you’re gonna feed, feed on the bad guys, stay away from people you like, and don’t get naked unless you’re alone.”

“I just ate twice,” Elise said, shrugging her jacket on and pulling her hair out of the collar. “This won’t take long. I’m not going to feed at all until we come back.” She had used to go months without feeding. Just because she had recently become hungrier didn’t mean that she couldn’t go a few more days without refueling.

“Dunno,” Neuma said. “Be careful, is all I’m saying. Take good care of yourself. Come back to Dis fast if you gotta. I’ll be waiting.”

Elise felt a small knot of warmth in her heart. “I’ll be careful.”

Neuma kissed her on the temple. Her lips were warm and soft, burning away the icy-wet chill of winter’s breezes. “Come home soon, got me?”

“I got you,” Elise said.

She got on the motorcycle and turned the key. It growled to life between her legs. Elise curled her gloved fingers around the handlebars, feeling the vibrations of the engine all the way to her teeth. She caught herself smiling.

Abel wasn’t going to like it, but damn if she wouldn’t enjoy riding this beast again.

Elise reached into one of the saddlebags, pushed the lid of the black box aside, and felt around until her fingers landed on a notebook the size of her palm.

It was the book of spells that James had given her the last time that she saw him, when he had just helped her kill Aquiel, Prince of Nightmares. When Elise had, mistakenly, for a fleeting second, thought that things might be changing for the better between her and James.

There was a primitive locator spell midway through the pages. Elise traced it with a pen, muttering under her breath, coaxing it to life.

It peeled free of the page in a brilliant shade of crimson.

Neuma had grown used to Elise’s new abilities, but she still looked dubious as the spell lifted and crawled up to Elise’s bare wrist. There wasn’t any room under her gloves for more runes.

Elise didn’t let it settle for long. As soon as the magic contacted her flesh like a stinging brand, she activated it.

A red light zipped into the night, briefly illuminating the path.

“That going after Abel?” Neuma asked.

“Yes.” That was a lie. She couldn’t actually track Abel since she didn’t have any focuses that belonged to him. But she did have the warding ring that James had made on a chain around her neck. It was nestled in the right cup of her bra, warm and heavy. The red light was darting toward the ring’s maker.

West. He was to the west.

Rylie returned with a backpack on her shoulders, which made her look even more like a teenager than usual. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Elise said.

Neuma stepped back as Rylie sat sidesaddle on the back of the motorcycle. The werewolf hesitated before looping an arm around Elise’s waist.

Elise kicked off the brake, gave Neuma a last nod, and peeled into the night.

Elise hadn’t had
time to spend on Earth since the Breaking. She had immediately retreated into Hell to do damage control, imagining that she could prevent the worst of the attacks if only she could seize the Palace, demand allegiance from the greatest Houses, and shut down the war machine. It had been a frustratingly naïve hope; the Houses had no interest in her demands.

Since then, she had been consumed by matters in Hell, oblivious to the changing Earth above. And she had become so used to everything in Dis that, at first, the severity of America’s condition didn’t hit her. It seemed normal enough to blow through empty cities coated in ash.

It wasn’t until they reached the space between the cities that it hit her.

The small towns and rural areas, occupied by occasional farms, couldn’t be mistaken for anything in Hell. Fields of swaying grass felt so unfamiliar to Elise that it was almost like she had never seen them before. And every house and grocery store they passed was dark.

“Bathroom,” Rylie said into Elise’s ear.

Elise pulled over at the next abandoned gas station, which stood alone at a juncture between two roads. Its pumps were so dirty that she couldn’t read the prices.

“Where are we?” Elise asked, propping up the motorcycle and dismounting.

Rylie smoothed her hair down with both hands. She hadn’t bothered grabbing a helmet, and her hair was a wreck from the wind. “Um, I think this is…Friedville? Somewhere near that.”

Friedville. Elise wasn’t familiar enough with the area to know the town. It sounded like one of thousands of small, unremarkable dots on a map that had only served as a pit stop for travelers.

“Keep your ears open,” Elise said, resting a hand on the gun at her back as she gazed around at the empty pumps. Her senses said that they were alone, but something felt amiss.

“Ears and nose,” Rylie agreed. She stepped around the side of the building, following the bathroom signs.

Elise wiped a window clean and looked inside the attached convenience store. The sign behind the counter said that gas cost ten dollars per gallon. When she had left, it had been less than four. It was a price driven by intense demand—people trying to fuel up for an escape. The corner of her mouth lifted at the idea of the gas station owners taking the evacuees’ money. She wondered what they could have possibly done with it.

The shelves were empty of everything but pieces of trash. The station had been ransacked. Elise didn’t have to imagine the panic as people had torn through the gas station; she could see many of the signs just looking through the window. The broken racks. The blood smear on the corner of the counter. The shattered window behind the untouched rack of DVDs.

The sound of metal breaking echoed over the parking lot. Rylie must have had to snap the bathroom lock to get inside the bathroom. The Alpha werewolf’s mental signals were still relatively neutral—she hadn’t been attacked.

Elise hooked her thumbs in her belt loops and gazed across the fields on the other side of the road. There was a harvester near a silo that had its doors standing wide open without any grain inside. It had been ransacked, just like the gas station.

All of this chaos had been preventable. It was her fault. Hers and James’s.

After saving the world so many times, this was what had become of it all.

How far they had fallen.

“Hey, Elise,” Rylie called. “Check this out.”

Elise followed the sound of her voice around the side of the gas station. There was a pickup with a camper shell in the employees-only parking lot. Rylie was staring at it like she had just found a nest of cockroaches.

“We should get back on the road if we hope to catch up with James soon,” Elise said. “Daylight’s coming and we’ll be out of the chase for eight hours.”

“But there’s something in there.” Rylie jerked her chin toward the truck. “You can’t smell that?”

“What is it?”

“Gasoline,” Rylie said. “And something is rotting.”

Something rotten was unremarkable. So much had been forgotten when the country emptied. But gasoline—that would be useful.

Elise opened the camper shell. There were a dozen red gasoline canisters inside.

She lifted them to see if any were filled. Only half had any weight to them. Elise grabbed the heaviest and unscrewed the cap to look inside. She was surprised to see cash, not gasoline. Rolls of bills had been wrapped in rubber bands and stuffed inside.

“That’s not going to fuel the motorcycle,” Rylie said, peering over Elise’s shoulder.

Elise tossed it aside. At another time she might have taken the money for McIntyre’s daughters, but American currency was probably useless now. “Do all of these have money in them?”

“Not this one,” Rylie said, grabbing a canister in the back without needing to check the others. It had a couple inches of gas at the bottom.

“Good. Top off the motorcycle.”