by Cate Corvin
“Come on, I’m sure Damien is expecting us.”
I didn’t see how. Gio had come swooping out of nowhere and snatched me from thin air just as my apartment had exploded in a barrage of grenades, so he wouldn’t have had time to call him. I didn’t want to think about the state of my home right now, though, so I focused on the present.
“When did you have the chance to tell him?”
“No need. He had surveillance on you the second he put that Ruby in your chest.”
I tried to let that roll of my back, but the invasiveness pricked at me. I hadn’t asked for this shit, but I thought I’d been rolling with the punches—literally, thanks to Gio—pretty well so far. But knowing that there had been someone watching me at all times when I thought I was alone in the privacy of my home? Uncool was a vast understatement.
“Zara, it was for your own safety.”
“No, it was for the heart’s safety. I’m simply a vessel for the damn Ruby, a container that Damien wants kept in one piece.” All my excitement and burgeoning acceptance over what Damien had done was hugely overshadowed by the continued ringing of exploding grenades in my ears.
I’d barely finished speaking when the rooftop door flung open and Damien strode out, pure wrath on his face. I instinctively shrank back, crushing my back up against Gio’s hard, naked chest.
This guy really needs to put a fucking shirt on.
The fire in Damien’s eyes scorched every inch of me as he raked my body with his intense stare, but I ignored the sparks of desire he ignited. Mostly. Refusing to cower, I straightened up and squared my shoulders, meeting his gaze with a level one of my own. I’d done nothing wrong, and I wouldn’t be intimidated by the Emerald.
“What the fuck happened?” His menacing growl was directed at Gio, but I could speak for myself.
“My apartment was attacked.”
“No shit. Why? What did you do?”
I bristled at that. “I didn’t do anything. I was minding my own business when some sonofabitch shot a fucking grenade through my window. That’s what I get for following your stupid rules and staying put.”
“Who was it, Zara? Did you see?”
“I should be asking you who it was! Before you put this thing in my chest, I never had fullbloods with a grudge against me and a grenade launcher pointed in my direction.” I paused and took a deep breath and pulled on my professional mask. “The assailant appeared to be about six-foot-four, brown hair, no scars or identifying marks on his face that I could see. He had wings that weren’t black, so I would assume he’s a Topaz, his horns were different.”
“Different how?”
“They weren’t Topaz. They were green, but not like yours. More… more like a blend of the two. I would guess he’s a mix of the two.”
“Not possible.” The words were out of Damien’s mouth so fast, and with such certainty, I was inclined to believe him.
“Why? Is it taboo to fraternize with other stones or something?”
“No, not at all, but that’s not how our matrices work, they don’t blend. No matter if the parents have two different stonehearts, the child will only be one or the other. So, I don’t know what you saw, but it wasn’t that.”
“Listen, Viridios, I saw him before he got off the first shot, and he absolutely had green horns and wings.” Damien looked skeptical, perhaps even a little patronizing, but he didn’t argue.
“And you saw nothing?” His attention was again laser-focused on Gio, the seething anger rolling off of his stony flesh in waves.
“I saw her on the balcony of her apartment just as I saw the grenade launcher pointed her way. I snagged her and came straight here, so there was no chance to find the bastard who fired it.” I couldn’t see Gio’s face behind my shoulder without taking my eyes off of Damien—and I knew better than to take my eyes off a predator—but there was an anger in his tone that rivaled Damien’s.
“Don’t blame him, Damien, if it wasn’t for him, I’d be—”
“Let’s get inside before someone takes another shot at her,” Gio interjected, grabbing my elbow and leading me past Damien and toward the door. I stumbled a bit at the sudden movement, but Gio’s iron grip kept me from going down.
I snuck a glance up at Damien as we passed him, and for a moment, the tension in his jaw made me think that his teeth were in danger of being ground into dust. It felt a little cowardly to just let Gio guide me inside, but in truth, I didn’t relish the idea of being out in the open for long. Not when someone was pointing exploding projectiles in my general direction.
Footsteps behind us as we descended to the penthouse level of the building told me that Damien was hot on our heels. Even his stride was laden with fury, so I steeled my nerves as we paused outside the front door of Damien’s place. Gio jabbed in the code and threw the door wide, dragging me in alongside him.
Once in the relative safety of the penthouse, I wrenched my arm free. He was worried, I got that. They both were. After all, couldn’t let anything happen to their special vessel, now could they? My own ire rose. That was all I was to them. A living vault for their precious Ruby.
A tiny voice in the back of my mind said it was more than that, that I meant something to them because I was me, but I wasn’t ready to unpack that. Thankfully, my irritation made it easy to tamp down.
“So what now?” I snapped. “I’m a prisoner here for the foreseeable future?”
“Pretty much,” Gio murmured, and shot him a glare.
“You’re not a prisoner, Zara. We’re simply keeping you here for your protection.” Damien’s patronizing tone raised my hackles.
“Yeah, that ‘keeping’ part? That sounds a lot like a prisoner to me.”
“Damn it, Zara!” His outburst surprised me, but I didn’t even have a chance to form a response before he had my upper arms gripped in his large palms, squeezing hard enough that my bones would have cracked if I’d still been human. “How are you not comprehending the danger here? There are people who want to rip the heart out of your chest, and this time, there won’t be any coming back. Did you think it was a fucking game when I put a bodyguard on you 24/7? That I would have my most trusted friend tail your every move because he’s bored and doesn’t have anything else to do?”
“I didn’t say that—”
“The threat to your life is real! Even if you don’t give a shit about the Ruby and what it means to me, you have to place some value on your own existence, you stubborn woman!”
Stubborn? Stubborn?
“Are you completely insane, or just so oblivious that you believe the shit you’re spewing?” My ears rang as my shout echoed off the walls. “How the hell is this on me? Wanting to live my life as I see fit is stubborn? Do you even hear yourself?”
“Do you? You sound like a petulant child, Za—”
“A child?” My shout rose to a shriek, and Damien actually flinched. “I didn’t ask for this, you high-handed bastard! I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t want it. But you took my life in your hands and did whatever the hell you wanted without my consent. You want me to fear having my heart ripped out by a random gargoyle? Been there, done that, got the fucking stoneheart to prove it.”
He had the grace to look a little ashamed, but it wasn’t nearly enough. I’d agreed to go along with this, to accept Gio invading my privacy and personal space, and yet I was the one being petulant?
“I’m sorry. You’re right.”
There had been more to my tirade bubbling on my lips, but his words shocked me silent. I couldn’t have heard that correctly.
“You’re sorry?”
“Yes, Zara, I’m sorry. I took your entire existence, your very nature, in my hands and changed it without so much as a ‘by your leave.’ It was wrong, but I still won’t say that I regret it. That heart is precious, and after years of searching, you’re the first person I ever came across that I believed truly deserved the honor of it. You have every right to be angry, but I’m asking you to put it aside until we
can quash the threat against you. Then you can return to your life, unencumbered by my interference.”
“And his?” I tipped my head in Gio’s direction. I knew I had him. He might be willing to step back, but he’d still be adamant that I had protection.
“That’s negotiable.” Well, at least he hadn’t lied outright. “But nothing changes until we figure out exactly who came for you, and how they even knew you possessed the Ruby. Have you told anyone?”
“That I was basically murdered by one of the most well-known gargoyles in the city and now I have a super special gemstone in my chest that’s apparently worth killing for? No, haven’t had the chance.”
Damien visibly bit back his temper, but it still felt like a point added to my column. If I had to deal with all this bullshit, he deserved my ass—sass! I meant sass.
Even that mental slip was enough to have me grazing his impressive form as he gathered his control. I remembered exactly how he felt, how he moved, and my body responded to that level of skill. Hell, impressive was probably a huge understatement.
“Cut him a break, Zara. He means well.” Gio’s soft words were an entreaty, and some of my lingering anger melted away. He might have a point. We were both just doing our best under the circumstances, especially now that my human heart was long gone.
I let out a deep sigh and forced myself to answer without resorting to sarcasm. “No, I haven’t told anyone about the Ruby. I understand its value.”
“So there’s no way anyone could possibly know about it?”
“No. Well, no one but Sawyer and the people in the morgue with me when I came to.”
Damien’s expression went sharp, his eyes boring into me as he snapped, “Who?”
“There was a coroner and a doctor. The doctor was a Garnet, but the coroner was a human. I don’t think the doctor would’ve said anything, though. He seemed more concerned with the fact that I’d been found in an alleyway so soon after the transplant.” I thought back to the conversation in the morgue. “He did seem very interested in what kind of heart I had, though, but I told him I didn’t know.”
“Gio, look into the doctor. Even if Zara didn’t tell him, he may have suspected something and told someone else about it.” He turned back to me. “As for leaving you alone, that shouldn’t have happened. I couldn’t stay, but I thought Gio would be able to contain you.”
I ignored his shitty word choice as he glared at his friend.
“She’s wily. Must be all that police training,” Gio replied flippantly, but a touch of color painted his cheeks. Probably wasn’t too often that a woman half his size managed to out-maneuver him.
A spark of pride made me smirk at him.
“This isn’t a game, Zara,” Damien growled, his temper rising to the fore again. He squared his already impossibly broad shoulders and opened his mouth. I braced for what was sure to be a repeat of his favorite safety lecture, but the universe took mercy on me when a knock came at the door.
Sawyer. It had to be him. He’d come for me after what had happened at my apartment. A fist of guilt hit me in the stomach. Sawyer had been inside, where a fucking grenade had exploded, and I’d only spared him a passing thought.
Some fucking partner I was.
I made a move to go open the door, but Gio was between me and the entry in a blink. Damien strode to the door and checked the screen that I couldn’t quite see. I expected him to talk shit about Sawyer’s arrival, but he just yanked the door open and stepped aside.
Why, Sawyer, what large breasts you have.
Instead of my admittedly pretty partner, a gorgeous blonde gargoyle glided into the room. She was tall, lithe, and flawless. Reflexively, I glanced down at my rumpled clothing that was smeared with explosion grime.
If I hadn’t already known that I didn’t belong in Damien’s glitzy penthouse, the arrival of a runway model made it painfully clear.
I stood straighter, stiffening my spine to the point of discomfort. Screw that. I was good with me, and I wouldn’t be intimidated by this woman. Whoever the hell she was.
“Thank you for coming, Angelique.” Damien was all business as he shut and locked the door behind the woman.
“It’s not as though I have much of a choice, now do I?” Her voice was just as icy as her expression, sharp and dismissive as she took Gio before giving me a once over. Clearly unimpressed, she dropped her undoubtedly expensive purse on the couch and went straight for the bar. “I’m afraid this was a wasted summons. I have no idea if he was behind it.”
“If who was behind what?” It was out of my mouth before I could think better of it. Angelique glanced at me over her shoulder, brow raised like she was surprised I’d dared to question her.
“Angelique, this is Officer Zara Kyrillian. Zara, Angelique Clarté. She’s an old friend.”
Oh, I was just fucking sure she was.
“I’d say I’m more than a friend, Damien.”
See? What’d I say?
“Alright, Angelique is my informant. She’s helping me get to the bottom of who’s willing to lie, steal, and kill to get their hands on the Ruby.”
Now there were undercover operatives involved? “I don’t understand the problem. Why haven’t you been able to just set up a sting to catch whoever tries to steal it?”
“Gargoyles aren’t like humans, Officer Kyrillian.” The mocking edge in Angelique’s reply didn’t go unnoticed. “We’re smarter, more cunning. Whoever’s after it has been two steps ahead, using expendable humans to do their dirty work. Damien doesn’t care about them, he’s trying to root out the source of the threat.”
Okay, thanks for explaining it to me like I’m five. It was right there, right on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back for the sake of more information.
“What have you uncovered?” If she had a lead that I could follow up on, I might be able to help find the culprit and get my old life back. It was all I wanted at the end of the day, to be back on the force, Sawyer at my side—
Shit! Where the hell was Sawyer? He should have been here by now, he had to know that this was where Gio would have taken me when he scooped me away from sudden death. If he wasn’t here by the time the Ice Princess was done with her explanation, I’d go find him myself.
“I’m sorry, being Damien’s bed-buddy doesn’t entitle you to information about our operation, Officer.”
“I’m not his fucking bed-buddy!” My response was instinctual, to deny the accusation, but the moment I said it, I realized my mistake.
Diamond. Truthsense.
Fuck. Not only did she know I’d slept with Damien now, but she knew I was willing to lie about it.
Wait… no. No, she didn’t know! Thanks to the Ruby in my chest, I was immune to her abilities, so I could lie all I wanted. Dishonesty had never made me so happy.
“Angelique.” Damien’s sharp word was a command and she shut her mouth with a snap. “Answer the question. Whatever you need to tell me, you can say in front of Zara.”
“Well, Damien.” she flicked her eyes to me, making sure I knew that she wasn’t happy about speaking in front of me. “Whoever ordered the grenade that almost killed your cop here was good. No trail that I could find, and not a whisper about what was going on at the compound. I can reach out to Rob—”
“Don’t. I don’t want you compromising your position with them. Not before we find out who’s pulling his strings.”
“What position is that?” I was sick of being ignored, but neither of them seemed to notice because they paid no heed to my question.
Neither did Gio. Instead, he stepped away from my side where he’d been holding his guard position and faced off with the other two fullbloods.
“That’s the wrong call, D. If she can find out anything that might help us keep Zara safe, it’s worth the risk.”
“You know better than that. That’s short-sighted. We might be able to catch whoever just launched that grenade, but that’s like putting out the fire in one room of a burning building. Th
e rest of the structure can still go down in flames.”
Just the mention of a building on fire had a cold sweat breaking out down my spine. Gio rebutted with some argument, but I couldn’t hear it over the pounding in my ears. Was it hot in here? It felt hot. Hot and stuffy as hell. I needed air, and to be away from all these damn gargoyles. I may be one now, too, but my human nature was still alive and well.
They were completely engrossed in their argument, and I got pieces of the conversation as they penetrated the haze in my brain.
Too dangerous.
No choice.
Not your decision.
My feet seemed to move of their own volition. Even in my oddly fugue-like state, I had the presence of mind to open the door slowly, minimizing the noise. Honestly, it shouldn’t have worked. If it hadn’t been for Angelique’s outburst at that very moment, surely every head would have turned my way.
“You know what I have at stake here, Damien! Whatever needs to be done, I’m going to do it with or without your approval. It’s the only way to take them down, and that’s the objective here. It’s the only way to keep her safe.” Her concern was touching, and completely undesired.
The door stood open behind me as I rushed to the elevator. Closing it only raised the chances that I’d get caught, and I wanted to be long gone by the time they noticed the newest gargoyle in their ranks was gone.
Riding down from the penthouse was hell. The confined space only increased my need for fresh air and freedom. Shifting from foot to foot, I watched the numbers count down painfully slowly, and by the time it hit single digits, I was bouncing on the balls of my feet. When the doors finally parted, I was ready to burst into the lobby, but my path was blocked by a large wall of man.
Fine, familiar man.
“Sterling!” I had one second to register that Sawyer was right in front of me before his arms were wrapped around me. He squeezed me tight enough to squeeze out the last bit of air I had in my lungs. “Goddammit, I couldn’t find you, I thought that you’d—fuck.” He buried his nose in my hair and inhaled deeply.