by Cate Corvin
“It’s fine, Zar.”
“It is?”
“I told you earlier: you like him. I didn’t have a problem with it then, I don’t have one now. This is all new to you, so I’d imagine it’s gonna take you some time to figure out what you really want. Until then, whatever makes you happy makes me happy.”
But what if I didn’t figure out what I wanted? Or what if what I wanted included him… and a gargoyle or two? As new as they were in my life, the connection I felt to Damien and Gio couldn’t be ignored.
My head pounded and I decided this was not the time to figure it out. This was the time for sleep. “Will you stay with me?”
“You only ever have to ask, pardner. You know that.” Sawyer rounded the bed and pulled the cover down on that side, too, climbing in and patting the empty side of the bed when I still hadn’t moved. I crossed the spacious room and joined him, letting out a sigh of what could only be called contentment as he curled his big body around me. “Sleep, Zar.”
I snuggled deeper against him and endeavored to do just that. But as I drifted off, I couldn’t help but notice that there was still a ton of room in this big bed.
Perhaps even room for four.
Chapter Twelve
I woke up in an empty bed. Sawyer had slipped out in the early hours of the morning for his usual workout, but I’d felt him brush a kiss on my forehead while I was still caught in the dreamy stages of half-sleep.
I dragged myself from between the sheets, feeling a little like a train wreck after the damage of the last few days. How many grenades and bullets could a stoneheart take before she started to feel like a pile of rocks?
A hot shower made me feel a little better, but digging through my clothes didn’t. The closet had revealed that the guys had rescued what they could from my apartment, but it was a wasted effort. Half of them were shredded by bomb blasts, and the other half was peppered with bullet holes. I tore through the duffel bag of stuff until I found a pair of jeans that weren’t shredded and a t-shirt that only sported one surreptitious hole near the hem and pulled them on, acutely aware that I looked like a sentient sack of garbage wandering around Damien’s pristinely decorated penthouse.
At least I still had a paycheck coming up. First thing I’d do was have Gio come with me to the closest department store to grab some hole-free clothes, even if I had to make him look away while I searched for new unmentionables.
After yanking a brush through my damp hair, I crept to the kitchen, hoping Sawyer had left the coffee maker on. I was in luck: the rich smell of freshly-brewed coffee already floated down the hall, and I followed my nose like a hound dog.
As soon as I walked into the room, sniffing hopefully, I saw that Sawyer had not, in fact, left the coffee on. Damien was working at the stove, his white shirt-sleeves rolled up to expose muscular, tan forearms, and the coffee bean grinder was still sitting beside him on the counter.
“Make yourself comfortable, Zara,” he said, without even turning around. “Breakfast is up in five.”
I didn’t feel like I deserved breakfast from Damien after I’d blatantly disregarded our agreement the other day and he’d still gone to the effort to make me feel at home, but I was ravenously hungry, so I stiffly sat down at the table. Unlike my rickety table, which was now probably nothing more than a pile of matchsticks, he had a long dining table made of solid wood in front of a floor-to-ceiling picture window that spanned the wall. From my seat, I could watch the ships floating in the harbor.
Damien poured espresso in a clear glass, layering cream and foam so it made a pretty ombré pattern. When he turned around, I realized he was wearing an apron over his button-down, with curly pink letters declaring that I should kiss the cook. If he kept looking so delectable and making me pretty espressos, that might be a resounding hell yes.
I took the cup and waited until his back was turned before taking a sip. Damn, it was good. He puttered at the stove for several more minutes, the clink of silverware on porcelain filling the awkward silence in the kitchen before he brought me a plate and sat down next to me, resting his elbows on the table.
I studied the plate, impressed against my best effort. He’d made perfect poached eggs sprinkled with herbs, sitting atop slabs of seared ham steak and sourdough toast. Sliced strawberries fanned around the edge of the plate in a decorative swirl.
“Not bad for a guy who doesn’t usually cook, right?” he asked, keeping his tone light. The way he was posed made him look about as delicious as the food in front of me, showing off those thick forearms to maximum advantage. Cheap trick.
I wasn’t remotely immune, though. You’d think having a Ruby that granted me immunity would throw me a bone and include gorgeous gargoyles in that equation.
“Not bad at all. Thank you, Damien.” Two could play the polite game. I carefully cut into my food and took a bite, and all my willpower immediately went towards not rolling my eyes orgasmically. Food-gasmically? Either way, the guy could drive Mordon Gamsbey out of business in the restaurant department if he really wanted to. “Holy shit, this is good. Where’d you learn to cook like this?”
Damien couldn’t hide his satisfaction. He wasn’t cut out for that level of humility. I popped a slice of strawberry in my mouth, but it was too late. He knew he had me. “Humans have worked for my family before. I learned from the best chefs money could buy.”
Obviously. I was restraining myself from just shoving the entire plate in my face. “You had a lot of stonehearts working for you?”
Even though I was admittedly dazzled by this guy’s culinary skills, I wasn’t letting go of my goal without a fight. If Damien wanted to keep me on a leash and expected me to take sides, he damn well owed me all the information he could offer.
But his bronze eyes immediately shuttered and he leaned back in his chair, turning his attention to the picturesque scene outside the picture window. “Quite a few, yes. We were… one of the better families to work for. My mother believed in treating our neighbors on this earth right.”
I had a feeling I would’ve liked her. Gargoyles with attitudes like Angelique’s seemed to be the rule rather than the exception.
“So… if you don’t mind my asking… where’s the rest of House Viridios?” I took another bite and realized I’d consumed nearly the entire meal within a few minutes. I set to picking at the strawberries next, determined to draw things out so Damien had no choice but to talk to me.
His jaw tightened, and I watched minute expressions cross his face as he struggled with how much to tell me. Finally he leaned forward again, catching my eye.
“My House is almost gone,” he said evenly, but it clearly cost him a great deal to say it with such an air of nonchalance. “I’m the last Viridios. There’s a whole world out there you don’t know about, Zara. The Accords mostly forbid us from speaking to humans about it, even law enforcement. In fact, you’re the last people we’d want to know about our troubles. It’s bad enough that radical factions know how to destroy us, but if human governments and cops knew… it could be the end of our kind.”
I was barely breathing and the strawberry I’d been chewing on was less than pulp by now. I swallowed, washed it down with a swig of espresso, and tried not to look too eager. “Well, I am one of you now, but… I understand if this is painful for you. We don’t have to talk about your family.”
Damien ran a large hand through his hand, ruffling the dark strands while somehow avoiding the gleaming emerald horns. “No, no. I want to talk about my family with you. You deserve to know, because you’re part of it. House Viridios and House Kyrillian merged about a decade ago. No matter what happens next, we’re entwined forever.”
“Why’s that?” I asked softly, not wanting to scare him off. A small sliver of me felt bad for pushing so hard when the memories were painful for him.
“It’s a long story.” He let out a breath, rested his chin on his hand. “My father, Atlas Viridios, was good friends with the leader of House Kyrillian, Victor. It was
Victor who took me in when… when my family was destroyed.”
He looked so far away, I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I was afraid I’d break the spell. “One of the stonehearts we hired betrayed us. That’s the only explanation I’ve come up with after years of poring over every possible lead. I wasn’t at home when it happened, but I came home to…”
Damien trailed off, his eyes full of unseen horrors. Now I really felt like a bastard for pushing in the first place.
“You know how gargoyle factions are. We fight amongst ourselves, even if it’s idiotic. Even though it reduces our numbers and weakens us against common enemies. Someone had it out for Viridios, and they made sure they destroyed almost every single one. Gio was with me the day they died, and he was probably the only reason I lived. For several years after that, I was put in gargoyle boarding schools, but I kept getting kicked out.” A wry smile crossed his face. “Gio stayed with me through it, though, after his own family tragedy. It cemented us together permanently. Eventually, Victor Kyrillian took me in as his own son and raised me himself. I still had money, connections, the businesses we owned… but my entire family was gone like that.” He snapped his fingers, the sharp sound almost startling me. “Gone in one night. And no amount of money can replace them. That’s why the Kyrillians are so important to me. Without them, I never would’ve come back from that loss.”
“Damien, I’m sorry.” I was sorry for his loss, and for pushing him to talk about something so painful.
He glanced at me, his expression veiled again. “I am, too. But I had Victor to fall back on, and Gio came with me. He was… well, that’s his story to tell. We all suffered. But I was naïve enough to believe that it was done then.”
I took another sip of espresso, just for something to do with my hands. The naked anguish in Damien’s eyes felt like a punch to the gut.
“Of course it wasn’t done. Kyrillian had its own enemies. They were one of the most powerful Houses of Ruby, and the person who wiped them out took every last one. They had the advantage because they had humans working for them.”
“Why? How much damage could humans do?” I whispered. It didn’t make sense. No sane cop wanted to go up against a gargoyle—whether fullblood or stoneheart—and we were trained for the most dangerous situations.
Damien reached out and placed his hand over mine. My stoneheart immediately sped up, pulsing heavily at the feel of his skin on mine. “There are humans who have access to technology you don’t know about. We call them Harvesters.” His face twisted into a dark expression. “It’s possible to weaken a gargoyle, even a fullblood, enough for an armed human to overpower them. It’s why the Accords expressly forbid us from informing human law officials about the means the Harvesters use.”
“But how? What weapon could weaken a gargoyle?”
I could hardly imagine Damien or my staunch bodyguard being vulnerable enough for a human man to take them on. It was almost mind-boggling, the wrongness of it.
“Hypersonic weaponry. Instead of bullets, they project soundwaves that weaken the crystal matrices of our physiology. If a gargoyle is held near an emitter, they soften over time and become just as permeable as a human.” His gaze burned into me, impressing the gravity of the situation. “That includes you, now. Believe me, if you feel it, you’ll know. Get away as fast as you can. Promise me.”
I nodded emphatically, twisting my hand to twine my fingers through his. “I promise.”
Inside, I was reeling. All this time, a group of humans had already possessed the power to defeat gargoyles. A month ago, I would’ve been salivating over the thought of getting my hands on one of these hypersonic weapons.
Now, I just felt a swirl of nerves at the knowledge of their existence. I wasn’t as invincible as I’d believed. Neither were Damien nor Gio, and no matter how much they annoyed me, they’d already gone out of their way to keep my ass from becoming asphalt. If we weren’t careful, the same exact thing could happen to them, and a physical pain sparked in my chest at the thought of it.
They did do this to you in the first place, my inner voice pointed out, but I’d already come to terms with it. For the most part. But I was Betty McBulletproof now, and it definitely had its advantages. Damien had given me one of his most precious possessions, entrusting me to care for it as much as he did. But that begged the question... “Damien? Whose… whose stoneheart do I have?”
The Ruby inside me had already integrated itself into my physiology so thoroughly, it was hard to believe it hadn’t been born inside me. I touched my chest, feeling the deep thrum of it under my palm. Someone else had owned this stoneheart, someone with their own emotions and dreams. Someone important to Damien, so important he was willing to steal my human life to keep it alive.
I had a gut feeling I knew exactly whose stoneheart it’d been, judging by how reverently he treated it and the depth of his desperation. He tightened his fingers around mine, like he expected me to bolt when he answered.
“Victor Kyrillian.” Damien looked down at our clasped hands, his brow furrowed. “You possess my godfather’s heart. The one person who kept me safe when another House might’ve used me as a pawn to further their own ends.”
The stoneheart pulsed again, like it was responding to its previous owner’s name. No wonder Damien was so determined to keep it alive. He had a duty to protect the heart that had loved him like a son from falling into the hands of Harvesters.
“Whoever hired those Harvesters is intelligent and well-connected. They waited until Gio and I were gone. We left often in those days; several years after taking us in, Victor convinced me to enroll in university alongside humans as part of an integration movement.” A tiny smile touched his lips. “Victor encouraged me to go into business in the first place. I owe the fortune I’ve built to his encouragement.”
His smile faded like a ghost. “I’m still not sure why I survived both massacres. My stoneheart is nothing special; I’m an average Emerald, my greatest gift would be the connections I’ve made. It’s not uncommon for our kind to develop grudges and do everything in our power to wipe out other Houses. Yet somehow, they missed me both times. It was just pure dumb luck… but now they have Gio and me to contend with, and we know to be on our guard at all times. I’m not going to let any of my people go unavenged.”
“Why is this the last Ruby?” I asked. “Did they destroy the others?”
Damien shook his head. He still hadn’t released my hand. “I’m not sure. We returned at the very end of the slaughter; the only stoneheart that wasn’t taken was Victor’s, because he got the drop on one of the Harvesters. Both of them were dead. Victor managed to kill the Harvester, but he took a gunshot to the head while he was under the hypersonic effects. There’s cold comfort in knowing he died instantly, at least. But whoever took the other stonehearts ran before we arrived, and we never found any sign that the other Rubies had actually been destroyed. They were just missing.”
A tight sensation wrapped around my chest. “I’m so sorry, Damien. It sounds like Victor loved you very much.”
“He did.” Damien flipped my hand over, tracing the lines on my palms. “Which is why I was determined to ensure that only the best would carry on his legacy.”
My skin tickled where he touched me, but there was nothing unpleasant about the sensation. Getting a look at the Damien behind the cool, remote businessman was like having a curtain drawn back, showing me the genuine, vulnerable male beneath. “You didn’t tell me before. Why me? What made me worthy of carrying the heart of someone you loved?”
His fingers paused, pressed against the heart line. He looked up at me, eyes veiled by dark lashes. “I knew of you long before you knew about me, Zara. You walked into my life six months ago, even though you didn’t know it yet.”
Six months ago. The night of the fire.
“We had the apartment building wired with security cameras. One of my most trusted friends, an Opal, had been protecting the Ruby for some time before we moved it
to a safer location. The thieves went looking for it there, and they were equipped with Harvester weaponry.” I swallowed hard when he looked me full in the face. “She was incapacitated when the fire started. After the incident, I watched the video footage. I watched you run into a burning building and stop over your partner’s body. You disappeared into my friend’s apartment and reappeared carrying her baby. A gargoyle infant, when most humans would’ve left the child on its own.”
I’d been entwined with Damien’s life for far longer than I’d realized. It was hard to believe that my life had been building to this for months now, and I hadn’t had the slightest speck of consciousness of what was to come.
“That’s when I knew you were the one. At that moment, I knew that a human who would risk her own life to save one of my kind was the only one who deserved something so precious. I can’t apologize for what I’ve done to you, because the Ruby deserves you as much as you deserve it. But I can say I’m sorry for having to do it without giving you a choice.”
My throat had tightened around a lump as he spoke. “I understand now. I’m honored that you would trust me with it.”
The little smile was back, and he resumed stroking my palm. “You’ve already put it to good use. When you told me you wished you could be Supercop, I was more determined than ever. It seemed to me that I was answering your prayers just as you were answering mine.”
I looked away first, feeling the heat of embarrassment climbing my cheeks. “Well, I just hope I can live up to its legacy.”
“You will. I have no doubt about that. Victor would’ve been happy with my choice, and I know I’m more than happy with it. You were everything I looked for.”
Except for the Harvesters. I didn’t want to say it aloud and darken the hope that was just flickering back to life in his eyes, though. “Honestly, I’m happier than ever to be immune to other magic. Sapphires were… well, they still are one of my worst fears.”
“You can let that go now. I promise, you’re utterly immune to what we can do. Gio can lay a protective shield around you as long as you’re making skin contact, but to all mental magics, you’re a void on their radar.”