by Cate Corvin
“Even to you.” I smirked, sensing a lightening of the conversation. Damien might be holding onto past hurts, but he wasn’t letting it keep him down.
“Even to me.” His tongue darted out and ran over his lower lip as he gazed at me. “Want me to prove it? You haven’t really had a chance to test yourself yet.”
A thrill rushed through me at his look, even though I’d been determined only a day ago to never lay a finger on Damien Viridios again. I was suddenly hyper-aware of how close he was, his knee brushing mine, my hand still clasped in his. Even though I’d slept with him less than a week ago, the sense of flirtation still sent butterflies through my stomach. “Fine. Try me, Damien.”
His smile grew wider and he released my hand, leaning back in his seat insouciantly with his arm draped over the adjacent chair. “You know what would feel really good right now?”
I furrowed my brow in confusion. That was a quick change of topic. “Um… what?”
My stoneheart warmed in my chest as a strange sensation ran over me. It felt like a web, invisible but tangible, trying to push its way inside my head.
“You kissing me.” Damien bit his lower lip with that pretty grin, and every functioning neuron in my brain focused on that tiny movement. “There’s nothing you want more right now than to kiss me.”
The door swung open and Sawyer walked in, wearing his sweatpants and a t-shirt. He cast us a puzzled glance as he headed for the fridge and started mixing his post-workout shake.
Damien’s eyes glinted. He seemed totally unaware of Sawyer’s presence. “Just lean in, Zara. One kiss.”
The sensation in my mind intensified, but I felt no compulsion to obey his command mindlessly. I was about to shake my head when Damien straightened up, his gaze boring through me like a laser beam.
“Kiss me. You want to kiss me more than anything you’ve wanted in your entire life.” The web was almost suffocating, but it wasn’t penetrating my thick, Ruby-protected skull.
Across the kitchen, Sawyer suddenly put down his blender bottle, his eyes totally blank.
“Um… Damien…” This was going to end… weirdly.
“Kiss me now.” His voice deepened, and for a moment I lost track of time. The Ruby was throwing off his charismatic magic, but I’d had a realization that hit me like a train.
I did want to kiss him. And not because he’d ordered it, but because he’d finally let me in and see more than just the gargoyle with a pretty face and a penchant for doing what he wanted. He’d given me a gift and he cared.
Sawyer strode across the room, moving almost mechanically. He bent over Damien, gripping the gargoyle’s chin to tilt his head up, and a bare second before Sawyer kissed him the Emerald threw out an arm, blocking his path.
His web of influence immediately vanished, leaving my stoneheart feeling lighter. Sawyer froze, inches from Damien’s face, and shot upright. “Christ, Viridios! Watch where you’re aiming that shit!”
“It wasn’t meant for you,” Damien said smoothly, but even he looked a little discomfited by how close he’d come to making out with Sawyer.
I couldn’t hold back a wide grin. “Bit you in the ass, didn’t it?” I leaned forward across the table and pressed a kiss to Damien’s mouth. I didn’t need to be careful with my new crystalline skin, and this time, kissing him was like sending a heat-seeking missile straight into my abdomen. I meant the kiss to be quick, but then his tongue flicked across my lower lip and he deepened it, one hand sliding up to bury itself in my hair.
Several breathless minutes later, I broke away, and Damien looked up at me with wide eyes. “But you’re immune. You should’ve been able to resist the charisma.”
Sawyer shook his head, blending his protein shake as I cleared the dishes off the table. For some reason, I almost couldn’t bring myself to meet Damien’s eyes even though I’d just been tongue-deep in him.
“That wasn’t your charisma, Damien. That was all me.”
I walked away, but not before seeing the silly grin he didn’t wipe away in time.
Chapter Thirteen
“You’re working her too hard, Gio.”
“She’s not complaining, Cop.”
“You have your arm around her throat. I don’t see how she possibly could.”
I pointed a finger at Sawyer that meant “exactly.” Gio loosened his grip enough that I could draw in an actual breath instead of wheezing in desperation. Oxygen flooded my lungs and blood rushed in my ears.
“Enough, Gio,” I rasped, and he let me go. I stepped free of his hold, but I couldn’t resist an elbow to his face in retaliation. He didn’t move a millimeter, yet pain splintered up my and down my arm. “What the hell?” I groaned.
“Nice try, Tin Woman. Gotta come up with something better than that, though. Clever is going to be a better asset to you than brute strength. You could crush Cop over there, but I’m older and stronger than you.”
“Seems like brute is the only kind of strength you have, Man-Bat.” Gio flared out his wings in response, a wicked grin on his beautifully chiseled face. It really wasn’t fair for him to be that fucking gorgeous. It was hell on my thinking capacity.
“I’d invite you to test me, but we both know I’d beat your ass to a pulp.”
“Point proven.”
“Look, my dick is bigger than both of yours, so can you knock it off?” I looked down at Gio’s, swinging in the breeze as always and I had to admit that, no, his was definitely bigger.
Sawyer opened his mouth to say something, but his phone chimed in his pocket and he frowned at the ringtone he’d assigned to the precinct. “What now?” he muttered, before swiping the screen and stepping away to take the call.
Guilt assailed me. Sawyer had been taking a lot of time off, he was probably down to his last personal days for the year, and all so he could be there for me during my drama.
“I’m sure it’s fine, Tin.” Gio had moved closer, and I could feel the warmth emanating from his body. “Why don’t we call it a day? We can start again tomorrow.”
“Yeah, sure.” I hoped I wouldn’t be available tomorrow because I had to return to work. I had yet to get the call from Captain Raymond regarding my reinstatement, but I just kept telling myself the phone would ring any day now. I’d gotten a few texts, but none of them boded well, so I chose to ignore the sense of dread they sparked in my stomach.
Keep your head up, Sterling.
I’m glad I had the chance to work with you.
You might be a pebble now, but you’ll always be family, Zara.
It was like I’d been diagnosed with an incurable disease instead of given a gift that many of them would have killed for. Not that they’d ever admit it aloud. Hell, I wouldn’t have. But I hadn’t asked for this, and Captain Raymond knew that. They had to keep me on. I was a damn good cop, and my career was on a great trajectory. They wouldn’t take that from me because my heart was a little harder now, would they?
Said stoneheart shuddered in my chest. I couldn’t imagine life as anything but a cop. It was what I’d worked for since I was a teenager, acing the academy and doing every bit of extra training that was available to me. I had never done anything else, and I couldn’t fathom trying to find a new calling.
Maybe I should stop waiting and get proactive. I could call the Captain, even go down to the precinct in person and beg him for a chance. Gargoyles on the force were extremely rare, thanks to the Accords, but there had been a few exceptions across the nation. Why couldn't I be one of them? They just had to know that I could still do the job. I could look at victims and criminals and see nothing but their actions, not their race, gender… or species.
Footsteps pulled me from my thoughts and I looked up to see Sawyer walking back to us. His expression was a careful mask, but there was a grimness to it that he didn’t quite manage to hide.
“I have to run down to the station and take care of something, but I should be back soon.”
“Sawyer, you don’t have to keep taking
time off if you’re going to get in trouble for it. I’m fine now, I promise. I’ll stay here and stay safe so you can get back to work. You’ve got to hold down our beat until I get back.”
A muscle ticked in his cheek and the grin he gave me didn’t quite ring true. “You’ve got it, pardner.” He stepped close and aimed a kiss at my forehead, but I leaned up on my toes and caught his lips with mine. It was soft, sweet, and far too brief.
“It’ll all be fine,” I whispered. “Trust me.”
A shadow crossed his face, but he hid it quickly. “I’ll be back soon.”
When the door to the building clanged shut behind him, I let my phony smile drop and gnawed my lip. I was lying, and so was he. He knew something, but wasn’t ready to tell me, and no matter what it was, everything in me screamed that it wasn’t going to be fine.
“Good, I’m glad he’s gone. It was beginning to smell distinctly human out here.” Gio wrinkled his nose in mock distaste.
“Hush. You can’t stop pretending not to like him, you guys are total bros now. I won’t be surprised if you guys start a gargoyle/human fraternity together. Phi Beta Rockmega.”
“Oh, come on, Tin Woman, you can do better than that!”
“Maybe, but it’ll have to suffice for now. I’ve got other things on my mind.”
“Stop stressing, you’re bumming me out.” Gio nudged me in the ribs, but for once he wasn’t trying to shatter my now stone-like bones.
“It’s not that easy. I can’t just turn it off.”
“I have an idea of how to help with that.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do,” I replied with a smirk. I reached down and gave his cock a flick, and he actually jumped in surprise. I burst into laughter at the shock on his face. “Hey, if you’re just gonna have it out there like that, you might get a flick or two.”
“And if I want more than a flick?” Well, that didn’t last long. Two seconds and his composure was back in place. Still, I’d relish that wide-eyed expression for weeks to come.
“I guess I could give it a yank next time, but I really don’t know my own strength yet. Are you sure you wanna risk it?”
“You always have a comeback, don’t you?”
“I work hard on them,” I quipped, grinning as I turned and walked to the edge of the roof. The height made my stomach flip, but now that I was a badass stoneheart, I was determined to conquer that fear.
“Wanna go for a ride?”
Not that determined.
“Absolutely not. I’ll focus on not throwing up when I look down for now, thanks.” Still, the freedom to take flight at any time must be exhilarating. “What’s it like?”
“Flying?”
“Yeah.”
“You know how it feels when you jump off the bed and flap your arms really hard, putting your heart and soul into the effort to stay off the ground? Well, it’s nothing like that.”
I was going to throw him over the side of the building. And no one would blame me.
“Seriously, it’s… it’s freedom. There’s no other way to describe it. Being completely untethered from this world, the chance to go anywhere, anytime, with nothing more than a flex of my wings.”
“Sounds amazing.” How many times would that ability have saved me from something hellish?
“I know you’ll never have wings, but anytime you want to go up, I’ll take you. We can do some training, teach you how to get free of a gargoyle in case one ever grabs you and flies off. Plus, there are a lot of fun things we can do up in the air.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Is that all you ever think about? Training and sex?”
He stared at me, eyes blank, expression deadpan. “What else is there?”
“I don’t know, hobbies, interests, family…”
“I don’t have any of those.”
Damn. That wasn’t the response I’d expected, and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to it. Pity seemed like the wrong choice, but it was just so sad, I wasn’t sure I could refrain.
“Don’t pity me, Tin Woman.” Called it. “It’s just how it is. I’ve devoted my life to taking care of what matters. Of who matters. There’s no room for the rest of that shit.”
“Family isn’t shit, Gio, it’s everything. What’s more worth of protection than that?”
“Well, Damien is my family, and now, you are, too. So I guess I have family, and it’s my job to keep them—you—safe.”
“But what about your parents? Siblings?”
“Harvesters.” The single word was a blade to the heart. His eyes had gone flinty and his jaw was stonier than normal.
“I’m so sorry, Gio,” I whispered. To know that both his and Damien’s families had been destroyed by greed, lives ended because people who didn’t possess stonehearts were willing to do anything to get them… it was heart-wrenching.
“It was a long time ago. Doesn’t bother me anymore.”
“Liar.”
He whipped his head to face me, a scowl darkening his expression. “What the hell would you know about it?”
“Because my father was taken from me, and that’s not something that goes away. It hurts less, but it’s always there.”
His jaw unclenched a fraction and he looked back out over the city. “Maybe. I wouldn’t know. I blocked it out so that it can’t hurt me. I can’t have those kinds of distractions.”
“But if you let it fester, it’s just going to eat away at you until you’re nothing but a shell of the gargoyle you were.” I shivered as the breeze picked up, lifting my hair and sending it swirling around my cheeks.
Gio scooted closer and wrapped his wing around my back, his arm low around my waist to keep me close and protected from the chilly evening air. The texture of the skin of his wings was like the softest leather, supple and warm against my bare arms.
“My little brother’s name was Angelo.” He’d been silent for so long, I thought we were just going to stand there in companionable silence for the rest of the night. “He was eight when they took his heart.”
I couldn’t speak. No amount of condolence would ever convey how awful that was. Instead of empty words, I offered what little comfort I could by slipping my arm under his and around his waist.
“Damien and I were thirteen and couldn't be bothered with the little dweeb. He begged to go with us to the park that day, but the girl I had a crush on was there and I’d be damned if I’d have him hanging around embarrassing me in front of her.” He swallowed thickly. “We were supposed to be home before it got dark, but Clara was flirting with me something fierce. Laughing at all my lame jokes, pretending I was some great basketball player, even though Damien was clearly better.
“By the time we realized how late it was, the streetlights were on and the park was abandoned. We couldn’t let her walk home alone, so we escorted her—or rather, I escorted her while Damien trailed behind us. When we finally got to my house, the door was open and all the windows were pitch black.”
“Oh my god, Gio.” My fingers were digging into his hip in horrible anticipation of what he was about to say. I knew how it ended, but the details were tying my stomach up in knots.
“They never even made it out of their beds. My parents were side by side on their backs, eyes open and as empty as their chests. Angelo… Angelo looked like a little angel. It was crazy, really, he was a pain in the ass when he was awake. But his eyes were closed and his face was so peaceful. If his chest hadn’t been torn open, I would’ve sworn he was sleeping.” He gave a shaky exhale, his hold on me seeming to be his only remaining anchor to the present.
“Gio, there’s nothing you could have done, you were a kid.”
“I could have,” he snapped. “I could have done something to save Angelo if I’d been home when I was supposed to be, gotten him out of the house while they were still busy with my parents.”
“But then you wouldn’t be here.”
“But he would. He was a child, Zara, he was innocent and they butchered him in his bed. If I’d let
him come to the park with me, he’d still be here. No matter what I had done that night, any other choice I made would have turned out better. Even just telling my parents that we’d be at the park would have changed everything. They wouldn’t have gone to bed thinking I was safe at Damien’s house like I was most nights.”
“The past can’t be changed. What happened to Angelo and your parents was a tragedy, but the only thing you could have done was get yourself killed, too. And possibly Damien if he’d been there with you. Dwelling on a responsibility that isn’t yours will only drag you down. You can’t take that weight on yourself, not when you were meant to fly.”
Gio’s Adam’s apple bobbed, but he didn’t say a word. So much about him made sense now. His flippant attitude was covering up an old wound so deep that it was still seeping blood after decades. He was so tight-lipped about his past, I wondered if anyone had actually ever told him before that it wasn’t his fault.
My heart ached for the years of silent suffering he’d endured, for the shattered heart beneath that stony skin. “You have to forgive yourself. None of it was your fault, but you have to forgive yourself for not being able to predict the future. How could you have known?”
“I should have known with Damien’s family.” The whisper was almost inaudible over the growing strength of the wind around us. “I knew someone had it out for them, but I didn’t protect them like I should have. It’s my fucking biological imperative. I’m an Onyx, for shit’s sake. Yet the Harvesters took his mom and dad from him just like they did mine. I only barely managed to keep Damien alive, but it broke something in him that was never right after that night.”
“What do you mean?”
“Damien loves me because we’ve been like brothers since we were children. But anyone else… I don’t think he’ll ever let another person get that close to his heart. I don’t think he’d survive another break like that, and I’m pretty sure he knows it. You need to know it, too, Zara. When he won’t let you in, it’s not because you’re not important or he doesn’t care about you. It’s because another loss would probably kill him.”