Stoneheart

by Cate Corvin

  He was still giggling to himself when I gently pushed past Sawyer, looking my partner dead in the eye and silently communicating my plan to him. I wasn’t going to kill the arsonist, but I sure as hell was going to shake him up.

  “I’d have liked him to bring you to us for a little learnin’—” the arsonist was saying, and he cut himself off with a yelp as I gripped him by the collar and bodily hauled him into the air. Luckily, he was pretty short for a man, so I actually managed to lift him up off the ground.

  I took several steps forward and jerked him over the edge of the building. His feet thrashed around above forty feet of empty air and one sneaker came loose, threatening to slip off his toes. The arsonist was making incoherent fearful sounds, his hands wrapped around my wrists in a death-grip.

  “Tell me what you know about Josh,” I demanded. His eyes rolled around in his skull, showing the whites all around.

  “Zar, this asshole probably doesn’t know anything we don’t,” Sawyer said from over my shoulder, goading the arsonist into spilling his guts to save his own ass.

  I glanced at my partner, catching the concern in his big blue-green eyes. He trusted me, but he was still worried. “He says he knew Josh. This goes one of two ways: either Josh was a terrible person and he’s just having his name dragged through the mud… or he was dirty, and this motherfucker knows all about it.” I shrugged, barely needing to exert an effort even while holding one hundred and fifty pounds of squirming arsonist over the side of the building. “Either way, it’s not looking good for our friend here.”

  I shook the arsonist a little, enjoying the way he tensed up and clung to my wrists even tighter. “Okay, dickhead, let’s talk about how you know Josh a little more. Where’d you meet him?”

  The arsonist was in a panic, but there was an iron resolution in the back of his bulging eyes. He dug his nails into my wrist, but his feet stopped thrashing. “I ain’t got nothin’ to say to you, pebble. I’d rather drop now than…”

  He trailed off when I let him slip down an inch or two, his skin gone pale as porcelain, beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. I kept him dangling in midair, frozen in place as I thought it through.

  The claim that Josh was dirty made sense, especially if he was more worried about his employer’s reaction than about what I could do to him. It took a significant threat to make being dropped off a building seem like the more pleasant choice.

  “Come on, Zar.” Sawyer touched my arm again and leaned in close. He whispered in my ear, low enough that my perp couldn’t hear. “Let’s take him in. Give him a few nights to soften up behind bars, let him think his employers have given up on him. He might be more amenable to talking if he feels more secure.”

  I stared into the arsonist’s eyes. He’d cost countless people their lives, and every fiber in me wanted to drop him now.

  “Zara. Don’t do this. You’re still you, and you swore to uphold the law. Don’t be like him.”

  That cut through my cold, homicidal vengeance fugue like nothing else could’ve. I hadn’t spent years becoming a cop just to turn around and become the sort of cold-blooded killer I brought in.

  I yanked the perp back onto the roof. He dropped onto the tar paper, his fingers splayed out over the surface while he whispered fervent thanks and prayers to whoever might’ve been listening. “You book him, Sawyer. Until we know what he’s got on Josh, I don’t want any other officers alone with him. Not until we know how deep this goes.”

  Sawyer dug his knee into the perp’s lower back as he knelt over him and cuffed him. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  He left the asshole sitting there with his forehead pressed against the tar paper, and came up to me, pushing several stray strands of dark hair behind my ears. “I’m proud of you, Zar,” he said seriously, running his thumbs over my cheekbones.

  I didn’t need clarification on why. Everyone got a little nervous when a human became a new stoneheart. Too many people felt a sudden rush of invincibility and treated human laws like rules made to be broken.

  Now I knew what that invincibility felt like, the total power over another person’s life, especially knowing the Accords would back me up. It was a heady rush, and it’d been a lot harder to yank the perp back onto the roof than I really wanted to admit.

  “Thanks, Sawyer.” I gripped his hand, gently squeezed it, and prepared to rip off the band aid. “Now let’s get him to… to the precinct. You can take him in, I’ll report back to Damien and Gio.”

  Sawyer nodded, his pretty eyes full of sadness. It felt awful to send him alone into the place that had become my second home, but… there wasn’t much I could do about it.

  We got the arsonist down the ladder by throwing him over my shoulders. I climbed down one-handed easily, ignoring the perp’s ripe smell and passing him off to Sawyer as soon as I hit solid ground. My shoes were long gone, but I didn’t have so much as a scratch on me. My once beautiful dress was another story.

  We walked mostly in silence back to the precinct, and when the lights and barred windows came into view, I stopped in my tracks.

  “I’ll get it done, Zara,” Sawyer said, and I managed a weak smile.

  “I know.” Just looking at the place hurt way more than knowing I wouldn’t be the one booking my perp. Captain Raymond was probably in there shredding someone a new asshole right now, and for once in my life, I would’ve given a lot to have been that unlucky person.

  Sawyer shoved the perp towards the stairs, where Officer Moretti was already slipping out the front door looking both puzzled and concerned. My partner completely ignored him, wrapping his arms around my waist.

  “I’m sorry our date ended like this,” he said, kissing the rim of my ear, and I slid my hands over his shoulders.

  “Well, I’m not. I had a good time, and I got a new lead on something that’s been bothering me for months.” I touched Sawyer’s face and kissed the tip of his nose. “Take care of it, pardner. I’m going to go back to the Tower, and maybe if Gio’s feeling really nice he’ll come grab you, alright?”

  “Pretty sure I don’t want that,” Sawyer muttered, but he kissed me back and gracefully slipped up the stairs. Moretti had the perp’s arms twisted behind his back while he waited for Sawyer, but he raised a tentative hand, and I raised one in return, feeling a large lump in my throat.

  Moretti was a good cop. Being treated like an unknown quantity by him was more painful than I wanted to admit, much less watching Sawyer walk into the precinct like he belonged there and knowing I would always be out here in the metaphorical cold. I belonged there, too, not that long ago.

  I took one last, lingering look at the bright windows and brick walls, and forced myself to turn away and stride down the sidewalk, leaving my old life behind.

  Chapter Eighteen

  As soon as I stepped into Viridios Tower without my shoes and grime caked all over my feet, I knew I’d made a huge mistake. Three sets of eyes landed on me, and two of them shifted from concerned to furious in the span of a single second.

  Damien and Gio had been hanging out in the penthouse’s massive living room. Jules was sprawled on the other end of the couch, but as soon as he took me in, he quietly got up and took his leave, slipping past me into the elevator.

  “Good luck,” he muttered, and I suppressed the urge to gulp.

  Damien’s eyebrows had almost managed to merge with his hairline, and Gio looked like he was on the verge of morphing into a fire-breathing dragon. He already had the wings, so he was halfway there.

  The elevator doors slid shut and carried Jules to safety, leaving me to face their wrath alone.

  “Hi,” I said, feeling lame, and padded further inside. God only knew what I was tracking on the floor with my bare feet; I stuck to the area rugs. At least they could be washed outside.

  “Where are your fuck-me shoes?” Gio asked slowly, taking in the very unsexy state of my undress. “Why are you wearing a banana peel? Did Sawyer take you to the dump for a date?”


  I grimaced and curled my toes under. This just got better and better, and getting cross-examined was not going to help my sore heart after looking at the precinct I’d never be able to enter in uniform again. “No, he didn’t. This was… um… an entirely unintentional ending to the date.”

  Damien hadn’t said anything yet, which really didn’t bode well. He got that brooding sort of silence right before the storm.

  “We were heading to Krystallic and I came across… the guy who might’ve been responsible for my ex-fiancé’s death. I couldn’t leave him there.”

  I silently begged Damien to understand, awaiting the break of that building tempest. I’d never met a guy who could be so fucking commandeering about someone else’s life, no matter his good intentions.

  His broad shoulders were tense, but they slowly relaxed. On the other hand, Gio’s dark eyes had narrowed to slits. “Where the hell is Sawyer?”

  “Booking him. I got fired from the precinct, remember? Otherwise I’d be there doing it myself.” It was impossible to keep a faint acerbic note from my tone. They knew exactly why Sawyer had taken me on this date to cheer me up, so there was no damn reason why he should be getting his panties in a twist now.

  Damien stood up and held out his arm. “Come on, then. Let’s get you cleaned up. I don’t think that dress can be salvaged, but I’m pretty sure Gio’s right and that’s a bit of banana on you.” His voice was cold and hard, and he was clearly struggling to maintain his cool composure.

  “He let you walk home alone… like that?”

  Relief bubbled inside me, lightening my steps as I crossed the room, but Gio’s wings were still quivering with rage. I probably should’ve texted Sawyer to let him know he was going to walk into a shitstorm, but Damien folded me against his chest, garbage and all, and my phone was immediately forgotten.

  He opened my bedroom door and prodded me inside, and as soon as it was shut I felt hands on the zipper at my back. “Hold your hair out of the way,” he said, his deep voice rumbling through me.

  I obediently gathered my hair, my spine ram-rod straight. When I realized I was still waiting for that temper to break, I tried to relax, and Damien slowly unzipped my dress.

  His warm fingertips lingered at the small of my back, then rose to touch my bare shoulders. “Is this where I get lectured?” I asked, my voice raspy. I just wanted to get it over with if it was going to happen, even if I was tired of being treated like a fragile spun glass. I’d been getting shot at and run down for years as a cop. It wasn’t like having one interrupted date night was going to ruin me.

  “Hmm.” I turned my head in surprise, wanting to read the expression in his eyes, but Damien’s lips were on the back of my neck, leaving a burning trail as he moved over my shoulder blade. “No. This is where you explain your night to me.”

  I shivered, goosebumps rising on my skin as he kissed me. “You already know about Aberdeen, don’t you?”

  He squeezed my hip with his other hand, just enough to acknowledge me. His lips were doing very interesting things to my lower back. “I already know. I could practically write a dossier on your life from my research on you.”

  I stifled a snort. “I should’ve known.” Damien probably could, too. He was nothing if not thorough when it came to the people he cared about, especially the ones whose stonehearts he was giving away. “He walked right into my sight. Once he was there, I couldn’t let him go. No matter how I felt about Aberdeen at the end, no matter that you want to protect me now, I can’t just let that part of me go. I will always be a cop, whether they want me or not, and the man who killed him has to pay for what he’s done.”

  He rose back up to my shoulders, rubbing my shoulders and kissing my cheek when I turned my head. “I know it still hurts and you still feel loyalty,” he said. He snaked an arm around to cup my chin. “You did the right thing, so of course I can’t help but admire you.”

  “I had to,” I whispered. There was no way I could have let the arsonist go free once I’d come across him again, even if Josh hadn’t been involved that night.

  Damien slipped the straps of the dress over my shoulders and slowly peeled away the rest of it. Even though he was being gentle, there was a humming tension to him that made me a little wary of what was to come.

  As soon as the dress hit the floor, he scooped me up like I weighed nothing and carried me into the bathroom. Hot spray started in the shower, and a moment later Damien was shedding his clothes, revealing the mouthwatering broad shoulders and chest I’d only experienced once before in close-quarters.

  Abruptly, my mouth went a little dry. The first time I’d slept with him, I’d been under the impression we’d never see each other again. I hadn’t thought much of letting loose when he was going to be nothing but an orgasm-inducing memory in the morning.

  He slid a pair of boxer-briefs down over his muscular thighs, and I had a very hard time pulling my eyes away. It just wasn’t fair for a gargoyle as pretty as Damien Viridios to exist in this world.

  He kicked them away and pushed me into the shower, my back colliding with the tiled wall as he trapped me between his hands. That’s when I realized that Damien had decided not to lecture me because he’d saved his temper for this.

  His hips pushed against me, grinding his cock between my legs. The hesitant ball of heat forming in my stomach began to flow outwards, until my hands were clasped behind his neck and my thighs were willingly opening for him.

  I was quickly disabused of any notion that he was going to be gentle. He found my mouth, and his lips were anything but soft as he forced mine apart. I exhaled in surprise when his tongue plunged in, swirling around mine.

  Damien ran his hands over me, thumbing my already-hard nipples and moving lower. When he had a handful of my ass he lifted me up, pinning me against the shower wall.

  I gasped as he lifted me up high enough to aim his cock against my wet pussy and plunge in with no hesitation. I sank all the way down, almost wincing at the sudden force that battered into me.

  With each hard stroke, Damien was clearly punishing me for walking home alone at night. Oddly, I didn’t feel punished at all. There was a protective edge to him, one that said he didn’t want to hurt me… he was simply making it very clear who I belonged to.

  It took my breath away that he thought I might belong to him.

  He bit my lip, forcing my swirling thoughts back on him. Teeth sank into my lower lip, but there was no pain, only a deep satisfaction that he seemed just as ravenous for me as I was for him. I gasped when he sucked my lip between his teeth and let me go.

  I hugged him tighter, working myself as far onto his cock as I could possibly go and biting his earlobe before kissing my way down his neck. Two could play that game.

  Damien groaned and pulled out, then pounded back in. My back slammed against the wall with every stroke and probably echoed through the penthouse. Good. I was perfectly fine with everyone knowing I was enjoying every inch of Damien.

  He angled his hips to keep me pinned there and reached between us, finding my clit and stroking his thumb over it. A spike of pleasure went through me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, grinding against his hand.

  “Is this what you call a punishment?” I said, the words coming out as more of a gasp. It was a lot harder to keep coherent thoughts straight than I’d thought it would be. “You’re just going to inspire more bad behavior.”

  Damien stroked a circle around me, making me wriggle against him. “I’m always here to be your inspiration, for bad behavior and anything else that gets you naked.”

  I kissed him again, my muscles aching as I ground myself against him.

  A door slammed, somewhere very close to the bathroom. I tensed, almost climbing up Damien’s torso as the bathroom door swung open.

  Gio stormed into the steamy room, his wings curled in close to his body as he shed the pants he hated so much. “Make room, Viridios,” he growled, and a delicious shiver went down my spine.

  Damien i
gnored him and ran his tongue over my lips before delving between them again. A second later, I was spinning away from the wall, trapped in Damien’s arms as he held me under the water. A new pair of hands roamed over my shoulders, following the curves down to my hips and ass.

  Gio’s stony cock pressed against my ass, but sudden nerves made me clench up around Damien. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that yet. I’d gone from dying to get laid only a few weeks ago to suddenly having more dicks around than I knew what to do with. Taking two at once?

  Well, that was a whole new level I was going to have to work my way up to.

  Gio sensed my reticence, but instead of backing away, he reached around and found my breasts, teasing and pinching my nipples while Damien slid me up and down his shaft. It was amazing that I seemed to weigh no more than a feather to them, even though I was made of the same stone they were.

  Gio’s hands slid lower, strumming my clit until I was panting and straining against Damien for more. He plunged in deep, trapping me in a very hot, wet gargoyle sandwich with no shame in my game.

  Gio growled, a low sound that echoed through my chest, and the sensation of his cock pulsing against me set me off. My legs started shaking around Damien’s waist when I came, heat exploding in my abdomen and tingling through my limbs.

  Damien let out his breath in a hiss when I clenched around him, driving in harder and faster until he followed me over the edge. I kissed him hard, drinking up his fast breaths until Gio pulled me away from him greedily.

  I was still sensitive when he set me on the shower floor and picked up my hands, lifting them to place them on the wall. He kept his palms over mine for a few moments, making it very clear what he wanted from me, so I spread my fingers and braced myself.

  I closed my eyes as water dripped from my eyelashes, focusing on nothing but Gio’s hands running over my back and squeezing my ass. He lined himself up and pushed into my pussy, his hands tightening on my hips as he drove in deep, even harder than Damien had.