* * * *
Levet perched on the edge of the cliff, his brow furrowed as he listened to the waves crashing against the rocky beach below.
He’d waited in the jet all of five minutes before he’d decided to follow Ulric and Rainn. He had only a vague idea of what was happening. It had something to do with the dog chasing after a member of his family that he’d thought was dead. And Rainn’s insistence that she be allowed to protect him.
It really didn’t matter to Levet. He knew beyond a doubt that he would be needed to save the day. It was what he did.
Besides, it was a lovely night to be out walking. Or at least it had been until the fog had rolled in and he’d found it oddly difficult to follow Ulric’s scent. Now he perched on the cliff and allowed his mood to sour with every passing second.
Why should he try to help Ulric? The jerky jerk-face had tossed him out of Chiron’s casino. Then he snapped and snarled because Levet had chosen to take a nap in a stupid jet that no one was using. Where was he supposed to sleep? The street?
He wasn’t an animal. Indeed, he possessed a well-developed desire for the finer things in life. Expensive champagne. Silk sheets. Fast cars.
Ulric should have apologized to him. It was his nap that had been interrupted. Not to mention the fact that he’d been hauled from the bright lights of Vegas to this remote, foggy location.
He was the victim.
But instead, the Were had been foaming at the mouth as if he was rabid. And maybe he was. There was an animal inside him, after all. Who knew if he had been vaccinated?
Levet heaved a sigh, his magnificent wings drooping.
It wasn’t like him to be in such a…what was the word? Funk? Oui, that was it. A funk. And he couldn’t lay the entire blame on the Were.
He had wings. If he disliked his surroundings he could fly anywhere he wanted to go. London. Or Rome. Or even Paris. He abruptly grimaced, a shudder racing through him. Not Paris. Levet had been kicked out of the Gargoyle Guild centuries ago, and his one trip back to the City of Lights hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped. He preferred to stay far, far away. At least for now.
Non. His true annoyance was that he knew exactly where he wanted to be, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to acknowledge that he was missing the ogress who’d deceived and manipulated him.
Inga.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance. He wanted to block the female from his thoughts. What was that human saying? Out of sight, out of mind.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t so simple with the ogress. She had something about her…
“Are you lost?” a voice asked from the swirling fog.
Levet considered the question. Was he lost?
“I do not think so,” he finally decided, turning his head to watch the stranger emerge from the mist. “Who are you?”
“You can call me Zella.”
Levet tilted his head to the side. The female appeared to be human, with a chubby face and eyes that seemed too big. Her skin was wrinkled, and her tarnished silver hair was pulled into a knot on top of her head. She had a round figure that was bent at the shoulders, as if she was carrying a heavy load.
She walked toward Levet, her gray gown brushing the ground and a smile on her face that was supposed to look kind. Levet, however, wasn’t fooled. Her dark eyes were as hard as the agates he’d found in the pits of the netherworld.
“You are not human,” he said.
“No.”
“Fey?” Levet sniffed the air, trying to identify her scent. There was something moldy about it. Like the scent of a freshly opened crypt. He wrinkled his snout. “Non, not fey.”
“I’m quite unique,” Zella assured him. “At least in this world.”
Ah, that Levet understood. He pushed himself to his feet and spread his delicate wings that shimmered despite the nasty fog. “As am I.”
She didn’t bother to admire his magnificent form. Instead she narrowed her hard eyes. “You traveled here with the werewolf?”
Levet sniffed. The female obviously had no ability to recognize perfection. Even when it was standing directly in front of her.
“Not by choice. I was low-jacked.” He furrowed his brow. That wasn’t right, was it? “Tall-jacked?”
The woman scowled before waving her gnarled hand in a dismissive gesture. “And he left you here all alone?”
“I do not care.” Levet flapped his wings, pretending his feelings weren’t hurt. “I had no wish to go with the ill-tempered beast anyway.”
Zella studied him in silence. Was she deciding whether or not to eat him? Probably. He was quite tasty.
“Never fear, you can come to my home,” she assured him.
Levet instinctively stepped back, nearly tripping over his own tail. “That is very kind, but…um…I have places to go, people to see.”
The dark eyes sparked with terrifying flames. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist,” she told him.
Levet glanced down in amazement as bands of fire wrapped around his body. “What are you doing?”
“I preferred for you to come along nicely,” Zella told him. “You might prove to be useful, but if you fight me I will not hesitate to kill you.”
Levet struggled against the bands. The fire didn’t hurt. He was a gargoyle, after all. But they were forcing him toward the strange female.
“Where is Ulric?” he demanded.
Zella shrugged. “I’ll deal with him once I’m sure all the loose ends have been tidied up.”
So Ulric and Rainn hadn’t been captured. He tried to take comfort in the knowledge.
“Let us not be hasty,” he said. “I am certain we can come to an understanding.”
“The understanding is that you come with me or die,” she informed him. “Simple.”
“What if I leave and forget all about you?” Levet suggested. “It is not as if I care what happens to Ulric. The oversized dog has a nasty temper and a habit of biting first and asking questions later.”
The flames in her eyes flared, as if she could sense his lie.
That was…unfortunate.
“A shame,” she rasped. “You would have been interesting to study.”
“Oh, I am très interesting,” he hastily assured her. “I am brave and strong and handsome, with a pair of stunning wings…” Levet’s words trailed away as he was suddenly distracted by a chill behind him. What was it? A vampire? Impossible to know for sure. The fog had become so thick it felt more like solid stone than mist. He gave a shake of his head, returning his attention to Zella. “Plus I am the savior of the world.” He continued his list of his awesome virtues. “More than once.”
Zella muttered a word that Levet didn’t understand, although he had a feeling it had something to do with stupid gargoyles.
“You have wasted enough of my time.”
The bands of fire tightened, but even as he was being hauled toward the female, a hand reached through the fog to grab him by one stunted horn.
He tucked his tail and squeezed his eyes shut as he was yanked through a barrier of magic that nearly ripped the tough hide off his body.
“Arg.”
Chapter 5
Ulric muttered a curse as he glanced over his shoulder. While he’d been distracted by his painful memories, the fog had thickened to the point it’d muffled the sound and scent of any approaching intruder.
How the hell could he be so sloppy? He’d not only put his own life at risk, he’d endangered Rainn.
The thought had barely formed when Rainn was stepping in front of him, her hand pointed toward Brigette as the female appeared out of the fog.
A sharp wind ripped through the air, sending dust flying and Brigette stumbling backward. So much for Rainn needing his protection. He reached out to lightly touch her shoulder.
“Rainn, that’s enough,” he
murmured.
She sent him a warning glare. “Look at the fog.”
He glanced toward the thick wall of mist behind Brigette. “What about it?”
“It’s not moving,” she said, her attention locked on Brigette, who was struggling to regain her balance. “It’s a spell.”
The female Were peeled back her lips to reveal her extended fangs, but she managed to keep herself from shifting. “She’s right, but the magic isn’t connected to me,” she said, speaking directly to Ulric.
“Rainn.” Ulric tightened his grip on the zephyr’s shoulder, then turned her to face him. “I want to speak with Brigette.”
“I’m not stopping you.”
He swallowed a sigh. He knew she was going to be pissed when told her what he wanted. What he didn’t know was why he gave a damn. “In private.”
“No.”
“It’s not your decision.”
She narrowed her eyes to stubborn slits. “It’s my duty.”
“Just…” He shook his head in resignation. “Stay here. I promise I’ll remain in sight.”
She didn’t appear particularly pleased by his grudging concession. “I don’t like this.”
“I have to know.”
The nasty dirt swirled around his feet as Rainn struggled to control her temper. Her expression, however, remained as calm as ever.
“Fine.”
Walking forward, Ulric focused on Brigette. Or at least he tried. There was a part of his brain that was relishing Rainn’s protective attitude.
He told himself that the strain of the past hours had rattled his brain. He was a big, bad wolf. He didn’t need protection. But nothing could dislodge the ball of warmth in the center of his chest. Just as nothing could diminish the sensations that were niggling through him, stealing his powers when he needed them the most.
With every passing second, Rainn was becoming more and more his obsession.
He clenched his hands, halting in front of the female he’d thought was dead. She’d changed her clothes from the slinky black dress to a thick robe that blended into the fog, and her fiery hair was dulled by the murky atmosphere. Her familiar scent, however, remained the same.
“Why did you run from me?”
She stepped toward him, laying her fingers on his arm. “I didn’t want to put you in danger.”
“What danger?”
She turned her head, her gaze skimming over the fog. “I can’t tell you.”
Annoyance slashed through him. He was trying to be empathetic, he really was. After all, he had no idea what Brigette had endured over the past centuries. Still, he’d traveled halfway around the world to find her. He wasn’t in the mood for puzzles.
“Are you being held against your will?”
She leaned against him, as if it was hard for her to stand. “Please, Ulric, don’t ask.”
He heard Rainn make a sound behind him, but he kept his gaze on Brigette. One female at a time.
“Okay.” He studied her pale face. She appeared terrified, but oddly her scent was more…determined than frightened. “Can you at least tell me how you survived?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m ashamed to tell you.”
“Brigette,” he urged in a soft voice.
“That night…” She stopped to clear her throat. “The night we were attacked, I’d been in trouble with my father. I can’t even remember why he was angry, but he’d forbidden me from leaving the lair. Of course, I was too rebellious to accept my punishment.”
Ulric had a sudden memory of Brigette storming through the village, screaming at the top of her lungs when she didn’t get her way.
“I recall you were always…” He searched for the proper word.
She finished for him. “I was a brat.”
“So what happened?”
“I shifted and ran as far as I could,” she said. “I just wanted to challenge my father’s authority. It wasn’t until I realized I was getting close to a vampire’s lair that I turned back. That was when…”
“Please tell me.”
She shivered. “I could see the flames from miles away. I thought perhaps the storage house had caught fire. My father was always complaining that it was dangerous to keep the hides we cured in the same building as the firewood. It wasn’t until I was near the village that I could see the horde of demons slaughtering our people.”
She abruptly buried her face in his shoulder, quietly sobbing. Behind him Ulric heard Rainn snort in disgust.
Ulric lifted his hand to awkwardly pat the back of Brigette’s head. He didn’t deal well with crying females.
“You must have been terrified,” he soothed.
“I was a coward,” she said in a choked voice. “I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Why not?”
“Instead of rushing forward to help my family, I turned my back and searched for a place to hide.”
“So?”
She lifted her head to regard him with a fierce regret. “I should have fought. I should have died with my family.”
The same awful regret echoed inside Ulric, but he refused to let it show on his face. “What good would that have done?”
She blinked away her tears. “That’s what pack does.”
“It takes more courage to go on living,” he said in harsh tones. “Trust me, I know better than anyone.”
She released a shaky breath, seemingly pleased to be distracted from her terrible memories. “How did you survive?”
“I was knocked unconscious during the battle.” He couldn’t keep the self-disgust out of his voice. “When I woke, I was locked in a cage on a goblin ship.”
“They kept you alive?” An odd expression rippled over her face. Almost as if he’d answered some unspoken question.
He shrugged. “Goblins might enjoy a good bloodbath, but unlike trolls and orcs they never forget their love for making a profit. They took me and a dozen other of our pack to the Anasso to feed his sick hungers.” He wasn’t embarrassed by his sharp shudder. No creature could spend time trapped in the dark, freezing-cold caverns with their food laced by poisonous amounts of opium and not have lingering nightmares. “I was lucky to be rescued by my master before I could become the Anasso’s next victim.”
“Did anyone else escape?”
“No.” He glanced away. He didn’t know why he’d been the last of the werewolves left in the slave pens, but Chiron had furiously demanded that he not blame himself. It was fate. Of course, that was easier said than done. “What about here? Who else survived?”
“It’s just me,” she said, crushing his vague hope that there might be more.
He continued to allow his gaze to search the annihilated village. “Why do you stay?”
She paused before leaning forward to whisper in his ear. “I have no choice.”
“You’re trapped?”
Her lips brushed his ear. “The only place I could think to hide was in your father’s burrow.”
He leaned back to send her a puzzled glance. “I thought he sealed it to protect the scrolls he’d discovered.”
“I was…” She licked her lips. “Anxious enough to force my way past his barricades.”
Ulric remained puzzled. His father had told him that he’d contacted a local witch to place a lethal curse on the entrance to the burrow. The older male hadn’t revealed why he was so determined to keep his people away from the scrolls inside, but Ulric assumed he had a powerful reason.
He shook his head. What did it matter now? “A good thing, since it obviously allowed you to survive.”
She grimaced. “Yes, but I wasn’t safe.”
“Tell me.”
She squeezed his arm, as if offering a silent warning. “It’s easier to show you.”
“Where?”
“The burrow.” Sh
e tugged on his arm. “Come with me.”
* * * *
Rainn scowled at the tall, redheaded vixen who leaned against Ulric as if she was a fragile dew fairy instead of a powerful predator. And worse, she spoke in a trembling voice that was obviously earning Ulric’s sympathy. She rolled her eyes.
How could Ulric be so susceptible? Okay, the female was his long-lost relative. And he was vulnerable from the drama of returning to his village, which had been brutally savaged. But she’d risked her sole purpose for existing by warning him that she felt an evil shadow around Brigette. Clearly she should have locked the stupid Were in a cage.
She heaved a harsh sigh.
It was an appealing thought. In fact, she’d had dreams of having Ulric locked in handcuffs and at her mercy, his body hard with desire…
Unfortunately, her magic couldn’t overpower a full-grown Were. At least not long enough to shove him in a cage. And there was the knowledge that while Chiron treated her as a valuable member of his staff, he wouldn’t be happy if he discovered she’d restrained his personal guard. In fact, she was fairly certain Chiron would destroy anyone stupid enough to force Ulric to do something he didn’t want to do.
Chiron might be a vampire and Ulric a Were, but the two were as close as brothers. Besides, there was a reason Ulric had been in her vision. He had some role to play in her quest.
What that role might be was still a mystery.
Her eyes narrowed, and the air thickened around her as she watched Brigette grab Ulric’s arm and tug him toward the nearby fog.
No. Hell no.
Tiny whirlwinds danced around her feet as she stormed forward. Enough was enough.
“Stop,” she commanded, the sharp word echoing eerily through the thick air.
Ulric halted, glancing over his shoulder. At the same time, Brigette swiveled to send her a furious glare. If looks could kill, Rainn would’ve died on the spot.
“Tell your servant to stay here,” the female commanded.
Servant? The whirlwinds were spraying tiny rocks and shattered bits of wood through the air. Hmm. Should she send them toward Brigette? A few bruises wouldn’t truly hurt the bitch, and it might teach her a few manners.
Conquer the Darkness Page 6