Marked (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Missy Lyons

  “Should we do it here?” Lewis asked.

  “No, are you a freaking idiot? We can’t kill him here.” The white guy’s voice was tense, lined with panic. “We got to take him to her first.”

  Joshua wanted to ask who would want him dead. Who was she? Nobody he knew would want to kill him, and since he wasn’t involved in crime or drugs, he couldn’t just blame a random stranger. The only thing that he could associate with them is the tattoo they were looking for. They wanted to kill the owner of the gargoyle tattoo, but they didn’t know it belonged to someone else, or it grew four legs and a pair of wings and walked off Tyler’s chest.

  Maybe these guys were really looking for Tyler.

  “It’s not me you’re—” Joshua’s mouth was dry and words were hoarse, but a fist connected with his chin, cutting him off.

  Pain hit every nerve in his body, and a sense of defeat flooded his veins. He was outnumbered and hurting. Joshua couldn’t win this fight. All he could do was prepare himself for another blow. He winced and tightened his muscles for the next blow.

  His clothes disintegrated from the energy exploding off his chest, with the force shredding what was left of his shirt and pants instantly into tattered rags.

  He heard a loud snarl!

  Black mist shrouded Joshua, and it twisted itself into a shape solidifying into a frighteningly big black beast. It was twisted and dog-like and very much all muscle and gnashing teeth coming from a huge, snarling beast. It was big enough to take on the stone bull statue on Wall Street. The guy behind him must have seen it, too, because his hold on Joshua weakened.

  “Shit. What the fuck is that?”

  “Fuck. I don’t know,” the black dude answered.

  “It looks like that thing in the Ghostbuster movie.” Fear gripped Joshua’s heart. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Would it be worse to be torn apart by a gargoyle dog or killed by some henchmen who were really after someone else?

  The beast’s chest moved in rhythm with heavy breathing. Muscles rippled. A warning growl erupted from its throat as it leaned down on its front haunches and just before it sprang into action. The wings spread seven feet wide, and Joshua could see every detail. Every scale, every scar on its wings. It covered the distance to Brian in one leap. His front paws knocked him to the ground, and his back claws held him down while his wide mouth bit into his chest where the man’s heart was located. Curiously, there was no blood. No screams. Brian exploded into tiny black dust. There was nothing left of him.

  “What the fuck was that?” Joshua screamed.

  “Oh shit.” Lewis let go of his hands, and Joshua could feel him retreat.

  The mighty beast turned its grotesque face, beady black eyes suddenly on the two witnesses left in the street. One of those witnesses was him. Fear ripped Joshua’s throat. The beast was real. The tattoo on his chest was given to him by a demon, and just like Tyler said, it protected him when he couldn’t, but what would it do to him now that it was free? Did it want to stay off his body? Would it kill him to stay free?

  The gargoyle creature opened his mouth wide, and saber-toothed-tiger-sized fangs lined each side of its mouth along with razor-sharp teeth.

  Those reptilian wings, both majestic and battle worn, spread to their full size, branching across the alleyway. He leaped into the air and soared.

  Joshua stopped breathing. He was paralyzed in fear. He couldn’t run, couldn’t scream, and he was about to die.

  Joshua cringed and sank onto the ground in a fetal position, covering his vital organs. He closed his eyes, waiting for the impact of the mighty beast, the sharp fangs to clamp down on his neck. He felt a wind as the gargoyle leapt past him, over him. A tail slid past his ear, barely touching him.

  He turned around just in time to see the other man get his heart ripped out. Screams and then poof! A cloud of dust on the street.

  There was nothing left of the fucker.

  Joshua felt less human. He didn’t care that these guys died. They would have killed him if they had the opportunity. It was what they had planned and said.

  “What the fuck?” Joshua was unnerved. He couldn’t believe his eyes and what just happened.

  Then the beast growled.

  At him.

  Or purred. What the hell did he know about giant, seven-foot-tall gargoyles roaming the streets kicking the asses of criminals? Fuckingabsolutelynothing. Joshua jumped straight to his feet.

  “Oh shit no!” Joshua put both hands up in front of him defensively.

  The gargoyle seemed to smile at him, his mouth was half-open, and his tongue lolled to one side like a giant dog—but this was no dog. Joshua backed away, and the beast approached, putting one giant clawed foot in front of the other.

  “Don’t hurt me!” Joshua backed up against a wall. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to go. He spread his arms out and turned his head to the side, closing his eyes tight.

  The beast sniffed him. Hot air blasted Joshua in the face. Joshua tried not to move. He tried not to show fear. Wasn’t that what they said to do to wild animals when they attacked? Except this was no bear. This was a….god, he didn’t know what the fuck the creature was.

  He tried to prepare himself for the worst.

  He was going to die. First he would feel sharp teeth break his skin, then an explosion. Then nothing. Just the kind of death he had witnessed the other two men experience.

  A wet tongue licked his face.

  “Eww. Gross!” Joshua put out his hands to push him away, and the creature rubbed up against him like an oversized housecat. His skin was remarkably soft against Joshua’s callused hands.

  “Oh, now you want to be my pet?” Joshua shook his head but didn’t want to make the beast mad. It showed no signs of leaving. He continued to scratch behind its ears but took a moment to wipe the saliva off his face with the back of his hand. “Well, you can’t stay with me. The guys at the academy would freak if they saw you.”

  The beast thing was making a deep rumbling sound from his chest cavity. Was it purring?

  “Are you listening? You have to go home.” Joshua spoke as if it was a dog. It was acting like one, so maybe it would respond to a dog command. “Go home. Now!”

  The beast didn’t seem to be listening.

  The beasts head lifted to the moon, and he howled long and loud. It raised the hackles on the back of Joshua’s neck. Two paws pushed up against Joshua’s chest, and Joshua should have felt a huge weight, but there was none. What was a solid freak of nature became black mist once again and wrapped itself onto Joshua’s chest, turning two dimensional as his familiar gargoyle tattoo.

  It didn’t hurt this time. Not like the first time the tattoo got on him, when Tyler mated with him. The ink curled up in a ball and rested on Joshua’s chest as if it was home in front of a fire.

  “Shit!” Joshua’s breathing was ragged.

  Joshua touched his naked body, and while he had his shoes and socks still on, his clothes lay in a tattered pile of rags. He wasn’t sure he could rescue anything enough to wear out of the alley. The rags were evidence. This was no hallucination. This wasn’t his imagination gone wild, but no one would ever believe him about what just happened.

  It was real. Very real.

  The gargoyle fought off two guys, leaving him stranded in the heart of the city.

  Joshua fumbled through his clothes looking for his cell phone. It was inside his pant pocket, but when he took it out, the phone was in pieces. Somehow it had gotten smashed into little bitty plastic microchip pieces. The monitor was broken, too.

  “Great. Just great, now what am I going to do?” He looked around the alley for something to help him get home safely.

  “Can’t I catch a break just once?” There wasn’t much more than a few trash cans that lined the street, and since the trash had been picked up they were all fairly empty. Not a single cardboard box.

  Suddenly he wasn’t alone.

  A bright light lit up the alley, and
Joshua turned to see a police car. He covered his man parts awkwardly with his hands, but anyone could see he was still naked. Blue lights flashed atop the car.

  “Aw shit.” This was going to get him thrown out of the academy for sure. “I guess not.”

  The car door opened, and his heart sank to his knees. He recognized the officer, and it was the last person he’d expect or want to see right now.

  Dude, when life sucked and he thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.

  John, his only brother, stepped out of the police cruiser.

  * * * *

  “Let’s get you some clothes first. Lucky for you, I have some spare gym clothes in the trunk.” John opened the trunk to his car and pulled out a black duffle bag.

  Joshua took the offered clothes with true appreciation. This could have been so awkward. “Thanks, John. This isn’t exactly the way I thought I’d be having a family reunion.”

  “You could have called me anytime you needed help, brother.”

  “Thanks.” Joshua got a lump in his throat. It meant a lot to him. After running away from home he never thought he’d see his family again. He didn’t think his brother would want to see him, let alone call him a brother.

  “Now tell me again, what happened to the guys who stole your clothes?” John asked.

  The truth wasn’t going to get him anywhere except a ride to the sanitarium. He shrugged and stepped into the sweat pants. “They took off just before you got here.”

  “And what did they look like?”

  Joshua hesitated. They were dead. Telling the police two descriptions when there wasn’t a dead body to find would be pointless. “It was dark and hard for me to see in the club or out here. I’m not sure I can give a good description.”

  “I can’t exactly help you without a good description.”

  “I’m not sure you are going to be helping me by putting my name on a police report either.” Joshua thought spelling it out might help John to take a hint.

  “Josh.” John shook his head.

  “No, seriously. I am a few days away from graduating from the academy, and my outside actions are taken into consideration. If the officers found out I was found naked in a back alley somewhere, what do you think they are going to be thinking?”

  “Just tell me you aren’t on drugs or into anything bad.” John had a doubtful look on his face.

  “On my honor, I’m not on drugs and not in trouble.” He held up his hand in the symbol of the Boy Scout code. Trouble followed Joshua. He didn’t go looking for it.

  “All right, I believe you. Do you mind if we go get some breakfast? It’s about time for me to take a lunch, and it’s time we did some catching up.”

  “Sure.” Joshua wasn’t sure he’d be interested in his life, but it sounded good. Having a real family that accepted who and what he was was something he had dreamt about for years, and his being gay was something he hoped his parents could eventually accept. One day they would see him for the successful man he had become and welcome him home with open arms. All those dreams went down in a cloud of smoke when he found out they were killed in a car accident.

  “Great.” John called on his intercom that he was going to be out of service and going to lunch. Joshua finished dressing in silence and threw the remaining clothes and the bag back into the trunk.

  John motioned for him to get inside the car, and Joshua got in the passenger side. They started driving in silence until Joshua broke it. It wasn’t a bad silence, the uncomfortable kind one would have to speak through. It was just a nice silence.

  “I’m starving,” Joshua said

  “Good, I know this little all-night diner that has awesome pancakes and serves breakfast twenty-four hours a day.” John started the car.

  “Thank you, John.”

  “No problem.”

  “No, thank you for everything. I never said it, but you were my inspiration for wanting to become a cop and give my life some direction.” Joshua had hero-worshipped him as a child, and he still did, but what other man would come to his rescue tonight? If one of the guys from the academy found him tonight in the alley, they would have laughed their asses off. There would be pictures to deal with, and he couldn’t trust they wouldn’t stay off the Internet.

  “You did good. You joined the military.”

  “Because I had to.” The acid in his stomach doubled at the unwanted memories. “I didn’t want to be homeless forever.”

  “It worked out though, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I guess it did.”

  “You really are about to graduate in a few days from the academy?”

  “Yeah. You’re welcome to come to the ceremony, if I make it.”

  “That’s great, and if you’ve made it this far, I am sure you will graduate,” John said. “I’ll be there. You can meet my wife Sarah and my new son, Ruben. My first son is six now, and you never met him either. His name’s Caleb.”

  “Wow, you’ve got a family now.”

  “Yeah, lots of changes. Life never stays the same. I’ve been thinking of changing things around at work, too.”

  “That’s a good thing, really.” If things stayed the same, he’d be under his parents’ roof getting the crap beaten out of him by his alcoholic father. “Are you going to try become a detective next year or move up in the ranks or something?”

  “Nah, nothing like that. My wife has a family in politics, and I’m thinking of running for mayor this fall. It’s actually a good thing we ran into each other because I was thinking of trying to hire a detective to find you.”

  “Don’t want any scandals to pop up from your past?” Now it totally made sense. Of course John would be happy to have found him. He wanted to be sure the wild card was under control when the media began to dig up his history.

  “Well, yeah, but you don’t have to put it like that.”

  Is there a nicer way to say don’t screw up my life?

  “Look, I know you are gay. It’s not a big deal.”

  “It’s who I am, John.”

  “I’m not asking you to change.”

  “You’re not?” Joshua felt shocked.

  “No, when you left, it was like there was suddenly a big empty hole in my life. No one to wrestle with when I got home from football practice. There was no one to tell me I screwed up my life when I dropped out of school. No one to tell me to do the right thing and shape up my life. I needed my brother.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No, you had to leave. I understand that now.” John let out a deep sigh. “I also know you stood up for me when we were kids. You protected me. Dad always took his anger out on you, but if it wasn’t for you, things would have been harder for me. I missed you when you left, and I’m glad to see you again now. I love you, Joshua.”

  Joshua didn’t know what to say. He said the words that felt right. “I love you, too.”

  “I want to see you happy in life.”

  “I am. I found a job I love.”

  “But that doesn’t make you happy. What about your love life? Don’t you have anyone special?”

  “There is someone.”

  “Does he treat you right?”

  “Most of the time. He is still trying to get me to commit.” Joshua grinned, knowing if he gave him many more details John would probably think he was crazy or on drugs.

  “So what’s the problem?”

  Problem? The only problem is that Tyler isn’t human and he happens to be a sex demon…

  “I guess I’m just scared.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “It’s too soon to say, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone I’ve been with. It’s amazing when we are together.”

  “Maybe you should give him a chance.”

  Joshua felt his heart squeeze with unspoken emotion. He felt an intense attraction to Tyler, but could it be more? The man gave him time to accept him, time to trust him, and the gargoyle tattoo he wore did just save his life exactly like he promised. He could trust h
im, he may even learn to love him given time, but he had seen past the illusion. Tyler wasn’t even close to human.

  “I wish it was that simple.”

  Chapter 8

  Joshua rehearsed what he would say in his mind as soon as he saw Tyler. “Take it back.” He would be firm, but this thing on his chest had to go. Tyler would probably refuse, but there had to be a way to get rid of it, and he would know how to do it. Joshua knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

  Joshua didn’t like the complete silence. He should be here. Tyler lived here. He checked it with the other teachers. This was the right address, so why wasn’t he opening the door?

  Joshua tested the doorknob, and to his surprise, it opened.

  The bachelor pad was sparsely furnished, but nothing seemed out of place. His first fear was that the small apartment had been robbed or ransacked.

  Joshua called out to identify himself. He didn’t want to surprise Tyler or anything, but his instincts said something was wrong. He was unarmed, and going in was taking a risk. The open door was a bad sign, but the odds were strong that anyone that had been here to do harm had already left and just left it open on the way out. Still he didn’t want to come upon anyone by surprise.

  He knocked on the bathroom door and then pushed it open and stood to the side. He looked inside and was surprised to see blood puddle on the floor. It was unnatural to lose that much blood.

  Not good.

  He could be walking in on a murder scene for all he knew. He should probably call the cops, but he didn’t want to think about leaving Tyler here somewhere still needing help. There was only one other door to check, which he assumed was the bedroom, and if he didn’t find Tyler there, he was calling the cops for sure.

  He gave three loud raps with his fist, and when there was no answer, he gathered his courage and turned the knob and threw the door open.

  The bed covers and sheets were thrown in a tousled pile on the bed. A near-naked body lay there, wrapped haphazardly between it all. Joshua swallowed his fear and approached the unmoving body. Fear wrapped itself around his heart like a chain. Until he knew Tyler was alive, that panic wouldn’t leave him.