by Cynthia Eden
A tear leaked down her cheek. “You were there,” she said. “One of Simon’s guards…”
The gargoyle’s hand pushed against his stone chest. The stone was starting to crack, busting from the inside as the man fought to get to her. Sabrina is hurting.
He’d done that. He’d hurt her.
Leo’s head lowered so that his mouth was right next to Sabrina’s ear. He probably thought that Adam couldn’t hear his murmured words.
You’re wrong.
“Come with me, muse, and I’ll make sure the latest obsessed human can’t get his hands on you. I helped you before, remember? Back in Greece when your lover was dying at your feet. I can help you again. And we’ll make our own deal. You come with me, I save your sweet ass, and then you give me Fate’s location.”
Her eyes squeezed closed. “No.”
“Okay,” Leo growled. The tenderness was suddenly gone from his voice as if it had never been there. “Second choice. I’ll just take you. I won’t watch someone I care about get hurt again. I won’t.” His wings spread behind him. He lifted into the sky, still holding tight to Sabrina. She screamed then. A loud, angry scream as she fought against his hold. She screamed, and it was—
My name.
“Adam! Adam, help me—”
He flew right after them. His wings beat against the air and a snarl broke from his lips. Leo was fast, but Adam was just as damn fast. They rushed over the crashing waves, heading deeper into the darkness of the night. Sabrina was twisting and punching against Leo, but the Lord of the Light wasn’t letting her go.
Adam’s claws slashed into Leo’s wings. He ripped them wide open and Leo immediately began to plummet. Adam grabbed Sabrina, wrenching her from the Lord of the Light’s grip as the guy went down.
Learned that trick from you, asshole.
Sabrina locked her arms around Adam. She was shaking in his arms and he whirled, ready to get them the hell out of there. Leo had disappeared beneath the waves.
The Lord of the Light wouldn’t die down there. It would take a whole lot more than a little swim to stop Leo. He’d regenerate—and attack again.
The penthouse isn’t safe, not when it comes to Leo. He can get in too easily.
So Adam didn’t take her back to the penthouse. He flew forward into the night, holding her carefully. And knowing that her trust in him?
It had just been shattered into a million pieces.
Chapter Eleven
He was there. He was there. He. Was. There. The words wouldn’t stop replaying in Sabrina’s head and the pain in her chest seemed to grow worse with every minute that passed. By the time Adam put them down on top of a dark building on the edge of Miami, her whole body was shaking.
As soon as her feet touched the roof, she backed away from Adam. He stared at her a moment, his eyes doing that burning thing that they did, and then the stone around him hardened even more.
She was staring at a beast.
An attack dog on a leash.
She pressed her lips together and swiped her hands over her cheeks. She knew Adam was preparing to transform. He’d break himself out of that stone. Bust his way to freedom. But that process took time. Very, very precious time.
Time enough for her to escape? Maybe.
Because she didn’t feel like facing him right then. She didn’t want to hear lies from him. She’d told him about her imprisonment by Simon Lorne, and Adam hadn’t said a word about having been there at the time. He’d kept that from her.
What others secrets was he holding back?
She saw a door to the side. She ran toward it and started yanking on the handle. Either she was desperate and extra strong or the door was just old and weak, but it groaned and opened beneath her hand. She stared into the cavernous darkness that waited for her, and then she ran forward, rushing down the stairs. She nearly slipped and fell—twice—but her claw-like grip on the railing kept Sabrina on her feet. Soon she was at the bottom floor. She shoved open the door there and found herself in another big, dark room. Faint light poured in from the windows, those that were positioned near the street. Just enough illumination for her to see that she was inside some kind of old restaurant. Maybe a bar? There were tables and chairs. A small, wooden stage. The place was deserted, obviously closed down. Adam had picked an abandoned place for them to seek temporary refuge.
Adam. No, stop it. Don’t think about him. Not right now.
She rushed toward the doors that she knew would lead her to the street. But even though she pulled and pulled on them, they wouldn’t open. Frantic, her gaze shot to the windows once more, and that was when she realized they were boarded up. Only a small amount of light was drifting inside the place…because someone put boards over the windows.
Shit.
But there had to be another way out. Another exit. She just had to find it. Sabrina spun away from the useless windows and started searching. And even as she did…
“Sabrina!” His roar seemed to echo around her.
***
“I don’t…I don’t quite get what’s happening here,” Kevin said. He was in the back of the limo. Seated right next to his step-brother. And they were both trying to look innocent and feed Eric a pile of pure BS.
He smiled at them. “We’re going for a little ride, that’s what’s happening.” His two armed guards were also in the back of that limo. One guard pointed a gun at Kevin, and the other had his weapon aimed right at Raymond.
“I work for you,” Raymond reminded him quietly. “You don’t need to get all paranoid and pull weapons on me. Not necessary.”
Paranoid was his middle name. “I’m afraid the guns are necessary.” Eric gave a sad shake of his head. “You were alone with Sabrina. You know the rule. No one ever gets to be alone with her.” He tapped his index finger to his temple. “When you’re alone with her, she gets in here. Sneaks her way right into your head, and then in a blink, you’re doing what she wants.”
Raymond didn’t look afraid. The guy looked pissed. “She didn’t get in my head. She did get in the way of my shot. She put herself between me and the target. I told you this shit already.”
Yes, yes, he had. Eric reached for his laptop. He needed to check on Sabrina. That was a habit now. Always checking to find out where she was.
Because one day, I woke up…and she was just gone.
“You both were going to team up together, weren’t you?” Eric mused. “You and your brother. I realized that was the plan, right after you made that push to get my fifty grand. You want my money and you want Sabrina for yourself. You’re trying to take her away from me.”
“I have no interest in your girlfriend,” Raymond said flatly. “Truth be told, she creeps me the hell out.”
Those words paused Eric’s fingers. He narrowed his eyes and peered back at Raymond.
“And I have no interest in Sabrina!” Kevin spoke quickly as he raised his hands. “I mean, hell, I know just how dangerous she can be. She’s a muse, man, a muse. Do you even know what that means?”
He had a fucking clue. “I know everything about her.”
“Doubt it,” Kevin mumbled. Then his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “She’s trouble. Big, scary trouble.” He pushed up his glasses as his body rocked forward. “I mean, look at what she did to you.”
What she did to you.
“She’s got you messed up, man,” Kevin added, sympathy in his voice. “She’s like a drug, right? And you’re jonesing for her. Because I bet you think your mind doesn’t work as well if she’s not near. You don’t get all of those great tech ideas if she’s not close. She got beneath your skin, fucking intoxicated you, and now you need her to function, don’t you?” His lips twisted. “You aren’t the first bastard this has happened to, and, believe me, you won’t be the last. A muse is a very dangerous beast, more so because you don’t see the danger when you look at her. You just see the beauty.”
Eric positioned the laptop on his thighs. “Sabrina showed me my full potential.
I’ve quite enjoyed myself since I met her…but it wasn’t technical genius that she inspired in me. I’ve always been gifted—”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Kevin cut in.
Eric’s heartbeat slowed. It’s not because of Sabrina. Everything I do…it’s because of me…because of what I have always been capable of doing. He felt heat flush his face and a growl of fury built in his throat.
“Uh…easy there, buddy.” Kevin was sweating. “Didn’t mean to, um, upset you.”
Then you should have shut the fuck up.
“I-I’ve got news on your girl, okay? That’s what me and Raymond were talking about. I found out some stuff. He was going to report back to you on it. No one was going to cut you out of anything.” A pause. “After all, you’re the money. Money talks, right?” Kevin laughed, but the sound was a bit nervous.
A bit desperate.
Eric’s gaze shifted back to Raymond.
“The first time she left you, Sabrina didn’t do that of her own free will.”
Eric felt his heart stop.
“She was kidnapped.” Raymond inclined his head toward Eric. “Remember that hell-hole you found in the Everglades? She wasn’t hiding from you there. That place was her prison. She was held inside, against her will, by some bozo who wanted to use her magic. She escaped…she fled, and I’m pretty sure after that escape, the first thing she did was come back to you.”
Eric’s shoulders straightened a bit. Sabrina.
“She came back…but then she got scared. She ran from you the second time. No abduction, no force. She chose to leave the second time.” Raymond paused. “And we think she chose to hook up with the guy who’s her protector now.”
“A gargoyle,” Kevin blurted, but then he frowned at the two men with guns. “Do they have clearance to hear all this?” He waved his hands toward them. “They aren’t going to freak out because they just found out monsters are running around Miami, are they?”
“Keep talking,” Eric ordered.
“Oh, sure,” Kevin began. “Happy to do—”
“Shoot him in the shoulder,” Eric ordered. The witch with his twitchy movements and his too fast talking was getting under Eric’s skin.
The bullet blasted from the gun on Eric’s right. The bullet thudded into Kevin’s shoulder. He screamed. Blood spattered.
“The next shot will be your heart,” Eric told him flatly. “Now you shut the hell up. I want to hear from Raymond.” Because maybe Raymond hadn’t been turning on him after all. Maybe Raymond was still the best right-hand man he had. Raymond hadn’t even flinched when his step-brother was shot. The guy was freaking cold as ice.
Something I do admire about him.
Raymond swallowed. “Kevin said the guy…we’re looking at a gargoyle, okay? That’s what her protector is. An honest-to-shit gargoyle. Kevin knows about gargoyles…” He glanced at his step-brother.
Kevin had clamped his lips shut. He wasn’t saying a word. Finally.
Raymond cleared his throat. “Kevin told me that gargoyles can be controlled. It’s like they’re puppets on a string.”
Now he was curious. “How are they controlled?”
Raymond hesitated.
“How?” Eric pressed.
“A stone,” Raymond confessed. Then he hurriedly added, “I know, sounds too easy right? Sounds like BS? But Kevin knows his stuff, and he said a magic stone is tied to each gargoyle.”
Each? So there were more out there? Interesting. Eric pointed at Kevin. “Speak. Tell me how they were created.”
“Th-they were knights. Witches made them so they’d have strong armies, unstoppable forces.”
He’d seen the bullets ricochet off the stone.
“I think…” Kevin’s voice was definitely subdued, and he was holding tight to his bleeding shoulder. “I think the stones…were originally used in the binding spell. Meredith LaShay—she was this insanely powerful witch—she cast the spell. She held the stones, according to legend, and she bound those stones to the knights, bound them through flesh and straight to their souls. And as long as she held those stones in the palm of her hand…she could control her beasts.”
Eric just stared at him. It sounded like some kind of fairy tale. Pure make believe. But…I saw the gargoyle with my own eyes.
“Meredith was taken by flames.” Kevin spoke haltingly. “And the stones were taken by others over the centuries. Each stone is tied to a different gargoyle. You get the stone, you get control of the beast linked to that stone.” As soon as he finished talking, Kevin immediately clamped his mouth shut once more. And he looked nervously toward the guns.
“Interesting.” Eric cocked his head as he once more focused on Raymond. “You think my Sabrina has this gargoyle’s stone?”
“I think she has it cradled in the palm of her hand.” Raymond nodded. “I’m sure of it. She was afraid of you, so she went out and got herself the biggest, baddest paranormal protection that she could find. And then she got the guy to come gunning for you. You’re the gargoyle’s target. He’s going to be hunting you.”
Eric opened his laptop. “I wonder when they met…” His voice had turned musing as he rolled over possibilities in his head. “How did those two come together…?”
“I have no fucking clue,” Raymond said flatly.
Eric began typing on the laptop. He expected to see Sabrina, all nice and snug at that mysterious high-rise but…
She was somewhere else.
He smiled and then he leaned over and lowered the privacy screen that separated him from the driver. “Change of plans,” he announced. “We have a new destination.”
***
Every door on the ground floor was locked. Sabrina wanted to scream in frustration. She needed to escape, but she was trapped. A prisoner, once the hell again.
She yanked as hard as she could against the back door. She’d found it after snaking through the remains of an old office, but despite straining with all her might, the door wouldn’t give.
“Sabrina.”
She stiffened. Her breath hitched out.
“Sabrina,” Adam continued carefully, his voice that of a man and not a beast, “we need to talk.”
She let go of the door knob. Slowly, she turned to face him. Then she blinked. “Where in the hell did you get jeans?” A pair of faded jeans hung low on his hips.
“It’s my building. I keep extra clothes nearby.” He shook his head. “All of the doors and windows are well secured down here. Access is only via the roof because, you know, I—”
“Fly in. Yeah, I get it.” It’s my building.
He took a step toward her.
Her hands immediately flew up. “Don’t. Do not come any closer right now.”
“You’re angry.”
“Angry doesn’t even begin to come close to describing what I’m feeling.” She was…hurting. Her chest was burning and she’d actually cried over the guy. He’d gotten to her. The man of stone had made her weak.
Damn him.
“But…you chose me.” He was staring at her in confusion. “You were fighting Leo. You wanted to stay with me.”
“Okay, look, first of all…it’s not like you just won some big contest, all right? It was you or it was Leo. Not exactly win-win. Leo and I have issues that go back a long time. If I’d stayed with him, well, he would have forced me to reveal something I didn’t want to share with him. So right then, you were the lesser of two evils. You weren’t my choice. You were what I had to take.” Big, big difference.
His expression became guarded. Man. Of. Stone. “I see.”
“No, I’m not sure you see anything.” Her hands fisted at her sides. “You were there.”
His head lowered.
“You were there. In the Everglades. While I was held in that stupid cell for months. You were one of the guards.” Deny it. Deny, please—
His shoulders straightened. His head lifted right back up and his gaze met hers. “Yes.”
A knife right to the
heart. That was what his one word answer felt like to her.
“I didn’t have a choice. Simon had the fucking stone.” Tension rolled from Adam. “Do you think I wanted to follow his orders? I was as much of a prisoner as you were.”
“He was going to cut out my eyes.”
His lips parted. Adam took a fast step toward her, then seemed to catch himself. He shook his head.
“Yes, he was. Simon mistakenly thought that a muse’s powers were tied to her eyes. So he was going to cut out my eyes. He was working some stupid magical spell, and I was one of his ingredients. He was going to kill me. And you…you were a guard there. If I hadn’t gotten out, you would have been there when he took my eyes.”
He stared back at her, and his hard expression broke apart. Pain flashed on his face. Pain. Horror. Grief?
“I’m so fucking sorry.” His words rumbled from him. “I hate the way I am. I hate being tied to the stone. I hate that a twisted bastard like Simon Lorne can use me to do his bidding. And you know what? He isn’t even the first one. There have been others over the centuries. Those who forced my hand. Who used my power. I hated it every single time, but no matter how hard I tried to fight, the result was the same. The gargoyle takes over. The man is trapped in the stone, and I am fucking helpless.”
A tear slid down her cheek. Only this time, that tear wasn’t for her.
What would it be like to be trapped in stone? Helpless? To watch while the gargoyle attacked? While he killed?
“There’s a reason that gargoyles fall under the ‘Bad Things’ category,” Adam continued in that same rough and ragged voice. “They don’t exactly have a morality compass. Whoever holds the stone…that person controls the beast. I’m just along for the fucking ride.”
Another tear slid down her cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
She couldn’t stop the tears. He’d been like that for centuries? All because he’d been a human who’d had the bad luck to be cursed…
“Stop, Sabrina, please.”
She couldn’t stop. Just like he couldn’t fight the magic that bound him.
He rushed toward her. His hands lifted and then he hesitated, as if afraid of what to do next.