Fire Marked

by Val St. Crowe

  It fizzled out around her face, not even singeing her. Gargoyles were impervious to flame.

  “Well, that was rude,” she said, stepping back. “You really should work on your manners, lady.”

  Suddenly, I was bone tired. I turned back to see if Lachlan was behind me. He’d said he would be bringing in the essential luggage, toiletries and that kind of stuff.

  He was just inside the door, staring at the gargoyles in confusion.

  I waved at him. “Come on. We’ll deal with this in the morning.”

  He hurried to catch up to me. “Connor’s family?”

  “Yep,” I said. “They shut down the hotel. Felicity didn’t tell me they shut down the hotel.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  But in the morning, the problem hadn’t gone anywhere. It was just stone. My lobby was littered with a bunch of stone gargoyles, like living in a museum of statues or something.

  I surveyed them. “I could pick them all up and float them out into the ocean and just drop them.”

  “Wouldn’t that kill them?” said Lachlan.

  “Maybe,” I said. “I don’t really know. I don’t think they need to breathe when they’re stone.”

  He sighed. “Let’s just go to breakfast. I’ll think better after some coffee.”

  “And blood,” I said. I was seriously craving blood.

  But when we left the hotel, we were greeted by our four pet dragons, who were just waiting for us. Overnight, they’d been joined by a fifth rogue. It growled at me, but I put my hand on its snout, and it calmed down.

  “Almost makes you want to go back on the road, doesn’t it?” said Lachlan.

  I turned to him, raising both my eyebrows.

  “I said almost,” he said.

  We wandered down the street to the Flamingo with the dragons overhead. They tried to come in the restaurant with us, but I managed to make them sit like dogs and wait for us. Or maybe it was the baby. He seemed to be kicking a lot whenever the dragons were close.

  I led the way to the back room of the Flamingo, where a continental breakfast buffet was served for my hotel guests.

  There was no breakfast buffet.

  I caught a server as she went by. “Hey,” I said. “Where’s the buffet?”

  “It’s for the guests at the Purple Dolphin,” she said. “And the Dolphin is closed.”

  I groaned. “Where’s Ophelia?”

  “You know Ophelia?”

  “I own the Purple Dolphin,” I said.

  “Oh,” said the server.

  Ophelia appeared in moments. She gave me a big hug. “Penny, you’re back. And in one piece too.” Then she stepped back and made a face at me. “Although I forgot to mention I’m a little cross with you. You left without even saying goodbye. And to go find some other mage, or so I hear. You didn’t even ask for my help. I’m a little offended.”

  “Sorry, Ophelia,” I said wearily. “The whole trip was a bit… much.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again. “I should have come to you for help.”

  “Yes, you should have.”

  I looked around the restaurant. “If there’s no buffet, can we order something?”

  She pointed at a booth. “Sit down, both of you.” She glared at Lachlan. “You. You’re the one who dragged her off on this little trip. And her pregnant too. For shame.”

  Lachlan hung his head. “Sorry, Ophelia.”

  She surveyed us, as if she was trying to decide if we were properly chastised. She must have decided we were, because she repeated her order. “Sit down. Right now.”

  We sat. I looked up at her. “What’s happening with the hotel?”

  “I don’t know,” said Ophelia. “I got a call from Felicity that we wouldn’t need to be doing the breakfast, that she was calling and canceling all the reservations. I suppose it’s got something to do with all those gargoyles up there?”

  “I have to get rid of them.”

  “Well, good luck with that,” said Ophelia. “They’ve been carted off by the police more than once. Determined bunch, if you ask me.”

  “Ugh.” I massaged the bridge of my nose. “I need breakfast first.”

  Ophelia smiled. “That you do. I’ll see to your order personally.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t have to do that,” I said. “Just send over a server.”

  “Nonsense,” said Ophelia, pulling a pad of paper out of her apron. “What’ll it be? You’ll need all your energy if you’re going up against those gargoyles.”

  * * *

  I did use magic to get them out of the lobby. I hauled up every statue and set it out front of the hotel in rows. Then I surveyed them all, taking up the parking lot in all their statuesque glory. They were gray and solemn with their beautiful chiseled features and their long, smooth wings. They looked utterly incongruous with the pavement.

  Still, I knew they’d be okay there, so I left them.

  Then I waited.

  Lachlan and I spent the rest of the day taking things out of the camper. He said he was going to take it away somewhere, sell it. I was glad. I never wanted to see it again.

  After he drove off with the empty camper, I went out on the back porch of my apartment and stared out at the beach. It wasn’t empty. It was still warm enough to attract the odd tourist. But it was definitely sparsely populated, and I was glad of having not much to look at but sand and waves.

  Well, that and five rogue dragons which were all sitting on the beach or next to my pool, docile as could be.

  I got out the talisman that Olsen Hunter had given us, and I peered at its surface. I held it by the leather band that bound it. It would go around my neck. And later—my son’s neck.

  One hand left the talisman and strayed to my belly.

  I felt defeated. Gutted. Was I destined for nothing but pain and anguish? It wasn’t enough that I had lost my parents when I was young, or that I’d lost three unborn babies, or that I’d had an abusive husband who I’d been bonded to for years. No, just when I thought I was breaking free of that darkness, I had to find out that I was carrying some chosen child who could tame rogue dragons. I had to descend into some awful darkness, drunk on power, had to do horrible things. Things that would give me nightmares for the rest of my life.

  I flashed on the faces of those vampires outside the drake’s warehouse. How blank they looked when their heads were removed from their bodies.

  I shuddered.

  And then inside me, the baby kicked.

  I shut my eyes.

  Maybe it wasn’t as bad as all that, not in the end. We had our baby after all. He was safe. And we had a talisman to ward off these crazy dragons, which meant that we had time to figure out what to do about his destiny, assuming that Olsen wasn’t actually insane or mistaken or just making it up to mess with our heads.

  Whatever the case, our little boy was powerful. That seemed to be obvious. It wasn’t going to be easy for anything to hurt him.

  That made me feel just a bit better.

  And as for all the things I’d done… well, better to know the truth of the blood bond sooner rather than later. If the rogue dragons hadn’t arrived, it might have taken Lachlan and me ages to realize what it did to us, since we used it so rarely. And we might have been closer to the people that we loved when it happened.

  I thought of controlling Felicity or Connor the way that I’d controlled those vampires, and I felt utterly disgusted.

  No, things could be worse.

  They weren’t sunshine and roses, but they weren’t dreadful either.

  There was reason for hope.

  I still had so much to live for, and I could make things better. Starting with making things right with Felicity and Connor. I had abandoned them, and they were my best friends. Poor Connor, alone here with his crazy family. That was where I needed to start. For him.

  * * *

  As the sun set, the gargoyles began to wake up. The sky was stained with purpl
es and red and pinks, streaks of it through fluffy clouds. It was a gorgeous fall evening.

  The gargoyles didn’t wake up all at once. Pieces of their bodies would start to move while other pieces were still frozen.

  For some, this meant that their eyes started to blink. For others it meant that their arms could move. Still others unfurled their wings.

  I waited as wakefulness slowly moved through them, traveling from one body part to the other, until all the gargoyles were moving and talking.

  They were irate at finding themselves here, instead of inside the lobby where they’d left themselves. I could hear their angry chatter.

  But I stood in front of them and raised my arms over my head, and they all looked at me. They kept talking, of course. Their questions changed to accusations. They pointed at me and said things like, “How dare you?” and “Who do you think you are?”

  And I raised my voice above the din and yelled, “Who is your matriarch?”

  A gargoyle woman stepped forward, tall and imperious, lines around her eyes, her stone-colored hair streaked with shimmering white. She yelled, “Silence!”

  And every single gargoyle stopped speaking.

  She faced me. “You are Penelope Caspian, I presume?”

  I nodded. “That’s me, all right.”

  “I am Ursula Beckett,” she said. “Connor’s grandmother. Where is he?”

  “You’re the one who chased him out of his home,” I said. Connor lived at the hotel, but he wasn’t here, and he hadn’t answered his phone any of the umpteen times I’d tried to call him.

  “His home?” She snorted. “I am trying to bring him home. To his real home, amongst his family.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “That’s funny, because I thought you were trying to force him to go to one of those horrible programs where they attempt to train gay people to be straight.”

  She grimaced. “Gargoyles are not… gay.”

  “No?” I said. “That’s also funny. I guess Connor didn’t get the memo.”

  “Connor is going through some sort of rebellious phase,” she said. “It’s not uncommon for boys to become…unruly as they get a bit older. But this is childish, and he’s far too old. It’s gone on long enough. He needs to come back to the family, get a job to help with expenses, and do what is expected of him.”

  “Which is to mate with gargoyle women in other families, never see his own children, and continue slaving away for you, and then his mother, and then perhaps one of his sisters, until he dies?”

  “Slaving away?” she said. “What is it that you have got him doing here? He has to live in your hotel?”

  “He chooses to live here,” I said. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude. Your way of life is your own business, and I know that gargoyle culture has been this way since you were brought into existence, but you must see that it’s a raw deal for male gargoyles.”

  “Raw deal?” She brought her brows together.

  “You don’t treat them like equals,” I said. “You don’t treat them like people.”

  “Of course they are equal,” she said. “But men and women are different, with different strengths. Men are not responsible. They are not intelligent. They are doers, not thinkers. It is not for them to head their families. But we do need them. We need their protection and their physical strength, and—of course—we need them to continue the species. If Connor would simply stop being so selfish, he’d realize that he would be much more fulfilled if he did his part and took his place amongst the family.”

  “Selfish?” I said. “That’s pretty rich coming from you. You’re the one who’s being selfish. You’re the one who’s trying to make Connor do whatever it is that you want. You only think of him as he fits with your needs and desires. You never think to ask him what he wants, never think to honor that.”

  “What he wants doesn’t matter. The good of the family is what matters.”

  “You don’t even know him, do you?” I said. “You have no idea who your grandson is. What a wonderful man he is. He’s kind and good-hearted. He risked everything for a friend in trouble just a few weeks ago. He’s funny, and he laughs a lot, and when he does, his laughter is so infectious that it makes everyone smile. He brings light into my world—into the world of everyone who will let him. He’s a sweet, sweet guy, and I love him. You? You only want to use him.”

  “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know that you’re going to leave my hotel, and you’re going to leave Connor alone. Unless he directly requests to see you, you will not try to contact him again.”

  “You can’t make me do that.”

  I raised my hand and poured magic out of my palm. It hit Ursula directly in the chest and pushed her backwards into the other members of her family. I used magic to blow them backwards, as if they were dry leaves caught in the wind. “Don’t push me,” I said darkly. “You don’t want to know what I can make people do.”

  “I will not take this from you,” she said. “If my grandson doesn’t want me here, he will have to tell me so himself.”

  “I have,” said a voice from behind me.

  I turned and saw that Connor was coming forward out of the shadows.

  He stopped next to me and faced Ursula. “I told you that I couldn’t be what you wanted me to be over and over,” said Connor. “I wish you could accept me for the way that I am, but since you don’t seem to be able to do that… I don’t want you here. Please, just leave.”

  “Leave,” I said, “or I will make you leave.”

  “You,” said Ursula, pointing at me. “You have corrupted my grandson.”

  Connor folded his arms over his chest.

  Ursula narrowed her eyes. “But very well. We came here because we care about you, Connor. But you are determined to be a blight on this family. So be it. We’ll go.”

  “Good,” I said, folding my arms over my chest.

  Ursula turned her back and walked away from me, her footsteps clacking against the pavement.

  The other gargoyles followed suit.

  One woman hesitated, looking at Connor with a sad expression on her face.

  Connor took a step toward her.

  And then she turned too and scurried away.

  He let out a harsh-sounding breath. “That’s my mom,” he muttered to me.

  “Oh, Connor.” I put my arms around him and hugged him.

  But he was stiff, unaccepting, so I pulled back. “Sorry.”

  He took a step back. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate what you said about me.”

  “You heard that?”

  “Yeah, I heard it all.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I just feel like maybe it’s too little, too late is all.”

  “Look, Connor, I’m sorry I left you here with this. I’m sorry I didn’t come back. I’m sorry I was rude to you on the phone. But you have to believe me that I went off the deep end, and that it was better for me to do that there than to do it here. I kept it from hurting you.”

  “Or maybe you wouldn’t have gone off the deep end at all if you’d stayed here with us. Because we could have brought you back from anything. We would have been there for you. Actually been there.”

  That stung a bit. I guessed I deserved it. “Connor, I really am sorry.”

  He shook his head. “Good. But it’s not enough. At least not yet it isn’t.”

  “Let me explain.”

  “No, I heard all about it from Felicity. You’re blaming it on the blood bond.”

  “You know just as well as I do that everyone thinks the blood bond is dangerous. Well, it turns out they were right. I’m not trying to keep from taking responsibility here—”

  “But you are,” he said. “Whatever you did out there, whoever you did it to, you can walk away from that. You can come back home, and there aren’t any reminders of what you did. But you can’t run away from the fact that you turned your back on me. I needed you, and you weren’t there.”

  I bit down on my lip. “I
really am sorry Connor.”

  He sighed. “I know you are. And I know that I should forgive you. It’s just… I can’t.”

  “Can’t?” My voice broke a little bit.

  His lower lip started to tremble. “I never opened up to anyone else about stuff with my family before I met you, you know? There you were at that bar, and you seemed so nice, and you were so open about everything you’d been through, and it seemed easy to talk to you. I told you everything. I don’t tell people that stuff. No one.”

  Connor and I had met a long time ago at a bar. I’d struck up a conversation with him, and he’d spilled his whole life story. I had no idea that I was special in any way. I’d always figured that he would have spoken to anyone who would listen. Now, I felt horrible.

  “Connor, I—”

  “It’s just that you are all I have.”

  “That isn’t true. Felicity—”

  “I’m not close to Felicity the way I’m close to you.” His voice cracked too. “This happened, and you weren’t here, and I had no one.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I tried to hug him again.

  But he evaded my touch. He backed up, shaking his head. When he spoke, his voice was shaking. “I found an apartment.”

  “What?” I took a step toward him.

  He held up his hand to ward me off. “I can’t live here anymore. I can’t depend on you like that. I need to go somewhere and do this on my own.”

  “No, you don’t,” I said. “Don’t move out of the hotel. First Felicity leaves, now you? I can’t lose you both.”

  He shrugged. “You already have, Penny.”

  “No.” I closed the distance between us. “I know I screwed up here, but this is not that bad. We can work through this. You’re my best friend.”

  “Felicity is.”

  “You both are,” I said. “I need you. Don’t go.”

  “I’ll keep the job,” he said. “I’ll still work here. You’ll still see me. I just need some space is all. And I need to do this on my own. Prove to myself I can make it without anyone.”

  “Nobody makes it without anyone,” I said. “What are you going to do? Go draw your own water from the stream, tackle deer and rip them to death with your bare hands?” Although, after I said it, I realized that Connor was really strong, and that he could probably actually do that. But I plowed on. “And then cook it yourself too? No one’s an island, Connor. We all need other people.”