Heart of Stone

by Regine Abel

  Reactivating my armor’s camouflage, I took flight again, gliding down to the vicinity of the second sniper’s location. He waited in silence, having visibly already confirmed being in position. As much as I would have liked to repeat the previous kill, the way he stood, leaning against a tree, would have made it too difficult to slash his throat and show my face as he passed from this world. Since getting to Brianna safely without raising the alarm remained my top priority, I bit back my blood thirst and contented myself with snapping his neck.

  Once more, I carefully lowered my victim to the ground then stealthily approached the lookout. It could be summed up as a parking lot with a large sidewalk giving a great view of the city, especially all lit up at night. A thick stone parapet prevented visitors from falling to their deaths. Brianna huddled up next to it, her beautiful face drawn with fear as she stared at Stephen and his acolyte, standing near her.

  As I closed the distance, I eavesdropped on their conversation.

  “Patrick says the medallion still hasn’t moved from the church,” the man who had attacked me in the catacombs said to Stephen. “So, either he hasn’t left yet, or he chose not to bring it.”

  What? How in Lar’s name do they know?

  It hadn’t crossed my mind that they’d have developed the ability to track the sigil. Good thing to know, and good thing I hadn’t brought it with me. They’d have completely bypassed my camouflage.

  “The cocky bastard,” Stephen mumbled. “If she’s right about this mating instinct business, then I’m sure he will come for her.”

  “But he may have simply said it to butter her up so she would give him what he wanted. For all we know, he was just using her, in which case, he won’t give a shit what happens to her,” the other man countered.

  “Yes, Daniel, there is that possibility,” Stephen conceded. “But I doubt it. Even if he’s just using her, he didn’t put that much effort into seducing her just to ditch her now. He needs her for something, and he’ll try to cash in on that investment if possible. And when he does show up, we’ll take him out.”

  Stephen checked his watch.

  Twelve minutes remained before 23:00.

  “You want him dead?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t particularly care, to be honest,” Stephen said with a shrug. “London still has one of those monsters captive, and they’ve already pretty much found out everything there was to learn from it. I just want the damn medallion. Albert has metal piercing rounds,” he said, pointing at the man closest to the forest with his chin. “I told him to fire last if things look like they might go belly up. Everyone else has sleeping darts. If the creature has indeed gone into heat over Brianna, it might be interesting to see how that might have affected its anatomy and endocrine system.”

  “Very well,” Daniel said with a nod. “Carl and I have five rounds of sleeping darts each, not counting the snipers. One shot was enough to mess him up, and the second took him out like a light. We should be good.”

  “Excellent,” Stephen said with a malicious grin. “But we still need that sigil. Send a couple of our men to the club to scout out the access to the upper floor. Actually, not men. Send two of our female agents; the sexiest and most ruthless ones we have.”

  “Acknowledged,” Daniel said, getting on his phone.

  Anger boiled within me like lava on the verge of erupting. How dare they imply I used Brianna? She’d listened quietly to their conversation, the wounded expression on her face clearly indicating she’d started to believe they might be right.

  They know she’s awakened my mating instincts. They made her talk.

  Another wave of fury washed over me as I imagined the million different, horrible ways in which they could have tortured her. I wanted to lunge at both of them and tear them limb from limb. But that would expose me—and Brianna—to the other two men patrolling the parking area, Albert and Carl. I needed to take out those two before I came back for Stephen and Daniel.

  Exiting the tree line, I headed straight for Albert, the man closest to the woods. Sneaking up on him, still hidden by my armor’s camouflage, I grabbed him by the waist and threw my victim up in the air, at a slight angle, with all the strength I could muster. He flew up at least ten or twelve meters, giving the illusion that I’d caught him like a bird of prey and was carrying him up to my lair. As I’d hoped, the three remaining agents started firing above him in a pointless effort to shoot me down.

  Taking advantage of the panicked ruckus, I charged Carl, located about fifty meters on the opposite side of the parking lot, the sound of my steps covered by the shots. I rammed into him sideways, shoulder first. His arm shattered under the force of the impact, his entire body flying several meters before crashing with a loud thump. Half a second later, Albert’s body landed in a tangled mess of broken limbs.

  Stephen shouted for the snipers to come in. The resounding silence brought a feral grin to my lips.

  “Fuck!” Stephen shouted, realization dawning.

  He lunged for Brianna, who had crouched by the railing, hands covering her ears as best as the shackles allowed. Yanking my woman back up on her feet, he aimed his gun at her head.

  “Enough of your games, monster!” Stephen shouted. “You’re going to go fetch that medallion and bring it back immediately or I’m killing your mate. Don’t think I will hesitate.”

  “Show yourself,” Daniel yelled, holding his gun with both hands, eyes wide as he searched for me in vain.

  “Yeah, show yourself,” Stephen repeated. He lowered his gun and pointed it at Brianna’s leg. “You’ve got three seconds or I’ll bust her knee cap.”

  Brianna sobbed, the tears rolling freely down her cheeks fueling my rage.

  “Three… Tw…”

  I disabled the camouflage, standing barely five meters from them. Both men yelped at finding me so close. Daniel fired in a panicked reflex. I dodged, lifting my shield in front of me. To my undying relief, it deflected the dart. Well… not quite. The dart seemed to stick into the energy field for a second before falling to the ground. It took me a second to realize the wretched thing had drained a significant portion of the shield’s integrity.

  Stephen also turned his weapon towards me. I partially turned my skin to stone, the added weight immediately slowing me down. But Daniel fired again. As I feared the darts far more than the bullets, I kept my shield facing him, horrified by the alarming rate at which the darts were depleting it. Stephen’s first bullet grazed my upper arm, but the second one found its way into the fleshy part of my left calf, my stone skin preventing it from piercing clean through. I charged Daniel as he fired two more darts.

  Only one left before he stops being a threat.

  No sooner did the thought cross my mind than my shield collapse. Cold dread coursed through me to find myself exposed on both sides. Daniel’s eyes widened, his mouth stretching into a sadistic grin, knowing he had me right where he wanted.

  Brianna, who Stephen still held by the upper arm, let herself drop to the ground like a rag-doll, destabilizing him. For a moment, I thought she’d lost consciousness but realized she was actually creating a diversion to give me a chance.

  My wonderful mate!

  As the stone skin wouldn’t protect me from the dart and slowed me down too much, I dropped it and dashed the short distance between Daniel and me. In an effort to keep me away from him, Daniel backed away while readying to fire his last dart. He became tangled in his own feet and fell on his ass. As he scrambled to get back up, I kicked the hand holding the dart gun, breaking a few of his fingers in the process. The gun flew off in the distance, well out of reach. Daniel’s pained scream turned into a yelp as I grabbed him by the coat and lifted him off the ground.

  “No!” Brianna shouted.

  A searing pain in my side nearly made my knees buckle. I dropped Daniel to the ground held on to my rib, where a bullet had dug deep. He scrambled backwards, cradling his wounded hand to his chest.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw
Stephen taking aim at me again. Although I dodged, I clenched my jaw at the burning sting of the bullet tearing straight through my left wing. Brianna, lying at Stephen’s feet kicked the back of his leg, making him fall to a knee, and then kicked the gun out of his hand.

  “You bitch!” Stephen yelled, backhanding her.

  Her head snapped to the side under the force of the impact, blood pearling at the corner of her lips. I roared with fury and, heedless of my injuries, I ran towards them.

  Panicked, seeing his death charging him, Stephen jumped to his feet, yanked Brianna off the ground and, with the strength of despair, threw her over the short railing.

  As if in slow motion, I saw the terror in her eyes as she clawed in vain at Stephen’s coat. Her scream resonated loudly in my ears. I ignored Stephen scrambling to recover his gun. Heart pounding, I used my momentum and spread my wings. Deviating from my initial target, I flew over his head and down the steep edge, catching Brianna as she plummeted toward the ground.

  Straightening out into a glide barely one meter over the mountain’s floor, I activated my camouflage and flapped my wings to regain altitude. Stephen fired a couple of shots, one embedded itself in my thigh. I growled in pain but kept flying. Brianna lay limp in my arms, having either lost consciousness from fear, or gone into shock. Each flap of my wings sent a new wave of agony in my side. Taking that piercing round without stone skin had nearly been fatal.

  Could still be.

  I silently thanked the Rose Syndicate for choosing the Belvedere as the rendezvous point. It represented a short flight to Downtown Montreal, although it felt like an excruciating eternity. My wings felt heavy and my arm muscles burned trying to hang on to Brianna, despite her light weight. Nearly ten minutes after diving over the railing of the lookout, I half-landed, half-collapsed on the roof of The Darkest Hour. Entering my room through one of the many secret entrances I’d built felt like a Herculean effort.

  I laid Brianna down on my bed, telling her to remain still. Falling to my knees, I remained still for a moment to regain my bearings while fighting the urge to dive into the peaceful rest of duramna. Shaking myself back into action, I quickly checked to see if Brianna had been hurt beyond the slight swelling of her cheek where Stephen had backhanded her. Although she’d regained consciousness halfway through the flight, she still trembled like a leaf.

  Satisfied that she was unharmed, I ignored my wounds and fetched her a glass of water. I sat at the edge of the bed and drew her into my embrace. She didn’t resist, and accepted the cold drink with trembling hands. She gulped it down, barely taking a second to breathe. Once done, I took it from her hand and put it down on the nightstand next to me.

  I closed my wings around her and whispered soothing words in her ears until she calmed down and her trembling receded. The feel of her, safely tucked in my arms, had the most appeasing effect on me. Brianna was meant for me.

  “I’m so sorry you got mixed up in this mess,” I said, my voice thick with remorse. “This never should have happened. I should have protected you better.”

  “There’s nothing you could have done,” Brianna said with a trembling voice. “They tricked me while I was at work.”

  She proceeded to tell me what had happened and shamefully explained the interrogation they had subjected her to.

  “It’s not your fault, my Brianna,” I said gently, caressing her hair. “They used some kind of truth serum on you. Very few people could have resisted its compulsion. I’m just relieved they used that instead of any form of actual torture. I never would have forgiven myself if they’d hurt you.”

  “But what of you?” Brianna asked, leaning back to look at my face and chest. “They shot at you. Are you okay?”

  “I’ll be all right once I go into duramna,” I said smiling reassuringly at her.

  “Oh my God! You are hurt!” she exclaimed, jumping off my lap, forcing my wings open. “Why didn’t you say so sooner rather than letting me babble like this? Where?” she asked, pawing at me in search of the wounds. “Where did they hit you?”

  She first spotted the slight cut on my arm, then she noticed the blood drying on my side.

  “Lift your arm! Where’s your first aid kit?” she demanded in a voice that brooked no argument.

  “You won’t be able to help with this one,” I said gently. “It’s too deep. A few hours in duramna will push the bullet out. But you could help me with the other three bullets I have stuck in me. One is in my calf, the other in my wing, and the last in my thigh. My wounds shouldn’t require any actual medical attention. I will just need to rest.”

  “Four bullets?” she exclaimed, her eyes widening.

  I couldn’t help the smile stretching my lips at her expression. She couldn’t seem to decide whether she was outraged that I’d kept this from her this long, horrified that I’d been hurt this way, or sympathetic at the pain I must be feeling.

  My woman was adorable.

  “It’s nothing serious,” I said, rising to my feet and taking off my boots and pants. Sitting back down I swallowed a wince at the pain in my side and lifted my leg on top of the bed to expose my left calf. “You see, when they started to fire, I turned my skin to stone. Most projectiles can’t break through it, and my armor provides added protection. It is designed to slow down any piercing object trying to penetrate my skin, and spread out the impact of any blow to reduce chances of fractures.”

  Extending my claws, I reached for the bullet, only half-buried in my flesh, and carefully extracted it from my leg. Brianna stared in fascination, her eyes flicking from the bullet in my hand to the small hole in my leg, dripping with quickly coagulating blood.

  “I will need your help with the other two, though.” I said, getting up to fetch a pair of needle nosed pliers from my work desk.

  “Doesn’t it hurt to walk?” Brianna asked, bewildered, as she shadowed me to my work desk.

  I shook my head. “No,” I answered honestly. “My leg hurts enough for me to know it has been injured, but not so much as to incapacitate me or make me limp.”

  I repressed another smile at Brianna’s blatant effort at ignoring my exposed cock dangling between my legs. Since I never wore underwear, I had to be quite the sight, naked except for my armor shirt.

  “Here you go,” I said handing her the pliers.

  She took them from my hand then followed me back to the bed. I sat at the edge of the bed then lay down on my side to expose the bullet wound at the back of my thigh.

  “Do you see it?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered, tension clearly audible in her voice.

  “Do not fret, Brianna,” I said in a soft, reassuring voice. “It barely hurts. Just yank it out. I’d do it myself but it’s a little out of reach.”

  Technically, I could simply go into stone form. During regeneration, my body would naturally expel any foreign substance or object from my body, which could take some time. However, doing it that way would delay the healing process which wouldn’t start until the bullet was out—something we couldn’t afford right now.

  “Okay,” Brianna said in a small voice. “Tell me if I hurt you, okay?”

  “I promise,” I said, knowing that I wouldn’t and barely feeling any guilt for the deception.

  My female tried to get a proper grip on the bullet, the pliers slipping off a few times. She muttered a curse under her breath, and I repressed another smile. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, Brianna almost managed to pull it out before losing grip again.

  “Son of a bitch!” she snapped.

  This time, I couldn’t help laughing. But the lancing pain from the bullet in my side put a quick stop to it.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  “It’s okay, my Brianna,” I said, smiling. “These things are tricky. You will get it. There is no rush.”

  “You know, Alkor, you’re the wounded one,” she said, sounding slightly upset. “I should be the one reassuring you that it’ll be okay. I’m the most pathetic nurse in t
he universe. You deserve so much better for saving me.”

  I frowned at her words. “Nothing can ever be better for me than you. You are not pathetic,” I said, looking at her over my shoulder. “You are strong and courageous. What you did back there was extremely brave. You probably saved both of our lives by disarming Stephen. Do not be so critical of yourself or underestimate how amazing you are.”

  The look she gave me, full of affection and gratitude, melted my insides.

  “I wasn’t going to let him kill you,” she said in a voice where anger, strength, and determination mixed in equal measure. “I didn’t just find you only to lose you like that. And you didn’t wait all this time to go home only to have a bunch of bigots and fanatics prevent you from doing so. They won’t win.”

  Apparently galvanized by her own words, she clamped down on the bullet with the pliers and yanked it out with one swift movement. I swallowed a hiss at the burning sensation quickly followed by relief as the wound immediately started to close. It would take many hours to completely heal but stone sleep would halve that time.

  “Well done,” I said, “only one left.”

  Sitting back up, I spread my wounded wing and Brianna did quick work of removing the bullet embedded there. Once she was done, I pulled her back onto my lap.

  She smiled, wrapped her arms around my neck, and rubbed her nose against mine. Her words played in a loop in my head.

  “I didn’t just find you only to lose you like that.”

  Did that mean Brianna was seriously contemplating coming with me since she’d also acknowledged that I hadn’t waited this long to go home to have those plans thwarted? My tongue burned with the need to ask for confirmation, but I didn’t want to unduly pressure her.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to try removing that bullet in your side?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. It might get pushed further in if we mess with it.