by Leah Silver
“Alpha?”
“Julie, remember? My name is Julie.”
I knew that, didn’t I? What had happened? My mouth was dry, and my tongue felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I tried to sit up, but gravity wasn’t my friend, and I grunted with the struggle.
Her hands were warm against my bare shoulders. When had I taken my shirt off?
“Just relax. Your senses will come back quickly now. The worst is over.”
“What happened?” I managed.
“Those twats used the plague against you.”
“How…” I trailed off, not sure how to even finish that sentence. How had she known? How had I ended up back with her? How had she saved me?
“I sent Fantasia after you. Just to keep an eye on you, report back to me if you took off, or if you even made the delivery. She’s a good watcher. Real quiet and sneaky. She came back to me as soon as you sat down on that bench. Anyone else would’ve fallen during the fight with the goblins. I have no idea how you kept it at bay so long.”
Fantasia. I hadn’t even noticed her. Normally, I’d at least smell someone following me. How had she stayed so hidden? I supposed that was the least of my questions. I swallowed, feeling like my mouth at least was returning to normal. Raising myself onto my elbows, I struggled to see Julie clearly.
“How did you cure me?”
“We have a small stash of serum in case of…well, emergency. The serpens provided us with some backup when these new deliveries showed up. I don’t think they were supposed to, but they did it anyway.”
There was that word again. Serpens. Were they the snake creatures the goblins talked about? The questions swirling in my head made it ache. I closed my eyes, trying to sort through everything.
“It’s all right. You’re safe,” Julie said as she gently pushed me back down. “Why don’t you rest a bit more, and we’ll talk it all out later?”
But there wasn’t time for later. I had to get back to Merry. I couldn’t stay with Julie. But I could tell by the look in her eyes she didn’t think I was going anywhere. She’d saved me. And in her eyes, that demanded a certain amount of loyalty.
How could it not? If she’d left me there, I’d likely be in the hands of…well, who knows. The snake people? Or would I be beyond the void by now? Succumbed to the plague?
Which brought me to my next question. “Julie, who are the snakes?”
She’d just started to leave my side when she froze, midstride. “The who?” But her tone was flat. A lie. She knew exactly who I was talking about.
“The ones the goblins work for. I suspect the ones you work for. Who are they?”
She turned to face me with fear and sadness in her eyes. “That is a conversation for another day.” She hurried out of the room, leaving a dim lamp on for me.
But could I afford to wait around for that day to come?
Oscar
I’ll skip the next family reunion, thanks
Merry was not happy. And frankly, I was failing at soothing her. Devlin had the plague, Ed had disappeared, and Ike was involved with the goblins somehow.
“I really don’t give a pixie’s ass about this Genzo person. We need to find Ike, so we can find Ed and get back on track,” she said. She took off down the street. “Do you think we can intercept him at the address?”
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to think. I needed to get two steps ahead of her before she blew whatever Ike was mixed up in wide open.
We headed out of the downtown area toward the address, my mind moving frustratingly slow. I had to stop this. But it felt like a freight train barreling ahead, with nothing but my own body to throw in front of it.
“I just think—” I stopped talking and reached for Merry, grabbing her shoulder harder than I meant to.
“What the—” She quieted when she saw my face.
Movement. That was all I’d seen. But it was out of place. We were walking down a rural road lined with old oak trees and Spanish moss dangling everywhere. Picket fences lined every yard, and it seemed very idyllic on the surface. But the movement made me stop short. There shouldn’t be that kind here. It was fast. Almost too fast to see with the naked eye.
I ushered her behind me, but it was too late. They were all around us.
“Ossie. It’s good to see you.”
“I’m afraid the feeling isn’t mutual,” I said, staring into the face of my family.
Okay, they weren’t my immediate family. More like outcasts. They’d tried to take me in when my folks were killed. I went with them at first, not knowing what else to do, but then I’d seen the terrible creatures they were and left.
Seems they weren’t terribly thrilled about being abandoned.
“Who’s this?” Merry asked, and I hated she drew attention to herself.
“You didn’t tell her about your own flesh and blood, Oscar?”
“You told me your family was dead,” she accused.
“They are. These slimeballs might be related, but they’re not family. For all I know, they tipped the mob off to where we were living.” I’d suspected that for a while, but I hadn’t said it out loud.
“Sorry fellas, but we’re a bit busy here. Perhaps we can play Family Feud some other time,” Merry said as she drew two daggers out of her arm holsters.
“No,” I breathed when I saw the glint in my uncle’s eye. “No games.”
“But games are what we gargoyles do best,” he said as he disappeared before my eyes.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Merry said, straightening from her defensive stance.
“I can’t. My uncle is different. A hybrid of sorts.”
“A hybrid? What else is in him besides gargoyle?”
“He never actually told me.”
“What happened between you and them?” she asked, relaxing more than I thought she should. This wasn’t over. I braced myself while trying to keep the conversation going.
“They’re not a great group. They like to prey on the humans. After my family was killed, they offered me a home. They thought I owed them something in exchange. When I refused to play their games as they like to call them, I left. They were a bit hurt.”
“More than a bit, I’d say,” Merry offered.
I grunted, waiting for my uncle to appear. Merry yawned loudly, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Excuse me. I don’t know where that came from. We should move on.”
She swayed on her feet, and I reached out to catch her. “Stop,” I commanded, but they didn’t. They continued to steal her breath from her. She yawned again.
Gargoyles were known in France for their mischief. It was one of the reasons my family was attacked. My uncle and his crew had been preying on their children. Taking their breath in the night. We didn’t participate. We were peaceful. But the humans hadn’t cared. They wanted someone to hold accountable for their dead babies. Couldn’t say I blamed them after I shared their grief.
But now, my uncle was doing it to the woman I loved. No. I wouldn’t have it.
Knowing how near the gargoyle who was doing this had to be, I reached out, taking hold of the first thing I got my fingers wrapped around. Instantly, he appeared in front of me, my hand encircling his neck.
I squeezed hard. “Stop,” I commanded at once, and he coughed out a breath, returning her life force to her. She lay limp in my arms. “What do you want?” I demanded through gritted teeth as I set my uncle back on his ass.
“You.”
That gave me pause. “Why?” I asked. “If you’ll recall, we had something of creative differences the last time we worked together. This separation has been going beautifully if you ask me.”
“Yes, well, a new development has been brought to our attention. Which means you’re coming with us.”
“Or what?”
“Or I finish what I started on your girl there.”
“Not if I kill you first.”
He laughed, and then disappeared in front of me again. His goons circ
led around me. I couldn’t win this battle, not alone. I set Merry down on the ground, lying her flat on the sidewalk, and resolved to do my best.
But not before I sent a message to Ike. Merry’s alone. Get out of wherever you are and get to her now. I sent him a drop pin of my location before returning my attention to my so-called family.
“I see you’ve been busy expanding your family.”
“I have. The women love me.” His voice came from behind me. I whipped around, stepping over Merry, trying to put myself between my uncle and her.
“What kind of women?”
He appeared briefly right in front of my face and winked. Instantly, I turned to stone and lunged for him, trying desperately to take him down. But for him, this was just a game. He disappeared again in a flash. In that moment, the goons were all over Merry. One by one, they went back to work, sucking the life from her.
“No,” I yelled. I ran back to her, scattering the goons like a bunch of seagulls on the beach.
“You know the rules of the game,” my uncle said. He appeared next to me, looking down at Merry’s peaceful face. “We’ll just keep playing until she’s dead.”
“No, you won’t.” Again, I lashed out for him, but he ducked out of the way and disappeared again. I screamed in rage and went after the goons, clotheslining one of them with my stone arm. He fell like, well, a ton of bricks. The others backed off when they saw me coming.
“Seems like your goons could use some training,” I said, trying to needle my uncle. The madder he was, the more reckless he would be. Just one false move and he’d be mine.
“Maybe you should be the one to train them if you’re so smart.” He appeared, straddling Merry, toying with her hair as she lay on the ground.
“Get off her,” I yelled, charging.
“A bit possessive, don’t you think? I thought we were family. What’s mine is yours sort of thing.” He’d gotten off her and moved away, holding up his hands as if he were innocent. I wanted to spit in his face, but he was too far away from me.
“She is not yours.”
“Maybe she isn’t yours, either,” he said. He leaned over and sucked one more breath of life from her. Her chest rose high as he sucked, and I clocked him right in the face, hard. The punch sent him flying back until he landed on his back about six feet from where he’d started.
Merry’s chest fell, taking an eternity to rise again. One more would do it. He’d win.
I stormed over and found him lying flat on his back, laughing and rubbing his chin where my stone fist had made contact. He was bleeding. “Why now? Why are you doing this now?”
“Because. It was now or never,” he said, staring up at me from black eyes. Eyes that had no good in them whatsoever. No way did I want to go back with him. It meant nothing but trouble. But I couldn’t let him have her either.
Was she safer all alone, sleeping on the sidewalk? I’d never get the chance to find out.
“Fine. I’ll go with you. But you leave her out of this.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. You see, we’re here for her, too,” he pushed.
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” Frustration pulsed through me. This wouldn’t be an issue if even Ike were here, much let alone the rest of our coven. My uncle was so weak-minded Levi could probably talk him into dying right then and there.
A scream from above stopped all of us in our tracks. A ring of fire exploded around us, consuming the oaks as it burned. A huge red dragon landed in the center of the circle, and my uncle took off running, actual fear in his eyes. I smiled. I couldn’t help it.
The dragon shifted before my eyes. “Charles. You have good timing,” I said as the head of the council stood before me.
He didn’t turn to face me. Instead, he widened his stance and addressed my uncle. “Evert. This is not the agreement, and you know it.”
“Oh, do I, Chuck?”
I looked back and forth between the two men, struggling to process what was happening. Charles was on our side, wasn’t he? I was on this mission for him. For all of them. What the actual fuck was happening?
My uncle grinned, and I could tell Charles didn’t have control of the situation, even though he was a huge dragon that could incinerate all of them. “Seems to me you may not know the entirety of the agreement.”
“Not her,” he insisted, and I swear I could see smoke rising out of his ears. No doubt my uncle saw it, too. Not to mention the fire still burning its way around us. Although he might not have complete control, he wasn’t a mewling kitten either.
“Charles, what—”
My uncle cut me off as he looked at me with a frown. “Fine. I’ll send someone after her later. No matter.” He glared at his goons, who were standing as far from Charles as they could but were far too close to the fire for their own comfort. “Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Get him.”
I was too shocked to fight them. “Charles?” I asked. Finally, he turned to face me. Sadness pulled his features down, as if he might melt into a pile of helpless depression right then and there.
My uncle’s goons grabbed me and put a bag over my head. I didn’t fight them at all. I couldn’t. My world had just crashed down on my head. What was Charles doing in on a deal with my uncle? One that was clearly meant to separate me from Merry, when Charles put this team together. Why would he do that?
I was tossed into the back of what I assumed was a van, based on how much headroom I had, and they drove off. But they didn’t go as far as I expected. They still lived in France, so I half expected us to go to the airport and head home. But they pulled in somewhere and shut the van off. From there, I was hefted roughly out of the back and muscled inside. It echoed. I could hear the goons’ footsteps against concrete, making me feel like we were in a warehouse of some kind.
My hands were chained behind my back and locked down after I was slammed into a chair. No one spoke to me. Once they were done restraining me, they left. I listened to their footsteps disappear, and the door slam in the distance, making it feel like a very large, empty room they’d left me in.
What was the purpose of this? Merry had to have gotten away before my uncle went back for her. Charles would’ve ushered her away, right? An hour ago, I would’ve said yes without hesitation. But now, I didn’t trust him any further than I could throw him. If she did wake up, what would he tell her happened to me?
Fury burned through me at the thought of his betrayal. I tried to be rational. Maybe it wasn’t what it seemed. But the look on his face told me it was. His utter regret. Honestly, I’d never seen anything like it. Usually when I dealt with someone who’d done something to hurt me, or the people around me, there was no regret. They’d done it deliberately for their own gain. Clearly Charles had done this on purpose, but to what end? Was Merry right? Did the enemy have him by the balls? If they did, how could we help him if he split us all up?
Then, another betrayal clicked into place. This was deliberate. This whole thing. Whatever had happened to Ike, and Ed for that matter, was on purpose to split up the group. And Levi’s infection? It felt too convenient. That had to be part of the plot, too. The truth hit me so hard I nearly fell back in the chair. We were stronger together. We could beat this thing together, and they knew it. So they split us up. Simple as that.
But how could we get back together with me chained to a chair the Mother knows where, Ike doing whatever he was doing, and Ed nowhere to be found?
A miracle, that was what we needed. And in the world of supernatural creatures, those were few and far between. We made our own miracles. As I pulled against the chains that held me, I knew it was time to make one happen.
Rock, meet hard place
I yanked and pulled on the chains for what felt like hours. I even turned my arms to stone and pulled, giving more strength to the effort. But nothing. The chains never even bent. They were spelled. I’d have to find another way.
I sat in the darkness, that burlap sack over my head sc
ratching my face, making me breathe my own air, and generally just pissing me off. Eventually, I gave in to my anger and an all-out kicking tantrum landed me on my side, even more helpless than I was before.
Good work, stony, I thought. Now you’re on your side and can’t get up. Like that old lady on TV. I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up. I can’t get free, and I sure as hell can’t be of use to anyone.
“Son of a motherless gravedigger,” I whispered to the darkness, trying to remember when the last time I’d brushed my teeth was. If my breath was any indication, it had been a while. Damned sack on my head. Damned everything.
I laid still for a few moments, remembering my last few encounters with my uncle. He’d asked me to go with him on what he’d called a mission. I didn’t have a full understanding of what they were doing then, so I reluctantly agreed to go. It was one thing to have an abstract idea of what was going on. It was entirely another to see a child die.
The revulsion that filled my chest threatened to clog my throat when the memory flooded my mind. It felt so real, like I was watching it all over again, powerless to stop them.
My body started to shake as the horror washed over me, or maybe it was the stress of the current situation. Either way, I’d never felt so helpless in all my life. And gargoyles, although not immortal like vampires, lived a very long time. Stone didn’t tend to age, after all. It could be worn away, smoothed over time, but it didn’t wrinkle and decay the way humans do.
I wasn’t sure if or when I fell asleep, but the door slammed and startled me.
“Well, well. Looks like you had an accident, hmm?” My uncle crossed the room slowly, but he didn’t offer to help me up. Instead, he must’ve crouched down near my head. Close enough I could smell his mossy aftershave. It was a welcome change to my own breath.
“Seems like you’re not exactly happy to be reunited with me.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” He was intolerable.
“I have a deal for you.”