by Karen Duvall
I stared at his resolute profile. He looked mortal, but he didn’t behave like one. He’d hardly eaten anything in over thirty hours and he never slept. Not once. The only time we stopped was to gas up and for me to eat and use the bathroom. I wanted a shower in the worst way.
Feeling grungy, I gave myself a sniff. “Do I stink?”
He scowled. “No, you don’t stink.” He shook his head. “You smell fine. You smell like…you.”
I didn’t know if that was good or bad. He had no odor whatsoever and if anyone would know it would be me. “How do you stay so clean without taking a bath?”
“I’m an angel.”
“Duh. I know that.” I rolled my eyes. “But you’re mortal at the moment. You’ve got mortal parts, right?” I looked pointedly down at his crotch.
He dropped a hand from the steering wheel to his lap as if to hide his manly bits. “Of course I do.”
Leaning toward him, I looked closely at his face. “I don’t believe it. You’re blushing.”
“Look, there’s a truck stop. Hungry? Need to use the facilities?”
“Sure,” I said, settling back in my seat again. “I could eat and take a pee. Don’t you have to pee?”
“No.”
I jutted my chin toward the hand that covered his package. “Then what good is that?”
“It’s plenty good, I assure you.” He turned the wheel a bit too sharply and I slid across the seat. I nearly landed on top of him.
I moved over to hug the door on my side.
“Sorry about that,” Rafe said, and a shadow of a grin touched his lips. He wasn’t sorry at all. He’d done that on purpose. “Don’t pout. It’s unbecoming for a knight.”
“I’m not pouting.” Crossing my arms firmly against my chest, I sat up straight and looked longingly at the coffee shop ahead. Hungrier than I thought, I wondered if it was morning or afternoon. I’d completely lost track of time. “Waffles. No, make that French toast. Two eggs over easy and order me extra bacon.” He parked the Escalade and I hopped out to make a beeline for the restrooms. “Thanks, Rafe. You’re an angel.”
I gave myself a whore’s bath in the restroom sink, using generous amounts of hand soap in the process. The hand dryer was an awkward way to dry off, but I was used to it. I’d done this countless times on the road during my thieving days so I was no stranger to prancing around a public bathroom in the buff. Luckily no one came in while I indulged in my trucker’s toilette.
Moderately refreshed, I got dressed and strode inside the restaurant to find Rafe. He sat in a booth looking worse than dejected. He looked lost.
“Hey,” I said softly, sensing something was wrong. I slid onto the bench seat across from him. “You okay?”
He blinked at me. “I just received a message.”
I cocked my head. “Yeah? Who from?”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple making a deep bob in his human throat. “The Arelim. It’s bad news.”
My heart sank into my stomach. Rafe had a telepathic link with his angelic brothers, who were never chatty without good reason. An angel with bad news always meant trouble. I waited for him to tell me what it was.
“Your sister knights,” he said slowly, his human eyes shining brighter than they should. He closed them and his hands curled into fists on the table. “Almost all of them are dead.”
four
“WHAT? No!” I STOOD UP AND NEARLY TOPPLED the table. I’d waited so long, struggled so hard to finally join my sisters in the knighthood. My mission was to train them in self-protection. I refused to believe it was too late. “It must be a mistake.”
Rafe gazed down at his fists and shook his head. “No mistake,” he whispered. “It happened a few hours ago. I was just told that those who didn’t perish were either out of the country, in a warded area, or on sacred ground. That’s the only common link the Arelim have found.”
I blinked over dry eyes that stung from the effort to control my sensitive vision. This news was too distracting. Lights became too bright, I saw people’s auras spike with the colors of their emotions, and smells from the kitchen roiled what little I had in my stomach. I no longer had an appetite.
“How?” I asked.
“Suffocation.” Rafe leaned back in the booth seat, his handsome face looking haggard, as if defeated. Angel or not, the dark circles under his eyes were proof he needed sleep. “How they suffocated is unclear, but it happened as they slept.”
It was mildly comforting to know they hadn’t suffered. I grieved for Shojin and now I added my sisters to what seemed to be a growing list. I hoped this wasn’t a sign of more to come. “What killed them?”
“Unknown, but the cause appears unnatural,” he said. “And by that I mean supernatural.”
That didn’t surprise me considering each knight had a supernatural ability of her own. “Magic?”
Narrowing his eyes, Rafe said, “Not exactly. The Arelim detected no spells, charms or curses.”
“Yet they weren’t strangled or smothered?”
He shook his head. “It’s as if their breath was snatched right out of their lungs.”
Now I was really puzzled. “What could do that? A demon?”
“Possibly.” He gave me a long look. “Or another knight.”
Wow. “Don’t tell me my sisters are prone to killing each other.”
“It’s been known to happen in the past, but that was hundreds of years ago. The motive had always been jealousy, usually of another knight’s abilities, or if her guardian angel chose to become human after mating. It’s very rare within the order to have an angel for a husband.”
Yet my grandmother had wedded her guardian after my mother was conceived. Had her sisters been jealous? Was her life ever threatened? There was so much I still didn’t know. “Are the surviving knights under suspicion?”
“No one is above suspicion, Chalice. Not even you.”
“Me?” That surprised me. “Impossible. I’ve been with you this whole time.”
“Perhaps it was someone you know.” His eyes became hard. “Someone who can enter a body and make it do whatever he wants.”
He was talking about Aydin. Even though he had that ability, Aydin would never use it to harm a living soul. Just because gargoyles were assassins for the Vyantara didn’t automatically make him one. “I know who you’re talking about and he’s not like that.” I felt my ire heating up. “What reason could he possibly have to hurt my sisters?”
Rafe shrugged. “He’s a beast of darkness now. Who knows what he would do, or why.”
I glared at him. “You’re wrong. Aydin took a vow to Saint Geraldine that he would protect the Hatchets. He’d never go back on his word.” Saint Geraldine was one of the very first knights in the order, but she was a mummy now. Or at least her head was a mummy. Suffice to say she still lived despite existing over nine hundred years without the rest of her body.
Rafe blew a blast of air out his nose. “How can you be so sure? You hardly even know each other.”
“I know him better than I know you.”
He looked stunned for a second, but quickly recovered. His eyes hooded as if he were bored. Though we hadn’t ordered anything, Rafe threw a couple of bills on the table and stood. “Let’s not keep your grandmother waiting longer than she already has. She needs you. And you need her.”
What I really needed was to be away from Rafe for a while. He’d been wearing on my nerves ever since we left Quebec and after seeing his hostile attitude toward Aydin, I’d rather be alone. Rafe’s ego was big enough to fill a small planet.
We finished our drive to Golden, Colorado, in awkward silence. I was angry and Rafe was…who knew what. Angels were hard to read. He appeared deep in thought, but he also seemed to be sulking.
The long, snow-packed driveway leading to my grandmother’s home had tall pines on either side that sparkled with frost. It looked like a fairy winter wonderland.
Rafe stopped the car. “We’re here.”
My g
aze wandered over the majestic ponderosas and skeletal aspens that had lost all their leaves. No house in sight. “We are? I don’t see anything but trees and a few big rocks.”
He opened the car door and stepped out, his boots squeaking on the snowy ground. “That’s because it’s protected by a privacy ward.” His hand waved through empty space and like a mirage, the air rippled and gradually formed the image of a house.
No ordinary house, its size made it more like a mansion. Yet it still looked like a classic mountain home of exposed cedar logs and natural stones set into the walls. Awesome.
“Wow,” was all I could say.
“After you,” Rafe said, making a slight bow.
I stepped gingerly over the invisible barrier between the seen and unseen. A massive door on the front porch opened and out walked a woman who could have been my mother’s twin. On closer inspection I saw she was much older, with gray streaks running through her wavy ebony hair, and her frame was more generous than my mother’s had been. My grandmother had meat on her bones.
“Rafael!” she called to angel-man beside me. “And oh, dear lord! Is this our Chalice?”
I felt my cheeks grow hot.
“Yes, Aurora. It sure is,” Rafe said, a genuine smile in his voice. He liked her, I could tell.
“She’s the mirror image of Felicia, rest her soul.” My grandmother pranced down the steps, her breath steaming in the icy air. She hugged a thick wool cardigan closed against her chest and the knitted muffler at her neck trailed behind her. As she came nearer I got a good look at her eyes. Turquoise and gold. Just like mine.
Smiling, she stopped about a foot from me and opened her arms. I knew she expected a hug, but I wasn’t a hugger. I made only one exception, but getting to hug Aydin wouldn’t happen for a while. For my grandmother I compromised, leaning forward to touch my cheek to hers. She smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.
Eyes twinkling, she seemed satisfied with that. “Chalice, I’m so happy you’ve come.”
I was about to say how glad I was to be here when an enormous figure appeared at my grandmother’s back.
“So this is the granddaughter I’ve heard so much about.” The man stood slightly taller than Rafe in his human form, and his hair was black as Aurora’s. He looked mature, but it was hard to tell his age since there wasn’t a speck of gray in his hair. Signs of years gone by and exposure to the elements creased his handsome face. This must be my grandfather.
“Zeke, say hello to Chalice,” my grandmother said.
“Hi, sweetheart,” he said to me, a grin tweaking the corners of his mouth. It made me feel like a little girl again. As happy as I was to finally meet my grandmother, my heart swelled at seeing my grandfather. I knew the sacrifice he’d made. He’d been an angel before deciding to become human just so he could marry the woman he loved and be a father to his child. His courage and commitment took my breath away.
“Honey, are you all right?” My grandmother placed a hand gently on my shoulder.
I blinked and sniffed, then rubbed my nose. “I’m fine. Just cold. Can I get a tissue, please?”
Eyes wide, she said, “Of course! Grab that angel of yours and let’s get you two inside to warm up.”
Rafe drew to my side and I jumped ahead before he could touch me. I wanted nothing to do with him right now.
“Welcome to Halo Home,” Zeke said.
I stood at the entrance and stared, wide-eyed, at the vast interior of the first floor. The foyer opened out into the living room, which opened to the dining room, which opened to the kitchen. One great room with a giant round fireplace in its center. This house was way too large for only two people.
Aurora nodded. “I know what you’re thinking. Yes, it’s too big for Zeke and me, which is why we have other Hatchet knights live here with us. This house has become something of a sanctuary over the years, mostly for new knights in training.”
I nodded, though I was puzzled by something Aydin once told me. “I thought it was too dangerous for the knights to live together. Made them vulnerable.”
Rafe studied my face. “Turns out it was more dangerous for them not to.”
My grandmother lifted both eyebrows in agreement. “It’s true that keeping the knights together can make them a target for black veil crackpots.” She shook her head. “Young knights come to us as orphans from time to time and we care for them until they’re ready to go out on their own. It’s a sad but necessary part of being a Hatchet knight. We’re prone to losing the people we’re close to.”
I’d been an orphan too, except I’d had no one to help me but a monastery of monks in Lebanon before I was kidnapped by the leader of the Vyantara.
She tipped her head to one side and said, “Follow me to the kitchen, Chalice. You can help me finish making cookies.” She frowned at the two men and made a shooing motion with her hands. “I’m sure these two can find something to do with themselves.”
Zeke rolled his eyes. “Sure, steal our grandchild so you can have her all to yourself. When is it my turn?”
“When I say so.” She marched toward the other end of the house and I followed.
“I’m sorry to tell you this,” I told Aurora as I watched her tug cookie sheets from a lower cupboard, “but I can’t cook.”
She winked at me. “There’s nothing to it, honey. Have you ever mixed a spell?”
I thought about the summoning ritual I’d performed to bring my fallen angel father across. “Sort of.”
She set the pans on the counter and placed a large mixing bowl filled with dough beside them. “A pinch of this, a dash of that, stir it all together and presto. You’re a cook.”
It couldn’t be that easy.
She handed me a spoon. “Scoop up a teaspoon of batter and plop it on the cookie sheet. Keep doing that until the bowl is empty.”
I stuck my finger in the batter for a taste. Peanut butter. Yummy.
Aurora smacked my hand. “None of that now. You’re as bad as your mother was.”
Wiping my hand on a towel, I asked, “What was she like?”
“Your mother? Headstrong, fearless, determined. A lot like you, I suspect.” She dumped two cups of flour into a large mixing bow. “Felicia was an amazing woman. I wish you’d had a chance to know her.”
“Me, too.” But all I had was one photo. Aydin had rescued it from a fire and saved it for me. It was a precious gift I’d cherish forever.
“You’re very lucky, you know,” Aurora said as she cracked an egg on the side of the bowl. “I don’t know of anyone who’s ever survived the gargoyle’s curse with their humanity intact.”
“I’m guessing you know the whole story about what happened to me?”
“In great detail.”
Of course she knew. She must have her finger on the pulse of the entire Hatchet order no matter how scattered they were. I guessed that Rafe kept her well informed about everything having to do with me. Everything he knew, anyway.
“I also know about the newly made gargoyle who used to be your friend.”
“Aydin is still my friend.” The flutter in my belly reminded me how my feelings ran deeper than mere friendship. “He may look different on the outside, but he’s the same man on the inside.”
My grandmother made a huffing noise. “Don’t be so sure.”
Her too? I plopped a glob of dough onto the pan. “You sound like Rafe.”
She looked at me and arched both her eyebrows. “Oh yes, you gave Raphael a nickname.” She chuckled. “Rafe. It suits him.”
I dug the spoon into the bowl. “I don’t get how he can be so judgy,” I said, then clamped my mouth shut before I could accuse her of being the same. We were just getting to know each other and I wanted her to like me. “I thought angels were supposed to be open-minded.”
“He worries about you, Chalice.”
I frowned, unused to anyone worrying about me unless they had an ulterior motive. It made me wonder if Rafe had one, too. “He’s a bit late, don’t you think
?”
“Don’t be so hard on him. Your enslavement by the Vyantara wasn’t his fault.” Her voice sounded soft, but I heard the steel underneath.
“I’ve been on my own for a long time, Aurora. I know what’s best for me.”
She shrugged. “Maybe you do, but you have us now. Isn’t it time to let those who care about you into your life?”
I looked at her. “I’ve done that. Aydin cares about me. He saved my life.”
Aurora’s chest heaved with a sigh. “Okay, I’ll give you that. We would have lost you if not for him.”
Nodding, I said, “Exactly my point. Aydin’s a good man.”
“But he’s not a man anymore. And that’s my point.”
“Rafe isn’t a man, either.”
“Touché.” She scooped a glob of peanut butter out of a jar and dropped it in the bowl she was stirring. “But he could be. It’s what he wants.”
I blinked. “The only way that can happen is if…”
My grandmother gave me a hard look. “Your grandfather and I have been happy together for over fifty years. He was a wonderful guardian angel, and he’s an equally wonderful man.”
My skin heated at the thought of Rafe and I doing the wild thing. I didn’t think of him that way and it wouldn’t be right. It was hard enough being friends with the guy. He was more like an overprotective big brother than anything else.
I rapidly dropped more dollops of dough onto the pan. “He and I don’t really know each other.”
“That will change with time.”
“He’s not my type.”
“You two are more alike than you think.”
This conversation was making me more uncomfortable by the second. “Don’t get your hopes up. I have other plans.”
She folded her arms across her chest and waited for me to go on.
“Aydin won’t be a gargoyle much longer.”
Her expression softened when she said, “Honey, I know it’s hard to accept, but once humans have transformed—”
“They can become human again by eating the heart of their bonded gargoyle.”
Her eyes squinted in thought. “That old myth? Chalice, you’d have to kill a gargoyle to take its heart. The creature would turn to stone so fast you’d never get hold of it in time.”