Most wore nice clothing—they were moneyed. They all looked clean. Of course Rose did a thorough background check and blood tests. Everything was checked and rechecked before they were even allowed onto the bus. Still my beast seethed. My skin tightened, and I felt the Gryphon press outward. They weren’t good enough for Gretchen.
None of them deserved to even lay eyes on her.
In Rose’s opinion, neither did I.
“I never thought I’d disagree with Rose. Or the plan to—”
“Get us home?”
I dragged in a deep breath. “Yes.”
“We’ve supported her a hundred percent since we joined this crazy caravan of supernaturals in the tenth century.”
“I know.”
“We wandered before that, never able to stay anywhere longer than a decade or so.” Jared’s voice held a tone of trepidation. “Should I plan to leave?”
He would leave for me. Abandon everything we’d both grown to love here. I couldn’t ask him to do that. I didn’t want to do it, either. “I don’t want to leave.” The answer was honest. Sanctuary was home. The citizens were family. Most of us had been together since Rose had helped the city of Genoa rebuild after it’d burned. It’d been a place we’d been safe from questions, thanks to the vampire Protectors influencing the townspeople by the droves. They were able to keep women from wondering why we never married and men from wondering why we didn’t age.
We stayed in Genoa until the 17th century when the French-Savoian army unsuccessfully invaded. Though they didn’t take the city down, the plague soon followed, and the House of Lamidae lost nearly half the Sisters before we could flee the city. None of us were susceptible, but the Sisters were…human.
“She’s human.” I whispered the words, realizing the significance of that fact for the very first time. I’d lose her so quickly.
“I know,” Jared answered. “And I know I called you crazy from the start, but if she’s your mate, you’ll never forgive yourself for letting her go.”
“I want to rip their faces off.” I curled my fingers into my palms, breathing deeply, willing the talons sprouting from my fingertips to recede. Warmth bathed my hand and I lifted them, opening my bloodied palms to the sky. The wounds healed within moments, but the blood remained. The reminder of what I was. The reminder of the beast I lived with day in and day out, that I knew almost nothing about.
“Removing faces would be a mistake.” Jared knocked shoulders with me. “Come on, I need you to go make rounds with me. After that last attack, I’ve started bringing food to the Batemans.” He held up a burlap grocery bag from Bella’s market. “Those two girls don’t eat enough. The spell they’ve created with their dad to encompass the town is slowly wearing them down. I know they’ve told Rose they can keep it up, but I have my doubts.”
I glanced toward my friend and nodded. Anything to distract my mind from the dark twisted thoughts about brutally murdering a bus full of horny human males was welcome. “What about Harrison? He doing okay with the stress?”
Shake it off, Alek. It’s her choice. Not yours.
Jared shrugged. We walked down sidewalk and turned off on a small side road. The Bateman’s house was just a few blocks down. I shifted my eyesight, allowing my beast’s supernatural sight to take full control. The magick pouring out of the Bateman house was invisible without supernatural aid, but even without looking, I could feel the waves of power. Amazing what three witches could do. The magick billowed upward from the small house, enveloping the town in an iridescent bubble of magick.
I stopped behind Jared on the porch. He knocked on the door, and Meredith Bateman answered it. Her naturally red hair, usually bright and curly, was dark and twisted sharply back and secured with a pin. Her alabaster skin was yellowish, and dark circles shadowed her tired eyes. Eyes that always had a smile for everyone. Not today. Today she looked like she was doing her best just to be alive.
“Meredith, Bella packed your favorites. She insisted you consume some of the chocolate promptly and in front of me.”
Something akin to a smile attempted to tug at the corners of Meredith’s mouth. “You guys don’t have to fuss so much.”
“Sweetheart, if your sister looks anything like you do, we need to fuss over you more. When was the last time your father pulled a shift?” Jared pulled a small gold box from the bag and opened it. “Eat. Now.”
She gave a half-hearted snort of protest, but followed orders anyway, taking a piece of the semi-glowing, pixie-dust-infused treat and popping it into her mouth. The moan that slipped from her throat the next second made Jared blush and my own face heat just slightly.
“By the Mother, that is the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten.” She swiped two more from the box, consuming them quickly. “Where does she keep these in the store?”
Jared smiled at the now-radiant Meredith. Her skin was bright. The circles were gone, and her eyes sparkled with energy again. Even her hair glistened with health.
“They were a special order, just for you and your sister.”
“Well, please thank her for me when you leave. Come on in.” She waved over her shoulder, beckoning us to follow her inside.
The house was dark and smelled like burnt herbs and spices. I wrinkled my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth.
“It keeps us focused. We trade every three hours. Used to be four or five, but we can’t take it for that long anymore. Dad takes a shift anytime he’s here. In fact,” she glanced at the old grandfather clock against the wall, “he should be here any minute. He can still handle the magick field for eight hours straight. Then we both get a shower and some sleep.”
Meredith led us down another hallway and into a small bedroom lit with only a circle of candles. The windows had been boarded up and all the furniture had been removed. The eight-pointed star of Ishtar had been drawn on the hardwood floors in white chalk. A ring of lit candles created the circle around the points. Hannah sat cross-legged in the center of the star. Her eyes were open, but they were white and absent. Words I didn’t understand spilled in whispers from her mouth. A certain string over and over, repeated like a drone—no emotion, no consciousness.
Her skin, even in the dim light, was sallow like Meredith’s had been. “You can’t keep this going much longer, can you?” Even with pixie-dust aiding their energy, there was no way Rose could expect them to keep this up. Maybe a day or two more. Maybe.
“Probably not, Dad will help while he’s here for the weekend. Maybe if he stayed, but Rose has him traveling a long way now to find…people.” Meredith stepped over the candle ring into the circle and sat down with her back to her sister’s back. “She’ll wake up in a few minutes. Please wait for her before you leave. She needs some of that chocolate, too.”
Jared nodded. “Of course.”
Meredith started the chant, and moments later, her eyes turned white and she ceased to be present. We waited. Minutes ticked by and still Hannah hadn’t budged. Her eyes were still wide open and as white as snow on a mountaintop. She wasn’t chanting anymore, just listing back and forth, like her body was in sync with some sort of music only she could hear.
I nudged Jared toward the circle. “It’s been longer than she said.”
“I’m not stepping in there. What if I do something wrong?”
“Hannah. Meredith.” A deep bass voice boomed from the front of the house. Footsteps thumped as their father made his way to the bedroom where we stood waiting for Hannah to wake up or snap out of it or something.
“What are you two doing here?” Bateman crossed his arms and gave us the body glance, like he was sizing up a couple of teenage boys who wanted to take his daughters to a dance.
Jared held up the bag from Bella, deflecting Harrison’s attention from me. “Bella sent energy chocolate and a few other things for them.”
“I meant why are you back here?” Bateman’s voice deepened further, laced with the protective I’m-their-father-and-you-have-no-business-in-their-bedroom ton
e.
“First off, I’m not a kid so don’t treat me like one. Second of all, Meredith asked us to wait for Hannah to wake up.” My tone was angrier than it should’ve been with a concerned father, but my taking-shit meter was full-up today. Jared gave me a worried glance then turned his attention back to the pissed-off daddy-witch.
“He just meant we were checking on the girls. Bella sends food and stuff to make sure they are getting enough to eat and—”
“You can leave now. I’ll take care of anything my daughters need.”
Jared nodded, putting the grocery bag on the floor next to the wall. “Not a problem, Mr. Bateman.”
We backtracked and left faster than I would’ve liked. Something had Harrison Bateman in a bind, but we didn’t have a beef with the witch and we needed them to protect the town.
“I wonder if the barrier is weaker when they change shifts?” Jared said, turning off the sidewalk toward Main Street Circle. “The attacks are coming more often now. Riley said they’ve tracked multiple Lycan/Djinn teams moving through the town over the last few days.”
“So that last attack wasn’t an isolated incident?”
Jared shook his head.
“Why aren’t people telling me things?”
“Because you’re huge and grumpy and I’m telling you now. After seeing Meredith and Hannah, I don’t think the barrier is as strong as it used to be. And—”
“And you think when they switch it’s letting them in?”
He nodded, a solemn look casting a shadow of concern across his face. “I think if they figure out there’s a pattern to the weakness, we are in deep shit.”
“That’s assuming they haven’t already.”
“True.”
“At least Harrison will be on guard for the next eight hours or so. Meredith said he took over when he was in town. That’ll break up the three hour routine the girls were keeping.”
“You go talk to Riley and the other Lycans for an update. I’ll meet with Rose.”
Worked for me. Rose was the last person I wanted to converse with at the moment. I veered off the sidewalk and headed the back way to Riley’s bar.
Chapter 16
GRETCHEN
My heart pounded in my chest. The large living space held the fifteen of us who weren’t pregnant yet. Only five of the Sisters were pregnant right now, and most of them were close to delivery. The rest of the group had been struggling, even several of the Sister’s who’d had children a couple years ago hadn’t been able to get pregnant again. There was talk of infertility, but no one had determined a cause or a problem. The pixies had done whole-body healings time and again… There was no explanation, at least none that had yet been found.
Until there were more babies, the visions Astrid had of the next Protector would continue to be unclear. She couldn’t see where he or she was. No face. Nothing to help lead the current Protectors to find him or her.
Babies. By the gods, I wanted a baby. My heart and soul longed to hold a bundle of my own in my arms. The men were here for just that reason. We yearned for children. I wasn’t any different, except that I wanted a child by the man I’d fallen hopelessly in love with. The man who’d left Miles Blackmoor’s office with pain in his eyes that I had felt in the depths of my soul.
I wanted him so profoundly I was actually considering sleeping with another man to achieve that goal. I scanned the line-up. Several of my sisters extended hands to old lovers, men they’d been sleeping with for years, though the men didn’t remember them. It was a strange, one-sided relationship my sisters’ had carved into their imaginations. I didn’t hold it against them. They were fulfilling their duty the only way they could. They’d made sense of something senseless.
Better than me. I’d turned away more men than I could count. Listened to more tongue-lashings than I cared to remember. And now…today…I was going to change everything.
I walked up to a slender middle-aged man with hungry eyes. He noticed me immediately, and a lecherous grin formed on his face. My stomach dropped to my feet, and I felt dirty and disgusted with myself all in the same breath. What was I doing?
This is the sacrifice I have to make. It’s the only way to be with Alek. Except I worried that he wouldn’t forgive me. That he wouldn’t look at me the same way. It was either this or never see him again, Rose had made her ultimatum quite clear.
Several of the Sisters near me were staring, not that I blamed them. I’d been sick or missing from every joining since I’d had my first menstruation. Whispers filled the space, and I quickly extended my hand.
He wasn’t ugly. His face was nicely proportioned, and his salt and pepper hair was trimmed neatly beneath a bowler hat. His clothing was fine wool and smelled of cigar smoke. He was vintage wine, and I was a freshly brewed pot of iced tea.
“Please won’t you join me?” My words were forced and clipped. I pasted on a fake smile, and he took my offered hand. His touch sent an uncomfortable thread of angst through my body.
I wanted Alek to be my first. To be my only.
You can do this. It will be worth it in the end. I kept repeating the mantra as I led him to my chambers, all the while dying on the inside. He was going to see me naked. His body would be in my bed. I’d never be able to forget…any of this.
“You are a gem. May I ask your name? I’m Larson. I know I won’t remember you after I leave, but I feel like you should at least know whose name to scream when I make you come until you can’t move tonight.”
Air froze in my lungs, but I forced myself to keep walking. To not scream and flail and take flight from that spot. I wanted to leave him standing in the hallway and disappear into the bowels of the castle.
They’d never find me. Not in time to guilt me into doing anything. It’d worked for years. It would work again, but then…I’d be making Alek wait and wonder longer. I’d be drawing out my own torture. It was better to get it over with right now.
“I-I’m Gretchen.”
“Beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”
That sick feeling returned, creeping up from the floor, around my legs, and up my spine until I wanted to hurl. It squeezed and squeezed, determined to rid my body of anything I’d eaten today. I sucked in a quick breath through my mouth, trying to ward off the gagging reflex hard at work in the back of my throat. If I didn’t sleep with—Larson—it would just be someone else the next weekend. And then again and again. Possibly months until I conceived. Oh, gods! I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this.
I pressed my eyes shut and paused. He didn’t push or pull. Just stood there, waiting patiently, like the gentleman he was dressed to appear. But a man who led a first interaction talking about making me scream his name was far from a gentleman.
“Are you well?”
I could say no. All I had to say was no and this whole charade was done, finished, at least for this weekend, but it wouldn’t solve my problem. It wouldn’t get me what my heart truly desired.
Only sex with a stranger would do that.
Fuck you, Rose.
“I’m good,” I said, making sure my voice was soft and sweet. I gestured toward my door, and he released my arm and opened the door for me. I walked through and stepped to the left, wrapping my fingers around the iron candlestick on my desk. “Please close and lock the door behind you.”
He closed the door and looked away for just a moment to turn the latch on the deadbolt. In that moment, I swung. The metal thudded against the back of his head, and I closed my eyes. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. I hadn’t hit him that hard, but he dropped to the floor with a thump like a sack of potatoes.
I opened my eyes and jumped away from his sprawled figure. The candlestick in my hand didn’t have any blood on it. Thank the gods. I set it on my desk and knelt, reaching my hand over his nose and mouth. Warm breath moistened my palm. He was breathing. A quick nudge of his shoulder with my foot said he wasn’t waking up anytime soon.
I made short work
of undressing him and discarded my own dress, pulling on his pants and dress shirt and jacket. I twisted my hair into a tight bun on top of my head and pushed the bowler into place. Granted I didn’t look anything like him, but I certainly didn’t look like myself at first glance, either. And most of the Sisters would be locked away in their rooms by now. No one would be patrolling the halls.
At least I hoped they wouldn’t.
His shoes wouldn’t fit. My feet would clomp about in those like a toddler playing dress-up with her mother’s shoes. I’d have to risk it. At least barefoot, I’d be able to move quieter on the stone floors.
I pushed him out of the way of the door and then turned the deadbolt to unlatch it. Turning the doorknob slowly, I inched it open until I could peer through a crack into the dimly lit hallway. No one. Not a sound echoed. I opened the door all the way and slipped out, my shoulders tense and my jaw locked—waiting for someone to call out my name and end this desperate attempt at freedom.
But it didn’t come.
I walked slowly down the hallway on my tiptoes, barely breathing for fear that I would make enough noise to be noticed. The dragons could hear everything. Every pin that dropped in this maze of stone somehow made its way to their ears. Male laughter rumbled down the hallway, and I pressed my body into an alcove, praying they would pass by and not turn toward me.
“I can’t believe she actually picked a man. We’ve been trying to get her to participate in the joinings for a decade.”
“Well, I can’t imagine spending the night with anyone but you. Hopefully, your friend made a wise choice.”
“You’re sweet for saying that, even though I know you don’t remember me, but that’s why I always choose you, Rawlins.” The female voice carried on. “Oh, and she did make a good choice. Karen has slept with that gentleman before. According to her, she’s never had better orgasms. Gretchen should be in for a treat.”
My Guardian Gryphon (Sanctuary, Texas Book 5) Page 13