by A C Warneke
“No,” Armand bit out, his green eyes blazing with frozen fire.
“Ambrosia?” Rhys asked, the excitement in his voice and the hope in his eyes snapping Jenna out of her stupor.
“She’ll know what I’m talking about,” Omari giggled, which was slightly disturbing. Most men didn’t giggle for fear of losing their man card and yet this strange man turned male giggling into an art form. Clapping his hands together in private delight, he continued, “Your mother has to believe that the two of you are wildly in love but Jenna is reluctant to perform the ritual. Tell her you need another option, something that will give you… time.”
“What does this have to do with Vaughn?” Rhys asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
Omari didn’t answer the question as he stood up and held his arms out to the side, once again giving Jenna the impression that he was very powerful and much, much older than she could possibly imagine. “The two of you will go on a… quest and Vaughn will be restored to us. Well, that was already a given since he would be released from the curse whence Melanie passes into the next life.” Waving his hand through the air, dismissing the callous words with a wave, he added, “You will take your trip and get to know one another on a much more intimate level and Vaughn will be restored to Melanie.”
He yammered on some more but Jenna was lost within moments as he talked about Greece and Vaughn. Greece? “Greece? You want me to drop everything and go to Greece?”
Omari abruptly stopped talking – Jenna hadn’t even realized she had interrupted him with her question – and looked at her as if she were mad. He was the mad one. “Yes, Greece. Now pay attention.”
Numbly, she tried to follow along and eventually he managed to convince her that going to Greece on the spur of the moment was the good and prudent thing to do, that Ferris would be well provided for and if she ever wanted to find peace it was something she had to do.
By the end of Omari’s lecture, Jenna was almost positive it had been her idea to begin with.
Chapter 7
After the decision was made to go on the bizarre quest, Jenna was finally allowed in to see Melanie and the sight that had greeted her eyes made her gasp in shocked disbelief. Her sister had no injuries! She was completely healed and in no way resembled the bloodied and broken girl in the photograph that had caused Jenna’s mad dash to the city. Still, Lenni had lost too much weight and her bones were protruding outwards, just beneath her skin, and it was not a good look on her.
Dragging her sister out of the cool shower, she managed to get a towel wrapped around Lenni’s skinny body and set her on a chair so she could brush her sister’s damp hair. “You’ve been keeping a lot of secrets from me, Melanie.”
Her sister gave her a sheepish look as she tried to explain but her words were disjointed and broken until Jenna told her that there may be a way to get Vaughn back. Melanie immediately perked up at that, begging to be allowed to go with. Jenna was on the verge of giving in when Rhys appeared, denying the possibility before Melanie could get her hopes up.
Standing in the doorway he looked so incredibly handsome and Jenna had to fight the urge to throw herself into his arms. After all, he had promised that the next time he had her in his arms he was going to make love to her. It wasn’t the appropriate time but she knew that they would be consummating their relationship as soon as the plane took off.
After a few minutes of discussing the upcoming journey, Rhys let out an exclamation and dug in his pocket, pulling out a chain with a pendant attached. With a sultry smile, he handed it to Jenna, “Omari asked me to give this to you. It’s a protection charm.”
Jenna had seen a similar charm around Lenni’s neck, the one that Ferris now wore. It was a disc with a greenish colored stone in the center and it looked ancient. Knowing what she now knew now she wondered if it were truly enchanted. Absently, she took it, sliding it around her neck as she drank in the sight of Rhys. When he touched the tip of his finger to the pendant, she sucked in a breath as electrical currents zapped along her skin. “Tell him I said, Thanks.”
“Will do,” he grinned, as reluctant to leave as she was to let him go but she had her sister to worry about. When Melanie made a slight sound of distress, he made his excuses and left but there was a heated promise in his eyes. Her heart smiled and it made it a joy to help her sister.
After she managed to get Melanie dressed and looking almost human, Melanie teased her about liking Rhys and being attracted to him while he was a gargoyle. Jenna stumbled backwards and sat down hard on the bed. She hadn’t put two and two together to come up with the fact that Rhys was the stone monkey she had admired all of those weeks ago. Or that he had seen her while she had been sunbathing topless on the roof. She fervently hoped that he couldn’t see when he was a gargoyle. And if he could….
Jenna’s cheeks went up in flames as she realized she had been in practically nothing because a skimpy pair of bikini bottoms hardly counted as a covering. But she had seen him naked, too. Granted, at the time he had been in his gargoyle form: a laughing monkey with a wide, toothy smile, large, protuberant ears, intricately carved stone wings, and a massive, muscular, anatomically correct, male physique. He had been gorgeous and very well hung.
Rhys was that gargoyle. She was stunned and oddly giddy.
“Melanie, you have to come home with me,” Jenna said softly, holding her sister’s eyes as they lay on Vaughn’s massive bed. “I freaked out when I saw you on the news and mom and dad are probably worried sick.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Melanie protested in a small voice, as if staying close to Vaughn would bring him back sooner.
“I know, sweetie,” Jenna crooned, stroking her fingers through Melanie’s long, dark hair, gently kissing the crown of her head. “It’ll just be for a few days and then you can come back.”
Melanie looked at her with wide, sorrow-filled, blue eyes and Jenna would have promised her anything to get the desolation out of those eyes. “Promise?”
“Of course.” But her heart pounded against her ribs. How could she leave her sister alone when the love of her life was frozen in stone? How could she not when the trip could mean bringing him back? Standing up, she pulled Melanie to her feet and offered her a trembling smile, “Now, let’s go home so you can help me pack because the sooner I leave the sooner Vaughn will be back.”
Melanie threw her arms around Jenna then, hugging her for all she was worth. “Thank you, Jenna. This means the world to me.”
“I know,” Jenna kissed her sister’s cheek as she returned the hug with the same desperation that Melanie felt.
When they were in the car, she wanted to erase the forsaken expression on her sister’s face so she murmured, “It must have driven you nuts not to be able to tell me that you had been right all along.”
At Melanie’s blank expression, Jenna chuckled, “About magic and dragons and gargoyles. You were right.”
She blushed and caught her lower lip between her teeth, gnawing on the tender flesh as she admitted, “There were so many times that I wanted to tell you something, about Vaughn, about the castle, but my tongue always got tangled up.”
Jenna laughed out loud, “That’s a first. You’re tongue never gets tied up.”
“I know,” Melanie even managed a small smile. “I kept asking Vaughn all of these questions, trying to figure out what he was, and he simply couldn’t tell me – even when I guessed outright what he was! Can you imagine being so close to discovering a huge secret and being denied? It was awful!”
Jenna laughed, easily imagining how hard it would have been, especially for someone like Melanie, who had never stopped believing. Glancing at her sister out of the corner of her eyes, catching the dreamy smile on Lenni’s lips, she knew she would go to the ends of the earth for her and she was very happy to do so.
“It was so frustrating not being able to share everything with you but I guess that’s how the powers that be keep their secrets secret,” Melanie continued. “I didn�
�t even know Vaughn was a gargoyle until he caught me when I fell from my balcony.”
The car almost flew off the road as Jenna’s hands jerked at that announcement. Straightening the wheels, her heart jack knifing in her chest, she glared at her sister, “What?”
Melanie worried her lower lip some more, averting her gaze as she mumbled something about imps and Peter and the necklace around her neck. “But everything turned out all right, nothing actually happened.”
“Jesus, Lenni,” Jenna growled, concentrating extra hard on her driving now that her hands were shaking slightly.
“I’m okay.” Melanie reached over and put her finger over the medallion around Jenna’s neck, “You have to be sure to keep this on at all times, Jen. It saved my life.”
Jenna glanced over and looked at Melanie’s neck, to the necklace that was no longer there. Lenni blushed, putting her fingers to her throat, “I gave my necklace to Ferris to keep her safe. I am under the protection of a gargoyle now.”
“It’s been a very eventful year for you,” Jenna deadpanned, still freaking out about how close she had come to losing Melanie and not even knowing about it. She had to remind herself that Lenni was all right, that she was protected by a gargoyle and she was all right.
“You have no idea,” Melanie blurted.
After a weighted silence, Jenna hesitantly asked, “Does it bother you that the fates, or whatever, aren’t putting me through all of these trials to discover their secrets?”
“Gosh, no,” Melanie gushed in all honesty. “It is such a huge relief to be able to talk to you about all of this. From the very beginning I have wanted you to know.”
“And why is that?” Jenna asked, unable to keep the smile off her face.
“Duh,” Lenni snorted. “You and Rhys are perfect together. You are going to love having sex with a gargoyle.”
“Lenni!” Jenna gasped, not truly scandalized by her sister’s candor but it was still a little embarrassing. She hadn’t even had sex with Rhys yet and Melanie had been acting like it was a forgone conclusion for weeks. An awful thought crowded out the excitement and she narrowed her eyes as she looked at her sister, her innocent sister who acted without thinking. “Did you put Rhys up to this, Len?”
“What do you mean?”
Licking her lips, Jenna lowered her voice, not wanting to say the words out lout, “Did you put him up to flirting with me? To making me feel… desirable?”
Melanie stared at her for a long moment before she burst out laughing, the sound wonderful and frustrating. “I can’t make that man do anything he doesn’t want to do. I simply knew that the two of you would be perfect together and wanted you guys to have a chance. I never asked him to seduce you.”
Jenna took comfort in her sister’s words, knowing that whatever was between her and Rhys was genuine and she could go into it with her eyes wide open. “All right, then.”
As they pulled up in front of their parents’ house, the door opened up and their mom and dad, Jenner and Ferris all spilled out, their arms wrapped around each other, their eyes wide in their pale faces. Jenna smirked, “They’re worried.”
“Yes,” Melanie whispered, her voice barely audible. Jenna turned her head and saw the horror and dread on Melanie’s face. “What was I thinking, Jenna? It never even occurred to me to call home and let all of you know I was all right.”
Jenna took her sister’s hand, squeezing it in reassurance, “We understand, Lenni. So long as you’re safe now that’s all that matters.”
Gulping, Melanie gave a tremulous smile before opening the door and stepping out. Jenna heard her mother’s low yelp of relief as everyone crowded in on Melanie and took the wayward girl in their arms and led the group back inside. Laughing uneasily, Melanie returned the hugs, saying, “It wasn’t me, guys, obviously it wasn’t me. I’m just so sorry that you had to go through all of that.”
“Why didn’t you call?” her father asked, draping an arm around Melanie’s shoulders as the small group returned to the warmth of the house.
“I am sorry,” Melanie apologized again, truly contrite. “I guess when I’m with Vaughn I lose track of everything else. Forgive me.”
“Of course,” Jenner grunted, kissing the top of Melanie’s head.
“Where is Vaughn?” their mother asked, looking towards the door as if the six foot four man had followed them in without anyone else being aware.
Jenna caught the look of panic in Melanie’s eyes and she stepped forward, “He had a business trip but he’ll be home soon.” Melanie mouthed the words thank you and Jenna felt good for being able to offer some small measure of help. Clearing her throat, she added, “Speaking of trips….”
Chapter 8
A few days later Jenna sat in the Nosuntres’s private jet headed for London, awed by the luxurious interior and feeling so far out of her depths as to be ridiculous. Not only was Rhys incredibly sexy with a somewhat twisted sense of humor that she appreciated, he was also insanely wealthy, which would have been intimidating if Rhys had been anything less than wonderful.
The interior of the plane reeked of refinement and taste, all plush leather and hard wood, and it was spacious, comfortably seating ten people. Because the sun had barely set, she was currently the only passenger, waiting for Rhys to appear so they could take off. As it was, the jet had been idling for the last twenty minutes and she was eager to be on her way, no matter how much she already missed Ferris.
She still couldn’t believe that she was on an enormous plane getting ready to head across the Atlantic Ocean on the way to Greece. The past week or so had been a whirlwind of activity and she hadn’t had time to think, to doubt. She hadn’t even seen Rhys since the night Omari convinced her to take this bizarre trip, even though they had talked every night on the phone. Talked and… other things.
But now that she was sitting in the sumptuous cabin waiting for Rhys to appear so they could take off, the thoughts that she tried desperately not to think were filling her head.
Knowing something to be true and accepting it were two very different things, of course, and Jenna found that she was having a few difficulties coming to terms with her new reality – it was all so fantastical. The Nosuntres brothers were gargoyles, the castle was a haven for supernatural creatures, and magic was real. Melanie had always known the truth but Jenna had not been able to believe because if magic was real why couldn’t someone have stepped in and saved Jeremy? Life would have been so different had he lived….
She had loved Jeremy so much she could never have imagined letting anyone else into her life. When he had been taken from her it had felt as if all of the lights had been turned off and she had to find her way in the darkness. She had grown used to the darkness but then Rhys came along and turned everything onto its head. The lights were blinding as he showed her another path and she was torn because she wanted Rhys with a passion she thought was dead. She feared that the more time she spent with Rhys the deeper the pit she would be digging. It would be so easy to fall in love with him.
There was a connection between them that was hard to explain and impossible to deny. Her last chance to walk away disappeared the moment she stepped foot into his apartment and he took her into his arms and told her everything was going to be okay.
They were moving too quickly, but she didn’t care. For the most part she was a reasonable, rational woman but Rhys short-circuited her brain. When she was near him, when she thought of him, her primitive side took over and she was a creature of lust. But it wasn’t just lust – lust alone would be easy to deal with – it was Rhys. How else to explain her brash decision to go on this absurd quest? The eagerness that blossomed within her as she looked forward to sharing his bed?
Her nights had been consumed with the desire to discover how Rhys’s human body compared to his gargoyle counterpart. She wanted to know how his body moved while he was making love, how his skin heated and how he tasted. She had imagined a hundred scenarios but her imagination only went so far.
Was his skin the same gold kissed color of his face and hands or was he pale? Did he have a hairy chest or a smooth chest? Was the hair on his body, between his thighs, auburn, or was it browner or perhaps even redder? Was he as proportionately well-endowed as the monkey gargoyle?
Her belly trembled with anticipation and she had had plenty of time to anticipate. The instant she realized that Melanie was all right, more than all right, her libido began clawing its way back out of the box she had put it in. Knowing that she was going to be spending the next couple of weeks with Rhys made her antsy and fidgety and so damn horny, as if her sex drive had been in a cocoon hibernating and it was suddenly as a giant beast. All of that expectation made her oddly nervous because she wasn’t sure what the protocol was when it came to initiating sex.
Before, it had been simple: she and Jeremy were on a camping trip with a bunch of friends. They drank a few too many beers and ended up sharing a sleeping bag. Sex had seemed like the most natural thing to do and so they did it, giggling and fumbling in the dark. And after that, they stole as many moments as they could, though with all of their activities and still being in school the moments were all too brief and far too few.
Occasionally they would have a date and once they'd risk discovery to have a quickie in the back of his car in the school parking lot. Sometimes she invited him up to her room while her parents were out of town, blushing as he learned her body, as she learned his. Everything was tentative and new and beautiful, two people who had given their virginity to the other.
But she wasn’t on a date with Rhys. She hadn’t known him half her life, wasn’t planning on marrying him, and she wasn’t tipsy. On top of all of that he wasn’t even human and he was a long way away from being a virgin. He had known some of the most exquisite creatures of mythology, had made love to some of them – hell, all of them for all she knew. How could a mere mortal even begin to compare?