by A C Warneke
Her lips curved upwards into a smile but her eyes were still troubled. Brushing his thumb over her lips, he kissed her forehead. “We’ll wait. But as soon as that bitch is in her place, you’re going to fucking bite me.”
Chapter 20
Staring up at the stars while staying within view of the mansion, holding Daisy in his arms, Roman smiled. In the three weeks since they moved into the Tremain’s pool house, he hadn’t seen Isis at all. Daisy was commuting back and forth to school, like she had been before, while he was working part time at The Black Wolf. He helped out during the day with the heavy lifting while Daisy was in class and he was a gargoyle and during the night he tended the bar. Since the bar brewed its own beers, it was an easy gig: getting whichever beer the customer ordered. He was making friends, especially with Dominic and Daisy’s uncles taking him under their wing. And he had Daisy.
It wasn’t the life he expected to have when he was living as a gargoyle with his brothers but it was a good life and he was content. No, he was more than content; he was happy. He was saving money, Mr. Tremain was working with him on investing, and someday he was going to be able to give Daisy the world.
A deafening howl shattered the peaceful night and Daisy was on instant alert, her forehead furrowing in dread as she sat up and whipped her head back and forth looking for the source. A chorus of similar howls followed and the hair on his arms stood on end. Sitting up next to her, keeping his voice down, he asked, “What is it?”
“Danger,” she whispered, tightening her hold on his hand as she shrank into his body. “I’ve never heard a wolf howl like that before.”
A sharp yelp followed by a heavy thud startled him and he knew without a shadow of doubt that Isis had found him, that he had brought danger to Daisy’s family. After a second yelp and then a third yelp followed by heavy thuds, he was sick with guilt and fury and absolute fear. He knew better than to let his guard down but it had been so peaceful. In the back of his mind, he figured Isis no longer needed him because he wasn’t what she wanted any longer. He should have known better. Thank the gods the little ones were still being kept close to the house.
“Dominic,” she breathed. In the next moment, Daisy had released his hand and was racing into the dense woods, trying to reach her fallen sibling. It would have to be Dominic. The wolf insisted on being allowed to patrol because he had a mate to protect and he was done being a fuck up. Roman should have insisted all of the Tremain children stay close to the house.
“Daisy!” he cried out. With no other choice, he took off after her, finding her a few seconds later on the ground next to a motionless wolf. Afraid of what he might find, he approached slowly, “Is he okay?”
She looked over her shoulder, tears shimmering in her eyes as she shook her head, “I don’t know.”
Running his tongue over his lip, afraid of the answer, he asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s Dominic,” she choked out, turning her attention back to her brother, running her fingers through his thick fur. “He isn’t changing back. If he was de… dead, he’d change back.”
“That’s good then, right?” he asked, kneeling on the ground next to them.
“I don’t know,” she cried again. “He’s not moving.”
Slowly, he placed his hand on Dominic’s throat and felt the slow, steady rhythm of a heartbeat. “I think he’s just asleep.”
“Then why isn’t he changing?” she asked, her voice wavering as she became frantic. She looked up at him with shiny, silver eyes and asked, “Can you find the others and bring them to the house?”
“I’m not going to leave you alone, Daisy. That’s just not going to happen,” he said, scanning the area, his heart racing madly in his chest. His fingers tingled but he ignored it, figuring it was the adrenaline pumping through his body.
“Please,” she begged, sliding her arms beneath the wolf’s shoulders and trying to drag him back to the house on her own. “Please, Roman.”
Pushing her aside, he grabbed the inert wolf and threw him over his shoulder, grunting at the weight. As a gargoyle, he should have had no problem carrying the large wolf but he was struggling carrying Dominic. His muscles trembled as he hefted the heavy weight a little higher to get a better grip. Panting with the exertion, he said, “I’ll carry Dominic back but you’re not going to leave my side until we’re back in the house. I’ll get the others when I know you’re safe.”
Tears filled her eyes but she gave him a single nod. Keeping a hand on Dominic’s back, she kept up a steady stream of words, at once begging her brother to be okay and threatening to spill all of his secrets if he didn’t wake up. As soon as the house was in sight, she choked on a sob and Roman wanted to toss down the wolf and gather her up in his arms. It took all of his strength and the knowledge that she would be furious if he dropped her brother to push on. “We’re almost there, Daisy.”
When she didn’t answer, he spun around and discovered she wasn’t there. No longer worried about the wolf, he dropped Dominic to the ground and ran back the way he came. She had never taken her hand off him so how did she vanish without him even realizing it? “Daisy!”
As he ran heedlessly into the woods, he was peripherally aware of Isis’s soft, mocking laughter coming from all around him but he ignored it in his desperation to find Daisy. Branches ripped across his face, vines tripped him up and made him stumble, and still he kept running without having a clue as to where he was going. All he knew was he had to get to Daisy, he had to find Daisy. But he was having difficulty catching his breath. His lungs were too tight and oxygen wasn’t getting to his muscles. Blood wasn’t pumping fast enough through his veins.
Crashing into a clearing, he froze, his heavy panting the only sound that reached his pounding head. Isis sat upon a jeweled throne in all of her magnificence, from her intricately braided hair and heavily lined eyes to her dress made with gold material and gold thread to her golden sandals. Her bronze skin gleamed in the moonlight as a blood red smile curved her full lips. “Romulus.”
Bending over at his waist, resting his hands on his knees, he tried to catch his breath while never taking his eyes off the evil bitch. After an eternity of panting heavily, he managed a ragged, “Isis.”
Her smile grew as she nodded her head in acknowledgement of his greeting which wasn’t a greeting. If he wasn’t struggling to suck air into his lungs, he would lunge across the clearing and wrap his hands around her throat until she gave Daisy back. “It has been too long, my dear Romulus.”
“Not long enough,” he panted, straightening his spine and facing her with squared shoulders even though he was still struggling to breathe through the fear that was suffocating him. “Where is she? Where’s Daisy?”
“Always so impatient,” Isis tsked, waving her hand. And suddenly Roman found himself standing in the midst of Egyptian splendor. Several large statues of Anubis lined the gilded walls, his wolf’s head and human body increasing the urgency to find Daisy. It was breathtaking and overwhelming and frustrating because while the room was large, there was nowhere for Daisy to be hidden.
“Where is she?” he ground out, knowing that Isis could kill him before he could get too close.
“She’s safe, Romulus,” Isis said with her secretive smile, her black eyes dancing with amusement. “Silly gargoyle, I never wanted the wolf, I wanted you. I’ve always wanted you.”
“You have me,” he managed to say through clenched teeth, his eyes darting around the room in the hopes of seeing Daisy, knowing he wasn’t going to see her until Isis allowed it. “Let her go.”
“We have much to discuss, you and I,” Isis said, ignoring his frantic pleas. Waving her hand, another chair appeared, a gold and jeweled monstrosity that was still not as impressive as her throne. “Sit and we shall discuss terms.”
“There are no terms,” he countered, slowly easing himself onto the hard seat. “You have me, let her go.”
“I am disappointed in you, Romulus,” she said sorrowfully, shaking her
head and watching him with fathomless eyes. “You were supposed to offer her to me for a trade and yet here you are ready to sacrifice everything you’ve worked for just to free the little wolf. I wouldn’t have taken her, of course, but I was looking forward to… negotiations.”
Cocking his head to the side, he studied the goddess, her words echoing in his head, mocking him as a fool. “You know about Daisy.”
“Of course I did, you fool,” she scoffed, huffing out a sound that indicated her annoyance with him. “Who do you think arranged everything?”
“But….” Words failed him as he struggled to understand the last ten years of his life. The last two thousand. “Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked, widening her eyes as if the world made sense. But it didn’t make sense because Isis had Daisy and yet apparently she had never wanted Daisy. “She’s your other half.”
“I brought this on her and her family,” he breathed, anguished at the thought of causing her harm.
“It’s not your fault, you know,” Isis murmured, sympathy in her melodious voice. “You were chosen before you were even born. It’s why you were born. And what you have is not so easily exchanged. In fact, it’s impossible.”
Pressing his lips together, he refused to ask the question she wanted him to ask, knowing she’d tell him anyways. Heaving a sigh, she didn’t disappoint as she explained, “You are the last piece of Osiris. Or rather, the last piece of Osiris is within you. I needed to… unlock it and that’s where your Daisy came in.”
Her words pierced through him and he clutched his chest as if they had left a physical wound. His eyes darted around the opulent room once again but there was still no Daisy. Speaking as if she hadn’t just shattered him, Isis continued, “In addition to a gargoyle’s… strength I needed a loving gargoyle’s heart to bring my Beloved back. Only love could release his heart; only love could bring him back to me. But how were you to fall in love if you were frozen the entire time? I found your other half and brought her to you. It is unfortunate that your fated mate waited so long to be born but that is life, is it not?”
It was his death. In a harsh whisper, he asked, “What’s going to happen to Daisy?”
She closed her eyes as if she could divine the future…. Maybe she could but he didn’t know and at that moment he didn’t particularly care, unless she told him Daisy would be alright. Her delicate brow furrowed as she slowly shook her head, “Strange. I cannot see her path.”
His heart stopped in his chest and when it started beating, anguish rushed through his veins, “Is she dead?”
“Goodness no,” Isis said, opening her eyes and forcing a smile to her cruel lips. “She’s no good to me dead… or haven’t you been paying attention? I don’t need your broken and bleeding heart, Romulus, I need your loving heart. Unless, of course, you refuse to cooperate but that isn’t going to happen, is it Romulus? You’d give up your life to keep her safe.” She smiled to herself as she added, “But you don’t have to give up your life, just your heart.”
“My loving heart,” he sneered, his stomach clenching. Would he be able to see Daisy one last time, tell her he loved her and tell her to live well and to be happy?
“Well, yes. It’s the most important part of a body.” Isis said it like it was so obvious but it wasn’t. His heart was his own even if it beat for Daisy. It didn’t belong to a long dead Egyptian god; it was his, damn it. “You can feel it separating from you, can’t you?”
“No,” he denied, pressing his hand against his chest as his heart thumped against his palm. Blood was pounding in his head and he couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate. Sweat beaded along his brow and he wiped it off with the back of his arm, trying to decide whether that twinge he just felt was his heart trying to escape his body or if he was letting the power of persuasion influence him. He was frozen with uncertainty.
“It’s already too late for you,” Isis murmured and he felt that truth deep within his soul. It was too late. Isis shook her head in disappointment once again, suddenly standing right in front of him. Her long, elegant fingers traced a drop of moisture as it ran along his cheek, his throat. Her hand came to a rest over his pounding heart and she looked at him with those black eyes. “You’ve barely had a life to mourn over, Romulus. Don’t fight this and let me have my Beloved back with little fuss.
Her fingernails dug into his chest as if she was going to rip his heart out with her bare hands and he flinched backwards. If she killed him now, he’d never see Daisy again. Wrapping his hand around her slender wrist, he panicked and swore he could feel his heart tearing itself out of his chest. He kept sucking in breaths but there was no oxygen reaching his lungs and spots were starting to dance before his eyes. He was immobilized by the fear of never seeing Daisy again and there was nothing he could do about it as Isis held him in her black gaze.
“Well, this is certainly anticlimactic,” she sighed heavily, digging her nails deeper into his flesh. “I expected a fight, a struggle, something that showed your gargoyle strength and protectiveness. I certainly didn’t expect you to roll over and play dead. Perhaps you require motivation to display what it is that makes you a gargoyle, a god among men. Perhaps Daisy would volunteer.”
As her words sank in, breaking through the ice that had temporarily frozen him, a dark smile curved his lips. Straightening his spine, pushing his shoulders back, he ignored the sharp pain in his chest and glared at the bitch. “You touch one hair on Daisy’s head, you’ll see all that I am and more.”
“There you are,” she purred, her eyelids lowering over her black eyes as her pulse fluttered along her neck. Taking a step away from him, a crucial step that left her beyond his reach, she smirked, “Perhaps I should bring the little wolf out here and we could have a little fun with her.”
“Hurt her in any way and I will rip my heart out of my chest with my bare hands and destroy it so you’ll never have your Beloved Osiris,” he growled, his body tensing as it prepared for attack. His fingers curled into the armrests to keep from launching himself at Isis’s treacherous body. There was definitely something wrong with his heart and he had only one chance to take her out before his chest exploded. He was going to make it count. He just wanted to see Daisy one last time.
Tilting her head to the side, she took another step away from him and asked, “You’d take your own life to deny me my heart’s desire?”
“I’m already dead.” Adrenaline was pumping through him now, numbing him to the pain of dying.
She looked at him with pity. “There is a strong possibility you will die, though it will be entirely unintentional.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” he sneered, the weight of loss heavy upon his soul. He could handle death and he would face it with honor and dignity. What he couldn’t handle was leaving Daisy behind to grieve alone.
“You’re a relic of the past, Romulus,” she said, sinking back onto her throne, watching him with renewed consideration. “Did you really think you’d get your happily ever after?” Without waiting for him to answer, she offered, “At least you will not die in vain.”
But he was no longer listening. There was only one thing left that he wanted and if Isis couldn’t give her to him, he’d burn through everything that was within him and kill the bitch. “Where’s Daisy?”
“You would have her witness your death?”
No but he couldn’t leave without saying goodbye. He wanted as much time with her as he could possibly steal, knowing it would never be enough, knowing it would have to be. He hadn’t had enough time with her. An eternity wouldn’t have been enough time.
He didn’t want to fucking die.
“It would have been a kindness to neutralize her as I did the wolves,” she murmured absently, her eyes moving to the side in contemplation as she rested her chin on her fist.
Lowering his lashes, he asked, “What did you do to the wolves?”
“Nothing,” she said, her eyes wide with innocence as a sleeping wolf sudd
enly appeared by her side. Sinking her hand into the golden brown pelt, she smiled to herself as she said, “I’d never hurt the children of Anubis but I couldn’t have them get in the way. They might have gotten hurt in their foolish quest to protect you.”
“Foolish because nothing could have kept you from fining me, right?” he asked, his eyes on the painfully familiar form of Daisy’s brother. As furious as he was with himself for putting Daisy and her pack in danger, he sighed in relief that they were alright.
“It was a brilliant move to hide behind the wolves,” Isis said, her voice startling him back to the present. “It required a certain level of finesse since I could not use my usual methods of retrieving my Beloved’s body.”
He shuddered to imagine what those methods were. “Why?”
“I told you,” she said slowly, as if speaking to a child. “I’d never hurt the children of Anubis. You may know them better as Cerberus.”
“The three headed dog that guards the underworld,” he muttered, his forehead furrowing into a frown as he stared at Dominic. With all of the commotion in his head, his looming death, it was almost comforting to talk about something so mundane. It gave him time to plan. It would be easier to plan if he knew where Daisy was because no matter what happened, he had to keep her safe. Nothing else mattered if anything happened to her.
“They are neither three headed nor are they dogs,” she said, conversing as if she wasn’t planning on killing him in the near future. “Though, of course, it was an easy mistake to make when dealing with such primitive cultures. Three faced became three headed since it was easier to accept a three headed beast rather than one that had three faces.”
“A man, a wolf, and….” He stalled, his mind drawing a blank as he tried to think of a third. His eyes moved to the large statues of Anubis and suddenly he knew, though he wasn’t sure of the name of the beast that was a combination of a wolf and a man. The classic wolf man from horror movies, he guessed; a beast that looked almost like the statues with the head of a wolf and the body of a man. “A werewolf.”