Tempered (Et Lapis Sanguis Book 1)

by Dawn Ibanez

  “Apparently we have a son now?” she asked.

  Elijah nodded and looked at Gabriel. “This is going to be a lot to process.”

  She slid down to sit on the ground. “We can talk about it later. Right now, I want to go home.” She closed her eyes. “I’ll even let you drive.”

  Chapter 25

  Mel looked out across the city. Rooftops never bothered her. The higher up she was, the more at peace she felt. She closed her eyes as a cold breeze caressed her face. Her peace shattered as she felt his presence behind her. “The case is over. The Ripper of Whitechapel is dead. There may be a cult member here or there. But they’re in hiding. What are you going to do now?”

  Dominic settled on the other side of the roof. “Same could be asked of you. Your sister is settling down. Elijah will take care of her.”

  If there was one thing Mel was confident in, was Elijah’s love for her sister. She smirked as she looked at the gargoyle in front of her. “Gus deserves to be happy.”

  “And you don’t?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not getting into this with you,” she said. There were too many secrets kept and lies told. The last person she wanted to confide in was the gargoyle that ruled over North America.

  “Who will you get into it with?” he asked. “Edmund?”

  The thought of the quiet vampire made her shake her head. “Edmund is like a brother to me.” She pushed her hair away from her face as another gust of wind passed her. “And even he doesn’t even realize everything we went through.”

  “He has a soft heart,” Dominic stepped closer to the ledge where Mel stood. “He is good as a second. He wouldn’t be able to rule.”

  “That’s why you stepped in when Gus was taken Beyond the Veil?” she asked.

  Dominic nodded. “I like to know people’s strengths and weaknesses.” He gently touched her hair. “You are your sister’s weakness. And she seems to be yours.”

  Mel smiled. Her eyes went to the horizon again. “Elijah is her weakness now. He’s also her strength.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just the younger sister that everyone needs to find a place for.”

  She could feel the weight of his stare. Mel returned his assessing gaze. His pewter colored skin didn’t distract from the fact that when he was human, he was probably handsome. The strong jaw and bone structure made her want to reach out and touch him in ways that had nothing to do with his being someone that could easily snap her neck.

  Mel turned away from him and laughed. “There are times when I wonder if I’m a glutton for punishment.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  She looked up at the full moon. “Because I’m standing here wondering how your skin would feel instead of being terrified of you like everyone else is.” She heard the slight movement of his wings and looked at them. “Take me flying,” she said.

  He blinked, but he didn’t miss a beat. “Tell me what you want to do now that your sister has settled down?”

  Mel turned her back to the city. “Would you believe that I never looked any farther into the future than that?” she asked. “I wanted to make up for always being the reason why Gus did everything she did.”

  “Gus made those choices. Not you.”

  “I know that.” She placed her hand over her heart. “But in here? I’m the cause of it. Me and Rhiannon.”

  Dominic snarled and paced around the rooftop. Mel watched as he flexed his wings and wrapped them around his shoulders once more. “I didn’t want to come here to argue with you.” He rubbed the back of his neck and tilted his head from side to side. “I wanted to offer you a chance to travel the country.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Doing what?”

  She could hear his teeth grinding together. “Queen Titania has requested suitable areas for her Fae citizens be found. I was thinking of going south and speaking with Gideon. I thought maybe you would want to come and act as liaison.”

  “Between you and the queen?”

  Dominic nodded. “I’ve already spoken with her about it. We both agree that there will be no interaction with your mother.”

  “Don’t call her that.”

  His pacing stilled for a moment. Dominic’s eyes scanned her form before he nodded. “General Rhiannon will stay Beyond the Veil. Other members of this Sanguis unit she has will contact you, or the queen herself will. She has even offered you immortality for your assistance.”

  Mel scoffed. “I don’t care about any of that,” she said. “I never did.”

  “Then tell me, Esmeralda, what do you want?”

  She looked at him. “I want to be free.” She closed her eyes and allowed her body to fall back. She heard his curse and smirked as her body went weightless. Mel opened her eyes and saw the various windows of the high-rise pass her as she plummeted to the ground. As expected, he followed her. In moments he had his arms around her, and his wings snapped out. Mel laughed as he pulled her up into the night sky. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked around as best she could. The city passed by in a blur. Mel looked up at him and swallowed.

  She knew she had a habit of making Dominic angry, but she had never seen his face so enraged. “Dominic?” she said in a small voice.

  He wrapped his arms around her tighter. “Hold your breath,” he commanded.

  She barely had a chance to suck in air before they crashed into the cold lake water. Mel tightened her grip on his clothes and wrapped her legs around his waist as he brought them back up. When her head was over the surface, she pushed her hair away from her face. “What was that for?” she shouted at him.

  “What would possess you to jump off a building?”

  She shook her head. “I knew you would catch me.”

  “Not the point, Esmeralda.” He took off into the air again and Mel shivered in his arms. “What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t caught you?” he asked. “How did you think I would be able to explain your death to your sister?”

  Mel was quiet as he flew towards the Tower. She buried her face in his chest. She didn’t think about her death being an option simply because she never thought that he wouldn’t catch her. She smiled sadly when he took her into his private apartments at the top of the building she just jumped from.

  “Thank you,” she said. As she put her feet on the floor.

  Dominic stepped away from her and went into his private bathroom. Mel felt her heart sink as she saw her reflection in the mirror. Instead of the vibrant young woman she always tried to show to the world, she looked more like a drowned rat. Her hair was a soaked and wind-whipped mess. The make-up she always put on with meticulous care was ruined. Mel turned away from the mirror and wiped at her face with her coat sleeves. She looked up when she felt him gently place a towel in her hands.

  “Use this,” he said before moving away.

  Mel looked into his eyes and her heart continued to hurt. “I’m not going to work for you,” she said. When he nodded, she looked down at her hands. “I want to be free to make my own choices and decisions. I don’t want to look over my shoulder every minute. I don’t want to remember the things I had to do to survive.” She wiped her face with the towel. “I don’t want to pretend to be happy because if my sister knew the truth, she would blame herself when there’s no one to blame but me.”

  He tilted her face up to his. “You are not to blame for what that piece of shit did.”

  She touched his face and sighed. “We’re going to go around in circles like this,” she said softly. When he frowned, she reached up on her toes and caught his lips in a tender kiss. Mel felt his hands grip her upper arms and allowed him to step back. “When you and I are like this. Just us, I want to be carefree and reckless. I want to make you loosen up. I like our little private wars. I know that no matter how mad I make you, you will always catch me.”

  “Mel.”

  “And I know that I’m nothing more than an annoying child to you.” She wiped at her face once more and started for the door. “So, I won�
�t work for you. I don’t care about Titania or Tati or whatever she’s calling herself. I care even less about that breeder that looks like me. Gus is happy, and I will never take that from her. But it’s also time I found out who I can be on my own.”

  She made it to the door leading to the elevators when his hand covered hers. Mel looked at Dominic and smiled. “I can’t have an effective flounce if you chase after me,” she said.

  He turned her into his arms. “If you need anything, do not hesitate to call me.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he ducked his head down and kissed her passionately.

  Her world spun out of control. His kiss consumed her, igniting something long dormant inside her. Mel was breathless when he released her. She touched her lips and saw his grimace of pain. Her eyes filled with tears again as she noticed the lightening sky behind them. “Goodbye, Dom,” she whispered.

  He nodded as his skin hardened and turned from flesh to stone. Mel moved around his apartment and locked the windows and doors. Even thought they were high up, anyone with enough skill would be able to find a way into his apartment. She had.

  Mel felt lighter knowing the gargoyle of North America trusted her enough with his weakness. During the day, he was trapped in stone. He couldn’t move or feel. But if someone found his statue and destroyed it, he would be dead just the same. Mel frowned as she looked at a paper with notes and numbers scribbled on it. She shook her head added her number to it. After adding her little note, she went back to where Dominic stood frozen. She tucked the paper with her number and note into the folds of his jacket and left his apartment.

  And as she entered the elevator and rode down to the ground floor, Mel felt her own heart shattering.

  *****

  It had been nearly a week.

  Gabriel had undergone a number of tests. Especially after Elijah told them all why Tati wanted to kill him in the first place.

  Gabriel’s father hadn’t been Seelie, like the members of the cult thought. His father was an Unseelie Prince. And once he was old enough, Gabriel was going to want his birthright.

  Gus laid curled up at Elijah’s side. She traced the muscles of his chest as he read a report on his ever-present tablet. “Still no change?” she asked.

  He sighed and put the device on the nightstand. “His body has finally started to process the change. He’ll have to be given blood from some of the others until his body completes the change.” He ran his fingers through her shortened hair. “Things are starting to calm down. Do you want to see if we can find someone that can fix this?”

  She laughed. “Mel has already made an appointment at one of the spas in the city. They’re more than happy to take care of the Lady Consort. I’ll go tomorrow.”

  Elijah pressed a kiss to her forehead and held her. “Are you going to talk to me about it?” he asked.

  She knew what he wanted to know. And while she didn’t want to relive the dark places her mind took her, she owed him the truth. “I told you he said my name was too much to say in the pits. And because my family always called me Gus, I never wanted to hear that from his lips. Instead, he called me Tina, his deadly ballerina.”

  The echo of his mocking tone haunted her. She closed her eyes and pressed a kiss to his chest. She kept her arms wrapped around him. “The things he made me do.” Her voice wouldn’t come to her as she remembered everything she suffered at the hands of her own personal monster in Mexico. “I hate him Eli. And Lindo? Whatever you said his name was? He knew that name. He was able to make himself look like De Leon, and he knew that name. He was there in the pits. That’s the only explanation.”

  Elijah continued to hold her as tears filled her eyes. She didn’t want to cry. Gus wiped her eyes and sat up. “Then he made himself look like you. And what I was seeing didn’t add up with what I thought I knew what happening. When I thought he was you and you were him, everything got turned around, and I just wanted to lash out and attack everything around me.” She looked at him. “I don’t think I can apologize enough.”

  He shook his head and sat up. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “There’s nothing to forgive, Love.” His arms wrapped around her and he leaned his chin on her shoulder. “You didn’t land a blow. It’s just my good luck that I’m faster than you.”

  She looked over her shoulder and he caught her lips in a tender kiss. She moaned as she laid back with Elijah on top of her. Gus ran her fingers through his hair and easily wrapped her legs around his waist as his hands palmed her breast. She looked up at his handsome face and traced his jawline with her fingers.

  He frowned as his phone went off. Gus smirked as he reached over and picked up the device. “What?” he demanded.

  Gus bit her lip as his head dipped down and his fangs scrapped against the flesh of her neck.

  “Can you please explain to Gabriel that while he is in recovery, ice cream will not be considered dinner?” Monica’s voice said over the device.

  Elijah raised his head from her neck when Gus started to laugh. Gus covered her mouth and allowed her amusement wash over her. She looked at the ceiling lost in thought as Elijah moved off the bed, his phone in hand. She sat up and watched his back as he moved from the bed to the hallway. Gus looked around their room. Her clothes had been added to the closet. There were various knives on the dresser, and she knew where everything was in the house. A tear slipped from her eyes as she thought of the man that should have killed her when he first saw her.

  Elijah came back into the room without his phone. He looked at Gus and frowned when he saw her tears. “What is it?” he asked rushing to her side.

  She shook her head as a sob escaped her. Her hands started shaking as she looked at him. “I don’t know,” she said wiping her face again. The alarm on his face made her laugh. When he frowned at her, she continued to cry.

  “I love you,” she said throwing her arms around his neck.

  He held her as she laughed and cried in his arms. He lifted her into his arms and carried her into the main room. Without saying a word, he wrapped a throw blanket around her shoulders. When her sobs calmed, he ran his fingers through her hair again. “We’re going to need to work on your timing, Love,” he said with a shy smile.

  She nodded. “It really does suck,” she chuckled. She leaned her head against his shoulder. “But I needed to tell you that. I don’t want De Leon to have a hold on me anymore.”

  “He will.” She looked at Elijah and he shrugged. “Trauma doesn’t work that way. You can’t just say, ‘I’m over it,’ and everything is better. Both you and Mel have a lot to work through.” When Gus lowered her head to look at her hands, he lifted her face to his. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of you. No matter how big or small the steps you take are.”

  She reached up and messed up his hair again. “There are times when I think you’re too good for me, Eli.” She then pushed him back onto the sofa and straddled his waist. She kissed him and moaned as he entered her. “But know I’m too damned selfish to let you go.”

  He kissed her collar once before turning her face to his again. “Same.”

  The Hunt Begins

  Rhiannon frowned as walked through the halls of the royal palace. The Queen had been asking about her betrothed for weeks, but no one laid eyes on the stuck up noble since the incident in the forest with Gus. She rounded a corner and frowned when she saw three members of the Sanguis standing in front of the royal consort’s room. “What’s all this?”

  The male of the trio looked at Rhiannon and gave her a quick nod. “With all of the talk going around about the boy that should have been executed, we did some digging,” Brad said. His blue eyes went to the door they stood in front of. “We have a picture of the boy, when he isn’t covered in blood.” He looked to his side. “Lan. Please.”

  The petite woman that spent more time in the human world than any of the Sanguis pulled a picture from her pocket. She gave it to Rhiannon. “I did some cross-checking. His father had been going by the name Lindo Cartigo f
or centuries. He would go, have a few kids, and then disappear. That boy was the first male we’ve come across in this generation.”

  Rhiannon looked at the picture and her hands trembled. The boy in the photograph looked exactly like Tati’s Mischa. She looked at the three people around her. Brad had always been the level-headed one. Vanessa was the flamboyant one, and Lan the quiet one. Each one brought their prey back in whatever status the Queen wished. “Who else knows about this?” she asked.

  Lan took the picture back. “Axel. But they aren’t here. There’s a lead in Mexico that someone needed to check in on. Axel volunteered.”

  Rhiannon nodded. Axel was wild, but they knew how to keep a secret. “Tell no one of this. I need to find out how none of us realized he could have been an Unseelie Prince this whole time.”

  Vanessa frowned as she pushed the door open. “Check the water. He could have been dosing a number of the nobles. The regular population wouldn’t care either way. To the poor, all rich people look alike.” She went into the room and cursed.

  Rhiannon and the others looked in. The bed was covered in blood and bandages. She frowned as she noticed there was nothing else in the room. “He ran.”

  Brad went into the room and looked around with Vanessa. Lan stood at the door and used the tip of her sai to carve runes into the frame. “I’m going to bar him from the room. If you can, find someone who can seal the entire castle.” Lan reached for Rhiannon’s hand. “I know you aren’t going to die any time soon. I’ll need your blood to guarantee it’s strength.”

  Vanessa and Brad left the room and cut their palms. “All of us need to seal it,” Brad said. He wiped his blood across the rune and stepped back as it glowed blue. Vanessa wiped her hand over the rune next and wrapped her hand in a cloth as it flashed green. “We need to search for him. There’s no telling where he could have gone.”

  Rhiannon slapped her bloodied hand on the rune and watched as it glowed red. “He would have hidden someplace he feels that we don’t know about. And some place that would hurt my daughter the most.” She looked at the trio. “I need for each of you to make contact with Dominic Toscano’s Chevaliers. All of us will need to work together to stop Mischa.”