by Nicole Grane
Chapter 20
Havoc was waiting for us around the bend, motioning us to hurry. I owed her a few kicks in the leg from her show of loyalty to her friends. Honestly, like they would have noticed she wasn’t in on the brawl. I swore I could feel a bruise on my ankle already.
“We're almost to your dad,” she said over her shoulder. That would be her saving grace. Only the knowledge that my dad was close by could have distracted me from planning her demise.
I came to a skidding halt, courtesy of Roland who’d stopped in his tracks, grabbed my arm and yanked me back into him.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
Antonio had spun around. His eyes, vigilantly searching our close quarters, settled on Roland.
“We can’t go that way. The Daimonas are down there.” Roland looked scared. I couldn’t help but feel for the guy. I couldn’t imagine what he must have endured.
“Here. I’m not that good with it anyway.” I handed him my staff, hoping the weapon would give him a sense of security.
He took it from me, staring at it for a moment before his eyes looked into mine. I could see in the limited light a glassy look about them. “Evie, how did you find me?”
Now, really was not the time for questions but I knew by the look on Roland’s face, he couldn’t move on unless he had a few answers. Where to begin . . .
“Okay, listen, I heard from Havoc here that my dad had been captured and taken to Hell. Then, you turned into a gargoyle during third period biology, and tried to kill me. Only it wasn’t you, but we didn’t know that at the time. So Antonio had to stab you in the head with his staff. Sorry.” I winced at the horrified expression on Roland’s face. His eyes flickered to Antonio who still looked as if he could stab Roland all over again.
“Only Antonio didn’t really kill you, it was gargoyle you!” I interjected quickly—like this would somehow soften the blow. “But we didn’t know that either. By the way, when you kissed me at school in The Kitchen that was you, right? I mean, you weren’t a gargoyle then, were you? Anyway, Ms. Leech is a Daimonas, and Gunny is totally going to kick your ass for getting captured.”
“What in the hell?” Roland looked at me like my head was whipping around my neck.
I knew exactly how he felt. I unfortunately continued. “Havoc opened a porthole into the Underworld. We fought snakes, a swamp troll, and had to sleep all night in a tree so we wouldn’t get eaten by Borgons—who by the way are flesh eating rats! Ms. Powell should have totally covered that in class.” I rolled my eyes at the lack of information in that school.
“Anyway, we entered Hell, turned Ragnos to stone, and froze the River of Souls to get across so that we could rescue you from the pixies. I didn’t even know you were here until a few hours ago.” I panted now, having updated him on the whole adventure thus far. “Now we’re going to fight the Daimonas and rescue my dad. I was hoping to be home for dinner.” I looked toward the others. Antonio and Havoc shared the same vacant expression. Geez! You’d think they’d just heard this story for the first time instead of having lived it.
“Roland?” I waved my hand in front of his face a few times. He looked petrified. I glanced at Antonio. His expression was completely unreadable.
“Ow!” Roland grabbed his ankle and began hopping up and down on one foot. “What did you do that for?” He snapped angrily at Havoc. “She bit me!”
“Just making sure you’re still with us.” Havoc smiled meekly.
“Are you up to this, Vandenberg?” Antonio addressed Roland with what sounded like a challenging tone.
“Sure. Fight Daimonas, rescue Evie’s dad.” He said this like he was reading a grocery list. “No problem.”
“Okay then. Let’s do this.” I moved past the boys and fell into step with Havoc. Who, by the way had a cat-licking-cream expression upon her face. She looked way too pleased . . . why?
“What’s the plan, Child of Light? You intend to date the one that lives?”
“No!” How rude! I didn’t know what I was going to do actually. I didn’t want to hurt Roland. It wasn’t his fault he’d turned into a gargoyle. But dang! I’d only agreed to go to a dance with the guy. We kissed like once. We even held hands on occasion. But we’d never said we were going steady . . . and that was before he’d turned into a gargoyle! I think? God. When had my life turned into such a flaming nightmare? I still had to find a way to free Antonio. He was not spending the rest of eternity here. No way.
Do not even think it.
Damn. Was anything private anymore?
“Evie.” Roland reached forward, taking my arm once again. “Maybe you should stand behind me. I don’t want you up front if a Daimonas attacks.”
Aw!
“She can handle herself,” Antonio spoke up, quickening his stride to match mine.
“I don’t care if she can handle herself,” Roland’s voice raised an octave. “She’s my girlfriend and I don’t want her up front. It’s too dangerous.”
“Isn’t that sweet,” Havoc squealed. “I could just eat him up.”
Roland flinched, the statement apparently hitting a little too close to home.
“I’ll be fine. I’d rather something happened to me than to any of you.” Well, except for maybe Havoc. She was sticking her tongue out at me. “After all, it’s my fault you’re all here.”
Roland moved up anyway, flanking my other side. The testosterone levels around me were raging. The two guys eyed each other, like roosters, sizing the other up—unbelievable!
“So Vasques, what are you doing here?” Roland tried to make the question sound casual—but the husky tone he sported countered that.
“Evie needed me.” His answer: short and sweet. No elaboration what so ever. Roland was going to have to work for information.
“Well, she’s got me now.” Roland wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his side. “Stay close, I’ll look after you.” He winked, then leaned over and kissed the top of my head.
I could feel the heat radiating off Antonio. I brushed my arm against his . . . oh so gently . . .
The pompous ass! If he doesn’t remove his arm from her right now, I’m going to rip it off. I should have let the pixies roast him! I think I’ll rip his lips off too! Do the female population a favor—
I moved my arm away, my whole body instantly flushing. So that’s how Antonio felt about Roland cozying up to me. Interesting…