His eyes were sad as he shook his head. "She's not talking. And she's not getting better. She just wants to see you."
The rest of us stood at once and headed for the elevators at top speed while trying to act dignified enough for a hospital setting. I'd actually never been in an elevator before and was surprised at how slowly it moved. I expected it to be a more magical experience, and a whole lot faster. But the seconds dragged by in anxious silence as we traveled to the third floor.
When the steel doors finally opened, MacKenzie led the way down the wide corridor, searching for room 304. Inside Sophie's room, we found Natalie sitting on the hospital bed watching her daughter. She stood and smiled at us. "Thank you so much for coming," she said as she tiptoed from the room.
Sophie's eyes were open but she didn't look good. Her normally crystalline gaze was dull and lifeless.
MacKenzie swept to her side while Valor followed closely, looking over her shoulder. "Hey, Sophie kid. How're you doing?"
"Fine," she whispered. "Thanks for coming to see me."
"Well, of course I came!" MacKenzie exclaimed, her voice rough with emotion. "Why wouldn't I? I mean, you're my little sis." She turned and threw an arm out in our direction. "Look who I brought with me."
"Hi," she said in a tiny voice, her gaze flitting past me and Samantha to rest on Havoc's face.
"Hi, Miss Sophie," Havoc said gently and hitched his hip on the bed, reaching for her small hand. "The doctors tell us you're not trying very hard to get better. Why is that? Is something wrong?"
For several seconds, she chewed on her bottom lip without answering.
"Sophie, what is it?" he asked.
"I'm afraid," she admitted.
"Afraid of what?"
She shook her head on the pillow. "Mom and Dad fight all the time. I'm afraid they're going to get divorced. And…and…"
"And what, sweetheart?" MacKenzie prompted her quietly.
She answered MacKenzie's question but she never took her eyes off Havoc. "You won't be my sister anymore and I'll never see you again," she said in a broken whisper, tears filling her eyes and trickling down the sides of her face to dampen the white pillow.
"Ohhh," MacKenzie breathed and cut a quick glance at Havoc. "Oh, honey, just because people argue it doesn't mean they're going to get divorced."
"But my mom divorced my dad and your dad divorced your mother," she pointed out with a ragged sniff.
Havoc straightened and grabbed a tissue on his way to the other side of the bed. Gently, he dabbed at her tears. "I don't think your parents are going to get divorced, Sophie. But no matter what happens, we'll always be here for you. Always. Me and MacKenzie and Valor and the rest of the pack. We'll always be here."
Sophie didn't look terribly convinced. She shrank a little more and gazed down at her hands folded across her chest while MacKenzie shared a worried look with Havoc.
"Tell you what, Sophie," Havoc said softly. "Why don't we make a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" she whispered, blinking down at her fingers.
"How 'bout you get all better and we'll do something together as soon as you're on your feet again?"
But Sophie didn't answer.
"We could go to Six Flags together this summer," he suggested. "Would you like that?"
"That would be okay," she whispered.
"Well, what would be better?" he asked, smiling down at her.
Again she didn't answer.
"C'mon," he coaxed her gently. "Tell me what would make you happy and I'll make it happen."
Two pink spots appeared on her pale cheeks. "If…you would be my boyfriend," she said falteringly, her gaze still fixed on her hands.
"Your boyfriend," he echoed quietly and barely blinked before he answered. "I could do that."
"Really?" she questioned him in a small voice. "But…you're a lot older than me."
"I'm sure I'm not any older than fifteen," he claimed which probably wasn't true. Back in our time, we didn't keep close track of our birthdays or our age. But I was fairly sure he was closer to sixteen.
A spark of life glowed in Sophie's eyes. "But when I'm fifteen, you'll be—"
"Waiting for you," he said gently. "Because we're both a little young for serious commitments right now, don't you think? And right now you need to rest so you can start getting better. But if you'll promise to get well, I promise I'll wait for you. And I'll take you to that…that prom thing when you're old enough."
Sophie lifted her green eyes hopefully to his face.
"Deal?" he asked, arching a bronze eyebrow as he smiled down at her.
"Deal," she answered in a soft whisper.
Out in the hospital's parking lot, MacKenzie started in on Havoc before we reached the cars. "That's not fair," she came down on him. "You shouldn't have told Sophie you'd take her to prom. When she's sixteen, you'll be twenty."
"Not necessarily," he answered. "What do you have against the idea of me and Sophie, anyhow? I should think you'd be happy. If I go out with her, we'll be like family."
"Because for the next four years, you'll break her heart every time you flirt with a someone your own age," she argued. "And it'll kill her every time you get a new girlfriend."
"Who said I was going to have girlfriends?"
Stopping when she reached her jeep, MacKenzie crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look. "You can't tell me you're going to get through the next four years without having a single girlfriend."
"It would be hard," he admitted. "But not impossible."
"It would be impossible," she snapped.
"Not necessarily," he said again.
"Besides, like I said before, you're too old for her," she growled, obviously upset with him and not quite getting his meaning even though Valor and I knew what he had in mind. "You'll be twenty when she's sixteen."
"No I won't," he said with quiet determination. "When she turns sixteen, I'll still be sixteen."
And finally, MacKenzie realized what he was saying. She got very quiet while the rest of us looked on. "You're…going to 'go stone' for four years?"
"I think that would be the best way to keep my promise," he answered levelly.
"That's…crazy, Havoc. That's nuts." MacKenzie wheeled around and caught my eye. "Victor, tell him he's crazy."
I shared a silent look with Valor. But neither of us said anything. Of course, we knew why Havoc was so determined to keep his promise to Sophie. We knew the promise he'd made to his sister when she was ill and how he hadn't been able to keep it.
Havoc argued gently. "It's like you said, Mac. I wouldn't be able to not flirt. And I'd probably have like a dozen girlfriends before Sophie turns sixteen. That's why I have to do it this way."
"Havoc," she started falteringly. "I didn't mean for you to…"
He gave her a stubborn look. "I promised I'd wait for her," he stated. "I meant what I said and I said what I meant."
I couldn't help but smile…inwardly, of course. Because Dare's favorite author was Dickens but Havoc's was probably Dr. Seuss. And MacKenzie didn't realize it yet but there would be no turning him around. When Havoc gets that look on his face, you're wasting your time arguing. Of course, that didn't stop her from trying.
"Even if you do turn to stone and wait out the next four years, what makes you think she'll wait for you?" MacKenzie demanded. "She's going to be a pretty teenager and she's gonna want to have a boyfriend, like everybody else, like all her friends. And you'll just be a faint memory of a guy with outdated dreadlocks and an antique emo belt."
"We made a pact," he argued quietly. "We grasped arms and made an unbreakable vow."
"She's twelve," MacKenzie exclaimed, throwing up her arms in exasperation. "She doesn't understand all that."
"She'll wait," he said evenly.
"What if she doesn't?" MacKenzie challenged him.
"She can break her vow if she wants to," he said. "But I'm keeping mine."
"But how are you going to explain that you haven'
t aged in four years?" Samantha asked softly.
Havoc's teeth flashed in a grin. "She'll just think I age well."
MacKenzie tried again. "But—"
"You guys just aren't getting it," he exploded suddenly. "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. I'm going to be sixteen with her. I'm going to spend time with her while we're both young, before we get all old and boring like you guys."
"Old?" I exclaimed, the word jerking from my lips. I was the oldest one standing in the parking lot but I didn't consider myself…well, old.
"Boring?" Valor echoed at the same time, looking as insulted as I felt.
"Aye," Havoc insisted, getting a mulish look on his face. "Old and boring."
Valor gave me a sly look from the corner of his eye. "Well, I know when I've been insulted," he muttered.
"Me too," I gave back.
And together, we tackled him, pinning him to the side of the car until he apologized for casting aspersions on us. It felt good to release some of the stress that had been coiled inside me ever since my run in with Olivia and everyone was laughing by the time he gave in and said he was sorry.
"So why did you want us out of Denver?" Havoc asked when he finally quit laughing.
I gave my two cousins a serious look then gazed out over the tall buildings of the city. "There's a monster out there and she's going to be sweeping the Denver area, looking for gargoyles."
"What do you mean by monster?" Valor asked uneasily.
"Olivia Olander," I answered and locked Samantha against my side, needing to know she was safe, needing to feel like I could keep her safe no matter what happened. "She's a gargoyle's worst nightmare."
"Worst nightmare?" Reason questioned.
I nodded as I scanned the city's skyline. "She's an intelligent harpy."
Epilogue
So I was in love. And what was that like? Well, it was exactly like Russell Brand said. It was like discovering a concealed ballroom in a house you've long inhabited. Like you opened the laundry room door one day and found a huge space behind it, complete with vaulted ceilings, glittering chandeliers, a marble-tiled floor and lots of room for dancing. I would never have guessed life could be like that. So full of the unexpected. And so complete.
As I mentioned before, it had always been my intention to follow custom and be the last gargoyle to mark my lass. But I had a long talk with Havoc and he changed my mind, even though the conversation didn't start out to be about me and Samantha. It started out to be about his decision to go stone for four years.
"Who's going to keep me in line and make sure I don't marry the next witch that comes along?" I asked him.
"You have Samantha for that," he countered. "Mark her the first chance you get."
"I'd planned to follow tradition," I pointed out quietly.
"There's a time and place for tradition but this isn't it, Victor. Keep Samantha safe," he insisted. "And keep yourself safe. If Olivia finds out about the runes and what it means when you give it away, you'll both be in danger. You don't want that to happen. I'll be gone four years and it would be way too risky to wait that long."
"You won't be back at all?" I questioned him.
"I'll come back to say hello to Courage and Force when you find them…and for your wedding," he promised.
"Wedding?" I barked softly.
"You are going to ask Sam to marry you, aren't you? Because if you aren't, I might consider hanging around. You know, to catch her on the rebound."
"Of course, I'll ask her," I answered moodily. "When the time is right. But that doesn't mean she'll say yes. So maybe you should wait and see."
"I don't think she'll put up much of a fight," he said. "And you know why I have to do this. Why I have to keep my promise to Sophie."
"Aye," I answered. "I know."
So Samantha starts taking my venom today and I'll mark her as soon as she's built up a resistance to the poison. Her father won't be happy about the rune on her arm but he's just gonna have to deal. Because Samantha is mine and always will be.
Anyhow, once Sophie was on the road to recovery, Havoc made one last trip to visit her at her home in Denver. Then he went stone, just like he'd said he would.
Naturally, everyone was there to say good-bye. We'd picked a day when Walker had plans to meet up with some old friends from high school. And we'd left an unstoppered bottle of venom on the table in my Boulder bedroom so that Olivia wouldn't notice our absence.
The pack gathered around Havoc at the rental in Pine Grove when it was time to make the change. He staked out the sunniest spot in the living room where two windows meet at the corner so he could come to life if there was any kind of emergency. And facing into the room, he made us promise to pick up a television so he could watch the Premier League matches that were supposed to start airing in the summer.
"Fare thee well," I murmured, and was the last to grasp his arm.
"Nay," he countered. "This isn't fare well. I'll be here the whole time, still part of the pack, listening in. Be sure to pass along any news to me, and let me know how Sophie's getting on."
"We will," MacKenzie promised in a low voice.
"Hey," he said, catching her eye. "Don't be sad."
"I'm not sad," she insisted, blinking a little. "I'm just going to miss your cooking."
"I've left you a few recipes," he answered with a grin. "I printed them off the Internet and left them on the desk in your family room."
MacKenzie squared up her shoulders beneath Valor's arm. "I'll try to make you proud," she mumbled.
"It's time," he said, opening his wings and crossing his arms over his chest as is customary before making the change. Because when a gargoyle comes back to life, he generally likes to be ready for fight or flight. And he's standing there yet, in the corner of our living room, waiting for Sophie to grow up.
In the meantime, Defiance is making plans to get a small apartment in Limon so he can hang around town and make friends…and hopefully catch wind of any news about his missing brother. It's gonna kill him to be separated from Whitney but now that school's out she'll probably spend a lot of time out there with him. And he'll have to wear latex gloves the whole time so Olivia doesn't find him but that's probably something he can live with.
While he's working on finding his brother in Limon, Reason and I are going to focus on Denver. We'll make a trip to the city and leave some graffiti lying around, painting some runes on buildings and bridges along with Valor's phone number. Hopefully, our cousin in Denver will have made some friends who can explain what the numbers mean. Then we'll cross our fingers and pray for a phone call while we're working on the house in Boulder.
One evening after dinner, Agent Simpson dropped by to check out the new place. He'd recently been in touch with his contacts in Limon but didn't have much to report.
"I don't think your cousins are out there," he told us as slouched in the chair in the living room. "Maybe they've moved on."
Which wasn't a bad thing if Olivia was going to be searching the Limon area. Of course, we knew that one of our cousins was probably in Denver. And the other might still be locked in his stone form…even though that seemed unlikely after five months.
"If they were around, someone would have noticed them," he continued. "One of the officers I talk to every month has a teenage daughter. Evidently, you guys cause quite a stir every time you make a visit out there to ask around. I think you guys even have your own hashtag. So I don't think one of your cousins could escape unnoticed."
Samantha was sitting beside me on the couch. "He's right," she said softly and squeezed my hand while Elaina and Torrie nodded in agreement.
Of course, we told him about our adventures at Olander Scientific so he could watch out for the girls if anything happened to us. And help the pack in Pine Grove.
"I'll see what I can dig up on Ms. Olander," he promised. "Maybe I can find some dirt on her that might slow her down."
And when he was ready to go, we walked him to the d
oor. Out in front of the house, there was new growth on the branches of the old spruce Alexa had knocked over. So it looked like the old girl was going to make it. But as we said goodbye to Agent Simpson, I sensed someone loitering nearby. It wasn't anyone bad but it wasn't anyone with a significant signature either, so I couldn't tell who it was. And after the FBI agent pulled away in his black SUV, a tall young man appeared at the end of the driveway, his shoulders hunched, his eyes haunted. It was Olivia's guard. The one who hadn't really belonged in her army of killers. The one who we'd allowed to get away.
"Can I come in?" he asked as he walked swiftly toward us, throwing an anxious look over his shoulder.
Silently, I motioned him inside. I didn't bother asking how he'd found us because I figured Olivia knew where we lived. And if she knew, then the men who worked for her probably knew.
"Who is it?" Reason asked, keeping a protective arm around Elaina even though he must have sensed that our visitor wasn't dangerous. But his caution wasn't unwarranted because we didn't know who else might be hanging round.
"I don't think I was followed," the man said first. "I'm Louis. Louis Landriani."
"Louis is one of Olivia's guards," I explained to the others.
"Ex-guard," he growled in two tense syllables.
"Can I get you something to drink?" I asked him, following Chaos and Torrie through the house.
"Thanks," he answered, seeming to relax slightly as I led him into the kitchen and put a can of soda in his hand.
I leaned back against the counter while he took a seat at the table. "By now, you probably know how much danger you're in," I started.
"Yeah," he answered. "The rest of the men who were with me on that job have disappeared. But that witch probably isn't expecting me to come here so I hope I'm safe…for now, anyhow."
"Why are you here?" I asked, point blank.
He shook head and looked down at the green can in his hand. "I just wanted to thank you," he answered, lifting his eyes again. "I wanted to thank you for…not turning me to stone. Are those guys…?"
"They won't be coming back," I answered.
"That's what I figured. Thanks for not killing me," he muttered and squinted as he searched my face. "Why did you do that?"
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