Stone Guardian (22 page)

Larissa’s hand went to her throat. “The Human Realm will be destroyed?”

Simon nodded. “Since the Human Realm is dominant, it would take the brunt of the destructive force and become the Realm sacrifice required. Anyone who was originally from the Human Realm would die with it. Those that have been born since the Great Collision it’s less clear. With as complex a spell as we are talking about, I doubt any magic user truly understands the full impact.”

“And me? You think them coming after me is somehow related to this?” Larissa’s tone held the fear and uncertainty of a child who had lost sight of her family and was now alone amidst a large, uncaring throng of adults. Anyone observing be damned. Terak took the step needed to be situated behind her and wrapped her in his arms, bringing her close to his body. She leaned back into him, her arms circling his own.

If Simon took any special notice of the display he didn’t let on. Instead his attention turned back to his beakers, one of which looked on the verge of bubbling over. He went to it, saying over his shoulder, “I don’t see how you could be connected. There is nothing I’ve heard about you that makes me understand why they would pick you as a target. At the same time, this is what they have been planning for since the Realms first collided, and considering the effort and the risks they are taking to collect you, I see no other possibility that explains their interest.”

In the thickness of the ensuing silence, only the zombie appeared to not be troubled by dark and heavy thoughts. Olivia shook off her dark thoughts first, and she smiled at the zombie, small and trembling but warmth still evident in it. “Thank you for seeing us, Simon.”

“Anything for you.” It was the first spark of human feeling the zombie had exhibited, this response to the brunette woman. She was important to him, though in what way Terak could not fathom. Simon then turned to Larissa. “Young lady, I can’t press this upon you enough. If you are somehow connected to this, they will stop at nothing to get to you. This is all they exist for. They want their world the way it once was. They hate this new reality. They still have power, but not the complete domination and utter subservience they enjoyed in the other realm. They want it back, and will do anything to get it.”

Back in the car, Terak watched as Larissa continued to absorb the information. She was pale, almost as pale as the abomination, and her arms were wrapped around her stomach as though it were the only way to keep herself from flying apart.

Olivia looked into the rear view mirror. “Larissa, you okay sweetie?”

She was anything but okay, but the question brought some strength back to her. She straightened in the seat, loosening her grip. “You know a zombie, Olivia. A sentient
zombie
.”

Olivia’s eyes went back to the road. “I never planned for that. I kept getting introduced to more and more people, and the more people I talked to, the deeper I get sucked into the politics and the backstage goings-on. Believe me, right now I really wish I didn’t know so much. This shit with the Necromancers… I could happily have lived in ignorance.”

“Yeah,” Larissa said. She absently started to pick at her fingernails as she looked out the window.

“Are we still friends?”

Larissa’s head jerked at that statement. “Of course we are. You’ve stood behind me since all this started. Why would I leave you after you’ve put yourself in danger helping me?”

Olivia’s shoulders relaxed at the sincerity in Larissa’s tone. “What are you going to tell your family?”

Larissa shook her head. “I’m not quite sure where to go with this yet.”

Olivia laughed, a harsh sound. “I got you. Right now I’m so messed up I can’t remember how to diagram a sentence. My kids are going to eat me up and spit me out.”

“Jason Evans will be king for the day. I hope the school is still standing tomorrow.” Both women laughed, a call to move beyond fear and back to normalcy.

After the laughter died down, Larissa breathed deep. “Thank you again for setting up this meeting. So please don’t think me ungrateful when I say I wish he had been a little more helpful. I’m still no closer to knowing why they are targeting
me
, and that’s what I was hoping to find out.”

Olivia smiled, and Terak saw mischief in her features. “Well, if you weren’t here with a very fine looking man who happened to be in your bedroom at five in the morning, I would have said it was because you were a virgin.”

“Olivia!”

Larissa’s scandalized tone was barely heard over the sudden pounding in Terak’s ears.

She was untouched?

“I’m just saying…” Olivia didn’t even try to hide her smirk.

“Well don’t!”

Yes, her father was protective, but from what he knew of humans, they did not reserve sexual intimacy solely for their mates. She was old enough that not having a lover would be unusual.

Larissa refused to look at him, her face scarlet and muttering under her breath on how she would take revenge on Olivia.

It was still early morning when they arrived back at her apartment, but late enough that she would have awoken already to get ready for her day. Larissa motioned toward the balcony. “Thank you for coming with me, but I need to get started-”

“Is what Olivia said true?” he broke in, no finesse in his words. He needed to know, now.

Her face flamed immediately, but Larissa pretended ignorance. “What are you talking about?”

“Are you untouched?”

Larissa turned to walk into her room. “My…sexual life… has nothing to do with what is occurring.”

He came before her, not letting her escape into her bedroom. “You say that you can think of no reason why the necromancers are targeting you. There is no overt reason, but there is some reason. They have gone to extraordinary lengths to apprehend you. No possibility can be overlooked.”

Larissa would not look him in the eyes, instead tried to step around him. When she failed in her quest, she went still, looking down at the floor. Finally, she said, “Yes.”

Yes.
How could one small word have such power over him, delivering a punch greater than any enemy who ever came before him? He worked saliva into his now dry mouth to speak, feigning a calmness his heartbeats would easily bely. “Why does this embarrass you?”

She shrugged, still looking at the floor. “People usually don’t discuss their sexual history, or their complete lack thereof. And most people my age don’t have a complete lack thereof.”

The defensiveness in her tone hurt something in him. He did not like her feeling she was inadequate in any way. “I do not know the ways of humans, but while virginity is not held sacred, most of my Clan do not engage in sexual acts with anyone before they take a mate.”

That brought Larissa’s head up, her interest in the subject easily read on her face. “Really? Why is that?”

“Vulnerability.”

Larissa’s eyebrows creased. “I don’t understand.”

“A Gargoyle is vulnerable during intimacy. There would be no better time for an enemy to strike.”

Her lips twisted, a smile that couldn’t quite form. “If that wasn’t so sad, there is a pithy comment in that statement.”

He reached out and smoothed back her hair. “What statement?”

“Your people have trust issues.”

“I have never denied this.”

She laughed a little then, but her eyes widened, her lush mouth opening in surprise. “Wait. So does this mean you are…?”

She let the question hang without voicing the final words, but what she was asking was clear. “I have never had a lover. I am as you are.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat, her head once again hanging down, her gaze on the ground. Then without lifting her head, her eyes came back to his. “Valry?”

“No.”

Now her head lifted. “But you two are engag- I mean, Intended.”

“Yes. It is my duty to mate with her. As the strongest female, she will protect the Clan well, and any young we have will have the strength to protect the Clan in the future.”

Her eyebrows came together. “Wait, you don’t love Valry, but you’re going to marry her?”

“I must do what is best for my Clan, and my Clan will prosper with Valry as my mate.”

She shook her head, though she seemed not aware of the movement. “You can’t be serious? Life isn’t worth living if you’re not with the one you love.”

“Humans can live with such fanciful notions. As leader, I am allowed no such luxury.”

“That’s bull!” The exclamation was a surprise, as was the finger that poked him in the chest. “I understand you are under pressures I can’t comprehend, but there is nothing strong or noble about picking a female you don’t love as your wife. It’s a cowardly way out.”

“Cowardly?” He had never been described that way in his life. He was the leader of the greatest warriors of this realm, and this little human would call him a coward? “Watch your words.”

“Oh, I am!” Her eyes were blazing, and in her anger she seemed to grow in size. “Only a coward would marry someone he doesn’t love. You know why? Because love is the ultimate vulnerability. It can put you on your knees and destroy parts of you that will never function again when it’s gone. A coward couldn’t handle that, so they would instead marry someone that could never happen with.”

“What would you have me do? Would you have me defy tradition and the will of my people?”

“Yes! Isn’t that the point of being here with me, to bring your people away from what they know to something better? Be with someone you love.” Her eyes were bright, shining with the ferocity of her belief while she spoke of love and cowardice.

“You do not understand.”

“Then make me understand. Make me understand why you would be with a female you don’t love when there is a female in front of you who…”

She faltered, her hand going over her mouth and stopping any more words from coming forth.

A female in front of him. A female who was warm and loving and brave and so damn desirable his teeth ached in want of her. “Make you understand, little human? How can I make you understand something that becomes less clear to me every time I am near you?”

He picked her up by her waist, bringing her to eye level. Before the question in her eyes could translate to words, he leaned down, pressing his mouth to hers.

Her lips were soft, as soft as he’d imagined those rare moments he was away from her. Even then, she was as much a part of him as when she was in his sight. There was never a moment he was free of her.

She didn’t respond as he moved his lips over hers. Maybe this was not correct. It was perfect to him, but…

Thought left as her mouth opened under his, pressing against him to push closer. Her tongue slipped past his lips, a tentative touch against his own.

Her tongue was becoming bolder, tangling with his in long strokes. He raised one hand to grasp her hair, slanting her head so he could dive deeper into that warmth.

Her arms wound around his shoulders, her own fingers digging into hair as her body writhed against him. Gods, that body, that soft, sensual body was draining the strength from his. He leaned her against the wall, the bodies now tight together. Her chest was against his, her nipples such hard points he felt them through the cloth that separated their bodies.

She moved against him with that sinuous grace he had seen so many nights from a distance, the movements slow and sensuous and reducing him to a mindless beast.

He wanted her skin. He wanted her naked. He wanted his mouth on every inch of her – her breasts, her stomach, that valley between her thighs.

Especially there. He wanted to live there. He wanted to wring every ounce of pleasure from her body, and once he did, he wanted to do it again. And again. And again.

She pulled her mouth from his, her eyes wide and shocked as she looked down at him. She opened her mouth, closed it. Opened her mouth again, licked her lips, closed her mouth.

He looked at her mouth and a vibration rolled through his chest. That mouth was far sweeter and softer than any dream had promised.

“I…” She had gotten her voice back, though hesitant shock colored her tone. “School. My kids. I need to go.”

He let her go and backed away before he convinced himself of the wisdom of taking her back into his arms. With a bow, he returned to his gargoyle form and leapt from the window.

“Miss Miller? You’re about a million miles away today,”

“Huh?” Larissa looked up to see half of her first period students staring at her. “What?”

Jason Evans sighed. “You might consider making all your classes study periods today. You keep zoning in and out.”

Damn it! Stupid Gargoyle.
No, no fair blaming Terak for her inability to do her job. The fault lay squarely with her and her hormones. “Thank you, Jason. I’ll take that under advisement. Any other questions before class ends?”

Jason spoke. “You never answered my question. If the necromancers are such bad guys, why didn’t everyone band together to destroy them?”

Every day Jason somehow brought up either necromancers or vampires. Older teachers told her there was one kid every year who fixated on them, but Jason didn’t fit the mold. He was the golden boy, an athletic genius who was adored around the school, not some emo kid who had no other way of expressing dissatisfaction with their lot in life than by thumbing their nose at society’s conventions and openly embracing something everyone else feared. “Necromancers are very powerful, so it’s not that easy to fight them. Plus there is due process to consider.”

Jason shrugged. “Or maybe everyone makes them out to be the bad guys to keep all the attention on them and away from the other races.”

The intensity in Jason’s eyes, the set of his shoulders and the line of his mouth, had warning bells clanging in uncomfortable cacophony. When had this unhealthy fascination begun again? “Jason, while I am not one who swallows the party line completely, trying to make necromancers in any way good is a bit of a stretch.”

“And I think we’re only being given one side of the story,” Jason argued back, his arms crossed over his chest with typical teenage mulishness.