Stone Lover (36 page)

    She nodded vaguely as she tried to think beyond the near future. She’d only be able to see her family at night, so she’d have to figure out what she could tell them when they asked why they never saw her during the day. It could work; she’d manage it somehow…. “Okay.”

    He inhaled sharply and then let the breath out slowly. Moistening his lips with his tongue, he continued, “I spoke of sacrifice; you’d have to give up… everything.”

    Freaking out, she looked at Vaughn with desperation, “I don’t care; I don’t want to lose you.”

    “Your family, Melanie,” he clarified almost cruelly, willing her to understand. “You’d have to give up your family, Melanie; the moment you turn, you’ll no longer be human, you won’t be allowed to have any ties to the human world.”

    She staggered backwards, only remaining upright when Rhys caught her and held her steady. How could she give up her family? Jenna, who had already suffered so much? Her parents? Her brother? Oh, God! Ferris! How could she give up Ferris, the little girl whom she loved so very, very much? Ferris needed someone who understood her, who would encourage her…. Breathing rapidly, she shook her head in denial as tears slipped unheeded down her cheeks, “I don’t know if I can do that.”

    “I know,” Vaughn murmured compassionately.

    Anger stiffened her spine and she pushed away from the monkey, pushed away from Vaughn. “How do you know this? How do you know about any of this? If it even works….”

    “There are other gargoyles, Melanie,” he confessed quietly. At her look of shock, he continued, “Not many, mind you, but a few. This ritual is well known among my kind, as are its results; only once has a gargoyle’s gift been accepted, Melanie, and that was thousands of years ago, a very long time before I was born. I never expected you to accept but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing when I have the power to keep you safe. I can’t bear to see you hurt.”

    She sucked in another painful breath, her eyes flying to Armand, who stood stoically as a griffin, his expression stony and blank. No wonder why Armand hated her; he knew she would have to make this impossible choice. Blinking rapidly, she tried to be rational, to think, but her brain wasn’t cooperating. Her head pounded and she couldn’t think at all.  She needed to talk to someone; she needed her sister. “I need to go home.”

    “I understand,” Vaughn said, sound so damn resigned she wanted to scream at him.

    She did scream at him, “No, you don’t! I don’t understand; why didn’t you tell me this before we ever began this stupid ritual? Why did you let me believe we could be together forever?”

    “I’m so sorry,” he apologized meekly.

    “How can you ask me to choose between you and my family?” she cried, starting to hyperventilate. Reaching out, she steadied herself by placing a hand on Rhys’s stone chest as black dots danced behind her eyes and the world spun crazily. “Oh, God; I can’t breathe.”

    At once, Vaughn was there, his arms around her, protecting her, shielding her. His broad palm was rubbing her back and his warm, familiar scent clouded her brain even further. “Relax, my love; just breathe.”

    Her breath hitched in her throat as she tried to breathe past the blockade in her throat. How could she love the man that caused her so much pain? How could she not? “I have to go.”

    With an arm around her waist, he led her over to the door that would allow her to leave. Softly, he asked, “Will you be back?”

    She looked up at him, her eyes glossy with heartbreak and despair. “You’re asking me to give up my family; how can I make that choice with only a few days? Why didn’t you tell me before you offered?”

    He licked his lips with the tip of his tongue, straightening his shoulders as he looked down at her. Finally, he rasped, “I didn’t expect to love you so much.”

    She gasped as if he struck her and her eyes filled with agonizing pain as she turned around and stumbled away from him, too shocked to speak, only needing to get out of there.

    He swallowed thickly, letting her go and watching her struggle to open the door and then disappear through it. He stood there for a long time, not noticing when the sun went down and his brothers returned to their human form. When Rhys put his hand on his shoulder, he jumped.

    “She’s not coming back, is she?” Rhys asked softly.

     “No,” Vaughn answered, resigned and stoic. Shaking his head as he stared at the closed door, he repeated himself. “No.”

     “Damn her!” Armand swore, smashing his fist against the brick wall and shattering the brick.

     Alarmed, Vaughn crossed to his brother and grabbed him, shoving his back against the broken wall so that they were facing one another, “No, Armand; listen to me – Melanie loves me and I think, had she been given enough time, she would have chosen me. A month just isn’t enough time.”

     “You still have four days,” Armand growled, his eyes blazing, a mixture of rage and despair. “Why has she decided not to spend your last days with you?”

     Vaughn looked away and swallowed past the lump in his throat, “I think it would have been too painful, to be with me knowing that I was going to… leave her.”

     “She’s going to come to regret it,” Armand murmured, his tone softening.

     “Yes,” Vaughn acknowledged. “And when she returns here I want you to promise me that you will her tell that I love her, that I will always love her, and that I want her to be happy.”

     “You ask too much of me, brother,” Armand despaired, clasping Vaughn’s forearms with his hands, his eyes glistening with useless tears.

     “It’s all I ask of you,” Vaughn said with a sad smile.

     “What are you going to do now?” Rhys asked softly.

    “Get completely smashed and figure out how I am going to live without Melanie when I wake up,” he said with a rueful smile. They all knew that he was talking about waking up from his decades-long sleep.

    “You’ll get through,” Armand offered empathetically. “Even on days when you think you’re dying because it hurts so much each time your heart beats, you will get through.”

    “Besides, you’ll have us there,” Rhys promised. “We’ll be by your side the entire time you’re asleep and we’ll be there the moment you wake.”

    Vaughn clutched his chest as he struggled against the debilitating pain those words caused, “She’ll be gone when I wake up and I’ll never see her again.”

    His knees gave out and he crumbled to the ground at the thought; she was forever gone from him and he didn’t know how he was going to take his next breath. Armand’s arms came around him and his older brother promised, “You’ll get through it.”

    The problem was he didn’t know if he wanted to.

* * * * *

    A few days later, Melanie was lying in her bed, still debating what it was she was going to do. Her entire body ached and if she was brave enough, she would have thrown all caution to the wind three days ago and returned to Vaughn. But she wasn’t brave; she was a coward and that awareness of her true nature made her sick.

    She tried to talk to Jenna but it was impossible to explain her dilemma when there was so much she couldn’t say. So Jenna held her as she cried, offering comforting words without needing to know why her sister’s heart was breaking.

    How could she give up her family?

    How could she give up Vaughn?”

    Even a visit from Frankie did nothing to cheer her up. Her friend had been as bright and cheerful as ever but Melanie hadn’t been in the mood for bright and cheerful; she wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear. Anything was better than the anguish of having to choose between her family and the love of her life.

    “Oh my God, did you hear about Vanessa and Peter?” Frankie gushed, oblivious to Melanie’s misery, or trying to cheer her up. “The two of them flew off to Vegas last week and got married. I can’t believe he actually married the tramp.”

    Melanie hadn’t heard the news but it didn’t come as a surprise; it was what she asked Vaughn to do. Not able to meet her friend’s eyes, she asked softly, “Did you know she had slept with him when we were still together?”

    Frankie was silent but the color crept into her cheeks and Melanie had the answer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

    “You broke up with him less than a week later,” Frankie started to confess. “I thought you knew. And when I realized you didn’t know, it didn’t matter anymore and I didn’t want to cause any problems between you and Ness.”

    “But you changed towards her.”

    “Well, she had always been reckless and irresponsible but sleeping with a friend’s boyfriend was too much….” Frankie paused and truly looked at Melanie. Cocking her head to the side, she frowned, “You don’t seem very angry about it; why aren’t you angry?”

  
Melanie tried to smile but her lips faltered and her eyes welled with tears. “I just don’t have the energy to care.”

    Frankie understood without Melanie having to say anything; she took Melanie into her arms and held her as she cried. 

    Rolling onto her side, Melanie watched the morning sun spill into her room. Between Frankie’s sympathy and Jenna’s support and Melanie had loved being home again. Even with the suffocating weight of the world hanging over her head, she had spent so much time with her family over the past couple of days, laughing and crying. It only made it that much more difficult to make a decision.

    “Aunt Mellie?” Ferris’s little voice came from the doorway. “Can I come in?”

    “Isn’t it awfully early for you to be up?” Melanie asked, forcing a smile as Ferris came into the room and crawled up onto the bed.

    “I heard you crying last night,” the little girl admitted, her blue-green eyes wide with concern. “Are you all right?”

    Melanie’s smile became genuine as she hugged Ferris, “I will be.”

    “Mommy says you broke up with Vaughn,” Ferris frowned. “Why?”

    “It’s… complicated.”

    “But you love him,” Ferris pressed.

    “Sometimes love isn’t enough, sweetheart,” Melanie said solemnly. Holding the little girl in her arms, she whispered, “It’s just not enough.”

    “If I loved somebody I would make it last forever,” Ferris declared, equally solemn.

    “I know,” Melanie said, torn between laughing and crying. Sitting up, Melanie faced the little girl as she removed the enchanted amulet. It had been days since she had seen any imps and in a few hours, it wasn’t going to be needed any more; Vaughn had promised protection. With a sniff, she put it over Ferris’s head, smoothing it in place, “I want you to always wear this necklace, Ferris; it’s very special.”

    “Why, Aunt Mellie?” she examined the necklace, holding it up to the light and turning it around and around in her hands, mesmerized by the sparkly charm. “What does it do?”

    “It’s magic,” Melanie whispered, touching the pendant with the tip of her finger. Sadness washed through her but she pushed it down; she wasn’t going to cry in front of Ferris. “It protects whoever wears it and keeps them safe.”

    “Where’d you get it?”

    “From a wizard named Omari.”

    Ferris beamed and then threw her arms around Melanie’s neck. “I love it, Aunt Mellie; I’m never going to take it off.”

    “Good girl,” Melanie whispered, wiping a tear away and breathing in the fresh, clean scent of Ferris. Squeezing her eyes tight, she hugged the little girl a little longer, not wanting to let her go. “I love you, Ferris. So much.”