The Girl and the Gargoyle: Book Two of The Girl and the Raven Series (39 page)

“Zack.” I glance at him over my shoulder. “Good call.”

“Your uncle…I mean your brother…” Dylan teases.

“Marcus, punch Dylan for me.” Like I need a reminder that Jude had relationships with both Gram and Momma.

“I’ll bank that request for another time,” Marcus says. I can feel him smiling behind me.

I type in Z-A-C-K. My finger hovers over the send button. “What if the password is Zackary? How many more attempts do you think I have?”

“How did Jude refer to him?” Marcus asks.

I think back to my conversation with Jude about Zack and shake my head in frustration. “I only remember Jude referring to him as his son.”

“Then you have to pick one,” Dylan says.

I rub my palms on my jeans. Zack or Zackary? Gram only ever referred to him as Zack. Same with Momma. That’s my decision then. I hit enter.

That same message appears, telling me I entered an incorrect password.

“Forget it. We’re done.” I push away from the desk, my stomach clenched in a fiery stress ball, and climb out of Jude’s chair.

“You probably have one more attempt. Let’s give it another shot,” Dylan says.

“No way.” It suddenly feels like a hundred degrees in Jude’s office.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” Dylan asks.

I jerk my head back. “I’ll put in yet another incorrect password, and the computer will lock us out. Jude will come home and know we’ve been messing with it.”

Dylan shakes his head in frustration. “You think Jude’s the one you have to fear? What about the gargoyles who are out to kill you and Jude?” He jabs his finger toward the computer.

I swallow hard and slide back into Jude’s chair.

“Don’t hate on all protectors. There are still plenty of us—the non-psychotic kind—out there,” Marcus says to Dylan as he wheels the chair and me to the desk.

“Understood, but your kind tried to kill me the other night. And they’re out to kill Lucy. I don’t take it lightly when someone comes after me and my family.”

Family.
I smile to myself.

“Dylan, you said that some of your dad’s clients combine all the names in the family. Can you give me an example?” I ask.

“It’s mostly the first couple letters of each name.”

Jude’s family: Jude, Zack, and Lucy.
Wait
. There’s Gram—
Vera
. I roll my shoulders out, trying to ease the tension. My fingers hover over the home row on the keyboard. With my eyes glued to the screen, I type: J-U-V-E-Z-A-L-U. My finger trembles over the enter button.

Dylan sighs. “Just do it already.”

I whack the button much harder than necessary then hold my breath waiting for the reject message to appear. It doesn’t. Instead, Jude’s monitor populates with all of his software icons.

“And we’re in. Great job, Lucy.” Marcus kisses the top of my head.

We search through his files and find one aptly called
Lucy
.

Dylan thrusts a USB drive into my hand, and I copy the file.

“We got what we came for,” Dylan says. “Shut it down.”

“Just a second,” I tell him.

If Jude has a file on me, maybe he’s got one on Marcus, too. I return to the search window and type in GARGOYLE.

Three files pop up, and I copy them all.

Marcus yanks my chair away from the desk. “Jude’s home,” he hisses. “Shut it down now!”

I close everything down, shut the lid, then slide the USB drive into the pocket of my jeans.

We make it to the front door just as Jude enters. A flicker of annoyance registers on his face. “You go to the mall for a shirt and return with a gargoyle?”

I hold up my shopping bag. “Several shirts.”

Jude isn’t amused. “What’s he doing here?”

“He saved Dylan’s life the other night. Or have you already forgotten?”

“He came to warn us that Garret’s men are scoping out St. Aquinas,” Dylan says.

Jude’s gaze narrows.

“Aiden and I picked up their auras tonight. They know Lucy’s class schedule.”

Jude slams the door behind him. “That’s it. I’m pulling you out of school.”

“Or we could arrange a meeting,” I suggest. “You could reach out to Garret. Try to settle this.”

Jude squeezes the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. I would laugh at the uncharacteristic gesture, if it weren’t for the anger rolling off of him.

“It won’t do any good,” he says. “Their new secret regime is determined to exterminate me.”

Of course he knows—he’s frickin’ Jude.

“But why?” I ask.

He gives a small shake of his head. “I need to make some calls. And you,” he thrusts his finger at me, “are not going to school tomorrow.”

“What if the protectors show up looking for me? What if they attack other students?”

“Gargoyles,” Dylan mumbles.

“Don’t argue with me,” Jude says.

Marcus twitches and jerks beside me.

I continue, determined. “I’m not putting the entire student body at risk. They want me. Set up a meeting in the woods.”

If only I hadn’t ticked off Lucifer. We could really use his help.

I roll my eyes skyward.

Oops
. I shift my attention to the floor.
If I’m going to protect the student body and Jude, I’m going to need your help.

“Lucy…” Marcus lays a hand on my arm. A tremor passes from him to me. He needs to get out of here.

Jude narrows his eyes. He looks at Marcus expectantly and jerks his head toward the door.

“Uh, yeah. I’ll see you later,” Marcus murmurs. He presses his twitchy lips to my forehead then heads for the exit. “Later, Dylan. Jude.”

Jude seems to relish locking the door behind Marcus. Then he turns to me. “No school.” He points to Dylan. “Keep her in the house.”

As he strides down the hall toward his office, I get a quick burn across my wrist. Dylan jumps and grabs his arm and I know Jude stung him too. Stupid demon discipline.

Will he know we were in his office? My mouth goes dry as I replay everything we did from the time we got back from the mall.

That’s when it hits me.

“Oh, no!” I hiss. “The laptop is in the wrong spot. I slid it closer to me while sitting in his chair, and I never moved it back.” How could I have been so stupid? “He’s going to know.”

Dylan mulls that over. “Maybe he won’t notice,” he says, although the doubt in his voice fails to instill much confidence in me.

Chapter Fifty-Two

“This is creepy,” Dylan says as he scrolls through the photos we stole from Jude’s computer.

I’m not sure—and my mind isn’t capable of counting at the moment—but there has to be thirty pictures. How did Jude get these? Sure, Aiden passed information from Gram along to Jude, but this much?

There’s the photo when I was six and Gram had taken me to get a haircut, my eyes looking large and soulful under heavy bangs. Then there’s the photo when I was ten, a year I would prefer to forget entirely. The haunted expression in my eyes had everything to do with Momma and her first overdose. I swallow past the lump in my throat.

Dylan snorts. “This one’s great, although I think you nearly strangled Sheldon.”

I scoot closer to him on the bed and study the photo. Sure enough, there I sit on Sheldon’s lap roughly eight years old. My arms are wrapped so tight around his neck his eyes bulge.

“Can we skip the photos and move on to more important information?” I didn’t mean for that to come out as harshly as it did, but how can I explain to Dylan the pain these old photos stir up? It’s not possible for him—the super rich, popular, star of the football team—to understand where I came from.

“I think it makes the most sense to focus on the information about the gargoyles.”

Dylan sighs impatiently. “Make up your mind.” He selects another file and hits enter then whistles low.

The screen populates with photo after photo of protectors. I recognize a few faces: Garret, Ronan, Flynn, and Marcus. Below each photo is a name.

I gasp when I see the word
Eliminated
typed next to several names.

“Dylan?” My voice sounds hollow. “Do you think Jude killed them?”

“I don’t know, but this doesn’t look good.”

My eyes start to burn from staring at the photos for so long. I force myself to blink a few times.

Protectors killing and draining demons. Demons—possibly Jude—killing and draining protectors. It has to stop. Garret wants Jude. He wants me almost as much. I’m left with no choice.

“I have to lure Garret and his team to the woods.”

He jumps off the bed. “No. Let Jude do it.”

I flip over to a sitting position. “If this goes down at St. Aquinas, a lot of students will get caught in the middle. Garret’s making a point of coming after me just to hurt Jude. I’ll go to him, instead.”

“What do you think you’re going to accomplish by luring Garret and his team into the woods?”

“Listen, I need you on board, Dylan. You’re unbelievably strong.” He puffs out his chest just a little, and I know I said the right thing.

“We’re going to ambush Garret.” I pause for only a moment, nervous how he’s going to react to my next statement. “We can win if you’re willing to enhance my powers, like you did when we torched Jude’s tree.”

“He’ll kill you!”

“Not with you by my side.” I’ve thought through many different scenarios. This is the one I keep coming back to—the only one that keeps Jude and Marcus alive.

Dylan heaves a long, slow sigh and plunks down beside me on the bed. “Tell me the plan. The
whole
plan. Don’t you dare leave anything out.”

My favorite Florence and the Machine song blares from the cell phone in my pocket. I hold a finger up to Dylan. “Hey, Selima, what’s up?”

“Lucy, you’ve got to get here, to your school, now. I mean right now.”

The panic in her voice makes my blood run cold. Selima is the calmest person I know.

“What’s going on?”

The line goes dead.

“Lucy…?” Dylan looks from my phone to me, his face a mask of worry.

“Something’s wrong.” I jump up from the bed and head for the door. Dylan is right behind me. “We need to meet Selima at St. Aquinas.”

“What’s she doing there?”

I slip my shoes on and grab my purse. “Long story short? I gave her a tour. Now she breaks in and hangs out.”

“Weird.” Dylan grunts.

I glance at the bedroom door. “There’s no way Jude’s going to let us leave this late.”

Dylan looks toward the window. “It’s not that hard to get out of here, Luce.”

I frown. “What do you have in mind? I doubt tying sheets together will work, especially this high up.”

“You’re kidding me, right? Weren’t you the one jumping off Jude’s roof last year?”

“That was me. What about you?”

Dylan smirks. “I think I can manage.”

We throw open the windows, and I climb out. Dylan follows right behind. Jumping off the roof was scary, but somehow this is scarier. Maybe because it’s dark or perhaps because if Jude finds out, he’ll probably chain me up in the basement to keep me inside.

I grab Dylan’s hand and we stand side by side on the slanted shingles. I recall Selima’s frantic voice over the phone. This can only mean one thing. Garret’s team is at my school. We need to get them out before morning.

Dylan squeezes my hand. “Let’s do this.”

I nod, resolved. “Land soft. Don’t lock your knees.”

On three, we both leap from the ledge. Before I can register fear or anything else, we’re on the ground. On our feet, a rush of adrenaline passes through my body.

“Let’s get out of here,” he says.

Chapter Fifty-Three

“What does Selima do all night at St. Aquinas?” Dylan asks during our drive over.

“She’s obsessed with the books in the old library. She sits by the floor-to-ceiling arched windows in the gym and reads by moonlight.”

Or maybe she’s helping the protectors in their plan to kill me
, the little voice in my head whispers.

Dylan slides a sideways glance my way. “That sounds lonely. I should probably check on her sometime.”

What if we don’t live past tonight
? that voice says.

Selima and Marcus meet us in the gymnasium.

Marcus doesn’t kiss or hug me when I walk in. Even now he keeps a distance.

“What’s going on?” I direct the question at Marcus.

He crosses his arms over his chest and nods at Selima. “Tell them.”

“I overheard a conversation between Garret, Ronan, and Flynn tonight at the condo. They’re coming here. They plan to nab you in the morning and then contact Jude to let him know they have you.”

“What are we going to do?” Dylan asks tightly. I flinch as his heartbeat pounds in my ears. The demon in him wants to fight.