The Girl and the Gargoyle: Book Two of The Girl and the Raven Series (43 page)

Aiden meets us in the parking lot.

“How’d you know we were here?” I ask.

Aiden looks around, then behind him. “Did he arrive?”

“He? Who?” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know who he’s referring to. “How did you know?”

Aiden’s dark gaze looks past me to Marcus. “Put Marcus in my SUV. Are we taking him to Jude’s?”

“The condo,” Selima says. “You and Lucy can follow Dylan and me.”

Aiden strokes Marcus’s hair. “You’re going to be okay, little brother. I promise.”

Chapter Fifty-Six

Camille

I stroke Garret’s face. My fingers linger along his brow, trace along his broad cheekbone, then down along his powerful jaw. I’ve loved this man forever. This beautiful, strong, confident man.

“We were supposed to do this together,” I whisper. My legs prickle with sleep, so I readjust, careful not to jostle him. “We were going to create a new race of protectors. We were going to be invincible.”

Garret’s body temperature grows cool.
He’s gone
.

“Marcus would’ve come around. I’m his mother. In time, he will do what I say. And we finally found Grayson’s heir.” I still can’t believe my good luck. “I told you patience was the answer.”

I snap my eyes open and glare at the dead man in my lap. “Why did you have to go and screw this up?”

Hurried steps disrupt my grief.

“We need to go. People are going to show up soon. What do you want to do about his blood?”

“We’re certainly not going to waste it. Do you have your tools?”

Max nods. He drops the backpack from his shoulder and kneels beside me. He rolls out a towel and lines up a series of tubes and needles.

“Who was that gray-haired man?”

Max focuses on the needles and tubes. “Lucifer. Maybe Jude conjured him.”

“Jude didn’t look happy to see him.”

“Dunno.”

Could Lucy have called upon the leader of the underworld? Am I underestimating her powers?
“He seems fond of Lucy.”
I need to get rid of her if I have any hope of convincing Marcus to join the clan
. “If she were in peril, do you think Lucifer would take her back with him?”

Max glances at me uneasily. “I would be careful if I were you.”

I grip his jaw and force him to look at me. “I pay you a lot of money, demon, so listen closely. Lucy’s life is in danger. And you,” I dig my nails into his skin, “will be the voice in Lucifer’s ear, convincing him to take the girl away.”

Max’s eyes widen. “Why would he listen to me?”

“If you can’t then you will be charged with killing her.” I smile at the lowly demon and am rewarded by the flicker of fear in his eyes. “If you fail me, I will personally see that Lucifer, Jude, Marcus, Aiden…
everyone
knows how you’ve double-crossed them.”

I release Max and with a grunt, I roll Garret onto his stomach. While the front of his body is sickly pale, his backside is splotched with deep purple bruises.

I carefully pull a large shard of glass from my husband’s back. The wound is horrific and lovely. Max can wait a few minutes to drain Garret. I draw my hair back in a makeshift ponytail with one hand, then lean over and claim what is mine. The taste is familiar and sweet, like cotton candy and peonies after first bloom. My ears fill with the sound of fast-moving rapids. I lap the blood slowly, tenaciously, then faster, needing more. My hair falls in a veil around my face as I grab hold of Garret with both hands.

My great love is gone, but I have the clan. Always the clan. Need to tie up one loose end. Make that two.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Lucy Walker

“I’m not going to drink,” Marcus moans, his cheek pressed against the metal tabletop. The open wounds on Marcus’s back make me teeter.

“Please, Marcus.” Selima rips open the flesh of her wrist and holds the bloody skin against Marcus’s face. He shoves her away weakly. Dylan and Demetrius brace Marcus by the head and shoulders, forcing him to remain still.

“Marcus.” Aiden squats beside the table to make eye contact. “You’re one of the three people left in the world who knows my secret.”

He touches Marcus’s hair gently. It’s the second gesture of tenderness I’ve seen from Aiden, and both of them have been for Marcus. “The burns on your back are serious. We can’t take you to a hospital. Between the wounds and your damaged wings, it’s not possible to retract them. The cuts could scar, get infected. Leave you maimed. Let them heal you, please.”

“No,” Marcus says.

Aiden yanks his shirt over his head. He turns around, but not before I see the web of angry scars decorating his back. Dylan and I lock gazes. What happened to him?

“Do you want to wind up like me? An amputee?” The pain in Aiden’s voice causes my throat to close. Aiden the demon is also Aiden the protector? Or ex-protector?

“I don’t want to go crazy like them,” Marcus says roughly.

“Garret and Camille have been using for a long time.” Selima presses her hand over the wound in her wrist, so she won’t waste her blood. The dark circles under her eyes make me question whether she should be giving away any more.

“Garret much more so than Camille,” Demetrius admits, hanging his head.

“The ritual of drinking the blood of a protector is for situations like this, for dire injuries. It wasn’t meant to be used like a street drug,” Selima says bitterly. “Demon blood…that’s a whole other issue.”

Demetrius stares at the floor.

I approach the head of the table. Aiden removes his hand and steps back to make room for me. “Let her heal you, Marcus, please.”

“But she drank Qui’s blood,” Marcus hisses.

“I love you. I need you. Let someone else take away your pain for a change,” I tell him.

Marcus sighs. He lifts his head. “Dylan?”

“Right here.” Dylan kneels down so he and Marcus are at eye level.

“Make me a promise,” Marcus says.

“Anything,” Dylan says.

“If I turn into one of those Franken-whatever-you-call-it or a junkie on this stuff—the first sign of it—I want you to take me out. Promise me.”

I gasp. “Marcus, you don’t know—”

Aiden grips my arm. I swallow the rest of my protest.

“Promise me!”

“I promise. Happily,” Dylan says grimly.

Every muscle in Marcus’s body visibly relaxes. “I’ll drink, but only Selima’s.”

Selima releases her hand from the gash, which has already started to heal. She tears the skin again and immediately places her wrist against Marcus’s mouth. She sways just a little.

I touch her arm. “You’ve given enough.”

Selima stares me down until I back away. “Now.” She nods at Demetrius to begin round two. He gashes his other wrist and applies more blood to Marcus’s wounds.

I bite my cheek until I taste copper, holding back my revulsion for Marcus’s sake. The sweet smell of the blood makes my stomach recoil.

I startle, pain radiating up my arm. I glance at the red welt forming, where Dylan just pinched me. Hard.

“Hold it together,” he whispers. “Do it for him.”

Chapter Fifty-Eight

I press my face to Marcus’s chest, my arms wrapped around him. Our legs are intertwined as we lay on my bed. It’s been three days since the battle at St. Aquinas, and Marcus can finally lie on his back. My uncles won’t be home for three more days. I have my soul mate all to myself. I feel as happy as a cat as he strokes my hair.

“He’s really gone?” Marcus asks.

My feelings of bliss are immediately squashed by guilt.
Jude.

“Dylan and I searched his house. Aiden, too. Jude’s car is in the driveway, but he’s nowhere to be found. He’s not answering his cell, either.”

My father
always
answered my calls. “Garret’s dead. Lucifer shouldn’t have taken Jude.”

Marcus’s body tenses. I’m about to ask him if he’s in pain, but restrain myself. I don’t want to get the stink eye from him again.

“Do you think Jude hates me, wherever he is?” I ask. “For conjuring Lucifer?”

“Garret’s team of junkie protectors were going to kill him.” Marcus tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. “You saved him. And as far as what’s-his-face, let’s not address him by name.”

I chuckle uneasily. “Why not?”

Marcus clears his throat. “We assume he’s in hell with Jude, but we have no way of knowing. Just in case, I don’t want him to think you’re beckoning him.”

“I can’t believe Aiden performed a second conjuring with Max and Warrick.”

“They were only trying to help,” Marcus says.

“I know.” I peek up at him. “What happens now with Camille?”

He sighs. “She has to answer to a higher authority. I doubt she can rule the clan as a human, and they know about the blood drinking. Laws were broken.”

I prop myself up on my elbow. “I spoke with Selima yesterday. She said Camille’s in custody.”

Marcus hesitates then nods, his expression pinched.

“What is it?”

He shrugs. “I can’t help but wonder what life would’ve been like if Garret hadn’t been driven crazy by his habit…if Camille hadn’t been an addict.” He glances at me then away. “Maybe I would’ve joined the clan—been part of something. Or maybe not.”

I killed Garret. He left out that part. Would life with the clan been better for Marcus? He could’ve surrounded himself with people who understand and accept him. He could’ve finally dispelled his belief that he’s a freak. He could’ve had a family.

I can’t bear his pained expression any longer. “It’s not like you’re barred from the clan. Selima’s talking to other protectors, trying to get a sense of things.” I snuggle against his chest to hide my worry.

Marcus sighs as he slides out from beneath me. “I have to go.”

It would be so easy to spend the night together, except that my boyfriend needs his time on the roof. Now more than ever.

After Marcus leaves, I slide under the covers and curl up in a ball. My brave face sags. For the past three days, my thoughts have been filled with snapshots of Garret’s face as I killed him. Flynn’s screams still haunt my dreams. And Jude is being held somewhere against his will. It’s all my fault.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

“Was it the right thing to do?” I run my fingers over Marcus’s wing as the moonlight casts shadows over his stone form.

“Lucifer saved Jude. And you.” Aiden’s voice is equally quiet. “According to Selima, there were two dozen gargoyles outside the school, ready to fight.”

A chill passes through me, and I pull my sweatshirt tightly around my body. A chorus of cicadas fills the night air. I scoot closer to Marcus and feel the chill of the rock seep into me.

“Demetrius called today,” Aiden says. “The counsel wants to meet with Marcus.”

It’s happening.

Aiden raises his gaze to mine. “Marcus has good instincts. And he’s got good people like Persephone and Henry to help advise him.”

Marcus is going to leave me.

“And you,” I tell him, averting my gaze as my heart breaks.

“Selima will be with him, if he decides to go.”

It’s Marcus’s chance to be among others like him, to learn the ways of protectors. “He needs to go.” I force the words from my burning throat.

“He needs to hear that from you.”

What will my life be like without Marcus? The thought is too painful, so I push it away.

A breeze passes over us, raising goose bumps on my skin. Aiden’s brow furrows, his eyes darting as if he’s searching for someone.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” I ask.

“I don’t think he’s gone.”

This isn’t about Marcus. I lean forward. “But you said…”

“Jude would never leave you. Ever,” Aiden says. “The only way Lucifer was going to get him below ground was to personally escort him. But…”

“But what?”

“Everything’s felt different since he arrived that night.”

“And it still feels different?” I ask.

Aiden nods.

“Is Marcus in danger now that Lucifer’s here? Am I?”

“Lucifer won’t harm you. You’re his namesake, which is the equivalent of his being your godfather, but on steroids. Demons take it very seriously.”

“What about my uncles? My friends?
Marcus
?”

“Lucifer is known to be possessive.” Aiden pauses, deep lines creasing his forehead. “Jude wasn’t keen on sharing you, but…this will be worse.”

Sheldon and Bernard
.
Marcus.

I tuck my trembling hands into my sweatshirt pockets. “When we conjured him, you said we had to leave the door to the other dimension open in order to send him back. So, let’s send him back. Now.”

Aiden gives a small shake of his head. “He tricked us. Lucifer knew the timeline, and he intentionally blew it.” His lips pull into a humorless smile. “It’s been a long time since he’s tasted freedom. And now he’s got you. He has a successor with Jude—albeit an unwilling one. There’s no way he’s going back.”