The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 2

Quinn

As Rollick strode into the thicker shadows of the alley, Crag wrapped a protective arm right around me, his wings fanning out on either side of him. The other man stopped in his tracks and raised his hands in a gesture of peace.

“Don’t strain your wounds more than you already have, Crag,” he said in a smoothly assured voice. “I’m not here to threaten her. You need to listen to me.”

Everythingabout the guy radiated assurance. When I’d first seen him on the dock a couple of days ago, I’d thought he looked like a movie star who’d stepped right out of the screen in full cinematic glory, and that impression hadn’t diminished. And that was true even though I had even more reason to distrust him now than I’d had before—partly because it’d become clear that he wanted to grab my heart for himself just like our other enemies did… and partly because I doubted he trusted me after I’d stabbed him while making a run for it.

I still had no idea what monstrous attribute he brought with him into his mortal guise. Other than the aura of power that tingled off of him over my skin and woke up another quaver of energy in my heart, he looked completely if stunningly human. He smiled again with a flash of those white teeth and ran his fingers back through his tawny hair, leaving it perfectly ruffled. I saw no hint of the injury I’d given him. The cut from the silver-and-iron dagger must have healed already.

“You can’t have her,” Crag rumbled, hugging me close. “You’re not setting one finger on her while I’m here.” But the fact that he hadn’t taken off into the air didn’t bode well for his ability to do so. How long would it take him to heal?

How well could the gargoyle fight off Rollick in his current state if he couldn’t flee? Torrent had said that their former boss was a very powerful demon.

“Well, I suppose that depends on how you look at it.” Rollick stayed where he was and tipped his head toward the street. “Would you really rather that mob got their hands on her? They’re already heading this way—they saw what direction you flew in. You’ll have trouble outrunning all of them in your current state.”

The monstrous horde was on the move—which meant they weren’t fighting my other shadowkind men anymore. My pulse stuttered.

“Are Torrent and Lance all right?” I blurted out.

Rollick blinked and focused on me rather than Crag for the first time. One eyebrow arched. “If you think they’re going to save the day, you’ve greatly overestimated what they’re capable of.”

My jaw tightened. “That’s not what I was thinking about. I just want to know that those creatures didn’t… didn’t kill them.”

I couldn’t stop my voice from wobbling. For a second, the demon in man form looked outright puzzled. Then he shrugged. “I’m not sure about the welfare of my mutinous employees. They are very adept at getting out of jams. I’ve only seen your other pursuers from a distance. I wasn’t looking to get up close and personal.”

We didn’t just have to worry about the horde tracking us down on their own, it occurred to me. I hadn’t enslaved the being I’d used my sorcerer magic on, only given him a single command. How long would that stick? He knew exactly where we’d been—he could lead the others right to us the second he snapped out of the spell. Which he might already have, for all I knew.

I eyed the man in front of me, tucking my hand around Crag’s arm so I’d be ready to help him carry me as much as possible if he determined we needed to take off. Could I use that power on Rollick to give us a chance to escape?

I had no idea how I’d summoned enough energy to begin with. It wasn’t crackling through my body the way it’d been in that moment. Maybe if he came at us and provoked enough desperation, that would trigger the same reaction. But I didn’t know how to generate it on my own.

And who knew if it’d even work on a being as powerful as my men had suggested he was? They hadn’t believed they could defeat him in a fight even three against one.

“How are you even here?” I asked, for the sake of drawing out the conversation—and giving Crag more time to recover from his wounds. “Torrent saw a photo of you back in L.A.”

“Oh, I did go home,” Rollick replied. “Quite the trick the bunch of you pulled with that body in the park. It actually convinced me. But I have eyes all over the place. I got word that shadowkind had amassed in Miami and then headed north, and I knew that meant there was still a prize to be had here. So I flew straight back, and I’ve been cruising around keeping watch for you for the past couple of hours.”

My skin prickled uneasily at his words. “I’m not a prize.”

He gazed at me steadily. “To a whole lot of my monstrous brethren, you most certainly are.”

“And to you?” I shot back.

“I recognize your value.” His gaze lifted to meet Crag’s eyes again. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to hurt her.”

“You wanted her heart,” the gargoyle growled. His wings extended and contracted at the edges of my vision, and I could tell the damaged one was still barely mobile. More smoke was coursing off the ragged tears in its leather surface. Shit.

“Yes, well, I happen to think that heart is much more useful while still in the body currently harboring it.” Rollick aimed a wink at me, as if we were all having a grand time here and not in a life-or-death standoff.

“What do you want, then?” I demanded.

He paused as if considering his answer and slung his hands in the pockets of his fitted slacks. “You’re a piece on a very large playing board, one you don’t even know the half of. I prefer to hold as many pieces as possible. But I meant what I said. I don’t intend to harm you, certainly not to kill you like some of those lesser shadowkind might if given free rein. I can help you figure out what to do with all that unexpected energy inside you.”

My pulse hitched again, but this time it wasn’t with fear. He might know how to deal with the sorcerer magic lodged in my heart? How I could control it or even get rid of it? The memory of the strange word that’d reverberated up my throat and the way the creature I’d aimed it at had fled came back to me again with a chill.

I might not know how to turn it on at will, but the power was getting stronger, more active. I hadn’t used it on purpose. What if I accidentally turned it on one of my men next? If all three of those men had even survived the latest horror show I’d dragged them into.

But Torrent hadn’t believed that Rollick would protect me. He’d defied his boss specifically to protect me from him. The demon in front of me could be lying through his teeth, and I’d have no clue.

I wet my lips. “Why shouldn’t we just walk away? What are you going to do if I don’t agree to go with you?”

Crag shifted his stance behind me, drawing himself up even taller as if in an attempt to look as threatening as possible.

Rollick considered both of us calmly. He folded his arms over his well-muscled chest. “You can’t fly right now,” he said to Crag. “We both know it, or you’d already have jetted off. I don’t want to fight you, if only because I’d rather not traumatize the girl by having her see what I’d have to do to you, but I will if I need to. There’s no one watching here that I need to hide from. You’d be taking on the demon.”

I kind of wondered why he hadn’t launched into battle already. He had to be pissed off at Crag for disobeying him and then tricking him. Was he really that worried about my emotional well-being? It seemed unlikely. But then, I got the impression Rollick played a long game on that board he’d talked about. Who knew what his full motivations were?

We could still run for it. I curled my fingers tighter around Crag’s thick forearm, prepared to let him heft me up so he could charge off down the alley. At the same time, my back pressed more firmly against his chest, and I felt the faint flinch he couldn’t suppress at the feel of my vest.

Couldhe even run fast enough to outpace Rollick the way he was now? What would Rollick do to him if we forced him to give chase?

The gargoyle’s head twitched, his attention seeming to shift to something beyond the alley. A low growl escaped him. He didn’t say anything in front of Rollick, but a chilly certainty washed through me.

Crag had told me that he could sense the presence of other shadowkind when they were close enough. The ones hunting us must be nearby—maybe no more than a few blocks away now.

“What guarantee do I have?” I asked abruptly.

“Quinn,” Crag protested, his arm tensing around me. “You don’t have to?—”

“Guarantee?” Rollick interrupted, cocking his head.

“That you won’t hurt me,” I said. “You could say whatever you want, and then as soon as I don’t have Crag guarding me, you’ll be ripping my heart out.”

Rollick’s mouth twisted slightly in what looked like genuine distaste at the thought, but it could have been an act. He contemplated the question for a moment. Then he raised one hand and flicked his fingers. A spread of black claws shot from the tips where his fingernails had been an instant before. They were only half as long as Lance’s talons but equally vicious-looking.

He poised the claws over his other arm where bare tanned skin showed beneath the rolled-up sleeve of his dress shirt. “I’ll give you my demonic oath. You come with me and do as I say, and I’ll defend you from bodily harm to the best of my ability.”

Crag went rigid behind me. I glanced up into his monstrous face, searching for affirmation of Rollick’s claim in his angular gargoyle features.

“It would be binding,” Crag confirmed. “That kind of oath—he wouldn’t be able to break it unless you failed your end.”

I dragged in a breath. Maybe it would be okay, in that case. I couldn’t really expect the demon to offer that kind of promise without getting something in return. And if I disagreed with his demands, hopefully by then we’d be in a better position to flee.

All of us. As the idea took hold, I raised my chin. “I can agree to that as long as you swear the same for Torrent, Lance, and Crag.” Assuming the first two were still in one piece.

Rollick stared at me for a second, appearing taken aback for the second time since this conversation had started. He recovered quickly. “Also dependent on your cooperation,” he said.

“Of course.”

Crag bowed his head close to my ear. “This isn’t necessary. I’ll fight if I have to. The others will catch up.”

Even as he spoke, a roar rang out what sounded like no more than a block away. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

He might be right, but we didn’t know when Torrent and Lance would reach us. We didn’t know how close all of our other pursuers were. Torrent had at least used to trust this demon, enough that he hadn’t run away when Rollick had first shown up. That was more than I could say for any of the other fiends who’d attacked me.

I could go with him, see what he could tell me about my powers, and ensure our safety at least temporarily, or send Crag into a battle I doubted he could come out of alive and end up in Rollick’s clutches anyway, with no agreement in my favor at all.

“We’ll find Torrent and Lance before we leave,” I added. “They’re coming with us—if they want to.” I didn’t know how they’d feel about the deal I was making, but I couldn’t exactly ask them ahead of time. “All right?”

The dawn light that was spreading through the streets glinted in Rollick’s dark blue eyes. “You drive a tough bargain, mortal. But I’ll accept in the interests of getting us out of here.”

He dug two of his claws into his flesh, carving a swift sigil that released tendrils of smoky blood. “I will defend the human Quinn Moody and the shadowkind Torrent, Lance, and Crag from bodily harm to the best of my ability, after first seeking out Torrent and Lance, so long as Quinn complies with any requests I make of her. This oath will remain binding until either of us violates the terms or for ten days, at which point we may revisit it.”

I hadn’t expected that last part and wasn’t sure whether it benefitted me or not. But there was a bit of relief in knowing it wasn’t an eternal contract no matter what either of us did. I didn’t love how open-ended the phrasing about Rollick’s requests was, but another snarl carried from down the street even as I absorbed his words.

We didn’t have time to debate whether he should include an addendum. If I didn’t like what he requested of me, I could simply not do it, and our deal would be broken.

Rollick stepped back toward the car and opened the back door like a chauffeur, his confident demeanor erasing any impression of servility. Chest tight, I squeezed Crag’s arm and tugged him with me toward whatever our future held now.

Please, oh please, let me not regret this gamble.