Chapter 23 – Darius
DARIUS
We watched the elevator stop at the top floor and then rushed from the casino, deciding it’d be easier to keep an eye on Lamia from outside the building. We had no idea what Lamia would face, but we prayed it’d be something normal and easy. Just a human process.
And yet, every instinct inside of me screamed that our mission could never be that easy.
Ducking into an alley outside of the casino, we shift into our gargoyle forms and cloak ourselves in a glamour that keeps the humans from seeing us as gargoyles, or when flying. Our movements are jerky, and tension sings in the air.
“It’s like preparing for a war,” Vincent says, speaking my own thoughts.
“Although there was rarely time to prepare.” Ryker stares above us. “We’d awaken and fight. Which is what we need to be prepared to do now.”
Without another word, he launches into the sky, and we fly after him, soaring higher and higher. Flying past the building covered in windows. Watching our own reflections fly by.
When we reach the top floor, Ryker turns to us. “If everything looks normal, we watch until she leaves, then meet her back in the casino. If anything at all looks off—“
“We take care of it,” I finish for him.
He nods.
We circle away from the windows facing an empty bedroom, and all stop short at once. Lamia is fighting a group of strange creatures. One man looks to be some kind of massive wolf. Another has snakes for a head. Two more look like giant reptiles. And the others are also anything but human.
My gaze locks onto her. She’s covered in blood. And so are the creatures. One man lies on the ground, looking dead, and more blood coats the walls and floor.
Ryker growls. “Follow behind me.”
I know what he’s going to do before he does it. He dives straight at the window, and it shatters around him. We dive in after him and hit the carpet decorated with broken glass.
Lamia and the creatures pause in their battle as we draw our swords, and then we’re all fighting.
The wolf leaps at me. I slash out, cutting it deeply on the face.
It whimpers and falls before me, but only for a moment before it attacks again.
Over and over it circles and attacks. For one minute it grasps my wrist in its sharp teeth and bites down, but my gargoyle flesh is too hard for its teeth.
I see the moment it realizes that.
A second later, I’ve severed its head from its body.
I barely spin in time for one of the lizard creatures to leap at me.
It walks like a human, extending its claws out before it like knives.
Before I can so much as swing my sword, Lamia leaps onto its back, sinks her teeth into its throat, and tears.
Its strange hands grasp at its throat, and then it tumbles to the ground.
A man with fur sprouting from his face grabs Lamia from behind. She struggles to free herself from him.
Something happens then. Something I’ve never felt before. A protective rage flows within me, and I see red. My sword drops. I feel my gargoyle form slip away, and my aching teeth change, two fangs sprouting from them.
Everything happens then. The world is crystal clear and focused, moving slowly around me. The scent of blood fills my nostrils, and I’m not myself anymore. I’m something wild and dangerous, and the feeling is oh so good.
I launch myself at the creature, knocking it off of her. Before he can do more than scream, my fangs pierce his throat. I sense him trying to buck me off, to get free from me, but I drink and drink his odd-tasting blood, and feel myself growing stronger and more powerful with each passing second.
When I feel him go limp beneath me, and no more blood flows from his veins, I look up. Logic comes somewhere in the back of my mind. None of my Brotherhood is fighting with their swords. Instead, they’re bathed in blood, drinking from the throats of our enemies.
Lamia has a man against the wall. Her hand clutches the hundreds of snakes that make up his head, preventing him from striking. Before my eyes, the snakes morph into the head of a man.
“You can’t think to actually win against us. We’ll be back, and then you’ll have our parents and ourselves as enemies. Even if you win this bet, you’ll always have to live in fear.”
She flashes her fangs. “Unless I sever your head.”
He pales. “You wouldn’t.”
In answer she leans forward and tears open his throat. Blood rains down his chest, and his eyes go wide. When he drops to the ground, she looks around herself. Selecting my sword off the ground, she returns to him. In one swoop, she cuts his head from his neck.
I’m breathing hard, energy flowing through me, and a need I don’t understand fills me. Truly, in this moment, I have never seen a creature as beautiful as Lamia. She is power and grace. She is beauty.
My brothers rise from their opponents.
“Should we kill them all?” Ryker asks, his voice strangely husky.
Lamia shakes her head. “Typhon was a beast who killed and tortured innocent creatures. Not only did he deserve to be exterminated like a cockroach, his mother Hera won’t avenge his death.
I can’t say the same for the others. And as much as I’d like to say I don’t fear the gods, I know better than to foolishly anger them. ”
We watch as she crosses the room. Kneeling before an overturned table, she gently touches a unicorn’s horn, fairy wings, and a mermaid tail. The expression on her face is pure anger.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Vincent’s voice comes as if from far away. “I have.”
We look to him.
His face crumbles. “I can’t…I…”
“Vincent?” Lamia says his name so tenderly that it tugs at my heart.
He closes his eyes, and his hands curl into fists. “My last master did this to my Brotherhood, taking them apart piece by piece like a science experiment. I told you they were killed by a monster…I didn’t lie, but the monster was him.”
None of us know what to say. How can people have the face of humans and the hearts of monsters? It’s unfathomable.
And the idea of a master harming his gargoyles? It seems almost impossible. We’re the protectors of their lands. Their warriors. What twisted mind could decide to hurt the creatures bound to protect and obey him?
I look at Vincent. His pain flows from him, almost a visible wound. Several times I open my mouth, but I can’t find the words to say to take his pain away.
But Lamia seems to know what to do. She rises, crosses the room, and pulls him into her embrace.
He sags against her, burying his face against her neck.
“It’s okay,” she whispers, stroking his hair.
“The pieces of precious creatures…” He seems to choke on his words.
“They bring everything back, like it just happened,” she says, still stroking his hair.
He nods, his eyes wild.
“I understand.” She seems to hold him closer. “But none of it was your fault.”
He shakes his head. “No, I didn’t protect them. And I killed my master. I’m unfit to be a gargoyle.”
I stiffen. It is true that there’s no greater crime than killing one’s master, other than killing one’s mate. But as I look at the pieces of precious beings, I feel a deep ache within me. I can’t even imagine what Vincent felt when he had to face this with his Brotherhood.
It must have caused him unimaginable pain. Pain he clearly still lives with.
“Our job is to kill monsters,” I tell him. “And that’s exactly what you did. There’s no shame in that.”
His gaze holds mine. “I’m unworthy.”
Ryker moves to him, and Lamia pulls back from his embrace. We watch the big gargoyle as he stops in front of Vincent, his face is unreadable. And I think we all know that his reaction to this will hold more weight than mine or Lamia’s.
I just hope he doesn’t condemn Vincent. It’s obvious what he’s done has tortured him for a very long time.
Ryker looks at each of us slowly. “My brother Grey was the greatest of alphas. A leader to me and our Brotherhood. He saw the world in black and white. There was good and evil. I respected him for that. His clear leadership made him easy to follow.” He pauses.
“But since being brought back, I’ve had to decide what I believe.
And what I believe is that what makes us good or evil has less to do with what we are, but who we are. ”
Lamia’s expression changes, her eyes widening.
Ryker continues after a minute. “Lamia is no more a monster than you are, Vincent. You did what was right. You hold no guilt or blame about what happened to your master and your Brotherhood. And Lamia should blame no one other than Hera for what happened to her. Both of you need to forgive yourselves, and we all need to start fresh with this life…if we have any hope of having a happy existence.”
“You mean that?” Vincent asks.
Ryker nods. “In fact…I would be proud to call you my Brother…officially.”
Vincent takes a step forward, then crumbles to his knees. “You would take me in your Brotherhood?”
Ryker’s serious face changes, and a smile curves his lips.
“I’ve fought the obvious for long enough.
The world moved on without us when we were gone.
And as much as that hurts, it’s time for me to move on too.
I can think of no better way to do such a thing than to form a Brotherhood with the two gargoyles I feel a connection to. ”
“I accept,” Vincent says, a touch of awe in his voice.
And then they both look to me.
My heart squeezes. Is there almost no chance my brothers awoke? Yes. Do I feel a connection to them anymore? No.
But this changes everything. It’s like accepting that I’m not who I was before.
“It’s okay,” Ryker tells me. “We know you want to know what happened to your brothers—“
“The estate we guarded was destroyed, and a new one was built in its place.”
His expression grows sad. “I’m so sorry, Darius.”
And in that moment, it hits me. In my heart, I’d already accepted they were gone. It was only my blind loyalty that was forcing me to reject the obvious.