Chapter 13 – Damon
DAMON
Ihate that I have a hangover. The damn headache is enough to convince me not to hit the bottle so hard. But then again, I say that every day. Every. Miserable. Day.
However, as I groan and rub my forehead, Cody comes sprinting back through the woods. His expression makes me sit up a little straighter. Did he discover something new at the castle? I’d circled the damn place over and over again and still not found a weakness in their security.
He rushes up to me, then doesn’t sit down across from me, he just stares as if his brain has sizzled out.
“Did you find something?” I ask, trying not to sound irritated.
“I found…someone,” he says, his tone eager.
“Someone,” I repeat, definitely sounding annoyed.
He nods. “The shade.”
I stiffen. Images flash in my mind of how Cody could escape such a dangerous monster without even a scratch. “What happened?”
As much as I like to pretend I don’t give a shit, if anything ever happened to Cody, I think I’d completely give up. Yeah, Jordon thought I already had, but he had no idea how much lower I could sink.
“She...” His brows draw together. “I think she’s going to help us.”
I curse. “Monsters don’t help gargoyles, Cody. Damn it. I know you’re green at monster hunting, but it’s one of the most basic rules. Don’t trust them. Not at all.”
These ‘born’ gargoyles could never understand what those of us who were made knew about hunting monsters. They simply couldn’t learn centuries of skills in less than a hundred years. It was impossible.
He frowns. “No, I really think she’s going to help us. She said that if Elliot wants to be freed, then she will free him.”
I stare at him for a long minute. I know he’s fucking young, but this is na?ve, even for him. “You should’ve killed her or imprisoned her when you had the chance. It’d be one less person we’d have to take out when we raid the castle.”
Cody exhales loudly, then sits down on the boulder across from me. I hate when he gets silent like this, because I know he feels misunderstood and stuck. He doesn’t seem to understand that people can’t read his mind. He has to use his damn words.
“Explain it,” I say, trying to keep my tone light. “What made you let her go?”
He runs his fingers through his blond hair and shakes his head, frowning.
Fucking hell. “So, you saw her in the woods…?”
He nods. “She saw me bathing… I’d gotten frustrated and thought I’d feel better if I was clean.”
“And she attacked you there?”
“No.” A blush turns his cheeks red. “She asked me if most men had cocks as big as mine.”
I can feel my brows rise. Okay, that’s different. “And then what happened.”
“I found out she’d seen Elliot. She seemed to like him, and she seemed to think he liked being with her. She was almost…protective of him. She acted like we were the ones who weren’t being nice to him.”
This just keeps getting weirder. “And then?”
“She tried to escape, so I tackled her.” His blush returns.
Holy hell… “Do you find her attractive?”
He doesn’t need to say a word, because it’s spelled out on his face. “Cody…”
“I know, okay? I’m not going to get confused just because she’s beautiful and smells like flowers.”
He smelled her? I almost sigh. I was worried about the boy being killed by vampires. Apparently, I needed to be more worried about him falling for a woman because of his lack of experience.
After we kill the vampires and return the monster to the sanctuary, I’m going to take this boy out into the real world and get him laid, if it’s the last thing I do.
Hell, I might even try to convince Elliot and Jordon to do the same.
Because when we get through this and still aren’t respected by our people, they might finally see that there’s no life for us at the sanctuary.
And the virgins might enjoy life a lot more once they know what sex is all about.
“Then, what’s the plan? Are you meeting her again?”
He shrugs. “She said she’d talk to Elliot and help him if he wants to leave.”
This time I do sigh. “So, we still just have to sit here with our thumbs up our asses?”
Cody looks disappointed. “Sorry, I should’ve handled it differently. I just didn’t expect her to seem so sweet and innocent.”
I laugh and start digging in my bag, looking for my vodka. “Monsters aren’t sweet and innocent, Cody. If you want to get laid after this, I’ll help you, but you need to make sure to think with your head not your dick.”
Cody runs his fingers through his hair again and stares down at the ground. “Okay. I just felt...I don’t know.”
I open my vodka and give him a mock salute with it. “One thing you can be sure of, all monsters are the same. This time won’t be any different than all the many monsters I’ve killed over the years. Don’t overthink it. We have a job to do, and we’ll do it.”
He doesn’t respond for a long time before he finally says, “At least it sounds like Elliot is still alive.”
Images flash in my mind. I’ve been imprisoned by monsters before. I was in my stone form, but they still tortured me in every way they could. I can still remember moments of feeling trapped. Of feeling like I’d never see the light of day again.
Was Elliot experiencing that now? Or was it even worse without his stone form?
I drink my vodka, trying to push away the clawing anxiety that threatens to sweep me under. If I think about that now, it’ll swallow me whole. So, I just won’t.
I only hoped Jordon was having better luck than us with his damned warlock.