Lucero
He left me.
He truly left me chained up in a fucking cave.
I screamed his name until my throat was fucking hoarse, and when it obvious he wasn’t coming back any time soon, I tried freeing myself of my chains.
It did little good.
I wasn’t sure what the fuck type of magic he had that made shadows turn solid, but the restraints were tight along my wrists, and no matter how hard I tugged, they wouldn’t budge. I yanked and yanked, rubbing my wrists raw until they began to bleed.
I tried to use the slickness of my own blood to release my wrists, but it did little good. It seemed the more I struggled, the tighter they choked. When it didn’t work, I tried to pull the chain from the wall, but that did nothing.
When I got nowhere, I slumped onto the nest in resignation, the tears salty on my lips.
I shivered against my own nudity, and my body ached everywhere from my mating with Qanek.
How could something so sweet have turned so fucking sour within a single instant?
Fear gripped me tightly. I knew Qanek wouldn’t leave me here alone, but I was hurt, betrayed.
And I was worried.
I’d seen him lose his shit before, but never like that. He hadn’t turned on me, but I knew he was lost in his own mind and this was his desperate, unhinged way of keeping me from abandoning him.
I’d wanted to explain that I planned on coming back with him, but I knew he was too lost to hear, to understand. When he got back, I would have to coax him back to himself. Because this? This wasn’t the Qanek that I’d come to know.
The darkness was a part of him, a nasty part that he needed help with. I didn’t know the proper name for things, but surely it was PTSD?
I wouldn’t pretend to know, but something was wrong, and we’d swept it under the rug. Avoiding talking about the pain instead of trying to find a solution for it. And while I was pissed he’d left me here, I also wanted to protect him from hurting himself.
When he came back, I would explain–gently–that all I wanted was to charge my camera.
That I wanted electricity. My laptop. Things that he didn’t have here.
Then, we would come back to our den and everything would be as it was.
We would continue our routine before any of this miscommunication happened.
We’d both exploded at each other and he’d taken it way too far by chaining me here.
If only he’d listen… Maybe he would understand. Maybe we could get past this.
I tugged at the chains again, a sob lodging in my throat at being tied up like a fucking animal. The panic started to seep in, and I fought so fucking hard to ignore it, but it was overpowering.
I huddled in the corner of the nest, shivering even though I wasn’t cold. My mind conjured up so many images. Of Qanek dying and unable to return to free me. Of me being caught in chains until I slowly starved to death.
Would he keep me like this forever now that he feared I wanted to leave him?
Fuck.
It became a struggle to breathe.
I dug my nails deep into my skin, trying to stay grounded to the present, but it evaded me. All I knew was fear. Panic.
“No, no, no, no.”
I screamed and yanked at the bindings, becoming feral in my need for freedom.
I screamed, calling for Qanek. For help. For anyone who would listen.
But nobody came.
I screamed until my throat was raw and I was covered in blood. I wasn’t sure how many inches the bindings dug into my skin. Surely I would need stitches. A hospital. Medicine.
I screamed and screamed and screamed and…
There was a whooshing sound and I clamped my lips closed, watching as Qanek came into the cave. He looked worse than he had before he left. Agitated, angry. He wasn’t fully there. He stalked through the den like a beast in a cage. Ironic, considering I was the one trapped.
“Qanek.” The sob broke out of me, and I dropped to my knees. “Please. Please unchain me.”
His eyes were glowing red and I wasn’t sure he heard me. He was having an… an episode, and it seemed he barely heard me, barely understood what was even going on.
“Qanek, I promise I’m not going to leave you. I promised, didn’t I? I only want to go home to charge my camera so I can take more photographs. We can go and come back. I promise I won’t leave. You have to believe me. Please, Qanek. Please.”
He shook his head violently back and forth, so violently that his entire body shook.
The whole cave shook. He seemed to be trying to expel a voice from his head.
He grumbled in his language, the one I didn’t understand, and gripped the sides of his ears so tightly, there was a crack.
And then he slammed his back against the wall.
And then his head. Over and over again until blood sprayed behind him.
“Qanek!” My eyes were wide, my heart pounding with fear. I didn’t know how to stop this. I didn’t know how to help him or help me…
Just then, there was more rumbling. The rumbling of his mysterious language and the very sound of it made Qanek pause. Like he was being pulled back to the present. But his body was still tense, poised and he whirled, as if ready for an attack…
Two figures burst into the cave with roars that thundered through the cave and shook the entire place like an earthquake.
I screamed, pressing myself back to the wall, trying to keep myself as small as possible.
The figures were a blur as they charged for Qanek. I caught snippets. Flashes of bodies and snarling teeth. Of violence and blood spraying.
I screamed.
And then I was able to see.
Two more gargoyles like Qanek were fighting him.
One was huge. Not as muscular as Qanek, but tall and dark gray with a fiery purple set ablaze in his chest. He had long black, curly hair and towering horns and a feral expression that made me whimper.
The other gargoyle was taller, thinner, and a lighter gray, with a very light blue color burning in the center of his chest. For a moment, he appeared to be made of shadows, like they molded across his body like the wisps of tentacles.
The two gargoyles circled Qanek.
Everything about this was menacing, terrifying.
As one, they charged in his direction.
I screamed again, unable to help myself. I watched the larger, gray and purple gargoyle sink his claws into Qanek’s abdomen while the other used shadows to wrap around Qanek’s neck. Qanek thrashed like a beast tearing free of his confines. He swiped at them, all instinct and survival.
The other two put up a fight, and Qanek was strong. So strong.
But not strong enough against the two of them.
They subdued him, breaking one of his wings and causing him to roar out in pain. Then, they were shoving him face down on the ground, whipping out ropes of shadow magic that kept him tightly restrained. He thrashed and thrashed, but it didn’t work.
He couldn’t break free.
“Don’t hurt him!” My voice was a weak rasp from so much screaming, but the words escaped my throat anyway. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing!”
Despite everything, I didn’t want him to die.
I… I cared about him.
Maybe more.
“Calm, brother,” the dark gray and purple one hissed, keeping a knee against Qanek’s head, pushing him further onto the ground. “Calm.”
Brother?
I stared at the two gargoyles.
Qanek had mentioned his brothers to me very briefly.
Nazzar and Xavir.
He’d called them fools and hadn’t said much else, except that they had abandoned him, given up on him. Yet he also told me that they were lethal.
Deadly.
And they’d hunted their own brother…
What did they plan on doing to him?
To me?
I whimpered and Qanek struggled again, only stopping when there was another whoosh of heated air in the cave. This one, more sinister than the last.
This one brought a dredge of fear down my spine.
The entire cave darkened, like death had come calling. Everyone in the room stilled as three shadows formed before the three gargoyle brothers.
They materialized into three imposing figures.
The first, the one at the center, was the most terrifying of all.
Dark brown skin that gleamed a healthy glow, the man wore a suit of all black with shining, silver cuffs. He sported a low cut fade and feathery, black wings were spread wide at his back.
My first thought was that he looked like an angel of death.
My second was that he reminded me of a mafioso from a romance book.
The second figure was tall and lithe. A beautiful man with golden skin and a fashionable outfit that looked so out of place in the cave that I blushed. He had horns and a sweeping tail.
The third figure was shorter than the others, but somehow more frightening. Violence swirled from his body, becoming a tangible aura even I could make out. Shadows caressed his skin like he was their master, and his eyes glowed a deadly red. He had horns, leathery wings, and a tail.
The figure in the middle, clearly the leader, spoke, “We warned you.” He stared down at Qanek as though he were looking at the scum of the earth. “And now, you will pay the consequences.”
From across the distance, Qanek’s head moved. He turned, staring right at me. His eyes were wide, and though I still was no expert on his expressions, I could see the panic. The fear. His rage had abated a fraction, and he was waking up enough to realize where he was, where I was.
“Luce–” He didn’t get the rest of the word out before he vanished.
Between one blink and the next, Qanek was gone and so were the three deadly figures.
All that remained were two strange gargoyles, who had now turned their attention towards me.
I pressed myself deeper against the wall and began to weep and whimper. I held my chained hands to my naked body, terror beating a deadly beat inside my body.
“Please, please, please don’t hurt me!”
The dark gray and purple one stepped closer. “We will not harm you, human.” That was pity in his gaze as he took me in. As he took in the cave, judging it. Then his eyes went to the nest and he inhaled sharply, and the pity only seemed to augment.
“What is your name?” the light gray one asked.
“L-L-L-Lucero.”
“L-L-Lucero,” the dark gray one echoed.
I blinked.
Did he really think my name was said with a stutter? The thought cleared away a fraction of my panic.
“Allow me to free you of your chains, yes?”
For a second I hesitated, but eventually, I held my hands out as the dark gray one approached. With a wave of strength and magic, the bindings shattered and I was free.
“We are Qanek’s brothers,” the dark gray one explained, gesturing at himself and the lighter one. “I am Nazzar.”
“And I am Xavir.”
I rubbed my wrists, feeling a headache pound at my temples. I winced at the pain over every inch of my body and hissed, “Jesus Christ…”
“Why must you humans always confuse us with that man?” Nazzar asked, tilting his head to the side and looking genuinely confused. “Nazzar.” He tapped his chest. “Na-zzar!” Then he tapped his brother’s chest. “Xa-vir. Xa-viiiirrr.”
Despite the situation, I began to laugh. The hysterical sound burst out of me, until they made way to sobs and tears, all the adrenaline and fear crashing down on me in an instant. I dropped to my knees and curled into myself, sobbing, frightened, unknowing what to do.
When I looked up, Nazzar and Xavir were still staring at me with pity.
“We… understand, if you are unable to speak of your troubles,” Nazzar began. “What our brother did was unforgivable.”
“What he did…”
“He stole you. Only the depraved steal women from their homes,” Xavir explained.
“Yeah.”
“He stole you?” Nazzar pressed.
“Um, yes. He… he didn’t want me. He wanted Carlota. But then he took me and…” I trailed off.
“He can no longer hurt you,” Nazzar assured.
“No, no, no. He didn’t hurt me.”
They looked at my wrists. At the blood. At the skin rubbed raw to the muscle.
I squeezed my eyes closed and shook my head. “No, no it’s not like that. He was angry. He was…” Not himself.
“He was depraved,” Xavir said in a hiss of anger. “To harm a human is a violation. To harm someone he thinks is his wife…” He trailed off, shaking his head back and forth. “Despicable.”
“He didn’t mean it.” My voice sounded weak, even to my own ears.
The truth was, I didn’t know shit. But I did know that he wouldn’t have done what he did if he’d been in his right mind. And it didn’t matter what I said to them about it, or how fiercely I defended him. It would sound as though I were making excuses.
“He will receive punishment according to the crime. Now, come, L-L-Lucero.” Nazzar held out his hands. “Gather your things. We will take you somewhere warm. Somewhere safe. Somewhere…” He looked around. “Away from here.”
There was nothing else to do, really, except obey. I slipped into a dress that Qanek had laid out, feeling heartbroken over the care he’d used to lay it out against his chest. I slipped my camera around my neck and then turned to the two gargoyles and took a deep breath.
“I’m ready,” I announced.
And then they whisked me away.