Chapter 4 – Max
MAX
Damn it all to hell. This was the last thing we needed. We already stink of failure, and we are so far behind schedule that our future is bleak.
For weeks we’ve searched the ocean for a monster that is legendary for her cruelty and violence, but haven't found a trace of her anywhere. We can't return without taking her prisoner, but I don't know how we’re supposed to find a beast that lives beneath the sea. We have no idea what to do next.
And now? Now we see a woman in trouble, a woman who will die if we don’t intervene.
“Max?” Arthur, my twin brother, is flying at my side. I can see what he’s thinking without him needing to say it. He’ll save this woman, with or without me.
Even though I’m our leader… my brother isn’t exactly good at following orders.
I raise my voice, loud enough that it’ll carry to the other two members of our Brotherhood. “I’ll get her. You three distract the dragons.”
Steven flies to block my path, already pulling his sword from his back. “I’ll take the black dragon. I hear he’s a bastard.”
Clark speaks from behind me. “Come on. You three can’t really want to get involved. This isn’t our battle.”
I turn to look back at him. I’m not surprised he doesn’t want to help some random woman, but I am surprised he isn’t leaping at the chance to fight. Especially after how moody he’s been lately.
“Go for the white one, but be careful.”
He rolls his eyes, but reaches for his own sword.
The green dragon’s head lowers toward the woman. My muscles tense, and using all my strength, I head for her, not bothering to fly. I just drop like the massive stone being that I am.
Air rushes around me. My teeth clench, and at the last possible second, I flap my wings to slow myself down, but not by much.
I smash into the head of the dragon and he goes down, sinking into the water. I flap my wings and pull back to avoid going down with him. Grasping the top of the cage with one hand, I reach for her with the other.
To my surprise, she hesitates, but only for a moment.
In that moment, the world freezes around us.
This woman is an immortal. I would bet my life on it.
She has that thing that’s hard to explain.
She appears to be a young woman, but her eyes are filled with experience.
This woman has seen emotion and heartache that few people have experienced in their youth.
And then there’s the other thing…
She’s beautiful, with long auburn hair, dark eyes, and a face made as if by the gods themselves. And yet, the terror in her eyes says she’s not just afraid of the dragons, she’s afraid of me too.
What does that mean?
I have no time to think further as the moment passes. She flings herself into my arms and I shoot up into the sky.
The roars of my battling brothers fill the air. I glance back and see their swords sinking into the flesh of the dragons. The sea dragons thrash as my brothers go flying.
My heart sinks. They stand like flies in front of the monsters. I’ve never told them to retreat before, but the command clings to my tongue.
“Drop me.”
The tiny voice is not that of the woman. I look to her and see a strange golden fish in her arms. She lifts it with the greatest look of regret, and drops it into the sea below.
I don’t know what I expected, but I couldn't have predicted the explosion of golden light that followed. The water itself lights up as if a million floating lights were cast on the surface. The dragons shriek and my brothers freeze in mid-air, looking to me for orders.
I’m their leader. I’m supposed to know what to do, but I have no idea. I don’t know what’s going on. All I can do is try to keep them safe.
“Retreat!” I shout, the word tearing from my lips.
My brothers start toward me, but the golden light leaps out of the water like an explosion. My heart stops beating. I race toward them. The golden light wraps around me for one brief second. My skin tingles and my mind goes blank.
“You’re falling!” a panicked voice shouts.
I can’t feel my wings, but I try to fly.
I feel the woman in my arms, but I can't see anything.
I feel her hands on my face and my vision returns.
The golden light surrounds us and all I can see is her.
I see her beauty and her fear. I struggle to keep control as I realize that her warm, naked flesh against my body awakens something within me that I haven't felt in longer than I can remember.
When the light fades, nothing is left. No dragons. No gargoyles. No one but the woman and me.
I clench the woman closer to my chest and fly over the water. A hand breaks the surface and stretches upward. I grasp the wrist of whoever it might be and pull.
To my relief, it’s Arthur. I tug him high enough so that he can flap his wings, and then we’re both drifting above the water. I don't know if we will find sea dragons ready to take our lives or our missing brothers.
Steven pops out of the water not far from me, splashing and coughing. I go to him in an instant and pull him free. It takes him a minute to right himself, and when he starts flapping his wings, I release him.
Arthur plucks an angry Clark from the water next, and we all rise as high above the sea as we can.
We hesitate, each of us searching for any signs of the dragons.
I need the time to calm my emotions. Seeing my brothers fighting and then disappearing in the ocean is one of the worst moments I remember. I thought I’d lost them forever.
The woman in my arms speaks, her voice hoarse. “We should go. Quickly.”
Her words shake me from my stupor.
“Let’s return to camp,” I tell the others, trying to sound like I know what I’m doing, like leading the team for the first time isn’t as hard as it really is. “Everyone spread out and head to the camp from different directions, just in case.”
Clark glares at me. “Just in case those things decide to follow us home?”
I nod.
His eyes narrow. “I told you this was a mistake.” But he turns and starts flying in one direction.
Steven looks between me and the girl. “Perhaps you two should take the long way.”
Because she’s probably the one they want the most. For a reason we still haven’t figured out. “Good idea.”
“Maybe I should stay a little longer and see what happened to the dragons,” Arthur suggests.
I shake my head. “They’re too powerful. The more distance we can get between them and us, the better.”
“But we don’t want—“
“You have your orders,” I say.
My brother gets that look in his eyes, the one that tells me he wants to argue. “Whatever you say, Captain.”
I glare. “I’m not kidding.”
He salutes me. “Yes, sir!”
I watch him as he turns and starts to fly off. If he even looks like he’s turning around, I’m going to kick his ass. Gritting my teeth, I pick a direction and start flying, not taking my gaze from him.
The woman stares over my shoulder behind me. After a minute, I feel the muscles in her body tense.
“What is it?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Nothing.”
For some reason, I don’t believe her. Glancing back, I see men bobbing in the water. They’re perfectly ordinary looking men, except their eyes are the same as the dragons’—gold and silver and filled with anger.
Dragons can shift into humans?
“What happened to them?” I ask.
Her dark eyes are wide and innocent. “I don’t know,” she says, yet she was the one who had the creature in her arms.
“What was that thing? The golden creature?”
For an instant, I see her fear, and then it vanishes from her gaze. “I found it. I thought it needed help.”
I don’t believe her. The woman in my arms is pure trouble. I know she's more than human and I should let her go. I should drop her at the nearest beach and get my men as far from her as possible.
Despite my concerns, we pass islands dotting the ocean below us, and I don’t let her go. If anything, I hold her tighter. It’s not the decision a leader would make, but no matter how many logical arguments my brain presents, my heart won't let her go.
I blame it on being a gargoyle. We have a powerful instinct to protect the innocent that’s hard to ignore. Even though I’m not sure how innocent this woman is.
After a time, I feel her relax against me. Her legs wrap around my waist, her arms around my neck.
The tension that had sung beneath my skin since I saw her and the dragons starts to fade.
I hold her closer, more gently, and all at once, my body remembers that I’m a man and she’s a naked woman.
My body remembers the vow of celibacy all the young, male gargoyles took twenty years ago—a requirement if we wanted a chance to mate with the three female gargoyles.
Oh fuck!
My hands warm against the skin of her hips, her very soft, very feminine skin. I can picture the way I hold her in perfectly clarity, the way her legs wrap around me, spreading herself wide. Her body is open and pressing against my cock.
Despite everything, my blood rushes south, and my shaft grows hard.
I’m panting as I try to think of our mission and the strangeness of meeting this woman and the dragons, but my body doesn’t seem to care.
Every few seconds my thoughts jump back to what it would feel like to sink into this woman, to feel the tightness of her wet body holding me.
I shudder.
She lifts her head from my shoulder, and our eyes meet. “Thank you for saving me.”
I nod, my response catching on my tongue.
“Where are we going?”
It takes me a second to respond, and even I notice the arousal in my voice. “Our camp. It isn’t much further. It’ll be warm, and there’s food.”
“Why are you camping?”
Should I lie? I’m not sure it really matters. “We’re hunting a sea monster… one named Keto.”
She stiffens against me. “Oh.”
Curiosity prickles the back of my mind. “Do you know of her?”
It takes a minute before she answers me. “Everyone knows of her.”
I make a mental note to ask her about the monster later. It might actually be a huge benefit for us to have another person helping us in our search, if she’s willing.
She shifts against me, and for one second my body screams in arousal, and then she winces.
For the first time I let my gaze sweep downward, and my breath catches. Her shoulders are covered in open wounds. They’re no longer bleeding, but they look raw and sore. There’s dried blood in her hair too, and nearly every part of her body is scraped and bruised.
There’s even bruises on the sides of her breasts.
“You like my breasts?” she asks.
My gaze jerks up, and I can feel my cheeks heating. “I was noticing your injuries.”
One of her hands leaves my neck, sliding slowly down my chest, and awakening every nerve beneath her touch. Then, she lifts one of her breasts and studies the bruise on one side in the most innocent way imaginable.
I swear my brain explodes like a computer that’s gotten too hot. She continues to touch her breast, her fingers sliding past the soft-looking skin and to the other breast. I tell myself to focus on her injuries, not on her hard pink nipples. Not on the fullness of her breasts.
Closing my eyes, I picture myself lifting her breasts. First, I’d kiss her bruises gently. And then I’d slide my lips across the smooth skin. I’d lift their fullness and weight in my hand, holding her like I owned her. And I’d lean down and suck those nipples, making them even harder.
“They aren’t too bad,” she says, and my eyes pop open.
Keep it together, Max! “What happened to you?”
A shiver moves through her body. “The cage.”
“The cage did that to you?” I’m completely confused.
“No… I… uh… did it to myself, trying to get out of the cage.”
Whoa. “You really don’t like cages.”
A guarded look comes over her face. “No, I don’t. But these injuries are… nothing. Sex leaves more marks than this.”
I feel my brows rise. “Sex?”
She nods, looking earnest. “It hurts more too.”
I know I’m staring. I know it, but I can’t stop. “Sex should never hurt or leave bruises.”
She laughs, and the sound is sad. Like the whisper of the wind through a few lonely trees. “Not for men.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.
Anger rushes through me as I feel this inexplicable urge to protect her.
No woman should ever believe sex is meant to be painful, or leave bruises.
A man somewhere has been cruel to this woman, and if I ever find him, I’m going to kill him.
My grip tightens around her, and a low growl slips past my lips.
She tenses. “Are you all right?”
I take a minute to make sure my voice comes out calm. “Any man of worth would never harm a woman, no matter what.”
She tilts her head, studying me. “Nothing could bring you to hurt a woman?”
I meet her gaze, unyielding. “Nothing. I am a gargoyle. I've sworn to kill monsters and to protect the innocent. No matter what an innocent did, I would do everything in my power to keep them safe.”
Her eyelids slide partially down as she stares at my chest. “I believe you.”
There’s something sad in her voice as she leans back down to rest her head on my shoulder.
Unable to help myself, I reach up with one arm and stroke her hair.
She sighs softly.
We continue flying toward camp. My cock is hard, my chest tight. My brain screams that whatever we do on our mission, we make certain this woman is safe first.
Damn it. My father was right. I really don’t have the heart of a leader.