Chapter 10 – Vincent
VINCENT
Well…that was erotic.
We sit in silence for a long time until the monster’s breathing becomes even. Glancing back at her, I’m surprised to feel a little tenderness stirring within me. Even though she’s a monster, my brain doesn’t seem to be able to accept it. She’s just…a woman. A very beautiful woman.
And what she did to Ryker?
It was hot. So fucking hot. My own dick had throbbed in my pants, aching to touch her too.
“How are you feeling?”
I stiffen. Darius is staring at Ryker, his eyes calculating.
“Fine,” Ryker says, but his tone holds an edge.
“Did it hurt?”
Ryker shakes his head, touching two of the tiny wounds from her teeth. “Not even a little.”
“So, this could work…”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly, I can’t help it. There’s a massive elephant in the room and no one seems to have the balls to point it out. “It looked like you were both enjoying it a lot.”
Ryker glares at me, but doesn’t deny it.
“Did it feel good?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he mutters.
Darius gives me that, shut up, man, look.
But I’ve never been good at being quiet. “I thought it was kind of hot.”
“Fuck,” Darius murmurs, looking at me like he can’t believe I admitted it out loud.
“She’s a monster,” Ryker says, like that explains everything.
I lean back against the rock and push my feet deeper into the sand. “I don’t know about you guys, but she’s not like the monsters I used to fight. And nothing like the one that killed my Brotherhood.”
Nothing like that fucking monster, comes the angry voice in the back of my head. The one that knows the truth.
Almost immediately, the air in the room changes.
“I’m sorry about your Brotherhood,” Darius says.
His sorry tears at something inside of me, and I feel that aching deep inside like a wound that just won’t heal.
For thousands of years, I’d awake with my brothers.
It was the only thing that was constant.
Our masters, their people, and their lands would change, but my brothers were always there. Like an extension of myself.
And then I watched them die.
My chest feels tight, and I push the feeling away. Nothing good comes from looking at that wound. Nothing good at all.
I shrug, trying to appear casual. “We’re all in the same boat.”
“No.” Ryker’s response is soft. “My Brotherhood is alive…at least one of my brothers is. He just…joined another Brotherhood.”
“And I have no idea what happened to mine,” Darius adds.
I look to both of them. “So, is there a way that you guys picture everything going back to normal? To you returning to your lands and guarding them with your Brotherhood?”
Neither answers for a long time.
“My lands no longer call to me. And I no longer sense my brothers,” Darius admits.
“And you?” I ask Ryker.
“I’m not sure.”
I run a hand through my hair, feeling frustrated for reasons I don’t understand. “So, you guys are trying to force connections you don’t feel anymore?”
“You wouldn’t get it,” Ryker says.
“Because my Brotherhood is dead?” I try to keep my tone light.
“It’s not that. It’s that I’m more apt to believe what I see in front of my face.
And, I’ll tell you this, whatever Lamia turned us into, we aren’t just gargoyles anymore.
And seeing that we’re all in this boat together, I think we should form our own Brotherhood. ”
Darius shakes his head, but Ryker is the one to answer. “I’m not giving up yet, not until I know if this can be undone.”
I roll my eyes. “Fine, fight it all you want, but it’s going to happen.”
Ryker glares. “You talk a lot for a gargoyle.”
I flash him a smile. “What else is there to do?”
“We could read the book for ourselves,” Darius says.
Ryker picks up the book and begins to unwrap it.
My fingers tap my pant leg. “What did you guys think of the other stuff?”
Ryker freezes, but says nothing.
“Other stuff?” Darius asks the question, but I know damn well he knows what I’m talking about.
“Her crying. Being hungry and all that. She doesn’t exactly sound like the monster I thought she was.”
“She’s a killer. She killed us. That’s all that matters.” Darius speaks, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“It matters.” I look at Ryker, waiting.
After a minute, he speaks. “I’ve felt different since coming back to life. Hungry all the time too—”
“Me too,” I interrupt.
“The same,” says Darius.
Ryker continues. “But hungry or not, she is a monster, and she does kill. Which does matter... I’m just not sure how much, yet. It is our job to keep humanity safe from creatures like her.”
“And we deserve revenge.” Darius’s voice is cold.
Ryker looks at him sharply. “Whatever we do, it won’t be for revenge. Even if it’s hard knowing what she’s taken from us. We have to fight that instinct and make the right choice when the time comes.”
Darius doesn’t look happy.
Ryker turns his focus back to the book. After he finishes unwrapping it, we read through it over and over again.
After a time, Ryker sighs and looks at us. “I’m still trying to figure out these marks along the way and the little symbols.”
I raise a brow. “And here I thought you were so smart.”
Ryker glares.
Darius sighs. “I think we have to collect things on our path to the cave. Those are also probably the things that they demand as payment.”
Ryker’s brows draw together and he looks back at the book. “That will make things…more difficult.”
“And then there’s the cryptic warning,” Darius adds, softly.
“Warning?” I stiffen. I don’t remember one.
He points to a scrawling of words I hadn’t seen before. I seem to see something new every time I look at the book. Weird. “A quest unfinished is a deadly thing.”
Ryker shakes his head. “I have a feeling that this journey might have more complications than we imagine.”
I glance at Lamia. “I hope you aren’t implying anything about this is going to be easy because, fellas, nothing about this is easy.”
As if she feels my gaze on her, Lamia’s stunning eyes open. Her gaze is sleepy, and she stretches in a way that’s strangely sexy. Then, glancing at all of us, her eyes widen.
She leans slowly onto her elbows. “You’re here.”
“Where else would we go?” Ryker asks, his words clipped.
A guarded look comes over her. “I just…I thought it might have been a dream.”
None of us knows what to say.
“I think we should leave,” Darius says, softly. “Better to get this done as quickly as possible.”
She nods. “I have to spend some time in my other form before we go.”
“Why?” I ask, genuinely curious.
She shrugs. “Something about my curse makes it a necessity.”
“Curse? What curse?”
Pain flashes across her face, and she climbs to her feet. “I’ll shift in the woods. You guys might want to eat and tend to any needs you have before we have to go.”
I watch her walk away, then glance at the other two gargoyles.
“What curse was she talking about?”
Ryker shrugs. “Beats me.”
But Darius looks curious. “Have either of you studied history?”
“Not even a little,” I say.
“Well, most monsters are born. But some are made. Usually by gods as punishment. I wonder if Lamia was made rather than born.”
The idea seems strange to me. “I didn’t know monsters could be made.”
Darius stands. “We can talk about it more later. For now, does anyone know how to fish? I’m starving.”
As if in answer, my stomach growls. “I can try, but I swear I’m always hungry now.”
“Same,” Ryker says, standing and heading for the shore.
Darius says something under his breath that I don’t catch, but I’m not interested in him or the gargoyle that’s trying to fish. I look to the woods and wonder what Lamia is thinking right now.
Or what she could be plotting.