Chapter 14 – Jordon
JORDON
Idon’t like coming here, but I don’t have a choice. He’s the only person I know with a lot of experience with vampires. If the rumors are true, he used to hunt and kill them with a passion that bordered on obsession.
Even though it’s been awhile since I’ve heard anything about him.
I wasn’t even sure he was still living here, but talking to him was better than nothing.
As I fly over the center of the vaguely familiar woods, I look down and spot the clearing I’d been searching for. Lowering in the air, I avoid a flock of birds, and land hard on the ground. Staying in my stone form, I head toward the cottage, noting the smoke trailing from the chimney.
As I reach the door, I knock lightly and stiffen, wondering if the warlock will greet me as a friend or a foe.
When the door opens slowly, the old man’s face comes into focus. His teeth are clenched together. In his hand, he holds a bag that I have no doubt contains something that could hurt me. So, a foe.
“Hi, Clarence.”
The old man’s eyes narrow. “What the fuck do you want, gargoyle?”
I draw myself up taller. “I…I need your help.”
His expression changes, and I realize that he thought I was here for a different reason. “Help with what?”
“Vampires.”
He slowly draws the strings closed on the bag in his hand. Looking behind him, into his cabin, he steps out onto the porch beside me and shuts the door. Gesturing to two chairs on the porch, I shift back into my human form, then sit beside him.
“Speak,” he orders me.
So, I do, explaining the entire situation and not stopping until I’m done. Clarence waits until I’m finished, then releases a low whistle.
“That’s not good, boy.”
I try to ignore the fact that I’m far older than him and he’s calling me boy. “Which is why I’m here.”
“The Shadow Wood vampires are too dangerous. Even in the peak of my youth, I wouldn’t have taken them on.” His gaze swings to me. “I’m surprised the Elites would send you boys on a suicide mission. I thought your numbers were dwindling.”
I stiffen. “They must not have known how—“
“Do they normally send Brotherhoods without doing the proper research first?”
No, no they don’t. If they send a Brotherhood on a mission, they usually know pretty damn well what we face. But I don’t want to tell the old warlock the realization that’s just hit me: they sent us not expecting us to return.
Fuck.
“You should cut your losses and go.”
I shake my head. “Not without Elliot.”
His pale brown eyes lock with mine. “You know the chances of him still living are next to nothing…”
“I won’t stop until I save him, or find his body, either way.”
The warlock leans back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the wooden handles. “I might have some things you’d find useful, but unless you can destroy the object that’s keeping you from using your stone forms, chances are you won’t make it.”
“Anything you can do to help us would be appreciated.”
Suddenly, the door to the warlock’s cabin opens.
A woman stands in the doorway. She wears nothing but a blanket around her thin frame.
Golden wings, covered in soft golden feathers, sprout from her back.
But it isn’t her wings that draw my eye, it’s the stiches that line her throat, her arms, even around her ankles.
Big black stiches that seem to piece her together like some horrifying Frankenstein’s monster.
I rise on legs that shake. “What the hell…”
Her golden eyes widen. “Clarence, I awoke and you were gone.”
I turn to look at the warlock. The bag is open once more, and his fingers are pressed into the dark red dust.
“Leave her alone,” he says, his voice low and threatening.
I don’t’ have a clue what he’s talking about. Why would I hurt the woman? It’s true that I’m not sure quite what species she is, but it’s also true that she looks like the victim of an awful experiment, and not someone I would hurt.
“I’m just here for whatever you can give me that’ll help with the vampires…”
He looks between me and the woman, then slowly maneuvers himself between me and her. Which is when I realize, for the first time, that he might be the one hurting her.
My gaze sharpens as I look between them. “Miss… Is this man hurting you?”
Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head. “No, he’s helping me recover from what the Minotaur did to me.”
“The Minotaur?” I frown.
“He and the gods created me as a weapon,” she says, her words soft.
“Don’t speak a word to him,” Clarence hisses.
“I’m not the enemy here,” I tell the warlock, confused by his defensiveness. “I’m a protector.”
Clarence laughs. “You gargoyles see the world in black and white, which is a very dangerous thing.”
My anger rises. “Will you help us or not?”
He studies me for a long minute. “Wait here. And don’t go near her.”
The warlock disappears back into the cabin, and the woman’s golden eyes lock onto me. “Why doesn’t he like you?”
“I have no idea. Usually people like my kind,” I tell her.
She gives a sad laugh. “That must be nice. People kind of hate me.”
That’s hard to believe. “Why?”
Her mouth lifts into a humorless smile. “No one likes the sphinx. Not that all the rumors about me are true.”
I spring back, knocking into the railing around the deck. “You’re the fucking sphinx?”
Her body tenses. “Yes, what’s it to you?”
“I’m a gargoyle,” I growl at her. “And you’re a famous monster.”
Suddenly the warlock reappears at the sphinx’s side carrying a brown bag over his shoulder and the little bag filled with red dust in his hand. “I warned you to stay away from her.”
“I can’t just leave a monster this dangerous to…”
The warlock throws a handful of the red dust in my face.
I cough, spitting out the nasty smelling stuff. “What the hell do you think that will—?”
Suddenly, the world tilts and shakes.
I don’t realize I’ve hit the ground until the sphinx is standing over me, her white-blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. “What are we going to do with him?”
Clarence’s voice comes as if from far away. “Whatever we have to do to keep you safe.”
She frowns, and her face grows fuzzy. “I don’t want to hurt him…”
“Those bastards took everything from you. They tortured you. They destroyed you. If we don’t handle the gargoyle, you’ll never get what they took from you. And your unborn child will be hurt the way they hurt you.”
She draws herself up taller, and the light seems to grow brighter behind her. “Okay, then we deal with the gargoyle.”
As the world fades away above me, my last thought is that I fucked up again. All I wanted to do was save Elliot. Instead, I was going to die at the hands of the sphinx and a warlock.
It was almost ironic.