Gargoyle (Woodland Creek) (12 page)

Isaac merely flexed his pec where I was pinching. He whispered quietly against my temple, only loud enough for me to hear, “Technically, I’ve never said I wanted it. You are very blind to
your man’s
wants.” He jerked his shoulder, making my fingers fall away from his chest. His deep timber rose in demand. “Now, be quiet and go back to sleep. I mean really, Little One, we
are
only sleeping. There is no harm in that.”

My lips pinched, and I wiggled out of his hold. “There
is
harm in you sleeping with us.
Between us
.” I rolled out of bed, stretching, and grumbling in irritation, “I have to pee. When I come back, I want you out of this bed.”

“Not going to happen,” he mumbled tiredly, but he rolled, swiftly maneuvering over Jonathan’ body, and then shoved him—Jonathan grumbled a curse in his tired state—into the middle. He climbed back under the covers. “There. I’m not between you two any longer.”

I stared. “That’s not any better. I don’t want you next to him.” I growled quietly, a little more than confused by his whispered words, and then marched to the bathroom. “Just sleep on the damn floor if you’re not leaving.” It was too early to argue any further with the Gargoyle.

The Mayor chuckled quietly, pulling the blanket up over his shoulder. “Yeah…no.”

“Yeah…fuck you,” I hissed, not closing the door all the way.

Jonathan snickered quietly. “You’re really irritating her.”

“I know,” Isaac grumbled, and it sounded like he yawned. “Shut up. I’m beat.”

Jonathan grunted.

I didn’t hear anything else, so I started peeing.

Jonathan grumbled dryly, “Really, Peanut? You’re not even going to shut the door?”

“No,” I muttered loudly, grabbing some toilet paper. “Not with him in bed next to you.”

Done doing my business, I walked back out into the room. But I stopped in my tracks as I felt another prickling of unease, a wave in the air…unnatural…
warm
. It felt like it was coming from outside, like a breeze wafting through the windows, though they were shut. My brows furrowed as I crossed my arms, waking further, my tone confused as hell. “What
is
that?”

I crept to the windows, ignoring how both men were now watching me curiously in the dark. I pushed a curtain aside and peeked through the blinds, glancing everywhere my view afforded.

Jonathan leaned up on one arm and rubbed his right hand over his face. “What are you talking about?”

“The air doesn’t feel right,” I grouched, knowing it sounded stupid. Though that was what I felt. “It’s like…well, it kind of feels like that power from a month ago, but it’s different. It’s not sexual in nature or even light. It feels
dark
…and warm.” I shook my head, taking my hands from the blinds, glancing back at them.

Both were now sitting up in bed, their eyes alert. Isaac’s were even glowing brightly now, his power sifting through the air gently.

“It doesn’t
feel
right.”

Both stared at me.

“I’m not crazy,” I grumbled, shivering and rubbing my arms. “I’m telling the truth. It’s in the air.”

They instantly rolled out of bed.

Jonathan marched to the wall with the light switch, flicking it on, his tone deadly, “Humans felt it first.”

“They did. It affected them more, too,” Isaac grumbled, glancing around the floor. “Where the fuck did I put my shirt? I wadded it around my cell phone in case it rang.”

I pointed a finger to the chair where a white t-shirt was thrown. “That might be it.” I blinked sluggishly and then grabbed at my camisole, tugging it away from my skin. “Oh, God.”

Isaac grabbed my elbow when I started listing to the side, his brows furrowed.

Jonathan marched straight to me, cupping my cheeks even as the Mayor kept a firm grip on me. “What’s wrong? I still can’t feel it.”

“I’m
hot
,” I muttered, shaking my head past it. “It’s like an instant fever.”

“We should be able to feel it by now if it’s affecting her this greatly,” Isaac murmured, his forehead crinkled. “Maybe she’s just…ill? Humans do get sick.”

“No, it’s not right,” I argued, knocking away Jonathan’s hot palms on my cheeks so I could fan my face with my free hand. “This is
wrong
.”

Jonathan rubbed a hand over his face, staring at me closely. “She believes what she’s saying. She’s scared.” He started marching to his overnight bag. “Set her on the bed. We need to call our people.”

All three of us froze…when screams sounded. One after another. The sound extremely quiet at first, as if it were far away, like a slow moving train headed in our direction. More and more of them erupted. Becoming louder. Almost as one, the ugliest noise I had ever heard in my life.

Isaac gripped me more tightly as I started to tremble where I stood, the heat becoming more intense inside me. He flat out ripped the blinds off the windows, the screams coming from outside to the left. All three of us turned to stare out the glass barrier.

What was there…made no sense.

“What the hell is that?” I panted as I began to sweat.

“Jesus Christ,” Jonathan hissed. “I can’t even feel that.”

“Me either,” Isaac murmured, both of them unmoving.

“
What is that
?” I damn near shouted, staring at what appeared to be some type of black fog pouring out from the sky down on the city. Wherever it landed, you couldn’t see past it. It was just black, the dawn of the morning not even seen through it.

“It’s trouble,” Jonathan murmured, racing back to his bag and grabbing his cell phone and dialing on it. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

Isaac shoved me against the wall, holding me there with one hand as I jerked in pain as the heat beginning to radiate inside me. Using one hand, he found his cell phone in his shirt, and quickly tapped the screen a few times, and placed it to his ear. He talked harshly to his family, ordering them to his house for shelter.

Jonathan hung up first. His forehead crinkled. “Thomas Rickman said everyone is seeing the cloud but that it’s not affecting everyone.” The Chief of Police in Woodland Creek. “He wouldn’t lie about it.”

Isaac abruptly ended his call, his glowing green eyes looking outside. “My family reported the same. It’s only hurting shifters.” His gaze flicked down to me inside his hold. “Very interesting, yes?”

I heaved oxygen into my lungs. “I’m not a shifter.”

Isaac’s lips twitched. “No shit.” But his regard casually altered to Jonathan. A black brow lifted. “But don’t you think you should still check on your girlfriend?” His lips lifted into the cruelest smile. “You know the one you mentioned to Kennedy yesterday. The one you claimed to have only gone on two dates with, the one you claim to not have been intimate with.”

Jonathan’s head whipped back as if he had been struck. He stared.

The Mayor chuckled quietly, a menacing purr. “It’s pretty damn pathetic really.”

Jonathan’s mouth opened. Closed.

He didn’t look anywhere near me as my heart seized inside my chest.

Isaac kept a firm grip on my sweating and trembling frame as he tilted toward Jonathan, his eyes glowing on his face. His Gargoyle growled softly. “I will never sleep with you again, no matter how many times you try to slither back into my bed. You were shit then, and you’re shit now.” A Gargoyle’s hiss. “I know what I want and it sure as hell isn’t a
threesome
with you. I let you lead yourself down your own path to destruction.” A wink as he held me closer. “When you play with a shifter, don’t expect to win. I hold the real prize in my arms now.”

My eyes never left Jonathan. “Is this true?” I shuddered as heat raced down my back, the wicked power coming closer. “Did you use me yesterday to get to
him
?” I blinked, my voice rising. “Do you have a
fucking girlfriend
?”

Isaac bared his teeth, his eyes never leaving my ex. “Get out before I lose all respect for you.” He paused. “Or you can stay right there and I’ll kill you now. Your choice.”

Jonathan’s black eyes, always so tender, narrowed to death slits. His fists clenched as he glowered at the Mayor. “You knew the whole time.”

A quiet purr of the damned. “I always do where you’re concerned.” He tilted his head at the bedroom door. “Like I said, grab your shit, and run before I let my Gargoyle out to play.”

“Jonathan!” I shouted, grinding my teeth together. I gripped Isaac’s shirt hard in my fisted hands against his chest. I shook my head hard. “Please tell me he’s lying…”

Jonathan finally glanced at me, his gaze hard set on mine. He rolled his shoulders once. Popped his neck. Eventually, he shrugged a shoulder. “It is what it is.”

My eyes widened enormously, my shriek hoarse against the magical pain making my legs weak. “But you’re a goddamn hunter! How the fuck—”

“Even hunters fall for their mark,” he cut me off, growling under his breath. His dark eyes flittered back to Isaac. His tone calmed, even as my fury escalated. “Let’s talk about this…”

“Not a chance in hell,” Isaac hissed. His tan skin began to alter to intense silver. “Get. Out.”

Jonathan only stood there, not looking away from the Mayor.

His eyes held…love for the man holding me.

And none of it was aimed my way.

I had been used. A pawn to his wants.

My nostrils flared and I bellowed, “
Get the fuck out of my home!”

Jonathan jerked at the sound of my voice. He blinked, coming back to himself.

“You heard the lady,” Isaac stated. He rubbed his palms up and down my back. “You’re not wanted here.”

Jonathan’s jaw clenched as he picked up his overnight bag, slinging the strap over his shoulder. His dark eyes found Isaac. “If I leave now, without you, I won’t come back.”

Isaac damn near rolled his glowing eyes. “I can only pray that’s true.”

My ex grabbed Lucy from the bottom of the bed, turning glaring eyes on me. “I’m taking the damn dog with me. She’s mine.”

I stared, trying not to let any tears fall in wrath. Though my voice was quiet. “A little dog for a little man.”

Isaac chuckled softly, a menacing grin etching his lips. “Goodbye now.”

Jonathan stared at him for all of a beat longer before he turned and marched from my bedroom. He stated over his shoulder, “I’m serious, Isaac.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he answered easily.

My shoulders jerked as the front door to my home slammed shut.

Isaac waited a moment, not peering down at me, giving me the only privacy I could have right now. His words were gentle. “You deserved to know.”

I wiped away an errant tear, my jaw setting. “I know. Thank you. Even if you could have left all this game shit aside.” I did glare up at him, though, my words labored. “Think you can take me to safety now? I can hardly breathe.”

His lips twitched, his green eyes flicking down into mine. “Oh, Little One, I can definitely make you safe.”

I stared. There was more than a little sensuality lacing his tone. “Safety first,
Gargoyle
. As in, get me the hell out of here.”

I was tossed over Isaac’s shoulder as he raced out of my bedroom. I shook my head, even as tears began to track down my cheeks, wanting to maul my flesh off it felt so hot. “My bag! I need my bag under my bed!”

“Is it worth your life?” he asked incredulously, halting in place.

My lips pinched. I whispered the truth. “It’s worth everyone’s lives.”

He breathed heavily and then probed curiously, “Truly?”

“Yes, dammit!”

Isaac cursed, and then dashed back into my bedroom. He tossed me on my bed and bent down, peering underneath it.

“Wrong side,” I hissed, writhing in agony.

“I can see that,” he grouched. He leapt right over the bed and me, landing fluidly. The Mayor went to his knees, his head disappearing from my view. His words were muffled under my bed. “I had wondered what this bag was. I didn’t have time to search yesterday, though.”

“Just grab it!” I shouted.

He popped up and stood straight, lifting the strap of my red bag over his head to crisscross it over his body. I was back over his shoulder in a mere blink. Isaac hauled ass from my room again and threw the front door open to my apartment. Shifters were out in the hallway on their hands and knees shouting in pain. His feet stopped moving as he scanned the individuals. “That’s interesting.”

“You’re more powerful than they are. You know it,” I panted. I pounded on his back. “Get going!”

“Still interesting, though. You’re handling it much better than they are, too.”

I choked, sucking in oxygen. “It feels like my
flesh in on fire
. Go!”

“This is going to be a hell of a mess to explain to the press,” he growled under his breath. His Gargoyle snarled quietly. He looked left and right. “We just need to get outside.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled, my lids fluttering open and shut. “I may pass out soon.”

The Mayor hurdled over people on the floor, my stomach rising and falling to slam down on his shoulder. “I can fly us out of here.”

“Head for the stairs. The elevator is bound to be taken up right now,” I ordered. “We’ll have to go to the street. The only access to the roof in this building is a fire escape on the back end, and we don’t have time for that.” I grabbed my head…and
screamed
. The pain fluxed, my skin literally beginning to redden like a sunburn.