Knight's Curse (20 page)

I inhaled deeply, rooting for Shui’s scent. The overpowering odors of polish and disinfectant were all I could smell.

“In anticipation of your screams, I cast a soundproofing spell on the church. You could light a stick of dynamite in here and no one would hear the explosion.” His eyes danced with menace. The man really was insane. “This will be a private dinner party, yes? We don’t want the police interrupting Shui while he’s feeding. It could get ugly.”

I glanced at the windows set high into the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling. Something far larger than a bat flew this way. I jerked my gaze back to Gavin, who continued admiring the knife. “It wasn’t made in the mortal realm, you know. Nothing so perfect could come from such a benign plane as this one.”

“Where did you get it?” I cast another furtive look at the sky. The winged creature circled, waiting, thinking.

“From hell.” He swiped the blade through the air again. “I don’t know how old it is, but it’s the only one of its kind. And it belongs to me.”

I needed more time. “I saw Zee’s ghost. Too bad she didn’t survive the blast.”

The skin around Gavin’s eyes tightened. “And you’re wondering how I did, is that it?”

I said nothing.

“The paintings in the first room you were assigned weren’t the only portals in the house.” He winked at me, as if sharing a secret. His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. “Poor Zee was too big to fit through.”

I threw another quick glance up at the window.

Gavin huffed. “How typical. You’re about to lose your life and you have the audacity to roll your eyes at me? Why am I not surprised?”

The words had barely left his lips when a huge crash sounded from above, the stained-glass window exploding to rain shards of color over our heads. I ducked beneath the altar and Gavin scrambled for shelter beside a huge statue of the Virgin Mary. Shui flew around the ceiling, his extended bat wings almost too large to flap effectively inside the church. So he glided in graceful circles, around and around, like he had all the time in the world.

Gavin slithered out of hiding to stand out in the open. “I’ve missed you, Shui,” he called to his winged monkey. Sweeping an arm out at me, he added, “Look what I brought you.”

Like he was the one responsible for bringing me here? Shui wasn’t that stupid. And just to prove how stupid he wasn’t, he swooped down, heading straight for Gavin.

Gavin didn’t have time to hide again. He held up the knife in a threatening manner, and I assumed the blade is what got Shui to target him in the first place. From the look of hatred on the gargoyle’s face, he was finished taking orders. He was done slaving for Gavin. He’d become a rogue gargoyle on a murderous mission.

Shui’s talons gripped Gavin’s wrist before he could wield the knife. Wings flapping to stay aloft, Shui clung to Gavin so tight that the man screamed in agony. After a few more seconds the hand holding the knife separated from Gavin’s bleeding arm and fell with a bouncing thud to the floor.

Staring in disgust at the severed arm, I rushed out from beneath the altar to retrieve the weapon. But again Shui swooped, using his front claws to grab both hand and knife from the floor. He charged Gavin again, only this time he plunged the knife into the old man’s chest. Just as it had done so easily with the Maågan demon, the blade slid into Gavin’s body.

Gavin gawked at the gargoyle, his eyes bulging with shock as blood spurt from his mouth. The bloody stump where his hand used to be reached for the creature as if pleading. But the deed was done. And if a baboon could smile, Shui did a great imitation of one. His lips drew back from dripping fangs, and he let out a long roar of triumph that shook what little was left of the glass in the windows above.

As ghastly a scene as it was, I rejoiced in the monster’s victory. He’d done us both a favor. We both watched as Gavin collapsed to the floor and went still.

I looked from Shui to the knife still protruding from Gavin’s chest. Shui tensed and so did I. But before I had a chance to make a move, the knife crumbled to dust right in front of us.

“What the—?” I started to take a step toward Gavin’s body, but Shui issued a warning growl. “How did that happen?” I imagined the answer was the usual one when it came to most magical objects. Once the weapon had done its job, it was spent. Game over. “Shit!”

Shui peered at me from where he stood beside his dead master’s corpse. His lips spread in a parody of a smile. Oh, he was loving this. Having me at his mercy was a dream come true.

He lunged at me, knocking me onto my back, then sitting on my chest to hold me down. I could hardly stand the stink of him. His gray scaly skin was stained red by whatever poor creature he’d devoured last, and I knew for a fact he hadn’t showered in months. As for his breath? It was all I could do to stay conscious.

I was scared out of my mind, but I did my best to hide it. Even so, Shui had an uncanny knack for sensing emotion. He might have been a coward, but he was a shrewd coward, extremely self-centered and always hungry. He smelled my fear and from the gleam in his eyes, he found it delicious.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” I told him. “Stick with me, give me what I need to stay human, and you can wreak havoc wherever and whenever you want.” Yeah, like I’d ever let that happen.

He gave a derisive snort. He knew I was bluffing. His mouth opened, then widened to show a double row of pointed teeth sharp as razors. Leaning in close, he gave me full view of his impressive dental equipment. I breathed hard and fast, calling on that part of my intellect that wasn’t consumed by fear.

Then I thought of Aydin. Courageous, protective Aydin who was the best and only friend I’d ever had. He’d stolen my heart, and now it was breaking for him. I blinked back the tears that gathered, savoring the few memories I had left of a life too short to be fully lived. I mourned my sister knights spread all over the country, the only family I had left that I’d never get to meet. I even grieved for the fallen-angel father who had tried to save my life. Would I get to see him in the afterlife? Would I see my mother?

Warm saliva dripped from Shui’s open mouth onto my forehead and dribbled into my eyes. It stung like salt water and made my vision blur.

Just as he lowered his open maw toward my face, the sound of beating wings ripped his attention from me. He leapt back as the taloned feet of another gargoyle swept across his shoulder, slicing through flesh and drawing blood. He roared in surprise and pain, grabbing his arm and glaring up at the ceiling with hatred in his eyes.

I retreated back to my hidey hole beneath the altar and gazed up at the winged beast that sailed up to the ceiling. I expected to see Shojin, Aydin’s gargoyle, but it wasn’t him.

Had Aydin already found another winged monster to fight Shui? I squinted and spotted a monster as striking as Shojin, but more feline than hawklike, and not nearly as big. Larger than Shui, though. Its flying was wobbly as a baby bird on its maiden flight. The leathery appendages looked shiny and new, like something freshly hatched. Then I saw its eyes. Its ice-jade eyes bright as two stars shining from an animal face covered with brown fur.

I couldn’t believe it.

“AYDIN?” I CRIED.
PLEASE, GOD, DON’T LET IT
be him.
When I had dropped him off at the airport, he still had a few hours to get to Shojin and he’d had plenty of time to make it to Quebec.

But he must have purposely missed his flight. He’d thought I would fail at fighting off Shui, and he had been right. Aydin sacrificed his humanity for my life, and for my freedom.

I didn’t know if Shui recognized whom he was fighting, but the shock of a sneak attack had worn off and he was now in full battle mode. What little fur he had stood up in spikes along his scaly back and he hissed at the new gargoyle flying above him. Hesitating barely a second more, his powerful wings lifted him up and off in the direction of his enemy.

I had to do something. Shui was small but vicious, and he’d have no trouble ripping out Aydin’s throat. I thought of the broken gargoyle bodies from the Fatherhouse ruins stored in the trunk of Quin’s car. The chunks of stone were sharp enough to do the job I needed done.

I rushed down the aisle, aiming for the back door of the church. Once outside I raced to the car parked at the curb.

Remembering how sharp the stones were, I removed my jacket and used it to wrap the pieces so that I could carry them back to the church. These stones were the answer to my prayers. Now I could kill Shui so that Aydin would live, and then…

My heart turned over when I considered what he’d become, but I knew how to reverse the change. Barachiel had said,
Once you’ve changed, you must eat the heart of the gargoyle you were bonded to.

I didn’t try to stop my tears this time. They froze on my face as quickly as I shed them, and I wiped my cheeks with my shoulder, the yarn from my sweater sticking to my frosty skin. Careful not to trip and fall on my lethal bundle, I forced my stiff legs to run to the church.

The two gargoyles were locked in a fierce embrace, their wings beating wildly in an effort to stay airborne. I saw Shui’s teeth clamped on Aydin’s arm, but Aydin’s talons had sunk deep into Shui’s side. Blood rained down on the pews below them. I ran beneath the wrestling pair, who appeared to be weakening. They were losing altitude. Suddenly, they both plummeted in a tangled heap to the ground.

My first instinct was to run to Aydin, but Shui stood in my way. He growled, teeth bared. I peered at the downed gargoyle that lay on his side, unmoving.

One wing unfolded, then Aydin grew still again. He hadn’t turned to stone. He was still alive.

I had to stay strong. I couldn’t help Aydin if I were dead. And I couldn’t turn into a gargoyle now even if I wanted to. Shui would see to that. All I wanted was to be with Aydin. If I lived, he had to live, too.

I opened my bundle and dropped my load of rocks, watching the larger pieces break into long shards that glistened in the moonlight. Good. The more sharp bits the better.

I glared at Shui. “Come and get me, you wrinkled, ugly, smelly son of a bitch.”

Shui howled and charged. He wasn’t too steady on his feet to begin with, so when his talons hit the lake of blood on the floor, he went sliding. Just as he began beating his wings for lift off, I jumped at him, both my feet extended, and kicked him in the ribs where Aydin had already done some damage. Shui doubled over, landing on his back atop the broken bodies of his dead comrades.

Stone shards pierced the gargoyle’s body, the angular tips forced upward to protrude from his chest and belly. He screamed, his eyes stunned wide, his mouth agape and showing yet another rocky point that had pierced through the back of his head. He gasped one final time before his body stiffened. A sound like shattered crystal filled the church as his scaly skin solidified, his wings becoming webbed granite, his eyes glazing over like glass marbles. In an instant, his entire body turned to stone.

The back of my neck began to sting, then burn, and I panicked. Freedom should feel calm and beautiful, not agonizing. But tentacles of fire bored through my body and snaked down my spine. They curled around my arms and legs, choking my neck. Just when I thought I would pass out, the pain subsided. A bone-deep chill replaced the burning. My body spasmed, my teeth chattered, and I toppled backward to the floor, my head banging against the blood-soaked carpet as I went into convulsions.

Seconds later, it was over. A sublime peace fell over me and I knew I’d survived the worst of it. I was finally free. I touched the back of my neck and the flesh there was tender to the touch. When I brought my hand away, it was damp with blood.

As good as this news was, I didn’t feel like celebrating. I still had Aydin to worry about.

I rolled over to my hands and knees, my joints complaining at every move, and crawled toward the injured gargoyle. Aydin’s chest lifted and fell with slow breaths. His shoulder showed puncture wounds, but he wasn’t bleeding as much as before, not like Shui had been. Regardless, he was still hurt. And he needed me.

“Aydin?” I smoothed my hand over the ruffled brown fur covering his face. He still retained some semblance of his former self. It was his crescent-shaped eyes the color of sage leaves that made him recognizable. I’d know him no matter what kind of creature he became. “Aydin?” I said again, coming closer and petting the injured shoulder that was already starting to heal.

He blinked and widened his feral eyes. Seeing me, he scrambled to his feet and hobbled backward, moving as far away from me as he could without tripping over a pew.

Choking back a sob, I said, “It’s me, Aydin. It’s Chalice. Don’t you recognize me?”

He blinked again, then bowed his head, shoulders slumping as his wings drooped from his back. He wouldn’t look at me.

I stepped toward him and a warning growl rumbled in his chest. I wasn’t sure how much someone’s personality changed with the transformation into a bloodthirsty killer, but I no longer believed all gargoyles were murdering fiends. Take Shojin, who seemed as gentle as a house pet. Aydin wouldn’t hurt me.

“I know how you can change back,” I told him.

He looked at me then, cat eyes narrowed and ears flattened to his wedge-shaped head.

“Barachiel told me. It’s easy. All you have to do is kill the gargoyle you were bonded to, then eat its heart.”

He snarled, a series of grunts and growls pouring from his mouth as he tried to talk. Shaking his head, he hissed and made a fist with his paw.

“Please, Aydin. You have to do this!” I didn’t like the pleading tone in my voice, but I was desperate. “It’s the only way for us to be together. No one can pull our strings anymore. You can become as free as me.”

He shook his head again and backed away even farther.

“We have a duty to my sister knights. You can’t let Geraldine down.”

At the mention of the saint’s name, he looked around the church, his gaze settling on the staircase that led to the basement. He pointed.

“She’s safe,” I assured him. “Quin is with her.”

He closed his eyes and his face relaxed while he exhaled a slow breath.

I took a chance and stepped toward him again. He heard me come closer and his eyes snapped open, his lips peeling back from his teeth to show an impressive set of fangs. I recognized a faker when I saw one.

“You don’t scare me. I’m on to you, you know.” I slid my hand over the incredibly soft fur on his feline face. He nuzzled into my touch and I came closer, sliding both arms around his thick neck to hold him close. He hesitated, then wrapped a paw around my waist to hug me back.

We stood like that for a full minute before he stiffened and drew away. His wings spread out behind him and he threw back his head to let out a mournful wail that tore right through my heart.

“Aydin, find Shojin. You have to find him and kill him. Please, do it for us and do it for yourself. Do it for the Hatchet knights!”

He roared again, his eyes shining with standing tears. One powerful flap of his wings sent him straight up toward the ceiling, where he circled once before heading out the broken window and into the predawn sky.

“Aydin!” I couldn’t let him leave me. Where would he go? How would I find him again?

I stared up at the gray sky and watched him disappear into the distance. I felt so empty, so alone. It reminded me of what I’d experienced right after Aydin’s ghost left my body in the summoning room. Now I knew why I’d felt that way. He had become a part of me, and losing him was almost like losing a piece of my soul. I had to get him back. And if he wouldn’t kill Shojin to consume the gargoyle’s heart, I would do it for him.

I stood in front of the tapestry that covered the tomb’s door. How was I going to explain what had happened to Aydin? Would Geraldine blame me? Hell,
I
blamed me. If only I’d worked harder at convincing Aydin I could handle Shui, he never would have let the change take him. He’d have gone to Shojin as planned and would still be human right now. And I would be dead.

Instead, Gavin was dead, as was Shui. And Aydin was… Still alive and had a chance to become human again.

It was fully dawn now, though clouds had rolled in to cover the late-autumn sun, making the day appear even more dismal. I heaved a shaky breath and keyed in the vault’s combination. The door swung toward me, and I held it open to let light in for Quin.

But there was no need. The room was lit up as if inside the sun itself, though it had no windows for sunlight to shine through. What the room did have was a gleamingwhite angel, and he glowed brighter than a dozen roman candles.

I blinked, certain my eyes would burn right through my brain, but it didn’t hurt. The light cast by the angel had no adverse effect on me, though the glare obscured my view of Quin.

“Quin?” I shielded my eyes and saw the outline of a man standing beside the angel. “What’s going on?”

He stepped forward with Geraldine’s head cradled in his arms like a baby. He jerked a nod at the angel. “We have a guest.”

“I see that.” I squinted at the being whose white hair and white wings pulsed with unearthly brightness. “Can he tone it down a little?”

Quin shook his head. “It’s what angels do.”

Geraldine looked more alive than I’d ever seen her. She blinked at me and smiled.

“I take it you and Quin are getting to know each other.”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “And I’m so sorry about earlier, but I sensed Gavin waiting outside and couldn’t take the chance of him hearing me.”

“He’s dead now.” I tossed a look over my shoulder, half expecting to see the old man standing there. It would take time for me to get used to his absence and I was looking forward to it. “His death was pretty awful.”

“We know,” Quin said. “We watched through the silver veil as it happened.”

I blinked in disbelief. “You did what?”

“Quin’s getting ahead of himself.” Geraldine sounded annoyed. “First off, I’d like you to meet your guardian angel, Rafael.”

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Was he really
my
angel, like Barachiel had been my mother’s? Knowing how it had turned out between the two of them, I stared up at Rafael and felt a little woozy. He had to be at least seven feet tall and was silent as a tree. I assumed he’d had to keep himself a secret until now, seeing as how my curse was newly broken.

“Can’t you talk?” I asked him.

His forehead wrinkled, making his expression stern. “What would you have me say?”

“Nothing. Never mind.” This was too surreal. I shook my head and redirected my attention to Geraldine. “How were you able to watch everything through the veil?”

“I opened it in here,” Quin said, sounding matter-of-fact. He held up his right hand and I saw the pink scar of a sigil that was nearly healed. “I also opened the one inside the church upstairs. The result was a lot like watching a movie.”

“But you couldn’t go through it to get out of the tomb?”

He shook his head. “I’m human. I can’t pass through the veil, remember?”

I still had so much to learn about this new life of mine. “I thought your ability to communicate with angels made you an exception.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Rafael said.

I squinted up at him, then at Geraldine, realizing she knew what had happened to Aydin. I would have hugged her in sympathy if she’d had a body to hug. “I feel horrible about Aydin. It’s my fault.” I swallowed back my grief, trying to stay strong. He would want me to hang tough.

“It’s not your fault, dear. This was Aydin’s destiny. You couldn’t have prevented it.”

I refused to accept that. “He should have let Shui kill me.”

“He couldn’t,” she said. “You’re too important to the other knights. Your mission is to unite your sisters, to teach them how to defend themselves with curses and charms, to share with them what you know of the Vyantara and their allies. Aydin was sworn to protect them, and therefore to protect you.”

How could she be so casual about this? Aydin had turned into a monster. His life would never be the same, at least not until I did something to fix it. “I promised to help make him human again.”

Her pretty pink forehead creased with a frown. “I’m not sure you can.”

I held a hand to my chest to keep my heart from bursting with anguish. “Yes, I can. Barachiel told me how.”

“Are you so certain the dark angel told you the truth?” she asked.

“Why would he lie?”

“He’s one of the Fallen, Chalice. It’s what they do.”

“I don’t think so.” I thought back to the ritual that had brought Barachiel to me. “He saved my life, Geraldine. And what he told me about how to kill a gargoyle was true. He wouldn’t lie to me about this.”

She sucked in her bottom lip, looking thoughtful. “I suppose all you can do is try.”

And I would succeed. Geraldine knew next to nothing about the Fallen except that her mate had turned into one. He may have been a bad seed, but Barachiel wasn’t. I owed him my life.

Since the gargoyle stones I’d used to kill Shui had ripped up my coat, I knew I would freeze the moment I walked out the cathedral doors. But I had to return to Elmo’s and let the elf know what had happened to his friend. I’d get Quin’s help in fashioning knives from the gargoyle stones still in the trunk of his car. Then I would head for Quebec, track down Shojin and take his heart. My mind spun with all the tasks I’d set for myself, not the least of which was to connect with my sister knights. It’s what my mother had asked of me before I’d even been born.