Mona Lisa Awakening

Chapter Four

I had set my heart in pursuit of the antidote, wherever it might take me. I felt a keener sense of myself, like a fresh young blossom of spring sensing the world for the first time, my tattered old self diminishing with every new breath I took in.

The idea of searching out the other Queen Mona Genesa, was soon abandoned. Gryphon had only a poor idea of where she was and an even poorer expectation of how he would be received, being the runaway slave of another Queen, the most despised of his kind. Had we been able to find her, she would likely turn us away like hunted dogs, chasing us far from her. Helping unwanted fugitives was an unspoken taboo among the Queens.

So, what to do then? There was only one choice, I told Gryphon. Face his enemy, and I would help him conquer the unconquerable. Reluctantly, Gryphon agreed.

Where did a Monère Queen live? In Queens, of course. Oh, the ego Mona Sera had. Thus we found ourselves the following night, shortly before midnight, outside a desolate warehouse in Flushing, the most easterly outpost of Queens, near an old railway depot. Rusty tracks lay abandoned and unused under the gleaming moon. Surrounding us on both sides were empty railway box carts, the kind once used for shipping before highways and trucks made them obsolete. They were stacked one atop another in a colorful array of dulled orange and grey, to tower over the undistinguished warehouse.

The full moon hovered above us in perfect round glory. Why while everyone gathered for Basking.

Gryphon had said to me the previous night, "A sad pity we could not search for the antidote during the full moon tomorrow while everyone is gathered for Basking, but we shall have to stay here and Bask ourselves."

"Bask?" I had returned. "What's that?"

He had looked at me, stunned. "Basking is when we stand beneath the full moon and the Queen opens herself and the moon showers down upon us her rays of light, renewing us all."

And so I came to learn a bit more about the children of the moon. Queens were precious indeed, because only they had the ability to pull down the moon's rays and allow others to Bask in its energy. Without Basking, the Monère aged more quickly, like humans. Queens held the ultimate power: they prolonged life. I, unfortunately, did not know how to Bask. Oh well. But at least we now had the perfect moment for entering the premises with the least chance of detection.

A cool wind swept the tree branches, causing a flurry of red and gold leaves to dance and flutter to the ground. An owl hooted as we swiftly crossed and blended into the shadows of the building's northern wall. Gryphon entered through a second-story window like a shadowy ghost. A moment later, he opened the front door, letting me in.

All the lights were off, but darkness was no obstacle to our kind. Our eyes were equipped to see things as if night were day. It was deserted inside. That was no surprise. The surprise was how richly furnished—opulent, really—the interior was, with veined marble flooring, finely woven Persian carpets, and a magnificent crystal chandelier. I followed Gryphon up the grand, winding staircase in silent wonderment and down a hallway that held nothing but a single door at the end.

My skin prickled as an acute fragrance rushed toward me from that door. A fragrance feminine and jarring, giving me a sense of being in a place where I ought not to be, as if I was impinging upon another's realm. It had to be Mona Sera's chamber.

Gryphon opened the door and disappeared inside. Taking a deep breath, I followed him and entered into the spacious living quarters of the master bedroom. It was lavishly furnished with plush carpeting and heavy, gilded frames of art. One I recognized as a Renoir, another a Rubens. A huge, draped four-poster bed dominated the room. It was twice the size of a king bed, enshrouded by curtain wisps that framed it in sheer decadent glory.

Gryphon's touch broke my spell and I blinked at him. He gestured me toward the adjacent dressing area while he went to the bed and began searching it. The dressing area was a room as big as my living room and decorated much, much nicer, with framed prints, carpeting, draperies even, and a comfortable chaise. I opened the closets. Mona Sera's gowns and apparel lined the racks with her shoes in the space below, numbering well into the hundreds. I shook my head in bemusement. What did you know? Mona Sera had a thing for shoes.

I looked carefully on the shelves and through the custom-fitted drawers, ran my hands down the clothes, peered in the shoes, prodded the little toes within, but found nothing. I even ran my hands along the walls and floor but could sense no hidden seams or compartments. I returned to the boudoir and looked at Gryphon. He gestured to some vials on the mirrored bureau top. I came to his side, lifted the lids, smelled nothing but perfume fragrance, and shook my head. We searched the rest of room, even peering under the mattress of the huge bed but found nothing except a simple vial hidden in a bedside drawer.

Before I could lift the stopper of the vial, Gryphon was at my side, his hand over mine, shaking his head furiously. Carefully, gingerly, controlling my movements with dreadful care, he put the vial back and pulled me into the bathroom where he had me wash my hands three times before continuing our search. It was fruitless.

Disappointment weighed heavily in my heart as we slipped back out into the hallway and made our way back down. We had agreed beforehand to search only the Queen's private quarters where the antidote would most likely be hidden. Gryphon waited for me down by the front door, but before I reached him, I stopped and turned. Something drew me, some amorphous thing coming from the east wing. Instead of leaving, I veered right, following the irresistible pull down an empty corridor.

Gryphon stopped me, a hand gripping me urgently, shaking his head and urging me back toward the entrance. But I shook him off, called onward by something I could not deny, some force that pulled me forward until I stumbled into a grand hall. Only then did I recognize it. The feel of power, old power. It hit me with a spine-tingling rush.

The great chamber was exposed to the full moon through an open skylight. A score of men and a handful of women faced away from me, their faces lifted to the streaming rays bathing them in pale light. On the center platform, a woman lifted her arms in joyous welcome to the round, luminous planet that had once been their home, her hair streaming down her back, hair so black that it shone blue in the silvery light. She was naked, unrestricted by clothing, her flesh pure and unblemished, her breasts jutting out full and proud. From the waist down, her body was a serpentine flow of smooth, rippling muscles covered by glistening scales. She had no legs, just the body of a snake. I looked at her with wonder and thought lamia, what the ancient Greeks had called the snakelike creature they had believed to be vampire, a creature of legend and lore that I would have claimed only a moment before did not exist.

A moonbeam fell on the snakewoman and the power that filled the room grew. With a burst of brightness, little butterflies of light showered down from the heavens, darting into her and entering into all the men and women around her, making them gasp, bowing their backs as the light streamed into them until they glowed with blinding brilliance.

And still the power did not abate but continued to grow, tightening more and more within me until I felt as if I would surely-burst. And then it seemed as if I did. With another flash of light, moonlight darted to the back of the hall, to me, finding me and touching me with cold light, showering me with flittering energy and sharing that invigorating power with Gryphon, making us gasp and glow with radiance. Only then did the power fade with one last loving caress, leaving us behind in the quiet afterglow with all eyes turned upon us and the cold discovery that several men had moved behind us and now held us captive.

Basking, as far as I was concerned, hadn't been worth it.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" Mona Sera purred. A forked tongue flitted out in the air, tasting us. I felt a surge of energy. Before my eyes, the lamia's vertically slitted pupils rounded out and her scales melted away into legs that flowed with sinuous grace toward us.

A woman brought a robe to Mona Sera and she slipped her arms into the garment and belted it, to my immense relief. The fact that a naked woman coming at me was scarier than the warrior behind me, holding me captive in an iron grip, said a lot about my priorities. Homophobic, me? Nah. I just felt more comfortable fighting. Street fighting and a hodgepodge of other disciplines thrown in.

With a twist I broke free, my arm slipping out at my opponent's weakest point where his thumb and fingers met. I grabbed my captor's arm. Another twist, a grunt from me as I bent and lifted, and the man went sailing over my head to land with a nice thud on the ground, surprise darkening his eyes.

Geez, he was a massive brute, at least six-four and close to three hundred pounds I'd bet, with a barrel-like chest and arms and thighs as wide as my head. I was surprised I'd been able to throw him, and surprised even more at what he wore at his waist—a genuine sword sheathed in its very own scabbard, like what they used back during the Crusades.

One of the two men holding Gryphon lunged at me and I ducked back. Let's see, two opponents in front, twenty behind me. Forward, definitely forward, was the way to go. Knives suddenly in hand, I leaped and slashed a white-haired warrior in my way, slicing his chest and drawing blood, then darted past him as Gryphon plunged an elbow into his opponent and dropped him with a kick. The stench of Gryphon's blood filled the air. Damn, his belly wound had broken open again.

We dashed down the corridor, out the front entrance and came to an abrupt halt. Ten men formed a half circle in front of us outside; they must have come through the skylight. I wondered briefly if they could fly, and that made me think of something.

"Gryphon, fly," I said. "Fly away from here, now. Do it."

His eyes burning, he obeyed me. His clothes ripped away and he transformed with a brief surge of power, his face changing, his mouth lengthening into a sharp beak, snowy white feathers flowing on his arms, all over, as he became a huge bird of prey. But his eyes, his beautiful intelligent eyes were still the same, fixed on me as he spread his wings in flight. Fixed on me as he swung his powerful feet to grip me, his razor-sharp talons carefully wrapping around and not into my waist. We were three feet into the air when the realization that he was trying to fly us born out hit me, the same time a heavy rope net was thrown over us.

The falcon gave a piercing shriek of rage as he slashed some of the rope with his beak. He might have broken free had he used his talons, but he could not employ them without dropping me. And he did not release me. Inevitably, the net tangled with his wings and we dropped back to the ground. Another surge and Gryphon was back in his normal form, a sprawl of arms and legs, naked, panting with exertion, weakened by the poison, a drop of blood glistening on his pale skin as the net was lifted off us. My knives were snatched away and powerful hands that I was quickly coming to recognize gripped my arms once again, bringing them together behind me, manacling them both with huge iron fists that allowed me no room to maneuver.

"Quick learner. Too bad," I muttered, and arched back my head in a sudden move, landing a solid blow to the giant's nose. Good thing I was tall for a woman. He bellowed with pain but still held me secure. He drew me back firmly against his massive chest and tilted his head out of my reach. That awareness, that sharp attraction of like to like, of Queen to male that had been present all along, burst into full awareness and I felt something rise behind me from down below to prod at me. Could have been the sword, but I doubted it.

I struggled fiercely, energized by something that tasted like fear. My feet slammed into the giant's shins. He grunted but didn't move; his pain tolerance was impressive but not to my advantage. Only when I lashed back and up, trying to kick between his legs did he lift me easily and take me down to the ground, sweeping my legs out from under me quickly and efficiently, with no wasted effort or emotion. He followed me down, his great weight trapping me and immobilizing my legs, damn near squashing me. Good thing I didn't need to breathe as much as a normal human or I would have suffocated.

The other men, including the white-haired man I had cut earlier, gazed down at us from a distance, making no move to come closer, which I didn't mind in the least. Nor had they made a move to help at any time. Of course, it looked as if the giant hadn't needed their help, the big brute.

They had shackled Gryphon not with iron but with silver manacles, hands and feet, and left him on the ground. He struggled, straining against the shackles until his wrists and ankles were raw and abraded. I felt a shimmer of energy from him but he couldn't transform. We lay several yards from each other, helpless.

"She gave you a bit a trouble for such a small thing, Amber," hissed a sibilant voice to my right. I craned my head and saw her. Yup, Mona Sera, the snake bitch. And it was Amber, of the raping Sonia fame, on top of me.

Mona Sera came closer and I felt her definitive presence like an irritating buzzing against my senses that annoyed the heck out of me, and I wondered if this was what silver felt like against the skin of a Monère. If so, I could understand their aversion to the metal.

I felt the cold touch of manacles clamp around my wrists and wondered if it was silver also. It didn't bother me, nor would it be able to hold me, though they evidently thought that it would for some reason. Interesting. I looked at Gryphon. I'd thought his inability to break free was due to his weakened condition, but perhaps touching silver weakened Monère in some way. Perhaps it weakened me the same way. Mentally I shrugged. We'd see soon enough. But now was not the time to test the restraints, with us surrounded, outnumbered, and outstrengthed, and with Gryphon trussed up and laid out beside me like a plucked turkey. I'd wait for a better time and opportunity, like when the sun was hot and high in the sky. While they slept, maybe.

I was flipped onto my back and saw for the first time the face of my opponent, Amber, close-up. He was beautiful in a brutish manner, the way a towering oak tree was, built for power and endurance, his face roughly hewn, with big features—a prominent forehead and brow, a bold nose, a jutting jaw that fit the massive body, and straight nut-brown hair. His dark blue eyes were large and deep-set. There was an odd emptiness of emotion in their depths. Not anger or irritation or lust, just a cool control that had not changed in any way while we had fought. Not one single emotion but for that brief glimmer of surprise when I had thrown him.

"Amber, rape her," Mona Sera commanded.

Perhaps waiting for the right time was not an option after all. Both Amber and I tensed but Amber made no other move, just stayed straddled over my thighs. I had wondered why they hadn't chained my legs, and now I knew. It was so he could rape me. I'd just as soon have not known, actually.

We stared at each other, both of us still, the tension stretching taut between us. Neither one of us made the first move to break it. Something flickered in those turquoise depths. His pupils constricted, his heartrate went up, and his nostrils flared as his breathing quickened. I braced myself for his attack but all he did was turn his head to Mona Sera.

"Milady… she is a Queen, I can sense it," Amber said.

"Yes, then you are not so dumb after all. Obey my order. Rape her!" Mona Sera's voice cracked like a whip and Amber flinched. His hands lifted, reached for me, then dropped helplessly. He looked at me and I realized what I was seeing. Fear. Not lust. Fear. It writhed like a trapped animal in his eyes.

"Please, milady…" Amber beseeched his Queen.

"So shy?" Mona Sera purred. "You were most eager with the others. Indeed, there seems to be no problem with the amber stone." Her gaze dropped down to his bulging erection. "Why so hesitant?"

"Milady, it is forbidden to rape Queens," Amber said desperately, sweat wetting his brow.

"And yet so many of you men have done so throughout our history," Mona Sera said, her voice as cold as ice as she delivered the death blow. "Like your father. Did he not rape, then kill, his Queen, breaking the ultimate law?"

I looked at Mona Sera then, really looked at her, and with that new sharpened vision, I sensed it, her secret, her fear. A little kernel within her that had blossomed and grown. And I realized this wasn't about me at all. This was to test and punish Amber, whose father had committed the ultimate taboo, not only raping but killing a Queen. Large, strong, massive Amber, whom Mona Sera secretly feared and hated in the way only a woman, weaker and smaller, could fear a man, even a Queen. Perhaps especially a Queen.

"Does not the desire run in your blood?" Mona Sera asked, her voice dripping with sweetness. "Come, come. We can all see that you want to take the little Queen. You cannot fool us."

He quivered, a mass of great strength and masculine control reduced to no better than that of a helpless trapped animal. Poor brute.

Satisfaction glinted hard like a diamond in Mona Sera's eyes. With my deeper insight into people, I could almost read her thoughts. If he raped me, a Queen, it would confirm all that Mona Sera had secretly feared all along, and it would be his own death sentence. If he didn't, he was refusing his Queen's direct orders. Amber was screwed either way and the realization of it was evident in the sea-blue turmoil of his eyes.

I wondered how many years Mona Sera had made Amber pay and pay for the sins of his father. How many times she had ordered him to rape someone before her and watch her worst fear reenacted over and over again, prodding at it like one would a sore tooth. How sick and twisted Mona Sera must be to test both of them so.

Gryphon had said that those here had nowhere else to go. Perhaps if Amber had been less tall, less strong—just less. But with his massive strength and height, no Queen would ever feel completely safe around him with the insanity of his father's history, and it was insane to kill off your life source, condemning not just you but all others to a shorter life.

"Amber, I ordered you to rape her. Didn't you hear me?" Mona Sera voice grew shriller, louder.

Amber slid off me. Crawling on his hands and knees, he prostrated himself before Mona Sera. "Please, my Queen. I beg of you… I do not wish to."

"You lie," she said, her voice pure melodic poison. "One clearly sees that you do wish to."

He shook his head, his face in the dirt.

"You dare disobey me?" Her voice was a deadly hiss of warning.

His hands stretched beseechingly up to her, then dropped, not daring to touch her.

"Well I, for one, would be most happy to carry out my Queen's command," said the man I had cut, youthful despite the whiteness of his hair, his cheerful voice breaking the spell and drawing all attention back to me as I was inching my way closer to Gryphon. Great. Just frigging great.

I started to struggle to my feet and the white-haired warrior did that fast-action leap-and-bound thing, his body on me in an instant, pinning me down before I even had a chance to rise. With a calculated deliberation, he tore open the front of my shirt, revealing my cross and laying bare more cleavage than I was comfortable with flashing.

Yup, no more waiting. I flexed, broke the short silver chain easily, slammed a manacle-clad wrist into the handsome, winsome face above me—rapists came in all kinds, I guess—and watched with satisfaction as he flew off me.

I tsked-tsked. "No one teaches you boys manners anymore."

Gasps of surprise flew around me. I ignored them and scrambled to Gryphon, ripping off his manacles quickly and easily, and pulling him to his feet as men ran toward us.

"Wait," came a woman's voice, clear and loud, not Mona Sera's. And for some reason, perhaps from nothing more than mere surprise, everyone halted, including Gryphon.

"Why do you interfere, Sonia?" Mona Sera snapped. Sonia—Gryphon's half sister.

"My Queen," Sonia said, her voice ringing with desperate certainty, "she is your daughter."