Mona Lisa Blossoming

Chapter Twelve

The next morning ended up being a continuation of my long, long night. The plan was to enroll Thaddeus in the parish's local high school. Then I was hitting my bed. We were in a good school district, living as we were in the seat of old wealth. The other houses we drove past, while not mansions, carried the weight of their years with well-maintained dignity and expensively groomed lawns.

Thaddeus was in the back. Halcyon sat in the front passenger seat, looking as tired as I felt. The big SUV actually felt empty with just us three in it. Gryphon had been surprisingly agreeable when I had suggested that Halcyon accompany us to the school. In fact, Gryphon had been amazingly cordial and calm about Halcyon's presence thus far. But maybe that wasn't so surprising. Gryphon had asked for help, after all, and Halcyon had come to our aid, healer in tow. He seemed willing to entrust our safety into the Demon Prince's hands, satisfied that my brother's presence would be adequate chaperone.

I'd asked Halcyon to come along because, of the three men able to withstand daylight, Halcyon would actually blend in the most. Amber was too strikingly big and Gryphon was just too damn beautiful. They would attract a lot of attention and curiosity, which I wanted to avoid. Prince Halcyon, the High Prince of Hell, actually wouldn't draw much human attention, believe it or not. He blended wonderfully, except for his long nails.

"Just keep your hands in your pocket or behind your back," I reminded him once again.

Halcyon just smiled and nodded.

"I said that before, didn't I?" I said, nervously tapping the steering wheel.

"Only four or five times," Thaddeus muttered.

"All will be well," Halcyon reassured me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I don't know why I'm so nervous."

Thaddeus, looking curiously at the school grounds we were entering, obviously wasn't.

I pulled into an empty parking space in front of the three-storied brick building. Two long rectangular wings flared back at forty-five degree angles from either side of the structure so that it looked like a giant brick bird about to take flight.

"Don't worry," Thaddeus said, getting out of the car, "I'm not even starting school yet."

It was the last Friday before Christmas break. Our timing was almost perfect, as if we had planned it, which, let me assure you, we had not. It had just luckily worked out that way, like sometimes things did. School would be out for the next three weeks and the administration had decided that it would be best if Thaddeus started classes after the holidays. We were just here to register him and tour the school. Butterflies, however, still fluttered in my stomach as we stepped through the white double doors. The sight of long corridors, rows of lockers, and closed classroom doors brought back a wave of memories, many of them unpleasant. No matter where you are, schools smelled the same the world over, like waxed floors and disinfectant, the sweat of young bodies, still sweet, not yet pungent with maturity, the faint stench of gym socks, the whiff of old textbooks and new notebooks, girls' floral perfume, and the scent of forbidden bubblegum, chewed in hidden silence.

The registrar's office was to our right. A lady with tanned, wrinkled skin and obviously brown, dyed hair sized us up in one encompassing glance, peering over the rim of reading glasses perched low on her nose with sharp, no-nonsense eyes. A veritable dragon.

I self-consciously smoothed the skirt of my dark blue dress under that piercing stare. It was the only short dress I owned. I'd bought it and worn it only once before, for my job interview at St. Vincent's Hospital. Tersa, acting like my lady in waiting, had French-braided my hair neatly back away from my face, and had even applied some makeup with a surprisingly deft hand. When she was done, I almost didn't recognize myself. I looked older, more sophisticated. Pretty.

Now, I just had to act the part, which was easier said than done. Speaking slowly, calmly, I introduced myself. "Hello, I'm Lisa Hamilton. I'm here to register my brother, Thaddeus Schiffer, for next quarter. He's transferring schools."

The dragon's glance slid over me and moved on to Thaddeus, who was dressed neatly in brown corduroys and an oxford shirt. Then she looked pointedly at Halcyon; a woman who knew how to let silence speak for her.

"This is Albert Smith, my friend," I said, answering her unasked question.

Halcyon smiled charmingly back at her, his hands casually hidden in his front pockets.

"We've been expecting you," she said crisply and introduced herself as Mrs. Boudoin. She disappeared into the adjoining office for a moment. When she returned, she waved us in. "Mr. Camden will see you now."

Mr. Camden was a pleasant-looking man in his thirties who smiled warmly at us in welcome, shook both Thaddeus's hand and mine and gestured for us to take the two seats in front of his desk. He nodded congenially to Halcyon, who remained standing deliberately back against the door.

"Your school has already forwarded your records and SAT scores to us, Thaddeus. Both of which are very impressive. And you are just—" He glanced down at the opened file on his desktop. " — sixteen. Two years younger than the rest of our seniors." And looking even younger, more like fourteen. Social suicide in high school. I did not envy my brother.

"Thank you, sir," Thaddeus said. "I started kindergarten early and Hawthorne Academy was kind enough to arrange a curriculum allowing me to complete high school in three years instead of four."

Mr. Camden smiled. "The heavier course load does not seem to have affected you adversely in any way."

"No, sir."

"Well, we can certainly accommodate you here as well," the smiling Mr. Camden said, looking at both Thaddeus and I. "You only have one extra course per quarter to fit into your schedule, which we should be able to do quite easily."

"We appreciate that," I said, and smiled for the first time at him. He seemed stunned for a moment. Then his smile became even warmer, and his eyes dipped down to gaze at my bare left hand.

My smile disappeared.

"It's unusual for students to transfer in the middle of their senior year. May I ask what precipitated this change?" Mr. Camden asked.

"His parents were just killed in a car accident. My brother has only recently come to live with me," I explained.

Mr. Camden murmured his condolences. "Do you have any plans for college, Thaddeus?"

"I've been accepted into Harvard and Yale, sir."

Mr. Camden smiled. "Congratulations. But not so surprising with your scores."

"However," Thaddeus continued, "I have decided to attend one of the local universities instead."

Mr. Camden's brows rose with interest. "I have a friend who works in admissions at Tulane. You would be someone they would most definitely be interested in." He wrote down his friend's name and number and handed it to me with another warm smile. Then he got down to business and showed us the busy schedule he had tentatively worked out. With only a few minor changes Thaddeus suggested, the courses for the rest of his school year were finalized, and a locker assigned to him.

The assistant principal, a Ms. Emma Thornton, took us on a brief tour of the school. She was handsome rather than beautiful, a tall, elegant woman who seemed to smile with special interest at Halcyon. Made one wonder if the entire faculty here was unmarried.

Thaddeus's textbooks in hand, we left the building just before noon, finally sucking in air that didn't smell recycled. The sun—hot yellow ball hovering straight overhead—shot fiercely down upon us as we walked to the car.

Only in the car did Halcyon finally remove his hands from his pockets. "So that is a school. So many children," he murmured. "Over a thousand beating hearts I sensed in there."

"You've never been to a school before?" I asked, starting the car.

"The Monère do not have such a thing. Nor enough children to warrant such an institution," Halcyon said, a tinge of sadness in his voice.

"Are you feeling well, Prince Halcyon?" Thaddeus asked from the backseat.

My brother's question made me turn and look at Halcyon. Really look. And what I saw alarmed me. He looked haggard, sallow beneath the golden hue of his skin.

"What's wrong?" I asked sharply. Concern flared even greater when he dropped his head tiredly back against his seat. He'd never displayed any weakness before. Heck, he'd never been weak before, and seeing a crack in that great strength now rattled me completely.

"The sun bothers me," he admitted quietly.

"The sun?" I said, leveling him a hard look. "Halcyon, you were walking in daylight when I first met you. The sun was shining brightly down upon you then and it didn't seem to bother you."

"I remember feeling as if something in the woods was calling me," he said, smiling weakly in remembrance. "It had been so long since I had walked the earth beneath the sun's rays."

My knuckles tightened around the steering wheel until they were white. "Shit, Halcyon. You told me when we first met that the sun doesn't bother you."

He closed his eyes. "Not in short doses. Even these lengthy hours today I could have withstood at my full strength, but I have been long away from home." Home being Hell, which I wasn't exactly sure if Thaddeus knew just yet.

"I had already tarried seven days at High Court before Gryphon called us here," Halcyon said.

"You should have told me that." I was angry and frightened, my voice harsh. "I would never have asked you to accompany us if I had known."

"I wished to come," he said simply. "I wanted to see what a human school was like."

"Jesus Christ, Halcyon." I felt like smacking him for taking such a foolish risk. "Are you going to burn or melt or anything like that?"

Again that weak smile. "No, just bring me back to the house. I will rest, then depart for High Court tonight, and return back home. I will be fine once I am back in my own realm."

"I noticed that you hardly ate anything last night, sir," Thaddeus said.

"You are most observant, Thaddeus. I did not eat at all, actually."

I was getting an ugly suspicion here. "Let me guess. You cut up your steak and moved it around."

Halcyon sighed and admitted, "Foolish pride again."

"Why would you do that, sir?" Thaddeus asked politely.

"Because he doesn't eat food. Am I right, Halcyon?" I asked, spearing him a hard glance.

"Meat is not what I require," he said, closing his eyes.

"So this is even more my fault." But no one had told me. Still, I should have asked or at least guessed. Tersa and Jamie had been absent from dinner last night and now I knew why. Their mother had kept them hidden from Halcyon. She hadn't wanted them being served up as blood donors to the High Prince of Hell. Regret and guilt flooded me. "Halcyon, I would have provided what you needed, had I known."

He opened his eyes to gaze at me. "Would you have?"

"Yes." I reached out, touched the back of his hand. "And I would have trusted you to keep it clean, no hanky-panky while I did it."

"That I could not have promised to do," Halcyon said, smiling, turning his hand until his palm met mine. Carefully he closed his hand around mine, his long nails resting lightly against my skin.

-

"The fault is mine and of those under me," I said softly. Because they had known and hadn't told me, and I hadn't asked. "Forgive me. I will do my best to make amends for my breach in hospitality."

"There is nothing to forgive. The fault lies with my foolish pride," Halcyon murmured, his eyes a dark caress.

"What does he need, Mona Lisa?" Thaddeus asked.

I looked at my brother through the rearview mirror. "Blood," I said, and saw his eyes widen slightly.

The Suburban jolted suddenly, as if something large had hit it.

"What the—" My question was drowned under the screaming groan of metal. Above us, talons punctured the ceiling, the sharp claws popping through the fabric lining right above our heads. With a heart-stopping lurch, the car was yanked from the small road we were on, and then we were airborne for the distance of a dozen yards. No other cars or houses in sight because this was private property, my property. We were only five minutes away from home.

The talons disappeared, and we were dropped with a lurching thud into a field with waist-high weeds. Before the car had stopped rocking, I had the door open and was out. A giant eagle came swooping down at me with razor-sharp beak and lethal talons. I hit the ground, then scrambled back up when it hurtled past me. For one terrible second I thought it was Aquila, my guard, the former bandit I had trusted and taken into my service. His other form was a bald eagle. And then I saw that the plumage was less rich, the black and white coloring different, the white of the head extending farther down into the chest and the upper part of the wings. Not an eagle—a vulture. And its presence felt different… jarring, abrasive.

"Behind you!" Thaddeus screamed and I ducked and rolled, barely in time. A hard rush of wind blew over me and the hunter's wings brushed against me, missing its main target, but still striking me a glancing blow. Fiery pain slashed my shoulder and the bittersweet smell of blood filled the air as I tumbled to the ground.

A second large bird, a red-tailed hawk, shot past with an angry shriek. Nope, not my people. The hawk was smaller than the gyrfalcon Gryphon became, a muddy swirl of brown instead of snowy white, with a chestnut-colored tail. But still it was a deadly predator of the sky, a dark shadow of death winging overhead.

"Stay in the car!" I yelled to Thaddeus. He hesitated, then got back inside and shut the door.

"You, too, Halcyon."

"I think not," the Demon Prince said quietly and came around the car to crouch down beside me. Hard to order him around when he actually outranked me. Too bad. He didn't look too good. But if he insisted on playing… I offered him my silver dagger, my eyes scanning the blue sky.

"I do not need that," Halcyon said, and flashed his long nails when I glanced over at him.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot," I muttered. "Here they come."

The vulture hurtled down, dropping hard from the sky. The hawk was right behind it, a brown rushing blur. I sprang away from the car and stood, a clear inviting target, hands bare, daggers sheathed. With the barest adjustment, they veered toward me, diving like bombers.

"Mona Lisa, no!" Halcyon cried.

Just before the vulture struck, I called the daggers to my hand, one silver, one plain steel. I let the silver blade fly. A swift evading maneuver by the giant bird and I missed. I missed! Fuck!

The vulture came right back on target with a sharp angling of its wings, plunging straight toward me. With no time to call back the silver blade, I met talons with steel. I leaped up to meet it, striking it in the air. I had a fraction of a moment to savor my dagger sinking into the vulture's body, and then it struck me with the full momentum of its dive behind it. It felt like a freaking hammer hit me. Stunning force, a sharp tearing impact in my right arm, and not too much pain—not a good thing. It was better when it hurt like hell. When you didn't feel anything, that meant the wound was deep and the injury bad.

I think I dropped the dagger, couldn't tell. Couldn't feel anything in my right arm. And then I didn't know anything other than I was careening through the air, thrown by the impact of that motherfucking big bird. It shrieked with triumphant glee and swooped past me, red droplets dripping from its breast. I hit the ground with smacking force, eating dirt. The fall kicked the breath from my lungs and made me see stars.

"No!" Halcyon cried.

I turned my head in time to see Halcyon dive in front of me, using his lean body as a shield, and take the hit meant for me. The hawk struck him with an impact that I both felt and saw. The blow shook and reverberated through Halcyon's slight body. His blood splattered wide in a crimson spray as talons dug deep into his back. With a jerk that ripped a moan from his lips, the hawk heaved the Demon Prince upward into the air, carrying him away.

"Halcyon!" His name was a weak, airless gasp from my lips. Then my mouth opened wide in a soundless scream as sharp claws struck me, tunneling into my back, scraping against bone. The vulture jerked me into the air like a flopping doll, and hot, searing pain ripped through my body and sank me into darkness.

Searing pain jerked me back into consciousness. My back, of course. And my right shoulder throbbed like a screaming bitch. Chains were tight and secure around my wrists and ankles, giving me a hint that I was in deep shit, if the pain hadn't already clued me in.

I opened my eyes, then wished I hadn't. Silver chains I could have broken, but it was demon chains that bound me. And beside me, they bound Halcyon as well. He looked terrible. His tanned skin was almost gray, and his face and entire body was puffy, swollen. He looked like an overripe peach that would squish open with one careless squeeze. Rivulets of blood twined down his legs and side like crimson beads. I must have made a sound or some noise. Halcyon opened his bloated eyelids and tried to smile at me, but the movement cracked his dry lips and they split open, oozing blood and thick gooey liquid.

"Oh, my God, Halcyon." My voice came out dry and cracked. I cleared my throat, swallowed to moisten it. "What did they do to you?"

"Sun," he croaked.

They'd fried him, the bastards. Someone seemed to know quite a bit about the demon dead.

I felt the guilty sun innocently setting in the west. I'd been out for a while—several long hours had gone by. Relief welled up within me that at least Thaddeus wasn't here with us. I prayed that my brother had returned to the house safely. Did the others even know we had been taken? Or were they all still asleep and insensate in their daytime rest?

"Who took us?" I asked.

"Mona Louisa."

Somehow his answer didn't surprise me. She'd been my nemesis forever, it seemed, though it hadn't really been that long. Just felt that way. She'd tried to kill me twice already. Let's hope the third time wasn't the charm.

But it explained how Mona Louisa had gotten ahold of demon chains. From Kadeen, the same demon dead warlord she'd sicced on me. He must have served as her conduit to Hell and all its interesting supplies. Made me glad that we'd killed him. And made me wonder if she knew that her source had been gobbled down by Hell hounds and was no more.

"Where are we?"

"Mississippi," Halcyon rasped. "About a hundred miles east of New Orleans."

"What's Mona Louisa doing here?"

"She lives here. Part of her original territory. Louisiana went to you. She kept the western part of Mississippi."

It boggled my mind. They'd sliced up her original territory and given the bigger piece to me. Generous and yet incredibly stupid. Just begging for trouble, in fact. "You left Mona Louisa as my neighbor?"

Halcyon almost smiled, but managed to keep his lips straight so they wouldn't split open again. "Advised against it. Majority overruled me. Felt it was adequate punishment."

"And they thought she'd be okay with it? Live peacefully right next to me?"

"Yes. Trusted you to hold territory safe against her. And if not—"

"Yeah, I get it. Survival of the fittest, and all that stupid crap."

"Monère way."

"Frankly, I don't think much of that way."

He sighed. "Neither do I. They would never conceive of Mona Louisa making such an attempt. Even I did not think she would dare do something like this." This being not only trying for me but successfully snatching him as well, not just a High Council member but the High Prince of Hell.

The good news was that we were alone. The bad news was that I wasn't alone. Halcyon was here with me.

"Can you break free?" I know. Dumb question. He'd have broken free, already, if he could. And yet… I couldn't help but remember how easily, effortlessly Halcyon had snapped the chains once before. Snapped them as if they had been nothing but thread.

"No." His voice was a low, dry rasp. He looked at me, all his great strength gone. And my ignorance, my lack of knowledge was mostly to blame.

"You?" he asked.

I shook my head, hot tears of regret and shame burning the back of my eyes because I lied. I could break free… if I shifted into my other form. But I couldn't risk doing so. I lost myself to my beast completely when I changed. If I were alone, I'd take the chance and trust to my beast's instinct to flee. But here, with Halcyon… I might very well fall prey to my own predatory instinct and eat him if I changed. I certainly would not have the presence of mind to break him free and take us both away from here.

Regret filled me. If I had not run from the darkness of my beast all my life, if I had been willing to free it more often, gain more control of it… but now it was too late.

"You shouldn't have helped me," I said helplessly.

"What else could I have done?" he asked, his once beautiful voice so terribly abraded now.

"You should have just let them take me."

"I could not."

"Oh, Halcyon. If I die, my people will continue without me. But if you no longer ruled, what would happen in Hell?"

He looked at me for a long moment, his thoughts turned inward, before finally saying, "It would not be good."

"Your father?"

"Would probably avenge my death. Kill many Monère. May even die himself doing so. It has been long since he has left Hell."

"You make it sound as if you have to build up a tolerance to Earth."

"It is very much like that."

"Oh." A long period of silence passed. "But say your father keeps his cool, doesn't go on a killing spree. He could take up his rule once again, and everything would be the same, right?"

Halcyon dropped his gaze to the ground. "He has existed for so long. You cannot imagine what that is like. For the last hundred years, he has withdrawn much, lost interest in things, sleeps mostly. The only reason he still continues and does not go to his final rest is because of me. So that I will not be alone. If I were gone, there would be no reason for him to further exist."

"What about Lucinda, your sister?"

"Her relationship with Father is… complicated. And she has neither the strength nor desire to rule."

We both contemplated in silence the thought of an unstable Hell, of creatures even more powerful than the Monère battling for supremacy. If someone like Kadeen took over…

Kadeen had been a demon dead, a would-be warlord who had challenged Halcyon. But all he'd ended up being was would-be dead. Dead dead, this time. Back into the final darkness. But before he'd departed, he'd been a nasty, formidable creature who'd ripped apart Amber with stunning ease and drained Chami almost dry of his blood—two of my strongest, deadliest men. He'd taken a deep suck out of me, too. The demon dead seemed to gain power from drinking blood from living creatures. The thought of someone like that in power… I shuddered. Monère and humans alike would not be safe then.

"What can we do?" I whispered.

"Don't die," he said. "Survive until help arrives."

"Do you think it will?" So many things to do, to get right. They had to know we were in trouble, guess where we were, and then ride to the rescue.

His answer was not comforting. "We have no other hope."