Mona Lisa Darkening

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Cleaning up afterward, after gathering all of our ripped clothes — so many pieces scattered on the floor — I fell into a sort of dazed calm. Okay. So two men had just fucked me, one after the other, and I had enjoyed it — immensely. The important thing, the truly important thing, was that Gryphon's rage was gone and his mental equilibrium re-established, along with my own. I trusted him again. And he trusted himself to be with me. As long as Halcyon was there to supervise.

Ironically, it was much easier to look dispassionately at what I had just done than walk back into Halcyon's bedroom. Washing up and walking into that closet again caused that same feeling of suffocation to come over me. Snatching the first dress I saw, I threw it over me and almost ran out of the bedroom. Halcyon mistook it as eagerness for me to leave, and in a way, it was. Just not for the reason he assumed.

Two demon guards joined us outside the house. They were big guys, one with dark gold skin like Halcyon, the other baked a slightly lesser brown. The heat, I think, was what darkened their skin. They were the first demons I had seen armed. Throwing knives were sheathed in a double row on the wide harness each wore across his chest.

"This is Tuck," Halcyon said, introducing the gold-skinned demon. "And Keven." He gestured to the demon with an ax — a primitive war ax — belted at his waist. Tuck just had the usual sword — okay, it was more like a machete. A big, heavy, curved thing.

"They will be accompanying us to the portal."

"As will I," Gryphon said, joining us outside. Under that dim twilight darkness cast by Hell's gray elliptical moon, he looked calm and determined. Like the Gryphon I had known and loved and watched die. So alive came the sharp, painful thought.

Halcyon glanced at him, assessing his state. Apparently satisfied with it. "You can take Mona Lisa's horse. She'll ride with me." As opposed to riding by myself. Can't say I wasn't relieved.

The horses they had ready and waiting for us were more the kind I was familiar with. With nice saddles complete with a sturdy horn you could grab, and bridles to guide the beasts with. Much better than riding bareback, hanging onto a flapping mane. Nor did the eyes of these demon horses flare red. Even when I heaved myself awkwardly up into a wide saddle that made you feel like you were doing a freaking split. But, hey, I was grateful just to be sitting up, and not sprawled facedown on the ground, eating dirt.

"Scoot forward a little," Halcyon said. I scooted and he swung up easily behind me. The two demon guards, even Gryphon, mounted their horses with a casual skill I would have killed for. A graceful rider, I was not.

When our horse lurched into movement, I gripped the horn like my life depended on it. "I hope you know how to drive this thing," I muttered to Halcyon between clenched teeth.

"Relax, Hell-cat. Caine is much less wild than the demon horses my father had you ride the last time."

"Just promise me that this horse won't do that frog-leaping thing in the air."

"I promise that Caine will not be doing any air galloping. He senses your unease and is being very gentle with you."

Hah! That's what Halcyon thought. The horse was ignoring me, clip-clopping along at a fast and eager pace.

I never did manage to relax. Nor did I release my death grip on the horn. The ride there, every jerky, swaying, wild lurch of it, seemed unbearably long. Frankly, I would have rather walked there on my own two feet. When we finally arrived, I dismounted as gracelessly as I had mounted the horse, half-falling, half-flopping off the beast. Caine flicked his ears forward, patiently continuing to ignore me.

"Thanks," I muttered, and lurched away in a stiff gait that was unfortunately bowlegged. The horse snorted, and I could have sworn I heard evil amusement in that sound. It was certainly there on Halcyon's and Gryphon's faces and the other men's eyes.

I glared at them. "Do not say a word," I warned, rubbing my sorely abused posterior. From the corner of my eye, I caught the faint shimmer of the portal. If you looked straight at it, you couldn't see it. Only when you looked sideways at it were you able to catch a glimmer of the portal. There — only a few steps away. It beckoned to me, bittersweetly.

I turned, swept my eyes over Gryphon as he came to stand beside me. Lost to me once, and how terrible that had been, now found again. I had thought him a fallen angel, kicked out of heaven, the first time I saw him. Now with those sharp pointy nails, present always, even without any fangs on display, he was indeed that — fallen from life into death. My demon angel. My demon lover.

"I'll be back soon," I promised, my voice growing husky with the ache of farewell.

"I'd rather you didn't. Don't come back to Hell again."

I'd known that our good-bye wasn't going to be easy, but this was ridiculous. "What do you mean, don't come back to Hell again?"

Gryphon took my hand in his, ever so carefully, keeping those sharp nails away from my skin. "Exactly that. Halcyon can visit you. There is no need for you to ever return here."

"What about you?"

"You are still my Queen. In my heart, you will always be that to me. I wish your safety first, above all else. I cannot allow you to endanger your life — a life we risked ourselves to save — by returning here." He wrapped his other arm around me and held me close with that careful new strength of his, looking so serious, so somber, so heartbreakingly lovely in a sad, resolute kind of way.

"Nothing," I said, "not even you, will keep me from returning back here, Gryphon."

"Forgive me," he whispered. Lowering his lips over mine, he kissed me. Kissed me with such love, such tenderness, such feeling. As if it was our final kiss. And so lost was I in that exquisite kiss, so caught up was I that, when I realized he was walking, moving toward the portal and carrying me with him, it was too late. Only then did I realize his intent: to enter the portal with me.

"No, Gryphon, no! Don't do this!"

"Sorry, my love. Like you, it is all or nothing for me."

It was madness. It was suicide! Only demons old and strong enough attempted the portal, not new baby demons. Then all thought dissolved as the biting energy of the portal slid over me, and I felt as if were being torn apart, not in big chunks, but in little bloody ones. Like a million rabid ants were chomping down on me. I screamed with pain, with horror. And that horror was reflected back at me from Gryphon's mirror-blue eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, gripping my hand with concern.

"Nothing," I gritted. "It always hurts like this. But you… God, what have you done, Gryphon?" Fear for him tore at me even more viciously than the pain ripping at my body.

"I'm fine." But as soon as he spoke, it stopped being so. He felt it suddenly then, the same pain that I did. I saw it screaming out of his eyes, steaming out of his skin. Vapor rose from him. Was him as he became less solid — became nothing but heat, such heat. Hot enough to burn my hand. I clung to him. Refused to let go of his hand. "No! Gryphon!"

His eyes grew unfocused.

"Gryphon!" I said sharply enough to pull his attention back to me. "Hang on. Do you hear me? Hang on!"

Fear, panic, and pain made my heart thump loud as a drum. And that pounding beat gave me the answer on how to give a demon more strength. Blood. My blood.

"Bite me, Gryphon."

He looked at me blindly, uncomprehendingly, as he tried to hold himself to flesh.

"Drink my blood!" I shouted. But he was too dazed, too weak to understand me. I turned his unresisting hand — a hand I was able to see through, dear God! — and slashed his sharp nails across my wrist. The pain of that was negligible compared to the pain the portal was beating on me, like a mosquito biting you while someone was hacking you into pieces. But the smell of my iron-rich blood was electrifying to Gryphon as I raised my bleeding wrist to him. His bright eyes took on a red glow as his fangs sliced out.

This time it was a sight I welcomed. A blur of movement and his mouth was on me, sucking the dripping blood, then biting down, sinking those fangs deeper into me, drinking more, drawing my blood into him with hard, sucking pulls.

He was insubstantial enough that I could see through him, into him. So that I could literally see the redness of my blood pouring down his stomach, spreading out into his bloodstream like red ink, swirling, diffusing.. .firming his flesh. Cooling it so that he felt less molten. The vapors stopped, no long rose from his body, and I felt relief, such giddy light-headed relief, that I no longer tensed but relaxed against the pain bombarding my body.

With a final jolting sting of agony, we arrived at our destination. I pulled us out of the portal, stumbling, falling to the ground, pulling Gryphon with me, attached as he still was to my wrist, continuing to drink from it, his throat working strongly. It made me wonder if maybe my light-headedness wasn't just from relief. If it was perhaps more from blood loss.

"Gryphon… Gryphon, enough. Stop!" I yanked my wrist violently from him, and he growled, lifting his head, flashing fangs, red eyes at me.

"Gryphon, we're here. We're here in New Orleans. You crossed the portal, Gryphon. You did it. You're back in the living realm."

His body crouched and, in that moment, he was the exact image of what people pictured demons to be — this preternaturally strong, vicious, mindless beast, fanged and fierce, eyes burning Hellfire red. I don't know if he would have returned to his thinking self. I don't know if I could have fought him off, or if he would have killed me.

Halcyon walked out of the portal's shimmering white mist. "Do not!" he growled, his will so forceful, so strong, that I felt it slam Gryphon back away from me like a powerful fist. Gryphon flew back against the alley wall so violently that bricks cracked and rained down in dusty pieces onto the ground. I'm not sure if it was the blow itself that knocked some sense into him, or if Halcyon's presence imposed some sort of calm over him. When Gryphon regained his feet, his eyes were no longer hazed red, though the fangs still remained.

Gryphon stared, looked at me and saw me. Saw my ravaged wrist, the blood dripping from it. "I hurt you," he said, his voice thick and hoarse.

"No, I did this." The first slice at least. "I cut myself and made you drink my blood when you began to dissipate. Remember?"

He shuddered. "Yes, I remember."

"I didn't know how else to give you strength."

"It worked. Too well. I would have killed you had Halcyon not intervened."

"But I did," Halcyon said. "Thanks to her blood and quick thinking, you survived the portal. Something no demon so young in his afterlife has ever done."

Halcyon walked to me and brought my bleeding wrist up to his mouth. He lapped his tongue over my wounds and I felt a tiny eddy of pleasure swirl through me as he licked the blood clean and stopped the bleeding — only a tiny fraction of the orgasmic bliss he was capable of imparting. Releasing my wrist, he turned back to Gryphon. "What you did was insanely reckless. We almost lost you."

Halcyon's words chased the last lingering pleasure from me. Hot scalding anger rose in its place. I might not be demon fast, but my Monère quickness had me in front of Gryphon in the blink of an eye. I grabbed him by his shirtfront and shook him. "You dumbass! You almost died again. For good this time! Why did you do something so stupid?"

"Because Hell is a dangerous place, not meant for the living. Because I selfishly did not want to wait one hundred years before I knew whether or not I could cross the damn portals. Because I would rather be truly dead and gone to you than exist that long without you. But — " A beautiful smile lit Gryphon's face. " — I did. I can. I can cross the portal. With your blood and Halcyon's controlling presence, I can cross the portal." He gazed wonderingly about him, took in the familiar alley, the distant scents and sounds of humanity drifting to his heightened senses. Wetness sheened his eyes, making them glisten with diamond brilliance.

"Yes, with our help you can cross the portal," Halcyon said, his voice grave. "But there is good reason why weak demons are extinguished in the portal and not allowed to cross into the living realm. You would have gone on a slaughtering rampage had I not been here, and Mona Lisa would have been the first life you consumed in your bloodlust."

The joy drained out of Gryphon. "You are correct. I do not have the control yet that I need." His face hardened with resolve and hope. "But I can work on that now that I know it is possible for me to return."

"Oh, Gryphon." I released his wrinkled shirtfront and wrapped my arms tightly around that dear familiar body. "You are such a horse's ass. Promise me that you will wait until you are stronger and have better control before you try this again, okay? It would kill me… kill my heart and extinguish all my joy if you died again. If you were taken forever from me."

I felt the light skim of his lips, and the harder brush of his fangs, against my hair. "I will be more careful with my existence, now that I have this hope," he promised. He stepped back from me, face strained. "I'm sorry. Your blood, the beat of your heart… it calls too strongly to me."

"We must return now," Halcyon said, stepping between us.

Dread welled up in me at his words. Another roundtrip torture session in the portal coming right up. Lovely.

I pasted a fake smile on my lips. "All right, I'm ready."

Realization filled Gryphon's eyes. Understanding that I would have to accompany him back, and return yet again. "You are right. I am a dumbass. All that pain you felt —"

"You do not have to return with us," Halcyon said.

"Don't be silly. Who else is going to give him blood? You?"

"Blood will not be necessary. Do you remember how I shielded you once from the pain?"

"Yeah. Real clearly."

"I shared my energy with you. I can do the same with Gryphon. You do not have to return with us."

I shook my head in stubborn determination. "I won't risk Gryphon's existence on theory. I'm coming with you."

"It is not theory," Halcyon said. "It is fact."

"What do you mean, fact?" Gryphon asked.

"I know that it can be done because it has been done in the past — a powerful demon sharing his energy with a less powerful demon to allow both of them to safely cross between the realms. But it is a knowledge that has faded away. Knowledge that I ask you to keep secret."

"You knew that I could return to the living realm, that I could return to Mona Lisa with your aid, and you kept that from me?" Gryphon growled.

"Yes."

"Why?" Gryphon demanded.

"Because poorly controlled demons usually go on killing rampages. Once in the living realm, their bloodlust overwhelms them. Ending a weak demon's existence if he tries to cross the portal is Hell's final safety measure, a fail-safe that should not be tampered with lightly." He let that sink in for a moment before clasping Gryphon's shoulder. "Come," he said. "You have done extraordinarily well, but it would be prudent not to test your control any longer."

Gryphon agreed.

I watched them walk toward the white mist of the portal. "Halcyon."

He looked back at me.

"Are you sure Gryphon will be safe?"

"On my life," he said with a wicked, roguish smile.

"Halcyon!"

"On my afterlife," he amended. "I promise you, Hell-cat. I'll get him back safely home."

One last lingering glance shared between us as they stepped into the portal. Then they were gone, and I was left alone, back in the living realm.