The Sweetest Burn Page 5

  Did he agree? Did Jasmine? She looked grimly resigned to what Costa had said, but she had admitted herself that she wasn’t a fount of objectivity at the moment. Didn’t matter, I decided, renewed determination filling me. I didn’t need to find something else to do what had to be done to win this war.

  I had all the motivation I needed right here.

  * * *

  I ROLLED OVER and stuffed the pillow in a new position under my head. Useless. The bed was comfy, the trailer was quiet, and yet I’d lain here, wide-awake, for hours. I blamed Costa, of course. His little chat had been as encouraging as listening to demons debate my chances, and needless to say, they were pretty sure I wouldn’t succeed, either.

  Costa meant well, but like Jasmine, I figured he’d been through too much to be optimistic. I couldn’t blame him. I’d only been dealing with minions and demons for the better part of five months, and I still felt like I’d aged decades inside. If I’d been imprisoned by them for as long as Costa had, or lost my best friend to them the way Costa had lost Tomas? Yeah, I’d be a bowlful of doom, too, with a side order of bitterness.

  “Ivy.”

  My gaze flew to the door, but it was still closed. A quick glance revealed that Jasmine was the only person in the room with me. I hadn’t imagined hearing Adrian say my name from just a few inches away, though, so I strained my ears and waited.

  “Ivy, come outside.” Adrian’s voice was low but clear, and I realized that he was speaking to me through the exterior wall of the trailer. “I need to show you something.”

  I got up, mostly because I couldn’t stand to toss and turn anymore. I doubted something was wrong or Adrian wouldn’t be whispering. Plus, we’d parked at the edge of an old cemetery. Hallowed ground meant no demons, even if they could roam around our world at night. It wasn’t a deterrent to minions, but there’d need to be a lot of them to pose a threat with Adrian, Brutus and Costa here, not to mention me.

  The thought cheered me as I moved quietly through the room. I wasn’t the same helpless girl I’d been when this whole thing started. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Well, I’d had lots of things try to kill me, so by extension, I had to be stronger by leaps and bounds.

  Once out of the bedroom, I tiptoed past a snoring Costa, who was on the sofa bed. The lone pillow on the floor must have been where Adrian had slept. He rarely used blankets, having long ago become well acclimated to the cold. Like Costa and Jasmine, I piled on the blankets to offset my memories of the dark, icy realms, but Adrian’s time there had consisted of him being treated better than a king, so maybe he didn’t mind.

  Adrian had left the door open a crack, so it made no noise when I opened it to go outside. He’d moved away from my side of the trailer and stood near one of the old tombstones. It took a second for me to realize that Brutus was perched on top of a crypt next to him. If I hadn’t spotted his red, iridescent eyes, I might’ve mistaken the gargoyle for an elaborate statue.

  “What’s up?” I said, keeping my voice down although we were the only ones who seemed to have difficulty sleeping.

  Adrian wore a jacket and jeans, and until he turned to face me, I didn’t realize that was all he had on. The jacket was open, and moonlight reflected off the muscles in his chest while shadows gave his abs more definition than they already had. As he walked toward me, every ripple of muscles reminded me of the power contained inside his stunningly sculpted body.

  “Is this what you wanted to show me?” I asked, a tiny crack in my voice belying the quip. “If so, that’s playing dirty.”

  A slow smile curled his mouth. “If I were playing dirty, I wouldn’t be wearing anything.”

  Yeah, I thought, dragging my gaze away from his physique, that might do it. Since I’d never admit that out loud, I said, “Why did you want me to come out? Is it what I said to Jasmine?”

  His smile faded. “No, but now that you mention it, that did piss me off. I don’t care what your sister thinks of me, but you shouldn’t lie about what you feel, and we both know our lineage has nothing to do with what’s between us.”

  Feel, not felt. His deliberate use of the present tense told me that he wasn’t buying my being over him. The problem was, I was starting to doubt whether or not I was myself.

  “Tell that to every Archon and demon alive,” I muttered, mentally kicking myself for bringing the subject up. I should just keep a piece of tape handy so I could slap it over my mouth every time I had the urge to say something reckless.

  “I don’t care what they think, either,” Adrian said silkily, closing the distance between us.

  I backed away, holding out my hands to ward him off. “Don’t. If this is why you called me out here, I’m leaving.”

  Hard assessment filled his features, as if judging whether I meant that, but he stopped. “It’s not why, but it’s been so long since I’ve been near you that I can’t help it. Don’t say you haven’t missed me, too, or I’ll know that you’re lying.”

  “Really? How will you know that?” I said, deciding that I’d much rather challenge him than admit to it.

  He came close enough to brush my hair away from my neck, and I told myself it was the night air hitting my skin that made me shiver. His fingers trailed over my neck, lingering on the spot where it felt like my heart was trying to escape through my jugular.

  “Because when you lie, your pulse pounds even harder.”

  I moved away. Damn the memories that had come flooding back at his touch, taunting me with how his hands had felt when they’d explored other parts of my body.

  “You’re wearing the necklace.” The masculine satisfaction in his voice scattered more shivers over me. I closed my hand over the pendant, as if concealing it made that any less true.

  “With its history, I couldn’t risk Brutus losing it,” I said defensively.

  Adrian laughed, but the knowing sound was nothing compared to the intensity in his gaze. “This time, I don’t even have to look at your pulse to know you’re lying.”

  What was I going to say? That some crazed part of me had been so touched by Adrian giving me a priceless stone from his childhood that I’d put the necklace on right before I went to bed? I hadn’t thought that anyone would see my momentary act of weakness, yet since I’d forgotten to take it off before I went outside, now it was being used against me.

  Brutus interrupted the moment by hopping off the crypt and stretching out his wings to their full extension. Then he chuffed at Adrian as if to say, Hey, pal, remember me?

  Adrian threw a rueful look at the gargoyle. “You’re anxious to get started, I know, but your timing sucks.”

  I actually loved the gargoyle’s timing. In fact, the next hunk of raw pot-roast meat I came across had Brutus’s name written all over it. Then I looked more closely at the gargoyle, noticing that he had something around his neck, too.

  “What’s that?” I asked, pointing.

  Adrian cast one more look at the diamond in my cleavage. Then he walked over to Brutus and fingered the straps.

  “It’s why I called you out here. You’re about to have your first flying lesson.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I KNEW MY ears weren’t malfunctioning, yet I still repeated his statement as if I’d misheard him. “Flying lesson?” Are you serious? my mind added in a screech.

  He patted Brutus, murmuring to him in Demonish before he answered me. “I’ve had Brutus since right after he was born. He was so small, I could carry him around like a baby, and he broke every fragile object in my house when he was learning to fly.”

  The mental image of baby Brutus learning how to fly was adorable, but it didn’t quell my apprehension. “But I don’t want to learn how to ride Brutus when he flies.”

  The half smile that had curled Adrian’s mouth while he reminisced about Brutus vanished. “You rem
ember why I had to leave you when we rescued Jasmine from the Bennington realm?”

  “Yes,” I said hoarsely, fighting the memories from that day, but the most painful one came, anyway.

  Adrian grasped my head, his silver-sapphire gaze almost burning into mine. “He can’t fly with all of us, and I’m the heaviest. Brutus’ll take you to the B and B, then you need to cross through the gateway.”

  I was appalled. “Adrian, you can’t—”

  He pulled my head down, his mouth searing mine in a kiss that matched the blazing intensity in his eyes. Desperation, desire and despair seemed to pour from him into me, but when he lifted his head, he was smiling.

  “I love you, Ivy. I love you, and I didn’t betray you. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can do anything.”

  Then he stuffed the slingshot into my pocket, slapped the gargoyle on his side and yelled, “Tarate!” Those mighty wings began to beat at once, flying Jasmine and me away while leaving Adrian to face a horde of minions alone...

  His stare crashed through the memory and compelled me not to look away. “I don’t regret staying behind to make sure that you and Jasmine made it out, but if a similar situation happens again, I want us all to be able to escape. That’s why I’ve spent the past couple months learning how to ride Brutus when he’s flying, and why I trained him to strengthen his wings so that he can fly while carrying very heavy loads.”

  I had to look away and blink several times to clear the sudden blurriness in my vision. “That’s...that’s smart.”

  And brave, ballsy, thoughtful and so many other things I didn’t dare say out loud. I’d spent the past two months trying to convince myself that I felt nothing for Adrian. He’d spent that time thinking up new ways to protect me and Jasmine, and while it didn’t make up for everything that had happened, it did leave a dent in my heart.

  He shrugged, although the intensity didn’t leave his gaze. “The bus has its perks, but speed isn’t one of them. That makes it terrible for getaways if we come under attack. Brutus has speed, maneuverability, and his hide is so thick, minions would need a rocket launcher to bring him down.”

  Brutus chuffed, lifting his head a notch higher. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he understood every word because then he fluffed out his wings as though he were preening.

  “You’re all that and a bag of badass,” I told him, smiling when he chuffed again as if in agreement. Then I returned my attention to Adrian. “I get why you wanted to learn how to ride him, but why do you want me to?”

  Adrian fingered the straps around Brutus’s neck, which I now realized was a harness. “It takes strength and concentration. If I were injured, I wouldn’t be able to do it, and Brutus maxes out at carrying three people in his arms.”

  I swallowed hard. I didn’t like heights and I hadn’t even been good at horseback riding the few times I’d tried it. The thought of trying to ride on a flying gargoyle’s back made my stomach roil, but the thought of Adrian being left behind again was a thousand times worse. I’d rather puke my guts out than risk that. Hell, I’d rather die, but I’d keep that to myself.

  “Okay,” I said, forcing a smile as I approached Brutus. “Let’s get the flying lesson started.”

  * * *

  “AGAIN!” ADRIAN SAID, followed by a command of “Tarate!” to Brutus. The gargoyle vaulted us upward like he was a reptilian version of a roller coaster.

  I slammed back against Adrian, forgetting to hold on to the reins again. Only Adrian’s hold on them, plus his thighs gripping Brutus, kept us from falling as Brutus’s torque made my stomach feel like it bashed into my spine. The rush of wind turned my hair into tiny whips, and when Brutus propelled us higher with another powerful flap of his wings, my guts left my spine to plummet downward like a free-falling elevator.

  The fact that I hadn’t thrown up yet was a miracle.

  “Hold the reins,” Adrian ordered, pushing them into my hands. I grasped them and held on because refusing and begging for this to stop wouldn’t help. I’d learned that the first time.

  Brutus tilted his massive head to glance back at me, as if he could feel that the reins had changed hands. Then he dipped slightly, angling his body downward and to the right. The shift tore a scream from me and it was all I could do not to drop them while grabbing wildly for the sturdier base of his wings. How had Adrian ever mastered this alone? If he hadn’t insisted on staying behind me, I would’ve fallen off a dozen times over.

  “You’re doing better,” Adrian said, putting his mouth closer to my ear so he didn’t have to yell.

  “Liar!” was my instant response. He chuckled.

  “I told you, no more lies. Now, try looking straight ahead, it’ll help with the nausea. Then, try to steer Brutus.”

  I opened my eyes into mere slits, wishing I’d worn the goggles Adrian had offered me. He’d insisted on giving me his jacket, which I’d thought was his excuse to show more skin, but now, I was grateful that he hadn’t taken no for an answer on that. March in the Florida panhandle was cooler than expected, or maybe I’d gotten too used to Miami’s perpetual heat. Either way, my fingers felt stiff from the cold, and it might take weeks for the feeling to return to my toes. Between Adrian covering my back and legs and Brutus’s large form blocking the wind from my front, the rest of me was warm enough, at least.

  The few times I’d previously opened my eyes, I’d looked down out of a masochistic need to see how high we were. Answer: high. Now, I took Adrian’s advice and looked straight ahead.

  At first, I couldn’t see much. There were lights, but they were faint, like indistinct stars. After a few hard blinks to clear wind-induced tears, I was able to see more clearly, and another few minutes of concentration later, I realized that Adrian was right. With Brutus flying relatively parallel to the ground and me staring straight ahead, the urge to puke faded.

  “Steer him,” Adrian urged, touching my arm for emphasis.

  I pulled the reins a little to the right. Brutus didn’t alter course. I pulled harder and the gargoyle turned, dipping down at the same time. Immediately, I yanked up, and Brutus responded by increasing velocity and torpedoing straight upward.

  “Level him out, Ivy!” Adrian yelled, molding his body tighter around mine.

  Through my instinctive panic, I remembered the simple lessons Adrian had given me. Pulling up on the reins meant fly higher to Brutus. Pulling down meant dive. I needed to pull straight out for the gargoyle to go back to cruising position, so I did, although harder than I probably should have.

  Brutus leveled out, allowing my organs to realign back to their proper positions. Adrian’s grip on me turned less bruising, and when I pulled on the reins again, I made sure to keep them absolutely straight. This time, Brutus turned smoothly in the direction I indicated. Emboldened, I steered him toward the cluster of lights ahead. Within minutes, we were soaring over a city, the tops of tall buildings well below us and little dots in the nearby bay all that marked what might have been large, luxurious yachts.

  I surprised myself by laughing as exhilaration replaced my fear. It was scary, yes, but I could, in fact, do this. Adrian’s laughter joined mine, and when he gripped me tighter, this time, it had nothing to do with keeping us from falling off. The gargoyle was the one soaring over the city, but in that instant, I felt like I was able to fly, and sharing that indescribable feeling with Adrian only made the moment more unforgettable.

  I was almost sorry several minutes later when Adrian took the reins and turned Brutus back around. All too soon, it seemed, the lights from our house on wheels was back in view. One frightening dive later, we were back on solid ground, and Adrian issued a command that had Brutus lying down so I could slide off instead of jumping like Adrian did.

  Once I was on my own feet, Adrian took the reins off Brutus, then said something in Demonish that I loosely translated as “
Who’s a good boy?” The gargoyle took his praise as his due, even tilting his head in invitation. Adrian scratched him for a minute, then left Brutus to come toward me.

  If I’d thought he looked luscious with his jacket open, that was nothing compared to how he looked with it off. His shoulders were so broad, my arms wouldn’t fit around them. Muscles flexed under skin tanned a deep gold, and his taut abdomen was set off by jeans that now hung so low, one tug would probably bare everything beneath.

  I had a sudden urge to test that theory, and I clasped my hands together to stop myself before I did something crazy.

  “So, some ride,” I said, more than a little breathless.

  He came closer, and the raw hunger that flashed across his features almost leveled me. “The ride isn’t why your heart’s pounding, Ivy.”

  He almost growled that last part, and his roughly sensual voice felt like it rubbed me while he spoke. I couldn’t admit that he was right, so I took a step backward—and almost tripped over a headstone. Adrian’s hand shot out, steadying me, and I shook it off while mentally berating myself.

  Smooth, Ivy. Real smooth!

  I pushed him away, feeling my heart hammer at the brief sensation of him beneath my hand. Touching him was more than enticing; it was addictive, which was why I had to get away from him before I let him do everything his darkly erotic stare promised me that I’d love.

  I took his jacket off and held it out to him. His fingers closed over mine, but instead of taking the jacket, he used it to tug me into his arms. His hair brushed my face as he leaned down, and willpower alone caused me to turn my head at the last second, so that his mouth landed on my cheek instead of my lips.

  He didn’t fight the movement, but slid his mouth lower until he reached my neck. A moan left me at the feel of his tongue, and I shuddered when he pressed his lips more firmly against my throat. Flicks, circles and light suction had me reeling from sensations, until I needed the arms he wrapped around me. Without them, I might have fallen.