Heart of Stone Page 4

  Ella felt her stomach clench. There were no witnesses to what could happen when she opened that door inside her. None living, anyway. But did that mean what poured out of her when she let down her guard was magic? Real, honest-to-God, change-a-pumpkin-into-a-fancy-carriage magic? Could she Petrificus Totalus people now?

  “That’s magic?” She croaked, “What comes out when I—? That’s magic?”

  “Of course, and at your age, it seems inconceivable that the Guild has not approached you and completed your training.”

  Ella sighed. Did he actually think the words coming out of his mouth amounted to a clarification of anything? “Um, not to be rude here, but you’re going to have to break this down even further. People get training for this? Do they go to Hogwarts or something? Or do they go to this Guild you keep mentioning? You’re going to have to explain that, because as far as I know, the guild system of work and apprenticeship went out with the Middle Ages.”

  “I am aware that the world operates differently in these times. I have seen the changes even while I slept. But the Guild of Wardens does not change. It cannot, not while the Guardians remain sleeping under their watch.”

  He must have caught her glare, because he kept going.

  “I am a Guardian. I was created centuries ago to protect humanity from the threat of the Darkness.”

  “Wait. Created? Like, out of thin air? Or did someone actually carve you out of stone with a chisel and everything?”

  “No, I am no carving imbued with life, like some mythical golem. I am a Guardian. A mage summoned me to fight the demon, and I answered.”

  “Summoned you from where?”

  He frowned. “From where I existed.”

  “And where was that?”

  “Somewhere else.”

  “‘Somewhere else.’ Which is where, exactly? Outside Tampa?” The look on his face told Ella he didn’t really understand what she was asking, or that she was joking. Or what a joke was. “Never mind. Just go on.”

  It took a second for him to start again, as if he had to search his memory for the place where he’d left off. It wasn’t the first time she’d had that effect on someone. “Mages summoned us in the beginning to battle the demons—”

  “Us? You mean there are other statues out there coming to life and scaring the crap out of innocent bystanders?”

  The look he gave her summed up his feelings on her latest interruption. “I am one of seven, and we are not statues. We are Guardians.”

  “But you look like statues. Or are the other six of you somehow more outlandish than living gargoyles?”

  “‘Gargoyles’ is not our favorite term.” His expression darkened like a thundercloud, and Ella clutched her pillow tighter.

  “It’s better than ‘grotesques,’ right? ’Cause, technically, that’s what I should be calling you.”

  “You should be calling us Guardians.”

  His voice held enough growling irritation to have her nodding her agreement, whether she’d intended to or not.

  “The Guardians were summoned by the first mages of the Guild. Those mages banded together to share knowledge and gather information on the demons we battled, and thus formed the Guild. They share that information with us, tell us what the evil forces plan, assist in battling against them, warding us against their evil. They monitor the activities of humans who are enslaved or seduced by the dark powers, and fight against their expanding influence. They bid us to slumber when the threat of the Darkness is defeated, and they recognize when the danger returns, waking us in time to foil its plans. They are the Guild of Wardens, and even when we slumber, they have always stood vigilant.”

  Ella tried to process all that, sifting through the story’s details for its bones, and then gnawing on them for a minute. “So, you and your six buddies are some kind of demon hunters? And this Guild you keep talking about is like … the Alfreds to your Batmen?”

  He just stared at her.

  Apparently, he hadn’t been waking up periodically to catch up with the DC Universe since—

  Sheesh, when had he been crea—er, first summoned? And did she really want to know?

  “They’re your assistants,” she clarified, watching his expression carefully. “They handle the research and pesky material details while you do the hunting and killing thing.”

  “Demons cannot be killed. They are immortal. All we can do is force them to use up their power until they weaken and then banish them from this plane.”

  “Ah, so that’s why you were just sleeping through the centuries and not back wherever it was you came from.” Was she finally beginning to understand him? And what did that say about her sanity?

  “They also recruit and train the next generation of Wardens. Unlike the demons and the Guardians, the Wardens are humans with the ability to harness magic. They do not live forever, so they must pass their duties on to a younger mage when they near the end of their lives. Some pass the duties down through the family lines, to their sons and occasionally their daughters, but when a mage has no offspring, he will recruit an unrelated human with proven magical talents. One like you.”

  Ella could think of several reasons why a bunch of mages charged with helping avert the end of the world wouldn’t want to trust someone like her with the job. The biggest one still echoed in her head whenever her “magic” spilled out of her control.

  She forced out a casual shrug. “Huh. Guess there weren’t any job openings around here. Wait. Are the other, um, Guardians here in Vancouver? Is this where the Guild is based?”

  “No. I couldn’t say where each of us is stationed today. Clearly, while we sleep, we can find ourselves moved to new locations. My brethren could be almost anywhere. But the Guild always remains in one place. Our individual Wardens will travel along with us, but the base of the Guild has for centuries been in Paris.”

  “France?”

  “Of course.”

  Ella blinked. If she thought about it, she supposed it made sense. If these Guardians had been around for centuries, Europe was the logical place for them to have begun. Well, Europe or the Orient or Africa, but Kees’s appearance, in either form, was distinctly Western. And Paris’s collection of gargoyles and grotesques had made the city famous for hundreds of years. Still, it was weird to think of this man being French. He spoke English, after all, with no trace of an accent. She supposed a thousand years or so of practice could take care of that kind of thing.

  “Right.” She drew a breath and forced herself to focus back on the here and now. “Well, I’ve never been there. Heck, I’ve only barely been to the U.S., so it’s not a big surprise that a group of guys from Europe didn’t scoop me up for their secret club. I probably just never ran into one.”

  “You have enough magic that they should have noticed you long ago. They monitor for such things, and even with no Wardens ready to retire, you would have been sought out for training at the very least, and possibly a support role within the Guild. Standing against the Darkness requires constant vigilance and many keen eyes. No, something clearly is not right with the Guild. I need to discover what it is.”

  “So how come you’re sitting here talking to me and not spreading your wings toward Paris?”

  While he’d been easing her into this crazy new world of his, his expression had remained aloof and cool, like a professor instructing a class full of not-so-bright students, but when she asked that question, he turned his gaze on her. Suddenly those black eyes glinted sharper than an obsidian blade.

  “Because none of that explains what woke me from my slumber, little human. For that, I suspect I must look to you.”

  Ella felt her chest seize and reminded herself to remain calm. Having all that inhuman intensity focused on her was not a comfortable experience. She wanted to deflect it somewhere else. Anywhere else.

  “I don’t know what you think I have to do with anything. I mean, clearly if I didn’t know you existed until after you, er, woke up, then I’m not the one who woke you up. I
f you Guardians are big defenders of evil, then maybe you woke up just to defend me from that nocturnal guy. I did scream pretty loud when I saw him.”

  “No, it is impossible. The Guardians slumber until one of the demons of the Darkness stirs. If I am awake, there must be something very grave afoot. I cannot sense a demon directly, but perhaps my earlier theory is partially correct.” He eyed her with speculation. “Perhaps the nocturnis are working toward summoning one of them, and they think to use you and others like you to feed the creature and restore its strength once it has reappeared.”

  Oh, this just kept getting better and better.

  “Maybe you should just go ask this Warden of yours. I’m sure he’ll be more helpful than I am, and you don’t need me for that.”

  Kees made no move to leave, not by the door and not by the window to the fire escape where he’d come in. In fact, he didn’t stir from the sofa. The only movement he made was a slow shake of his head.

  “No. Of course, I will find Gregory and ask him many questions, but I have no intention of letting you out of my sight. You clearly had something to do with my awakening, and the Guild will want to know what that was. They will want to meet you.”

  “Um, no offense or anything, but I don’t particularly want to meet them.”

  He watched her so intently that she squirmed—literally—under his gaze.

  “Look, I had nothing to do with you waking up. Just because I was there, doesn’t mean I had any effect on you whatsoever. And frankly, this is all a little much for me to deal with. I’d be a lot happier if you just went off to find your buddies and save the world, or whatever, and forgot all about me. That’s what I’m going to try to do.”

  Kees frowned, and she tried to ignore the way that made her want to squirm some more.

  “I do not believe you have that option, little human,” he said. “What you have learned cannot be unlearned, and having met you, I must inform the Guild of your existence. I’ve never met a human who needed training more than you.”

  She glared at him. “I’m not a dog. ‘Training’ can go screw itself.”

  “You lack any sort of control over your magic. Such recklessness could lead to dire consequences. Your inability to control your power could harm another human. And if you do not learn how to use the energy, you will always be vulnerable to those like the nocturnis and their masters, who would seek to feed off your power. Is that what you want?”

  Ella’s stomach knotted up like an old-fashioned telephone cord. She didn’t want that. She’d never wanted that. Not now, and not when it had happened the last time. She just wanted to be normal: safe, sane, and harmless. Was that so much to ask?

  “I’m not going to hurt anyone,” she protested, her voice as tight as her jaw. “The magic doesn’t have to come out. I can keep it locked up. If I never use it, it can never hurt anyone.” Again.

  “It can hurt you.” His eyes narrowed as he watched her intently. “I think it already has hurt you, and you cannot keep it locked up forever. If you try, one of two things will happen: either the magic will build up to the point where it will explode through any barriers you attempt to use to contain it—and in that case, people will undoubtedly be hurt—or it will stop attempting to move through you and will begin consuming you instead. Magic is like a river coursing through stone; eventually it will eat away at the rock until a canyon is all that is left.

  “Is either of those what you want?”

  She squeezed the pillow so tightly, some poor goose probably felt it up in heaven. “I don’t want any of it. I don’t want the magic at all.”

  “The magic is part of you. You don’t have that choice. Unless you would prefer to have it drained from you by the nocturnis and their masters. Of course, I’m afraid that is one experience you would not survive. Is that your choice?”

  At the moment, Ella didn’t feel like she had any choices worthy of the name.

  “The only way forward is for you to enter the Guild, little human,” he continued, rolling right over her objections in a manner that was starting to feel a bit too familiar. “They can teach you how to use your power, and how to contain it when you are not using it. A little knowledge will go a long way toward ensuring both your safety and the safety of those around you.”

  It was the one thing he could have said to keep Ella from digging in her heels and sprinting for the nearest exit. As much as she wanted to ignore his words, as much as she wanted to close her eyes and pretend that the events of this night had never happened, she’d wanted that for only a couple of hours. She’d wanted to keep from harming people for most of her life.

  For the last twelve years, she’d wanted it more than life itself. Could Kees and his Guild really give that to her?

  She forced herself to keep her tone level and reasonable. “So how would that work? You make a phone call to Paris and give them my e-mail address, or something?”

  “No, little human. I take you to my Warden, and then we find out not only how well you can control your magic, but why after a thousand years, you were the one to draw me from my slumber.”

  “And keep me from being kidnapped and sucked dry by the bad guys, right?”

  “We can but try.”

  “Try really hard.”

  Chapter Four

  When she spotted the crowd gathered in front of the museum an hour before opening on an ordinary Sunday morning, Ella realized she’d forgotten one very significant detail about the events of the past several hours. Namely, that another museum employee with a keen eye and sharp intellect might perhaps notice the unexplained disappearance of a half-ton limestone statue from the terrace. And such a disappearance had the potential to make people wonder where said statue might have disappeared to.

  She kind of doubted anyone would guess he was standing right next to Ella as she drew to a stop a few feet short of a police cruiser complete with flashing lights parked at the curb. Crap. What was she supposed to do now?

  “Ella!”

  Before she could make a decision, she saw the crowd on the sidewalk part and Bea come rushing through to her side.

  “I’ve been watching for you,” the assistant curator said, sounding agitated and more than a little worried. “I tried calling your apartment this morning, but you must have already left for work. I was so worried! I thought something might have happened to you last night after we parted. I was ready to kick myself for agreeing to let you take yourself home.”

  Ella returned the woman’s spontaneous hug and realized she should have taken a drama minor in college. She was going to have to act as if she had no idea what was going on despite the sinking feeling in her stomach and the knowledge that she had, in a way, just committed a major art heist.

  “No, no, I’m fine,” she assured Bea, mustering up an expression of puzzlement. “What’s going on? Why are the police here?”

  “We’ve had a robbery.” Bea pulled back, her expression a mix of grief and anger. The woman treated the pieces in her collections like her own children, with a combination of pride, love, and possessiveness. “Someone stole Sir Arthur.”

  “Sir Arthur? How is that even possible? He must weigh at least eight or nine hundred pounds. Somebody would need a forklift just to get him off the pedestal.”

  “The police are already back there looking for tire tracks, footprints, anything they can think of, but heaven knows what they’ll find. I certainly can’t explain how it happened. All I know is that when I came in this morning, I let the gardener out the terrace doors and he turned right around and shouted that our gargoyle had flown the coop.”

  It took a supreme act of willpower for Ella not to cast a sideways glance at Kees, who remained still and quiet beside her. Luckily, he still looked like a human and not the very statue that Bea had told the police was stolen.

  “Wow, I can’t even believe that,” she murmured, shaking her head for effect.

  “You’re not the only one. If not for the big space and empty pedestal where he used to
be, I don’t think the police would believe it either.” Bea stepped back and her glance drifted over to Kees. Her brows shot up and she looked from the gorgeous, towering male to Ella’s petite form. “I’m sorry, I’m being rude. Ella, is this a friend of yours?”

  Oh no, he’s just my mythological kidnapper slash cross to bear.

  Ella opened her mouth to offer some sort of explanation—heaven only knew what it was going to be—but Kees beat her to it. He smiled easily at the other woman and held out a hand.

  “I’m Kees, Ella’s … companion,” he said, the pause implying a whole bunch of levels to the relationship that Ella would truly have preferred not to visit. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

  “The pleasure is all mine. As is the surprise,” Bea said, slanting Ella a sly, sideways glance. “I don’t recall Ella mentioning you. She must have wanted to keep you all to herself for a while.”

  Kees grinned and slung his arm across Ella’s shoulders, drawing her close against him. “The feeling is entirely mutual.”

  Ella wondered if the pain would be mutual when she elbowed him in the stomach. “We haven’t actually known each other that long, so there really hasn’t been a lot to tell.”

  “Hm, looks like there’s enough for the man to be walking you to work in the morning. I think that’s pretty telling.”

  Bea’s teasing tone set Ella’s nerves on edge. She knew her boss didn’t mean anything but friendly humor, but being pressed up against Kees’s side like a cold compress didn’t strike Ella as funny. It struck her as … deeply disturbing.

  Her eyes told her that the gargoyle’s human disguise remained flawless. No one looking at him would guess him to be anything other than a drool-inducing hunk of a man, the same as any other movie-star handsome guy walking down the streets of Vancouver. But Ella knew that under that tan skin and rippling muscle was a creature with horns and wings and fangs, the kind that stepped straight out of a nightmare.

  So why did her skin tingle when he touched her? And why did her heartbeat speed up as if her teenaged crush had just passed her a note in study hall?