Guardian of the Abyss (13 page)

Chapter 18

Abaddon held her in his arms and felt wonder and fear in mixed measure. She was so fragile, his beauty. So strong, so powerful... and dying.

"Which way is out?" he demanded.

One of the gargoyles pointed at a door and he walked through it, staggering as too brilliant light struck his sensitive eyes. With a yell, he stepped back in and slammed it shut with his foot. "Too bright," he groaned, pain shooting through his head.

"Let me take her to the inner courtyard," Thanatos stepped forward towards him.

His grip on her tightened. "Never," he growled. He loved his son, but he had no illusions. He would hurt Sarah to hurt him. His son, just like his creators, had stopped at nothing to punish him.

To his surprise, Thanatos' voice was thick with emotion as he answered, "I would never hurt her. I would never hurt a baby."

Abaddon glared at him. "You would do anything to hurt me." To his surprise, his wings, whole and free of pain, snapped out to wrap around Sarah protectively. But he had no time to ponder it as he held tightly to his most cherished treasure.

"Never, Father. I would never have hurt someone else just to hurt you. And I certainly wouldn't do it now that I have my own wife and son. I couldn't do that to anyone." He stepped forward. "I beg you, let me take her into the healing rays of the sun and begin to prove that I'm sorry for all I've done to you."

He wanted nothing more than to believe the man standing in front of him. He wanted to accept the seeming change with joy. But this man had been trained by the same sorcerers who had tortured him. He'd learned their methods of torture, and one method was to give false hope, only to jerk him back into reality in the cruelest possible way. "I don't trust you," he admitted.

Another of the gargoyles stepped forward, "My name is Nasargiel. Would you trust me?"

Abaddon pondered. He knew the name. He sifted through his memories. "You are my grandson through Adariel."

Nasariel smiled. "Yes."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Abaddon told him, his heart aching for his lost child. "He loved you very much."

"I know," Nasargiel agreed. "He loved you very much, too. He told me stories about you." He looked down at Sarah and back at Abaddon. "It would be my very great honor to protect her while the sun replenishes her. She is treasured by us all."

His need to protect her warred with her need for sustenance. "Very well," he finally agreed, though handing her over took a supreme act of will. As the other gargoyle stepped out into the sunlight, he had to shield his eyes with his arm as the light pierced him with agony.

"Father--"

Abaddon held his hand up to stop Thanatos. "I can't do this right now," he warned. "It's too much. Please, just... not now."

The door opened and a heavily pregnant human woman walked in. She said something to him, but it was in Sarah's language and he didn't understand it. At his blank look, she prodded Thanatos.

"This is my wife Alexis, and this is my son, Darius," Thanatos told him, pointing at the gargoyle child that Abaddon hadn't realized was clinging to her pants leg.

Jumping down, Abaddon stared at her. She was lovely, but she vibrated with Power. He bowed deeply. "I greet you with respect, spouse of my son," he said formally.

In the other language, Thanatos introduced him. Then he picked up his son and introduced him. All of the gargoyles in the room stared in awe.

"Abbin, Abbin," the little boy squealed, squirming to be put down. He waddled swiftly towards Abaddon. "Abbin!" The toddler grabbed his finger, and Abaddon found himself following as the little gargoyle chattered on with abandon in nonsensical baby talk.

Uncertain, he followed, looking to the child's mother for confirmation. She grinned and gestured him out the door and into the living area. He was dazzled by it, shading his eyes. Having followed them inside, he was relieved when she began to pull cloth over the sources of the bright light until it was still uncomfortably bright, but not painfully so.

He was pulled over to a pile of brightly colored objects, few or none of which he recognized. The little gargoyle, his tiny wings fluttering, picked up a few items and began depositing them in his lap. Then he took Abaddon's hands and started trying to make him make it work.

Abaddon picked up the block-like structures and tried to make them stick together the way the boy seemed to want him to do, but it was not so simple as the little lad made it look. Laughing, the little boy shook his head, pulling the blocks out of his hands. He shifted them around and snapped them together.

Enchanted by the child, Abaddon let his worry for Sarah go for the moment and focused on figuring out the strange toy. Behind him, he heard the woman's voice and Thanatos' as they spoke in low murmurs. He ignored them to focus on trying to play with his grandson.

"Abbin," he heard over and over again as the boy patiently showed him how to work toys that were far beyond his understanding. "No, Abbin," was almost as frequent... and equally delightful in its own way. A precocious child, one raised free of the torments and terror that had marked the lives of his first children and grandchildren.

When hours had passed, Darius finally climbed into his lap and gave him a book. That, he recognized, but of course, he didn't understaand the words or the pictures. Alexis came over and sat down beside them, looking over his shoulder. The boy turned pages and Alexis read while Abaddon sat stunned by the sweetness of the child he held. It had been so very, very long.

Eventually, little Darius fell to sleep on his lap, his fist clenched around his latest book. Alexis came to take him, but Abaddon felt his arms tighten in reflex. Silly, of course, the boy wasn't his own child. But Alexis' face lit with empathy, and she squeezed his shoulder before going back into the kitchen, from which wafted enticing odors that Abaddon couldn't identify.

After a while, as he sat cradling the miracle in his lap, Alexis came over and sat in one of the strange chairs beside him. She held out a plate of something that smelled sweet.

"Cookies," Thanatos told him, sitting across from him after retracting his wings. "She'll be offended if you don't at least try one."

"I am not certain what to do with it," Abaddon admitted.

"Put it into your mouth and masticate it," Thanatos answered. "Your body will remember the rest on its own."

Abaddon took one and shoved it into his mouth. Obediently, he began to work his jaws around it. To his surprise, it was delightful. It took a few minutes, but finally it was all gone. He accepted another and prepared to stuff it into his mouth. Alexis' hand on his arm stopped him on its way to his mouth.

He looked up at her and she deliberately picked up a cookie with her other hand. Rather than stuffing it into her mouth, she put her lips around it and pulled it away to reveal part of it missing. He attempted the same maneuver, but the cookie came away whole.

She tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned again to watch. This time, she peeled her lips away and he watched as her teeth sank into the cookie. Getting the general idea, he managed to take a bite out of the cookie.

It was a very pleasant experience. And as all such things do, it was bound to end.

"Sarah showed me what happened to you. How hard you tried to stop them."

Abaddon sat his latest cookie back on the plate unfinished. "I do not wish to speak of this," he replied, running his hand over the bald head of his sleeping grandson.

"I have to say this, Father." Thanatos' voice betrayed his powerful emotions. "I didn't realize how much I had wronged you, and now I do. I fear I may never regain your trust, but I have to try. The first thing that I have to do is warn you that you have to stay here."

Abaddon felt that statement to the very core of his heart. From one prison to another.

"Wait, hear me out, please," Thanatos cried as Abaddon's fury began to rise. "It's not a prison. You will be capable of leaving any time. And we can make sure that you get excursions if you want them. But we must make the Supernatural community believe that you're trapped here like we are. Otherwise they will hunt you."

Unsaid between them were the words 'as they once hunted me'. Abaddon knew his son had been the target of many large scale hunting operations by humans and Supernaturals both. He stared at him.

"Times have changed. They no longer tolerate those whom they consider to be too powerful. They now hunt them down and slaughter them." The blunt statement spoke of truth. Afraid to do so before, he let his senses hone in on his son. He was surprised to find no ill intent, only honesty and a surprising sorrow. "There are no places left to hide, the humans have overtaken the Earth."

"This is your home," he answered. "I won't invade your home."

Thanatos looked at his wife. "We'd like for it to be our home. Yours and Sarah's as well as ours. If people believe that you're trapped here like we are, it will give you some degree of freedom. And... I have much to make up for." Alexis stood up and went to him, wrapping her arms around him as she sat in his lap. While she no doubt didn't understand their words, she understood her husband's distress.

"I cannot make this decision alone," Abaddon confessed. Sarah's feelings were too important to him. "She must be free, even if I can't be."

"I know," Thanatos replied. "But we've talked about this, and we both feel it's the only way to keep you safe. Our children need their grandfather. We all need you."

"I never felt right about the way I treated you," he conceded unexpectedly, making Abaddon's head snap up in surprise. "I know that 'I'm sorry' doesn't begin to cover it, but I am."

A commotion at the door surprised him. "She's awake," Nasargiel yelled, "and she's furious!"

They charged towards the door in unison, Abaddon turning around to carefully hand Darius to his mother. She smiled, clearly relieved, and he felt gratitude that she had allowed him to hold her beloved son for as long as she had.

Then he raced to the doorway, where he saw Thanatos peering out the doorway. "Wait," he said. "She's fine, she just doesn't know where you are. Now is the perfect time to make it look like you're trapped in here. Pretend to bounce off of a barrier there."

"Sarah's out there--"

"She's fine, I swear. You have an opportunity to save her from watching you be murdered right in front of her. You have witnesses here. Once she hears your voice, she'll come."

Abaddon peered around the corner of the door. Sarah stood outside, where darkness had fallen. Her wings were fully extended in her agitation, and they were unbelievable. A good forty feet across, her wingspan was as large as his, surprising since usually gargoyle wings fully extended were exactly proportionate to their height. She was much shorter than he, but with an immense wingspan.

The wings themselves were breathtaking. They whirled with opalescent beauty. Shimmering with colors that swirled as she moved, they were beyond belief. In the dream, she'd wrapped them around him, but he hadn't noticed them beyond that. Now, even as she stood in near-darkness, he could see that they were magnificent. In her fury, they were spread wide, with her hair falling between them.

As the other gargoyle charged out the door towards her, she turned, her huge wings whipping around with her. Abaddon moved forward, only to find Thanatos gripping his arm.

"Please," he said. "You must make a good pretense of being trapped here. It will be easy enough to claim that you're trapped here because you are my father and the barrier can't distinguish between us." He looked out the door. "Think of her well-being, and my brother's. She already almost lost you. Don't make her watch while they kill you because they fear you."

Abaddon gazed into his son's eyes. It was almost impossible to accept that, instead of the hate he'd felt, there was now concern and even fear--for him, not of him.

He lowered his head. It would be hard to lie to her, even for a few moments. It would be even harder to keep himself from running to her. He could only hope that the sun had done a significant amount of repair, otherwise her fit of anger and the winged results of it would tire her all over again. Expanding one's wings took a great deal of energy.

"Sarah!" he bellowed, turning to do his best to pretend to run into a barrier at the door. Thanatos was right, he couldn't endanger his son and daughter. He lifted his fists to fake hitting at an invisible obstacle.

"Don't overdo it," Thanatos said wryly from behind him.

He turned on him. "You! This is your fault! You pretended to forgive me while you set me up to be trapped here!"

He was keenly aware that the other gargoyles and several other races were staring into the room now.

"I couldn't possibly know you would be stuck here. Besides, I didn't tell them to bring you here," Thanatos objected.

"Sure you didn't," he snapped. "You've been out to get me for centuries--"

"Abaddon!" Sarah's voice from the doorway stopped him as he'd hoped it would sooner.

"Sarah!" he cried, whirling and almost forgetting the pretense he had to maintain at almost any cost. He blinked, stepping near the door. "What's wrong?"