Stone Solitude (32 page)

Isis’s eyes widened and the first trace of alarm passed over her face. “What use is it to contact Apollo? He doesn’t even remember….”

“He remembers,” Daisy grinned darkly. “Apollo! I need you! Your son needs you!”

Isis skittered backwards, pressing against one of the large statues of Anubis. “Impossible.”

Before Daisy could answer, there was a loud rattling sound behind Isis as the stone creature she was leaning against shuddered to life. Daisy’s mouth went dry as the stone melted away and became flesh. Her eyes moved up the massive body of Anubis, from muscled calves to muscled thighs to taut abs to broad shoulders. A massive hand reached up and tore the wolf mask off, revealing a face of utter masculine beauty. Midnight black hair hung in braided ropes over broad shoulders as midnight black eyes blinked in surprise. Golden brown skin gleamed in the light of the chamber and Daisy held her breath as he bent his head and looked down at her.

“Give it back,” she said in a breathless whisper. If the god gave Roman back his heart, he would survive the wolf’s bite. “Give him back his heart.”

“It is impossible,” he said, his deep voice rumbling through her. Squatting down so he was closer to her, though he still towered over her, he reached out his massive hand and touched the top of her head. “My little flower.”

Agony tore through her as she stared into the stranger’s eyes, the stranger with Roman’s words. Tears slid down her cheek as the familiar words said in the god’s voice echoed in her head. She looked at her beloved Roman and then back to the god and whispered, “Roman?”

“No, my little flower,” he said with a kind smile. Pressing his hand over his chest, he added, “But a part of him is inside of me, the part that remembers you.”

A sob caught in her throat as she held Roman’s dying body tighter. “Give him back.”

A tear slid down his golden skin and he caught it with the tip of his finger. Holding it out to her, he rumbled, “The time will come when you will know what to do with this.”

In a haze, she raised her hand and the tear landed on her palm, stinging her skin. As she watched, it sank into her flesh and she frowned because she didn’t understand why the god would give her a tear. Osiris chuckled and her eyes flew back to his, drowning in the black of night as he rasped, “If he is yours, you will give this gift to him but you cannot give it to him until he is yours.”

She opened her mouth to ask him to explain but he held a finger over her lips and issued more orders, “Do not push him, do not sing. He will come to you if he is meant to be yours.”

“He’s mine,” she whispered.

“He
was
yours,” the god corrected. “The part that belonged to you is within me now and your Siren’s imprint is severed. Can you not feel that the bond has been broken?”

A new kind of anguish ripped through her because the connection that had been so strong, so eternal, was gone. She still loved him but they were no longer bound together. Her eyes dropped back to her Roman and fresh tears streamed down her cheeks because the connection was gone. “He’s mine.”

“Perhaps,” the god said, his voice fading away. “In time. If you let him go.”

As the ancient gods disappeared, the Egyptian décor morphed back into the familiar forest that surrounded her home. Dominic was laying on the ground not five feet away, his furry ribs rising and falling with each deep breath he took, and Roman was still unconscious.

“Apollo!” she cried out in desperation one more time, never tearing her eyes from Roman’s still face. A rush of wind and Roman’s father was by her side in his Merrick disguise. Looking up at the beautiful man, she begged, “Save him. Please.”

He kneeled in front of her, running his hand over Roman’s face as a look of unease crossed his features. Leaving his hand on Roman’s forehead, he looked at Daisy, “What will you give me to save him?”

Her brows drew together as she stared at him with her mouth hanging open. “He’s your son, Apollo. Save him.”

His tongue moved over his lower lip as he looked at her with pity. After an eternity, he heaved a sigh and said, “He is and always will be my son but you bit him, Daisy. He answers to a different god now. My help comes with a price so what will you give me to save him?”

His words whipped through her, leaving a trail of bloody scratches in their wake. Her eyes moved over his face, at the sorrow and the helplessness. In a soft voice, she asked, “What do you want?”

His lips curved up in a sensual and totally inappropriate smile, “Good girl. But you must know that even though I can give him the strength to survive the transition, I cannot give him the will to live.”

Her lips parted and she blinked slowly, once, twice, before she managed to ask, “What?”

He looked at her with so much sadness in his hazel eyes she wanted to cry. Only, she was already crying. “He’s no longer a gargoyle. I don’t know how much of his life he will remember but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s no longer a gargoyle.”

“He won’t remember what he no longer is,” she said pathetically, her chest tightening as she held her breath at the cruel words. She just wanted Roman to be happy. At Apollo’s wry expression, she shook her head in helplessness, “He’ll be a wolf. He’ll be with me.”

Apollo shook his head no and a wave of despair swept over her. She wanted to deny Apollo’s words because she knew in her heart that Roman was still hers. He just had to remember her. “Daisy, if you push him, you will shatter his mind and you’ll lose him.” She opened her mouth to protest but he held his hand up to keep her quiet. “You don’t know how much damage was done when Isis took his memory, Daisy. You have to give him time to heal.”

Her stomach twisted in on itself in anguish because he had read her deepest, darkest thoughts and then he had effectively repudiated them before they could even be fully formed. Shame swiftly followed her despair, mingling with the agony and grief and rage until it was a toxic cocktail of negative emotions. Pushing away everything that wasn’t conducive to helping Roman, she concentrated on willing Roman to survive. She’d have to figure out how to be a part of his life without pushing him….

“I’m taking him to another pack when he wakes. They’re a good pack with strong bonds that live far away from here,” Apollo informed her. At her gasp, he pressed his lips together and added, “
If
he survives and actually wakes up. Now, let me do my job, Daisy. We’ll discuss payment later.”

No matter what the cost, she would willingly pay it if it meant Roman would be okay.

As Apollo closed his eyes, Daisy’s brother stirred next to her. A heartbeat later, he was naked and scrubbing his hands through his hair. Bewildered, he looked around the forest before his eyes focused on Roman and Daisy and Apollo. Barely sparing the god a second glance, he asked, “What happened?”

She let out an incredulous laugh as she blinked back her useless tears and watched Apollo do whatever it was he was doing. Roman’s body jerked and she tightened her hold, refusing to let him suffer any more than necessary as the wolf’s venom worked its way through his human cells. Softly, she asked, “Will he be okay?”

Apollo shot her a disgruntled look before he returned his attention back to Roman.

“Daisy,” her brother started again and she shot him the look that Apollo had just given her. But unlike her, he didn’t shut up, “What the fuck happened?”

“Gather up the wolves and make sure everyone is safe and accounted for,” she told him, needing to concentrate on Roman and nothing else. Turning to her brother when he didn’t move, she said, “Go. I’ll explain later.”

Later, when Roman was awake and Apollo had taken him to his new home to recover, she’d tell her family what had happened and how Roman became a wolf and why he was no longer with her. With a half-hearted protest, Dominic shifted back and ran off, letting out short yips and barks to communicate with the pack and find out where they were. Releasing the breath she had been holding, she turned back to Roman, relieved to see a little color seeping back into his face. Her lips moved as she prayed in silence, asking whatever god that was listening to keep Roman safe. Her eyes flickered to Apollo and despite her worry, color climbed into her cheeks.

“He’s strong,” Apollo muttered, running his hand over Roman’s heart, his
human
heart. Glancing at Daisy, he said, “It’s possible he would have survived the transition without my help.”

“I wasn’t willing to take the chance,” she murmured, her gaze focused on Roman’s mouth as his lips parted and he took a deep breath. A smile trembled on her lips and tears slid down her cheeks as his eyes fluttered open. Hope surged in her chest as she lost herself in his beautiful blue eyes. Already she could see his wolf and she knew it was going to be beautiful. Powerful. Tenderly brushing a strand of gold hair from his forehead, she whispered, “Hey, you.”

“Hey,” he returned, his voice gravelly. Clearing his throat, he looked from her to Apollo and back, a frown furrowing his brow. “Who… who are you?”

Blood spilled from her shredded heart but she didn’t let it spill on to him. She knew he wasn’t going to remember her but she hadn’t been prepared for how much it would hurt. For his sake, she would keep smiling, even if her cheeks cracked. As she watched, his eyes rolled up and he passed out and her smile finally faltered and then disappeared. Keeping her eyes on Roman, she growled her words at Apollo, “You’re not getting my memories of him.”

“I’d never take those away from you. But, Daisy, I have to take him now,” Apollo whispered, trying to ease Roman from her arms. She hadn’t even known he had bent down and now he was trying to take Roman away. Tightening her hold, she shook her head no, wanting more time with him. Her gaze moved over his beloved face, memorizing every detail because it could be years before she saw him again.
If
she saw him again.

No, she wasn’t going to allow those thoughts to enter her head. Pressing her lips against his, she closed her eyes and poured all of her heart and soul and love into the kiss. Tears continued to leak from her eyes, making the kiss a little salty but she didn’t care. Opening her eyes, she gave him a smile even though he was unconscious. Brushing her thumb over his lips, she breathed, “Be well, my love.”

“Don’t go looking for him,” Apollo warned again. “Let him come to you.”

“He doesn’t even know me.”

“Then let him go.”

“I can’t.”

But then he was gone anyway, taken to some unknown pack far, far away and Daisy’s entire world lost all of its color. She thought she’d scream, wail and gnash her teeth, but there was nothing left, just a gaping hole where her heart used to be.

There was a rustling of leaves behind her but she was too despondent to care. When the intruder cleared his throat, she asked in a dead tone, “What?”

“I thought if you fell in love with him, it would thwart my sister’s plans,” a man said in a low, guilt-ridden tone. “He would have been able to offer you in his place and be free, at least that was the plan. But the fool boy fell in love with you and couldn’t even make the offer. In the end it didn’t really matter though, did it? She had his heart the entire time.”

A silent sob worked its way through Daisy’s throat but only managed to come out as a whimper. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the small, rodent-like form of Roman’s companion. “Xerec. I don’t want to talk about it.”

He cleared his throat and continued anyway, in spite of her protests. “If it helps….”

“It won’t.”

“If it helps,” he repeated with a little more force. “She played me for a fool as well. And the pisser of the thing is, I liked him. He was a good man.”

“He’s still a good man,” Daisy said softly, her words filled with passion even if they lacked volume.

“You never told him about the night I saved your life,” he continued to push.

Her eyes darted to his and she struggled to remember that night when all of her thoughts were of Roman. “I was going to but the time was never right and now it doesn’t matter, does it?”

“I guess not,” Xerec said, squatting down next to her. “I didn’t tell him anything either because it would have caused him too much grief and guilt because he hadn’t been there for you.”

“But you were, weren’t you?” she asked softly. At his grunted acknowledgement, they fell into a tense, grief-filled silence. After a moment, the vague image of a dark man and the smell of sulfur popped into her head and she frowned, “You’re not really a demon, are you?”

He huffed out a twisted laugh as he drew his hand down the front of his scrawny body. “This is my punishment for dismantling Osiris the last time. The veil that hides me is far older than the one that fell and it still stands. This is the form I must take when I walk the Middle world and it is not very pretty, even for a Wayfarer demon. I wish you could see me as I am in the Underworld. I am a sight to behold.”

Swallowing, her thoughts in turmoil, she murmured, “I think I saw you that night.”

Hearing her family calling her name, she pushed herself to her feet. Keeping her back to the god in disguise, she asked, “Will you keep an eye on him? Just for a little while? Just until he gets settled?”

“Of course,” he vowed and she hoped he kept his word. She didn’t want Roman to be alone.

Nodding her head, she dragged one foot in front of the other as she headed back to the house. Her family was going to ask a million questions and she couldn’t think. Maybe she’d take some time off from school and travel the world. Maybe she’d ask Dominic and Jeanette to travel with her. She’d be the third wheel but that suited her purposes because she wanted to be alone.