Mona Lisa Darkening m-4

by Sunny

  Gryphon cradled me as I rocked in agony and awful discovery. "I can't pass through," I muttered, tears streaming down my face. Part of me had believed, had utterly believed that I would be able to walk through that doorway just like Halcyon. It was a staggering shock to find myself unable to. To find myself stuck here forever in NetherHell.

  "I will stay here with you," Gryphon murmured in my ear.

  "No!" I fought free of his arms and stood cradling the burnt, charred mess that was my hand. "No, just go, Gryphon. Leave!"

  Halcyon stepped back through the gate, and I marveled at how easy it was for him to pass in and out of that black barrier. "Once the gate closes, it will not be reopened again," he said, looking at Gryphon and I.

  "Just say the word, Mona Lisa," Vlad said, quietly drawing our attention to the two watching gargoyles, "and it can be as it was before with Gordane."

  "What?" I had no idea what Vlad was talking about, and found it hard to concentrate on anything other than the blistering pain emanating from my hand.

  "Your arrangement with him before. To become his bond-mate."

  Gordane's face had gone utterly still.

  "You're asking me to release you from your promise. To give Gordane a chance of finding a bond-mate among your people," I said slowly to the gargoyle king, finally comprehending what he proposed. "So Gordane would have no other option but to choose me as his bond-mate if he wants any hope of having a family, a child."

  "You would be his queen," Vlad said.

  "I would be his curse. No." I shook my head fiercely. "You promised him a chance. I ask that you keep your word. My not being able to cross the gate — it changes nothing."

  "It changes everything," Vlad answered. "This is a hard realm. You must begin to think of your own survival here — what you will do, where you will go."

  "I will be beside you," Gryphon said. The determination in his voice, his eyes, was frightening. I might be stuck here, but Gryphon didn't have to be. God! The ways this realm would change him — had already changed me — was too awful to imagine… or perhaps to easy to.

  "We should first determine if you are truly stuck here," Halcyon said.

  I stared at Halcyon. Raised my burnt hand up to him. Half of the blackened, blistered skin had split and peeled away from my fingers, exposing raw, gooey flesh, naked tendons and joints, uncovered bone. "I think this pretty much tells me that I am."

  Halcyon knelt down beside me and gently cradled my injured hand. I felt him move within my mind, his presence like the gentle brush of a bird's wing.

  The wrenching pain faded away.

  The sheer relief of it contrarily caused more tears to spring up in my eyes. "You took away the pain. I didn't know you could do that."

  "Only with you, because of our link. The pain is still there. I just blocked your mind's reception of it."

  "Whatever you did, Halcyon, it feels wonderful. God. Thank you."

  "Do not thank me yet. I may be about to cause you even worse pain."

  I brushed the tears away. "Worse pain? I don't think that's possible. What do you mean?"

  "There is one other thing we can attempt, Mona Lisa. But it depends on how badly you wish to return to the living realm."

  "Pretty damn badly. What other thing can we attempt?"

  "I can try to separate Mona Louisa's dead essence from your living one. I believe that is what prevents you from crossing."

  And he might be able to do that, I realized, because part of her dead essence was him, his own blood. I felt Mona Louisa's attention sharpen within me.

  "What will happen to her — to Mona Louisa?" I asked. "Will she be able to exist here separately?"

  "I do not know. Nor do I know what will happen to you. If you will even survive the sundering of your spirits. Even if you do, you may still not be able to cross the doorway."

  "Put like that, how could I resist?" Yeah, there was some sarcasm, but it was truthful sarcasm on my part. Any chance, any chance at all, I was willing to take. Still, the concept shocked me: separating out the demon dead part that was Mona Louisa from the rest of me.

  "But wouldn't taking out her demon part be defeating the whole purpose?" I asked. "Isn't being a demon what allows you to cross this doorway?"

  "The gate is more of a barrier to keep in the condemned — in this case, Mona Louisa's dheu spirit. I believe that is all that prevents you from crossing the doorway, but it is only speculation on my part. I do not know for certain."

  Within me, I felt Mona Louisa give her consent. Yes, she thought, I will risk the sundering. The possibility of existing here separately, as my own individual being once more, is worth the risk. She thought in this realm, with her greater strength, she had a chance of existing apart from me.

  Gryphon saw my answer in my eyes. "No," he said, his blue eyes glittering with that eerie brightness. "Don't risk yourself this way. We could stay here together in this realm."

  "No, we can't. You can't stay here, no matter what happens to me. This place changes you. You don't know the horror you would become."

  "Mona Lisa." He grasped my uninjured hand, held it tightly. "I beg of you. Do not risk this sundering of yourself."

  "I have to, Gryphon." I pulled my hand gently out of his. "You know it's not in me to do anything else. It's all or nothing for me." With my eyes, I implored him to understand and forgive me.

  Turning, I walked to Halcyon. "Okay, let's do this." Brave words. But when the moment came — and it came all too quickly, with the bending of his head and the lowering of his lips to mine — fear stabbed through me.

  Halcyon did not kiss me or touch me in any way. He simply brought his lips down an inch away from mine and inhaled. With that first breath, I felt a tugging within me. Not a gentle tug, but a hard steady pull, as if a giant fishhook had latched into me and was starting to peel away my innermost lining, ripping it out. I swallowed the screams until the pain became too much to bear anymore, then I threw back my head and screamed — terrible shrieks, guttural cries, instinctively pulling away from Halcyon. He touched me then, gripped my shoulders to hold me still. To keep me close to him as he continued to rip Mona Louisa out of me.

  A white vapor condensed in the air. Slowly become visible as he drew her out. It felt like I was being torn apart, sundered in truth. It was terrible agony, unbearable pain. Worse than any she or I had ever known.

  We won't survive!

  We cannot survive this!

  Our twin voices screamed the words through our minds. Then the words spilled out our mouths in two different voices, startling us. A brief flare of hope — he's succeeding! — then spasms began to shake our body as he continued to split us apart. Spasms that became alarming convulsions.

  He's killing us!

  I opened my mouth to scream: No! Stop! But another convulsion seized me in its grip and shook my body so cruelly I couldn't speak.

  With a final yanking pull, Mona Louisa was brutally torn free of my flesh, leaving behind a jagged tear that I felt deep inside. All ceased — the screams, the violent paroxysms of my body. All froze for one suspended moment. Then I breathed, took in a shuddering breath, and found myself outwardly whole. No blood splattered my body. No innards were pulled out, hanging obscenely outside my body, the way it had felt.

  I breathed, not habit but need, real need, and sank slowly down to my knees. In front of me was Mona Louisa's vapory form. She shimmered for a moment like an ethereal spirit, the detail and outline of her sharp and vivid. We stared at each other, amazed, awed. Then her shimmering form dulled and she began to fade, to disappear.

  "No!" I cried, moving forward. But another reached her first. Gordane stretched out a gray gargoyle finger and touched that fading essence. And with that one light touch, her fading spirit began to take corporeal form. Flesh spilled onto Mona Louisa, filled in the outline of her shimmering spirit. His touch gave her substance, a solid and real body.

  "How did you do that?" Mona Louisa asked, standing before Gordane splendidly r
eal, splendidly naked.

  With a surprising bit of gallantry, Gordane removed his shirt and covered her with it. "My touch solidifies things. It seemed what your spirit needed."

  "Miraculous." I said awed.

  "Not what one often says of our ability," Gordane murmured dryly.

  "Thank you, Gordane. You saved her." I was grateful for his intervention. My feelings toward Mona Louisa had changed somehow from hate into something else. She had been a part of me. And that had changed things. Had changed her — both of us.

  Gordane shrugged his broad shoulders. "You did not seem to want her to dissipate."

  "So you helped her."

  "Yes, though she may wish later that I had simply let her go. NetherHell is not an easy place to exist."

  "I seem to have a knack for surviving, though," Mona Louisa said. "You have my sincere gratitude, Lord Gordane. Especially if you return me to my Miles."

  The corners of his mouth curved up in a slight smile. "My wings are at your service. And you are correct. Miles seems more yours now than mine."

  "Despite that, I think both our services will prove quite useful to you," she murmured, sliding her hand through his offered arm.

  Mona Louisa was indeed a survivor. And I had no doubt she would see well to the business of surviving here — had begun to, already, it seemed. All that was left was to see if it worked. If, now that she was no longer a part of me, I would be able to cross through the doorway and leave NetherHell.

  Gryphon laid his fingers gently on my arm. My hand was visibly starting to heal, bits of blackened flesh falling away, new healthy pink tissue replacing it. A reassuring sight. I had wondered for a moment if the damage was to be permanent. "Can you walk?" he asked.

  "Yeah, I can walk." I would have crawled had I needed to, but walking was much better.

  "Shall we try again?" Halcyon asked. He stood on my other side, not making any effort to touch me. I'd known he was there. Had been aware of him in a hypersensitive sort of way. But I hadn't been able to look at him yet. I forced myself to meet his gaze now, with the memory of the pain he had caused me still raw and fresh.

  The pain wasn't his fault, I told myself. But the sharp, vivid pain memory of my body still made me shrink back from him, unsettled by his nearness.

  A wounded look passed through his eyes before he blanked out all expression from his face. He took a step back, and gestured to the black undulating doorway. "Go on."

  This time it was Gryphon who led me to the gate. Gryphon who held my hand. He stopped in front of the doorway. "It's up to you," he said, leaving the choice up to me. To try or not to try.

  With my fingers entwined with his, my hand trembling wildly — his rock steady — I lifted our hands and touched the doorway. Our fingers sank through as if nothing was there, disappearing through the surface. No burning flesh, no flash of pain. Nothing but a mild brush of energy across my skin.

  "It worked." I turned back to Halcyon, elated. "It worked!"

  Relief filled his eyes, and was the last thing I saw as I stepped through the doorway with Gryphon. It was like walking into the room next door — effortless, pain-free. I left NetherHell, my last glimpse that of Halcyon, passed through smothering darkness, and emerged on the other side with Blaec, the High Lord of Hell — an older version of Halcyon — waiting for us there.

  "Thank the darkness. You found her," Blaec said, looked unbearably strained and weary. "Where is Halcyon?"

  "Just behind us," Gryphon said. But his voice sounded funny. His hand, wrapped around mine, clenched tight, painfully tight. "Blood… I smell blood." Slowly Gryphon turned to me and said in that funny voice, "Let go."

  Every hair on my body was suddenly standing up on end. "What?"

  "Let go of my hand… and run!"

  I abruptly realized why his voice sounded so strangely garbled. He had fangs! The shock of seeing them on Gryphon and realizing again what he was — demon! — had me dropping his hand.

  "No, don't run!" Blaec said. But it was too late. Blind instinct had taken over. I ran. And Gryphon came after me.

  I made it only into the next room before he was on me. His sharp nails sank into my shoulder, my hip. His fangs ripped savagely into my neck. I had a moment to think — It's not real. It's just a nightmare, a horrible nightmare. Then blood-filled darkness sucked me screaming down into its scary depths.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  My body felt as if someone had viciously pummeled me. Why do I hurt so much? I wondered. With that one question, all the recent events came rushing back, hitting me like a sharp, brittle hailstorm.

  I remembered the awful, wrenching agony of Mona Louisa being torn out of me, of stepping across the doorway and crossing into Hell… of being attacked by Gryphon. My charred hand was whole and unblistered. And my neck, I found, reaching up to touch it, was smooth, untorn.

  "My father healed you," Halcyon said.

  I turned my head in a swift, startled movement, and saw Halcyon standing there, a towel wrapped around his waist, his black hair hanging wet and damp around his face; he'd obviously just come from a shower. Crossing the room, he disappeared into the closet and emerged a minute later wearing his usual black pants and a white silk shirt that he casually buttoned up as he walked to where I still lay in his bed.

  "Can you get this for me?" he asked, presenting me with an undone cuff. Two diamond cufflinks were cupped in his other hand. He looked tired, I realized, sitting up. And he was treating me almost like… a wife, with casual intimacy. Maybe another time it would have pleased me, made me happy. Now it just unsettled me, his nearness. Trying to be as casual as he, I retrieved a cufflink out of his hand. But my fingers accidentally grazed his palm and I flinched. With clumsy haste, I fastened the first cuff.

  "I'm sorry I hurt you," he said when I began working on the second cuff, which was taking longer than it should have because my hands were trembling.

  "It still hurts," I said, not looking at him, "like an open wound inside me." Finished, I drew my hands slowly away from his sleeve, instead of yanking them back quickly the way I wanted to.

  "My father healed the surface wounds Gryphon inflicted. Not the inner one caused by me."

  I braved a quick glance at his face before my eyes darted away. He looked tired, I thought, the same echo of weariness I had seen on his father's face.

  "I'm so sorry." A whispered apology to my bent head.

  "You warned me it would hurt. And I know you did it to save me. But God, Halcyon, it hurt so much."

  He reached out to take my hand. I shied away from him. And he froze into a dangerous stillness.

  "I'm sorry, I'm still a bit jumpy," I said, not looking at him. Not daring to look at him. "I'll be better with time."

  "That's something I'm afraid we don't have." His hand dropped back to his side and I watched as those long elegant fingers clenched into a loose fist. Noticed, as I had never noticed before, the cutting sharpness of his nails.

  I looked up — forced myself to — and as I met those chocolate brown eyes, I realized suddenly that I no longer had that deep and intimate connection with him afforded by the presence of his demon blood within me. It was gone, ripped away with Mona Louisa. I couldn't read his emotions now. Could read nothing on that closed face.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I had to tear Gryphon off you. The blood on your feet drove him wild."

  "Miles's blood." Drawn by my tiger claws when I had lifted him out of the arena.

  "The blood flared up his bloodlust when we crossed back into Hell. He's a new demon, Mona Lisa."

  "I'm well aware of that!" I said in angry outburst. "Especially after he went all demon on me and attacked me."

  "So now you don't trust either of us. Now you're afraid of us both." Halcyon's eyes were hard, cold, his voice flat in a way I'd never seen or heard before.

  I opened my mouth to deny his words… and couldn't. Actions did not lie, and my body's instinctive reactions around him had told a vivid truth. No, I
did not trust them anymore.

  "I just need some time," I said in a small voice.

  "Time away from both your demons, to forget the pain we caused you. But as I said, I cannot give you that. Yours is not the only pain we must contend with," Halcyon said. "You must address Gryphon's pain first before you run away from us. Otherwise there will be only one demon lover for you to return to, if you ever do."

  Halcyon's strange words and strange attitude frightened me. Made my heart race. And I became aware of that wonderful noisy rhythm — my heart was beating again in the fabulous rhythm of life! But elation quickly ebbed and worry took its place as Halcyon's words sank in.

  "Are you saying that Gryphon… wants to kill himself?"

  A twist of lips. "He's dead, remember. But if you mean if he wishes to end his demon existence, then yes."

  "Why?"

  "Because, as you said, he went all demon on you and attacked you."

  I squirmed, hearing my words thrown back at me. "But he couldn't help himself, I know that. I remember how overwhelming bloodlust can be."

  "Then you must tell him this. And you must give Gryphon more than mere words. You must make him believe it with your actions."

  My fingers went again to my neck, remembering the feel of his sharp fangs tearing into my flesh. Remembering again the painful slide of his demon nails sinking into me, the frightening strength in those hands. With a deep shuddering breath, I forcibly closed the door on those memories. "Take me to him and I will convince him."

  "How?" He flung out the word like an accusation. "You cannot even convince me that you do not think of me as a monster. And I did not attack you or rip into you with nails and fang. How will you convince Gryphon?"