Chapter 2

Angelica…

A look of realization passed over his face. “You don’t know what you are.” His face hardened again. “Damned Demons abandoning their young, leaving them among the humans! Filthy bastards can’t even raise their own!”

My eyes widened in shock; my tears stopped. “I’m not a demon, why do you keep calling me that? Demons are red and scary, with nasty faces, and—”

He jerked me forward, getting within inches of my face. “Nasty faces? Are you saying I look like a demon?”

I felt fear licking through my body and could feel my body heating. “Let go, please let go, I can’t stop it,” I said frantically as I tried pulling away, knowing I had to calm down before I caught fire for the third time in my life.

“I’m not a demon, you understand me? I’m a Gargoyle.” He shook me and I squeaked a pathetic sound of fear and weakness before flames began to lick over my body.

“Make it stop,” I pleaded as tears spilled down my face. I could hear them hissing, like water on a grill.

“Not the couch!” He snatched me off the couch and carried me over to a corner, where he sat me on my feet, panic filling me, flames covering my body. He put his hands on my face, his thumbs wiping my tears. “Stop crying. Take a deep breath and calm down,” he said in an even tone, a tone that sounded confused and forced. There was a knock on the door and a muffled word I couldn’t understand with the flames licking over my ears. “Come in, slowly,” he said as he gently rubbed my arm and wiped another tear from my face, my flames not fazing him.

“Good Gods,” a man’s voice said a moment later.

My flames spiked up, my body beginning to quiver with fear, tears spilling more quickly as I pushed myself further into the corner. “Easy,” he said in an almost soothing voice. He turned his head and said to the other man, “Any ideas on how to calm her down?”

“She smells like burnt cobbler,” the other man said in shock.

“I didn’t call you here to tell me what she smells like,” he snapped and turned back to me. “Just breathe, close your eyes and take a deep breath, try to calm down, try to put out the flames.”

“I can’t,” I cried.

“I’m sorry I scared you, I wasn’t thinking, please forgive me,” he said in a soothing tone.

“You’re not going to pull out your nasty face again?” I asked, afraid of what that face meant.

He took my chin in a light hold, his fingers curled under my chin, his thumb just below my lip. “I promise not to show you my Gargoyle face unless you are trying to harm me or mine.”

“You frighten me,” I said softly, looking at his stone-gray eyes, my tears stopped. “I don’t know why I believe you, but I do.”

He smiled. “I can see that; you’re no longer trying to burn my club down.”

I looked down at myself and saw that the flames were indeed gone, but so were most of my clothes. I immediately tried covering myself. “Oh my God, I’m naked,” I said in horror.

He frowned and looked down, then began to chuckle as he looked back up at me. “I’ll give you a jacket to wear.” He looked over his shoulder. “Hand me that jacket from the back of my chair.” I couldn’t see the other man moving about the room, but I could hear him. “I’ll stay here so he doesn’t see you, okay?”

“Thank you.” I leaned my head around him to see a smallish man in jeans and a t-shirt, walking over with a suit jacket in hand. He frowned at me and squinted his eyes, as if he were trying to look through me. The next thing I knew, Mr. Stone was wrapping his jacket around me. I looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. “Did I black out?”

“That happens sometimes,” the other man said.

“This is Marcus, the oracle. Introduce yourself,” Mr. Stone encouraged.

“I’m Angelica Steel. I think I’m hallucinating,” I said nervously. Was I in a psych ward? Was this my doctor?

“So? What can you tell me about this little demon?” Mr. Stone asked Marcus as he led me back to the couch. “No more catching fire,” he said to me, then sat on the edge of the stone coffee table. Why he didn’t just put me on the unburnable table and sit on the couch himself was beyond me.

“She’s only half demon.” He glanced at me, then back to Mr. Stone. “Zander, you have to keep this one safe.”

Mr. Stone frowned. “I’ve never protected a demon in my life and I’m not about to start now.”

“This is one hell of a hallucination,” I said as I looked from one man to the other. I’d really gone crazy.

“What are you hallucinating about?” Marcus asked with concern.

I smiled and gave a huffing laugh, feeling shaky and stressed. “The two of you. Neither of you are real. That’s the only way to explain any of this. I’ve finally lost my mind.” I felt myself starting to cry, but didn’t bother fighting it; they weren’t real, so they didn’t matter.

Zander leaned forward and took my hands in his. “Miss Steel, stop crying. I can’t keep my promise if you cry; for some reason, it makes me want to let my Gargoyle out.”

“You mean your nasty face?” I asked, tears still slipping slowly down my face. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d just cried; I didn’t like crying. Maybe that was why my hallucination was trying to stop my tears.

“Nasty face?” Marcus asked.

“Stop crying so that I can talk to Marcus,” Zander said calmly, ignoring Marcus.

“You’d cry too if you realized you were completely crazy and couldn’t fix it,” I told him.

“You’re not crazy, you’re in denial,” he said as he cupped my cheek and looked into my eyes. “You just need some rest before you process everything.” His eyes were so beautiful, I didn’t want to look away. “Sleep.” My eyes grew heavy, I could feel my body leaning to the side, and couldn’t stop it. With no reason or warning at all, I fell asleep on his couch.