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“Do you really have to keep doing that?” I asked when he started hacking at the smaller joints. It just didn’t feel very celebratory. We both needed showers, and then we needed to cuddle and stare into each other’s eyes and tell me that he’d love me forever. I wanted to hear that. I needed to hear that, and I needed to help my mom. Right. My mom.
I lurched towards her while he said through gritted teeth, “Demons don’t die very well. You have to destroy the host, and gargoyles are difficult to destroy.” Chop chop.
I shuddered as I stumbled over Scott’s demonic tail. “I wouldn’t call him a gargoyle. We have to get my mom to Bellham before he kills the city. You’ll have to chop chop some other time.”
“I can’t leave until this is done,” Percy said, pale face as he forced himself to continue the horrific task.
I sighed heavily. Apparently, we needed some help. I reached Mrs. Hanley and did my best healing magic on her. It wouldn’t have done anything two months ago, but after only a few seconds, she sat up and blinked at me, disoriented.
I grabbed her shoulder. “Hey. Scott was possessed by a demon, so we’re chopping him up, but we need to get my mom to my dad before he stones the city. Can you take over with the chopping up thing, and maybe call in some other gargoyles to help?”
She stared at me for a long time before turning and throwing up violently. Fun times. I patted her shoulder and looked at Percy for help. He ran a cleansing spell over his sword, put it in its scabbard over his enormous shoulder, and held out a hand for me.
I ran over to take it, because any time he called, I would come. For a second, he pulled me into his arms and held me so tight, so safe, so perfect, gargoyle flesh blending together wonderfully before he released me and turned to pick up my mother, very carefully.
The gargoyle form left me in a sudden rush that had me stumbling to stay on my feet. My broken wrist wasn’t feeling great, and my neck was seeping prolifically. I needed a scarf or something. No, I needed a hospital, but so did my mom. She had hardly any blood, with barely any pulse.
“Crap, Percy, we need blood, I need stitches, and…” I would have sat down, but Percy caught me on his back, holding my mom in his arms and then ran out of the library, launching himself outside up into the sky with powerful wings, capable of carrying me, my mother, and his own gargoyle weight. He was amazing. I wrapped my unbroken arm around his neck and held on while I tried to keep my chin tucked so I wouldn’t bleed out from psycho Scott biting me. I had a lot of other injuries I hadn’t noticed, probably from wrestling with demons.
Hopefully, Mrs. Hanley took care of Scott’s remains and the demon. Having Scott come back together again would be the most annoying thing ever.
Percy took us to the nearest hospital, terrified an orderly into hooking my mom up with blood on a pole that I got to hold with my taped up neck, before we were once more in flight.
He took the route down to Song that cars drove up, a long spiral that would have made me dizzy even if I wasn’t holding a blood-bag pole with my elbow while my wrist dangled. He probably didn’t know that my wrist was broken. I’d tell him later, when he’d have the chance to feel really bad about dragging me all around the city, and I’d make him rub my feet to make up for it, or something else that would torture him, but that I would actually enjoy. I had a lot of ideas of new ways to torture him, making him wash the cabinets, forcing him to make me cupcakes, but what kind of leverage could I use, other than guilt? Maybe I could bribe him with me not doing stupid things that would get me hurt. He really wanted me to be safe, which was strange because I was on his back flying above cars while he tilted dangerously, coming close to a few truck windshields since he wasn’t feeling top notch after using that much magic, including whatever the book had been about. He needed to explain so much to me, which he could do while fetching me cupcakes.
When we got to the street where my dad was, it was difficult to get close because of all the swarming gargoyles. This is why we hadn’t been able to contact anyone, because they were all here, above my dad, while a hundred musicians and researchers were holding back the tide of stone. Although it had still spread a block and a half, I had to believe that no lives were lost.
Percy swooped down, dodging through gargoyles like a super football player, but he almost lost me when my one good arm lost its grip. I flailed around and managed to grab onto the blood bag pole, one hand, one elbow, the pole around his neck like an iron yoke. We had to look so idiotic, my bandage flapping in the breeze, my unconscious mom hooked up to blood.
Percy flew in a tight spiral around my dad, coming down directly in front of him. He bowed, and held out my mom, so I had to stretch out to keep the blood cord from coming out.
“I bring you your heart,” he said, sounding super formal and pompous.
“Hey, dad, could you please take the blood bag? I’m about to lose it.”
I’m not sure if it was Percy’s sonorous rumbling gargoyle voice that got through to him or my hysterical add-on, but when Percy handed over my mom, he released the ground and turned his arms so he could hold her. He was still stone for a long time while I tried not to fall off Percy’s back, and then in a blink, the stone melted away, and my dad was once more red-haired, blue-eyed devastation in human form.
He stared down at my mother for a long time without blinking, then he shook his head slightly and looked up at me, horror and realization dawning on him. Yep. He’d about killed the city. Protectors of humanity my eye.
“You’re injured.” He frowned at me, then put a hand on Percy’s shoulder. “I apologize for this,” he said, and then Percy hissed and I realized that my dad was reversing the silent stone I hadn’t noticed taking over my betrothed.
Percy reached over his shoulder and pulled me down into his arms. “We need to get you to the hospital for stitches. Scott your former heir summoned a demon and became…” He shuddered and held me close, snuggling me like a gargoyle teddy bear while I held him back as well as could be expected, also holding the pole with blood, because my dad hadn’t taken that, just my mom.
My dad was quietly freaking out, but it didn’t take long for gargoyles to fly down with cots on poles. He clearly didn’t want to let her go, like Percy didn’t want to let me go, but this was not the time for snuggling.
“Percy, I have a broken wrist, a seeping neck, possible internal injuries, and countless demon bites and claw wounds. You need to let the emergency people sew me back up. Dad, mom needs someone else to hold her blood bag, because I’m letting people take care of me now. You need to fix as much of the city as you can while she recovers. Percy will help you, because he needs something to do, so he doesn’t hover and distract me from resting.” I closed my eyes and nestled closer to Percy. “You are terribly distracting.”
“Release my daughter,” my dad commanded, and then Percy reluctantly placed me on a hovering cot, his heart in his stony gray eyes as they carried me away, my mother close behind.
I watched Percy spread his arms and start a magic spell that my dad added to, the golden light spreading through the city quickly, but not as fast as my gargoyle transport carried me. I relaxed on the cot and felt absolutely terrible. But still, I was smiling when I passed out. We’d kicked Scott’s demonic stone butt, and I was just the janitor.
Chapter
Twenty
“It’s unethical for hospital food to be so good,” Rynne said, scraping the blueberry squash pudding out of the bottom of the bowl. “I mean, how is that going to motivate you to get better and leave? I’m just glad your dad is paying for all of it, because if he wasn’t, you’d have to super stress about the bills, but now you can just lounge around in the best hospital suite in Bell, and enjoy the food.” She put my empty bowl on the tray and kicked back, smiling at me the way she did when she knew something I didn’t know.
“It’s rough, but somebody has to put their neck on the line, and I don’t see you doing it. When are you going to join the force? You have to tell your mom before you graduate.”
