Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(53)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

“Hello,” the damned demon screeched in his ear, slapping his cheek. “Are you in there?”

Hell or no Hell, Ariyal wasn’t going to endure being pummeled by Levet. At least not lying down.

Surging to his feet, he grasped the pest by his horn and dangled him high enough to meet his furious glare.

“Are you out of your mind?” he roared. “You hit me again and I’ll turn you into a bowling ball.”

“Sacrebleu.” With a flap of his wings, Levet broke free of Ariyal’s grip and was floating to land on the stony ground. “I thought you were going to sleep away the entire night.”

“Night?” Ariyal scowled as he glanced around the dark, barren cavern. “It was dawn… .” The sudden memory of dawn and what that meant to him drove Ariyal to his knees as the weight of his grief threatened to crush him. “Shit.”

Levet moved to his side. “What is wrong?”

“Jaelyn,” he rasped in raw pain, pressing his hand to the center of his chest where he could still feel her presence.

Seemingly oblivious to his pain, Levet gave a small shrug.

“She’s not in the caves. Trust me, I searched everywhere. She seems to just have disappeared.”

He shuddered. “Not disappeared.”

At last sensing Ariyal’s distress, Levet gave a sharp shake of his head.

“Non. Impossible.”

Ariyal lifted his head at the gargoyle’s absolute certainty, a dangerous flare of hope flickering deep in his heart.

“I watched as the wizard opened a trap door to expose her to the dawn,” he said, rubbing that spot in his chest that whispered his beautiful vampire still lived.

The demon remained stoically unconvinced. “You were there?”

“No.” Ariyal gave a slow shake of his head. “He showed me a vision.”

“And you believed him? Imbecile.”

“Careful, Levet.”

“Do you not see? It had to be a trick.”

A trick?

But the vision had appeared all too real, the voice of common sense whispered in the back of his mind. And the gargoyle had admitted himself he hadn’t been able to find the Hunter.

Still … the wizard was capable of all sorts of nasty deceptions.

How hard would it be to conjure a vision revealing what he wanted Ariyal to believe?

Yes, of course.

That had to be it.

Ariyal eagerly shoved aside the knowledge that he was grasping at straws.

No matter how illogical, he desperately needed to cling to the gargoyle’s assurance that Jaelyn had survived.

Because if he truly accepted that Jaelyn was dead, then he might as well curl in the nearest corner and wait for his own death.

He had no choice but to believe in miracles.

Yep, he truly was an imbecile.

“How did you get in here?” he demanded, fiercely forcing himself to concentrate on the one thing he could control for the moment.

Escaping from the cavern.

Slowly, like a man coming out of a nightmare, he straightened, his hand instinctively reaching to make certain his sword was still strapped to his back.

When he felt the familiar hilt that had been crafted specifically for his hand, he didn’t know whether to be relieved to have his weapon or insulted that Tearloch assumed he could be so easily defeated.

“Ah.” Levet’s expression brightened as he gave a flap of his gossamer wings. “It is truly quite an amazing story. I have had such adventures.”

Ariyal held up a silencing hand. “Just the facts, gargoyle.”

The tiny demon responded with a raspberry. “And I thought vampires were rude.”

“Don’t press me.”

“Fine.” His tail twitched in outrage. “If you will recall I was in pursuit of the curs who attacked Jaelyn.”

“Not really.”

Ariyal shrugged, crossing the floor to run his hands over the smooth stone of the cavern.

Only to flinch back in pain.

Shit. Behind the thin layer of stone was a wall of pure lead that was sucking his power with a ruthless speed.

“Well, I was,” Levet continued, predictably indifferent to Ariyal’s discomfort. “And at considerable risk to myself, I might add. One of those curs was a mage.”

Turning, Ariyal studied his companion with a lift of his brows. “I notice you appear unharmed so it couldn’t have been that dangerous.”

“I happen to be a master of stealth,” Levet assured him with a sniff. “It is only one of my many skills.”

“You’re a master of annoyance. Do you have a point?”

“I followed them until they met up with a witch and vampire on the outskirts of Chicago.”

He narrowed his gaze.

So Jaelyn had been right to be concerned there was a mysterious leech involved.

“Vampire? You’re certain?”

“Oui. One I did not recognize.”

Ariyal waited for the gargoyle to continue. He already suspected he hadn’t heard the worse.

“And?” he at last prompted.

“And they disappeared.”

Ariyal frowned. “What do you mean, disappeared?”

“I mean poof.” Levet waved his hands. “Gone.”

“Magic?”

There was another wave of his tiny hands. “Je ne sais pas. They were there one minute and the next they had vanished into thin air.”

“Damn.” Ariyal scrubbed his face with his hands, frustration bubbling through him. “Just what I don’t need. Something else to worry about.” Reluctantly he returned his attention to his companion. “What happened next?”

“I had no means to follow the curs so I returned to the meadow and managed to track Jaelyn to these caves.” The gargoyle grimaced. “I was leaving when that ghastly wizard hit me with a spell that knocked me unconscious. Cochon.”

“For once we’re in perfect agreement,” Ariyal muttered. “Have you searched the cave for a way out?”

Levet stepped back, his ugly face rigid with outrage. “What do you imagine I have been doing for the past hour? Admiring your Sleeping Beauty impersonation?”

“Someday …” Ariyal growled.

The gargoyle waved aside the warning. “Can you not make a portal?”

Ariyal shook his head. “There’s too much lead embedded behind the stone for even me to overcome.”

“Ah, so it falls upon my shoulders to release us. Very well.” With a dramatic motion, Levet moved to the center of the room and lifted his hands. “Stand aside.”