Sunny - Mona Lisa Blossoming

"No!" Halcyon cried.

I turned my head in time to see Halcyon dive in front of me, using his lean body as a shield, and take the hit meant for me. The hawk struck him with an impact that I both felt and saw. The blow shook and reverberated through Halcyon's slight body. His blood splattered wide in a crimson spray as talons dug deep into his back. With a jerk that ripped a moan from his lips, the hawk heaved the Demon Prince upward into the air, carrying him away.

"Halcyon!" His name was a weak, airless gasp from my lips. Then my mouth opened wide in a soundless scream as sharp claws struck me, tunneling into my back, scraping against bone. The vulture jerked me into the air like a flopping doll, and hot, searing pain ripped through my body and sank me into darkness.

Searing pain jerked me back into consciousness. My back, of course. And my right shoulder throbbed like a screaming bitch. Chains were tight and secure around my wrists and ankles, giving me a hint that I was in deep shit, if the pain hadn't already clued me in.

I opened my eyes, then wished I hadn't. Silver chains I could have broken, but it was demon chains that bound me. And beside me, they bound Halcyon as well. He looked terrible. His tanned skin was almost gray, and his face and entire body was puffy, swollen. He looked like an overripe peach that would squish open with one careless squeeze. Rivulets of blood twined down his legs and side like crimson beads. I must have made a sound or some noise. Halcyon opened his bloated eyelids and tried to smile at me, but the movement cracked his dry lips and they split open, oozing blood and thick gooey liquid.

"Oh, my God, Halcyon." My voice came out dry and cracked. I cleared my throat, swallowed to moisten it. "What did they do to you?"

"Sun," he croaked.

They'd fried him, the bastards. Someone seemed to know quite a bit about the demon dead.

I felt the guilty sun innocently setting in the west. I'd been out for a while—several long hours had gone by. Relief welled up within me that at least Thaddeus wasn't here with us. I prayed that my brother had returned to the house safely. Did the others even know we had been taken? Or were they all still asleep and insensate in their daytime rest?

"Who took us?" I asked.

"Mona Louisa."

Somehow his answer didn't surprise me. She'd been my nemesis forever, it seemed, though it hadn't really been that long. Just felt that way. She'd tried to kill me twice already. Let's hope the third time wasn't the charm.

But it explained how Mona Louisa had gotten ahold of demon chains. From Kadeen, the same demon dead warlord she'd sicced on me. He must have served as her conduit to Hell and all its interesting supplies. Made me glad that we'd killed him. And made me wonder if she knew that her source had been gobbled down by Hell hounds and was no more.

"Where are we?"

"Mississippi," Halcyon rasped. "About a hundred miles east of New Orleans."

"What's Mona Louisa doing here?"

"She lives here. Part of her original territory. Louisiana went to you. She kept the western part of Mississippi."

It boggled my mind. They'd sliced up her original territory and given the bigger piece to me. Generous and yet incredibly stupid. Just begging for trouble, in fact. "You left Mona Louisa as my neighbor ?"

Halcyon almost smiled, but managed to keep his lips straight so they wouldn't split open again. "Advised against it. Majority overruled me. Felt it was adequate punishment."

"And they thought she'd be okay with it? Live peacefully right next to me?"

"Yes. Trusted you to hold territory safe against her. And if not—"

"Yeah, I get it. Survival of the fittest, and all that stupid crap."

"Monère way."

"Frankly, I don't think much of that way."

He sighed. "Neither do I. They would never conceive of Mona Louisa making such an attempt. Even I did not think she would dare do something like this." This being not only trying for me but successfully snatching him as well, not just a High Council member but the High Prince of Hell.

The good news was that we were alone. The bad news was that I wasn't alone. Halcyon was here with me.

"Can you break free?" I know. Dumb question. He'd have broken free, already, if he could. And yet… I couldn't help but remember how easily, effortlessly Halcyon had snapped the chains once before. Snapped them as if they had been nothing but thread.

"No." His voice was a low, dry rasp. He looked at me, all his great strength gone. And my ignorance, my lack of knowledge was mostly to blame.

"You?" he asked.

I shook my head, hot tears of regret and shame burning the back of my eyes because I lied. I could break free… if I shifted into my other form. But I couldn't risk doing so. I lost myself to my beast completely when I changed. If I were alone, I'd take the chance and trust to my beast's instinct to flee. But here, with Halcyon… I might very well fall prey to my own predatory instinct and eat him if I changed. I certainly would not have the presence of mind to break him free and take us both away from here.

Regret filled me. If I had not run from the darkness of my beast all my life, if I had been willing to free it more often, gain more control of it… but now it was too late.

"You shouldn't have helped me," I said helplessly.

"What else could I have done?" he asked, his once beautiful voice so terribly abraded now.

"You should have just let them take me."

"I could not."

"Oh, Halcyon. If I die, my people will continue without me. But if you no longer ruled, what would happen in Hell?"

He looked at me for a long moment, his thoughts turned inward, before finally saying, "It would not be good."

"Your father?"

"Would probably avenge my death. Kill many Monère. May even die himself doing so. It has been long since he has left Hell."

"You make it sound as if you have to build up a tolerance to Earth."

"It is very much like that."

"Oh." A long period of silence passed. "But say your father keeps his cool, doesn't go on a killing spree. He could take up his rule once again, and everything would be the same, right?"

Halcyon dropped his gaze to the ground. "He has existed for so long. You cannot imagine what that is like. For the last hundred years, he has withdrawn much, lost interest in things, sleeps mostly. The only reason he still continues and does not go to his final rest is because of me. So that I will not be alone. If I were gone, there would be no reason for him to further exist."

"What about Lucinda, your sister?"

"Her relationship with Father is… complicated. And she has neither the strength nor desire to rule."

We both contemplated in silence the thought of an unstable Hell, of creatures even more powerful than the Monère battling for supremacy. If someone like Kadeen took over…

Kadeen had been a demon dead, a would-be warlord who had challenged Halcyon. But all he'd ended up being was would-be dead. Dead dead, this time. Back into the final darkness. But before he'd departed, he'd been a nasty, formidable creature who'd ripped apart Amber with stunning ease and drained Chami almost dry of his blood—two of my strongest, deadliest men. He'd taken a deep suck out of me, too. The demon dead seemed to gain power from drinking blood from living creatures. The thought of someone like that in power… I shuddered. Monère and humans alike would not be safe then.

"What can we do?" I whispered.

"Don't die," he said. "Survive until help arrives."

"Do you think it will?" So many things to do, to get right. They had to know we were in trouble, guess where we were, and then ride to the rescue.

His answer was not comforting. "We have no other hope."