Sunny - Mona Lisa Blossoming

But my protests seemed not to matter to them. When Mary finally came to a halt, I slid off her, falling into an ungraceful heap beside her dainty hooves, thankful once more to be on solid demon ground. She eyed me sadly, as if sorry for one so clumsy.

Blaec dismounted with a natural fluidity that I was beginning to despise. Walking over, he offered me a slender, elegant hand. Grudgingly I took it and he lifted me to my feet with hardly a pull.

"Showoff," I muttered and he grinned. He grinned, the bastard.

"No wonder he calls you his hellcat."

With a gentle murmur of thanks and a light stroke on their powerful necks, Blaec sent the demon horses on their way.

I assumed there was a portal here. Couldn't really tell. It looked just like an ordinary clearing. But when I turned my head, looking around, I caught sight of it: a shimmering white force, barely visible, like a blurring of reality you could only see from the corner of your eye. If you looked at it straight on, it disappeared.

I stepped toward the portal. "My thanks for escorting me here, High Lord," I said grudgingly. I still had manners, even though his had apparently completely fled.

"My duty is not yet done, child." Blaec took my arm.

"You don't have to bring me up."

"I will accompany you. Then you will bring me to Mona Louisa."

I halted. "You're going after her," I said flatly.

"Yes."

I regarded him calmly. "What if I told you that I will take care of her?"

Blaec shook his head. "I must see to the matter myself."

My shoulders and the back of my neck were already tense from that harrowing ride-flight. Now they were tightening even more—great big knots of tension that threatened a pounding headache if they continued.

I did not want to be responsible for Blaec's safety. No, that wasn't true. I really did not want to be responsible for his death. Halcyon had said that his father had not walked the Earth for a long, long time. And the longer you'd been away, the harder it would be to play.

"Look," I said, "the night is already more than halfway spent. Wait until tomorrow and I will bring you to her then." My plans were to take care of the blonde bitch Queen before it was time to fetch him.

"It cannot wait."

"Damn it, Blaec. I didn't do too well keeping your son safe. If you get dinged up, as well, it's going to suck something major."

He smiled for the very first time and it lit his face up the same way it lit Halcyon's: flashing light over darkness, brightening up his whole face. Making me wish he hadn't smiled. Potent weapon, that smile. It made you want to please him, to coax out another smile from him.

"Somehow, I managed to understand what you said," Blaec said with amusement. "Do all Queens talk as you do now?"

"Nope, just me. I'm one of a kind." Wasn't that the Mixed Blood truth.

"Do not worry for me, my young Queen."

"Can't you contact the High Council? Let them punish her?" Of course, they hadn't done such a good job of punishing her the first time around. But hopefully he didn't know that.

"It is no longer a Monère matter. By laying hands on my son, her judgment has passed into my realm."

Desperately, I tried to think of another deterrent. "You should think of how your son will feel if you get hurt."

"Halcyon knew that I would seek her out. Counted on me, in fact, to do so."

"He did?"

"He came to me," Blaec said simply, "when he could have easily gone instead to his own residence to rest and recover."

I flashed back to that stupid look of understanding that had passed between the two of them. "Ah, Christ." God, I was so tired. I just wanted to crawl into my bed and close my eyes for a few hours. It would be so much easier to face things with a little rest. Although perhaps it was all the weight on my shoulders making me feel so tired.

Sighing, I glared at Blaec. "I will never forgive you if you die."

A hint of a smile. "I will do my best then not to die."

Great. Just freaking great.

Taking my hand, Blaec pulled me to that shimmering haze of biting energy.

I hesitated. You can't really blame me for that slight pause. I'm the first one to admit I enjoy a little pain; in the right context it spices my pleasure. But even the worse sadist wouldn't enjoy this much pain. Pain that pulsed through you until you thought your blood would boil and burst out your veins.

Unfortunately, it was the only route up.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the portal and… sweet bliss. No pain. Blaec was shielding me. I almost collapsed against him in gratitude. He kept me upright with a light supportive hand.

Descending down to Hell felt as if you were falling. That was the only real impression I'd had while ripping pain had threatened to tear me apart. That and the fact that it seemed to take forever. Of course, being in horrible agony would tend to make even a second feel incredibly long.

Ascending was quite different. Nope, gravity didn't seem as if it were squashing you, and there was no sense of shooting up or being lifted. There was only an impression of speed, of movement. The direction of that movement was not specific, though, just a whirling sense of motion around you, as if you were in a spinning tunnel that passed you from the continuum to another. And time sped by swiftly like the movement. In what seemed a mere moment, we were stepping out of the wall of mist.

The smell of blood gave me the first inkling that something was wrong. My sword and dagger sang from their sheaths and flew into my hands as I stepped in front of Blaec. There was only time to realize that there were four Monère warriors in front of us, and that they weren't mine, before a heavy net woven with the same dark alloy that comprised demon chains was descending on us. I caught the net with my sword before it could touch us and used its momentum to heave it over and past us.

Terror slashed me like a knife, sped up my heart. The blood. Whose blood had been spilled? Would I find a scattering of ashes somewhere near the mouth of that dark alley?

Two of the warriors I recognized. Gilford and Demetrius. Half of what I had once called my Four Colors for their various shades of hair. If I recalled it right, Gilford was the brunette and Demetrius had the jet-black hair. They'd been part of the four betraying guards loaned to me by Mona Louisa once upon a time. The other two of the original quartet were dead. Just two more to go.

I bared my teeth and stepped forward only to come to a sudden halt as Demetrius held up something in his hands. Silver moonlight glinted off a gold medallion chain, unmistakable in its uniqueness and symbol of power.

"Come with us quietly or Lord Gryphon will die," Demetrius said.

Gryphon had waited for me. Alone, it seemed.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"With Mona Louisa." Demetrius leered. "We will be happy to take you to your lover. In fact, we must insist."

I took the opportunity to quickly scan the rest of the alley beyond them. No scattering of dust. No empty clothes. A passing quaver of relief weakened me for a moment.

"You are a fool, Halcyon, to have returned," said one of the warriors I didn't recognize.

Halcyon? Could they not tell the difference between father and son? I shifted a little so I could glimpse Blaec from the corner of my eye. Then was so surprised that I turned and looked fully at him, keeping my other senses attuned to sound and movement.

Gone were the white wings at the temples. And bronze had lightened to a golden hue. Blaec even gave out a sense of weakness, his face drawn and haggard, looking exactly like Halcyon had with a few exceptions. There were no chest wounds and he wore a black shirt instead of white. But even I would have been fooled were I to come upon Blaec as he was now.