Alexandra Ivy: Hunt the Darkness

Instead he concentrated on the pleasant knowledge that Sally’s mother had died a painful, probably even gruesome death at the hands of a fellow vampire.

Levet crossed the room to study Sally with a sympathetic expression on his ugly face.

“Why would your mother try to kill you?”

Sally shivered. “She didn’t know my father was a demon. Not until my sixteenth birthday when my powers started to kick in.” She gave a humorless laugh. “It was an unpleasant surprise, to say the least.”

“Ah. My mother tried to kill me as well.” Levet shrugged. “Families are always difficult.”

Sally managed a small smile that didn’t disguise the wounds that festered in her heart.

“She’s dead,” she said in grim tones. “She can’t hurt me anymore.”

Roke’s fingers brushed her cheek. “No one is going to hurt you.”

She awkwardly stepped away, her expression wary.

Despite their bond she still didn’t trust him.

Hell, the woman had been taught she couldn’t trust anyone.

“My mother’s room is this way,” she muttered, leading them out of the front parlor down a short hallway.

Pushing the door open, she stepped aside as the gargoyle entered the small bedroom and began investigating the dust-coated furnishings.

“Do you sense anything?” she demanded as Levet stuck his head in the closet.

“ Non. ”

Roke moved across the hall to the second closed door. “What’s in here?”

“Stop,” Sally rasped, a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

“Your room I assume?” Roke smiled with wicked amusement as he pushed the door open to take a peek at the pink bedspread on the narrow bed and lace curtains. “It’s very . . . frilly.”

She sent him an evil glare. “Not all of us sleep in moldy crypts.”

He wandered forward, studying the poster hung over the bed. “The Backstreet Boys?”

“I’ve always preferred my men cute and sexy.”

He glanced over his shoulder, the memory of her melting beneath his kisses shimmering in his eyes.

“Not anymore.”

She rolled her eyes, but even as she searched for the words to deflate his ego, Levet was scooting past her and heading directly to the bed.

“What do I sense?” he asked, opening the nightstand to pull out the plain wooden box she’d kept hidden from her mother.

“It’s just a music box,” she readily answered. “I found it here not long after we arrived at this cottage.”

The gargoyle glanced at her, his tail twitching. “You found it or it found you?”

Sally blinked. “I don’t understand. It was tossed in a pile of rubbish behind the shed. If I hadn’t been hiding from my mother, I would never have seen it.”

Roke’s momentary amusement was snuffed out. “Why were you hiding from your mother?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I was playing with her favorite crystal and set the curtains on fire.”

“And you were afraid you were going to be punished?”

“It wasn’t that. I was used to being punished.”

Roke’s jaw clenched. If the witch wasn’t already dead, he would take great pleasure in skinning her alive.

“Then why were you hiding?”

“I had to get rid of the crystal. I didn’t want her to know—”

“The level of your talent,” he finished for her.

“Exactly.” Sally unconsciously rubbed her arms as Roke’s anger dropped the temperature in the room. At least he hadn’t brought the ceiling down on their heads. “My mother liked to believe that she was the most powerful witch ever born.”

“How old were you?”

“Six.”

Six? Christ. She’d been a baby.

Levet cleared his throat. “Tell me exactly how you found the box.”

Sally furrowed her brow as she shifted through her memories.

“I intended to hide the crystal until the spell wore off so I went behind the shed and stumbled over the pile of rubbish.”

“Was the box dirty?” Levet prodded. “As if it had been there a long time?”

She shook her head. “No, but it could have been tossed out by the previous owners.”

“Did you feel drawn to it?”

Sally lifted her hand in confusion. “Any six-year-old girl would be enchanted by a music box.”

Levet wasn’t satisfied, his wings fluttering with a sudden emotion.

“Did you ever feel compelled to keep it with you?”

Sally hesitated and Roke stepped toward her, a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Sally?” he urged.

“I suppose I thought about the box over the years, but I never felt compelled to retrieve it,” she admitted. “Why are you asking me these questions?”

Levet pointed a claw toward the box. “There’s an illusion wrapped around it.”

“Impossible,” Sally breathed. “I would have sensed a spell.”

“It is demon magic, not human,” Levet explained.

“Oh.”

Roke instinctively moved closer to Sally. Why the hell did it always have to be magic?

He’d braved the battles of Durotriges to become a clan chief.

He’d killed an entire tribe of full-grown orcs with a kitchen knife.

He could crumble a building to rubble with the force of his anger.

But magic?

He shook his head in frustration.

“Can you break it?” he demanded.

“Do you mean to insult me?” the gargoyle huffed. “There is none greater in destroying magical illusions than moi. ”

Roke made a sound of disgust even as he wrapped an arm around Sally’s shoulders and tugged her away from the bed.

“Stand back,” he warned.

Sally sent him a worried frown. “Why?”

“That gargoyle is a menace.”

“Hey,” Levet protested.

Roke pointed an impatient finger toward the box. “Just do your thing.”

With a sniff the gargoyle turned back to the box, his tail stirring the dust on the floor as he waved his hands dramatically in the air.

Roke clenched his teeth.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Levet was the only one around who could reveal the magic surrounding the box, Roke would have him tossed over the cliff.

Three weeks was longer than any rational man should have to endure with the aggravating pest.

There was another wave of his hands, then a faint pop as the illusion was destroyed.

“ Voilà, ” Levet murmured, turning around to offer a small bow.

Sally watched the gargoyle in silence, not quite certain what to think of the tiny creature.

He’d always been kind the few times their paths had crossed in Chicago. But he worked with the vampires.

Which meant she wasn’t prepared to fully trust him.

She sighed. What was she thinking?

She wasn’t prepared to trust anyone.

Period. End of story.

Still, when Levet moved aside to reveal the once-smooth box now covered with intricate markings, she couldn’t help but be impressed.

“How beautiful,” she murmured, moving forward to lean over the nightstand.

“Sally, wait,” Roke commanded.

Naturally she ignored him.

The man was way too fond of tossing out orders and expecting them to be obeyed.

Besides, the box belonged to her. It was her duty to discover the truth of its origins, no one else. Even if that meant putting herself in danger.

Whispering a soft spell, she studied the intricate carvings.

They were fascinating. Delicate swirls that were connected by various lines and dots that combined to make an exotic design that seemed to call to some part of her.

She frowned, disturbed by the sensation the markings were somehow familiar.

“They’re not magical,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous,” Roke snapped, clearly annoyed that she’d ignored his command.

She turned to send him a glare. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. I’m not stupid.”