CHAPTER FOUR
OUR HOTEL HAD been more than thirty minutes away by car. By air, it took less than fifteen. Adrian used the GPS on his smartwatch to find it, since you couldn’t see street signs from this height, then had Brutus land on the hotel’s roof. That allowed us more privacy for our unusual arrival. Even though there were other buildings around, most people didn’t spend their evenings staring up at the night sky.
“Did you try Jasmine and Costa again?” Adrian asked as one hard kick broke the lock on the roof’s only door.
“Yes. Still no answer.”
I tried to control my rising fear. Maybe they’d gone out on a date. My sister and Costa thought we didn’t know that they’d started seeing each other, but we did. We were just waiting for them to admit it to us.
“Wait here with Brutus,” Adrian said curtly. “I’ll be back in ten minutes. Any sign of danger, have him fly you away.”
“No way,” I snapped. “If a demon is somehow here, I’m not leaving you, Jasmine and Costa alone to deal with it.”
“If one is, you’re in the most danger,” he shot back. “If nothing’s wrong, you only waste ten minutes up here while I make sure that Costa and Jasmine are ignoring their phones because they’re too busy having fun.”
“But I’m the only one who has this,” I said, pointing at the slingshot embedded in my right arm. “This can kill demons, so I’m going with you. End of discussion.”
His features hardened in a way that said he wasn’t listening. I started to shove past him, but he pushed me back and said a word in Demonish I’d never heard before.
Brutus snatched me around the waist and pulled me back against him. His arms crossed around my midsection when I tried to wrest away, and pounding against them was as effective as trying to chop down trees with my bare hands.
“Ten minutes,” Adrian said over my furious demands to be released. “If I’m not back by then, leave.”
With that, he disappeared into the staircase. I continued my struggles while cursing both Adrian and Brutus. The gargoyle whined as if in apology, but his unbreakable grip didn’t loosen. After a few minutes, I realized that all my struggles were doing was giving me a nice set of bruises.
Still, I wasn’t about to give up. I was destiny-bound to save people, dammit! Not to stand by and let others do the fighting for me. Brutus apparently couldn’t be berated into releasing me, but maybe there was another way.
“Who’s a good boy?” I suddenly asked, ceasing my struggles.
Brutus’s whine changed, sounding less sorry and more hopeful. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I also felt his back end start to shift from side to side. Over the past couple months, I’d found out that Brutus loved being praised, to the point where when he got lots of it, he fluttered his wings and shook his butt as if he were wagging an invisible tail. Sometimes, he did both things with such fervor, he nearly knocked himself over. Watching a huge, right-out-of-your-nightmares gargoyle do that was hilarious, yet now it might also be exactly what I needed.
“Whooooo’s a gooooooood boyyyy?” I said again, elongating my vowels and increasing my pitch to a baby-talk voice.
I definitely felt a wag this time, and his wings began to inch up as if he were a peacock about to display its feathers. I increased my compliments, telling Brutus that he was the cutest, smartest gargoyle who ever lived. That got me more butt-shakes and wing-fluffs, but not enough to do what I needed.
“You know what I’m going to do?” I crooned, adding in bribes. “I’m going to give you five, no, six, no, seven, yes, seven big pot roasts tonight! Because you’re the bestest, most beautiful Brutus, yes you are, yes you are!”
His whole body began to shake with joyous anticipation. He might not understand tons of English, but he knew the words pot roast. It was his favorite raw meat. His wings began to flutter frantically and his butt wagged so hard, he almost knocked himself off his feet. Most important, his grip loosened.
I slithered beneath his arms and ran for the door as fast as I could. Brutus lunged, but it was too late. His overly delighted state had distracted him, costing him precious seconds, so his talons ended up grasping only air as he tried to grab me. The narrow space in the stairwell was too small for his wide body to fit through.
“Sorry, boy!” I called out as I ran down the staircase.
His betrayed-sounding howl chased after me, making me feel guilty, but I’d make this up to Brutus later. Now I had to make sure that Adrian, Jasmine and Costa were okay. Our rooms were on the fifth floor, only three floors down from where I was. It shouldn’t take me long to get to them—
Pain erupted in my right hand. Then the braided brown rope of my tattoo began to change color, lightening to a beautiful golden shade. Seeing it, my heart began to pound.
Only one thing in the world caused my supernatural tattoo to change color and burn like it had suddenly caught fire, and that was the close proximity of a demon.