Stone In Love

Chapter 50

My eyes watered from the cold as Christoph hauled ass away from the city. He flew close to the horseshoe shoreline of Orchard Beach, his gaze flicking to me every few seconds, and he relaxed his suffocating hold as soon as he had me secured against his chest. Was this on purpose? Did he care whether I was comfortable or not? He hadn't said a word other than to warn me to keep still if I didn't want to fall to my death. I had no problem heeding his warning.

As we approached the nature preserve and my breathing slowed, I figured it couldn't hurt to engage my captor in conversation on the chance he had some humanity behind his demon facade.

"So, Christoph. Where are we headed? I'm afraid I never received an itinerary."

I glanced up in time to catch him suppressing a grin. So far, so good. "We never sent one out," he offered. "Cecile likes to use the element of surprise."

Shit.

Just as I suspected. He was taking me to Cecile. I was fucking toast, but my best line of defense was to keep Christoph talking. "Ah, I finally get to meet the illustrious Cecile. I've heard a lot about her."

Christoph's jaw tightened, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth. "I'm sure most of what you've heard are lies. Gollums are bigoted in their opinion of us."

I had nothing to say to that, since I knew very little about either species.

"So, what's it like being both?" he went on. "Do you and that gollum boyfriend of yours fight all the time?"

Oh. So, we were going there, were we? "That problem was taken care of. Heath no longer controls me."

Christoph broke into a malicious laugh, which had my muscles tensing. "Seriously? You haven't figured it out yet? I guess Heath was telling the truth when he said he never told you."

Hmm. What was this demon playing at? Heath never told me what? "I know Heath was a demon, and I know he marked me, but that's all over now. Do you have more to add to that?"

Silence followed my question, the kind of silence you get when the television shuts off and your alone in the dark.

"You really don't know?" he said finally.

"I would if you told me." I did my best to stare up at him, using the guise of my watery eyes to play on his compassion. I dated a demon for eight months. I knew a little something about their nature.

"We need to land before I say anything more." Christoph made his announcement as he dove for a thick grove of trees next to the beach. Good. My tactic had worked, proving Christoph wasn't a mindless henchman like my previous abductors. Everyone had a weakness, and Heath was never able to resist my eyes. He let it slip once that they were his undoing. With any luck, I could locate Christoph's soft spot and expose it.

As we drew closer to the forest, I realized Christoph wasn't aiming for the beach, he was aiming for the trees, and when he yelled for me to grab a branch, I quickly followed his instructions, grasping a prickly limb as we collided with a pine.

"Ouch! Son-of-a-bitch!" My curse probably carried half a mile as I clutched the branch to my body like a lifeline. I felt Christoph release me as he came to rest on his own branch.

"Do we really have to land here?" I said as my one hundred and forty-five pounds pushed the limits of the limb I had claimed. "I'm not a fan of heights."

Christoph chuckled as he tucked his wings behind his back, making it seem as if his body weighed nothing. "I don't want you getting away," he said as he waited patiently in that position until I had done the same.