Chapter 22

Niamhwasonthe troll-cross in a flash, knocking him backward and pinning him against the side of a clothing shop with her dagger pressed to his throat. "Do not speak of things you do not comprehend."

Aahil materialized at Niamh"s side, and the troll guy"s cronies put some distance between us and them as fire danced in the jinn"s hands, his dark hair lifting on an unseen breeze. "Roasted boar is so delicious. Did you want some too, Niamh dear? Or should I just roast the one and burn the others to dust?" The nearest guy, clearly a shifter—probably a boar judging by Aahil"s words—blanched and started stuttering some sort of apology.

Zhong had thrust Andy behind his massive stone body, but she pushed around him and strode over to gather up her enraged lovers. "Seriously, guys. I"m telling you to just ignore these morons and their bullshit. Their tiny brains will never be able to understand anything you say to them. And you"re making a scene! Stop it before I have to listen to even more bitching."

She sounded bored of the whole thing. Unconcerned. But I noticed her right eyelid twitching. And her insulin pump beeped faintly with what I knew was a low blood sugar warning. She had told us once—in a rather heated argument about why she needed some time alone—that stress could make her condition fluctuate.

Hasumi appeared and smiled calmly at everyone. "What a lovely blue sky," they said, their hypnotically beautiful voice demanding everyone"s attention.

Feelings of calm and contentment washed over the place. Even I could feel the effects of the water elemental"s emotional influence, and I was usually immune to the magic of others. Niamh and Aahil let Andy drag them away. The hecklers slowly drifted off as if they had completely lost interest in the whole thing.

Andy let out a shaky breath. "Thanks," she said tiredly, pulling a glucose tablet out of the container in her pocket and popping it into her mouth. Then she shoved Aahil"s shoulder and leveled a glare on Niamh. "You know you just gave the Alliance a really good reason to come knocking at my door again, right? This is why I didn"t want you fuckers coming with me in the first place. It draws too much attention, and you just can"t ever seem to behave like normal people! And—"

She paused as a woman approached, her blue eyes determined and her back ramrod straight beneath her business attire. "What now?" Andy muttered under her breath.

The woman stopped before Andy and nodded. "Good afternoon." She stuck out a hand, which Andy reluctantly shook. "I"m sorry to bother you, but I"m new in town. I was on my lunch break, and I noticed your gargoyle." Her eyes traveled the length and breadth of Zhong"s massive frame. "And I was wondering where you obtained it? Would you be interested in selling? I could use some help around the ancestral home, and they are so hard to come by these days. My grandmother always swore by the creatures."

Andy just stared at the woman with her eyebrows nearly touching her lovely green hairline. Zhong shifted closer to Andy, as if he was afraid she might actually sell him, right there on the street.

"I…what?" Andy managed, finally finding her voice. "You…that"s…no I"m not interested in selling my friend who is a completely sentient PERSON!"

Her voice rose to a shout and the other woman took a hasty step back. "I"m sorry if I offended you," the lady huffed. "No need to be rude about it. The thing doesn"t have an owner"s mark. So of course I assumed you might be interested in making a sale."

Andy"s magic flared around her. "I suggest you get the fuck out of my sight before I mark you, you little twit."

The woman wisely retreated to the safety of a nearby herbal shop—probably the one Andy had been intending to visit. Andy"s face was flushed, and her breathing was heavy. "I swear to fuck. What is wrong with people?"

Zhong put a big hand on her shoulder. "It"s okay, master. It"s natural for people to think you"re open to offers, since you haven"t put an owner"s mark on me."

She turned to him, and he winced when the full force of her indignation fell on him instead of the retreating woman. "People mark their gargoyles? Like…like a fucking brand or something?"

He nodded, his yellow eyes sad. "It"s just how things are done, ma—Andy. And it does give us some protection from people who think our unbranded state is an invitation to buy or steal us." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Even when I was working to become an independent gargoyle, I had my…nymph friend…mark me so others would leave me be."

I think we all heard the painful stumble there. The way he was so carefully not saying what he meant—his lover, the woman who had ultimately betrayed him and sold him off to the Lovell who put him in the bestiary. Zhong clearly wanted a place to belong. But the last person who marked him had betrayed him. Badly.

Andy rubbed her forehead like she could feel a headache coming on. Oh, my dear, sweet, naive witch. Any other Lovell would have already marked the gargoyle the instant they realized the powerful being was unmarked—with or without his consent.

She bit her bottom lip for a moment. Then her stormy gray eyes took on a dangerous glint. "You want a mark? Fine. We"ll get you a mark. Right now. Where? The stone smith? Ward shop?"

Zhong looked like he was overjoyed at the thought of Andy marking him up like property. "Are you sure, master? A ward shop would be able to it."

"Don"t call me master," Andy snapped. Then she stomped off in the direction of the nearest ward shop.

I floated along, bemused. And a little concerned. That look in her eyes spelled trouble. But as usual, I couldn"t wait to see whatever craziness she intended as it unfolded.

I floated along after Andy and Zhong, following them into the ward shop while the others waited outside. Andy paused long enough to glare at Aahil, Niamh, and Hasumi. "No disappearing. No killing anyone or setting them on fire. Just stay put and don"t cause a scandal while we"re gone!"

Then she stomped into the shop to demand an owner"s mark for her gargoyle. I watched curiously as the elderly ward maker got out his supplies and set up his space. Creating the mark on a gargoyle involved a chisel. I got the impression Andy hadn"t known that. Her eyes narrowed as she eyed the tool. Her pump alarm beeped again and she absently fished some more glucose tablets out of her pocket and tossed them into her mouth, her suspicious gaze not leaving the little ward maker as she chewed.

I drifted down at waistband level so I could look at the display of her insulin pump. Her blood sugar was low, but not dangerously so. She batted a hand through me in an almost tangible touch. "Knock it off, creeper. Don"t put your head in my crotch."

The elderly ward maker turned to her with wide eyes, letting out a startled little cough. "Um…excuse me?"

She rolled her eyes and waved her hand through me again. "Sorry, don"t get all excited. Just a ghost. You know how it is. They"re always being creepy."

His bushy white eyebrows rose, giving the gnome a million wrinkles on his forehead. "I…see."

He settled on a wooden stool near his table of supplies and gestured for Zhong to sit in a chair with an armrest tray and a reclining back. "Where would you like the mark?" the guy asked in a no-nonsense professional tone.

Zhong looked to Andy, his heart in his eyes. He was overflowing with joy at being claimed, at belonging. It almost hurt to look at the fondness he showed so openly. "You can make it look however you want it to," he told her softly. "So…you know…you can put it wherever you think it would, um, look nice?"

It was comical when the big, hulking, stone man blushed, his gray skin going a dusky pink color. I glanced between them, silently observing their awkwardness. Andy didn"t seem to fully understand what he was offering, since she was still busy glaring at the chisel.

"He means he"d like you to put it somewhere sexy," I whispered helpfully. I might not be able to enjoy the type of relationship Andy as building with the others. But I was happy to help them out. They were all hurting souls who deserved happiness. They deserved to know the good inside each of them. They deserved each other. My hope for them was bittersweet, overlayed with the realization that I wouldn"t be a part of whatever they managed to build. That I would be gone once the bestiary was destroyed.

Andy swatted at me again, her hand passing through my torso this time. "Oh, shut up. I"m not stupid. I got the lewd implications. But I"m not putting a tattoo on his dick."

The gnome ward maker did a bang-up job of pretending not to hear Andy apparently talking to herself about Zhong"s dick. "It is a good practice to place the ward where it is easily seen in public," he advised, picking up the chisel with a steady hand. This guy must have seen some strange things in his long life to be so immune to the wonder that was Andy.

Andy huffed, and I smiled. Clearly, the lusty witch had been thinking of putting her mark somewhere a bit more private, despite what she said.

"How about here?" she finally asked, trailing a finger down the side of Zhong"s throat to just above the juncture of neck and shoulder.

Zhong tipped his head to the side in acceptance. "As you wish, master."

The gnome positioned himself as Andy stepped aside to watch.

"Is this going to hurt him?" she demanded, crossing her arms, concern apparent in every tense line of her body.

The gnome shrugged, but Zhong answered. "It stings a little," he said easily, dropping his head back against the chair, unconcerned. "Probably like it would if you got a tattoo."

Andy relaxed marginally. "You better not be lying. If this hurts you, I"m going to kill you."

He huffed a deep laugh. "I promise. You won"t have to murder me. Master." He said the last word with so much reverence. The gargoyle"s soul was so pure, his energies becoming less blocked every day he spent with Andy and her refreshing combination of acceptance and spark.

As the gnome prepped Zhong"s marble-smooth skin with a mineral solution, he waved Andy toward a thick book on the counter. "Pick out a design, if you would, Miss."

Andy returned shortly with the book open to a circular design that looked kind of like a wreath made from leaves and flowers. "What do you think of this one?" she asked Zhong, holding it up. "It reminds me of how much you like working in the herb gardens learning all the names and uses for things."

I watched the big guy melt just a little. Andy really had no clue how sweet she was. How much Zhong—and all of Andy"s new companions, really—liked being noticed, being truly seen.

"I like it," Zhong said with a nod.

The gnome glanced at the page, apparently committing the image to memory just that quickly. "What name shall I place in the mark?"

Zhong smiled at Andy. "Oleander Lovell is my master"s name."

But Andy held up a hand. "No. Don"t put that! The owner"s mark should belong to Zhong…." She glanced at the gargoyle with a frown. "Do you have a last name?"

He stared at her, his face gone blank. "I…um. No. No last name."

She nodded. "Just Zhong then."

The gnome shrugged and got to work, chiseling the design into Zhong"s skin like a master sculptor, then burning the magic ward into it, tying ownership and control over Zhong"s body to…Zhong himself. I doubted the gnome had ever fulfilled such a strange request, but he was far too professional and polite to react.

My witch really was too perfect to be real. I smiled proudly as the gnome worked quickly through the process. My instincts hadn"t failed me. I had chosen so well when I decided to reveal the bestiary to Andy and ask for her help. She was probably the only witch alive who would never take power from others. Independence and freedom were so important to her. So ingrained into the essence of who she was.

Zhong didn"t seem nearly as thrilled with her as I was at the moment. As the ward maker worked, the gargoyle"s earlier euphoria faded. By the time it was all done, the big guy looked downright surly. Which was a foreign expression on the easygoing man.

Andy paid the ward maker, thanked him for his excellent work, and led Zhong out the door. Pausing on the sidewalk, she put a hand on the gargoyle"s forearm. "Are you okay? I knew it! That hurt more than you said it would, didn"t it? Can I get you a charm for the pain?"

He just stared down at her. "I"ll live," he said in a flat voice.

Niamh came over and examined the owner"s mark, a wry grin stretching the corners of her pretty mouth. "Oh, that"s perfect! Andy, you"re a wonder."

Aahil glanced at the mark, gave a little sniff and said, "My marks are better."

Andy hissed as the jinn did something to her binding scars that made them light up for a second with golden light, momentarily distracting her from Zhong—which was probably the jinn"s intention. "Fuck off, jinn! No one asked you."

Hasumi stood a bit further away from the group, their head tilted to the side as they watched. I got the impression they were waiting for something.

I drifted closer to Zhong, not fully understanding why he was upset, only that he was. The poor man"s aura was practically humming with hurt. "Zhong," I said, trying to get his attention. "What is it?"

He glanced at me, then looked at the ground. "I don"t…." He tugged the collar of his shirt up to hide his pretty new etched-gold tattoo. "I thought…." He opened his mouth. Closed it. Sucked in a breath and tried again. Finally, his deep voice came out short and bitter. "I thought you wanted me," he blurted at Andy, slapping a big hand over his neck. "But you were only making a joke. Why am I not good enough for you?!"

We all just stood there, staring at him in shock.

Andy frowned, stepping closer, gripping his wrist and tugging, urging him to stop covering up his mark. "I"m not making a joke!" she said in outrage. "Zhong, stop it. You should wear that mark like a badge of honor. You belong to yourself, you big, beautiful idiot. No one else gets to mark you as property or try to buy you! That mark says you belong to no one but you."

He looked down at her, his angry expression crumpling into pure pain. "But I want to be your gargoyle, Andy."

She took a deep breath, and I watched as understanding dawned at the same time for both of us. His feelings were hurt. He felt rejected. Of course.

"Oh, Zhong," she said, reaching up to press a palm along his chiseled jaw. "This has nothing to do with me wanting you. Or… well, I guess it kind of does. I care about you, you big, sweet thing. And someone who truly cares about you would never take away your freedom—even for show."

He stared down at her and I watched it sink in. Andy refused to mark him because she loved him more than the woman who had betrayed him. Possession wasn"t love. Ownership wasn"t affection. This was the ultimate expression of love—the freedom to be his own man.

Of course, Aahil had to go and ruin it. "You should have just gotten the big dog a collar," the jinn drawled in a bored tone as he examined his black claws. "Honestly, have I taught you nothing, pet?"

Andy sighed and turned to head down the sidewalk. "Come on asshats. Let"s go home."

I drifted along after her, clinging relentlessly to my essence so I could stay anchored. So I wouldn"t miss a second of this—of all the things that made this growing circle of beings a…family.

And Andy had just said we were going home. As if the mansion was exactly that—our home. If I had a heart, it would be glowing with happiness. Instead, all I had were the thin tendrils of my temporary existence, but I would cling to them for as long as I could.