Page 102 of A Shade of Myself
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Giulia may have hada cat form, but she was a gargoyle, and they weren’t exactly known for their acute sense of smell. How was I supposed to know she had super powerful feline scenting abilities that would immediately detect that Laurent and I had just had sex?
I, pinned underneath her, felt this was very unfair.
Saliva dripped off her canines and onto my dress as she strained against Laurent’s chokehold, attempting to rip out my throat.
Her attack had taken me so by surprise that I hadn’t had time to cloak. One second Laurent had whistled for her to jump down from the condo tower roof and join us on the sidewalk, the next she had me on my back, her claws tearing into my limbs.
Cloaking at this point was pointless and my weapon couldn’t be manifested for a gargoyle. I’d have summoned Delilah, but honestly, shock and sheer terror had immobilized me as much as the cat.
I had a boulder with teeth on top of me trying to kill me.
“Giulia, stop!” Laurent said.
“You’re mine!” she howled and headbutted the love of her life.
I gasped, hearing the thud.
Laurent swore but didn’t let go, still wrestling her off me, despite the blood trickling down from his eyebrow.
“Hey, rocks for brains.” I counterattacked as best I could, but she didn’t budge. “You could have killed him. Love’s not supposed to hurt.” Even if I had hours of training under my belt, the only thing kicking or punching her would get me was broken digits.
She dug her claws deeper into my skin, a hot, searing pain tearing through my arms, and I bit down on a scream.
Laurent torqued her head to the side. “Release Miriam or I’ll never speak to you again.”
Giulia stiffened, her brows drawing together with a shocked, deeply pained look, then she bucked him off and tossed her head. “You can’t stay mad at me, amore mio.”
I flinched at how hard Laurent’s shoulder hit a lamppost.
Her stone eyes darkened to fathomless pits. “I’m going to enjoy killing you,” she hissed at me.
Every time I’d faced death, I’d fought back, but there was something so exhausting about this situation. I hadn’t reclaimed my power to be murdered over a man, and yet I’d landed myself here nonetheless. A ridiculous, lethal catfight. She wasn’t a vampire or a demon, and as much as I wanted to live, I didn’t want it to be at the expense of her life.
Laurent woozily stumbled to his feet.
Begging wouldn’t sway Giulia. I couldn’t overpower her, not even with Delilah, and I wasn’t going to depend on Laurent to save me. Yes, I had magic, but why was that my default? I’d lived as a Sapien for most of my life, depending on my intelligence to carry me through. Fighting would solve nothing. We needed to talk.
“He used me, okay?” I infused as much bitterness into my voice as possible.
“What?” Laurent said in a dangerous voice.
“God, just shut up already. Haven’t you hurt me enough?” I prayed he clued into my plan. “You think he’s capable of returning your love? He’s not.”
The gargoyle pressed her face so close to mine that the stone swirls of her “fur” pressed into my forehead. “He does love me.”
“Wake up, Giulia. He doesn’t love anyone or anything except his precious calling.”
She swung her heavy stone head to him.
Laurent paused, his eyes flicking to me for a brief second before he laughed cruelly. “Here we go with the theatrics,” he said. “Human or gargoyle, you women are alike, believing we’re in some fairy tale and that you’ll get a happily ever after. We’re not.”
His voice was so harsh that it was my turn to remember we were playacting.
Still, I sucked in a breath like his words had flayed me. “He used me to scratch an itch and he uses you to help him find dybbuks,” I said. “I thought it was more, that we had something special, but when I asked him to go on a date with me, he laughed.” It didn’t matter that this hadn’t really happened. My fear that it could made my voice pinch tight in hurt.
The gargoyle loosened her hold. It wasn’t enough for me to get free, but her claws flexed against my skin instead of shredding it. “I’m going to kill him.”
