When I heard the noise again, my head whipped around to Tomb’s body. Except instead of lying there lifeless and cold, his head had turned over, and he was looking right at me. Those piercing, glassy dark eyes of his forced goosebumps to erupt all over my body.
Did eyelids just reflexively open like that on dead bodies?
But then his mouth parted. “Wid?” he croaked out.
The blood drained from my face, and I flinched back. “Holy shit.”
My hand flew to my chest as my heart galloped and tried to run away, because this couldn’t be happening. There was no way this was happening. I pinched the shit out of my arm to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but nope, I was very much awake.
Tomb sat up and looked around dazedly. “What happened?” His voice sounded all rustic and husky, like he’d just woken up from sleep.
“Y-you’re alive? How is that even possible?” Part of me wanted to run to him and wrap my arms around him, the other part was terrified.
Tomb frowned and looked down at his body, as if he’d just remembered what we’d done. His gaze darted back up to me. “You fed?”
I nodded numbly. “I fed. She...we killed you,” I confessed.
“But I’m still alive.” Tomb ran his hands over himself as if brushing off the residual death.
“Nothing still about it. You were dead. One hundred percent corpse,” I insisted. “But...you came back.”
Tomb’s touch went up from his arms, and then ran along his neck. He winced slightly, and my eyes zeroed in on the spot. A gasp flew out of my mouth because there, against the glossy black of his skin, was a stark red mark. My mark.
“Your throat,” I whispered in horror. What had my spider done to him?
He rubbed at the tender skin of his neck and got to his feet. “You...what happened? How is this possible?” he asked, looking over at me.
I shook my head, still staring at him like he was some weird apparition who would disappear any second. “I don’t know. You’re dead, Tomb. This isn’t real,” I said, closing my eyes against the panic burning against my lids.
“Hey,” he said gently, and suddenly he was right in front of me, his big hands cupping my face. In gentle strokes, he wiped away the tears from my cheeks using the pads of his thumbs, holding my face like I was precious. “It’s okay, Wid. I’m here. I’m right here.”
“You were dead,” I said again, my voice shaky. “I’m dreaming, aren’t I?”
In reply, one of Tomb’s hands reached around, and he started stroking his long, capable fingers through my hair and massaging my scalp. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding any tension there until a sigh escaped me, and I melted into his touch. “Feel that?” he murmured. “I’m here. I’m not dead, and you aren’t dreaming. Stop crying, beautiful. It’s making my gargoyle go fucking crazy.”
Fluttering my eyelids opened, I took in his handsome face. “How is this possible? I felt my spider suck out the last of your essence. I heard your heart stop. You were dead, Tomb. So how did you come back?”
“I don’t know, but I suddenly realize that I want to live,” he confessed, his tone holding both awe and vulnerable honesty. “Very badly.” He peppered kisses along my jaw, leaving a molten trail of affection on my skin with each touch. “It’s you. What is it about you?”
I shook my head before pulling out of his grasp. My mind was spinning. What if my spider was making him affectionate? What if she was luring him in? What if he died again and didn’t come back next time?
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“I feel—” His words were cut off as the metal doors to the tank suddenly slammed open, and a team of guards stormed inside. In a flash, I was shoved against the wall by three guards, and Tomb went wild with rage. He shifted into his stone form in an instant and then started tossing aside guards left and right. An air elemental tried to hold him back with a barrier, but Tomb simply crushed his rock-hard fist into the side of the man’s face, sending him flying against the wall. Two more tried to shoot some sort of steel net at him, but he evaded it, and then he started to pummel them to the ground.
I struggled against the guards that were holding me against the wall. With a flick of my wrist, I shot webs out to wrap around them, successfully getting one of them lifted to the ceiling and held there without hope of getting out.
Within seconds, Tomb was there, ripping the other two guards away from me. Then he stood at my side, heaving with rage as he glared at the intruders, as if daring them to take him on.
One of the remaining guards was stupid enough to try him. Tomb’s hand flashed out, and he grabbed the man by the neck, squeezing so hard that all I could hear was the snapping of bone as the man’s head lopped to the side, dead. Tomb dropped his body to the ground as if it were nothing.
The next guard tried to lunge for Tomb, but the man was far too slow. Didn’t they realize that the gargoyle was in full demon mode? He would kill each and every one of them if they gave him the chance.
“Enough,” a voice echoed out. “Release the chemicals. Someone call a janitor to clean up all the webs and blood in here. Oh, and we need a ladder to get Gerald off the ceiling.”
All of us looked up at the same moment to see the guard—Gerald—completely mummified and hanging upside down from where I’d trapped him in my webs.
My spider grinned pretty smugly.
But that victory was short-lived because all at once, the room started to fill with smoke, and
