Unbearable Read Free Page A

had another problem to deal with, first.
    Everyone who doesn’t know Nicholas Sherwood as well as I do makes the mistake of thinking he’s a cold, controlled son of a bitch. His enemies are even less complimentary because they’ve been subjected to his ruthless and relentless will.
    But I’ve known him a very long time and for most of those centuries, I’ve been in the privileged position of having his complete trust. There are only two other people he has ever let in—both female, both human and both at the funeral, one of them only seven weeks old.
    Which was why I found him out in the snow-filled backyard, looking up at the stars in the frigid sky, out where no one wanted to be. From the little saltbox behind us, the murmur of humans throbbed in the air. Light spilled out onto the snow behind him, showing his tracks. Ahead, the moonlight was making the untouched snow glow with ghostly light.
    The air was cold even to me. I would have stopped breathing to avoid getting it into my lungs, but I needed air to speak. So I ignored it. Instead, I stood next to him and looked up at the stars, too.
    “No one is to blame,” I pointed out. “Especially not you.”
    “Are you sure about that?”
    “You didn’t force him to the mine. You didn’t kill him. Lirgon did that.”
    “It’s the map,” Nick said tightly. I knew that tone of voice. There was anger there, deep inside, but he was holding it down. “The very convenient, suddenly there map. Why didn’t Jimmy tell us about it before he died? You know what he’s like. He couldn’t have sat on that and said nothing to save his life. He would have wanted to tell everyone . Crow about it and jump about, describing how he was going to shred gargoyles into ribbons. But instead he quietly checked out the mine by himself? Stirred up the gargoyles and led them back to his trailer?” Nick glanced at me. “How many things are wrong with that story?”
    Many of them. I shifted in the snow. At least I wasn’t melting it into an icy puddle around my shoes the way a human would. “It’s done now,” I said, trying to keep the sharpness out of my voice. “Lirgon and Valdeg are gone. You have to concentrate on tomorrow, now.”
    “Not if there’s a traitor among us.” Now his anger was audible.
    “If there is, it doesn’t matter. You really think any of us would voluntarily work with the gargoyles to betray the rest of us? Someone was coerced into planting the map and now that Jimmy and Connors are dead, they’ve got their own guilt to deal with.” Not for the first time, I thought of Oscar, with his sudden weight loss and ghastly appearance. “Oscar and Donna are already gone. They’re in California chasing demons. Miguel is in Florida somewhere. Joy and Connie will be gone by tomorrow. There’s no one left, Nick. Just you and me, Tally and Riley.” I squeezed his shoulder through the heavy overcoat. “Let it go,” I urged him.
    “I should have been there. I should have been the one to tell her.”
    Ah . That was what was eating him up. “You were busy.” In fact, he hadn’t got back to the house until nightfall the next day because he’d walked forty miles from where he’d left the car, not willing to risk hitching a ride when he was covered in Connors’ blood.
    “I was stupid!” he cried and turned to face me. His eyes showed his ravaged state of mind. “I’m supposed to be good at this and I walked us all into a trap and let the man Tally loves get killed!”
    “She doesn’t blame you,” I assured him.
    “She should!”
    I gripped the back of his neck and felt the tension there. “Guilt is useless, Nick. You know better than that.”
    He shrugged off my hand. “I’m not guilty. I’m angry!”
    “I know. But you’re angry at yourself and that’s going to impair your judgment.” I said it as calmly as I could. It didn’t surprise me that underneath the motionless façade he’d been showing the world for the last few weeks, he was