Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (3 page)

“
Don’t you notice the
color?”

“
Well, yeah, it’s kind of
hard to miss.”

“
Don’t you think the color
is strange?” he asked looking down at her.

“
Not really.” She shrugged.
“The moon does take on strange colors sometimes right? I never pay
much attention to it.”

“
Well you
should.”

“
Why?”

“
Because that’s how they
know it’s time.”

“
Time for what?” she asked
completely lost.

“
To
come…
here
,” he
said, as though that explained everything.

Evie widened her eyes, staring at him. His
back was facing the driveway and the moon illuminated his outline,
making it glow. He looked like an Alien.

“
We don’t have much time…,”
he was saying.

His voice sounded like it was coming from
the end of a very long tunnel. Darkness crept out of the corners of
her mind…closing in on her. Her vision narrowed and then her legs
gave out. She was going down...

…
or so she thought. “I’m
okay,” she said, pushing slightly back, embarrassed. His strong
arms held her securely. The breezed kicked up scattering dried
leaves across the stone, making a creepy dragging sound.

“
Are you sure?” he asked,
his voice still sounding worried.

“
Yeah, it was stupid.” She
couldn’t believe she had almost passed out. She felt like an idiot.
“I’m fine, promise. I just got dizzy, lack of sleep
probably.”

“
Evie…”

She looked up at him.
There was such a look of raw intensity in his eyes. Before she had
a chance to respond his lips were on hers and he was pulling her
against him closer, melding them together perfectly into one. All
she could do was feel… every hard plane, every muscle, and every
bit of emotion he was pouring into the most solitary perfect kiss
she had ever experienced. Instantly every crappy thing that
happened to her tonight disintegrated. Pressing up on the tips of
her toes, she kissed him back, her hands snaking around his neck,
pulling gently on his thick hair.

“
So
damn sweet
…” he murmured against her lips. Suddenly his hands were
everywhere at once, fisting in her hair, and then skimming down the
sides of her body, pulling her closer, making flashes of heat
spread through her like wildfire. He was making her feel things she
had never felt before, things she could never have imagined. The
kiss was intense, full of pent up emotion. She could feel every
ounce of his hunger…his want, which only added to the heat raging
between them both, turning her on even more. His tongue delved
deeper, his sweet breath rushing out of his mouth, clinging
fervently to hers. His hands cradled her face, his lips leaving a
fiery trail in their wake … and then just as suddenly, she was no
longer touching him.

Weightless, her body tumbled through the
air, ending with jarring force at the base of the stairs inside the
foyer. Limply her body hung against the stone as she struggled to
pull air back into her lungs. She tried to open her eyes but her
vision waffled. She lifted her hands to the sides of her head,
trying to get her eyes to focus. The stone was cold as she pressed
her hand against it, bracing herself, trying to stand.

Loud, guttural whining sounds split through
the darkness. It sounded like large animals were fighting with one
another.

What the hell is
that?
Fear clung to her like a dampened
cloth, dripping over her body, making her immobile. Her damn feet
wouldn’t budge. It took a few tries but she finally forced herself
to walk toward the horrific sounds. Her fingers bit into the
chipped paint on the frame of the door, as she leaned
outside.

Dark shapes were moving
quickly… a blur of shadows in her peripheral. And the noise, the
awful noise…it hurt her ears. Lifting one shaking hand she tried to
block it out but it did no good. The horrific noises were
inescapable, just like the fear racing through her veins, freezing
her in place. There could be no comparison to that noise
except…
death
.

And just when she thought, she couldn’t take
a moment more of the terrible sound…it stopped.

It was suddenly too quiet. This quiet was
thick, suffocating, and closing in on her. She lifted her hand from
the doorframe. It shook uncontrollably, like the rest of her body.
“Hey!” she called out weakly.

There was no answer.

A strangled whimper slipped from her
constricted throat as she stepped outside. Everything covered in a
strange blue hue from the moon. An awful stench hung in the air; it
was nasty and burned her nose. The smell reminded her of sulphur.
“Oh God,” she gasped, trying to cover her face quickly with the
sleeve of her jacket. The thickness of the air closed in on her
just like the eerie blue from the moon spreading across the drive,
creeping forward. Her teeth steadily clicked together, chattering
uncontrollably as she took a tentative step forward. Her foot slid.
Reaching out she gripped the head of one of the statues beside the
door.

“
Shit!
” She yanked her hand away. It
burned. Not from heat though. It was like touching a piece of metal
in subzero temperatures. It burned from the cold. Lifting her
fingers, she tried to blow some warmth into them. Something dark
was all over the stairs. A lone streak from her foot spread out to
the side. Leaning over she stuck the tip of her finger into the
dark substance. It was warm and sticky. She
gagged.

“
Ohmigod!
Why did I touch that?”
She dragged her
finger frantically on the dry part of the stone, trying to get rid
of whatever
it
was. The trail smeared down the stairs, disappearing around
the corner…like something big and nasty was dragged
away.

The ground blurred before her eyes. Taking
deep breaths, she fought the urge to pass out. She wasn’t big on
gore. She always shut her eyes during scary movies when the
gore-fest happened. But she couldn’t shut her eyes—not now. This
was real. Fear crawled over her skin, making gooseflesh rise.
Hugging her arms around her stomach, she took a step, dodging the
mass. The stone of the stair crumbled under the weight of her feet
once more. She tried to think about anything but what was on the
stairs.

A distinct thud sounded behind her. It
reminded her of Cornelius, her mother’s black cat. That’s what he
sounded like when he jumped down from the windowsill he liked to
sit on, except this sounded heavier, like whatever it was… was
bigger. She missed Corny suddenly, that was her nickname for
him.

“
Oh, no
Corny”
…. tears clogged her throat. She
stood perfectly still like her not moving would make whatever it
was not see her. Her heart slammed against her ribcage, like it was
trying to break free and run. Something she couldn’t get her feet
to do. Instead her mind raced, trying to will it away or wish it
away, just like when she was a kid. “
Please, please, please don’t be a monster…don’t be a
monster…don’t be a monster
!” Slowly she
forced herself to turn around and let out a momentary sigh of
relief. Nothing was there.

Turning back, she focused
on the trail once more. “
Please be okay.
Please be okay. Please be okay,
” she said
over and over, trying to calm her rampant fear. She had to find
him. She knew it didn’t make a bit of sense, since she had only
just met him. And yet it didn’t stop her from feeling like she had
known him for a lifetime. It was completely crazy and unexplainable
but that is how she felt.

And even if she didn’t
feel that way, she doubted she could leave anyway. She wasn’t one
of
those
people
either. She wasn’t a deserter. It just took a while for this
emotion to kick in. She only needed to garner enough courage to
kick fear’s butt. Sometimes it took a bit of time.

“
Move
coward
,” she told herself, trying to force
her feet forward.

She counted each step.

It took one hundred and fifteen steps but
she finally made it over to the edge of the house.

The breath she had been holding shoved its
way out of her chest. There he was…not ten feet from her, lying in
a pool of the same stuff that was all over the stairs. Breaking
into a dead run she sidestepped big pieces of broken stone that
were scattered across the ground and dropped down to her knees at
his side.

Carefully lifting his head, she placed it
onto her lap. Again, her teeth started clicking steadily,
chattering, and breaking into the eerie quiet. Her stomach hurt.
Leaning forward she placed her ear against his chest. It was hard
to hear over the clicking of her teeth and her thundering
heartbeat.

“
OH, no,
no, no,”
She couldn’t hear anything.
Sitting up she clamped her teeth down while holding her breath and
then lowered her ear back to his chest.

Thump…thump…thump
…. she could hear
his faint heartbeat, deep down. She sat back up and ran her hand
back and forth across his chest, patting him.

“
Thank you, God,” she cried
out, looking up towards the sky. Tears rolled down her face. She
wiped them away with the back of her hand, sniffing loudly. “You’re
going to be alright, okay,” she assured his still form, running her
hands over his arms and legs to make sure they were intact. “You’re
going to be just fine” she repeated, sniffing back another rush of
tears as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and started
punching buttons.

It was dead.

“
Shit!”
She threw the phone down in
frustration, feeling completely helpless. Leaning down she cradled
his head in her arms. Tears streamed down her face as more sobs
tore from her throat. She felt useless. Not ready to give up she
choked the tears back. She would figure this out…
she had to
.

“
You’re
going to be all right… You’re going to be all right…You’re going to
be all right
…,” she said over and over
hoping that saying the words would somehow make them come
true.

ENCHANT

SATURDAY *12:33
AM

“
What time is it?” Moriah
asked.

“
I don’t care,” Kingston
murmured huskily, lifting his hand, moving her hair and then
lowered his mouth to nibble on the sweet spot just below her
ear.

“
Kingston,” she moaned,
bending her head to the side so he could have better access. The
top was down on Kingston’s Aston Martin. The trees swayed above
their heads as the air whispered by. The wind was brutal further
up, closer to the house, but they were parked down in a little
alcove near the base of the bluff. She could hear distinct
rumblings of thunder in the distance and random flicks of light lit
up the sky, sporadically. “Kingston, it’s going to rain, we should
really get going,” Moriah murmured, running her hands through
Kingston’s thick, dark blonde hair, holding him closely as he
trailed hot wet kisses down her neck.

Leaning forward, Kingston hit the button for
the top to close, not missing a beat. Soundlessly, the cover moved
back over them, blocking out everything else.

Moriah climbed over the center console,
straddling his lap. It was cramped in the car though, even with the
driver’s seat reclined all the way.

Kingston slid his warm hand under her
t-shirt, slipping it into her bra and kneading the soft curve of
her breast. “Damn, I love your tits, baby.” He slid his thumb over
her already taut nipple, eliciting a soft moan of pleasure in
response.

“
Come on babe, slide your
shorts off,” he coaxed, adjusting her ass on his lap.

“
Ow!” The steering wheel
scraped her back. “It’s too cramped in here,” she complained,
pushing his hand down out of her shirt. “This isn’t going to work
with the top up.”

“
I can reopen it,” he
murmured between kisses.

“
But it looks like it is
going to rain.” She pouted.

He chuckled. “Baby, you won’t melt,” he
assured her.

“
I know that!” She smacked
him lightly on the chest, making him chuckle once more. “I didn’t
bring that many clothes with me and besides it would ruin my hair
and makeup.”