When a Gargoyle Awakens (13 page)

“That’s such a shame,” said Kylie, as she surveyed the damage.

Holling stepped away from Lara, who in turn sauntered back over to Andrew and Bea.  “I don’t think it was worth much.”

Kylie jutted her chin stubbornly.  “The professor liked it.”

“Its face was already half destroyed.”

“The professor wanted to repair it – shame he won’t get the chance.  It was a beautiful piece.”  Of course, she now had a new appreciation of gargoyles.

“You like gargoyles?”

Kylie tensed at the question.  “Yes,” she admitted.  “I do.  I think they’re impressive pieces.  I imagine it took years to create them.”

“Did the professor have any other gargoyles?” Holling asked, nonchalantly.

Time froze for a moment as they stared into each other’s eyes.  He knows something, she thought.  “There’re the ones above the front door,” she offered, casually.

“Yes, other than them.”  His voice was even, but his body was tensing, impatiently.

She paused, briefly.  “No,” she replied, slowly.  “He never told me about any others.”  Which was technically true; she stumbled on Luc by accident.

Holling’s eyes narrowed.  She glanced over at Bea, who was giving Andrew a lecture on woodworm.  Andrew actually seemed to be interested, but Lara was rolling her eyes and scowling.  Cow was even pretty when she looked mean.

“I’m very pleased you called me, Andrew,” said Bea, with warmth.  She meant it, too, Kylie could tell.  “You did the right thing.”

He smiled boyishly.  Men usually did with Bea.  She had the uncanny ability to make all men feel like good little boys, even if they happened to be in their late fifties. 

“Actually, it was Lara’s idea.”  Bea looked at Lara who preened.  No, there was no love lost there.  Andrew didn’t seem to notice.  “I’ve been dithering about what to do about everything, but she insisted I call you.”

“Thank you,” said Bea with a watery smile.  Lara gave her an imperious flick of her head.  “It’ll take time to go through and catalog everything.  Your uncle was a clever man, but paperwork seemed to fox him.  I doubt he kept records of half the things he bought.”

“With your help I’m sure we’ll get through it in no time.”  He beamed at Bea and, did Kylie’s eyes deceive her or did Bea smile coquettishly in return?

Lara apparently didn’t like this mini flirtation – even if it very definitely wasn’t going anywhere.  She pointedly angled her body between the two of them.  “I keep telling Andy he needs to do something about the garden.  It’s a horrible mess.  There’s plenty of room for a tennis court out there.”

Bea pursed her lips in disapproval.  She had no objection to tennis courts; she was just someone who was of the opinion that they belonged in other towns.  Let them spoil the beauty of other towns.  “The garden,” she said, sternly, “was actually designed when the house was first built, by a local woman who was reputed to be a witch.”

“Lillian Smith,” interjected Andrew.

“Yes, exactly,” said Bea, in happy approval.

Andrew beamed, and he was ten years old again.  “Supposedly she made all the plants grow too quickly, and the rest of the town’s produce died.  They tried to hang her from the hanging tree, but she made it grow crooked so that her feet touched the ground.  Supposedly she ran off and became a pirate.”

“How do you know all this?” said Lara, accusingly.

“Maggie down at the gift shop.”

The pretty blonde’s face hardened slightly.  Or slightly more.  It was already set in the expression of someone who, despite its beauty, ate glass for fun.

Kylie was surprised at that.  Hadn’t Maggie called him Andrew the asshole?  Maggie generally wasn’t nice to people she didn’t like.  It was another of her quirks.  If Maggie didn’t want to be helpful to Andrew – she wouldn’t have been helpful.

“You mean that weird looking girl who looks like Herman Munster’s lovechild?” sneered Lara, bristling with annoyance.

Andrew ignored her and Lara rolled her eyes at Bea and Kylie’s glares.  “Maggie suggested that I could follow her original design and restore the garden, people would come and see it.  I’ve been thinking, and I like the idea.”

“We could charge an admission fee to idiot tourists,” suggested Lara as she walked over to Holling.  He stepped away from her, moving closer to Kylie and resisting the hand Lara tried to drape over his shoulder.  A couple of weeks ago Kylie might have been pleased by that.  Now, she wished she wasn’t under such scrutiny.

“I wasn’t planning on doing that,” muttered Andrew.  “Of course, we’ll have to get rid of the hedge maze.  I know my uncle liked it, but Maggie tells me it wasn’t part of the original design – it was added later.”

“Maggie tells me,” imitated Lara in a sing-song voice.  She said it low enough that neither Bea nor Andrew heard her.  Kylie did, and so did Holling.  Holling shot her a look that instantly silenced her.

Kylie chewed her lip.  The hedge maze was where Luc was living.  It wasn’t ideal, if he weren't careful, people would notice him coming and going, but still…  “Are you sure you want to get rid of the maze, I mean, it’d be really fun for tourists.”

“I know,” lamented Andrew, “but Maggie thinks that it would be a good idea to make it authentic as possible.”

“Did she now?” mumbled Lara before pouring herself a whiskey.  “Excuse me.”

She stalked out of the room.  Andrew hardly noticed, he became embroiled in another conversation with Bea.

Kylie resumed her catalog of the items, aware that Holling was watching her, and worrying about Luc.

Chapter Nineteen

Kylie found Luc, true to his word, still at her apartment and sitting on her footstool.  It was the only item of furniture that would allow for his tail or wings, apart from her bed.  But she doubted he would be so forward as to go into her bedroom without an invitation.  She blushed at that thought.

He looked up, and his face blossomed with happiness as he saw her.  He had been leafing through a book.  Quite a few books, if the pile next to him was anything to go by.  She basked in the look on his face, trying to remember if anyone had looked at her that way before.  She doubted it.

Then, her face dropped.  There were too many unanswered questions looming for her to stand around getting all warm and happy from his looks.

Luc abruptly stood, his face a mixture of worry and thunder.  The book dropped to the floor, and his tail knocked over the pineapple lamp again.  It was apparently a very sturdy lamp – best five bucks she ever spent.

“Is something wrong?” he demanded, rising to his full height, much to the terror of every item in the room.

“No… well, yes… but probably not what you’re thinking.”

He moved toward her with more grace than she thought possible for his size.  He clasped her shoulder; the pressure was reassuring.

“Then you are unhurt?” he persisted.

“Yes, I’m okay.”  Okay as she could be, considering how the world was now upside down.  “But we need to talk,” she stepped away from him, her back hitting the door – he really did crowd the room – and put her hands on her hips.  “You can’t just drop a truth bomb on me and then expect no comeback, mister.”

Luc raised an eyebrow; she suspected her feistiness amused him, but he was also a little baffled by the words she was using.

She sagged a little, being decisive for long periods of time was hard work.  Thirty seconds appeared to be her limit.  “Look, I’m going to pull on my jammies and make myself something to eat, then we’re going to settle down for a nice chat.”

“As you wish,” he acquiesced, immediately, giving her a half bow.  She resisted the urge to curtsey.

He resumed his seat and was once again engrossed in the book.  She didn’t exactly own many books; mostly she went to the library if she wanted to read.  But she did own some books she had been given while growing up and some well-thumbed paperbacks bought at various yard sales.  Right now he was lost in the children’s encyclopedia of animals.  She suppressed a grin as she saw he was reading about flamingos

Feeling a weariness right down to her bones after the last few nights, she decided to slip into her comfiest, red plaid jammies.  She felt a moment of hesitation about appearing in her nightwear in front of what amounted to a male stranger, but stifled it.  Really, it wasn’t the same as appearing in front of a man, was it?  He was a different species after all.  It wasn’t the same, was it?  As those worrying questions swirled through her mind, exhaustion won, and she decided she could care less if Don Juan himself was out there.

“Can I get you something to eat?” she offered to Luc as she padded around the kitchen in thick, woolen socks.

“Thank you, no.”  Luc glanced up from the book and froze as he saw her.  His eyes dilated, and his wings twitched as he studied her carefully.  She resisted the urge to cross her arms over the chest, the urge she always got when she wasn’t wearing a bra.  “I… ah,” the gargoyle actually looked a little flustered.  “I hunted and ate before I came here tonight.  That will suffice until tomorrow or perhaps the day after.”

Kylie wrinkled her nose.  “You hunted?  What did you hunt?”

“Rabbits,” he smiled.  “I prefer deer, but I have not seen any in this area.”

“You mean you ate them raw?”

“Of course.”  He opened his mouth to flash his sharp teeth.  “My species is more closely related to animals than your species.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d met some of my ex-boyfriends,” she murmured humorlessly.  On seeing his frown, she quickly added, “I’ll just make myself something.”

She filled a noodle pot with water and popped it in the microwave.  Luc watched her curiously.

“Does that heat your food?”

“Mmm hmmm.”

Luc actually put his book down and came into the kitchen to peer at the microwave.  His eyes followed the noodle pot as it turned.  “Indeed, you are very blessed to possess such powerful sorcery.  Do others possess such a device?”

Kylie giggled.  “Yeah, it’s an exclusive club of just a few billion people.”

“You are making fun of me,” he said, smiling.

“Maybe just a little.”

Once settled on the couch, she told him about the plans to destroy the hedge maze at the professor’s house.  “You can’t go back there.”

“No.  I knew when you told me of the professor’s demise that I could not continue to rest there.  I am not attached to that place; over the years I have been moved all over the world.  I regret that I will lose the security the hedge maze afforded, I believe the enchantment had been powerful, but moving is necessary.  I must find a new resting place.”

“You can stay here,” she blurted.  Where that came from she didn’t know.  Starting with that cat, Mittens that ate her lipsticks and ending with cheating-dickhead-bastard Brian, she’d never had much luck with roommates.  But, she wanted Luc to stay.  Perhaps she was afraid that if she said goodbye now she’d never see him again.

Pleasure and surprise passed over his features in equal amounts before he darkened.  “I could not impose on you like that.  Your virtue…”

“It’s not an imposition and do not start banging on about my virtue,” she said, firmly.  “If you were anywhere else I would just worry about you anyway.”

“Thank you, little one.  I would be glad to be closer to you, too.  I am of no use during the day, but I would rest easier knowing that I was near you.”

“You mean that during the day…”

“I turn to stone.”  He smiled.  “You knew?”

“I suspected from what you said.”  And also from watching movies and cartoons – but perhaps she’d break them to him gently.

“It does not bother you?”

“No.  But then this whole situation is pretty surreal to me.  I’m just about prepared to accept the Loch Ness Monster rocking up to my door, asking to borrow a cup of sugar at this moment in time.”

Luc chuckled good-naturedly.  “You do say the oddest things, little one.”

Kylie flushed in pleasure.  It wasn’t exactly the sweetest compliment she had ever received, but it was, at that moment, possibly the most treasured.  It wasn’t just the words; it was his tone, the way he looked at her – really seeing her, gazing at her with so much raw interest that it was almost too intense.  And the endearment 'little one' was certainly growing on her.  She supposed she was little compared to him.

“Perhaps you should tell me what happened a thousand years ago,” she suggested, softly.

Luc nodded grimly.  “I will, but I think I must go further back than this, right to the very beginning.”

Chapter Twenty

“Gargoyles were created from magic…”

“You mean you didn’t just evolve like humans?”

Luc smiled gently.  “No, monkey girl, we didn’t.”

“Ape girl would be more appropriate,” Kylie retorted with mock primness.  “And I’m surprised you know about that.”

“One of my previous caretakers read to me The Origin of Species many years ago.  If I may continue?”

“Sorry,” she murmured, cheeks turning pink as she sucked up some noodles.

“Not at all.  Many years ago, I am unsure of the exact date; the world was being torn in two by magic.  On one side, there was King Arthur and light magic, and on the other, Morgan Le Fay and dark magic.”