When A Gargoyle Flies (Gargoyles Book 3) (5 page)

If Chris truly thought the gargoyles were dangerous, he would – in spite of the screaming he would have to endure from Brenda.  She was a pretty mellow girl, but she was still a teenager – and teenagers weren’t known for not being melodramatic.  But he’d seen the gargoyles, how they acted toward humans, how they were with their young, and he saw that the gargoyles were just like regular people.  He couldn’t imagine Annis ever being a danger to anyone.

“Not just that,” Kylie said.  “But for helping Annis earlier.  If you weren’t there taking charge, Luc would have just strode around saying she would be fine, and that gargoyles could heal themselves until I ran and got Bea.”  She chuckled softly.  “It was actually quite funny to see Luc surprised and compliant.  He isn’t used to listening to anyone’s orders.”  She paused.  “Except mine.”

“Annis told me that gargoyles used to have healers.”

Kylie cocked her head at him.  “She did?”

“You seem surprised.”

“Annis doesn’t say much to anyone other than me, Maggie, Bea or Dragoslava.  The fact that she told you anything about the gargoyle culture is amazing.  Not just her, but all the gargoyles are pretty tight lipped about anything.”

“Luc must tell you stuff.”

“Sure, he tells me everything, but I’m his mate.  The others, though, are precious about a lot of things.  Not that I blame them, sounds like most humans hated them and treated them like crap.  The gargoyles were scared they’d get the same treatment as the dragons.  Apparently, the dragons died out because humans were afraid of them and hunted them into extinction.”  She beamed at him almost manically.  “We belong to a wonderful species, don’t we?”

Chris chuckled as he drove back to the mansion, although he couldn’t help but wonder at Annis’ frankness with him.  They did not really know each other, but maybe she did trust him.  The thought elated him more than it probably should.

Chapter Six

After what seemed like an interminable amount of time – because Luc spent all of it pacing up and down and threatening to go and find out what was taking so long – Chris and Kylie returned with a mountain of food.

It was carried into the dining room and dumped on the enormous table.  They didn’t bother with plates or cutlery.  Just eating at a table was a new experience for the gargoyles; Kylie didn’t want to push too much on them too soon.

The original dining table chairs had not exactly been gargoyle accessible, so were replaced by backless seats to ensure there was plenty of room for wings and tails.  Thankfully, the table was built for about twenty people, leaving plenty of room for wings to spread.  Indeed it was so big that you could barely hear people at the opposite end of it.  Gustave told her that it had rarely been used by the Professor.  It was an antique he acquired for his collection. 

Brom and Grey were missing from the dinner, eschewing dining like humans.  They had been allowed to hunt under Luc’s watch earlier and were probably devouring raw deer mate at that moment.  The two males were loud and outspoken, and generally disagreeable – they were very much typical male gargoyles.  Lief and Tristan had deigned to join them, and Tristan was already thoughtfully munching on a portion of onion rings.  The two of them were quieter than their other new clan members, but Annis thought them to be sharper.  Tristan was not as big or as strong as the larger clan males, but he was clever.  He admitted to her that he had been the chief tactician of his clan.  Her clan never had such a position – her chief would never have admitted that a gargoyle lower in dominance was better at battle plans than he.  Tristan must be canny to have cleaved a position like that for himself.

Drago was naked, making Brenda giggle.  Ric howled and covered Brenda’s eyes while Luc snarled at the huge male to cover up.  Drago shrugged and fetched a loincloth.

Twenty-Six bounced into the room.  “Oh, thank god – real food!  Come to mama.”  She swiped a hotdog and inhaled it in two bites.  “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

Luc frowned at her; Gracchus rolled his eyes – although that might have been at the hamburger that he did not seem to be enjoying, and Drago grunted.  Annis caught Chris chuckling, and it struck her how human Twenty-Six really was.

Rescued from a lab, they did not know exactly how she had been created.  She was the twenty-sixth lab experiment – created from gargoyles and something else.  Given her looks, she must have some human in her.  Twenty-Six was the palest gargoyle Annis had ever seen.  Her peach-colored skin was nearly the same as Chris or Brenda’s, and her face was smoother and rounder than any other gargoyle, more like a human.  Annis’ features were pointed, but Twenty-Six was softer and undoubtedly much more attractive to a human.  Dress Twenty-Six up in a long coat, gloves and brush her wavy hair over her ears and small horn nubs, and she would probably pass for human.  She could probably go out in the world – go out in Chris’ world.

The meat in Annis’ mouth turned bitter.  She swallowed it, and it lazily traveled down into her stomach, sitting there like a leaden weight.

Annis had known jealousy.  Had she not spent her whole life jealous of the normal females in the clan?  Envious that she could not be one?  But she had never felt it so acutely and violently for one of her clan.  The unfairness hit her like a war-hammer, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it.  Or what to make of the fact that it stemmed from her feelings about Chris.

By now Twenty-Six was already teasing Gracchus about TV shows she had already watched, and he was growling at her not to ruin the endings for him.  Kylie was engaged in a conversation with Bea and Gustave while Lief listened with interest as they spoke about their plans for waking the other gargoyles.  Tristan was eating all the onion rings he could find.  Ingrede and Cai were chatting and perhaps even flirting – if gargoyles could flirt – while they tried to feed Wolfe.  Or rather while they tried to stop Wolfe from eating everything in sight – cheeseburgers and cheese fries were apparently a big hit with the youngling.  Luc was arguing about something with Ric while Brenda listened and teased her mate intermittently.  Drago continued to glower in his own private world.

Annis stared at her clenched fists in her lap.  Her broken wing twitched painfully and her cheek ticked.

“Something wrong?” asked Chris lowly from across the table.

She looked up in shock.  So used to being ignored, overlooked, forgotten, she assumed nobody was interested in what she was doing.  “I… ah…”

“Is it your leg?”  For a moment a fierce look of protectiveness flashed across his features.

Truthfully, she had not even thought about her leg since he wrapped it in plastic earlier.  It tingled, but not from the burn.  No, she had his soft touch to thank for that.  She had never been touched in that way before, and it was so tender and surprising.

“No, I am fine,” she said quietly.

His face did not soften.  “You looked like you were in pain.”

“I was,” Annis blurted and then remembered that she was not supposed to talk about her wing.  Something her mother insisted on when Annis tried to tell her how much pain the broken wing caused her.  You were born wrong, Annis, her mother told her, do not shame me more by calling attention to it.  But her mother was not here.  But did Annis really want to draw attention to it?  Humans would already consider her a freak; they did not need to know she was a malfunctioning freak.

“It is nothing.”

Chris watched her for a few moments and decided not to pursue the matter.  “In a few more hours you can have some more ibuprofen.”

Annis nodded.  She did not like to say it, but she doubted the pills he gave her would make any difference.  Only magic could help magical creatures.

He looked down.  “I wish I could take you to a hospital.”  A note of frustration entered his voice.

“Maybe one day, things will be different,” she murmured.

As he looked up, his eyes flickered with something she couldn’t identify.  Could it be that he also lamented the situation?  Did he wish she could walk out into the world with him, too?  Or was that too much to hope for?

Annis passed the rest of her hamburger to Bob, who eagerly lapped up the treat.

Chapter Seven

Chris told Luc about Melissa’s upcoming visit.  Luc grunted but did not seem overly concerned.

“I do not see it will be an issue.  I will ensure that none of my gargoyles take to the skies that night.”

Chris nodded and stared out into the garden where a few of the males were fighting and joking with one another.  “Have you heard anything from Blackthorne?”

“No, no one acting under his direction has approached the house.”

“I haven’t seen anything suspicious in town either – but maybe they’re just getting better at hiding and blending into crowds.”  The last lot stomped around in black clothes, combat boots, and miserable scowls – they stuck out like sore thumbs amongst the tourists.

“This Agent Sanchez, does she have any reason to come to this house?”

“No, I can’t see that she does.  All she knows is that a couple of drunk tourists thought they saw something in the sky.”

Luc narrowed his eyes.  “You trust her?  You trust she is not working for Blackthorne or someone like him?”

“Yes, without a doubt,” Chris answered immediately.  Melissa was as straight as the day was long.

“Then I will not worry about her.”

“But you worry about Blackthorne?”  Chris couldn’t deny that he’d endured a few sleepless nights worrying that Blackthorne might send mercenaries to the mansion to kill all the gargoyles.  His insides squeezed painfully at the thought of Annis getting hurt.  What if they turned up in the daytime to smash her to smithereens?!

“I worry because I do not know what he wants from my people or me.  His family members have always been acolytes of Morgan Le Fay, and her wish was to rule the world with magic.  Perhaps that is what he wishes too, and to use gargoyles as soldiers.”

Chris snorted.  “No offense but that’s a pretty tall order.  You guys are tough, but I can’t see you standing up to automatic weapons.”

Luc’s face tightened.  “No, indeed.  Perhaps that was the purpose of the experiments they were doing that resulted in Twenty-Six.”

“Bullet-proof gargoyles?”

He rolled his enormous shoulders.  “Perhaps.  Twenty-Six could only glean that they wanted gargoyles that would not be forced to sleep during the day.  Their other purposes in creating her and her late kin are still a mystery.”

“At least that doctor won’t be creating any more gargoyles.”  Chris didn’t think he’d forget the sight of the doctor getting fried on his own electrified fence.

“No, but we do not know if Blackthorne has found a replacement for him, and we still do not know if he has any more gargoyles hidden somewhere for his experiments.  He used live gargoyles to create Twenty-Six and unless they are dead, they are out there somewhere.”

“I can ask some old colleagues in the Portland PD to do a little digging.  Maybe even Sanchez could poke around.”  Luc looked at him, and Chris held up his hands.  “You can trust her, I swear.”

He nodded and grunted.

“You think Blackthorne fancies himself as ruler of the world?”  An incredible, almost cartoonish goal, but given how the world was changing, perhaps not completely out of the way.

Luc huffed.  “Perhaps, although I doubt he has enough power.  If he did, he would be able to wake the gargoyles himself.”

Chris nodded and looked at his watch.  “I better get Brenda home.”

“She would be welcome to stay here.”

Yeah, she’d love that he thought in irritation.  “She’s a teenage girl; she needs some boundaries.  I let her stay here, she’d never do her homework and never finish school.”

“That may be true, but having more females around helps calm the males somewhat.”

“Too much testosterone, huh?” Chris chuckled.

Luc gave him a blank look.  “Having her and Kylie around is perhaps useful in reminding the males that there is hope that they may be able to mate with a human also.  Of the unmated gargoyles, there are only two females to six males, and Twenty-Six behaves in a more human manner than gargoyle.  It is,” he thought about the next word carefully before deciding on, “concerning.”

Chris didn’t say anything.  He thought of Annis surrounded by the enormous, single male gargoyles of her clan and his chest constricted.

“Perhaps I worry for nothing,” said Luc.  “Maggie and Andrew are returning tomorrow with a new gargoyle, and two more puzzles are almost unlocked.  Perhaps they will all be females.”

“The professor sure didn’t make things easy for you.”

“No, but if the puzzles had been easy to decipher, then my brothers and sisters would already be lost.”

Chris left him on that maudlin note, and Luc grunted a goodbye.  He had to drag Brenda home; she was annoyed about not getting more time with Ric – but given that it was a school night…

As they drove the short distance home, Brenda regaled him with the stories Ric had told her, unaware of his dangerous mood.  He could not stand to hear of Ric the almighty gargoyle at the best of times.  Now, he was considering the fact that there was the possibility that six male gargoyles each viewed Annis as the only female in the world.

*

“How is your leg, dear?” asked Bea.

Annis gazed down at her plastic wrapped appendage and gave it a wiggle.  “It feels fine.  I think it will heal while I sleep.”

“I’m sorry I can’t heal magical creatures, only humans.  But I’m glad Chris was here to take care of you.  He is a kind man.”

Annis blushed, remembering the feel of his skin against hers.  She drew her wings closer around her body.  “Yes.  Why is he not mated?” she blurted.

Bea blinked at her.  “I believe he was married, but his wife died a few years ago.  I am not sure about the circumstances, but I don’t think he dates much if at all.”

“Oh.”  Annis stroked her hands up and down her wings, a nervous habit.  “Perhaps she was his true mate, and he cannot bear to be with another.”

“Perhaps.  Although, true mates are supposed to be imbued with magic.  I don’t think Chris has any magic, and I think he would have told us if his wife did.”

She thought of Chris, pining for his late wife – undoubtedly beautiful and perfect in every way, just the female he deserved.  Someone so much more than a damaged gargoyle.

“Brenda does not have magic.” 

“No, but Ric is a magical creature.”  Bea looked at her kindly.  “You were never mated were you, dear?”

The blush, which had just started to ebb, returned to her cheeks with the alacrity of Speedy Gonzalez – she’d just discovered cartoons.  “No.  Not with my defect.”

Bea clucked her tongue as her eyes roved over the scarred wing.  “Times are different, and perhaps you have just not met the right man yet.”  Her lips twitched into a small smile.  “Perhaps Chris has not met the right woman either.”

Annis inhaled.  What was she suggesting?  Nothing, probably.  The next moment Bea yawned wider than a bear and bid her good night.

No, it was nothing.  Chris probably couldn’t bear to replace his perfect wife, and he certainly wouldn’t replace her with a gargoyle.  That much was sure.  She was unwanted in her past life, and would remain so now.