When A Gargoyle Flies (Gargoyles Book 3) (8 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Chris stared at his computer screen.  The words blurred.  He’d been trying to write a report about Ms. Felcher’s noise complaint – her neighbor just took up drumming - for an hour, but he couldn’t concentrate.  It was three days since he had last been at the Hardcastle Mansion.  He informed Luc that the situation with Melissa was resolved – she wouldn’t be investigating giant bats for the foreseeable future – and then he left.

He wanted to go back.  More than he ever wanted anything.  His nights were infected with dreams of being sensually mauled by a certain pink gargoyle, and his days weren’t any better.  When he should have been trying to quell a dispute between the Misses Perkins, he was daydreaming of Annis.

He couldn’t stand the thought of going up there and seeing the new male, Castor near her.  Chris didn’t really like the thought of any of the males being near her, but it was worse with him.  The way he looked at her was territorial, like he owned Annis.  Nobody owned Annis – she was her own gargoyle!  He bristled at the memory.

He feared that Castor wanted Annis.  Sweet, naïve Annis probably didn’t see it – but Chris could read the huge gargoyle like a picture book.  When it came to sex and desire, he usually had pretty good instincts… for everyone else, not for his own love life.  No, he usually made terrible decisions when in relationships.  One of the reasons he thought being single was the better option.  Case in point – Mara.

In the brief, few months they were married things quickly went from bad to worse.  When they were together, they fought.  She started staying out all night, and Chris started working longer hours, so he didn’t have to go home to her at all.

Chris tried talking to her about the baby, and the baby’s future, but Mara didn’t want to listen.  She told him he was boring; she wanted to have fun like they did when they first got together.  But no, he had work; he had responsibilities.  She didn’t like that he was sending a large amount of his paycheck to support Brenda.  She wanted him to stop that and when he wouldn’t, she got even worse.  It was probably about that time that he realized the love he had felt for her had been infatuation.  He was dazzled by her, by her beauty, by her energy, by her love of life – but he’d never truly loved her.

One night when she came home half-intoxicated, he tried yelling at her that her behavior was threatening the health of their child – his child – and she jeered at him, wondering if he really knew it was his baby.  He snapped.  He came after her, and for a moment, he almost thought he was going to hit her.  She screamed, scared of him for the first time and ran out of the house.

Chris came to his senses quickly and tried to stop her, but she drove away.  She didn’t even make it to the end of their street before she crashed, right into a tree.  Mara was in a coma for a week before she died.

The doctors were surprised that Chris thought she was pregnant.  Mara had a hysterectomy years ago.  That was like a sucker punch to the gut.

Her funeral was pathetic.  Friends and colleagues of Chris’ turned up.  Brenda and her grandmother even managed to come, but there were very few people who were really there for Mara and not him.  He’d never met her family, never really met her friends.  The only person who wasn’t a passing acquaintance was her brother.  He was a nice guy – an insurance adjustor – a few years older than Mara.

Chris had been numb since her death, grief, guilt and confusion warring within him for what happened, but he remembered going for coffee with the brother after the funeral.  Mark told him how their parents were still alive but didn’t want to come.  They had a huge falling out years ago.  Mara had been a bit of a wild child and had fallen pregnant at sixteen.  Her parents forced an abortion on her.  She got an infection and had to have a hysterectomy.  After that, she ran away.  Mark smiled sadly as he told him about the postcards she would send him from the various places she ended up.  Chris could sense the genuine love Mark had for his sister and felt even guiltier that he hadn’t felt the same for her.

Chris apologized for not taking care of her.  He regretted he never really even knew the woman he’d been married to, never really taken the time to know her, and it had ended disastrously.  Mark shook his head.  There were no recriminations.  He just hoped Mara was finally at peace.  He finished by showing Chris pictures of his wife and three kids.  They looked happy.  Mark now even sent him Christmas cards.  They were cute, personalized ones with pictures of the family on the front in matching Christmas sweaters.

He couldn’t get over Mara.  Not for the reasons people thought.  But he couldn’t get over his guilt for what happened.  If only he had been a better man, things might have been different.

Chris blinked as he realized Martha was standing in front of him.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

Martha gave him a weak smile, and he noticed there was something off about her.

“I was just asking if I could put up this poster for the Winter Wonderland Ball on your notice board?”

It took a few moments to pull him out of his reverie, but finally, he said, “Sure, it’ll look good next to the wanted posters.  You organizing it again?”

Martha nodded.  “Along with the rest of the committee.”

She let out a huge yawn, and Chris realized that she was looking tired.  Martha was usually always immaculate and perfect in her appearance, but today she was wearing very little make-up, and instead of her usual pristine outfit, she was in jeans and a sweater.

“You know if you want to take off, you can, it’s quiet around here.”

Martha shrugged.  “I’m fine.”

“Sure you’re getting enough sleep?”  He didn’t really want to get too personal with Martha, but he was her boss and he did have some duty of care.

“I haven’t been sleeping all that well recently,” she admitted and slumped into the chair opposite his desk.

“Maybe this job and everything else you do is too much.”  She was on just about every committee in town and took part in all kinds of groups and meetings.  To name but a few, she had a book club, a knitting circle, a sewing round and a painting class.  It was a wonder to him she slept at all.

Martha gave him a sharp look.  “I know I wasn’t your first choice for this job…”

“Martha, you know my reasons for wanting to hire Gwen.  It had nothing to do with you.”  Well, not entirely…

“I know, which is why I had Myrna give Gwen a full-time job at the library.  The pay is much better, by the way.”

Chris cocked an eyebrow at her.  “You did?  How’d you get Myrna to agree to that?”

“She’s my second cousin.”

“Really?”

“I’m practically related to everyone in town,” she told him ruefully.

Indeed, her family dated back to the original town witches.  No wonder she wanted to date him – fresh blood and all.  She was probably distantly related to about eighty percent of the men in town.

Martha yawned again.

Chris pried the Winter Wonderland poster out of her fingers.  “Seriously, Martha, it’s quiet here; I’ll put up the poster and answer the phones.  Go home and get some sleep.”

For a second he thought a look of fear entered her eyes, but she nodded and mumbled goodbye to him before shuffling away.

She looked as bad as he felt.  He couldn’t sleep properly with all the erotic dreams he’d been having.  But it didn’t matter.  He couldn’t see a future for him with any woman, least of all a complicated one with a gargoyle.

No, he was better off alone.

Chapter Fifteen

Castor was having difficulty adjusting to modern life.  Or perhaps more aptly, he was having trouble adjusting to life under Luc’s leadership.

Annis felt sympathy – both for Castor and Luc.  They were in a difficult situation.  Essentially, they were all trapped at the Hardcastle Mansion.  It went against a gargoyle’s nature not to want to roam free.  Another way in which Annis was abnormal.  She was more than happy with her household chores, and she wanted the security of the house.  But the other gargoyles wanted to feel free, not caged.

The awakened gargoyles had little to do with their time other than practice sparring.  Admittedly, a few like her had found other interests – like Tristan and the library.  Like Ric and Brenda.  But for every settled gargoyle, there would be another unhappy at their situation, wanting to know why they simply did not show themselves to the humans.

The thousand years of their curse was almost over, and Luc was rushing to free as many of their gargoyle brothers and sisters as he could.  After the thousand years ended, any gargoyles left would be stone forever, and for every intact gargoyle they found, another two that had not survived the years were also found.  He did not have time to deal with the gargoyles who had awoken and were considering revolting.

Annis did not want to think about what would happen if enough gargoyles decided to stage a coup.  Luc was the most dominant gargoyle she had ever met, and would easily be able to stand against Castor or Brom.  But would he be able to stand against twenty Castors?

Back in their day, gargoyles had honor and the challenge for leadership was met in hand-to-hand combat – one on one.  But things were very different now.  What if the other gargoyles decided that honor no longer mattered?

It was a worry for her.  She felt sure that Gracchus would stand by Luc.  He was slightly older than Luc and Castor, and would likely cling to the honor code.  Ric would too, for the sake of his mating, and perhaps Cai would.  With Luc’s ties to the humans, he could perhaps provide the most stable environment for Cai and his family – particularly as in a few months there would be another addition to it.

But the others were anyone’s guess.  It was a reason why Annis was trying to spend time with Castor - to calm him and make him see the importance of their continued low profile.  It also distracted her from the disappointment she felt over Chris.

Castor was not interested in anything she had to say at first, but slowly, she believed she was swaying him.  Either that or he was biding his time.

Annis found Castor with Grey and Brom.  They were practicing archery.  Castor hit every target.  Grey was not bad either, but Brom missed each time - which made him even angrier.  He constantly muttered that bows and arrows were not gargoyle weapons.

Castor heard her coming and stopped to grunt hello at her.  Grey nodded, and Brom groaned.

“Another distraction.  This is all I need.  Shouldn’t you be bothering someone else?”

Annis did not answer that.  She did not even consider it an insult.  At first, she had thought of Brom as a typical gruff gargoyle, but she was actually warming to him.  For all his bluster, he was actually quite kind.  She had found him patting and cooing at Bob the other night.  He leaped away as if scalded when he saw her and completely denied it, but she knew what she saw.  Plus, the insults he hurled at everyone were not nearly as venomous as they could be.  Annis had been insulted by the best – her mother, and Brom was not nearly as bad.

Grey, on the other hand, scared her somewhat.  He was quiet and watchful, but she could sense viciousness in him that she did not feel present in the others.  Even in enormous Drago.

“Kylie informed me that the gargoyle Maggie and Andrew found was half-destroyed.  They are planning on burying it.”

The three males hung their heads in respect.  Bea, Gustave, Maggie, and Andrew were all away at that moment, in search of the gargoyles.  Although, she supposed Maggie and Andrew would be returning soon, given the outcome.

Castor growled in annoyance.  “The humans had a thousand years to wake us, and now that they finally have, we are all but dead.”

“It is not their fault.”

“Humans cast the spell over us,” he sneered.

“We were betrayed by another gargoyle.  Were it not for her, we would not be here,” argued Annis softly.

“She was led astray by humans.”

“I doubt Ophelia could be led anywhere she did not wish to go.”  Annis had never met the female gargoyle in question, but her fearsome reputation preceded her.

“Humans turned us to stone,” Castor said stubbornly.

“Our human enemies, not our allies.”

Annis knew that their allies, the Blanc Clans, had spent years searching for a way to wake them, all to no avail.  Without the original spell, and with dwindling magical abilities in every generation of magic users, the gargoyles were stuck.  It was not until Kylie accidentally awoke Luc, and they managed to obtain a modified version of the original awakening spell that the situation changed.

Although, she did wonder about the Noir Clans.  They had recently discovered their enemies had also been trying to wake the gargoyles.  For how long and how many they had awoken was unclear.  She supposed they could have been waking her brothers and sisters for their own devices for centuries… or not.  Her only contact with magic had been through Calliope – the clan healer, and that had not been much.  Mostly, it was just about which herbs could be used for healing.  From listening to Bea talk to a few select friends who were permitted to come to the house and meet them, people with strong magical powers were rare.  Kylie was one of them, though she seemed nonplussed by her own abilities, and at times struggled to make them work.

Castor did not see it that way.  “Humans cannot be trusted.  A clan that allows humans as clan members should never have come to pass.  There can be no alliance between the two species.”

Annis worried at the stirring interest Brom and Grey showed for what he was saying.  “Gargoyles have always allied themselves to humans.  We fought alongside the Blanc Clans.”

“We?” sneered Grey.  “How much fighting did you do?”

Her broken wing twitched involuntarily, and she fought back a spasm of pain.

“Annis is a gargoyle,” rumbled Castor, “that is what matters.  Damaged or not, she is still one of us.”

Grey shrugged but did not bother to apologize – that was not the gargoyle way either.

Suddenly restless, Castor started pacing.  “I cannot abide to be held here like this.”

“Perhaps Luc will allow you to hunt,” suggested Annis.

“Allow me to hunt?!” he snarled.  “Since when should I need permission?”  Castor looked up into the night sky.  “I will not be treated like a prisoner by a human lover.”

“But, Luc…”

“I am going hunting.  Any of you who wishes to join me, can.”

Castor turned on his heel and started striding towards the woods.  Grey curled his lip at Annis before leaping after him.  Brom gave it a moment thought before inclining his head almost apologetically and following the other two.

So much for calming Castor.  Should she tell Luc?

Part of her felt loyalty to her former clan leader, but a larger part of her realized Castor was potentially putting all of them in danger.  Yes, she needed to say something.