Stony Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 16)

by Kennedy Layne

  Practically the only thing that I’d changed in the cottage were the dishtowels and the scale in the bathroom. I’d come to find out that Nan hadn’t been as obsessed with her weight in the manner that I seemed to be, because there hadn’t been a proper scale to be found anywhere in the cottage.

  Her sense of décor had been bar none, though.

  She’d been able to pair modern appliances with antique furniture in a way that I could only ever dream about. She’d even had someone hand carve special designs and features into the coffee table. It was literally the center piece that pulled the entire décor together, and the enchanted drawers to protect the family grimoire and such were an added bonus.

  “I suppose we can’t have gargoyles roaming about town,” Mom said, finally expressing a bit of worry. “Have you thought about contacting Agnus or Aunt Rowena?”

  “It’s on my to-do list today.” I took another sip of my coffee. The caffeine was beginning to do its job, and I was feeling somewhat more human. “Well, reaching out to Agnus, that is. I’ll have Ted ask her if she knows anything about the gargoyles or the history behind them when he goes over there later today. As for Aunt Rowena, I don’t want to bring her in on this unless absolutely necessary. Her standard method of dealing with such trifling things tends to be a bit heavy-handed, similar to Leo’s suggestion of C4 in this situation.”

  Agnus was our village druid, though we’d just come to know about her existence this past year. She was a hundred and two years old, but one wouldn’t know that upon first glance. She was spry as any active eighty-year-old woman, which meant that her powers were considerably—and I mean massively so—stronger than ours when it came to nature. We did our best to respect her wish to remain somewhat anonymous on the outskirts of town.

  “Why is it that you’ve been steering clear of Aunt Rowena lately? I noticed at the wedding that you barely spoke two words to her.” My mother was watching me closely, and it didn’t help that I was a horrible liar. There were things that only Leo and I knew about the coven and its power, and it needed to stay that way for the time being. “Raven?”

  “Mom, it’s not about how Aunt Rowena treated Nan, nor should it be swept under the rug,” I said wryly, sticking somewhat close to the truth. As long as I was being slightly honest, I could pull my white lies off fairly convincingly enough. “Right now, we need to establish a few priorities. We have statues coming to life and walking around Paramour Bay. I think that’s more important at the moment, don’t you?”

  Throwing the broomstick back to my mother had been risky, but I sighed in relief when she took the bait. Trust me, the things that Leo and I knew about coven were best dealt with later on down the line.

  Well, preferably never.

  “Fine,” my mother replied in acceptance, once again looking at her watch. “I have to meet the realtor soon, so I’ll touch base with you sometime this afternoon. I promised Beetle that I would narrow down the choices of houses that I loved before dragging him out to see them with me. It certainly won’t do to have the realtor see a granite statue moving its arms and legs around.”

  Tell me again why we keep that lump of wax around? It took me a good ten minutes to finally get him to understand that we needed a few kilos of C4. I practically had to destroy one of his jackets, but I’m pretty sure that I got my point across. He knows a guy.

  “You can’t go around destroying Ted’s things,” I chastised, knowing that I would be responsible for replacing Ted’s jacket. He wore old-fashioned style suits from the 1800s, too. Period clothing wasn’t cheap, by anyone’s standards. “Go back and apologize. Right now.”

  I’d ask what catnip you’ve been smoking, but you know better than to touch my stash.

  “I don’t deal with squabbles such as this, so I’ll leave you to it.” Mom gracefully got down from the stool and made her way to the door. Leo had materialized on his cat bed in the bay window near the front door, but he didn’t appear one bit contrite over the fact that he’d just destroyed Ted’s property without a second thought. “Leo, shouldn’t you be in town and making sure that the gargoyle doesn’t do anything to cause a panic?”

  Have you not listened to a word that we’ve said during this torturous hour of your visit? Gargoyle Gary doesn’t come to life during the day, you dufus. We’re safe until the sun goes down. Speaking of the blatantly obvious, did you gain a few pounds over the holidays? You might benefit from a midnight walk or two.

  “Stop that,” I muttered in disbelief as I quickly made my way over to stand between them. I almost spilled the rest of my coffee, but I’d managed to stop my mother from retaliating in a way that she couldn’t take back. The two of them often went at it like this on a daily basis, but Leo was really pushing his luck lately. “Mom, I’ll let you know what we find out from Agnus and Bree. Like I said before, I’ll have Ted talk to Agnus while I try to find out where Bree got the statue.”

  “You do that,” my mother muttered before practically shooting daggers at Leo as she slipped her arms inside the sleeves of her jacket. “Ta-ta.”

  The door hadn’t even closed when I could hear my cell phone chime that I had an incoming call. I began to make my way back into the kitchen where I’d left my cell phone by the coffee maker, but only after I shot him a sideways glare.

  “You are so lucky that she didn’t fire an energy ball your way,” I reprimanded him, still unable to believe that he would try to push her to the end of that proverbial rope. “I know that this whole gargoyle thing has you on edge, but you should remember that sugar attracts more flies than vinegar.”

  If that woman is going to be classified as a fly, I’d say that she belongs to those horse flies that I’ve seen hovering around the trash bins behind the teashop this past summer.

  “Hey, Liam,” I replied once I’d retrieved my phone while Leo went on and on about a new species of flying squirrels that had shown up in the New England states north of us. “Mom can’t help me today, because she lined up the realtor to look at houses all day. The good news is that Beetle can mind the shop, but I think it’s due to him not wanting to be dragged around from house to house and having to be invited into each one by the owner’s representatives. Anyway, Mom is going to narrow it down to her favorites before showing them to him. I’m going to have Ted go visit Agnus, and then I’ll go back to the bakery to see if I can’t find out where Bree bought the statue. It will at least be a place to start our research on where this thing came from.”

  “Raven, you might want to find out where that thing came from sooner rather than later.”

  I’d been in the middle of reaching for the coffee pot when Leo blipped from his fluffy bed in the display window onto the counter next to me, but that wasn’t what had me dropping my hand. Liam’s tone pretty much said it all, and I braced myself for what he was about to tell us.

  “What happened?” I asked cautiously, images of a gargoyle climbing up and down the buildings on the main thoroughfare of town flashing through my mind. “Is he…you know…moving?”

  “No, but I have a feeling that I know what it was doing last night when the streetlamps went out all along River Bay,” Liam revealed, pausing long enough for me and Leo to lock gazes. “Monty’s hardware store was vandalized, but he didn’t notice anything being amiss until this morning. Someone—or something—broke in through the back door and knocked over quite a few shelves. It’ll take Monty a day or two to get things cleaned up in the store.”

  “Wait,” I exclaimed with a shake of my head. “Are you saying that you actually believe a gargoyle came to life, scouted out a shop to break into, and then it vandalized the inside before returning to its…well, base?”

  Leo’s whiskers began to twitch nonstop, and his crooked tail started to bang against the glass carafe in agitation. I shooed him a little more to the right so that he didn’t end up shattering the one thing that could help calm my nerves after ending this phone call.

  “Raven, there are marks on the hardwood floor in the back
that could only belong to something with large claws like that thing,” Liam replied in a soft tone, most likely to prevent anyone from overhearing him. “We need to find out why before someone gets hurt trying to confront it. Listen, I’ve got to go. Call me when you find something more concrete than what our research turned up last night. I have a feeling that things are about to get a lot worse.”

  Liam disconnected the call before I could even say goodbye, but I wasn’t sure that I would have been able to get the word out, anyway. Monty’s hardware store had been damaged, and that meant the residents would be rallying around the older gentleman demanding answers. It also meant that everyone would be keeping their eyes open for anyone or anything strange. Crime wasn’t really rampant in a quaint costal town such as Paramour Bay.

  I can’t believe it. All this time, I thought that the squirrelpocalypse would bring about the end of the world…with me as the savior, of course. But a single gargoyle? We have to assume that Gargoyle Gary is just the vanguard, which leaves us only one choice, Raven—we’re going to need several kilos of C4 and some det-cord!

  Chapter Five

  I don’t know why we need that cheater’s help. He does nothing but make my life complicated…especially on Wednesday nights when I’m trying to bluff him off a pot.

  “Rye can find out what we need to know without Bree wondering why I’m asking her a ton of questions about an odd decoration choice that she put outside of her bakery,” I explained from my seat at our usual table near the door. As I’d done last night, I’d taken off my jacket and made sure that Leo had a comfortable place to sit on one of the chairs. He’d chosen the one that would allow him to keep an eye on the gargoyle at all times through the glass entrance. “Be completely honest, too. We need his help on this.”

  I had already lifted my hand so that Rye would spot me from where he’d been standing at the counter talking with Bree. He’d nodded a few moments ago that he understood my request, so I had no choice but to wait patiently for him to finally make his way over.

  Rye Dolgiram was technically family, in an odd sort of way. Aunt Rowena had taken him in at a very young age when she’d found him living on the streets. Not even a witch who’d basically cast her sister out of the coven could be so heartless as to allow a young teen wizard to be homeless and without guidance. Once the coven had begun to suspect that his powers were stronger than originally thought, Aunt Rowena had surreptitiously moved him to Paramour Bay and helped him create a life amongst the residents.

  It was by happenstance that I’d even discovered his true identity.

  I often think of how our lives would be if we’d never discovered the cheating wizard’s true identity. I might be able to rake a few pots at our weekly supernatural poker game.

  A patron was walking by our table, so I couldn’t reply aloud. Not that I needed to since Leo could hear my thoughts, but it was more ingrained in me to converse out loud.

  Don’t let him fool you, though.

  Leo’s animosity toward Rye wasn’t as real as one might think. It all stemmed from their weekly poker games that was catered to the local supernatural beings, which was hosted by our local grim reaper at the neighborhood cemetery.

  My animosity comes from a multitude of things, Raven. The list is simply too long to cover here and now, but know I have my reasons.

  “Is one of those Rye winning the largest pot of the night last Wednesday?” I asked behind my coffee cup with a smile. I’d already had one of Bree’s banana nut muffins, and it had gone perfectly with the flavored coffee that I’d chosen over my regular breakfast blend. “I heard he pulled in—”

  “Hey, Raven,” Rye greeted, not bothering to take a seat. He appeared to be in a hurry, but I was still hoping that he’d do us a favor of finding out a little bit more about the statue. I leaned forward and set my cup on the table. “I’m heading over to Monty’s hardware store to help with the cleanup. Whoever vandalized the place did a pretty bang up job.”

  Rye was one of those tall, dark, and handsome types who Heidi usually fell for, but she was completely head over heels in love with a certain state detective by the name of Jack Swanson, much to Leo’s dismay.

  He’s an oaf of a detective who thinks those pestles and mortars that you gave my soulmate are nothing more than ugly decorations. He has no idea that they are for lessons to harness her inner hedge witch. He’s clearly in the wrong line of work.

  “We need your help, Rye.” I didn’t want to waste time, especially if Monty was waiting for Rye over at the hardware store. I motioned for him to lean forward so that no one could overhear our conversation. “I don’t know how else to put this, but we think the gargoyle statue out front of the bakery is coming alive at night, roaming the streets of Paramour Bay, and just happens to be the prime suspect responsible for the vandalism at the hardware store.”

  Rye didn’t say a word, but he didn’t shift his stance to indicate that he was heading out the door. He did a blink a few times, which told me that he was taking his time digesting such shocking news. Had he not been in the know about all of the other supernatural events that had occurred over the last two years, I’d say he was in disbelief.

  Look at what you’ve gone and done. That was clearly too much information overload for our poor handyman. He’s looking at you like you belong in a state mental facility. Hmmm. You know, you might have given me a solid ace in the next poker game, Raven.

  “I should know that a simple exchange of greetings can’t happen with the two of you,” Rye muttered, pulling out a chair in defeat. He unzipped his winter jacket before plopping down and moaning in frustration. “Raven, gargoyles are basically architectural designs, not supernatural beings. That’s it.”

  “Did you hear that Monty saw footprints in the snow on the sidewalk last week?” I asked, not bothering to wait for him to reply. “Then I’m pretty sure that Eugene and Albert saw them after the dusting we received, though they somehow twisted the story to the point that Wilma thought we might actually have a mountain lion roaming the streets. Don’t worry, I do believe that it was the cold that got to her. I sent her home with one of my tea blends, so she should be good to go for tomorrow night’s bingo.”

  Everyone had heard about the tracks, so it wasn’t like I had to expand on the gossip. Even I had chalked them up to belonging to either someone’s pet or the local wildlife. It wasn’t like statues coming to life were a normal thing here in Paramour Bay, unless you took into account Ted and Justine.

  I’d like to point out that I was the one who noticed Gargoyle Gary move from time to time. It takes the trained eye of a natural predator to notice something so subtle.

  Rye blinked a few more times upon hearing the gargoyle’s name. I gave him credit, though. He didn’t hesitate to join in on the conversation this time.

  “I’d like to inject a bit of reality into this theory of yours,” Rye said, shifting a bit when two ladies walked into the bakery. He waited a moment until they had walked by on their way to the counter. “Don’t you think that someone would have noticed a stone-winged creature walking up and down the sidewalk in front of the shops?”

  Well, when Rye put it like that…

  Don’t you let this cheating wizard pull one over on you, Raven! You were a witness to last night’s events, and even the good ol’ sheriff is on board the supernatural train with Gargoyle Gary.

  “Leo’s right,” I exclaimed, still unable to explain away last night’s incident. I went into detail, describing what Leo had been seeing all the way up to last night’s temporary blackout. “Only the outside streetlamps went dark. Since the bakery didn’t lose power, I can only guess that none of the other shops experienced problems with their electricity. The contrast between the inside and outside made it impossible to see the sidewalk, and that’s when Leo decided to check on Gary. Rye, he wasn’t there. By the time that Liam was able to check for himself, Gary had returned, and it was like nothing had happened…but it did. Monty’s shop had been vandalized, and
we just didn’t know it until this morning.”

  You’re late to the party, cheater. We need you to find out where the cupcake lady got that monstrosity so that we can send it back to Hades from whence it came.

  I highly doubted that we would have such a simple solution to our problem, but Leo had summed it up rather nicely.

  “Okay, two things,” Rye replied, holding up his hand so that neither Leo nor I continued talking. “One, I already know where Bree got the statue from, and you aren’t going to like it. Which leads me to my second point that I would like to make—has the palm of your hand indicated anything wrong with your surroundings since Bree put the statue out front of the bakery?”

  It wasn’t that I had been ignoring my ability to sense when danger was near or when something just wasn’t right, but I’d chalked it up to the fact that I technically hadn’t been in the presence of the gargoyle when he’d come to life. Last night, I couldn’t have been more than ten feet from the creature. Granted, he’d been outside while I’d been safely tucked inside the lighted bakery, but one would think my inherent ability to protect myself might have given off even the smallest of static electricity.

  We’ve already established that your palm is defective, much like when my memory issues resurface more times than not. Do what I normally do—pay no attention to it.

  “Rye, I’m telling you that the gargoyle on that granite base is coming to life and wreaking havoc on this town,” I stated confidently, pushing aside the fact that the palm of my right hand wasn’t collecting any energy. “For all we know, the statue doesn’t hold any ill will toward me. I don’t have all the facts, but Leo has been telling me for days that there is something wrong with that thing, and he’s right.”

  You tell him, Raven!

  Rye lifted a hand and rubbed his eyes, most likely in skepticism. On the bright side, I could see that he was finally accepting that we might have a real problem on our hands.