Valor (A Greystone Novel)

by Taylor Longford

  Chapter Seventeen

  Victor took his knife from his sheath and lifted it up to eye level. He gave the others a pointed look and headed toward the dining room. The rest of the gargoyles pulled their blades and followed.

  The meeting started when all of the knives were sitting on the dining room table. I pulled up a chair beside Valor. He reached over and gripped my hand and gave me a reassuring smile though his eyes were shadowed with sorrow. I knew he felt compelled to do the right thing—the thing that would assure his three missing cousins were reunited with the pack. I just hoped the gargoyles didn't believe in sacrificing one for the sake of three. 'Cause I didn't want him to go.

  Victor spoke first. "Obviously, this morning's news changes our plans. I'd assumed that after Chaos, Courage and Force joined us, we would all disappear before MacKenzie's stepfather returned."

  Defiance nodded as he pulled his pale ponytail through his fist. "It wouldn't have been difficult to make it look like we'd been stolen."

  "If I understand correctly, MacKenzie's stepfather can't afford to send the others until he gets more money. And he can't get the money until we ship Valor." Victor pinned me with a questioning look.

  "That's right," I agreed faintly.

  "I'm torn," Valor admitted in a low voice.

  Victor lifted his hand to stop his younger cousin. "We understand," he said quietly. "You want to do what's right for the pack but you're worried about leaving MacKenzie without protection, especially now that there seems to be a harpy on the loose."

  "We'd be here to protect MacKenzie," Defiance pointed out smoothly.

  "That's not the same," Reason snorted, surprising me with his support. "Valor's instincts command him to stay here."

  Victor looked at the serious faces gathered around the table. "What are our options?"

  Valor cleared his throat and began. "We ship the crate to the millionaire with me inside. MacKenzie's stepfather gets the money and ships the others. When I arrive in Texas, I escape and make my way back here."

  "How would you get back?" Havoc asked. He looked first at Valor then at me.

  Valor shrugged. "I could fly…at night."

  Victor turned his face toward me. "How far is it to Texas?"

  "At least a thousand miles," I answered.

  "Too far," Reason cut in bluntly.

  "He could fly to a bus station and take a bus," I suggested tentatively. "We could send him with money in his pouch. But…"

  Victor lifted a golden eyebrow. "But, what?"

  "A rich collector might have a closed room without windows to protect his collection from fading in the sunlight."

  "Stone doesn't fade," Havoc pointed out.

  "He might have other things in his collection that would fade," I explained miserably.

  "If that happened, MacKenzie would have to drive us to Texas to break Valor out," Havoc declared. His green eyes burned with determination.

  The table fell silent. I knew what they were thinking. There were a lot of things that could go wrong.

  "The plan is too risky," Victor said slowly.

  Up until that point, Dare hadn't commented. Now he rubbed his fingers along the angle of his jaw and asked me, "What would happen if the Texas millionaire received the wrong statue?"

  "No," Valor cut in. He glared at his brother.

  "Let MacKenzie answer," Dare insisted in a quelling voice.

  "He'd probably send the statue back," I answered as a small kernel of hope took hold inside my chest. "And insist that the correct one be shipped to him."

  Dare looked at Victor. "It would buy us some time. Maybe enough time for the others to get here."

  Valor's gaze blazed on his brother. "And who would go in my place?" he demanded.

  Dare turned his palms upward on the table. "I'm the obvious choice," he stated. "I imagine the rest of you were advertised with your wings spread. I have no wings."

  "No way," Valor snarled. "You're not going to take my place."

  "Just hear me out," Dare insisted in a calm tone.

  But Valor wouldn't listen. His voice rose as he asked, "What if the buyer decides to keep you? If you had to escape, how would you get to a bus station?"

  "I could steal a car," Dare suggested. His eyes glinted as if he liked the idea.

  Valor turned his head and stared angrily out the dining room window.

  "Valor's right," Reason drawled. "Dare's plan is even riskier than his."

  Victor turned his attention to his brother and gave him a quiet look. "What do you suggest?"

  Reason laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "That I go instead of Valor."

  When Victor didn't say anything, Defiance took command. "Details," he barked.

  Reason smiled his trademark lazy smile. "You send me to Texas with some paper money, just in case I need to take a bus, but we'll assume the buyer will return me. By the time I get back here, the rest of the pack should have arrived. We stage our own theft and find a place to live nearby. MacKenzie's stepfather never figures out what happened to us."

  "The buyer will want his money back," Defiance pointed out. "He'll expect MacKenzie's stepfather to return the down payment."

  "We could probably help him out," Havoc said. "Though it might take a while."

  The gargoyles nodded as if they all knew what Havoc was talking about.

  "What?" I asked. "How can you help out my stepfather?"

  Dare narrowed his gold-flecked gaze on me. "We know of a few old harpy hoards…one of which is hidden at the back of a cave in Scotland."

  "If necessary, we could direct your stepfather to one of them," Havoc added.

  "Assuming it's still there," I pointed out in a pessimistic mutter.

  "There's a good chance it hasn't been disturbed," Dare murmured knowingly.

  Victor let out a long breath and pressed his lips together in a tight line of concern, but the look he gave his brother was proud. "Let's vote," he said. "Someone give MacKenzie a coin."

  A coin? I was stunned. I hadn't realized my membership in the pack gave me voting rights. On one hand, I felt honored. On the other hand, I wasn't sure I was ready for the responsibility. Even though I wanted to vote for Reason's plan, I felt as if I had this whole unfair conflict-of-interest thing going on. Obviously, I'd vote for any plan that would ensure Valor's safety. Equally obvious was the fact that I wasn't terribly concerned about Reason's well being. If I could have forfeited my vote and passed, I would have. But that wasn't an option. In the end, I took the cowardly way out and let chance decide. I flipped the coin.

  My vote came out in favor of Reason's plan. Valor and Dare voted against it but the results were five in favor and two against. Reason won the honor of traveling to Texas in a wooden packing crate.

  "I'd better get ready," Reason grunted, glancing down at his jeans as he stood. He headed for the stairs. "I need to get in the crate while the sun's still shining into the garage."

  I looked down at my powder blue pajama pants and realized I needed to get dressed too. So I hurried up the stairs behind Reason and turned off into my room where I pulled on a pair of black cigarette jeans, an orange tank top and a green, boat-neck pullover. As I dressed, I experienced a strange mixture of emotions. I was relieved Valor wasn't shipping out. I felt grateful to Reason for taking his place. And guilty for feeling so happy about the way things had turned out.

  I found it interesting that Reason hadn't suggested we count the votes of the three missing gargoyles. Depending on how the coins fell, it might have tied things up. I guess he didn't want to run the risk of that happening. Neither did I, so I didn't bring it up. Lost in thought, I stepped from my bedroom into the hall and almost ran into Reason who was dressed in his long wool shorts and looking like a Celtic warrior once more.

  As I rocked on my heels, he reached out and grabbed my upper arms to steady me.

  "Thanks," I said awkwardly as I looked up into the deep cornflower blue of his eyes. "Thanks for doing this a
nd taking Valor's place. I know you're only doing it for Valor and Dare and the pack but…I think it's very brave of you."

  "It's no big deal," he said. He gazed down his nose at me and took a step backward. "I'll be back soon."

  I nodded like one of those stupid bobbing-head toys.

  "But I didn't only do it for the pack," he drawled while watching me from beneath his eyelashes. "I did it for you, as well."

  I stopped nodding and stared up at him. "What do you mean?"

  "I was afraid Valor and I would come to blows over you."

  I tilted my head and considered him. "Because you dislike me so much?"

  "No, that's not the problem, Mac. I don't dislike you," he murmured with a cynical laugh. "Quite the opposite."

  Oh no. No. No. No. No. No. I wasn't going to let him get away with pulling that kind of stunt. Now that he was leaving, he was pretending he suddenly didn't hate me? That he liked me? That was so unfair. "What are you talking about?" I demanded as I crossed my arms over my chest and eyed him fiercely. "You've been nothing but nasty to me ever since you stepped out of that crate in my garage."

  "Have I?" he questioned as a lazy smile curved his lips.

  "Yes," I hissed in a whisper, not wanting the gargoyles downstairs to hear our conversation.

  "Because I insisted you needed to be watched?"

  I nodded without speaking.

  "Did it never occur to you that I wanted to make sure you were safe?"

  "You're so full of crap," I snapped.

  "And you're so lovely," he countered easily.

  I rolled my eyes and gritted my teeth while tightening my arms over my chest.

  "Did it not seem strange to you that I ran into you in the hall just now?"

  I had a snarky answer for that question. "To be honest, Reason, I think everything you do is strange."

  "Think about it," he insisted. "There's nothing wrong with my ears. I could hear you moving around in your room. I could hear you when you opened your door."

  I narrowed my gaze on him. "You ran into me on purpose?"

  He watched me through his eyelashes and nodded. "I wanted to touch you," he said with an unsettling hint of vulnerability.

  I have to admit I was rocked by his words. I wouldn't have thought Reason was capable of anything like vulnerability. But I wanted to make sure he knew where I stood. "Just in case you have any doubts, I want you to know that Valor is the only gargoyle I'm interested in."

  "I think that's part of your charm," he mused with another slow smile.

  "Why?" I shot back at him. "Because I'm not available?"

  "No," he answered. He tilted his head and gazed at me with cynical amusement glinting in his eyes. "Because you're so loyal."

  I just stared at him. I wasn't sure I believed the line he was trying to sell me but I was still shocked speechless.

  "Valor's a lucky gargoyle," he said as he stepped around me and sauntered toward the stairs. "In the meantime, I'm counting on you to protect the pack while I'm gone."

  "Me?" I exclaimed.

  "Don't underestimate your power as a witch," he murmured solemnly, without a trace of his usual sarcasm. "And don't hesitate to use that power if necessary."

  I stared at his back as he went down the stairs. I couldn't believe it. He'd been a total jerkoff ever since he'd arrived. Now that he was leaving, he decided to be nice and even noble? Why couldn't he just have stayed horrible and nasty? Then I would've been happy to see his backside shipped off to Texas.

  But now I was going to be miserable.

  As you can imagine, breakfast was a quiet, sober affair. And afterward, the pack filed out to the garage and stood around the crate to see Reason off. We were all in low spirits as Victor nailed the bottom panel on the crate that held his brother. We didn't bother with bubble wrap or anything else since a nuclear explosion wouldn't put a scratch on him. But it all seemed so morbid, like we were nailing Reason into his coffin.

  "Any last words of advice?" Reason asked as Victor stepped aside and reached for the top panel.

  "Yes," I spoke up when nobody else offered any suggestions. "Try to look unattractive. That way the buyer will be more likely to return you."

  He made a face at me.

  "That oughta work," I said, trying for humor though I was blinking back tears.

  "Fare thee well," Victor said simply, and the rest of the gargoyles repeated his parting words.

  "Fare thee well," Reason answered. And with the sun streaming through the garage doors, he spread his wings, turned his gaze slightly downward and turned to stone.

  Victor and Valor waited in the garage with me to meet the shipper. Together, we watched as the wooden crate was loaded up into the back of the van. Of course, I made sure I got a copy of the packing slip, which showed the tracking number as well as the address in Texas where Reason was headed. So we could drive to Texas and spring him if we had to. I hoped it didn't come to that, but I was prepared to do whatever was necessary.

  It was hard to believe that only a week had passed since the first crate had been delivered to my home. I couldn't believe how much everything had changed since then and how emotionally invested I was in the gargoyle pack that had become a part of my life. And as the shipping van headed down the driveway with Reason trapped inside its dark interior, I felt like I'd lost a member of my family.

  Because that's what the pack had become to me. My second family.

  Back inside the house, I made the phone call to Greg in England then looked around at the discouraged group of gargoyles. We were all so downhearted, I figured a writing lesson might be a distraction. I started the class in the dining room and handed out the notebooks. And while my students wrote out short sentences on the wide-ruled paper, I leafed through Reason's notebook.

  Even though I always checked their work after every lesson, I hadn't paid much attention to Reason's notebook. I was surprised by the neat printing that accompanied the wild doodles scrawled in the margins. I'd thought he hadn't been paying attention. It was clear from his work that the opposite was true.

  The guy was certainly an enigma.

  I noticed that one of the pages was folded back at the top corner so it could be found easily. When I opened the notebook to the marked page, I found a drawing…of myself. I closed the book with a sharp snap. Then turned quickly and put the book away on the shelf in the corner of the dining room.

  Valor watched me closely. "Are you alright?"

  "I'm fine," I answered with a brittle smile on my lips. But the image of the pencil portrait was etched into my memory. Reason had drawn me! Why? And why was the sketch so…flattering? One glance at the portrait told me Reason had real skill as an artist. Yet the portrait wasn't accurate. Because I wasn't that pretty.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself. Damn him forever! I decided I'd never forgive the arrogant gargoyle for being a nice guy after all.

  "What's wrong?" Valor asked after we'd gone upstairs to my bedroom at the end of the day.

  "Nothing," I answered. I shook my head and silently criticized myself for letting my feelings show so plainly.

  "Are you worried about Reason?"

  "Yes," I admitted after a pause that probably seemed awkward. I hoped Valor wouldn't mistake it for anything more than it was. I hoped he wouldn't think I'd suddenly fallen for his blond cousin. Because I hadn't. As I looked into Valor's eyes, I knew he was the only gargoyle for me.

  Valor pulled me carefully into his arms. "That's normal," he soothed. "We're all worried about him."

  I wanted to say it wasn't normal for me. But I didn't want him to know how not-a-nice person I really was.

  "You're a part of the pack now," he pointed out gently as if that explained anything.

  "I'm not bound by instinct the way you guys are," I muttered.

  He tucked his chin into his chest and looked down at me. "You're taking my venom now. That changes things."

  I had no idea what he meant or how taking his venom changed anythin
g. I was just feeling altogether dejected and not only because of the gargoyle we'd lost that morning. Tomorrow, Valor and the others would have to return to their crates before my mother came home. The prospect was depressing. I put my arms around his waist and held him tightly, needing his comfort and strength. Thankfully, he didn't push me away this time.

  He backed up and lowered himself into the chair then pulled me onto his lap. "Did you find the picture Reason drew of you?"

  Damn. Evidently, he'd noticed my reaction to the sketch in Reason's notebook. "You knew about the drawing?" I asked.

  Valor nodded and his lips moved against my temple. "He was pretty proud of it."

  I was surprised to learn the cynical blond had shared the portrait with the others. It seemed like everything Reason did surprised me. "He's a good artist," I started hesitantly.

  "He's always been able to draw," Valor said quietly. "He used to use bits of charcoal he'd saved from the fire."

  "But…it isn't a good likeness," I pointed out. "It doesn't look like me. It's way too flattering."

  He pulled his face away and held my gaze. His expression was puzzled. "You're wrong. It looks exactly like you."

  I made a wry face. "You're just saying that to be nice."

  "Nay," he argued right away. "It looks exactly like you and the rest of the pack agrees."

  "Then the rest of the pack is just being nice," I grumbled ungraciously.

  For several moments he regarded me quietly. "Let me put it this way," he finally said as he pulled my head against his shoulder. "That's the way you look to us."

  I wasn't convinced or anything. I definitely wasn't that good looking. But if Valor was telling the truth and that's the way I looked to the gargoyles, then I couldn't help but wonder how they saw Mim. If they could see her inner beauty, then that would make her the most gorgeous girl on the planet. The idea gave me a warm feeling and I fell asleep happier than I'd been all day.