The struggled with the knob then finally was able to open the door. She almost fell into the garage.
“Colleen. You can’t leave.”
She shook her head. She needed air. The garage door was still open and she found herself on the driveway. She looked up at the night sky. A shadow flew towards her. It snatched her by her clothing. She let out a scream then everything went black.
***
Up in Donal’s study, Sean straightened. He heard Colleen’s scream. It went through to his soul. The fairy he was supposed to protect was in trouble.
The flapping of wings sent his gaze out the window looking into darkness. “He’s got her.”
Donal frowned. “Why was she outside and how did that goblin get past my defenses?”
Sean was already out the window and onto the ledge. He lifted his head and scented Colleen. She wasn’t screaming so she must have passed out. He could only imagine what it would be like to be snatched from the ground and flown away. His wings unfurled and he took flight in the direction of her scent.
He couldn’t hide himself so he’d just have to live with whatever consequences there were for him to be flying over the suburbs. At least it was dark out. The goblin headed for the river. Where was he taking her?
“If you need help, let me know,” Donal said in Sean’s head.
Colleen was his responsibility. He was supposed to protect her and he’d failed. He’d tried to do this without violence and he hadn’t been successful. His brothers had been right. There was no negotiating with a goblin. His hubris might cost him Colleen.
He swooped over the city, the goblin not in his sights, but since his heart went with Collen he was acutely aware of where she was located. Would the goblin drop her in the river? Sean would have to get her from the water before he could face the goblin. What if he couldn’t convince her that she was a fairy?
Shoving the negative thoughts away, he flew on into the night. The lights of the city were still bright, but he finally spotted the goblin. He’d crossed the smaller river with the odd name. The goblin alighted on a stone structure with gargoyles on it.
The place looked like an old prison. What did this goblin have in mind? Sean landed on the top of one of the stone walls. It looked down into a courtyard. Colleen was on the ground. As far as he could tell through their connection, she was still alive. The goblin hovered over her.
Sean dove toward the enemy, but it vanished. He landed at the last minute right next to Colleen. The goblin wasn’t in sight, but Sean doubted he’d gone too far since his goal was to kill Colleen.
Why had Sean been so arrogant to think that the old ways, the ways of his ancestors, weren’t good enough? He’d always thought he was smarter and now Colleen was at his feet, just waking up.
Her expression was one of horror. He put up his hands. “I’m not the one who took you, Colleen. I’m Sean.”
She eyed him, but he’d bet she couldn’t make him out clearly in the darkness.
“Colleen. Luv, we need to talk.”
Chapter Twelve
Colleen, off balance and frightened, looked up at the shadow looming over her. The voice sounded familiar, but she didn’t know what to think. She was no longer in Meg’s back yard. She shook her head and the world tilted a little. She grabbed the grass near her.
“Colleen,” the figure said while crouching down in front of her. “It’s Sean.”
She blinked again. It was dark here and she could hear someone rustling around behind her. “Sean?”
“Yes. It’s Sean. We need to talk. Quickly.”
“Go ahead.”
It wasn’t as if she could go anywhere. She was still dizzy. He put his hands on her. “Colleen. I tried to tell you that you were a fairy.”
Something swooped over their heads and Sean covered her with his body. “What was that?”
“Focus for a second, Colleen. You’re a fairy. I’m a gargoyle.”
Meg had said the same thing. She couldn’t think of a reason they would all be playing a joke on her. The thing that had grabbed her didn’t seem like a prank either. “Meg said.”
“She was trying to tell you. I need you to know this, Colleen. Then we can deal with that thing overhead.”
A heavy thud sounded behind her.
“I need time to think.”
“There is no time, honey. The goblin is here.”
She heard a familiar laugh. “O’Shannon?”
“Yes. It’s your client. It’s why he asked for you. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
Sean hadn’t done anything wrong, but try to protect her. To tell her something she wasn’t sure she was ready to grasp.
“Because I stepped up his timeline by confronting him. I was arrogant and had assumed I could find another way out of this situation.”
She put her hands on his shoulders, her head clearing. She was always one to do what needed to be done. If that meant she had to believe she was a fairy then she could do that. The ramifications of her actions could wait. “What is the situation?”
“He is here to kill you. I’m here to protect you.”
Something screeched beside her and she jumped. She wanted to run, but Sean held her. “Don’t let go Colleen. We have to be together. He can destroy us if we are apart.”
“What do I do?”
“Keep holding my hand. Don’t watch, but I can destroy him. It won’t be pretty.”
She squeezed his arm. “Get him, Sean.” Then she held onto his arm with both hands.
A flash of fire came out of what she thought was his hand. The creature reared back a few feet in the air, but landed again. She closed her eyes. Go, Sean.
“Remember I said you could wish something bad once a year?”
“Yes.”
Donal had confessed he hadn’t thought of his tactic in the heat of the battle. “This is that time.”
She nodded then grunted so he knew she heard him. She wished with all of her might that the goblin would be destroyed. Another flash of light appeared and the goblin was aflame. He screeched in what had to be agony, then there was silence.
And the smell of burnt flesh hung in the air.
“Is it gone?” she squeaked out.
“It’s gone, Colleen.”
She let out a sigh.
Sean bent closer to her. “You can let go.”
“I don’t want to.”
He chuckled. “I’m in gargoyle form. Let me get out of it.”
She hadn’t even noticed the scales on him until that moment. She released his arm, but couldn’t see what was happening.
“Sean?” Donal said as he walked toward them from out of the darkness. “I brought a bag for the goblin.”
Sean moved away from her. “Donal will take care of the goblin corpse.”
“What will I tell my firm?” Colleen said.
“You know nothing about O’Shannon’s death. Besides, he has a lot of enemies. His body will be found washed up on the shore somewhere.”
Sean’s firm, human, hand took hers and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. She buried her face in his chest, her heart only just returning to normal. She’d need some time to process all of this. “I’ll take you home.”
“Flying?”
“No. Donal drove here. Meg’s waiting in the truck.”
“Take me home then.”
***
Colleen woke the next morning in her own bed. Alone. She remembered that day that she’d picked up Meg from her office. Now she understood it all.
“You’re awake.”
The smell of coffee wafted towards her as Sean strode into the room. He had a mug in his hand and a reticent look on his face. She sat up, pushing her pillows behind her. Sean handed her the drink. She patted the bed next to her.
“You sure?” he said.
She nodded. He sat.
“I need time to think about what happened last night, but knowing that Meg has wrapped her brain around all of this makes it easier.”
/>
“I wasn’t sure you’d want to see me again.”
“You saved my life, Sean.”
“We did it together. I couldn’t have done it without you. Seriously,” he said. “Our power is in being united against the enemy. Our combined magic brought down the goblin.
She stared into his eyes. She knew he was telling the truth. His word resonated with her. “Why? Why did O’Shannon want me dead?”
“Apparently your family wiped out most of his family several millennia ago. Goblins believe in complete revenge.”
“And that matters now why?” she said.
She sipped her coffee, watching him over her cup. He frowned then rubbed the back of his neck.
“I can’t explain it other than to say in my time, fairies and goblins were mortal enemies. Fairies made a treaty with gargoyles and tied us to you forever.”
“Is that why you couldn’t have done it if I wasn’t there?”
“Aye, lass. My family of gargoyles are part of an elite team. We were assigned to a specific fairy. Fairy royalty if you will.”
She laughed. “So I’m fairy royalty.”
He glanced down at his lap a tiny grin on his face. “Aye.”
“I don’t have wings?”
“No, lass. I can’t explain that other than you must have human blood in you also.”
“Or we humans no longer believe in magic,” she mused.
He nodded. “Aye.”
She took his hand in hers. “Still. You came to save me after I rejected you.”
“I swore a long time ago to protect you. I can’t go against my duty.”
She smiled at him. “Somehow I think it is a little more. We have a connection.”
He just stared at her, expressionless. Her heart fluttered. Did he feel it, too?
“I think I’m falling in love with you, Sean.”
“Aye, lass. I am with you, also.”
She leaned closer to him, her lips inches from his. “You aren’t going to leave me now that I’m safe, are you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, lass,” he said before bridging the distance between them.
The kiss melted her heart and she knew she was right where she wanted to be. This was her fate.
Forever.
Calling of a Gargoyle
Book Three
Prologue
In a time when fairies ruled the world and humans were an afterthought.
Declan Foley trudged after his two older brothers as they were about to receive their sentence.
They hadn’t done anything wrong, but their father had lain with a fairy and gotten her with child. He’d left her to deal with it alone. Donal, Declan’s oldest brother, had informed the Fairy Queen and since she couldn’t find their father to punish, she was going to punish them.
The other fairies hovered over the beach in Connamarra in what is now County Galway, Ireland. The waves crashed against the sand and rocks. Mist hung around them from the ocean. Declan wondered if these proceedings would bring the fairies joy. He doubted he’d relish this situation. He enjoyed them even less when with the stroke of her wand, the Fairy Queen turned them into stone and put them over the doorway of a stone structure that faced the ocean. Until such time as the fairy they were assigned to protect came along, they would remain there. At least he had his brothers with him.
Chapter One
Fiona Brady knocked then entered the house of newlyweds, Meg and Donal Foley. She sang out, “Hey.”
Meg had been her best friend since freshman year at Penn State.
“We’re in the kitchen,” Meg called.
Fiona followed the hallway to their large, modern kitchen. Meg and Donal stood behind the island while Colleen Connelly and her new boyfriend, Donal’s brother Sean, sat at the island. “The gang’s all here.”
Donal chuckled then exchanged a look at Meg before striding around the island. He enveloped Fiona in a big hug. “Nice to see you, Fi.”
He let Fiona go.
“Hey. Nice to see all of you.”
She noticed a stone statue on the island in the middle. “Souvenir from Ireland?”
Not being able to take her eyes off of it, she moved closer. It was cute in a grotesque way, drawing her to it.
“Yes,” was all Colleen said about it. “How’s your job?”
Fiona shook her head. She didn’t want to think about how she made money as an artist’s assistant for the up-and-coming Damien. What she really did was paint his last three masterpieces without getting credit for it. He’d called her his muse and then dumped her when a younger prettier muse came along. She’d been warned, but she’d believed the person giving the warning had been bitter.
“The same.”
Paint was only one of her media, but it was the only one that interested her boss. Her creative spirit yearned to break free and do more sculpting, but she’d signed a contract saying she wouldn’t produce any other art while employed there.
“I’m sorry, Fiona. When is your contract up?” Colleen asked. “I can look at it and try to get you out of it.”
Colleen was a lawyer who had just left a high-powered law firm to open her own. Fiona waved her hand. “No worries. My time is up early next year. I can suck it up until then.”
The statue was of a gargoyle from what she could tell. It stood only a foot tall. She’d always been fascinated by them in architecture. She’d never had a chance to examine one up close. Her hand traced the lines of the snarling mouth. Donal and Sean exchanged a glance, but they did that often so Fiona didn’t question it.
“You like that thing?” Meg said.
“Meg?” Donal said, but Fiona ignored the exchange.
Her mind was already working on a project that would remind her of the gargoyle.
“Oh. No. Fi’s brain is creating something,” Colleen said.
The three women had known each other since college so Fiona wasn’t surprised that Colleen said that about her. She was creating something. Shading the eyes, elongating the fangs while making the wings longer. “It would work as a fountain. A series of gargoyles climbing up the side of a building or a tower.”
She could see it clearly in her mind. The water would fall over them as they reached for the sky. There would be three of them, all attempting to beat the other two to the top. Her hand stroked the head of the creature as the blurry vision materialized in her mind.
When she finally shook herself from her musings, the four of them were staring at her. “What?”
“Welcome back,” Meg said. “Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“No. I might have to go into work tonight,” Fi said, shifting onto a stool next to Sean.
“Tonight?” Sean said. “Don’t you get time off?”
“Damien has a large showing coming up and he’s not completely satisfied with one of the paintings I did.”
“Would anyone who purchased his work be upset if they knew he didn’t actually create them?” Meg said.
Fiona shrugged. “It’s done all the time in the art world and a lot of buyers know this. He isn’t doing anything wrong per say. Think of it like a ghostwriter, but for art.”
Fiona wouldn’t have chosen this as her job, but Damien had been the only person to offer her a job when she’d chucked her corporate gig for the life of an artist. She studied art in college, but she’d been too worried about getting a job afterward. Growing up an orphan she hadn’t had anyone to rely on. No family was there to catch her if she fell, other than Meg and Colleen and they were getting more involved in their relationships and causes. Fiona ended up feeling like a third wheel. At least they hadn’t started to invite men over to fix her up with.
But popular artist Damien took her in when she decided to actually pursue her art.
She had enough of men because of Damien. Even when they’d been lovers, he’d taken advantage of her skills. As she improved he berated her more often. Despite his last three paintings resulting in a bidding war, the last three that she painted, he s
till didn’t give her any credit.
Romance could wait until she was more established in the art world. That might take years, but she could wait that long.
“What is up with everyone else?” She turned to Colleen. “How was Ireland, the second time?”
Colleen glanced at Sean then back to Fiona. She held out her hand. “Sean asked me to marry him.”
Fiona stared at the beautiful ring on her friend’s finger. “That is so amazing.” She hugged Colleen. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Fiona could be happy for her friends and still not want that for herself. “Have you set a date?”
“Not yet. We’re still deciding where,” Colleen said. “Since I was Meg’s maid of honor, would you be mine? I’ll let you pick your dress. I get to pick the color.”
Fiona bit her lip. “Of course.”
She mentally calculated what was in her bank account. If she ate ramen for the next month she could afford the dress. Colleen put a hand on her arm. “I’m not letting you pay for the dress.”
“I can’t let you do that, Colleen.”
Her friend shook her head. “Unless you are in a better job when the time comes, I am paying for it. You are doing me a favor by being my maid of honor.”
Fiona hated that she was poor, but she’d let herself be locked into this contract. “Thank you.”
Her phone chose that moment to ring. “Hello?”
“I need you in the studio. Tonight. I’ve left you notes,” Damien said then hung up.
Fiona’s eyes fell closed. Of course, he would need her on a Saturday night. She tucked her phone back into her purse. “I have to go to work. In a few hours.”
“Oh, Fi,” Meg said. “
“I know. I won’t stay too late.” Fiona stared at the statue still transfixed. “May I take this as my muse?”
Meg and Donal exchanged a look. “I guess.”
“Thanks.” She snatched up the statue then tucked it into her oversized bag. “I’ll bring it back at some point.”
Out of defiance, she wouldn’t run out of the house to do Damien’s bidding. It could wait until tomorrow.
***
Fiona unlocked the studio where Damien and his assistants did their work. Damien was probably off on a date or something and Fiona would have the place to herself. She was okay with that. Setting her bag down on the floor, she flipped on all of the lights.
When Garogyles Love Trilogy Page 15
