"He was captured by a harpy," Victor explained in a low voice. "She stripped the leather from his wings so he couldn't fly. So he couldn't escape from her aerie."
"What's a harpy?" she immediately asked.
Victor frowned, searching for words. I knew how he felt. It was hard to describe a harpy without using some pretty ugly terms. Finally he said, "A huge, hideous…flying rock pile."
Mim's eyes narrowed further and fury blazed in their amethyst depths. "You couldn't help him?" she demanded while the blond gargoyle took a step away from her.
"We couldn't find him," Victor countered swiftly. "The harpy flew to Scotland and took him with her. We did everything we could," he insisted, and looked to me for help.
"There was nothing they could do," I confirmed softly, feeling a strange surge of warmth at the way she was tearing into Victor for my sake.
"At one time, Dare was the fastest creature on wings," Victor volunteered, his words obviously intended as a peace offering to Mim.
I pulled my hoodie back up over my head. "And now I can't even get off the ground," I muttered.
The next thing I knew, Mim was tight against me, her arms wrapped around my waist, her dark tumble of hair pressed against my chest. I looked down at her with my arms held stiffly out at my sides. Slowly, I lifted my gaze and gave Victor a what-do-I-do-now look.
Victor rolled his eyes as if to say, "If you don't know, I can't help you". Then he spread his wings and took off, leaving me to make sure Mim got back to the house safely. For several seconds, I gazed down at Mim's head. Eventually, I did exactly what I wanted to do. I folded my arms around her and hugged her back.
A slippery layer of ice covered the rocks beneath our feet as we navigated carefully away from the cliffs. Mim's small hand seemed to fit perfectly into the hollow of my palm as I led her though the woods and back toward MacKenzie's place. Hooligan galloped ahead then stopped and looked back, waiting for us to catch up.
"You haven't told me what you are yet," she pointed out softly.
"We're gargoyles," I answered.
"Gargoyles!" she exclaimed, and checked my face.
"Not what you expected?" I asked on a low rumble of laughter.
She shook her head and the silvery tone of her amusement rang through the pine forest. "You don't look like any gargoyle I've ever seen."
"That's because what you've seen are harpies. Or stone carvings of harpies. They're ugly."
"Yes," she agreed. "They're ugly."
As we made our way back to the house, I told her how the harpy race had come to be known as gargoyles. She seemed to have a hard time adjusting to the idea. She kept looking up at me as if she was struggling to take her previous ideas about gargoyles and make them work with the image of my face.
Still holding hands, we broke out of the trees that surround the house and could see the green Jeep inside the garage; MacKenzie and the others were back from town. Once Mac understood that Mim had seen Victor's wings, she whisked her best friend up to her room for some girl talk.
"I have so much to tell you," she breathed out in a happy sigh as they hurried up the stairs together, Mim still wearing her coat and boots.
Although MacKenzie's bedroom door was closed and the girls kept their voices low, we were able to follow most of their conversation from the living room. Mac explained how harpies had imprisoned us eight hundred years earlier and how we were stuck between two walls until a few months ago.
"But how did they live without food or water?" Mim asked.
"Oh," MacKenzie answered lightly. "When they're in their stone forms, they don't need to eat or drink."
I could tell that Mim wanted to know more about the stone-form-business but she could hardly get a word in edgewise as MacKenzie raced on, obviously intent on describing her encounter with the harpy and making sure that Mim knew the pack had nothing to do with her injuries. The entire story of her ordeal poured out of her in a long torrent. And when she was done restoring our honor, MacKenzie told Mim a little about her newfound magic powers.
At that point, Mim must have had a million questions. "But how did you find Valor after the harpy flew off with him?" she asked when MacKenzie finally took a breath.
"I scryed his location," Mac explained happily, leaving out the bit about the app on her phone.
"Really?" Mim murmured, her voice filled with wonder. "How? Show me!"
"I can't," MacKenzie admitted. "I can't just turn my powers on and off like my cell phone."
Downstairs, most of us snickered at Mac's comparison.
"The situation has to be dire," she added.
"Dire?" Mim questioned, as if the word was unfamiliar to her.
"Yes, dire. And I don't mean dire like you can't find a prom dress. I mean dire like somebody's life is on the line. Like somebody's gonna bite it if my magic powers don't kick in."
Mac wasn't exaggerating. She hadn't been able to locate the missing shipment of gargoyles, even after her powers had kicked in and allowed her to find Valor. Several times a week, she still got her phone out and tried to scry for Chaos, Force and Courage but the travel app had remained stubbornly silent.
I rubbed my arms and realized I was still cold. In fact, I was chilled to the bone. Removing my hoodie in twenty-degree temperatures hadn't been my smartest move ever. I headed down to the family room and started a small blaze in the fireplace.
It wasn't long before Victor and Havoc joined me. Victor took up his vigil in the chair beside Reason while Havoc showed off a hat he'd found at the grocery store. It was red plaid with long earflaps that he thought were particularly attractive. It should have looked ridiculous on any living creature but this is Havoc we're talking about. He took ridiculous and turned it into a fashion statement. Besides, his new hat matched the "lumberjack" coat he'd bought earlier. Now he had what he proudly called an ensemble.
I had a nice little fire going when the girls finally returned downstairs and called us together. "You guys need to hear this," MacKenzie announced from the entry. It was hard to miss the high note of excitement in her voice.
I closed the glass doors on the fireplace and followed the others up the three low stairs and through the kitchen. When we reached the living room, Valor and Defiance were waiting to hear what the girls had to say.
"Hear what?" Havoc asked as he joined Defiance and Valor on the leather couch. I balanced myself beside him on the couch's wide arm while Victor took the chair.
MacKenzie's gaze swung to Mim as if telling her to go ahead.
Mim started hesitantly. "The reason I came over here today was to tell MacKenzie about this nightmare I've been having."
"Yes…" Victor prompted her.
She looked at MacKenzie who nodded her head encouragingly. "In the dream, I'm in the water. Up above me there's a layer of intense blue. But it's not the right color to be the sky. It's too dark and too…turquoise. There's a long slit in the blue layer. A ray of bright sunshine knifes through the slit and glints on the surface of the water." Mim took a deep breath and continued. "In my dream, I'm struggling toward the light and trying to reach the water's surface but when I finally get there, I can't get through the narrow slit."
I crossed my arms over my chest and regarded her critically. "What does all this have to do with us?"
"Just listen," MacKenzie hushed me.
"Because," Mim explained as she held my gaze. "The reason I can't get through the slit is because my wings are open and they won't fit through the narrow hole."
The room went dead silent as we all stared at Mim.
"I had no idea what the dream meant," she explained. "But now that I know about your wings, I think it might have something to do with one of you."
"Don't you see?" MacKenzie cut in quietly, her voice tight with emotion. "Mim's dream is about Reason. And in her dream, he's in the water."
Chapter Five
"Why would Mim dream about Reason?" I questioned, even though MacKenzie's take on Mim's dream didn't seem entirely out-there. It explai
ned the weird way Reason's hair swirled around his head. And the way his clothing billowed in places but clung to his frame elsewhere.
Not too concerned about the details, MacKenzie shrugged. "Maybe it has something to do with Mim's gypsy blood."
I shared a look with the rest of the pack. Like me, they probably understood why Mac had come to the conclusion that Reason was in the water when he made the change to stone. It made sense.
Except for one thing.
"In the water?" Victor murmured doubtfully and leaned forward in the chair. "But that doesn't make sense. Rees wouldn't have opened his wings in the water. They'd only get in the way."
"Maybe they were already open when he went into the water," MacKenzie suggested, clearly convinced she was on the right track.
Victor's brow furrowed. "He went into the water with his wings open? That doesn't make sense either."
Valor cleared his throat. "Unless he was in his stone form when he went in."
Havoc nodded thoughtfully. "He could have fallen in or he could even have been pushed in."
Victor rubbed a hand over his mouth as he considered this idea. "But what's all that about the blue layer and the slit?" he eventually questioned as he shifted his gaze back to Mim.
Mim shook her head. "I don't know. There's just a layer of intense blue overhead and there's a slit in it where the bright light spears through."
"Is there anything more?" Victor demanded. "Anything else in your dream?"
"Yes." Mim clasped her hands tightly and continued. "I start sinking again and I reach with my foot for the bottom to push off one last time. I can't breathe but I'm thinking if I can just get to the sunlight again, I can still change. I can still change."
"And that's all?" Victor asked, his face suddenly pale against the dark backdrop of the leather chair.
"That's all," Mim confirmed and dropped her arms to her sides. "But I don't know what it means. My last desperate thought is that I can still change. Change to what?"
Victor rose slowly to his feet. "Come," he said quietly, and led Mim down to the family room. Sliding his hand along the wall, he switched on the overhead light. The soft glow spilled down on the wicker sofa.
Mim gasped when she saw Reason in his stone form. "Is it…"
Victor nodded. "It's my brother."
"But you told me and Whitney that Reason went back to England," she exclaimed as her gaze shifted between Victor and the sofa. She shrugged out of her coat in the warm room then looked around for a place to put it.
I took it from her and folded it over the back of the sofa, my eyes snagging on the fit of her white knitted top and her gray skinny jeans. It required a conscious effort to get my gaze turned around again, but somehow I managed to steer it back toward Reason.
"He wasn't in England. He was in Texas," MacKenzie muttered. She backed up and sat down on the window seat. Valor joined her while Defiance and Victor each took a wicker chair.
"But he's solid stone. Is it really him or just a…"
"Just a statue?" Victor finished her sentence for her. "Just a sculpture? Nay, it's my brother in his stone form."
Bewildered, Mim turned her gaze to me.
I took a seat on the tiled hearth and explained. "We can turn to stone as long as a ray of direct sunlight can reach us. We need the extra boost of power the sun provides to make the change."
"The change?" she echoed as she joined me on the hearth. "That's the change I dreamed about?"
I lifted my chin in answer. "Rees was trying to reach the sun one last time so he could change to stone."
"Well," Havoc pointed out quietly as he rolled the office chair from behind the computer desk and straddled it. "The good news is that he succeeded."
Defiance nodded soberly. "Reason must have been drowning. Only by turning to stone was he able to…escape death."
"But that means he might die the minute he changes back to flesh and blood," Havoc ventured uneasily, crossing his arms and resting them on the top of the chair.
"If he can even make the change," Defiance added darkly. "If his lungs are filled with water, it might be too late to save him."
"Not necessarily," MacKenzie murmured.
Victor sent a questioning look in her direction.
"Are you talking about CPR?" I asked. We'd heard about CPR, of course, and knew there were ways to bring people back to life when all seemed lost.
MacKenzie nodded. "We could drive him to a doctor's office, or a hospital, then expose him to the sun just before we take him inside. The doctors and nurses would be able to help him if he needed it."
"And that would work just great if he wasn't a gargoyle," Defiance pointed out dryly.
"Those wings would be hard to explain," Havoc agreed.
"Sorry," MacKenzie said. Her face flushed with embarrassment. "For a minute I forgot. You guys just seen so normal to me now."
"That's okay," Victor assured her softly, and pushed a hand back through his tangled hair.
"Well," MacKenzie offered slowly. "I have another idea but I don't know if you're gonna like it."
Valor tugged her close and gave her a supportive smile. "At this point, we're ready to consider anything, Kenz."
"Whitney's a licensed lifeguard," Mac told us. "She's taken CPR classes and would know how to help a drowning victim."
"No!" Defiance barked, startling most of us. As everyone turned to stare at him, he lifted his chin to a stubborn angle. "No," he repeated. "I don't want anyone else to know about us."
Defiance's reaction didn't exactly take me by surprise. After all, he'd voted against MacKenzie joining the pack and against letting Mim know about us. We all knew he had trust issues where humans were concerned but I'd thought that if there was one human he'd be willing to accept, it would be Whitney.
"Any particular reason?" MacKenzie asked carefully, probably wondering if he regretted letting her into the pack. But that didn't seem to be the problem.
"I just want to fit in," he muttered as his gaze flicked away from her. "I want people to consider me normal. I don't want them to think I'm…"
"Think you're what?" Havoc prodded him curiously.
"Different," he grumbled.
That wasn't enough for Havoc. "What do you mean by different?"
Defiance's answer was sharp. "I don't want to be a freak, okay? I know it doesn't bother you, Havoc. You were born for the job. But it bothers me."
Havoc blinked and shared a quick look with Valor and me. "Born for the job? I think I should be insulted," he snickered without animosity. But it took a lot to insult Havoc.
"So you don't want to be a gargoyle anymore?" I questioned Defiance skeptically and maybe even a little bitterly. "You don't want to fly?"
At last, my cousin seemed to realize what he was saying. A wash of color crept across the high arc of his cheekbones. "I want to fly," he admitted in a soft growl. "I just don't want anyone to know about it. I don't see any reason to talk about it before Whitney gets back from skiing," he persisted stubbornly. "Or before the sun comes out. We can't wake Reason until then, anyhow."
Mim's gaze lifted toward the closed blinds on the bay windows. "If you don't want to involve Whitney, you guys might want to consider taking a first aid course," she suggested. "They have classes at the rec center and they cover CPR as well as artificial respiration. In fact, there's a class Wednesday night. Registration is closed but I could ask the instructor if he has room to squeeze in few more students."
"You know the instructor?" I questioned her, surprised by this news and wondering what it meant. I hoped she wasn't too cozy with this instructor guy.
"Mim works at the rec center," MacKenzie explained.
"Just part time, a few days a week," Mim added shyly. "Usually after school. But sometimes on weekends and holidays too. I work in the daycare center."
Daycare sounded good. Much better than cozy.
Victor narrowed his thoughtful gaze on Mim. "See what you can do to get us in, m'dear. We'd be grateful."<
br />
As we fell into a thoughtful silence, a rumbling growl rose above the quiet crackle of the fire. We all looked at Hooligan.
"I think that was me," Havoc confessed, and rubbed his stomach. "Is anyone else as hungry as I am?"
Hooligan barked in answer.
"Anyone besides Hooligan," he added with a laugh.
"I'll fill Hooli's food bowl," Valor offered then looked at MacKenzie. "Should we order pizza?"
Havoc rolled the chair out from under his legs and turned a dark scowl on Valor. "Don't you dare order takeout. I have pepper steak marinating in the fridge."
"Pepper steak?" MacKenzie exclaimed like it was a big deal. "Where did you learn how to make pepper steak?"
"The cooking channel," he answered. He slid a haughty grin in her direction as he strolled toward the kitchen with his hands in his pockets.
The rest of the pack stood and stretched and followed Havoc up the stairs. When everyone else had wandered off, I found myself alone with Mim. Well, alone except for Reason but he was facing the windows. We were sitting on the hearth with only the width of the fireplace separating us.
The fire I'd built had died down to a pile of glowing embers so I opened the doors and threw a few sticks on the coals. I thought I might feel uneasy, alone with Mim. But she started the conversation before I got a chance to feel awkward.
"I've been wanting to ask about the symbol on your neck," she ventured in a shy voice. "I noticed that each of you has a tattoo…but none of them are the same."
I fingered the blue design on my throat. "It's a rune. And they're all different because our names are different."
"So the runes are words?" she asked. "And the rune on your neck means Dare?"
"That's right," I affirmed, and flicked my hair out of my eyes. "Our mothers named us and our fathers marked us when we came of age."
She tilted her head and her face took on a thoughtful expression as she gazed at my throat. "Is that a wing?" she asked hesitantly.
I decided to help her out. "That's right," I answered. I pointed to the top half of the rune. "And these are flames."
"Ah," she murmured. "So it's a wing on fire. And that means Dare?"
The Greystone Bundle (Books 1-4) Page 25
