The first aid instructor pretty much confirmed what Whitney had told us. During a drowning rescue, a lot of things can go wrong. A rescuer's best course of action is to give the victim CPR and keep the blood pumping to the brain until the ambulance arrives. But the instructor also discussed what happens to you when you're drowning. He explained how, initially, the throat locks up and prevents water from entering the lungs and stomach. Evidently, that doesn't happen until a while after death. And since Reason must have been alive when he made the change to stone, that meant there was a good chance his lungs were clear and his stomach empty.
It was definitely a good-news, bad-news scenario. And after I'd said goodbye to Mim in the parking lot, we discussed the risks on the way home. But it was Victor's decision to make and, in the end, he decided to go with Hooligan's intuition. Right from the start, the wolfhound had thought we should try to wake Reason. Maybe his instincts told him that Reason was okay.
Frustratingly, the sun didn't make an appearance the next morning. MacKenzie tuned into the weather channel and tried to explain what the swaths of color meant that were moving over the television screen. According to her—and the weatherman—a lot of cloud cover was headed our way again.
Frankly, the weather channel seemed like magic to us. The idea that a machine was floating up in the sky and looking down at the earth while sending pictures to the television was difficult for us to grasp. And I couldn't help but think how useful the information would have been to the men who worked the land around York eight hundred years ago.
"When can you leave for Limon?" Victor asked as Havoc grabbed the remote and changed channels.
"I'm not sure," I answered. To be honest, I'd forgotten about my offer to go to Limon. I'd thought Reason would be awake by now and we'd all go together. "I'll borrow Valor's phone and give Mim a call."
Mim was working at the rec center again but she got off at two. She told me she could probably get the car, although her mom would expect her home by ten or eleven. It was two hours out to Limon and two hours back. So that would give us an hour or two for a search before it got real dark, and plenty of time to get home before her mom's deadline. Normally, we wouldn't fly before twilight at all but from what we'd seen of Limon, it was wide-open skies with a lot of empty fields below. I figured we'd be safe enough, especially if I stayed high in the air. "Can you pick me up at MacKenzie's after work?" I asked.
As I handed the phone back to Valor, Victor called a pack meeting to discuss my trip. MacKenzie wasn't any happier about the risks involved in this mission than she was when Victor made his lone flight. She wanted all of us to go in two vehicles—Mim's car to take me to Limon and her Jeep to take the rest of the pack to a location ten miles outside of town…just in case we needed help.
As MacKenzie argued, I rubbed at a vein that pulsed heavily in my temple. How could I make her understand? How could I make the pack understand? I wanted to do this alone. I needed to do this alone.
Luckily, Victor seemed to be on the same wavelength. "I don't think Reason needs backup," he chuckled and narrowed his gaze on MacKenzie. "You've gotten way protective lately."
"It's the venom in her bloodstream," Valor murmured as he gazed at MacKenzie, his blue eyes warm with pride. Since she was wearing his rune, it meant she had a trace of gargoyle venom in her blood.
"I don't know about that," she murmured as she got caught in Valor's gaze. Her eyes softened. "But you guys are like family to me. Every time I think about you moving out…" She let her voice trail away but we could tell that she wasn't happy about the idea of us leaving her home. I know Val felt the same way.
"One more thing," Victor mentioned before we wrapped up the meeting. "If Mim's going to be involved in this mission…" his voice trailed away as he watched my face.
"We should admit her into the pack," I finished for him.
He was right and I was glad that he'd brought it up. It wouldn't be right to ask Mim to take risks for us without belonging to our family. So we took a vote. And this time the decision was unanimous. Mim was a part of the Greystone pack.
We left Pine Grove a little after two. Mim looked adorable bundled up in her navy blue coat and knitted hat. She appeared to be thrilled when I told her about the vote on the way to Limon. I was glad she seemed happy to be a part of my family.
The drive east went by way too fast. It was great to be alone with Mim and not have to worry about the pack overhearing my every word. Not that I said anything all that earth shattering. But it was nice to be able to relax with her.
Her cell phone was in her backpack and we could call the others if we ran into any trouble. 'Course they'd be eighty miles away so I didn't know how much help they'd be if we needed them. But I liked the feeling of on-our-owness and left-to-our-own resources. One way or another, I was sure we'd manage just fine.
When I asked if her mother was still looking for a renter, she nodded. We talked about how that might work out for the pack. We agreed that the three bedrooms downstairs would suit us pretty well, at least until we caught up with Chaos and the others. But Mim seemed excited about the idea of us moving in. And I knew that MacKenzie would totally approve, so I planned to talk it over with the guys when we got back to Pine Grove.
It was four o'clock when we reached Limon. We drove through town and out past the crash site then got off the highway at the next exit. Mim turned the car north and traveled about a mile before pulling off on the side of the road. The gently rolling landscape was empty except for a farm about half a mile to the east, situated on a straight country road lined with trees. A tall red barn towered over the smaller buildings that were gathered around it and I wondered briefly if the waitress from the restaurant lived nearby.
The wind had picked up and it was bitterly cold outside the car. I wasn't too anxious to get out there in it. Mim had brought along a tattered black hoodie she'd found in her garage; something one of her mother's boyfriend's had left behind. I took out my blade and made two long slits in the back of it for my wings to fit through.
"Ready?" I asked as I slipped out of my coat and T-shirt.
"Ready," Mim answered.
We spilled out of the car in a hurry. Mim dashed around to the passenger side while I opened my wings. Then she helped me get my wings through the slits in the hoodie. Swiftly, I zipped up the knitted jacket and pulled the hood over my head. I turned to face her.
"Brrr," I laughed while she grinned up at me.
Her cheeks were pink from the cold and she was just the cutest damn thing I'd ever seen. I leaned toward her, meaning to steal a quick kiss, but she cut me short when she pulled a pair of leather gloves from her pockets and pushed them into my chest.
"You've thought of everything," I murmured as I stretched the gloves over my hands and took a step toward her. She backed up but didn't have room to run; the car was behind her. I curled my wings around her and caged her inside the web of Tyvek.
Pressing against her, I threaded my gloved fingers through the thick mass of her hair. As I brushed my thumb across her cheek, I leaned toward her again. This time she didn't fight the connection pulling us together. She tilted her mouth up to me and I took her lips.
The first few seconds were pure heaven. For the next several seconds, I ignored the growing ache in my hackles as I moved my mouth over hers. But eventually, the pain was excruciating, especially in my right hand. I broke the kiss but kept my gaze locked on her face while I pushed my fist into my palm, trying to ease the sharp throb beneath my knuckles.
"Stay in the car," I warned her and she bobbed her head in answer. "I'll be back soon."
I took off and headed west toward the crash site. Hovering over the black scar on the earth beneath me, I checked for any sign the guys might have left—like an arrow scratched into the nearby fields, or stones aligned in the same shape. When I found nothing close to the crash site, I turned north and started to search in ever-widening circles.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, I was about a half m
ile south of the crash site and had found no sign of my missing cousins. By that time, I was wondering why my right hand and arm were so cold when my left side was perfectly warm. I hovered in the air again and inspected my sleeve. There were no holes in the hoodie but the black fabric appeared to be wet. The glove on my right hand was wet too and, after closer inspection, I found two ragged holes in the leather over my knuckles. I pulled off the gloves and stuffed them in my pocket then reached to feel my sleeve with my bare fingers.
As I turned my wrist in the twilight, I noticed a line of color streaking down the side of my hand. I stared at the blue and red ribbon, not understanding what it meant. I made a fist and peered at the old scars on my knuckles for several seconds before my brain registered what had happened. The broken edges of my barbs had cut through my hackles beneath my first two fingers.
I had barbs.
They were ragged and stubby but they were barbs. The red ribbon of color was the blood from where the barbs had cut through my flesh. The wet blue line was the venom streaming down to my wrist.
My first reaction was one of shock. Then I experienced a short moment of elation before that feeling was replaced with horror. I realized that my barbs had probably started bleeding while I was kissing Mim. And if my barbs had sliced through my gloves while I had my hand in her hair, then some of my venom might have ended up on her coat or in her hair.
I wheeled in the sky and shot back toward the car and Mim. We had to get out of there before any harpies picked up the scent of my venom. Beating the air as hard as I could, I pushed my Tyvek wings for all the speed they could deliver.
I sped north above the deserted road. Up ahead, I could see the car in the deepening twilight. Thankfully, there was no sign of harpies. Still I poured on the speed, wanting to make sure Mim was safely closed inside her mother's old car. At the last possible moment, I angled my wings for landing, hung in the air then dropped to my feet beside the car. Wasting no time, I grabbed the handle to open the door and pull Mim into my arms.
But the car was empty.
Mim was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
"No!" I shouted as I wheeled back into the air. I spun in a tight circle as I checked the ground and then the sky. But there was no sign of Mim.
"Think," I commanded myself. "Think, man. She can't be far."
Returning to the ground, I checked the car again—the back seat where she'd thrown her backpack and the floor where her knitted hat had fallen. The keys were still in the ignition so I yanked them out and checked the trunk, just to be sure. I even looked underneath the old vehicle, though I didn't expect to find anything there and I sure as hell didn't want to find anything there.
Mim was gone. Abducted by a harpy. Of course, the monster didn't really want her. She wanted me. Mim was just bait. I was supposed to follow them. The harpy wouldn't try to kill Mim before she got what she wanted, but she might try to hurt her and that meant I had to act quickly.
Despite their huge heads, Harpies aren't known for their brains, and there was always a chance that this one might kill Mim by accident. My mind shot back to the time Grotchka came home drunk one winter night after getting into a pit of fermented apples. She beat the crap out of me. She probably just thought she was slapping me around a bit but she almost broke my head open.
"Think," I growled as I searched the horizon. Only the nearby farm stood out as a destination. The harpy would naturally search out the highest location so that she could watch for enemies as well as hunt for food and keep her eye out for her next victim. The highest point in the vicinity was the tall barn that stood out against the eastern horizon.
I set my sights on the high structure. Climbing a few hundred feet, I tilted my wings and glided silently toward the farm. If a harpy was in the barn, I didn't want her to hear me coming. Normally, it would be damn hard to sneak up on one of the monsters because she'd scent me long before she heard me. But if my venom had spilled on Mim's coat, that's all she'd be able to smell. She wouldn't scent my approach.
The barn's roof rose to a round peak and there was nowhere to land except on the ridged roofline. I managed to get my feet down without a sound. Swiftly, I crouched and listened for any sign of life, hoping that my gamble would pay off and I hadn't wasted my time traveling a half-mile in the wrong direction.
I thanked modern science for the soft-soled sneakers on my feet. They allowed me to tiptoe silently toward the far end of the barn where the hayloft door stood slightly ajar. I froze when I heard the rough, scraping sound of a harpy's croak. "He'll come for you," she said.
Mim's voice was steady as she asked, "Who?"
"The one with the paper wings."
"Dare?" Mim murmured. "Why would he come for me?"
"Because he loves you," the hag cackled.
Mim sighed, the soft sound echoing in the barn's high rafters. "That's ridiculous."
"Not ridiculous," the harpy insisted, clearly insulted. But it wasn't hard to insult a harpy. They're insanely touchy creatures.
"Dare's beautiful," Mim muttered cynically. "What would he see in a girl like me?"
"Stupid girl," the harpy shrilled. "A gargoyle loves what is inside. He'll come. His barbs bleed for you. He wants you."
What I wanted was to crash in through the loft door and get between Mim and the harpy as soon as possible. But it wouldn't do Mim any good if I were captured, so I forced myself to make a plan. I had two knives. One on my belt and one hidden in the pocket on my spine. I could use the knives if I had to. But I didn't plan to fight the harpy unless I had no other choice. I had only one goal—to make sure Mim got out of there alive and unharmed.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Mim challenged her captor. "Dare doesn't have any barbs."
"Liar," the monster snarled. "Must have barbs. Venom is on your coat."
"That's not possible," Mim argued hotly. "Dare destroyed his barbs years ago."
Again the witch laughed evilly. "Barbs must have grown back. For you. Grew back for you but helped me to find him."
"You're crazy," Mim retorted. "You don't know anything."
"Don't I?" she crowed malevolently. "Nitschka knows. She knows why the barbs bleed. They bleed when the gargoyle loves a girl and wants to mark her."
"Mark her?" Mim questioned after a cautious pause. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Stupid, stupid girl. The gargoyle wants to mark you with his rune. Wants you forever."
"What do you mean…forever?" she asked hesitantly, while I silently cursed myself for not telling her more about gargoyle courting habits.
"He didn't tell you?" the harpy cawed.
Mim answered with silence.
"When a gargoyle gives the female his rune, he's bound to stay with her. Bound by nature. By instinct. He's meant to mark the girl he loves but sometimes it doesn't work that way. Sometimes the harpy gets lucky. Your gargoyle will stay with me, even though he hates me."
"He'll never do that," Mim yelled.
Again the hag laughed. "He'll come for you because he loves you. He'll do anything to keep you safe. He'll do anything if Nitschka promises to let you go. He'll even give me his rune if I threaten to hurt you. Then he'll be mine, forever."
"No!" Mim screamed.
The sound of Mim's anguish ripped at my heart. It was time to act. I spread my wings and dropped through the hayloft door. A little moonlight slanted in through the opening and my winged silhouette cast a long shadow on the floor.
From where I stood, the loft ran half the barn's length. The shadowed space was about two-thirds empty, leaving enough room between the doors and the far edge of the loft for a band and a dance floor. On my right stretched a wall of hay that was stacked to the rafters. Mim stood facing the harpy, her fists clenched at her sides, her back against the hay bales…with nowhere to run.
"The harpy's right," I said as I landed on the dusty hayloft floor. I couldn't close my wings because of the loose hoodie that covered my upper body. My wings lifted high
over my head in a natural reflex that was meant to make me look larger to my opponents. "I'd do anything to keep you safe."
I got my first look at the monster as she yanked Mim against her chest and turned to face me, her thick arm locked around Mim's delicate throat. At about six-eight, she was ugly even for a harpy. Her rocky nose was so long and narrow, it looked like it was permanently dripping, like a misshapen stalactite. A few sparse hairs twisted out of her skull but she was essentially bald.
Faced with this disgusting image, it was difficult to remember that harpies are female. They have no feminine features at all. No breasts. No waist. No hips. This one looked like an ugly bald man, her body covered with shifting plates of pockmarked granite. Her large wings were wrapped around her blocky frame. But unlike gargoyle wings, which only cover our upper bodies, harpy wings form a short leather coat that reaches half way down their thighs.
"Two of my barbs broke through when I kissed you by the car," I confessed to Mim. "My instincts are driving me to mark you so that all other gargoyles will understand that you're taken. That you're mine. Not that there are many gargoyles around these days," I added with a bitter dose of cynicism.
Now that I thought about it, my primitive impulses all seemed rather pointless. Sadly, this revelation didn't do anything to dampen the overwhelming urge that had my barbs breaking out like a bad case of zits.
"But…your barbs are poisonous," Mim pointed out uncertainly.
"They're poisonous," I agreed, wishing again that I'd explained all of this earlier. "But a human can build up an immunity to the venom by drinking a small amount mixed in water every day."
"So…MacKenzie didn't get her body art at a tattoo parlor?" Mim asked.
I shook my head and took an experimental step forward. "Valor put that rune on her shoulder. With his barbs."
The Greystone Bundle (Books 1-4) Page 33
