The Greystone Bundle (Books 1-4)

by Taylor Longford

"Lots of reasons. First, Vilschka has a perfectly good gargoyle who's supplying her with venom. And even a harpy is smart enough to know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Second, who's gonna rescue you from the harpy?"

  Reason backed me up. "Third, how do we stop Chaos from going right back to Vilschka?"

  "I'll take care of the harpy," Victor argued.

  My jaw dropped open. "You're going to kill a super harpy? On your own?"

  "Well, what's your plan?" Victor cut in a little impatiently.

  "I don't know," I muttered. "But if we're going to use bait, it's gonna need to be different bait. Not the pack leader."

  "We might not need bait," Dare pointed out. "Vilschka and Chaos probably come out every evening to hunt. They have to eat."

  "What if they don't?" Victor insisted stubbornly. "I want to move quickly on this. I don't want to drive up there several times, hoping to catch them outside. We need a backup plan to lure the harpy out of the mine and away from Chaos, if necessary."

  Havoc twisted a ring on his finger. "Treasure," he murmured.

  Victor sent a keen gaze in his direction. "What?"

  Havoc rocked back in his chair. "If we need to, we could lure Vilschka outside with some sparkly baubles. Then we go in and nab Chaos."

  Okay, it wasn't gonna be that easy but at least we were talking the right kinda bait.

  "What happens when the harpy discovers Chaos is missing?" asked Elaina.

  I rolled my shoulders. "She'll scent us…if she hasn't already."

  "What's the workaround for that?" she asked.

  "We can't do anything about the harpy's sense of smell," I snorted.

  "Okay," Elaina allowed. "But maybe you can do something to stop her from picking up the scent of your venom. Do you know of anything that masks it?"

  "Water," Valor offered. "But you have to be completely submerged."

  "Well, that isn't gonna work," she said. "What about something else? How about a stronger scent…like perfume? Maybe we could use a scented oil."

  Havoc leaned forward and propped his elbows on the table. "Panic and Malarkey experimented with mint back in the day. They'd rub the leaves over their bodies and wad a bunch over their knuckles. They thought it helped."

  Elaina snickered. "I guess you'd have to be real worried about harpies to go around smelling like chewing gum all the time."

  "They didn't use it all the time," Havoc chuckled. "Only when they were hunting."

  "Hunting?" she queried.

  "They hunted harpies."

  "They hunted harpies?" Elaina choked back her surprise. "So these guys were suicidal?"

  Havoc shook his head. "Nay. They were looking for treasure. Harpy treasure. They'd hunt down a monster and wait around for her to leave her aerie. Then they'd rob her lair and fly off with as much stuff as they could carry."

  "So these guys were rich?" Elaina snorted.

  Havoc laughed. "Sometimes they got lucky. But more often all they found was a bunch of glittery junk. Bits of seashells and colorful stones. But they did alright."

  "Did any of you guys ever go with them?" she asked like she expected the answer to be no.

  All of us looked at Havoc.

  He made a fist and turned his glinting rings in the direction of the computer screen. "Where do you think I got these?" he asked.

  Elaina's eyebrows arched upward with respect. "Mint, huh? Okay, so maybe we could rub toothpaste into your knuckles. After we've nabbed Chaos, how do we get rid of the harpy?"

  "Super harpy," Reason corrected her seriously. "With Chaos's venom running in her veins, she'll be pretty much indestructible. Normally, a sledgehammer is the best weapon against a harpy but that won't work against a super harpy."

  "Why not?" Mim asked.

  Reason explained. "The common rock that normally composes the harpy's hide will have turned to the fine-grained stuff we're made of, thanks to Chaos's venom in her bloodstream."

  "A knife is a possibility but you'd have to get lucky," Havoc mused. "The gaps in the harpy's armor will be tighter and harder to breach. Unless you managed to send something through her eye, into her brain."

  Mim turned white and Dare put his arm around her, shooting Havoc a dark look.

  "Sorry, Mim," he apologized sheepishly.

  "It's all good," she murmured. "It has to be discussed if we hope to bring Chaos home. But maybe…you don't have to kill the harpy. At least not right away, while it's so difficult."

  Dare turned his face toward Mim. "What do you mean, baby?"

  "Maybe you just have to…contain her until Chaos's venom wears off and she's not so…indestructible anymore."

  Dare nodded as he gazed at his girlfriend. "That would be a good idea…if the harpy didn't turn to stone. If she turns to stone, the venom won't start wearing off until she wakes up again. After that, the venom would wear off in two or three weeks. But containing her—permanently—is a good idea."

  "How can we contain her?" MacKenzie asked skeptically.

  "Dropping her into the ocean usually works nicely," Havoc suggested with a wicked grin.

  "Colorado isn't exactly known for its oceans," MacKenzie pointed out dryly.

  "But it is known for its mountains," Elaina mused. "And its rocks. It would be nice if a big rock would fall on her. Or a landslide."

  "I don't think we could arrange a landslide," Victor sighed.

  "Probably not. But…how about a mine failure?" Elaina asked as a sharp smile slowly lifted the corners of her mouth.

  Reason locked his blue gaze on her face. "What are you thinking?"

  "Explosives and Federal Agent Simpson," she answered.

  "No," I insisted at once. "No."

  Simpson had worked with another agent named Donovan to investigate a new substance they found in a barn outside Limon. The material was lightweight and super dense. Indestructible. The two small samples they found were Mim's fingers. She'd poisoned herself on Dare's barbs in an attempt to rescue him from a lifetime of captivity with a harpy. But Dare killed the harpy and cut off Mim's fingers to save her.

  When the agents found the stone samples they wanted more. So they tried to take Reason prisoner, which didn't last long. A harpy crashed in through their office's large plate glass windows and grabbed him. Simpson's partner died in the firefight that followed, a bullet glancing off the harpy's hide and catching him in the chest. Since then, Elaina had made friends with the young agent who survived the attack. But she was crazy if she thought we were going to involve him in our plan.

  "No," I repeated. "Simpson knows about harpies but he doesn't need to know about us. About what we are."

  "Agreed," Victor said then looked around the table. "Federal Agent Simpson could turn out to be a valuable ally one day but let's not test him before we have to."

  "Besides, we can't just contain the harpy," I pointed out. "Chaos won't be free until Vilschka is dead."

  Thankfully, most of the pack was with me on the Simpson issue and didn't want to involve him unless things got desperate. So we pulled together a rough outline of a plan, then we went to work on the details. A million things could easily go wrong and we needed back up plans for our back up plans.

  Over a hastily prepared lunch, we discussed the rescue operation. MacKenzie had the most important role to play so she had her work cut out for her. Dare and Mim were assigned to research mining practices so that we'd know what we were dealing with if we had to go underground. Reason and Elaina were going to search the Boulder thrift stores for dark clothing similar to Chaos's. Havoc was in charge of preparing the weapons. My assignment was to test the mint, so I headed for the stables the next morning with a tube of toothpaste in the pocket of my jacket.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The roads were clear in the morning but the snow was still pretty deep in the park so I got a ride down to the stables. When I got there, I went into the men's room and pulled out my tube of mint toothpaste, rubbing a thick glob into my knuckles.

  I tried
it out on the horses and it seemed to work…to some degree. But I had my doubts about risking our lives on it as I got on with my stable chores, cleaning out the stalls. About noon, Peggy called me into her office. When I stepped inside, she closed the door behind me. "Take a seat," she said as she walked around behind her big wooden desk.

  Wondering what was up, I dropped into one of the padded chairs in front of her desk.

  Peggy looked pretty serious. "Mr. Anders called me today. We had a long talk."

  I stood up before she could get to the bad news. "I'll just get my stuff," I muttered.

  Peggy's voice was calm as she said, "Sit down, Devon. I've been friends with Whitney's mom for a long time. But I'm a good judge of horses and a good judge of people. Karl Anders is flat out wrong about you and I told him so."

  "Thanks," I rasped and fell back into the chair. "So I can keep my job?"

  "Yes," she sighed. "But the Anders will be moving to another stable."

  "What?" A shock of panic jolted through my system. If Whitney moved her horse to another stable, I wouldn't be there to make sure she was safe. If I quit my job to stop Dr. Anders from leaving, I still wouldn't be there to protect her. "And what about Romeo? Has Whitney's father looked at the horse? Did you tell him how dangerous he was?"

  Peggy leaned back in her chair and studied my face. "I know you're concerned about Whitney's safety but I've seen her ride that horse hundreds of times. He's spirited but manageable."

  I started to lose my temper right away. I always do when I'm worried about Whitney. "But I saw him try to knock her out of the saddle. I saw that horse go to the ground and try to roll while she was on his back."

  Peggy leaned forward again and folded her arms on the desktop. "Is there any chance that something was under his saddle blanket? Or stuck in the girth belt? Something sharp that was possibly irritating him?"

  "I don't think so," I answered stubbornly.

  "Did you check?"

  "No," I admitted with a slight shake of my head.

  "Well, you might want to consider the idea," she advised.

  I nodded and got up to leave, determined to investigate.

  "Hold on," Peggy added. "I just told you I consider myself a good judge of character. And I'm certain I'm not wrong about you. But there's something else you should know. Karl Anders isn't a bad man. He's just…a concerned father."

  "I know," I said and turned to leave the room, hesitating at the doorway then turning back to face her. "As long as we're being honest with each other, you should probably know that my name isn't Devon. It's Defiance."

  She tilted her head and checked me out then nodded. "I've gotta say, the name fits."

  So I walked out of the office with a lot to think about. The first thing I did was visit Romeo's stall where I checked out his saddle and blanket, running my hands over the padded surfaces to make sure there was nothing sticking out that would bother the horse. I didn't find anything. 'Course that didn't mean that there hadn't been something there when Romeo misbehaved. But what else could have caused him to act that way?

  I leaned back against the arena's sideboards and tried to remember everything that went down the two times I'd seen Romeo act up. There was nothing unusual about the way Whitney had saddled him or ridden him. Tara might have put something sharp beneath the saddle if she was jealous of the attention I'd been paying to Whitney. But Tara wasn't really a bad person. Not like Alexa.

  And suddenly, I realized the other common factor in all of this. Alexa. But I wasn't thinking that she might have tampered with Whitney's riding equipment. No. I remembered the look of astonishment on Alexa's face the first time she'd witnessed Romeo acting up. And the avid interest in her eyes the second time he'd misbehaved. And how Romeo seemed to be just fine when she wasn't there. So why had she been so surprised…and interested when Romeo had tried to hurt Whitney? Maybe because she'd been wishing for something bad to happen. And her wish had come true.

  Her hair was certainly red enough, and she'd been sitting on the wooden sideboards the first time. The second time, she was parked on the wooden bench. Of course she probably didn't know wood was required to make her spell work. At least, I hoped she didn't. But in the meantime, she was going to be dangerous whenever wood was present.

  If I was right about Alexa, Whitney might actually be safer at a different stable where Tara's friend wouldn't have an excuse to hang around and make trouble. But it was gonna be hard to watch Whit walk away, because this was the only place I ever got to see her. If she didn't come to the stables anymore, it would just about kill my chances of ever spending time with her again. I might catch her at a few more basketball games before the season ended. But other than that, I'd have to get lucky and run into her at the grocery store.

  While I was leaning against the sideboards, mulling things over, I heard Whitney's light footstep out in front of the stables. Some sort of heavy vehicle had just pulled up and spent a few minutes maneuvering around the parking lot on the other side of the big sliding doors. The smaller entrance door swung open and I sensed Whitney's cool persona as she moved toward me. Then she was there, standing before me like some kind of young goddess shot down from the heavens. Automatically, I reached for her.

  She took a step backward and looked over her shoulder. "Daddy's here," she warned me in a low voice. "We've come to move Romeo to another stable."

  I nodded slowly as my gaze locked on her face, absorbing the details of her elegant features."It's probably best," I managed to force out.

  She didn't seem to like my answer. "Maybe for you," she shot back at me, tossing her head angrily, her hair fanning over her shoulders like a waterfall of pure sunshine.

  Her sharp words felt like a slap in the face. "Why would you say that?"

  She crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at me. "If I'm not around, it'll be a lot easier for you to keep all your secrets. Won't it, Defiance?"

  I couldn't believe how off base she was. I snorted and shook my head. "That's not why I said it would be better. I'll try to explain later…when I get a chance."

  "Sure you will," she muttered, spinning on her heel and heading toward Romeo's stall.

  I pushed away from the sideboards and followed her down the wood-planked aisle, calling out her name.

  "Forget it," she threw over her shoulder. "I don't want to talk about it."

  "Why not?" I demanded, following her into the stall.

  "Because you just have too many secrets you're not willing to share."

  Caught between a rock and a hard place, I stood there staring at her. I couldn't tell her about Alexa unless I explained the power of the red. And if I did that, she'd know about MacKenzie. Then everything would unravel. In the end, she was right. I wasn't ready to share my secrets with her. And nothing changed the fact that she was better off at another stable.

  Her chin trembled a little as she pulled Romeo's halter over his nose. But I couldn't tell if she was ready to cry or ready to scream.

  "Did you bring your horse…cart?" I asked.

  "It's a trailer," she snapped. "But you should know that. Or don't they have horse trailers in England?"

  "Not when I was there," I muttered, going with an answer that wasn't an out-and-out lie.

  "Daddy's backing it up to the main doors," she said, turning her horse while I watched carefully. But Romeo only balked slightly as she guided him toward the stall door.

  I grabbed Romeo's saddle and gear from the sawhorse on the other side of the door, then waited for her to follow with her horse.

  "Why do you smell like toothpaste?" she muttered when she had Romeo heading down the aisle beside the arena.

  "It's an experiment," I explained lamely, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. "The horses are always nudging their noses into my hands. I guess I smell good to them but it makes them hard to work with. So, I'm trying to mask my scent."

  Her gaze bore into mine. "An experiment, huh? Yeah, right. And I didn't see anything on Valor's knuckles on
Halloween night."

  Unwilling to budge an inch, I looked away.

  "Didn't you think of gloves?" she asked into the silent friction.

  "Gloves?" I questioned skeptically, knowing that leather or wool wouldn't work.

  "Latex gloves. Medical gloves. Daddy's got boxes full of them at his office."

  I just gave her a stunned look.

  "I'll get you some, for your experiment. Because if you're experimenting, I'm guessing it's important as well as secret."

  Feeling a little defensive about her sarcasm, I strode ahead of her as she led the palomino toward the front of the stable. When I reached the big sliding door, I angled the saddle against my hip and used my free hand to open the door enough to let the big horse through.

  Outside, Dr. Anders had the trailer backed in close to the building. He didn't look too happy to see me as he stepped from the SUV and stalked toward the rear of the trailer. I shifted the saddle on my hip and watched while he opened the gate and lowered the ramp. Whitney held her horse quiet as I climbed the ramp and hung Romeo's stuff at the back of the trailer.

  My eyes were on Whitney as I stepped out of the trailer and I couldn't help but wonder when I'd see her again. I was pretty sure it was going to be too long no matter how things turned out.

  Dr. Anders stood beside the trailer, waiting for Whitney to lead Romeo up the ramp. But she hesitated. Her voice faltered as she turned to her father and said, "I don't want to leave Peggy's stables. I love it here. So does Romeo."

  The look in her eyes killed me and was probably having a similar effect on her dad. He looked unhappy. But he looked determined, too. One of us was going to break and I had a feeling it was gonna be me. The silence stretched out like a bowstring about to snap. Ah, crap. I couldn't take it. Before her father could say anything, I stepped forward and said, "If it's me, I'll leave. I'll leave Pegasus."

  Looking stunned, they both turned toward me.

  I hated for Whitney to stay at the Pegasus Stables if I was right about Alexa, but figured I could caution Whitney never to ride when she was around. Maybe I could even have a little talk with Alexa and warn her off. "I'm serious. I'll give up my job if you'll let Whitney and Romeo stay here."