I thought Whitney would be happy. She wasn't. Her face fell about a mile and she said, "You can't do that. You love this job."
I laughed like it was no big deal. "It's not that great. It's a lot of shoveling horse sh…" I broke off, eyeing her father. "I can look for a job at another stable. Peggy will probably give me a reference."
Whitney shook her head, her expression even sadder than before, which just killed me some more. "But—"
"I don't want you to be unhappy," I insisted, losing my patience and raising my voice. "And I don't want to cause any more problems in your family than I already have."
"But—"
I got lost in her deep blue gaze and it occurred to me that maybe losing my temper wasn't the way to go. I decided to try something different for a change. My voice was soft as I said, "It's not worth causing all this trouble, thaerling."
"It is to me," she said in a small voice. "I want to stay here. But I want to be with you too."
"We will be," I told her quietly. "I'll wait for you. I'll wait as long as it takes."
"Do you mean that?" she whispered, the color in her eyes deepening as she watched me through her long eyelashes.
"I wouldn't have said it unless I meant it. Just…keep safe until then. I hate for you to be riding that horse when I'm not around." I took a deep breath and faced her father. "Please, Mr. Anders. Please reconsider your decision to move to another stable."
I wasn't trying to pull any stunts. I was just hoping her dad would agree to leave Romeo at the Pegasus Stables. I wasn't expecting anything more than that. So I was surprised when he asked, "Did you really stop Romeo from hurting my daughter?"
I didn't know that Whitney had talked to her father about Romeo, even though she'd said she would. And I wasn't sure how to answer his question honestly. I rolled my shoulders and looked away, my eyes scanning the hills behind the stable. If it wasn't for Alexa's involvement, I wouldn't have been sure what the horse was going to do. But I was fairly certain that Alexa had meant to hurt Whitney. She probably hadn't planned to kill her but the girl was playing with fire and it could easily have turned out that way. "I can't be sure," I told him. "But I think so."
He gave me a piercing look, maybe surprised that I hadn't immediately claimed hero status. "I admit I have trust issues," he finally volunteered in a tight mutter.
"Nothing happened in that motel room," I said swiftly.
That might not have been the right thing to say. Because it just made him all annoyed and angry again. His face darkened and his brow furrowed as he jabbed a finger at me. "Technically, you shouldn't have been with Whitney in that motel room. You shouldn't have been in that car on the pass!"
This time I just kept my mouth shut.
Looking conflicted, he muttered. "But if you hadn't been with her, she might not be alive right now."
I held my breath and waited for him to reach a decision.
He ran a hand back through his thin blond hair but kept his eyes on me. "Peggy says you're a good kid. I'm sure she doesn't want to lose you. And I guess I'm willing to take a chance on you if she is."
I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe I'd managed to fight my way out of a bad situation…without fighting. "Thank you," I said, letting out the breath I'd been holding.
"We'll leave Romeo here," he growled. "Just…don't let me down."
"I won't," I answered, knowing that if I screwed this up, I wouldn't get a second chance. I helped him to unload Romeo's saddle then lifted the ramp back into the trailer and closed the gate. And a few minutes later, I was walking Romeo back inside the stables while Dr. Anders drove off with his daughter.
Chapter Twenty
"What happened?" Peggy asked, hurrying out of her office and following me to Romeo's stall. Seriously, she was so excited she was almost skipping.
"I'm not sure," I answered. "But the Anders won't be leaving after all, and I think I'm getting another chance with Whitney."
Peggy surprised me with a huge hug.
I returned it the best I could with one arm available for the job. "I think I might have to thank you for putting in a good word with Whitney's father. Thanks Peggy."
She backed away, wagging her finger at me and looking supremely pleased. "I was right about you," she declared. "I was right all along!"
I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm as I closed the door on Romeo's stall and got back to work. I was just finishing up for the day, checking the stalls for water, when Whitney showed up again. "Hey!" I greeted her warmly. "What are you doing back here?"
Without saying anything, she handed me a thin cardboard box.
I turned it over in my hands and looked at the green and white illustrations. "Gloves! Thanks, Whit."
"You're welcome," she said, casting her eyes demurely downward. "I, ah, don't have to be home until nine. You want to do something?"
Surprised, I jerked my gaze up to her face. "Does your father know where you are? That you're with me?"
Whitney shook her head and smiled. "He didn't ask me where I was going."
"Wow," I murmured and rubbed a hand behind my neck while a huge weight of emotion slid off my back. I felt like someone had given me a free ticket to enjoy the rest of my life. "That's great. That's really great."
"What do you want to do?" she asked, hooking her arm through mine and tugging me close to her side.
I captured her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Can we go up to my place after I've tested the gloves? You haven't seen the rental yet."
"I'd love that," she answered.
So I tore open the cardboard box and pulled the thin plastic gloves over my hands then tried them out on several animals. And for the first time in my life, the horses ignored me. The gloves seemed to be extremely effective. I looked at Whitney and gave her a nod. I was way excited but I kept my voice calm. "They seem to work."
"Is that…good?" she asked without pressing me for details.
"Crazy good," I answered in a huge understatement that she couldn't possibly appreciate, that only my pack could fully comprehend.
"Then let's go," she said, grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the front of the stable.
The light in her face made my heart feel like it was going to explode. She was so lovely and I should have been way happy. But a surge of guilt stood between me and that happiness, hulking over me like something bigger and darker than a harpy's shadow. And I found myself facing a new dilemma. Because I figured if Dr. Anders could trust me with Whitney, I should trust Whitney with me. And as this idea took hold, my heart started pounding like crazy. But the more I thought about it, the more determined I was to follow through and finally do something about the silent chasm that separated us.
"You're quiet," she remarked as she steered her mom's van up the winding roads toward my place.
"I just have some things I need to tell you," I told her seriously. I rubbed my hand over my eyes and said, "I should have told you earlier."
She shrugged and grinned at me. "Better late than never."
Her hand was locked in mine as we stepped into the house, which was very fortunately empty, the rest of the pack probably over at MacKenzie's place. I tugged Whitney into the middle of the living room. And before I could change my mind, I ripped my T-shirt over my head and unfurled my wings. "This is what I've been hiding from you."
Whitney's smooth brow creased slightly as considered the huge wings. She was obviously startled but not as shocked as I'd expected. But Whitney isn't the type to get excited. "So this is what you meant when you said you were different?"
"That's all you have to say?" I barked softly. "You're not surprised to learn that I'm a gargoyle? That I have wings?"
Her mouth tilted in a wry smile. "I've known all along there was something unusual about you and your family. To be honest, I thought you guys might be vampires."
"Vampires?" I exclaimed on a low breath of laughter. "Vampires aren't real."
She lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug while
her eyes laughed back at me. "Neither are gargoyles."
"Point taken," I rumbled, snagging her hips and pulling her against me. "But why vampires?"
Whitney shook her head as her gaze traveled along my wings and returned to my face. "Because of your looks. You and your cousins are more than good looking. More than handsome."
"Yeah?" I murmured, watching her closely.
"Yeah," she answered. "You guys are beautiful." She pushed away and walked out a circle behind me as she studied my wings. But the first thing she noticed was the scar on my back. She ran a finger down the long ragged wound. "When did this happen?"
"When I saved that girl from the harpy."
Her expression was melancholy as she shook her head. "It must have been a terrible injury."
"It was worth it," I said without thinking.
She searched my face and reached a hand up to smooth over one of my leather clad spines. Nobody had ever stroked my wings before. Her palm gliding along the sleek dark leather was incredibly pleasant. Right away, I figured I could get used to it. "So it was worth it because you were able to save the girl?" she asked.
"Yes," I lied. But I hadn't been thinking about the girl at all. I'd been thinking about how I'd killed the harpy. And that reminded me of my somewhat bloodthirsty tendencies. Which made me feel guilty about my relationship with Whitney. I wasn't good enough for her. I probably wasn't good enough for any modern girl.
But it didn't make any difference. I had to have her. I had to make her mine. I took a deep breath to settle my aggressive impulses that were aching to take things further, faster, and fought the instinctive slide of my barbs trying to slip from beneath my knuckles.
By now, Whitney should have been overwhelmed by everything she'd seen. But the chill blond took it all in stride. "I want to hear everything else," she murmured.
I slid my wingtip behind her and used it to pull her into my chest. "Alright, but it's a long story," I said, caging her close.
"Then we'd better sit down," she murmured. She pushed me onto the couch and straddled my lap. "Tell me everything," she demanded, looking happier than I'd ever remembered seeing her. "From the beginning."
So I told her about me and my kind. About my time and how we were trapped between the walls of an old house for eight hundred years. How gargoyles can turn to stone as long as a single ray of sunshine touches them. How our hearing is crazy good and how we're slightly stronger than your average, large, strapping human. How we're outfitted with barbs that are meant to be used against our enemies but also play a part in our courting traditions, and how we're driven to mark the girl we love.
When I was done with all that, I told her about harpies and how MacKenzie had been attacked by one of the monsters before Valor killed it. I told her how Mim had really lost her fingers and how Dare had destroyed the harpy that had threatened her. I told her how we'd been forced to ship Reason to Texas and how he'd made his way back. How Elaina had followed him and found him. And how he'd killed another harpy near Boulder. How I had two brothers and they were missing along with Chaos.
And when I was done, it was like I'd been carrying around this huge rock my entire life and I'd finally thrown it off. Or I'd found someone very strong to share the weight with me. It was a great feeling. I can't even explain how it felt. There was relief at having shared my secret. But it was more than that. It was the acceptance of someone who was so important to me.
"What about the tat on your neck?" she asked, delicately tracing her fingers down my throat.
I captured her fingers beneath mine. "It's a rune," I told her. "A word from an ancient alphabet."
Her blue eyes widened in interest. "What does it mean?"
"Can't you tell?" I teased her gently.
She tilted her head and studied my neck for a while. "Well, it looks kinda like a heart. A heart trapped between two armored shields."
"What!" I exclaimed, almost spilling her off my lap, then gathering her up again as I made my way to the mirror hanging on the wall across the room. Turning my neck, I studied my reflection…and saw something in the rune's shape that I'd never noticed before. Weirdly enough, it actually did sorta look like a heart encased in armor. A surprised grunt rumbled in my chest. "The rune's supposed to represent two rams heads, butting up against each other. It means Defiance."
Her eyebrows pulled together in concentration and she studied my throat. "Really?"
"Really," I insisted in a deep growl.
"Kay," she said, swinging her legs as I held her in my arms. "Kay. I guess I can see that. I guess rams' heads would be a lot more manly…than a heart."
"Yes, they would," I told her gruffly but I don't think she was taking me very seriously; she started giggling on the way back to the couch. The musical sound of her laughter was like a wash of pure joy, cleansing my soul of every dark shadow that had loitered there for the last eighteen years. And I'd have made that moment last forever if I could have.
I pulled her tightly against my chest and smiled down at her. The color in her eyes deepened behind her thick lashes and her admiring gaze made me feel like shouting, "I'm a gargoyle and Whitney doesn't care. And if anyone else doesn't like it, they can just get screwed."
So it got pretty serious on the couch. Well, as serious as I allowed it to get without forgetting that Whitney was two years younger than me and had a lot of living to do before she committed herself to one guy. Whitney wasn't like MacKenzie or Mim and I wanted to make sure she had a chance to have some fun first. It was gonna kill me but I was determined to let her have her freedom before she was tied down with my rune on her arm, weighing her down like a ball and chain.
And we were kinda saved by the pack when they piled back into the house. Needless to say, they were surprised to find me sitting on the couch with my wings open while Whitney sat across my knees.
Havoc plunked himself down beside us. "About time he told you about us," he said with a grin. "I've been telling him for months he should talk to you."
"That's a lie," I inserted quickly, pissed that he was trying to make me look bad in front of Whitney. But it was hard to win an argument with Havoc so I changed the subject. I slid Whitney off my knees, closed my wings and reported my suspicions about Alexa to the pack, telling them I thought she'd accessed her powers. Of course, that meant MacKenzie had to explain what we were talking about to Whitney.
"But I think her success surprised her," I said, referring to Alexa. "And she's still experimenting. She might not know that she has to be touching wood to make the magic work. But she'll probably figure it out eventually. When that happens, we might have trouble on our hands."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Victor said. "In the meantime, what did you find out about the mint?"
I pulled Whitney into my side. "Whitney found something better. Gloves."
Victor gave me a keen look. "Gloves? Do they work?"
"A hundred percent," I said slowly, letting the three words hang on the air.
Everyone went silent and Whitney looked around at us. "What?" she asked.
MacKenzie's eyes shone with emotion as she explained. "You can't imagine what a big deal this is. This means that after centuries of being tracked by those monsters, the guys can finally mask their presence when they need to. Not only that, they can get close to the harpies without being sensed. They can attack without warning. And more immediately, they can whisk Chaos out from under Vilschka's nose before she even knows they're there!"
"It's huge," Valor summarized in an awed voice. "Huge."
And after we'd all tried to express our gratitude to Whitney, we got down to the business of the upcoming rescue effort.
"I can get the van," Whitney offered after she heard what direction our plans were taking. "If we have to, we can take out some of the seats to make room for Chaos."
"No!" I barked so sharply I startled everyone in the room. "No. If anything happens to you—if you come home with even a scratch—I won't get another chance with yo
ur dad."
"Nothing's gonna happen to me, 'Fiyance," she soothed with a soft voice. "I'll just be driving the getaway car."
I sent an hard look in Victor's direction, hoping he'd back me up, but he just smiled grimly and said, "I think we're going to have to let her drive. I'm afraid Mac's Jeep won't be big enough for the job."
"You can't ask Whitney to take on that kind of responsibility for us," I argued.
"We can if she's one of us," he countered.
"What!" I barked, feeling like things were getting away from me.
"Coins out," Victor chuckled while everyone dug in their pockets. "Whitney already knows about us. We might as well make it formal, and ask her to join the pack."
Whitney's blue eyes went wide. "Part of the pack?" she murmured, like she really really really wanted this.
So what could I do? I couldn't vote against her admittance to the pack, especially when it wouldn't have done any good because the vote was otherwise unanimous. Even Reason voted for her after we got him and Elaina hooked up on skype. Seriously, my once-cynical hardnose of a cousin was turning into the Pillsbury Frickin' Doughboy. I pressed my quarter against the coffee table so hard that it left an impression of George Washington's head in the thin veneer of wood. "Welcome to the pack," I growled, slumping back on the couch and crossing my arms over my chest.
Whitney giggled and snuggled up against me. "Don't be mad," she murmured against my ear and buried her nose in my neck. "I'll be careful. I promise."
"You'd better be," I grumbled, then softened up and let her kiss a smile out of me.
Victor grinned as he watched us from the other side of the coffee table. "We'd be honored if you'd drive the getaway car, m'dear."
So, Victor and the most of the pack were happy. Great. Only Havoc seemed less than ecstatic, his mouth twitching downward as he watched Whitney and me together. "Another one bites the dust," he sighed.
"Are you talking about another one of us gargoyles giving up his single status?" I asked, getting ready to feel sympathetic.
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