Judging by the contented purr and tone of Burkhart’s voice when Meino had kissed him goodnight, then Burk certainly didn’t think it wrong that he’d kissed him, but from there to... did Burkhart even have a full anatomy under that loincloth? And was the loincloth a part of his body, since it hardened to stone once the sun rose?
Wrong train of thought. Meino shook himself out of it and looked out the window of the garage. He was just checking on his Charger while Nathan and Jenny horsed around in the snow, chucking snowballs at each other. Nathan had taken cover behind a huge tree that had fallen over. By the looks of it, Jenny had a pretty good arm and aim.
Jenny charged Nathan, letting out a fierce warriors’ roar while she threw snowball after snowball from the nook of one bent arm. Nathan yelped and ducked behind a big log. That didn’t help him against the fierce Amazon warrior, because she dove over the log, her legs the last to pass.
Meino ran outside, thinking it looked like a daring jump.
“Did she make it?”
Yes, Jenny is fine. Nathan—
A loud squeal—definitely from a man—sounded, and arms flailed and grasped at the snow-covered trunk.
—is no match for Jenny.
Nathan clambered over the trunk and landed in a heap on the other side. “Evil, evil woman!” he shouted. Jenny jumped up and down with her arms stretched over her head, victoriously.
Meino smiled at the friendship. Jenny spotted him and waved. She then threw herself over the trunk and landed next to Nathan, ending up halfway on top of him. He stopped struggling quickly.
Is it unfair if I let you in on their plans to wash you in snow?
“Their what?” Just the thought made a violent chill race down Meino’s back where he pictured the snow traveling. “Not unfair at all, especially if you help me escape her.” Meino set off in a sprint.
“Burk told on us, didn’t he?” Jenny yelled.
Meino glanced over his shoulder, finding both Jenny and Nathan barreling after him as fast as the ankle-deep snow allowed. He yelped at seeing huge snowballs in their hands and focused on where he was running. In his head, Burkhart’s deep thunderous laughter sounded.
“Which way? Shit, are they catching up?”
Yes.
“What? Which way?”
Either, you have been outmaneuvered.
Something heavy hit his back, and Meino ended up flat on his stomach with Jenny lying on top of him and his face full of snow.
“No, no, please, I’m unarmed!”
You have plenty of snow around you. Spin onto your back and grab snow with both hands.
“And expose my face?” Meino wasn’t sure anyone could hear his grousing, since his face was half numb and his mouth half full of snow.
That is the only disadvantage to your current dilemma, but you would have a bigger chance at defending yourself than you do now.
Okay, so Burkhart could hear him over a face full of snow. Meino struggled to turn around, one arm covering his face, the other trying to gather snow closer to his body to grab and shove in Jenny’s face.
She squealed with joy, and that was probably the most feminine he’d ever heard her. That it took her all of two seconds to gain back full control over the situation was another matter entirely. Nathan laughed in the background, and Jenny finally let up. Meino spat snow and cleared his eyes, finding Jenny straddling him, grinning.
“Does Burkhart feel cold?” she asked.
“Not the way we do. He can detect that it’s cold. Why?”
“To pay him back for ratting us out, of course.” Jenny got up and held her hand out for Meino to grab. “So we can’t even tease him?”
“No, and he’s in my room. I don’t think Ms. Theresa would be thrilled at you hauling in a bucket of snow.”
“Details. And we can’t even come up with a plan.” She looked like all prospects of fun had been stolen from her.
“Of course we can,” Nathan said, looking smug. “Come on.”
Meino and Jenny followed him to the fountain, where the ice had frozen solid and a thin layer of snow covered the surface. Nathan took a stick and wrote something in the snow, going back and forth as he wrote. Meino had no idea what the signs meant.
Jenny took the stick and scribbled more into to snow.
Nathan nodded. “Did you catch that, Burkhart?”
No, I have never seen this writing before.
Nathan and Jenny looked at Meino expectantly, so he repeated.
“This is a way of writing I made back in school for Jenny and me to be able to communicate without the teacher being able to snatch the note and read it out loud in class.”
“Because that’s not humiliating at all,” Jenny said, making a face.
“Especially with the stuff Jenny would write sometimes.” Nathan widened his eyes, and Meino snickered, because since he’d come to know Jenny, he thought he knew exactly why Nathan looked so horrified at the memory.
“I wasn’t that bad,” Jenny argued.
“No, you didn’t grow into the truly horrible dark humor until late senior high.”
With a deadpan face, Jenny clogged Nathan on the shoulder.
“What I wouldn’t have given for a friend like that at school,” Meino said, regretting it immediately, since his tone came off more wistfully and pathetic than he’d intended. He’d gone for a lighter tone sprinkled with irony. He turned to walk away, but a hand on each his shoulders made him stop.
“You have friends now, Meino. Good friends,” Jenny said.
“Which is why I showed it to you,” Nathan said, pointing to the frozen water full of scribbles. “We’d like to teach it to you so you can communicate with us safely. So far, no one has broken it. Even a few from the Order have tried.”
“So, it’s more than a symbol to a letter?”
“Much more. It even has grammar rules and rules for when to break the grammar rules to avoid the pattern of recognition.”
“Oh, and it uses more than one language as a base for the grammar and sentence structures,” Jenny added.
Not that Meino knew a lot about secret alphabets or languages—he’d learned English by reading and watching television when he lived with his aunt and uncle. He did fear that it would be a huge task and not one he could overcome with all the magic he had to learn how to do cognitively.
“It’s not that difficult.” Nathan draped an arm over Meino’s shoulder. However cold Meino felt from the snow shower, Nathan’s friendliness warmed him.
Quell your fears of all you have to learn, little one, and enjoy the friends you have made. They will be patient with you, I can tell.
Meino smiled but didn’t say thank you out loud to Burkhart. He felt somewhat self-conscious about speaking out loud to him when others were present, and Burkhart was stone. Unless he was in the same room, Meino didn’t have as big of an issue with it because then people could see the Gargoyle and not think Meino mentally ill.
He wondered why he felt like that, and a childhood memory came back. The first while after his dad had died, Meino tried to talk to him in the garage with the car. All the tools had been packed away, and only his uncle’s tools, which were mainly for wood and house repairs, filled the garage. Messily. But the Charger stood there, covered in a form-fitted tarp. Meino had eased it up the front and talked as if he was talking to his dad. He crouched down in front of the car, imagining the hole where the headlight would go to be an eye. He hadn’t felt stupid about it then. Not until his cousins had caught him talking in the garage, and they’d begun teasing him with the fact that he spoke to cars.
Meino had seen Jenny talk to Ethan when he was in shadow. He wondered whether they’d been self-conscious about it, too. He then figured it wouldn’t be the same if they hadn’t been teased about talking to cars as a kid.
“If you want, we can grab some hot chocolate and cookies and go sit in your room to be close to Burk,” Jenny said. “Sit in front of the fir
e and have a look at the alphabet.”
Meino smiled and nodded, happy she would include Burkhart even though he was always with Meino in his head.
“Good thing we got the playing in the snow done. The weather forecast said it would turn soon.”
“Thank God,” Jenny said. “I like snow, but we’re at the end of March, for crying out loud.”
“Mr. Severin says Maine is all thawed up,” Nathan said as they made their way toward the castle. Jenny had her arm hooked through Nathan’s arm, his other arm still around Meino’s shoulder. The loose chat about everything and the calmness between the three of them filled Meino with an indescribable joy, yet he felt kind of fake about it, because he didn’t know them very well. He liked them, though, yet he had nothing to compare a friendship like that with. Was that how it felt?
The afternoon had been amazing. Getting snow shoved down the neck of his winter coat had just been the chill start of a warm day in front of the fireplace with Burkhart watching over the three of them.
Nathan and Jenny taught him the basics of the alphabet, and they wrote little notes to each other while they drank way too much hot chocolate and ate way too many cookies. Except for Nathan, who had a perverse taste for black olives, which he ate with his hot chocolate. Meino had one, and something was seriously wrong with the guy’s taste buds if he thought that combination was a good idea.
Still, Meino was going to miss him, since he’d been told that Nathan would be leaving in the early morning hours the next day. He had to go to America and help someone in the Order.
The sound of stone cracking made Nathan jump. Then Lucien and Ethan stepped from shadow, and the sounds of stone cracking intensified. A warm and heavy hand landed on Meino’s neck.
“Good evening, little one.”
“Good evening, Burk.” Meino gave him a brilliant smile.
“Hot cocoa?” Nathan asked, staring longingly at Lucien as the cursed man snuggled up behind his heart. That was so cute, and Meino felt torn in his feelings for Burkhart again.
“I’m hungrier than for cookies,” Lucien said.
“Me too,” Ethan declared.
“You want to come eat?” Nathan asked Meino.
Meino looked at Burkhart, who didn’t get hungry. “Actually, my stomach hurts from eating and drinking so much I can barely move.”
“Agreed,” Jenny said, grunting as she got to her feet. “But I’ll come with you guys.”
“I’ll try and write some more of this,” Meino said, picking up the pages describing the alphabet. Nathan grinned, apparently happy that he had one more person to write secret messages with.
“You seem... uncomfortable,” Burkhart noted.
Meino let himself collapse to lie on the thick pelt, and he held his stomach, hoping it wouldn’t squelch around too much. “The problem with drinking hot chocolate with whipped cream is that it’s so heavy. It’ll fill you like—” Meino snapped his fingers. “And the last cup always comes as a surprise fullness.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Do you want to lie here with me so I can digest?”
Burkhart smiled, chucked a log on the fire, and lowered himself to lie on his side, facing Meino and the fire.
It was quite captivating just watching the flames dance, and Meino’s thoughts went to all that had happened. A smile spread on his face at having friends. Friends who understood him and didn’t think him weird. At least, if they did, they didn’t make it noticeable.
The alphabet Nathan and Jenny had spent the better part of the afternoon teaching him roamed around in his head, and he kept seeing the odd symbols in his mind’s eye.
“What do you think of the alphabet that Nathan made?”
“You can write our adventures in it. No one can read it but the ones already trusted with its secrets.”
Meino smiled. He hadn’t thought about that. And he’d even found a book with blank pages in the boxes, and it was perfect for it. For some reason, he saw himself writing it in with a quill and ink, just so it fit the feel of the old leather bound book and its raw pages. The ambiance in the old castle probably aided that image, and he wondered how it would be sitting in Australia’s hot weather in a house so new compared to the feel of most buildings in capitals in Europe.
“I keep wondering what Australia will be like.”
“You don’t want to go?” Burkhart draped an arm over Meino, whose instinct was to suck in a breath and tighten his abs to not have his full stomach squeezed by the heavy arm. Burkhart pulled his arm away. Meino didn’t want him not to hold him either, so he turned onto his side and scooted back until he was being spooned by Burkhart. He then reached behind for Burkhart’s arm again and pulled it around him.
Burkhart purred contently and snuggled up closer.
“I love lying here with you. I don’t know why. The whole ambiance of the castle. I’ve even gotten used to some of the ghosts.”
“Is that why you sometimes sleep in front of the fireplace?”
Meino chuckled. “Yeah. I guess it reminds me of our adventure, and this pelt is thick enough to be as comfortable as my old sofa-bed.”
“If you don’t want to go to Australia, Mr. Talbot and Vibeke will find a way to accommodate you and still teach you.”
“I’ll give it a chance. I mean, I can’t say how I’ll feel about the place if I don’t go there.”
“Very true. From the pictures Vibeke showed us, it’s isolated enough for me to fly and not be seen.”
“I love watching you fly.” Meino loved watching Burkhart in general, but he kept that to himself. His arm felt a bit numb from lying only on that side, and he shuffled around to face Burkhart. He put his head on Burkhart’s big arm, and the Gargoyle draped a heavy muscular thigh over Meino’s leg, thus trapping his top leg. That was sure to cut off circulation at some point, but Meino felt protected, warm, and cared for. He’d address the problem of a leg stinging from sleep later.
“They don’t have a fireplace in Australia, do they?” Meino asked
“From the pictures, no.”
“Hmm.” Meino hadn’t meant for it to come out so petulant. Burkhart drew back a little to look at him. What caught Meino was that Burkhart didn’t have to turn his physical eyes on Meino to look at him, yet he did for Meino’s sake. Looking into his eyes was way more captivating than watching the dancing flames, and the tenderness took Meino’s breath away. Why he didn’t stop himself from acting on the impulse, Meino didn’t know, but before he’d finished the thought, he’d stretched to plant a kiss on Burkhart’s lips.
As soon as he registered what he’d done, he drew back, fearing he’d done something Burkhart didn’t like. But Burkhart just tightened his grip around Meino, pulling him against his chest to lean his cheek against the top of Meino’s head. Thoughts and feelings spiked, and Meino had trouble figuring out the heads or tails of it all.
“Don’t be uncertain, little one. I liked it. And now I understand it. Watching Nathan and Lucien, the way they touch each other, the way they hold each other when lying together.”
“Lying together?” Meino asked, his heart fluttering with optimism from Burkhart’s gentle tone.
“Yes. I have never watched men make love, but now I understand it.”
Meino suppressed a snicker. “You know, that’s a private time. You’re not supposed to watch it.”
“Like the bathroom.”
Meino couldn’t suppress his amusement. “Yeah, like the bathroom.”
“We don’t watch you intensely all the time, you know. We acknowledge that you are well. But I did watch Lucien and Nathan make love, because I have to understand the love between men. It is slightly different from the love between a man and a woman.”
“Is it important to know?” Meino asked, raising his head to look at Burkhart again.
“Of course. How else am I to learn why my body flutters when I catch you watching me the way you did a second before you kis
sed me?”
And Meino knew exactly what that flutter was, because his entire body fluttered wildly at those words. And once again, he acted upon them, leaning in for another kiss that was accompanied by an appreciative growl from Burkhart. That deep voice always sent a shiver through Meino, but at that moment, it was times a thousand.
Burkhart’s lips were soft and warm, and Meino sighed as he moved in to deepen the kiss. As he snuck his tongue past Burkhart’s lips, the difference from kissing a human finally settled. His mouth was dry. Meino pulled back, the moment shattered by the unfamiliarity.
“Did I do it wrong?” Burkhart asked, almost a whisper.
“No. I guess I just keep forgetting that you aren’t really human even though you feel like one.”
“What was wrong with me?” Burkhart looked nervous.
“Nothing,” Meino whispered and leaned in to kiss Burkhart’s cheek. “Nothing’s wrong with you. You’re just different. I don’t mind that. I actually love it. I... I want to explore you.”
Burkhart smiled, his eyes grew soft, and the nervous look disappeared.
“What made you stop the kiss?” Burkhart asked, but it was clear to Meino that it was more out of curiosity than the moment of uncertainty.
“What does my mouth feel like to you when we kiss?” Meino demonstrated by leaning in again to lick Burkhart’s lips. Another contented purr escaped the Gargoyle, and lying so close against his chest, Meino could feel the vibrations.
“Warm. Soft. Moist. It’s funny. A month ago, I wondered about all the words humans ascribed. I didn’t understand them. I felt, or I did not feel. The nuances were lost to my limited senses. Your spell and the strength of the nexus, I feel like I am being reborn.”
Meino shuffled around so he ended up lying on Burkhart who struggled a moment to get a wing to comply. He then settled back on the pelt and smiled at Meino.
“How do you perceive me?”
“You’re definitely evolving,” Meino said. “Speaking to you throughout the day or listening to your comments on what you notice around you, I’ve noticed that one, you speak more, and two, what you notice and how you notice it has become more focused on details.”
Gargoyle Rising Page 28
