by Faith Gibson
“Kaya, I am Rafael Di Pietro, King of the Gargouille. I come from a long line of shapeshifters. I protect humans from the Unholy.” He paused to gauge her reaction so far.
She was laughing. “You expect me to believe you are some sort of supernatural being? This is rich.”
“I can prove it. I do not want to do this in the open. If humans knew my kind existed, it would cause chaos and panic.”
“You’re crazy, Mr. Stone. Now, I would appreciate you doing what you said and handcuff yourself…” He didn’t give her time to finish. He dropped his fangs and extended his claws. He held his hands up for her to see then he retracted his claws but left his fangs.
“I am telling the truth. I also have special skin and wings, but I really do not want to risk showing my wings out in the open.” She was still pointing her gun at him, but her mouth was open.
“How, how did you do that? Is this some type of sick joke?” Her hands and the gun were shaking.
“I assure you, this is no joke. This is who I am. What I am. I am a Gargoyle and like you, I live to protect the innocent.”
“Wait, you said your name is Di Pietro? Fucking hell. I saw the resemblance in you and Dante tonight. How are you two related?”
Rafael knew he was throwing the Clan under the proverbial bus, but he trusted his instincts and his instincts told him to trust Kaya. “He’s my brother. He is the only one who uses the family name. I have several brothers and many cousins living in and around New Atlanta. Our Clan rules the Americas with other Clans serving under us.”
“And you’re the king? Like King of the Vampires king?” She wasn’t laughing now.
“Vampires are a myth, but yes I am King. My father before me was King, and if I ever have a son, he too will be King.” He briefly thought back to the little boy in his vision.
“Let’s say I do believe you are what you say you are. What then? Do you kill me to keep me from talking? And what about the warehouse? You were there. You were there and knew my man was dead. Why didn’t you tell me? Why lie and pretend you didn’t know?” She lowered her gun but kept it cocked.
“I would never harm you much less kill you. If you accept nothing else I tell you tonight, you have to accept that. You are mine. I would do anything to keep you from harm. I would die for you. Oh fuck.”
The sound of a rifle once again breached Rafael’s hearing. Without thinking, he phased and in the blink of an eye wrapped Kaya in his wings. For the second time that night, he took a bullet for his Queen.
Chapter 37
Kaya was dazed. One minute she was looking at the man from the video, holding a gun on him. The next, she’s being taken to the ground. Again. Gargoyle King. Clan, brothers, wings. Wings? She was enclosed in…wings. Holy shit! He had fucking wings! He was telling the truth. Oh my God. Oh My God! He was a shapeshifter. Holy hell. “Rafael…you can let go now. Rafael?” He wasn’t moving.
“Shhh, Love, be quiet,” he whispered in her ear. At least this time when they landed on the ground she was protected from the gravel.
“He’s gone,” he said as he rolled off her. She looked up just in time to see his wings disappear behind his back. “Holy shit.” She sat up and just stared. “We had sex.” That was all she could say? She just found out the man she was falling in love with was not human, and she stated the obvious.
“Yes, we did, and it was the best sex of my life.” He was holding his hand out to help her up. She let him. “But you’re… you’re… not human.”
He looked stunned, like she had pulled the trigger. “I’m sorry if that appalls you, but you need to get inside.” He turned his back on her. Oh my God, he was bleeding. He had been shot. Again.
“Wait, you’re bleeding. I should take you to the hospital.” She picked up her weapon she had dropped when he tackled her. She turned back to him to see his retreating self. “Wait, where are you going?”
“I told you I would bother you no more after I said what I needed to say. I am a man of my word, Miss Kane.”
Kaya didn’t want to be Miss Kane. She wanted to be Kaya, his love. “Please don’t go. Let me at least look at your wound. Please.”
Rafael stared at her. The pain in his eyes told her everything. This man, shifter, whatever he was, cared for her. Deeply. “Please.”
“Okay.” He waited on her to grab her purse and computer bag then followed her inside.
“Let me get my first aid kit, I’ll be right back.” When she returned, he was standing exactly where she left him, looking lost. “Come sit down.” He followed her to the kitchen where he sat in one of the ladder back chairs she pulled out for him. He sat sideways to give her access to the wound.
“Uh, Rafael, there’s no bullet. Where did it go?” She examined his back, noticing the bandage from earlier was gone, and there was no visible wound, no sign he had been shot previously. “What the hell?”
“Our skin is such that it is nearly impenetrable. Surface scratches are pretty much the extent of any damage. The bullet is out in your driveway. I have a feeling that whoever is after me is using armor piercing rounds since they are indeed nicking the surface. Most bullets just bounce off.” She was wiping an antiseptic over his skin as he spoke. He never flinched. “Can you feel that?”
“The medicine you are applying? Yes, I feel it, but it doesn’t sting if that’s what you are asking. Really, Kaya, it will heal itself in a matter of minutes. That is why Dante was so eager to tend to me earlier. It just wouldn’t do for humans to watch my wound magically heal right before their eyes. What would they think?”
“And when you said earlier you heard the gun, you really did. Do you have super hearing? Is that how you knew? And this time too?” Kaya ran her fingers over his back, looking for evidence of his wings.
“Yes, our senses are enhanced.” Rafael shivered at the touch of her fingers.
“Are you immortal, I mean can you be killed?” She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with him. It felt like she had slipped into an episode of the Twilight Zone.
“No and yes. I’m not immortal in the sense that I will live forever. Being King means I will always have a target on my back. Eventually, someone will come along and try to take my head. I can be killed by beheading and certain poisons.”
“Is that what happened to your father?” She saw the pained look in his eye, and she wanted to kick herself for being so callous. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“No, it’s all right. My father was in a battle a couple hundred years ago with a shifter who wanted the throne. He thought if he killed my father he would become King. He blindsided my father and took his head. Fucking coward. His plan might have succeeded had he worked through all scenarios. He didn’t.”
“But if you’re King, does that mean that you…” He nodded without looking at her face. She deserved to know the truth about him even if she thought less of him for it. “Yes, I defeated him and took the throne that was rightfully mine anyway.”
Kaya was silent as she absently wiped at where the bullet should have embedded in his skin. “Back to the warehouse, why were you there?”
“After the first murders, I had Julian install security systems in all the warehouses. He did not have time to get one installed at that particular building. When I was clearing my head last night, I thought it prudent to do a fly-by on that location. Unfortunately, it had already been used as a dumping ground. I am sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but I just didn’t know how or what to say. Telling you the truth about myself now has been difficult enough.”
“There’s another video. It shows three men at a warehouse. Are they your men?”
“I’ll have to look at the video to be certain, but if it happened Friday, then I’m pretty sure who it will show.”
Kaya moved to stand in front of him. “You have to admit it is a lot to take in for someone like me. Have you ever told another human what you are? Does anyone other than your kind know?” God, this was so hard to believe, bu
t she had seen it with her own eyes. He shifted right in front of her and saved her life. Again.
“Yes, there are humans that know. Jonathan and Priscilla are human. Their family has been serving mine for hundreds of years.”
“I thought you had servants because you are rich.” Kaya knew the wealthy employed people to look after their households. “Priscilla and Jonathan are really nice and Priscilla seems to be very fond of you.”
“She is like a mother to me. She adores you, that’s for sure. She’s hoping… Anyway, I do pay them well for the services they provide, but first and foremost they are family.”
“I need to know about you, Rafael. Everything. Where do you come from, how old are you, are you married, have a girlfriend, kids, dogs?” She wanted more information. Could they even be together as a couple?
“My family originated in Italy. I am 573. I am not married nor have I ever been. I hope I have a girlfriend. I have no children as I have never been married, and dogs don’t really like our kind.”
“You have a girlfriend?” Kaya’s heart sank. Why then did he ask her out? Was he trying to cover his tracks with the murders?
“Kaya, look at me. The term girlfriend seems so, I don’t know, childish. But if that’s the label you choose, I will gladly call you my girlfriend should you not turn me away after this night.”
Oh, he was talking about her. Was she going to turn him away? No. She knew in her heart she couldn’t watch Rafael walk out of her life. “How does this work? I mean, are your kind and mine compatible? Have shifters ever dated humans?” She saw him frown at her question. Uh oh.
“To tell you the truth, we are looking into that ourselves. Until you, none of my kind had ever felt the pull to a human, not that we knew of. Upon further research, we are finding there is the possibility it has happened before.”
“What do you mean the pull?” So maybe she wasn’t crazy. The intensity she felt in his presence, could that be the pull he was referring to? She felt like an addict and he was her drug.
“Our kind has one mate for life. When we meet that person, we feel a pull, a connection, and when we get together and commit to each other there is a bond. There are so few Goyle females left that most of us have gone our whole lives believing we would remain alone.”
“What happened to all your women?”
“The females of our kind are a little different. For some reason, they don’t get wing or the special skin. They are gifted with long lives, but they are susceptible to some human disease. Most, however, have died during childbirth.”
“That’s horrible. Why would they risk having children if they knew they could die?” Kaya wasn’t feeling the maternal instinct right at that moment.
“For the family, for the species. When they died it was usually after having their tenth or eleventh offspring. It was done out of duty.”
“Okay, I can see that. Back to this bond. Are you certain that’s the pull you felt with me?”
“Kaya, when I met you, even before that, when I spoke to you for the first time on the telephone, you affected me. My body was in turmoil from your voice alone. That type of connection only happens with our mate. When you came to my office, I nearly passed out from the intensity of being so close to you. Did you feel anything when we met?”
How could she tell him what she felt without sounding like a wanton, desperate woman? “Yes, I felt something. It was strong, too. Are you telling me you don’t have a choice in your mate? That if you go your whole life without meeting this one person, you have to live alone?”
“I don’t have to live alone but I choose to do so. We are attracted physically to others, just as I’m sure you find human men enticing. We just don’t feel the deep-rooted connection that bonds us to them for life. Some of the men have casual sex, but it isn’t fulfilling.”
Kaya really didn’t want to know the answer to the question on her lips, but she asked it anyway. “And you, do you have casual, unfulfilling sex?” She couldn’t look at him. If he said yes, it was going to rip her heart out.
“Love, look at me. No, I do not have casual sex. I have spent the last thirty odd years helping to rebuild our city, so it’s been quite a while since I’ve lain with a woman.”
“Thirty years is a long time to go without.”
“Maybe for a human, but I’m over five hundred years old. Thirty years is but a blink of the eye to me. Besides, I have wanted no one until you. Further information on bonding with a human is necessary, but Kaya, I do believe you to be my mate. I feel it in the marrow of my soul. You and I are meant to be together. For eternity.”
Chapter 38
Isabelle was having a hard time standing and observing. She wanted to help. As a doctor, it was in her to offer some type of relief from the pain, and Dane Abbott was in some serious pain. Tessa was the only one in the room with him, smoothing his hair back, offering soothing sentiments that obviously weren’t working. It was like watching a woman giving birth with no epidural. You might have been through the process yourself, but the words of encouragement tended only to piss the patient off. Dane was pissed.
“Who the fuck did this to me?” He yelled at Tessa.
“I’d say your mother and father since that’s who did it to me as well. Now calm down you big sissy and fucking breathe.” Tessa’s bedside manner left a lot to be desired. Surely Isabelle could do a better job of helping than her brash cousin. “It’s hard to watch, isn’t it?”
That voice. Isabelle knew that voice, but it couldn’t be. Standing next to her, looking like she hadn’t aged a day, was her mother. “Wha…” She couldn’t form a word much less a question.
“Hello, Isabelle.” Those eyes. Those were the eyes she had stared at every day when she was a little girl until one day they were gone. No goodbye, no explanation, just gone.
“Caroline, is that really you? Or are you just another sordid piece of this ever changing puzzle Tessa dropped in my lap?”
“It’s really me. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I have the answers. Would you like to go somewhere and talk?” The woman acted as though she’d never left Isabelle alone with her father all those years ago.
“No, I prefer to stay here with my patient.” She turned back to the glass separating her from Dane.
“Honey, there’s nothing you can do for Dane. Tess has it under control.”
“Tess? Boy, I guess I’ve missed out on the mother-daughter portion of my life huh?” Jealousy was a wasted emotion, but she couldn’t help feeling that way toward her cousin. First her father, now her mother? Just how much time had Tessa spent with them? The better question was why?
“Why Tessa? Why not me? I’m smart; I’m a doctor. What is she? Does she even have an education?” She knew she was being a bitch, but her feelings were hurt, and she didn’t care to let it show.
“Yes, you are a doctor and that is who we need you to be. The half-breeds are all coming into their transitions, and we would like for you to be there for them. We have spent the last thirty years tracking our people, keeping tabs on them. They are going to require a doctor who knows what they are and why they are different. That, my dear, is you.
“As for Tessa, she is a watcher. She tracks the offspring and helps them through their change. Many of your siblings have already gone through it. For those that haven’t, Tessa keeps an eye on them and hopefully gets to them before their first time and helps ease them through it. We are tracking those who change to see if they have children and if those children are shifters as well. So far, there have only been a couple who have had children. We also haven’t figured out the trigger. Gargoyles are lucky. They are born with the inherent ability to phase at maturity. Half-bloods, not so much. We all have our roles to play.”
Isabelle turned to look at her mother. “But Tessa said… never mind. How is it that you look my age? And what exactly is your role, mother?” Her mother flinched but quickly recovered.
“When a human woman bears a shifter child, the aging proce
ss slows drastically. It all but stops. And my role is just that: mother.”
“How old are you? And how many children do you have?” Isabelle was feeling light headed. This had been a day for the books. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take.
“I’m 245 and I have seventeen children. Victor and I decided you would be the last since I almost died during labor.”
“I have sixteen brothers and sisters? Tessa left out a few.” How long had she been awake? Almost forty-eight hours now. Surely she was hallucinating. A loud roar made her realize she was indeed lucid. She looked in on Dane and Tessa, and she couldn’t believe her eyes. Standing in front of her was not her patient, but a monster with fangs, claws, and wings.
Kaya hung up the phone and sat down on the sofa beside Rafael. There was no family listed for Jorgenson in his file, so she didn’t have to make the hard speech tonight. If she found a relative, she would call them. For now, she needed answers. She had shown him the first video, and he confirmed the three men were his cousins. She didn’t appreciate being lied to, not only once but twice, but again, he explained it as hiding the identity of his species.
“So tell me about what you do. You said you fight the Unholy.” She was having a really hard time keeping her hands to herself. Rafael was sitting on the couch in fatigues with no shirt. His broad chest and ripped abs were an artful masterpiece. She wanted to run her hands over every indention, every inch of olive skin.
“Have you ever wondered why your men rarely ever see the Unholy? We take the worst cases and lock them away ourselves. There is a sub-level for those monsters that don’t deserve to see the light of day. Those creatures who would massacre your officers without blinking.”
“Wait, you can’t do that. You cannot decide who gets locked away, King or no King.” Kaya spoke before she thought about it.
