“Right over there.” I pointed, my eyebrows flying up when the lightning flashed again and I recognized the shape skulking around the backyard. “It’s Bub!”
“The gargoyle?” Griffin’s distaste grew. “What is he doing out there? We haven’t seen him in weeks.”
I considered the creature one of my mother’s minions. He hadn’t been around ever since things started thawing between Mom and the rest of us. “Maybe he’s here for her.”
“I don’t think so.” Griffin pointed when the lightning flashed again. “He’s sneaking out through the back gate. He’s here for another reason.”
I was certain he was right, which is why I broke from his grip and strode toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Griffin barked.
“I’m going after him. He’s clearly up to something.”
Griffin grabbed my wrist to stop me, desperation practically rolling off him. “Don’t. He could lead you to trouble and I can’t go with you. It’s storming. I can’t go outside.”
I read the distress on his face, but I had a limited window to operate within. “Go upstairs and pull Aidan and Redmond from the group. Don’t let Mom and Braden know what’s going on. Send them after me. They’ll be okay.”
“What if they can’t find you?”
“They will. Have faith.” I grabbed a hoodie from a hook by the back door. It belonged to one of my brothers, but I didn’t have time to make a different choice for fashion or size sake. “Get Redmond and Aidan. I’ll be fine. I swear it.”
Griffin didn’t look convinced, but there was nothing I could do for him. I darted out the back door and headed toward the fence. Bub spying could never be misconstrued as a good thing.
What exactly was he up to?
24
Twenty-Four
I could have waited for my brothers. Back-up is always a good idea. But I didn’t. Bub’s appearance in the backyard lit a fire under me and I was determined to track him down.
I zipped the hoodie as I hit the spongy ground, ignoring the pounding rain as I ran toward the back gate. It was open – almost as if it were a trap to entice me, something I recognized (and then discarded) as a possibility – so I sprinted through it and gazed back and forth in the alley.
It wasn’t a city alley. It was more of an easement to keep the sprawling houses from sitting on top of one another. There was nothing to the right, but I saw the hint of a shadow, something that could’ve been wings or maybe that weird tail thing Bub swished about when agitated, to the left. That’s the direction I headed.
The lightning was frequent, the thunder bone-jarring when it rumbled every forty seconds or so. The storm was clearly close, maybe right on top of us, and I didn’t think Bub’s appearance in the thick of things was a coincidence. He wanted to show me something.
Of course, that could’ve been wishful thinking. I was so desperate for answers I thought the friendly neighborhood gargoyle was going to give them to me. I needed an explanation, and I was certain Bub was trying to fill in some holes.
The cross street I landed on at the end of the alley was flooded. That happened often in my father’s neighborhood because the sewer system was older. He had backup sump pumps for his backup sump pumps, yet never bothered to spend the money or time to update the basement because flooding seemed inevitable. When I was a kid I hoped the water would drown the snakes my brothers told me lived there. So far I’d been disappointed.
Bub showed himself under a lightning flash a few seconds later. He was across the street, making sure never to look over his shoulder in case he might meet my gaze, but his pace was slow and unhurried. That seemed odd given the raging storm.
The flooded road was empty, so I darted across, grimacing when the water hit mid-calf and completely soaked my Converse. If I thought Bub had money I’d make him pay for them. Bub continued leading the way, ignoring the houses and storm as he plodded. He could fly, yet he walked, which I found suspicious. He didn’t want to get away. He wanted me to see where he was going. And where he was going was … crap! When he finally veered from the sidewalk and picked a destination it was the creepy abandoned church on the corner I always avoided. Of course he was going there. Good luck didn’t exist in my world this evening.
“You son of a … .” I grumbled under my breath, but followed him up the walkway, increasing my pace when he used his tail to open the door before sliding inside. He knew I was following. He knew I was close. Yet when I opened the door and stepped inside he’d vanished.
I jerked my head in every direction, annoying myself with the way my damp hair smacked against my face. I even dropped to my hands and knees – which took monumental effort because the floor was dirty and I was convinced this was where every bug in the neighborhood went to die over winter – but he wasn’t around.
I made a face. “What game are you playing, Bub?” I spoke louder than I meant to. It didn’t matter, of course. The building was abandoned. It was supposed to be demolished in the fall but the city planners put it off until spring. No one hung out in the building, so I didn’t expect a response. Despite that, I felt as if Bub remained close enough to hear my whining. “What do you want me to see?”
He didn’t speak but I heard a rustle of wings and when I flicked my eyes to the front of the church I registered what I didn’t notice upon initial entry. Someone had lit two candles that sat on what used to be the altar. And something else rested there … something that looked suspiciously like a book.
“Really?” The only reason I kept talking was because I was too nervous to embrace eerie silence. “You brought me here for a book?” I took a timid step forward, jolting when the door flew open behind me to offer Redmond and Aidan entrance.
“What were you thinking?” Redmond barked, striding to my side. “You don’t run off in the middle of a magical storm to chase a gargoyle. Do you have any idea how upset Griffin is?”
I imagined he was plenty upset, but I held up a finger to silence Redmond and he immediately shifted to his attack stance.
“What?”
“He was here,” I whispered. “He walked in right ahead of me, but I can’t find him. He’s gone.”
“Did you ever think that might be a trap?” Aidan complained, taking his spot on the other side of me and looking around. “Ugh. This place is filthy. No wonder they’re tearing it down. I probably have bugs crawling through my hair this place is so gross.” As if to emphasize his point he quickly shook his head and shivered. “You know I don’t like bugs.”
“I crawled on the ground looking for signs of Bub and came up empty,” I complained. “I managed to survive. Suck it up.”
“Why did he lead you here?” Redmond asked. He had a knife in his hand that I hadn’t noticed on first glance. “I mean … why would he want you to come here?”
“There’s a book on the altar,” I noted. “It looks a lot like the books we found in the mausoleum.”
“It does,” Aidan agreed, moving closer to the altar. “Do you think this is what he wanted you to see?”
I shrugged. “What else?”
“I guess that means we should take it, huh?”
“I guess.” I relaxed my shoulders as Aidan grabbed the book, dragging a hand through my tangled hair as I tried to make sense of Bub’s motivations. “He waited until he knew I was in the kitchen to tempt me outside. He wanted to give me this, but … he didn’t want anyone to know he was giving it to me. Why do you think that is?”
“He’s a gargoyle, Ais,” Redmond replied. “Why does he do any of the things he does?”
That was a fair question. “I think he did it this way because he didn’t want Mom to know what he was doing.” The words surprised me, bubbling up out of nowhere, yet when I thought about them I knew I was onto something. “Bub doesn’t want Mom to know about this.”
“Why would that be true?” Redmond asked. “I mean … Mom is on our side.”
“Is she?”
“Of course she is.” He looke
d to Aidan for support. “Right? Mom is on our side. She fought with us. She saved Aisling. She’s on our side.”
Aidan held his hands palms up and shrugged. “I want to believe she is, but maybe Aisling has a point. Why would Bub go through all this trouble to deliver a book when Mom was already in the house?”
“Maybe Bub is working against Mom.”
“Or maybe something else is going on.” I gave the church a final scan before shaking my head. “It really doesn’t matter now. We need to get back to the house. Griffin is probably melting down.”
“Yeah, I think that thing he’s been doing where he walks on eggshells and doesn’t yell at you because he’s wracked with guilt is pretty much over,” Aidan noted. “He’s livid.”
Under different circumstances I might’ve been upset by that news. Oddly enough, I was happy at the prospect. “Good. If we fight we can make up. I’m in the mood to make up.”
Redmond rolled his eyes. “You’re such a pig.”
“If I were a boy you wouldn’t say that.”
“No, you’d still be a pig. You’d just be one I could congratulate, because … you know … you’d be a dude. You’re not a dude.”
“Now you’re the pig.”
“At least we’re keeping it in the family.”
MOM WAS GONE BY the time we returned to the house. I was thankful for that, especially when I found out Griffin managed to pull my father away and tell him what was going on without tipping her off. Dad smoothly navigated her out of the house as soon as he found out, and the manor was in a righteous tizzy when we walked through the door.
“You’re grounded!” Dad barked when he caught sight of me.
I rolled my eyes as I shifted out of the hoodie. “We’ve been over this before. I’m an adult. You can’t ground me.”
“As long as you’re under this roof, I can ground you,” Dad shot back. “It’s supposed to storm all night, so that means you can’t leave because I know you won’t risk Griffin being out in inclement weather. So, do you know what that means, my dear? Oh, yes – you’re grounded!”
“Whatever.” I exhaled heavily as I kicked off my sodden shoes. “I’m wet and need to change into something comfortable. Aidan has another book for Cillian.”
Dad shifted his eyes to the item in question. “It looks like it’s from the same set as the others.”
“I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Bub clearly wanted me to find it. I simply can’t decide if he’s doing it on Mom’s behalf or if he’s working against her.”
“Mom’s not involved in this,” Braden snapped, his eyes flashing. “Mom is on our side.”
Part of me wanted to believe that, if only for Braden’s sake, but I was far too suspicious to simply accept his words without proof. “I guess we’ll have to wait to see.”
“No, we already know the truth.” Braden refused to budge. “Mom is part of the team.”
“We’ll focus on the book for now and deal with your mother’s part in this particular tale later,” Dad said. “Everyone get up and get changed – I don’t want anyone getting sick – and then we’ll meet in the library to go over the book. Absolutely no one is to leave this house without permission. Do you understand?”
“We’ve got it, Dad,” Aidan said wearily. “No one wants to leave.”
“I was talking to your sister. She’s grounded, after all. I want to make sure she understands the rules.”
“All I heard was ‘blah, blah, blah,’” I muttered as I moved toward the stairs. “I still maintain you can’t ground me.”
“Don’t test me, Aisling. You’ll find you’re very wrong on that assumption.”
BY THE TIME I DONNED fuzzy pajama pants and an oversized sweatshirt and returned to the library I was feeling markedly better. The change of clothes helped to ward off the cold, but the chilly look on Griffin’s face made me realize things were hardly settled.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I complained as I flopped on the couch next to him. “I had no choice. I know you’re upset, but … what else did you expect me to do?”
“I expected you to wait for backup.” Griffin folded his arms over his chest and stared forward. “I expected you not to give me a heart attack and run into a storm when I couldn’t follow.”
“Well, that wasn’t really an option for me.” I rested my hand on his knee and bit back a smirk when he shifted to dislodge it. “Bub clearly wanted me to follow – that’s why he made sure I was the one in the kitchen – so I did what I had to do.”
“You should have waited.”
“I’m fine.” I moved my hand back to his knee, this time letting a full grin wash over my face. “Don’t be upset, baby. What do you want me to do to make it up to you? Would flowers and candy help?”
Griffin arched an eyebrow. “You’re feeling awfully playful for someone who could’ve gotten seriously hurt.”
“Bub had no intention of hurting me,” I argued. “He wanted to make sure I got the book.”
“But why?” Cillian questioned, flipping through the pages of the new offering. “It looks the same as the others.”
“It’s in Latin?” Dad prodded.
Cillian nodded. “It’s a different color and the text is different, but it’s clearly part of the same set.”
“Can you load it through that program you have?” Aidan asked. “Will that cut down on the work you have to do?”
“Yeah, and I plan to scan it in before bed and then let the program run overnight. We probably won’t have answers until morning.”
“We can’t expect more than that.” Dad sipped some bourbon and eyed me contemplatively. “You did a stupid thing. You know better than running out of the house in the middle of a magic storm to chase a gargoyle.”
“I bet that’s a sentence you never thought you’d say,” I teased.
“It’s not funny, Aisling!”
I threw my hands up, defeated. “It’s not funny,” I agreed. “It’s not funny at all. I reacted on instinct. I don’t know what else to tell you. I knew he wanted to show me something. Otherwise he wouldn’t have let me see him.
“I knew when I was following him down the flooded street – totally gross, by the way – that he was purposely going slow enough for me to follow,” I continued. “I knew he could’ve been leading me into a trap. Heck, that book could be part of a trap. I knew all of that and I still did it. Flog me now.”
Dad pinched the bridge of his nose, a position he took when trying to calm himself and refrain from exploding. “You knew all of this and yet you put yourself at risk. Why?”
“Because we’re not the ones being hurt this time,” I answered without hesitation. “Griffin is being hurt. Jerry was hurt. We’re fine for a change. I don’t like it. It makes me feel helpless. I can’t spend the rest of my life planning a way around storms so Griffin stays safe. I want this over.
“It’s not just Griffin and Jerry, though,” I added. “It’s not just Maya either. What about all the other innocent people who are being affected? If this doesn’t end soon we could lose a lot of people. Those who don’t die might never be the same. I can’t live with that.”
“Basically she’s saying she’s Detroit’s newest superhero,” Braden supplied. “She’s here to save the downtrodden and sacrifice herself in the process.” He gave a slow clap. “You truly are a marvel. We should all endeavor to be like you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I know you’re upset because I suspect Mom in this, but there’s no reason to take it to an uncomfortable level. I don’t fancy myself a superhero. I’m only saying that this can’t go on.
“The walls are closing in on us here, Braden,” I continued. “We have weird storms and warnings from a shaman that one person has been behind all of this. We considered that he was talking about Genevieve. We considered that he was talking about someone we’ve yet to meet. We also considered he was talking about Mom. We would’ve been idiots to rule her out.”
“It’s not Mom!” Braden was ready
to explode.
“This is not the time for a fight.” Dad inserted himself between Braden and me, worry evident. “We’re doing all we can do. We’ll let Cillian’s program work through the night and pick this back up in the morning. Until then, I think it would be best for everyone if we separated into different corners for the night.”
“I agree.” Griffin got to his feet and extended his hand to me. “Come on. I think you and I are going to the same corner.”
I accepted his hand and graced Braden with a final sneer as we passed in front of him. “Does that mean I’m not in trouble any longer?” I asked, turning serious.
“Oh, you’re in trouble.” Griffin’s lips curved into a slow smile. “I’m going to punish you severely for what you did.”
“Oh, that sounds fun.” I meant it. “Can we start with a bath? You could turn the water really hot and massage me to start the punishment.”
“I heard that, Aisling,” Dad called as we sauntered out of the library. “You’re double grounded. If you push things too far, I’ll make you sleep in separate rooms.”
Now that sounded like legitimate punishment.
“I was just trying to make Griffin feel better, Dad,” I shot back. “I didn’t really mean it. We’re going to sleep in footed pajamas and on separate sides of the bed tonight. You have my word.”
Dad obviously didn’t believe me, but he smiled all the same. “That’s my girl. There’s a reason you’re so often my favorite.”
“Yeah, because she’s a total liar,” Braden complained.
“There’s also a reason you’re rarely my favorite, Braden,” Dad groused. “Go find something to do … and make it as far away from your sister as possible.”
“Finally something I want to do,” Braden muttered. “The day is looking up.”
25
Twenty-Five
Griffin was awake before me, his phone in his hand.
“I remember when we used to wake up and stare at each other,” I lamented, grinning when he shifted his eyes to me. “It was all longing looks and playful silent suggestions for what we could do before getting out of bed. It seems I’ve been replaced by technology.”
Grim Tempest Page 23
