Avisha

by Vi Lily

  He seems kind of familiar, but I know I've never met him. I've never really met anyone, to be honest. All the people from outside of DEE that I've talked to have been just service personnel—store clerks, public transportation officials, hostel owners. I can't shake the feeling that I should know him though.

  But then again, my head doesn't seem to be working right. The room is swimming. Guess I'm a bit dizzy. I'm seriously nauseous too.

  More than anything, though, I'm really confused. The guy seems to realize that and he moves to hold my hand. I don't cringe away like I did when he first touched me, because I can sense this guy is really concerned. I'm getting swamped with all kinds of caring, kind feelings from him.

  Despite the brain fog, I've processed that I'm back in the twenty-first century. Where, I don't know. But Avisha isn't here, and that's bothering me. Of course, if he's still in gargoyle form, he'd have to be hiding somewhere, I'm sure. Twenty-first century people are probably worse than sixth century when it comes to dealing with the unusual.

  But first and foremost: "Where is my sister?" I ask as I squint at him.

  Bogdan clears his throat. "Avi has gone back to find her. Ehm, he's actually made about three trips so far. He's been gone the longest this time…nearly three days."

  Three days…this time? "How long have I been out?" I squeak. I'm starting to panic once again.

  "Aboot a sennight, love." From my right, Avisha's voice floats over me like a warm blanket. I turn toward the sound and it's then that I see more of the room that I'm in. Stark walls, a whiteboard by the door with nurses' and doctors' names and shift times, and a beeping monitor system. My heart starts to pound when I realize I'm in a hospital.

  There's a man walking toward me who is not Avisha. It was definitely Avisha's voice, though, that spoke to me. I blink hard a few times and my vision clears a little so that I can focus on him better. I do recognize him then as the fog in my mind finally lifts a bit.

  I remember him as the guy who held me in the woods after the DEE-men were chasing me. Did I crack my head on that tree in the woods harder than I thought and the naked guy brought me to the hospital? Was my trip back to the sixth century just a dream?

  It's possible. This Bogdan dude said that Avisha had gone back to find Carlie. Maybe she's still hiding in the woods. But that means that the poor baby has been out there…alone…for a freaking week.

  I guess he can see my panic as he hurries over and runs a hand over my hair. "Lass," he says, using Avisha's voice. I cringe. He's not my gargoyle and I don't want him touching me.

  "Get away from me!" I manage to hiss, careful not to speak too loud. I definitely don't want more pounding.

  "Who are you? I want Avisha…" Ugh, I can feel my eyes leaking. I'm not crying, dammit.

  "'Tis me, love," the guy says. I want to yell at him, but not until my head feels better, so instead I scrunch up my face as I look at him.

  Tall, seriously broad-shouldered, muscular but not in a gym body way. Dark blonde hair, a darker stubbly beard like he just hasn't bothered to shave in a few days, and root beer colored eyes. His face is masculine with broad features and a square chin. And while he does sound like my gargoyle, his baritone isn't quite as rumbly.

  I wonder again if I've made the whole trip to the sixth century up in my damaged brain.

  It's possible. Apparently, I've been unconscious for awhile and maybe I heard bits and pieces here and there, and maybe I heard the guy's name was Avisha and I somehow turned my rescuer into a gargoyle. Which is kind of weird, because in my childhood fantasies it was always a dragon in shiny armor and not a gargoyle doing the rescuing. But there's no accounting for our subconscious, I guess.

  Okay, so I'm obviously in a hospital, which of course means I'm in some serious trouble because the enemy will be at the gates any second now, right after the doctors enter my DNA into the database, which I'm sure happened right after I got here.

  Dammit, what part of "I don't want to go to a hospital" got missed?

  I know I told that naked dude I didn't want to go to the hospital. I do remember that. Jerk didn't listen, I guess. And that means that I need to get out of here as fast as possible.

  The DEE-men will be here any minute and I can't let them catch…

  "Where's my sister?" I practically yell when my brain finally kicks into gear and I remember my sister again. I cringe at the pain, both physical and mental. My first thoughts when I woke up should have been of Carlie; but no, I was lying here thinking about how the mattress in the freaking hospital isn't as comfortable as the imaginary feather bed in my dreams.

  Gawd, I suck so much.

  The man reaches out to touch my hair like Bogdan was doing earlier and I cringe away from him. I sense his care and concern, but I don't know who the hell he is. He balls his hand into a fist and puts it on the bed. There's so much sadness coming from him at that point that it nearly takes my breath away.

  There's more, though. A lot more. I sense all the same feelings I had gotten from the Avisha of my dreams, the gargoyle. Care, concern, the consuming need to protect…and to love.

  But it's too much to process at the moment, especially when I have to get to my sister.

  "Lass, Carlie is fine," this version of Avisha tells me. I relax slightly, because if he were lying to me, he wouldn't know her real name. I never give anyone her real name.

  "Where is she?"

  The guy hesitates and I sense a feeling of indecision, like he doesn't want to tell me, but he can't lie to me.

  Interesting.

  He opens his hand and moves to smooth my hair again, but pauses, as if waiting for my reaction. I don't cringe this time and I can literally feel the relief coming from him…just because I allowed him to touch me.

  Really interesting.

  His hand runs down my head and then he curls his finger and slides it over my cheek. The touch is so much like my imaginary gargoyle's when he didn't want to nick me with his sharp claw that I have to swallow back the tears.

  More than anything, I wish my gargoyle had been real.

  "Carlie is still with Osgar, but she has managed to wrap his people around her wee finger, much as she did with my staff," he tells me with a half laugh.

  My confused frown must be enough to spur him on to tell me more. I'm seriously having a hard time figuring out what the hell is going on. Osgar? The dude I had called Maurice during his "kill the beast" attack of the gargoyle's fortress?

  How much of what I dreamed is true? I feel like Dorothy, waking up to find that I've dragged all the people around me into my weird unconscious fantasy thing.

  But wait…Carlie is with Osgar, that psycho who wanted to kill "the dragon and his witch?" How much of that part is true?

  Regardless of the pounding in my skull and the weakness I'm feeling, I managed to screech and sit up. I startle the other dude—Bogdan—who I forgot was even in the room when I grab the bed railing on his side and jerk on it. I want it down so I can get off the bed, get my clothes and get the hell out of here. I need to find my sister, pounding head be damned.

  There's a commotion outside the room's door and Bogdan rushes over to talk to whoever it is causing it. I assume the nurses heard me screeching and are coming to see what's going on.

  "Gwen, cease yer struggles," the man with Avisha's voice tells me sternly as he tries to get me to lie back down. I'm nearly hysterical with worry and I yell at him to quit bossing me around using Avisha's voice. Which is stupid, I know. But I can't stop my mouth.

  He has the freaking nerve to grin at me. "But lass, I am Avisha. 'Tis just that I be in my human form now."

  Okayyyyyy…does that mean the gargoyle was real? That has me stopping short and I look up at the guy. Up…I'm sitting on a bed that's raised quite a bit and the dude is so tall that I'm having to look up at him. A lot.

  I stare at him for a minute. I knew he was familiar, but I thought it was just because I'd had a brief interlude with him in the forest when he'd cradled me befor
e I passed out.

  But there's more to the guy than just that…he has Avisha's eyes. I don't mean that the human in front of me has reptile eyes with double eyelids, but they are the same color. He has some of the same expressions too.

  I feel like Belle at that moment, trying to picture Beast in the prince's face.

  What makes me realize that it really is my gargoyle standing in front of me, though, are the feelings coming from the guy. I finally really open my senses and I'm slammed by the same strong emotions that had always hit me whenever Avisha looked at me.

  "You're real?" I whisper and he laughs.

  "The very thing ye said to me when ye first confronted me as a gargoyle," he teases and I launch myself into his arms. Well, as best I can, considering there's still the stupid bed rail in between us. And an IV and monitor leads I hadn't noticed hanging off my body. It doesn't deter Avisha, though, and he plucks me off the bed to cradle me like a baby.

  I wrap my arms around his neck and I'm a little shocked when my arms actually fit around his neck, unlike my gargoyle's.

  "Now, something I have been denied for far too long," he whispers and then he leans down and kisses me. Really kisses me.

  Holy dancing dentures, Batman—can he kiss. Well, I mean, I guess he's good at it, since I don't have anything to judge it by. But I'm definitely not complaining.

  I forget everything at that moment—all my worries, my fears, the impossibility of my situation…it's all gone, simply because Avisha has his tongue in my mouth, counting my molars.

  I'm apparently some sort of snogging addict. Who knew?

  "I got them to…" the voice coming from the doorway to my hospital room trails off and then there's a cough.

  "Oops," Bogdan laughs.

  Avisha reluctantly peels his lips off of mine and grins at me. "We will continue this later, lass," he whispers and my hormones stand up and break into a vigorous cheer.

  Avi, Avi, he's our guy! If he can't do it, we're gonna cry!

  Pretty sure there were some backflips and a towering pyramid thrown in for good measure.

  Avisha turns to Bogdan and my eyes follow. For the first time, I really look at the guy. He is hands-down one of the best-looking dudes I've ever seen, especially with his cheeks reddened in the embarrassment of busting us tickling tonsils. Bogdan is standing just inside the door, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. I think that he looks more embarrassed than I am.

  My man—yeah, my man—sighs then. I am suddenly swamped with a feeling of insecurity coming from him and I realize with a start that Avisha is actually worried that I'm going to think Bogdan is better looking than him.

  Well, yeah, he is better looking. He's just as big as Avisha, maybe even a little more muscular, which is seriously crazy. Both of the dudes look like they could bench press a Peterbilt.

  Bogdan has long, wavy, thick black hair that falls just past his seriously broad shoulders. He looks up then and I'm startled to realize that his eyes are a gorgeous sparkling emerald color. High cheekbones, strong chin, straight nose, full lips, olive skin—his face is so perfect, an artist would give his firstborn in order to paint it.

  Avisha looks like a Viking, but this guy looks like a combination of all the best of the Mediterranean—Italian, Greek, Spanish, Arab, with a splash of the Pacific thrown in. Avisha's features by contrast are, well, harsh, to be honest. Bogdan's are almost too pretty to be a man's.

  Like Jason Momoa. Rugged, sexy, but damned pretty.

  He's seriously angelic-looking. Bogdan, not Jason. Which is ironic, considering Avisha actually is angelic—well, was. But he looks more gargoyle-y than angelic.

  Which suits me just fine.

  But the insecurity coming from my guy is almost heart-breaking as he stares at his brother who hasn't moved. Bogdan has a strange look on his face, like he's ashamed or something. It's almost as if Bogdan senses his brother's fears and doesn't know what to do about it. Oh wait…he doesn't just sense the fears, he knows exactly what Avisha is thinking.

  That's just so weird.

  I lay my hand on Avisha's cheek and turn him back to me. "You're way better looking to me," I whisper.

  I use my new ability to push what I'm feeling at him…appreciation, adoration, and yeah, love. My heart melts when Avisha's eyes crinkle at the corners and he leans down to kiss me again. Apparently, Bogdan hears me, though, and interrupts the kiss when he laughs.

  "Considerin' the lass didn't want me touchin' her and asked me for you—and I'm assumin' she meant your gnarly gargoyle—I'd say you don't have a thing to worry aboot, brother."

  Bogdan tips his head at me, and there's a twinkle in his eye and a smile twitching at his lips. I still sense only good from him. He's happy for his brother, apparently glad that he has a woman. But I feel envy coming from him too. I open my senses further, trying out my new and improved empathy.

  Apparently, I'm able to not only sense feelings now, but I can almost read minds. Sort of. More like feelings manifesting into thoughts, and what I'm getting from Bogdan is that he wishes he could find his own…mate?

  What the hell?

  I look back up at Avisha and start to ask him what that means, but Bogdan interrupts my train of thought when he looks over his shoulder toward the open door and for the first time I notice that we're right across from a nurses' station. I watch as he closes the door and my still-confused mind goes back to the DEE-men. And Carlie.

  The panic is back and I push against Avisha, who is an immovable wall, human or gargoyle.

  "I have to get out of here," I plead with him, "before they run my DNA." I can feel the tears threaten again as I nod toward the window, where busy nurses are rushing back and forth with their duties.

  "You don't need to fret aboot that, lass," Bogdan tells me as he lowers the rail on my bed and plops his butt down on the edge. Avisha turns us then so we can face the guy.

  "Avisha here told me you were concerned about DEE findin' you and I figured it was the global DNA database that had you worried, so I, ehm, I influenced the nurses to lose your information."

  Huh? Okayyyyyy, is the guy that good-looking that he can just charm the panties off the nurses so that they do his bidding? I mean, yeah, he is that good-looking, but come on…

  Bogdan laughs pretty loud and I cringe. I keep forgetting that he can read minds. My can feel my face turn beet red and can literally feel the heat coming off it.

  "I have a special ability to persuade people," he tells me, still laughing. Thankfully, he doesn't tell Avisha what I'd been thinking, about how good-looking he is. The big guy doesn't need any more reason to feel insecure. Bogdan winks at me then and I know he's in my head again.

  Stop reading my mind, dammit! I mentally yell at him and he coughs and grins. Dang, he's even better looking when he smiles like that. But he at least has the decency to look ashamed.

  "So, my sister?" I ask, changing the embarrassing subject.

  Bogdan sobers. "Avisha took me back to the sixth century the first time. He wanted to get back to you, so he just dumped me off," he explains with a shudder. "I definitely do not want to do that again. I completely forgot what it's like." He shudders again, being way over dramatic. He grins.

  "I can say that you really don't appreciate toilet paper until you've had to use birch leaves."

  Avisha growls a little and I laugh. Bogdan grins at him and continues his story. "It took a bit, but I found Osgar and his group of numpties in a cave near Ullapool. They had watchmen guardin' the entrance, but I found Sinon and had him go in for me."

  "Simon?" I interrupt.

  Avisha answers, "Nay, lass, Sinon. He's another brother. He can shift to the tiny furry creatures. We use him oft to espy the Fallen Immoral."

  "Aye," Bogdan says. "He scurried in as a wee mouse and checked on your sister. Carlie is fine, lass, and as Avi already told you, has managed to put everyone under her spell."

  I stiffen at that. "She's not a witch—" I don't get anything else out after that, becau
se Bogdan apparently caught what he said and changes it quickly.

  "I didn't mean that, Gwen," he says with his hands up facing me, as if to calm me.

  "I just meant that the wee lassie has an ability to win people over. She's an influencer. Osgar and his people are completely smitten by her. The lass is in no danger at all."

  I frown at that. I always thought that Carlie didn't have any special abilities, but then she's so young that it would be hard to tell, especially with something like having an influence over others. I mean, she's an adorable preschooler—who wouldn't want to cater to her every whim?

  But then my frown turns to a scowl that I direct at Bogdan, whose pretty green eyes widen at the sight. I stiffen against Avisha, who tightens his hold on me. I think he senses I'm about to launch myself right out of his arms and at his brother.

  "You just left her there?" I screech, then wince at the pain my own voice causes.

  I swear, Bogdan's face pales then, like the big guy is afraid of me. Good. He should be, because I'm about to open a can of whoop-ass on him.

  He puts his hands up in surrender this time. "Lass, I had to leave her. I couldn't fight four dozen men on my own as a man, and as a gargoyle, there was too much danger of Carlie gettin' hurt in the process."

  Avisha moves me so he's holding me with just one arm—seriously, he's holding all one hundred whatever pounds of my body with just one arm—and he runs his free hand over my hair.

  "'Tis all right, lass. I have been back to check on Carlie. I just came from there and she's fine. As Bogdan said, she has charmed all of Osgar's people. Osgar himself dotes on the wee lass, somethin' I thought the man didnae have in him."

  "And Sinon wants to stay with her," Bogdan adds. "He said when he's able, he'll shift to a man and tell her that you're safe and that we'll take her to you as soon as we can."

  Avisha sighs so heavily that I'm actually lifted with the movement. He turns and places me back on the bed and puts both hands on my shoulders. When he leans forward to look me directly in the eye, I know I'm not going to like what he has to say.