by E A Price
Apparently, her mother had already visited once that day but had returned with a new toothbrush for Melissa – citing that the one she had was not adequate for removing plaque.
Gracchus understood that human mothers could be quite smothering, though he had not witnessed such a display up close before – even if it was through a door. Average gargoyle mothers tended to care little for their offspring until they were of a useful age – until they could lift their first weapon. Then they were old enough to train to fight. Even then his own parents had not taken much interest in Gracchus – they had only reclaimed him as a son after his first kill. Gracchus had been more of a parent to his younger brother than either of their actual parents.
Though, it did not appear that it would be quite the same in his new clan. The female gargoyle, Ingrede was born and raised by gargoyles, and yet since the first, she had been protective and doting towards her son. Cai, her mate, was more caring than the average gargoyle father too. Perhaps they were being influenced by the humans. Or maybe with the realization that there were so few of them in the world, they understood that each and every gargoyle had to be cherished.
Gracchus did envy Cai. The male had managed to keep his mate and his child safe, and soon they would have another youngling. Gracchus wished he had taken the same care with his own mate. His chest tightened, and he raised his eyes to the door as if he could see Melissa through it.
“Missy, you’re going to die an old maid!” scolded her mother.
“Mom, I’m thirty-one!”
“I have the perfect man for you…”
Gracchus huffed and flicked his tail impatiently. It whipped out and hit one of the many piles of newspapers, making it topple to the floor.
“What was that?” called her mother.
“Just one of the cats,” said Melissa hurriedly.
Gracchus braced himself, cursing his momentary loss of control as the voices came closer.
“Are you sure, I…”
“Mom,” sighed Melissa, her voice right outside the door, “I’m serious, I have work to do.”
There was a quiet pause before her mother finally acquiesced. “Okay, fine, I’ll go. I’m just your mother, what do I matter? I just want to make sure you’re happy and have everything you need.”
Her voice trailed away, but Gracchus heard the exasperated huff from Melissa.
He listened carefully, and after a long drawn out goodbye, the door to the apartment closed, and Melissa damn near ran back to the bedroom, ripping the door open.
“I’m sorry,” she said as he said, “I apologize, Melissa.”
She frowned. “Why are you sorry?”
His tail flicked at the pile he had destroyed.
Melissa waved her hand. “It’s fine; I’m surprised you didn’t knock more over.”
“Why are you sorry?” he asked as they made their way back to the living room and their now cold food.
He noted Melissa had removed his plate from the coffee table. Gracchus watched in amusement as she pulled it out from under the TV stand – where he guessed she had quickly hidden it from prying eyes - he supposed two plates would have been noted as odd by her sharp-eyed mother.
“I’m sorry about my mother. She’s kind of…” Melissa winced as she searched for the correct word. “Invasive.”
“But you care about her,” he noted as he resumed his position on the couch, carefully folding his wings behind him and allowing the cats to regain their various perches.
She would have to care about her, in order to allow her bossiness to prevail. Gargoyles were respectful of their elders but were not silent or passive in the face of such bossiness.
“You are relieved she is gone.”
Melissa hesitated. “I love her, but,” she shook her head, “my mother just doesn’t understand me. She wants me to be like her and get married and have kids, and be a stay at home mom – but I know I don’t want that.”
Gracchus rumbled and started eating. The food was still good, even if it wasn’t quite so piping hot. Perhaps Melissa was meant for something else…
“Do you have any family?” she asked tentatively.
He paused before carefully replying, “I have my clan.”
That was as much as he had told her of his current situation. Eventually, she would learn everything, but for the time being, he could not tell her more.
“But no family of your own?” she pressed. ‘What about your parents?”
He thought of his brother Aleck. Both his parents had died long before the curse, and he had never been very close to them. He did wish that he might see Aleck again one day – they fought side by side for so long.
“Gargoyle families are not quite the same as humans. Traditionally, we do not raise our young in the same way. They are given over to the clan for training at a young age.”
Though he doubted it would be the same from now on. He could not imagine even Luc being able to pry away baby Wolfe from either Ingrede or Cai. Not to mention Luc’s own youngling who would be part human. Their traditions would need to change and adapt to keep up with the new world they found themselves in.
Gracchus could adapt. He was not as young as he once was, but he could, as he once heard, ‘roll with the punches.’
He had to stay strong. He remembered his father saying those words to him in lieu of condolences when he lost his mate. His father had paid him little heed as a child, and only taken a grunting interest when Gracchus proved formidable in battle, so when Gracchus was at his lowest ebb, the only words his father had were, ‘stay strong, no son of mine would show any weakness.’
“That sounds fascinating, I…”
“You have some questions about that?” he correctly guessed, giving her a wry smile.
Melissa blushed and giggled in a musical way that nearly made him choke on a piece of chicken. The sound vibrated through his body, and he found himself riveted to the sweet expression on her face.
Perhaps other traditions would change too he thought desperately. Traditionally, no gargoyle may mate twice. After they lost their mate that was it – they were alone. Maybe…
Gracchus banished that thought. Maybe things had to change, but that didn’t mean they should abandon all their traditions. It was in place to honor their mates – to show how important they were. Just because he found himself faced with a charming human, could he really toss their tradition aside? He was uneasy to find that he wasn’t sure.
Eleven
“Anything?”
“Huh?”
Melissa snapped to attention and closed the drawer she had been searching. “Umm, no, just medical supplies. She was a doctor, right? I guess it’s not so unusual that she would have some.”
“She had a PhD in some kind of zoology, but maybe she was just accident prone,” replied Colt as he dropped to the floor and looked under her bed.
They were searching their victim’s apartment. They had tried to re-interview their witness, but she was not at home, not at work, and they couldn’t get hold of any of her family. It appeared they had just left town. There seemed to be clothes and suitcases missing, but most of their belongings were still at their house. However, none of their neighbors knew anything about them leaving town, or their workmates and bosses. If it was a vacation, it was an impromptu vacation.
Since that was a dead end, they were looking into their victim. She had no next of kin, and didn’t seem to be on social media – even her neighbors knew very little about her. They were currently searching their victim’s apartment - her very swanky penthouse apartment.
“How could she have afforded this place?” wondered Melissa staring at the view.
“Maybe she invested her money,” suggested Colt.
“Yeah, investment – gotta get me some of that,” murmured Melissa tugging open the closet door.
She ought to be throwing herself into the case. She ought to be interested in it. There were weird factors about it that should pique her curiosity – the missing w
itness, the fact that the witness was adamant she saw a monster and now the fact that the witness had disappeared. But what was she thinking about? Her big green night time visitor of course.
He had seemed so sad when she talked about family. Melissa had wanted to reach out and comfort him, hold him. Would she have been welcome though? What would it have been like to be held in his massive arms? She shivered as she thought about it. Would she be welcome in his arms?
At least she had managed to elicit a real smile from him last night. It had been dazzling. She wished she had taken a picture so she could see it again – not that she was likely to forget any time soon.
Maybe she should try taking some pictures of him. Would he be okay with that? Would he trust her enough to do it?
Colt grunted, bringing her back to the present and she leafed through the garments, trying to remember that they had a victim that deserved justice, and also who may or may not have been killed by a werewolf or something similar.
Melissa stepped into the closet and frowned. She lifted her foot up and down a few times.
“You found something.”
Colt appeared at her elbow making her yelp.
“Jeez,” she muttered, “you move way too quickly and way too quietly.”
He gave her a small smirk and gently grasped her elbow, pulling her away. Colt kneeled and pulled back the carpet in the closet, revealing a small floor safe.
“Good catch,” he murmured.
“Oh, it was just luck,” mumbled Melissa, feeling mildly guilty at how little enthusiasm she had been putting into the search.
She stepped back into the bedroom and dug out her cell. “I’ll call technical support; maybe they can get one of those little cranes in here – what do you call them? – to pull it out of the…”
Melissa’s mouth dropped open as Colt, seemingly with very little trouble, dragged the thing out of the floor and dumped it on the bed.
“Are you Superman?” she asked seriously. “I mean I know I asked you before, but are you Superman?”
Colt smiled politely but seemed almost embarrassed by the question. “It was nothing – it wasn’t even fitted into the floor.” He coughed to change the subject. “I saw some diaries over here – maybe she wrote the combination down.”
“You think she was that careless?” asked Melissa walking over to the safe. She gave the beast of a safe an experimental push – she couldn’t even make the thing wobble. The bed – which had a metal frame - also seemed to be buckling under the weight of it.
She looked at her partner’s back. Maybe he lifted weights in his spare time she thought, though she couldn’t deny a small feeling of – what? Unease? No, more like curiosity.
Melissa walked over to the bookshelf, peering at the dust marks. She found the book that had the least dust in front of it and pulled it out – it was a well-thumbed copy of The Were-wolf. Melissa ignored how tragic that was and flicked through the contents. At the back, there were some handwritten entries – numbers which were probably pin numbers and passcodes.
“I think I have something.”
Colt strode over to her, and she handed him the book.
He peered at it and smiled. “Nicely done.” Then he looked at the cover of the book and grimaced.
After a couple of tries, they found the right combination and the safe opened right on up. The contents were… not very illuminating. There were some stocks and bonds and some jewelry, but not much else.
“There’s a key,” said Melissa, triumphantly holding it up.
Colt raised an eyebrow. “Spare key to the apartment?”
Melissa compared the two. “No, too different. We didn’t see any locked doors in here did we?”
“No. Let me see.”
He peered at it carefully. “There’s some writing on it.”
“There is?” Melissa tried squinting, but at best all she could see was a kind of smudge.
“Yep.” Colt brought it up close enough to his eye that it was almost touching. “Says Midnight View. That’s a building down town, right?”
“Yeah, it’s one of the oldest in the city. Rents are mega expensive because it’s an historical building.” Melissa swiped the key off him, but no matter how hard she looked at it, she couldn’t see any writing. Maybe it was time for an eye test. “Are you sure about the writing?”
“Sure am.” He put the other contents of the safe into evidence bags. “Let’s go check it out.”
*
“Okay thanks,” murmured Colt into his phone.
“Who was that?” panted Melissa, trailing behind him.
She peered over the railing, and while they had put quite a few floors between them and the ground, as she gazed up, she noted that there were quite a few to go.
“Forensic accountant,” replied Colt, who apparently was having absolutely no trouble with the stairs. His breathing didn’t even seem labored – and he had been talking on his phone for the last three floors!
Why on earth their victim needed to rent an office on the twentieth floor of a building that had no elevators she had no idea!
He stopped to talk to her, and she was glad of the reprieve.
“I asked Morgan to look into her finances.”
“Morgan?” repeated Melissa wonderingly. Apparently, she should know who that is.
“Yeah, Morgan – from the fourth floor.”
Melissa racked her brain – which wasn’t easy because they were so high up already that the air was getting thin. But, it finally dawned on her.
“You mean, Mean Morgan Green!” she spluttered.
The woman was the terror of the fourth floor. Heavens knew what she did all day because whenever anyone – anyone whatsoever – asked her to do anything, she snapped and snarled at them that she was far too busy. Melissa didn’t witness it, but she heard that Morgan once made a delivery guy cry.
Colt chuckled. “I hardly think she’s mean.”
“No, not to you,” huffed Melissa.
He raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“Well, I just mean that things are different when… ah…” Melissa gulped in embarrassment as he watched her expectantly. “Things are different when you look like you!” she finished in heated embarrassment.
Colt laughed. “I hardly think you can complain.”
“What do you mean?”
He waved a finger up and down her body. “Considering how you look.”
“How I look?” Melissa frowned and looked herself up and down. Same short body wrapped in a boxy blazer that was always there.
“Yeah, you should have seen the way those detectives were looking at you the other day.” His amusement dried up as he remembered. “The two of them were leering at you.”
Melissa scrunched her nose as an awkward silence descended. She’d worked with other agents back before she was assigned to the weird department, but usually, they had been women or much older men. She’d never found herself in a position where both she and her partner had just admitted to one another that they found each other attractive.
The idea that Colt thought of her in that way was, frankly, surprising. But, he was only human. She should be flattered. However, she couldn’t help but think of Gracchus. Somehow, she felt disloyal. Which was crazy – it wasn’t like Gracchus was her boyfriend or anything! Melissa could only imagine her family’s reaction if she brought him over for Sunday night dinner!
“Umm, so what did Not-Quite-So-Mean Morgan Green say?”
His eyes seemed to flash, but his mildly good mood returned. “Well, apparently, our victim was pretty wealthy. She used to be a part time lecturer at a community college, but she stopped working four years ago and has been receiving large amounts of money from a corporation called Evermore ever since.”
“Evermore? What do they do?”
“Nothing as far as Morgan can tell. They seem to be a dummy corporation, for another shell company, for a holding company…”
Melissa waved her hand. “I get the gist.
Where do all the breadcrumbs lead?”
“To a company called Morgain Industries. Apparently, they manufacture pharmaceuticals.”
“Well, maybe she worked for them, and that was her pension.”
Colt chuckled. “If that was her pension, then I am definitely in the wrong career.”
“Hmm, maybe they were paying her off. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s connected to her death.”
Still, it was worth looking into – if she was blackmailing someone, then it was worth finding out the reason why she was blackmailing them.
He looked at her patiently. “Ready for the last five flights.”
“Sure,” she muttered.
Hot, sweaty and thoroughly irritated, she made it to the top floor and thankfully – because she really would have been pissed if it hadn’t – the key allowed them entry into a large office space. In fact, it was the only office on the floor, and in spite of how large it was only one small desk occupied the area. It was in the corner of the room, near the impressive balcony windows.
Melissa pulled off her boxy blazer and dropped it on the floor – it would need dry cleaning anyway – while she walked around wafting her blouse to try and cool herself.
“Nice view,” she muttered, and as she looked at the extensive balcony, she thought of Gracchus. It would be so easy for him to land and walk on in if she lived there. Her own small metal balcony – usually just home to dying plants that Melissa was sure could definitely be saved with ‘a bit of sunshine’ – wasn’t faring well given his now nightly visits. Melissa was sure it was about to fall off.
“She paid cash to rent this place,” said Colt as he made his way to the desk.
“It’s clear she didn’t want anyone to know about it. But from what I can see, she kind of lived like a hermit anyway.”
A hermit with a great apartment, but still.
“Holy sh… Look at all this.”
Melissa walked over to the desk and stopped short as she noticed the pictures pinned to the boards on the wall. Some were photos, and some were hand-drawn, but the subject of them all was the same – they were all of gargoyles.
