by E A Price
“Well if you will display him like a prized trophy,” snorted Blackthorne disdainfully.
He was a trophy. The beast had killed some of her ancestors in battle, and her family had crowed over the fact that he was now nothing more than an ornament to them. Adelaide almost liked his presence; it made her feel pleased to look at him in such a subservient pose to her.
“I suppose I will have him moved.”
“Do, and I’ll speak to Bell about this… problem you’re having.”
Adelaide almost snapped at him. Her problem? She fumed inwardly. If there was any problem, it was caused by his lackadaisical security team!
“The council also need to meet to vote on a new council member.”
“Yes, of course,” she murmured.
Adler’s death had left a hole to be filled. Traditionally there needed to be five members of the council, and they needed to find his replacement. Adler had been a strange addition, but there had been no other living Noir Clan descendant to fill the place. He had no magical ability, but rather an obsession with supernatural beings and a zeal for manipulating life. Of course, his inclusion into the council all happened when Adelaide was still a young girl. She could only imagine whom Blackthorne had lined up now.
“You know you really ought to consider your own mortality,” he said thoughtfully.
“I beg your pardon?” Unease washed through her.
“You are the last of your clan, you really need to consider your own succession.”
“I thought that would be a moot point once we finally achieved our goal,” she griped.
“Yes, but, anything can happen between now and then.”
With that, he hung up, leaving Adelaide to wonder vaguely whether that was a threat. She hung up and stared at Rex. It did not matter. For now, she had bigger things to worry about.
Twenty-One
Melissa and Colt tried and failed miserably to get a warrant for Morgain Pharmaceuticals. The judge was adamant they didn’t have enough evidence. Maybe they didn’t, but the judge turned them down before he even read through the information they gave him. They smelled a rat.
Instead, they had spent the rest of their Saturday trying to interview anyone they could about their two victims, and it amounted to bupkis. No one seemed to know anything about either of them. The answer was always the same – they kept to themselves and didn’t seem to go out much. Though, they did manage to dig up something about their nurse. Apparently, years ago, she had served a jail sentence for manslaughter. She turned up drunk for one of her shifts, and a patient died in her care. No hospital would hire her after that, which is probably why she was working for Morgain. As for Dr. Addams, she seemed entirely elusive.
They had parted company tired and cranky and entirely unhappy with the progress they had made. On returning home, Melissa was immediately set upon by five crabby, hungry cats. They were used to Melissa being around more on a Saturday and didn’t take too kindly to the interruption to their schedule.
After they were fed and each enjoyed an ear scratch, Melissa grabbed a soda and stared out of her window. It was not long until sunset; Gracchus would arrive soon. Unless he decided to leave as he had been threatening to do. Naw, he wouldn’t do that – he was far too classy. But as she chewed her lip, she thought it might be a good idea to take temptation away from him.
Melissa grabbed her jacket and headed out the door.
*
“Bingo!”
Gracchus slowly returned to wakefulness. An annoyingly familiar voice, dragging him from slumber better than sunset ever could.
“Bingo, where are you? I can’t believe it! Another dog and we’ve already lost him!”
The female known as Clara was berating her equally irritating mate again.
“I don’t know why you’re yelling at me – I effing well know that he’s run away! I was right beside you when it happened!”
It appeared that they had abandoned the search for their original dog and obtained a replacement, a creature named Bingo – which they had also now lost. Though, given their bickering, Gracchus had to believe the dogs purposefully ran away and were wise enough not to return.
“I told you taking him for a walk was a bad idea.”
“Well, I told you not to take him off the leash.”
“Oh ho! Playing the blame game are we?”
“You started it!”
Gracchus almost considered it was worth revealing himself if only to howl at them to quiet down. He found his temper and patience unusually piqued at that moment. It was not like him at all. But his day had been filled with whirling dreams of his late mate, and of Melissa. He was angry at himself because he wanted to be with Melissa, but because he couldn’t quite let go of his mate. He was mad at his father for insisting on the arranged mating in the first place, and then even madder at himself for not protecting her as a good mate would. That then led to other concerns. What if he were able to take Melissa for a mate? Would he be a poor mate again? What made him think he was any more equipped to be a good mate than he was before? Would Melissa even want him as a mate?!
He drowned out the nearing argument and carefully breathed in, not moving too much as to arouse suspicion should one of them see him.
Gracchus almost snapped his eyes open in shock. Melissa. He could scent her; she was there. Her fresh, beautiful, flowery scent invaded his senses, making his heart damn well sing.
“Oh hey,” said Clara.
“Hello,” murmured the dulcet tones of Melissa.
He cursed himself as his wings quivered at hearing her sweet voice. There was no squawk from Clara or garbled yelp from her mate, so Gracchus assumed his movement had gone undetected.
“Cool, statue, huh?” said Clara. “I walk past it every time we’re walking our dog.”
That should probably be ‘dogs’ thought Gracchus wearily. Whosever allowed them to adopt or buy their dogs should really stop.
The male, Jimmy, audibly snorted, presumably to purposefully annoy Clara. It worked as well, not that she appeared to need much prompting as to that reaction.
“Don’t be an idiot,” she hissed.
“It’s just a dumb piece of rock!”
“You’re a dumb piece of rock!” snapped Clara.
Her insult did not make much sense, though Gracchus was appreciative of her attempt to defend him. Their bickering voices started to fade, and he inhaled sharply as he felt a hand on his arm.
“They’re gone,” murmured Melissa.
“I can still hear them,” muttered Gracchus somewhat regretfully.
His eyes flickered open, and he smiled at the small female standing before him. She smiled in return, and he grasped her hands.
“You are well this evening, Melissa?”
“I am indeed well. I mean, yeah sure.” She giggled. “Your fancy way of talking is infectious.”
His tail flicked to and fro as he enjoyed the sound of her laughter. He found himself, and his worries inordinately eased just by her mere presence.
“How did you find me here?”
Melissa shrugged. “I investigate things for a living, remember?”
He puffed out his chest proudly. “You are indeed talented.”
“Umm, not really. I’m pretty mediocre at investigating, I set off in the direction I saw you fly into a couple of nights ago and figured you’d be in the park, I just got lucky when I heard that girl mention a huge statue – when she wasn’t yelling at her boyfriend, of course.”
“You are not mediocre in anything you do, Melissa Sanchez.”
He raised her hands to his lips and kissed both of them. Her eyes widened, and he could scent her burgeoning lust for him. He was amazed that such a lovely, young creature would feel anything of the sort for him.
Her dazed, happy smile started to wilt. “I wish we could just go back to my apartment and talk and umm,” her cheeks reddened, “other stuff, but I think we’re going to have other plans when you hear about my day.”
&nb
sp; “Indeed?”
His tail flicked uneasily, mildly concerned at what she was about to tell him. His dreams of the day had not exclusively been centered on his own self-loathing. No, he had also been worried about Melissa potentially being in the company of the male who had tried to kiss her. He understood it was hypocritical that he should wish Melissa to spurn the male’s romantic advances, while Gracchus was not sure that he could foresee a future with her, but he could not help himself.
For once, he felt like his daytime sleep was a hindrance. He felt that he was losing out on something by not being awake during the day. Which he was – he was losing that time with Melissa. For the first time, he honestly wondered how his fellow clan mates coped when they were forced to sleep, and their human mates were free to roam around and potentially spend time with other handsome humans.
“Colt and I…” she started, but that was as far as she got.
“Colt?” rumbled Gracchus, his wings wavering in irritation.
Melissa gave him a pretty pout. “Yes,” she said simply, “Colt. My partner, Colt, my fellow agent, Colt, my friend who knows I’m not in any way interested in him and is fine with it, Colt, and I were trying to make some progress on our cases today.”
“Hmmm,” he grunted, mildly mollified by her words.
“And I saw something very interesting…”
Twenty-Two
Melissa paced the alley, pretending she didn’t see that disgusting thing she couldn’t even bear to name over by the dumpster. It may have been a rat in a past life but now…. Euw! She endeavored not to breathe through her nose – the alley was all eau de urine and garbage. She also tried not to touch anything – she didn’t really even want her shoes touching the ground.
Her eyes flickered every ten seconds upwards, impatiently and worriedly waiting for Gracchus to return. She had told him of the gargoyle she saw at Ms. Marsters office, and Gracchus had been concerned and eager to find out if he was an actual living gargoyle. He was currently flying up there to see if he could tell if he was through the window.
The building was locked tight for the night, and given that the statue itself had security, Melissa had to assume the rest of the office did too, and she just didn’t have the skills to Zeta-Jones herself into stealing it.
Melissa froze as two cars hurtled towards the building, skidding as they pulled up outside.
Crud. They weren’t cop cars; she grudgingly supposed that was something. Nope, they were black SUVs and private security. Melissa chewed on her lip. Someone must have tripped an alarm. What was the chance it was someone other than Gracchus?
Melissa sidled into the shadows of the alley, holding her breath as she was forced to hug the wall. Well, she wasn’t really that attached to her clothes.
She stilled as she recognized one of the burly men getting out of the SUVs. He had a cruel sneer on his face that she would know anywhere. She had arrested him a couple of months back. She had a tip-off from her friend, Chris – where Chris got his information she had no idea – but the male had been armed to the teeth with illegal weapons and apparently intent on trapping or killing something when she and about twenty tactical officers turned up.
Melissa still didn’t really know what had been happening out there – the man clammed up and wouldn’t say a word in his defense. His name was Bale or Ball or… Bell! It was Bell. She had lost track of his case, but apparently, he had been released. So, what was he doing there? It was a strange coincidence and not one that rested easy with her. Actually, come to think of it, he had said he was hunting gargoyles when she arrested him… Huh. She just hadn’t believed him and then he gave her the silent treatment.
She gasped as she heard the faint wail of an alarm. Bell froze for a second and than ran towards the building. Melissa glanced upwards.
“C’mon, Gracchus,” she muttered, wishing she had some way to communicate with him.
Gracchus was easily the larger man, and she was sure he was stronger, but she already knew that Bell was fond of guns and weapons of every kind. Plus, she had seen Bell’s army file – she had never seen so much black marker all in one place, and people didn’t use a black marker on good things. No one would ever black mark the fact that Bell had once saved fifty nuns, twenty-eight knitting grandmas and seventeen orphaned puppies from a burning building.
She flinched, almost squeaking in alarm as she heard gunshots from above her. Oh no, Gracchus! Were they shooting at him? They had to be!
Melissa started as Gracchus dropped onto the ground behind her with a small thud.
“Gracchus, I…”
“We must go,” he growled urgently.
“Oh ah…”
He pulled her to him, and she clamped her body to his, wrapping her arms and legs around him as far as she could like a limpet. She found flying easier when plastered against his chest. She felt more secure that way, and it was easier to bury her face in his neck.
Melissa clamped a little tighter as she felt him hurriedly climbing the building. His thick claws pierced the stone as he climbed, trying to get some leverage, and then a couple of seconds later, he jumped, and they were flying.
Gracchus ran a comforting hand down her back as she whimpered both at the cold and her fear of falling.
“What happened?” she asked, muffled against his neck.
“Patience,” rumbled Gracchus, “I must get you somewhere safe.”
Melissa murmured in agreement and tried her best to enjoy the rest of the ride.
*
Gracchus carefully set Melissa on her feet, but he held onto one of her hands. That had been close – too close.
Melissa, still a little green from their impromptu flight, raised an eyebrow slightly. “A church?”
Yes, he had chosen to land on the roof of a church. He hoped it was still a beacon of sanctuary as it had been a long time ago. Even in his time, when gargoyles were known and feared, holy men had been kind to them. Though, he was not sure whether anyone would still be willing to do the same. He had wanted to get out of the sky as quickly as possible, and he could not wait to get to Melissa’s apartment. Also, he had not known if anyone was following him and he needed to find out before leading them to Melissa’s home.
His tail flicked erratically as he scanned the surrounding area, searching and listening for danger. Everything seemed quiet.
“What happened?” she asked, concern marring her pretty face.
“I was outside the window. I could see the gargoyle – he is one of us. I…” Gracchus hissed at himself in disgust. “I touched the window, wanting to get closer, to see if perhaps I knew the male. That is when the alarm sounded, and humans appeared in the room. They… they saw me,” he growled through gritted teeth. “Then they started shooting through the glass at me.”
Melissa made a sound of worry. “You weren’t hit, were you?”
She tried to inspect him, her human eyes squinting in the darkness.
“No, not hit.”
Just seen he added silently, cursing himself for being so hasty. He had endangered his clan, and now that they had seen him, who knows what they may do to the sleeping gargoyle.
“Thank goodness,” murmured Melissa.
She pressed her body against his in a hug, and Gracchus gathered her into his arms, lifting her against him and burying his nose in her sweet smelling hair. Her lips brushed against his neck, and the feel of her supple body eased his worry. Just being near her helped. Her presence, the feel of her against him, made him think that everything would be okay, that no matter the odds he would win, even if it weren’t true.
Melissa tensed slightly in his arms, and she pulled back slightly to look at him. “Before the alarm, some security guys turned up. I mean, I suppose it’s feasible that they were there for another reason – it’s a large building, and there are other companies with offices on other floors.”
Gracchus grunted, and his wings shivered in concern. “But you don’t think so?”
“No, because I r
ecognized one of them. His name is Bell.”
She recounted how she had arrested him a couple of months back. “I got a tip from a friend of mine – Chris.”
“Chris,” repeated Gracchus with a growl. Of course; Chris had Melissa arrest the men who had kidnapped Ric, though Chris could not confide in Melissa at the time that the male had abducted a gargoyle.
Melissa gave him a shrewd look. “That’s no coincidence, right? Does Chris know about gargoyles?”
He clearly hesitated too long because Melissa’s jaw gaped and she pushed away from him completely. Reluctantly, he let her go and watched uneasily as she paced the roof for a couple of beats.
“Did Chris send you to my apartment that night?” she asked, her expression simmering between uncertainty, curiosity and a little anger.
Gracchus shifted his wings awkwardly. “I was asked to watch you to assess whether you could be trusted with the secret of our existence or not.”
“Watch me?”
In his defense, it had sounded better in his head. He took a step toward her. “You must understand, our situation is difficult, we do not know who we can trust.”
Melissa mulled that over. “No wonder you just showed up like that. You were watching me.”
Even to Gracchus that sounded creepy. “I merely…”
She tilted her head to the side. “So you saw someone come into my apartment and you leaped into action?”
“Yes, I…”
“Even though you weren’t sure I wouldn’t scream or call the cops or worse?”
“Well, I…”
“You risked yourself and your clan for me?”
Gracchus’ reply died in his throat at the sudden softening of her tone, and the way her eyes glimmered.
A beatific smiled spread across her face, and she put her hands on his chest. “Gracchus, I’m touched.”
He found himself unusually tongue-tied. “Oh, ah, it was nothing,” he finally managed to grind out.
“Hardly,” she cooed. “You had no idea how I would have reacted to you.”
Gracchus found his composure returning and placed his hands on her hips, drawing her nearer and wrapping his wings around her.
