by E A Price
Idly, she wondered what it would be like one day when they had kids – if they had kids. Oh, she had a few questions about that, but not tonight. No, they had the rest of their lives for that, and it was going to be beautiful.
Thirty-Four
A few weeks later
Gracchus paced to and fro, wearing the already thin carpet even thinner.
“Relax, she’ll be here soon,” said Chris, unusually amused by Gracchus’ nervous impatience.
Gracchus grunted. Yes, she would. He didn’t doubt her word for a moment, but he would not settle until she was by his side. Tonight, they would officially mate. Luc would bless their union, and she would be his. Really, she already was his, but being mated in front of his clan was something he needed.
Grey humphed. “Another gargoyle at the beck and call of a female,” he sneered.
“Don’t be mean,” said Annis from her perch on Chris’ lap.
Grey opened his mouth to retort, but on seeing Chris’ glare, he merely grumbled about doing some training and stomped out of the room.
Gracchus continued his pacing, moving with more alacrity as his impatience soared, wrapping his tail and wings around him lest he destroy any furniture. Kylie was already despairing at the many accidents caused by wings and tails in the house.
His mate was coming. His excitement also started to rise.
It would not always be feasible for him and Melissa to spend every night together. At times, she would need to be in Portland, and he would need to be with his clan, but he would be grateful for whatever time they could manage together. One day, he believed they could be together always, but not yet.
He had been away from his clan for weeks, and truthfully, he was relieved to be back. He was accustomed to falling asleep amongst his clan, and he preferred it to waking to a nondescript part of a public park. Though, Melissa’s spare bedroom did have its charms.
Gracchus was surprised at how much had happened while he was away. Three new gargoyles had been found and woken – that was six new clan mates including those they had found in Portland. Tristan and Castor had both found mates, and Brom had managed to persuade his mate and daughter to move into the mansion. Ophelia and Lief had both been killed while trying to hurt Castor’s mate. Not to mention the fact that the local doctor appeared to be in league with Blackthorne.
Colt had met with Luc while Gracchus was still in Portland and discussed everything that happened with Marsters. He supposed that now both Colt and Melissa would be working with them. There was some disbelief that Blackthorne possibly could resurrect Morgan Le Fay, but, well, Marsters had been sure enough to make them all uneasy. Then there was the matter of the gargoyle he had fought in Portland – who knows where the male was now. In all the hubbub, the matter of the gargoyle had been overlooked, but it was still a concern.
“Gurgh!”
Gracchus stopped his movements and looked over at Ingrede and her newborn son, Fox. She made cooing noises at the youngling that reminded Gracchus of a pigeon, but the sound was nonetheless endearing. Fox was trying to eat his way through a teething ring. He smiled wondering whether younglings were in his future.
His head jerked as he heard a vehicle and amid the chuckles of his clan mates, he ran outside the house to find Melissa getting out of a car.
She giggled in delight when she saw him, and he swooped her into his arms. They kissed and hugged and he thoroughly cocooned her in his wings as she told him how much she missed him.
“Hey, I’m here too,” said Colt.
Gracchus looked up briefly to nod at Colt. He seemed a decent enough male, though Gracchus doubted he would ever truly warm to him. He could accept the male for who he was – beast man and all, holding grudges against an entire species would be easy but not reasonable, and Gracchus did not feel as angry about the beast men as he once did. Gracchus would always mourn his first mate, but he would not let that get in the way of the joy he could find with his second mate. But as for Colt, the male had tried to kiss Melissa and was therefore lucky that he didn’t get a battle-ax to the head.
Colt chuckled and wandered away as Melissa giggled. “Cut him some slack, honey.”
“Humph.”
“I mean, he…” Melissa’s voice trailed off as she caught sight of something over his shoulder. “Oh, my word!”
She wriggled until Gracchus reluctantly let go of her and he watched in interest as she ran over to where Annis was standing shyly.
Melissa bounced up and down excitedly. “A female gargoyle! A female gargoyle!” she squealed.
“Indeed,” agreed Gracchus joining her – there was no point denying it. “This is Annis.”
Annis held up a hand but could not get a word out.
“I’m Melissa,” gushed Melissa. “Oh wow! I have so many questions for you!”
Annis looked mildly alarmed, and Gracchus gave her a reassuring look. Melissa’s curiosity had not dimmed at all.
“You are so beautiful,” said Melissa sincerely.
“Oh I don’t know about that,” murmured Annis, blushing to the very tip of her tail.
“No, you are, you’re incredible!”
“Couldn’t agree more,” said Chris, walking up behind Annis and slipping an arm around her waist.
Annis blushed even more and gave him an adoring look.
Melissa looked between the two of them, realized this was Chris’ mate, and then punched Chris on the shoulder. “You dog! I can’t believe you kept this a secret from me!”
He laughed though he rubbed his shoulder and winced slightly. For someone so small, she was no lightweight.
“If you are impressed by me,” said Annis slightly self-consciously, “then you will enjoy meeting our younglings.”
“Baby gargoyles – yes I can’t wait. Lead the way!”
Chris and Annis moved towards the house, but Gracchus caught Melissa’s hand, holding her back.
“Am I to be ignored by my mate?” he teased.
“Never,” she giggled. “Let’s have the ceremony, and then just let me get out about, oh, forty or fifty questions to your clan mates and then we can enjoy ourselves.”
Gracchus threw back his head, roaring with laughter. How lucky he was to have found another mate, and one that he adored beyond belief. For the first time in a long time, he was looking toward the future with hope and happiness.
“You are perfect, my mate,” he purred.
“I love you,” she cooed.
“Hmmm, ditto.”
*
Danica pushed her hands deep into her pockets and crept through the garden, praying no one was around. It wasn’t that she didn’t like other people… actually no it was exactly that. She didn’t like being around other people. Other than Allen, she had barely ever spent any time with anyone since she was six. Well, apart from Jax, but he was gone now. She wasn’t used to being around people, and they made her uneasy, mostly because she knew they were scared of her, and that upset her and when she was upset…
It didn’t matter anyway. Nobody wanted her here. She had no reason to stay. They could all see she didn’t fit in – and why would she? They only cared about the gargoyle clan. She was just a freak to them. Yeah, even amongst a bunch of gargoyles she was still the odd one out. Not that she cared. She was going to leave any day now.
Danica stilled as she heard a sound to her left. She waited for a moment or two, but there were no other sounds, and she started moving again only to be knocked to the ground amid a cavalcade of slobber, barks and tail wagging.
“Oh, Bob!” exclaimed Danica as she tried to shield herself from the hot licks of the shaggy mutt.
Right, there was actually one creature who couldn’t get enough of her. He had four paws, an infinite amount of slobber and he was a dog. She had no idea why, but Bob appeared to adore her.
Just when Danica feared she was going to drown in slobber, she heard Annis’ voice.
“Bob, where are you?”
Bob looked up, barked once and
then leaped off Danica, leaving her lying on the ground, trying to recover from her friendly mauling. It was just another close encounter of the Bob kind.
She closed her eyes and breathed out.
“Enjoying yourself down there?” chuckled a voice.
Great, just what she needed.
Danica opened her eyes to find Grey peering down at her, with a smugly amused look on his face.
“What do you want?” she sniped.
She would say she was pretty indifferent to most of the gargoyles, but Grey was another matter altogether. He had gone out of his way to antagonize her since the moment they met. It might have had something to do with her trying to set him on fire, but it was more than that. She should just shrug him off, but there was something about him that just plain irritated her, and when he goaded her, she retaliated.
Grey shrugged his wings. “Nothing.”
“Then get lost.”
His lips curled into an infuriating smile.
Danica groaned and dragged herself to her feet. But while attempting to stalk away in a haughty snit, her foot caught on a root, and she face-planted on the ground. Or rather, she almost face-planted on the ground. Instead of some searing face pain, all she felt was pressure on her arms, and it took her a moment or two to realize that she hadn’t fallen. No, someone had caught her. Grey had caught her.
He righted her and faced her, his eyes scanning her for injury. She pulled her sweatshirt a little tighter, self-conscious at being the focus of any man – never mind this one. She already knew she was small and slight and unimpressive; she didn’t need to see that reflected in his eyes.
“Ugh, thanks,” she muttered, thoroughly embarrassed.
“You should watch your step. You could have hurt yourself.” His voice was surprisingly laced with concern.
“You should have just let me fall,” she retorted angrily, jutting her chin at him. “Anybody else would have!”
Grey rolled his eyes theatrically. “Only if they had met you.”
Danica could feel the fire inside her, rolling around, burning and growing. Yet, it didn’t demand release. No, her insides were on fire, but not because she wanted to hurt him, because she wanted to burn him. Nope, this was a different kind of fire.
“Ugh, you are the most insufferable, irritating person on the entire planet!”
Grey leaned down to her, bringing his face close to hers, smirking at her in that unbearable way he always did.
“I like it when you’re mad,” he sniggered. “Your face screws up, and you look like you’re about to explode.”
If only he knew.
“You… you…” she spluttered pathetically.
His laugh intensified and she wanted to hush him, to stop him from teasing her. She wanted to quench this damn fire inside her. She had to do something – anything! Before she knew what she was doing, she had pushed her lips to his.
Grey froze, stunned by her actions, but when she didn’t stop the kiss, nor did he. His rigid body actually softened, and he moved his lips against hers. Danica couldn’t deny she was a little stunned too. What was she doing? Just because his lips were warm and soft and he tasted like strawberries…
Danica hurriedly pulled back. “Get off of me,” she snapped, stumbling backward.
Grey was momentarily shocked until a huge smile split his face. “Fireball, you kissed me.”
“I… I…” There was no denying it, as much as she wanted to.
Danica let out a sound of aggravation, and a small fireball shot out of her hand. Grey dodged to avoid it. She used the distraction to make her escape, to get away from him.
What the hell was she thinking? Her hands continued to blaze with bright, blue fire. She didn’t like him, never mind anything else! She was just lonely and frustrated – that’s all it was. It wasn’t like she had a lot of experience in that area – or any, really. But how could she have experience? How could she keep anyone close when they were likely to be burned by her if she lost control? Or even if she sneezed too forcefully?
Danica glanced back, but Grey was already gone. She felt a strange sense of disappointment that he wasn’t hurrying after her.
Didn’t matter, she was leaving, as soon as she possibly could.
To be continued
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