Victor

by Taylor Longford

  "Of course," Reason answered smoothly, falling into his old role of second-in-command. "We'll just round up Walker and get going."

  It took five or ten minutes for Walker to return from his tour of the lab downstairs. And it was a relief when he finally showed up. But after a guard ushered him into the conference room and the pack was safely on the way home, Olivia and I "retired" to the library.

  Following her through the heavy wooden door onto the Persian carpet, I walked over to the credenza against the wall where a bottle of champagne sat cooling in a silver bucket full of ice. I poured some of the bubbling wine into a fluted glass for Olivia and even splashed a little in another glass for myself—although I didn't plan to drink much. And as I took a seat on the blue leather sofa with button-quilting and clawed feet, a whole list of questions churned inside my head.

  "I imagine you have a million questions," she said, reading my mind and slinking toward me on the red and gold carpet worked with exotic designs. She dropped down onto the sofa beside me and folded her legs beneath her as she faced me.

  Something about her mannerisms, not to mention her tongue, reminded me of a harpy. "I am curious to know how you found us," I admitted, trying to keep my voice smooth and unruffled while fighting down a sudden surge of nausea.

  "I'll just bet you are," she murmured, her gaze slipping down over my body then stopping on my hands as her nostrils flared again.

  On a hunch, I lifted my elbow to the back of the sofa and turned to face her, so that my hand was hanging close to her face.

  She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "You're teasing me, aren't you?"

  "Am I?" I asked, feeling my way along.

  "Oh yes," she breathed, tilting her head until her cheek touched my fingers.

  "So how did you find us?" I asked casually.

  "Show me them," she said. "Show me your barbs."

  "Tell me first," I countered, just like I would have if I'd been negotiating with a harpy.

  She swallowed hard and licked her lips and this time I could see that her tongue was indeed dark and pointed. "I can scent you," she whispered. "I can follow your scent like a bloodhound."

  "From how far away?"

  "Miles. Five or ten miles."

  "What were you doing in Boulder when you discovered our presence?" I asked. "Was it just a coincidence?"

  "Show me your barbs first," she insisted in a hard voice.

  I made a fist and willed my barbs to slip from beneath my hackles, the pointed tips barely showing.

  "Ohhh," she whispered. "They're beautiful."

  "What were you doing in Boulder?" I demanded.

  She stared at my barbs for several moments before answering. "I'd been following sightings of winged creatures. I wasted a lot of time in St. Louis following a lead that didn't pan out. Then recently, several sightings were reported in Boulder so I headed this way and sniffed out your brother."

  I held a breath inside my lungs. It sounded like she didn't know about the rest of the pack in Pine Grove, which was pretty damn lucky since they'd recently visited us in Boulder for the housewarming. But even though she could scent us, she probably couldn't tell one gargoyle from twenty. "So you came up with this art contest to get Reason here."

  "That's right," she answered, her breaths coming in shallow bursts as she swallowed again, still watching my barbs. "Naturally, I invited him to bring his family. But I hit the jackpot when two more gargoyles walked through the doors tonight. I couldn't believe my luck. Three gargoyles in the same place."

  "Did you know what you were following when you watched for news of winged creatures?" I asked carefully.

  Her gaze flicked at my face then back to my hand. "You mean harpies. Yes, I knew I was probably following harpies rather than gargoyles. I knew gargoyles were too smart to let themselves get spotted like that. But I also knew that if harpies had given up their hiding places and were in the air, they were looking for gargoyles and gargoyles were nearby."

  "How did you know that?" I asked, brushing my barbs gently against her skin.

  She closed her eyes and moaned. "More," she panted. "Let me see it. Let me see the blue stuff."

  I pulled away from her and eyed her uncertainly. "The poison is…dangerous."

  She opened her eyes and shook her head. "Not to me."

  I narrowed my gaze on her face. "How is that possible?"

  "Just show me," she gasped. "Just show me first."

  Shifting a little farther away from her, I let a drop of venom slide down over my knuckles.

  Her eyes turned a hard beady black as she grabbed for my hand.

  "It's poisonous to humans," I told her, and held her back with my other hand.

  "I'm only half human," she shouted and ripped from my grip, trying to get to my barbs.

  "What's the other half?" I gritted while I fought her off, surprised at her strength.

  Her lips parted in a grimace that was supposed to be a smile. "Harpy," she answered.

  Next thing I knew, I was on my feet and backing toward the door. "You're half harpy?"

  She followed me across the carpet on her knees, grasping my hand, her tongue flicking out over my knuckles and capturing the drop of blue venom. She closed her eyes as she swallowed then opened them slowly.

  "I didn't think that was possible," I rasped, staring down at her.

  "For a human male to mate with a harpy? It isn't," she answered, blinking up at me. "Or at least it wasn't until modern times."

  "Then…how did it happen?"

  "My father was a scientist," she explained, her tongue sliding across my knuckles again. "He captured a harpy and inseminated her in his lab."

  I jerked my hand from her grasp as my mind tried to keep up. If Olivia was half harpy, then she should have been the ugliest woman alive. And to me she was. Yet Walker had said she was beautiful. How could that be…unless our girls were right and our venom did make them prettier, like they'd always claimed. And that meant Olivia must have a source of venom since she'd already told us she hadn't been able to recreate it in her laboratory. But that meant…

  "I was a plain girl to say the least," she murmured, rising to her feet again. "So I threw myself into my studies and went off to university planning to take over my father's business when he died. He was already an old man when I was born so I knew I didn't have to wait very long. Then on the day after his funeral I was exploring the south wing of his mansion and found a set of stairs behind a door in his office. The stairs led down to an old storage area separated from the rest of the basement dimly lit by two small windows near the top of the wall. In that dark room, I discovered a winged creature locked in a metal cage with thick steel bars…and no doors. The entire structure was welded closed and the monster had been fed through the openings in the bars. It was my mother."

  "How did you know she was your mother?"

  "There was a marked family resemblance," she answered and slid her dark, pointed tongue over her lips so I could see it. "I put two and two together. It's just too bad I didn't inherit her wings as well. I would have liked the ability to fly."

  "Go on," I said.

  "I got to know my mother rather well. She was a bit simple but our relationship was a symbiotic one. I fed her and kept her alive. She told me about gargoyles, how they were beautiful creatures with magical venom that could make me pretty. She even told me where I could find a couple that she'd hidden away in a cave in Wales."

  "I take it you found them."

  "Yes, I found them, locked in their stone forms. Mother told me I mustn't expose them to sunlight before I had them safely secured, otherwise they'd escape from me. So I bundled them up and brought them home and chained them to dear Mama's cage before I woke them. Then what a feast we had! We milked those two beauties and almost got drunk on their venom. That was a good night," she reminisced.

  Again, I fought down a mounting wave of nausea and tried to keep up my act of casual interest.

  "Mother died a few weeks lat
er," she said matter-of-factly. "She was old and I think the excitement was too much for her. And at that point, the gargoyles were all mine. That venom made me the woman I am today," she purred, watching me through hooded eyes, pouring on the charm and not knowing it was wasted on me. Evidently, her mother hadn't told her that a gargoyle would be automatically repulsed by her evil nature.

  "Where are they now?" I asked hoarsely.

  "Who?" she questioned with a blank look.

  "The gargoyles," I grated as dark rage churned up inside me. To her, the gargoyles were just cows to be milked. She didn't recognize them as living beings with hopes and dreams and people they loved.

  "Dead," she answered flatly then immediately started making excuses. "Even though I was very careful to be sure they had plenty of food and water, they died."

  "How did they die?" I asked. When she shrugged, I grabbed her by the arms and gave her a rough shake. "How did they die?"

  "I don't know," she snapped, and shook loose from me. "I think I might have milked them dry."

  A deep snarl broke from my lips when I realized how the gargoyles must have suffered. It would have been a long agonizing end, like starving to death or dying of thirst.

  "I didn't know it would kill them," she sulked. "And Mama neglected to warn me."

  "Didn't they say anything?" I rasped, fighting back another snarl that rose in my throat. "They must have told you that you were taking too much. That it was killing them."

  "I thought they were exaggerating," she confessed. "And naturally, I wanted to make sure I had a reserve supply of the venom. So I might have taken too much. It was a shame they had to lose their lives. But before she died, Mother had told me I could probably find more gargoyles if I just kept my ear to the ground and followed any leads about winged creatures. So that's what I've been doing ever since. Like I said before, I followed some bad leads. But then I found you and your brothers," she said, beaming up at me like she expected me to share her sense of victory.

  "But three gargoyles would be more than enough to supply my needs and I won't make the same mistake, not this time. I'm not going to milk anybody dry again, believe me."

  I looked around the room with its tall bookcases crafted from dark teak, and its expensive leather sofa with brass fixtures. "This isn't even about a new beauty product is it?"

  She shrugged. "We'll develop the cosmetics and include a tiny amount of the venom."

  "But primarily, you want the venom so you can remain beautiful."

  "I'll still make you billionaires," she argued like that would make any difference to me. "And I'm not asking your brothers to move in with me. They can just fill up a bottle every morning and send it over."

  I stared at her and tried to hide my sense of revulsion. She couldn't know it, but sharing venom with a lass is in many ways an intimate act. It isn't something you splash around with just anyone. And it isn't something you share with a repulsive monster like Olivia.

  "And I might be able to get my hands on some more gargoyles," she suggested. "To…help spread the load."

  "What do you mean?" I asked, startled but trying to hide it.

  She shrugged again. "Last week, I picked up the scent of gargoyle venom when I was on a business trip in Denver. But when I tried to track the source, it suddenly disappeared."

  My heart rate surged. None of us had been in Denver recently so that meant Olivia had probably scented one of our missing family members. One of Defiance's brothers was in Denver! And if the source suddenly disappeared it probably meant he'd gone stone before she could reach him. "That was probably just me and my brothers," I lied, hoping to throw her off the trail. "We spend a lot of time in Denver."

  "You're probably right," she answered condescendingly. "But I still plan to check into it. And there have been sightings out in Limon so I'm planning a trip out there as well."

  So now I knew what we were up against. And I knew Olivia would have more luck finding Force and Courage that we'd had. Once within range of the gargoyles, her sense of smell would lead her straight to them. But I didn't know how far she'd go to get what she wanted.

  I let a second drop of venom slide from my barbs and offered it to her.

  Barely concealing her greed, she lapped it up like it was the finest liquor on earth while my skin crawled at sharing the intimacy with a disgusting creature like her. But I had to hide those emotions so I lifted her chin with my fist. She was tall, and that brought her face up to mine. I gazed at her through hooded eyes and touched my lips to her mouth as my stomach turned. "We'll definitely consider your offer," I whispered.

  "That's nice," she answered just as softly. "But I need your cooperation."

  Holding both of her hands I leaned away from her and said, "We'll get back to you in a few days." I rubbed my thumbs over her fingers and forced my voice to be caring. "Are you going to be okay? Would you like me to leave you a little more venom before I go?"

  Her eyes glittered with a greed that could only be described as grasping. "That would be nice," she answered.

  I smiled and emptied a champagne glass down my tight throat. Then tilted my hand over the tall glass and milked a thin stream of venom from my barbs. "Cheers," I told her and offered her the glass.

  Delicately, she wound her fingers around the stem of the goblet and swirled the blue liquid a few times before she lifted it to her lips. Then she emptied the glass in one swallow.

  "I'll talk to you soon," I assured her in my gentlest voice as her tongue flicked out over her lips.

  "Oh, Victor," she murmured. "I couldn't possibly let you go."

  "What do you mean?" I asked, still smiling but backing away from her at the same time.

  "I need your family to help launch this new line of cosmetics. But I need you for me."

  "What are you trying to say?" I asked Olivia, my voice turning hard despite my efforts to carry on the act.

  "Those other gargoyles I brought back from Wales were…older," she said. "They weren't young like you. And they didn't have your irresistible dimples."

  "And…"

  "And I need a personal supply of venom. My reserves are almost depleted. So you're going to have to stay with me."

  Chapter Eighteen

  "You're going to be my new boyfriend," Olivia informed me bluntly.

  "And if I'm not ready for that sort of…commitment?" I countered.

  Her laugh was forced. "My guards are armed and they follow my orders."

  "And you think my family will just stand by and do nothing when I disappear?" I asked.

  She lifted her hand in a dismissive gesture. "They'll just assume that you found a new love interest."

  Which confirmed the fact that she didn't know how repellant she was to gargoyles. My family would never believe that I willingly spent the night with her. "That might explain my failure to return home tonight but after several days…"

  "Oh, you'll be in touch with them by phone, telling them how happy you are."

  "And why would I do that, Olivia?"

  "To protect your brothers, of course, so they don't have to take up residence in my lab. And to protect that little girlfriend of yours."

  I felt a deep growl build in my chest but managed to tamp it down.

  "That's the nice thing about having so much money," she added with a careless laugh. "You can pay someone to do almost anything."

  "What are you suggesting Olivia?"

  Her black eyes turned hard. "I'm suggesting that I can make your girlfriend disappear. Or get hit by a car. Unfortunately, accidents happen."

  "And you think you can do that without suffering any consequences?"

  "Who are you going to go to?" she laughed softly. "The police? I'm sure you don't want the authorities to find out what you are."

  "Maybe not," I agreed. "But there's something you should know about Samantha and Torrie Evans."

  "Oh?"

  "Their father's a very senior FBI agent," I told her, exaggerating somewhat because I didn't believe Mr. E
vans held an important position at the Bureau. "If anything happened to them, the agency would certainly investigate any recent contacts they'd made. They'd be breathing down your neck before you could hide the evidence."

  "I see," she said slowly, my words having the effect I was going for. Because nobody wants to mess with the FBI. Not even billionaire scientists.

  "And you might like to know that Elaina hacked the nose off a harpy four times her size," I added. "But if anything happened to any of the girls, we'd come after you," I promised in a low snarl. "Gargoyles are protective by nature."

  "Then I imagine you'd go a long ways to protect your brothers."

  "Not that far," I rasped. "My family will never cooperate with you."

  "Oh, I think they will," she countered and crossed the room where she pushed a button on the wall. "Especially with you as my hostage."

  My sensitive ears picked up a buzzing noise in a distant room, followed by the deep click of a door opening and footsteps moving swiftly down the corridor. I could have bailed and escaped through the skylights overhead. But I wanted to see how far Olivia was willing to take this, and exactly how dangerous she could be. Besides, I figured there was always time to run…or fight…later on.

  So I stood my ground as four guards charged into the library and fanned out in front of the exit. Two of them carried guns that looked like they could fire multiple rounds. The others held smaller handguns that didn't look a whole lot less deadly.

  "You're not going to kill me," I snorted. "I'm worth too much to you."

  "True," she answered silkily. "But I could definitely take out your legs. You'd never walk again but everything else would work just fine."

  My eyebrows slammed together as I glared at her. "You don't want to do this," I said.

  "Do what?"

  "You don't want to back me into a corner," I growled, and bared my teeth. "I don't think your mother told you everything you need to know about my kind."

  But Olivia chose to ignore me. "Show him to his new room," she told her guards. "The soundproof one with the heavy metal door downstairs in the lab. If he tries anything, take out his legs."