Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (13 page)

Heather jerked her head up, visibly
relieved. She swallowed hard, trying to clear her throat. “Yeah, I
was just… ah…” She shook her head and tried again. “I thought you
left.”

“
You thought I left?
Alistair lifted his brow curiously. “That’s why you keep staring at
the ground?” he asked sounding amused.

Heather rolled her eyes
around, making a face.
Why
lie
. “It would seem so.”

Alistair chuckled lightly. “Why would me
leaving make you do that? You don’t even know me.”

Heather huffed out a long slow breath, her
cheeks deflating. “Good question.” She contemplated her answer for
a moment. “I guess…ah…I wanted to talk with you some more,” she
said, rolling her shoulders forward, shrugging.

“
You wanted to talk with me
more?” He slanted a knowing look in her direction.

“
Yes,” she reaffirmed,
giving him an unabashed smile.

Catching her look, Alistair felt something
stir deep inside, making his heart stutter, if only for a moment.
It was long enough. He grasped onto the feeling before it slipped
away, his body trembled slightly from the force of the
recollection. Glimmers of another girl danced through his mind,
bringing the inevitable pain with it as his mind slipped into the
past…

Alistair*the past*

Water flowed steadily down
between the concrete pathways, the sandy floor sticking to the
bottoms of his bare-feet, as he gave chase, moving agilely around
the fluted columns. Golden leaves fell from her hair, leaving a
visible trail to where she was hiding. He snuck up behind her,
jumping around the white fluted column. “I got you,” he laughed
out, pulling her easily into his embrace.

“
Not really,” she said
reprovingly but still pressed her face against his chest relaxing
against him.

“
Why?” he asked, his voice
deep with emotion, running his fingers down through the length of
her thick curls.

She leaned back and looked up at him,
searching his face, for what, he knew not. He lowered his face to
hers, his lips hovering above.

Nervously she giggled, turning her head
away.

Loosening his hold, he stood up once more.
He placed his finger under her chin lifting her face so he could
read her expressive eyes. “Why must you always turn away from me?”
he asked, his laughter dying out, growing serious.

“
Oh Alistair, why are you
always so serious, tis just a silly game, remember?” she asked, her
green eyes glittering with humor.

Before he had a chance to answer, she ducked
out from his embrace and took off again.

Letting out a frustrated
sigh, he bent down to pick up one of the golden leaves that had
fallen from her hair. He leaned back against the column, twirling
it between his fingers. The lilting sound of her laughter drifted
back to him on the wind. Gently he tucked the leaf into the folds
of his cloak. He sighed and again the sound of her lilting laughter
reached his ears… “You will be the death of me,” he said and then
took off after her…

The truth of those words lingered as his
mind came back to the present. He stared blankly down at the
girl.

“
You okay,” she asked her
fingers caressing his bare arm, a mask of concern on her pretty
face. “You look…lost,” she said.

A bitter laugh escaped at
the irony. He
was
lost. His emotions bubbled to the surface, threatening to
consume him. He felt like he was drowning…until one distinct
emotion overrode the rest…anger. He shook from it, fighting. He was
on the verge of turning into a volatile force that may explode at
any given moment….

The girl stepped forward,
her hand still moving up and down on his arm. He looked down at her
hand—her fingers soft…gentle. The anger that had been so intense
moments before slowly slipped away, turning into something
else…

Suddenly he didn’t care if
she was the one he longed for and he didn’t care if she could stop
this tortuous cycle his life had taken. He didn’t think. Reaching
out, he grabbed the girl in front of him, to divert his energy, to
feed his lust, to feed his human self. Pulling her pliable body
roughly against the length of his own, he merely took what he
wanted. Pressing his lips against hers, he delved his tongue into
her open mouth, kissing her deeply. She moaned, tightening her
hold. The action spurred something from deep inside. He welcomed
it. It was exactly what he needed right now. His hand traveled
freely up the length of her body. He could feel her eagerness… her
need…he slid his hand lower massaging the soft curve of her ass
through her tight fitting jeans. She was
not the one he wanted, really…but right now he didn’t care.
He wanted to be inside of her so badly he hurt with it.

HAUNTED

SATURDAY * 9:03 PM

Adriane’s mind came back to the present. His
eyes refocused on the here and now, not the past. He looked down at
the girls pressed up against him and pulled his arms away, shaking
the girls loose. It took some doing, but they finally relinquished
their hold.

“
Where are you going?” they
whined out as he stepped away.

Feeling confused, he raked
his hand through his hair. “Sorry ladies, I must ah…” He saw two
girls stumble out of the tree line fixing their clothes. “Use the
bathroom,” he said, not able to think of anything
better.

“
Oh we can take you,” they
said as they tried to make a grab for him once more.

“
No!” he yelled, and then
softened his voice. “I mean, it’s best if I go by myself. I will be
back soon though.” He saw the look of disbelief on their faces, and
then added, “Promise.”

They both looked to one another, and then
back to him expectantly. “You promise?” they repeated.

“
Sure,” he lied. He had no
intention of returning. Truth was he would have said anything to
get away from them. They were setting his nerves on edge. He
guessed they were innocent enough, at least he hoped they were. It
would not be the first time he had been taken in by seemingly
innocent creatures. Turning towards the wind he lifted his chin.
The breeze whispered across his face, bringing thoughts of another
to the forefront of his mind. Not what he remembered from the past,
no, this was of the one he had met the night before, the one that
made him forget.

***

Moriah sat on the stairs,
staring at the ground as another band hit the stage. It was Love
Darling.
Perfect
.
Her chest tightened, and she let out a shaky breath, her lip
starting to quiver as they began to play Hazy. Love Darling was one
of the bands Kingston had gotten to show because she loved their
music so much. A lot of good it did when he was nowhere in sight.
Her sadness quickly turned to anger. His head was probably still
crammed up Heather’s ass.

“
Well aren’t you a pretty
one.”

Moriah looked up at the guy standing in
front of her, raking a hand through his black and white streaked
hair, making it stick out at awkward angles.

“
Thanks.” She
sighed.

“
A pretty girl like you
shouldn’t be sad,” he said sincerely, his brows
creasing.

“
Who said I was sad?” she
asked in surprised. Oh great—she must look really pathetic if a
complete stranger could tell she was upset.

“
May I?” he asked, pointing
to the empty space beside her.

“
Sure, it’s a free
country,” she said despondently, not really caring either
way.

He laughed lightly, the melodic sound deep
and warm.

Moriah turned towards him. His dark eyes
danced in merriment as he smiled warmly at her. She shivered
lightly.

“
I am Simon, by the way—you
know, in case you were wondering,” he said, giving her a lopsided
grin.

“
Moriah,” she offered her
name freely, wondering if he was drunk or if he was just one of
those crazy happy people. He kept smiling. He looked like he was
biting back a laugh. Maybe he was doing some kind of drug? Yeah,
maybe he was stoned. Stoners thought everything was funny. Still,
she smiled back at him, not able to help herself.

“
Party not to your liking?”
he asked.

“
No, it’s not that. The
party is great…”

“
It’s great?” he asked,
lifting his brow like he didn’t believe her.

She wrinkled her face. “Well it would be, if
my boyfriend wasn’t such a jerk,” she muttered.

“
Come again?” he asked,
lifting his hand to his ear, clearly missing what she
said.

“
It’s not important.” She
leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand.

“
Okay. But hey, if you want
to talk…you got two good ears sitting right next to you….just
saying.”

Moriah turned, ready to say thanks but no
thanks but once she looked at him…really looked at him she kind-of
forgot what she wanted to say. He was leaning back against the
stair. His exceedingly tight black t-shirt clung to his muscled
chest tucked-in the front of his black skinny jeans. He wore a
batman seat-belt belt. Her gaze drifted down to his feet, his
bright red Chuck Taylors, they were real showstoppers. Maybe he was
gay…she was good with gay. Maybe she should use him to make
Kingston jealous with no repercussions. Kingston would see her with
him and get his ass away from Heather. She smiled warmly at him,
her mind spinning variables.

Simon leaned forward and
put his chin in his hand, staring out into the crowd. Moriah
couldn’t help but stare at his profile. He had angular features and
long dark lashes cast out across flawless skin, all that and nice
lips too. He looked like a model, or he could be with skin that
nice. Her skin only looked that good with makeup. His was perfect.
Maybe he
was
a
model. He had a really nice body, not too big, not too small and
cut. His arm muscles bulged under the sleeve of his shirt and he
had a crazy tattoo on the inside of his left arm, which was
seriously cool looking. Evie would freak if she saw it.

Speaking of Evie, where
was she? She hadn’t seen her since she took off to get them drinks.
That was at least an hour ago now. Hopefully, she was having fun.
She still felt really bad for leaving her with Colton last night.
Especially, now that she knew what a “
wad”
he was. Of course, Evie never
said as much but she could tell. Once she got Evie alone she would
make her spill. They would curl up on Evie’s bed and fill each
other in on all the stuff that happened—like they always did,
staying up half the night laughing together, stuffing their faces
with chips, salsa, and chocolate. Moriah loved it when they did
that. Evie was hilarious and always had some funny story to
tell.

“
So dove you want to tell
why are you sitting all alone?” Simon asked, turning towards her,
his steely gray eyes glittering.

Moriah gaped at him. “Did you just call me
dove?”

Is that all right?” he asked, a ready smile
pulling the corners of his mouth upward.

“
Um, yea,
sure, why not,” she said, in shock. Dove?
Seriously?
Kingston had never called
her anything close to that and she was sleeping with his ass. She
smiled openly at him, not able to help herself, suddenly hoping he
wasn’t gay after all.

“
Why not indeed,” he said
simply and turned quickly, pushing a leggy brunette, in a tight
spandex print dress upright who was about to fall backward down the
stairs.

“
Whoa,
thanks handsome,” the girl said, smiling down at him, and then gave
Moriah an inquisitive stare before bringing her eyes back to Simon.
“You get tired of
her
,” she stressed the word, “You come see me. I’m April, by the
way, as in showers.”

“
Showers…” he
repeated.

“
Yeah,” she said in a
sultry tone. “As in, I’d be more than happy to shower you with some
good–hot-love…I can go all night.” She reached down and squeezed
his muscled arm, laughing throatily. She gave him a wink for good
measure before stumbling back up the stairs following her friends
into the mansion.

Moriah frowned.
Whore.
She was sitting
right beside him and that chick had practically invited him to do
her. Most guys would have jumped at the chance to do her, and yet
Simon didn’t say anything to the girl. No, he merely smiled
politely, turned back around, and placed his chin back in his hand,
looking out into the crowd seemingly oblivious to the flagrant
invitation she had given him. Maybe he just didn’t care….but all
guys cared…didn’t they? She frowned down at her hands folded in her
lap. Maybe he really was gay…
crap
.