Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (17 page)

“
Hello,” they both echoed
in unison. “We’re twins,” the giggled. “We can do things together,”
they added, trying to stifle their laughter but instead, they each
made a snorting sound.

Simon leaned reflexively away from the
distasteful noise. They were so white, he wondered if they were
real or simply another figment brought forth from his imagination,
or were they conjured from a distant memory? He didn’t remember
twins. Although there wasn’t much he actually remembered from his
past, only bits and pieces of what once was. It was part of the
curse that was now his life. He could not even remember how he
crossed over to the existence he found himself in now. Alistair
said it would come in time, although he wasn’t so sure he wanted to
remember. Especially if it had been as wonderful as he thought it
may have been. Focusing his attention on the girls in front of him,
he took a breath, and looked them over. They were cute in an
otherworldly way and definitely different. He didn’t mind different
so much, he himself never quite fit into any one particular niche.
That was the beauty of being a musician you never needed to be like
anyone else, you were loved for your uniqueness or at least you
hoped you would be. Maybe he wasn’t as unique as he hoped…maybe he
had been a bad cliché. One thing was certain he was unique now.
Being a gargoyle had that effect. He wondered if they would still
want to hang out if he were to show them his true self—

“
GAH!” he gasped out,
covering his face from the hot stench stealing his breath. He
looked up into the sky. The moon was finally at its full
height.

“
Son of a
bitch
!” The sound of his voice split the
air as he jumped up from the stairs, making the two girls jump in
turn. He raked his hand through his hair, searching the crowd for
Adriane and Alistair. He looked at the two girls, their faces
crestfallen.

“
Ladies another time, I
will be more than happy to take you up on the charms you have
offered up so freely, but as of right now, I think you may want to
run,” he whispered hotly for their ears alone.

They both looked horrified. He gave up being
cautious. “I said RUN!” he yelled loudly, angrily pushing them
along towards the inside of the mansion and ushered them both
inside the massive front door. He felt their fear and softened his
voice. “Be good girls. Get in a room, and lock the door. Don’t open
it until I return,” he warned, hoping they would listen. They
shook, clinging to one another. Leaning forward he quickly kissed
each of them soundly on their lips. “That should hold you both for
bit,” he said giving them one his heart stopping smiles and then
took off, his red shoes a blur as he ran swiftly into the
crowd.

***

Colton and Barnaby cut through the crowd to
the drink station, but just as they got to the opening, they both
pulled up short, their eyes widening once again in shock. “Holy
shit, is that Heather?” Colton asked in disbelief.

Barnaby nodded his head in agreement. “Yep.
Sure looks like it.”

“
What the hell is going
on?” Colton groaned, rubbing his hands over his face in
frustration.

Barnaby would have laughed, but this was
getting ridiculous. First Evie and now Heather—granted, he could
really care less what Heather did. Right now, she looked like she
was going to tackle the guy to the ground she was swapping spit
with. It was not something he was used to seeing from Heather,
except when she was dating Kingston They were like mad dogs,
drooling all over each other. That was of course before Kingston
had dropped her for Moriah.

Since then Heather had
been all prim and proper, not giving anyone the time of day. But
looking at her now, it looked like she was making up for lost
time—her mouth was going
Zombie
on the dudes face. And who knew what she was
doing with her leg. She looked jacked.

Barnaby shook his head and looked up into
the sky, not wanting to gawk at Heather any more than he wanted to
gawk at Evie. Huge dark clouds floated quickly across the moon,
revealing a strange bluish glow emanating from the edges. Something
big swooped across the moon, the darkened shadow flapping massive
wings. His breath caught in his throat, it looked like some big ass
bat. He hit Colton’s arm, getting his attention, not breaking his
gaze.

“
What man?” Colton replied,
annoyed. He followed Barnaby’s gaze and nearly pissed himself.
“What the hell is that?”

“
I…I don’t know,” Barnaby
stammered, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“
It looks like a big ass
bat… Hey are they filming Batman here?”

“
Yeah, man sure. No—they’re
not filming batman here!” Barnaby yelled in disbelief.

“
Well I thought, maybe you
know, cuz what we were talking about earlier with the trees
reminding us of Gotham and all.”

“
Don’t be an idiot Colton,”
Barnaby grated out, feeling his own body start to
tremble.

“
What is it then?” Colton
squeaked, fear stealing his voice, making it shrill.

“
Not an it…what are they?”
Barnaby added shakily, reaching his hand in the air, pointing to
the others trailing behind, flapping their massive wings. They were
still pretty far away but they were coming closer, quickly. “Man,
whatever they are, I don’t think they are anything
good.”

Colton shook his head up and down. “I think
you’re right man. This doesn’t look good.”

Barnaby caught a whiff of something rancid.
It burned his nose, making him wrinkle his face. He covered his
nose with his shirt and looked at Colton’s pale face, seeing his
fear. “Dude, did you just shit yourself?”

Colton tore his gaze away
from the sky. “No, I didn’t shit myself...
Asshole
! Hey Barnaby if you smelt
it, you dealt it,” he parried, laughing nervously, and then covered
his own face as the stench made his stomach lurch.

“
Well, if I didn’t and you
didn’t, then where is the stink coming from?” Barnaby
asked.

They both looked to one another, all humor
gone from their faces and turned slowly around.

A large gruesome beast was creeping out from
the tree line behind them. Yellow angry eyes bore down on them, the
muzzled snout pulled back, revealing sharp razor edged teeth
dripping dark gooey saliva. The fur, what was left, was torn off in
huge patches, and those too oozed freely with something shiny and
dark.

Barnaby and Colton almost
shit their pants for real. It looked like death itself was stalking
them both down. “
Dude
run
!” Barnaby turned and made a break for
it, bolting away through the unsuspecting crowd.

Feeling the air stir
beside him, Colton swallowed hard, tearing his gaze away from the
massive beast for a millisecond. He caught sight of Barnaby’s
retreating form. “
Oh hell
no
!” He didn’t waste another minute, he
too turned and ran as fast as his feet would carry him, pushing
through the crowd, as if the hounds of hell were chasing them both
down.

***

“
Alistair, move your ass!”
Simon shouted, running full speed toward the tree line.

“
What?” Alistair asked
confused, completely out of it. He ran his hands through his hair
and over his face.

Heather reached up and tried to pull his
face back to her own while trying to wrap her leg around him once
more.

Alistair leaned backward shaking his head
back and forth. “I gotta go,” he said, disentangling her body from
his.

“
What?” Heather squawked.
“You can’t just leave.” Her eyes widened in disbelief.

“
Sorry,” he said. “If you
see Adriane, tell him there’s a hot one on the loose.” And then he
was gone.

Heather stood there
stupidly. Her mouth hanging open, her blue eyes bugging from her
head, as the guy she had been massively making out with ran as fast
and as far from her as possible. She wanted to yell, or cry. She
didn’t know which. Clenching her hands into fists, her long nails
biting into her skin, hot angry tears filled her eyes. Lifting her
hand, she dashed them away, finally remembering what he had said.
“There’s a hot one on the loose?” What was that supposed to mean?
“
And who in the hell is
Adriane?”

INTUITION

SATURDAY * 10:18 PM

The moons position should have been a
warning but once again, Adriane let his wants overshadow his good
sense. Now it was too late. The snarling beast poised itself to rip
her head off…

“
RUN!”

One moment Evie was standing beside Adriane
and the next her face was eating dirt. Within seconds, her body
jerked back to standing, hands shoving her forward. She could hear
the frantic tone of his voice but couldn’t see why. There was dirt
in her eyes. She tried to wipe it away.

“
Evie, RUN!” Adriane yelled
louder, frantically, trying to propel her to move.

Evie ran, or tried to
…stumbling…trying to push her way through the wall of people. She
was bumped, pushed and nearly fell back to the ground. She had no
idea where she was going or how she remained standing. She wiped at
her face wildly, trying to clear the dirt from her eyes. Blurred
shapes darted past her spinning her in another direction. Loud
screams sounded in the air. Something or someone flew over her head
and landed at her feet. She barely had a chance to sidestep
whatever it was before she pitched forward. Something had her foot.
She froze for a millisecond.
Not
again
. And then stomped down hard with her
free foot and was rewarded by a startled gasp of pain. Whatever had
her foot let go.

“
Evie,
help me
.”

Evie froze, her body
filling with dread.
Oh no, did she just
kick the shit out of someone she knew?
Her
body shook as she turned back around, scrubbing at her eyes with
her sleeve so she could see. “
Evie
…” someone called again from
another direction. She spun around, but still had no idea where it
was coming from or even how she could hear anyone with all the
screaming going on around her.

Everything was chaos.

Large masses of people ran
frantically up the drive, plowing over the drunks in the
process.
What the hell—was there a fire or
something?
And where was Adriane? Why did
he scream run? She didn’t know what was going on but whatever it
was, had to be bad. An overwhelming feeling of dread pressed in on
her as she looked towards the mansion, reminding her of last night.
“No,” she mouthed the word, shaking her head. “You’re being
ridiculous,” she told herself. Obviously, there weren’t any
monsters floating around in the mansion if people were trying to
shove their way inside. But if there weren’t any monsters, than
what was everyone running from? She wiped her eyes again, her
mascara burned.

The lawn was nearly empty now. A guy wearing
nothing but a pair of tighty whities and one sock ran past. “Hey,”
she shouted.

He stopped. Small leaves dangled from his
hair. He turned crazed eyes on her. She immediately regretted
stopping him; he was freaking her the fuck out. “Why is everyone
running?”

“
Maaaa-
Dooo,
“he said, trying to turn to
leave.

“
Wait. Mado?” she repeated,
sort of. “Is that a person?” she asked.

He shook his head
frantically making tiny leaves fall from his hair down to the
ground. “
Maaaad Dooooog
,” he said.

“
Mad Dog?” she asked, sure
she had heard him wrong.

He shook his head again, making more leaves
fall out of his hair and then took off running toward the
drive.

This time she didn’t’
bother to stop him. She kind- of wished she didn’t stop him at all
now. He really freaked her out, more so than she was to start with.
Reflexively she looked over her shoulder fully expecting the “Mad
Dog” in question to be directly behind her. Of course, it was just
a knee jerk reaction to his explanation that didn’t make any real
sense. “
Puhlease
Mad Dog?
Come on
.” He was probably tripping on something.