Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (26 page)

“
Wait!” Simon gritted his
teeth. “Pray forgive me. I seem to have forgotten my place,” Simon
said and bent over, flourishing his arm, raising his head only
slightly, like a subject to a royal at court would.

A glimmer of satisfaction entered her eyes.
She lifted her hand stopping the lowlings from coming any further
into the room. “What is this?” she said. “Are my ears deceiving
me?” She cupped her hand to her ear in an exaggerated gesture.

“
Not at all,” he assured
her, letting a flirtatious smile spread across his face. “I see
time has been your friend,” he gushed with all the charm he was
capable of, even though it left a vile taste on his
tongue.

Sybarite visibly preened,
smiling, toying with a long strand of her vibrant red hair. She
cackled out another throaty laugh. “My goodness…Centurion, trying
to charm me with your wiles?” she asked. “
Hmmm
,” she said, turning thoughtful.
“How interesting and… unexpected,” she said and then snatched a
wayward bug from the air. She examined it, with a baffled
expression. As though an afterthought she added, “I see no sense in
standing on formalities, you may rise.” It was a command but her
voice had seemed to soften a bit from his words of
praise.

Standing back up fully, Simon made a point
to keep quiet. Maybe luck was with him after all. It looked as
though Dythius was tiring of the un-fun toy he had acquired.

Sybarite watched him intently as she played
with her own acquired toy…the bug in her fingers it seemed there
was a storm brewing between the two.

Dythius shook the girl again, making her
head snap back and forth. He held her body out, about to drop her
to the ground. The blood in his veins began to burn. He grunted
appreciatively, inhaling deeply. He closed his eyes momentarily
savoring the aroma.

Shit. Shit. Shit. What was
he supposed to do?
He watched Sybarite
begin to narrow her eyes and instantly knew something had changed.
He quickly turned back toward Dythius, realizing too late that he
had caught the unique aroma emanating from the girl named
Evie.

“
Where is your partner?”
she asked absently, pressing a long fingernail down on the thorax
of the bug.

“
Ah… my partner?” Simon
hedged, attempting to play dumb. He had a feeling she knew exactly
what was going on around her even though she seemed disinterested,
too intent on examining the bug fluttering helplessly between her
fingertips.

“
Who’s the hot babe?”
Colton asked walking from out of the library.

Simon was going to kill him if Sybarite
didn’t do it first.

“
Yes,” Sybarite, said and
then with lightning speed, she popped the bug into her mouth, her
sharp teeth piercing the body, making a loud crunching sound.
Yellow juice slipped down over her full red lips. She lifted her
finger, wiped the excess juice away, and ran her tongue over the
tip of her finger like she was savoring a tasty morsel.

.

Colton made a gagging sound, staggering
backward. “No way, forget her, I changed my mind.”

“
Shut up!” Simon railed in
hushed tones.

“
Who is that behind you?
Have they come to bestow praise on me as well?” Sybarite asked her
attention now completely focused on the humans.

Colton pushed past Simon anyway and froze.
His eyes widened when he saw the huge guy holding Evie. He was well
over six feet tall. His long dark, almost black hair falling
forward, over his broad shoulders, the dude was a massive beast. He
wondered what he benched to get so big. Colton was no stranger to
lifting, so he was in awe of the guy, until he caught sight of his
fingers glittering with rings. “Who’s the Pansy?” Colton whispered
out of the side of his mouth.

“
You want to get killed?”
Simon asked.

Colton widened his
eyes.
No! He didn’t want to be
killed.
Who says that shit?
“What the fuck are they… a gang or something?”
Reflexively he stepped back when the dude cut his white gaze in his
direction. What he saw made his blood run cold. A tremor of fear
tore through him …he was about to turn but then he remembered his
dad’s warnings:

“
Son,
never let your enemy know your fear. Look them dead on and show
them that you are not afraid
.”

Colton tried that. He pushed his fear back
and stood straight and tall, staring him dead in the eye.

More warnings bubbled forth:

“
Always
make yourself look big
,” his dad would
say, “
but never look them straight in the
eye
.”

Quickly he cast his gaze
to the floor, the checkered tiles blurring together. The warnings
were for techniques his dad used while hunting big game on safari
in Africa—were they the same?
Oh shit he
didn’t know.
Obviously, they worked for
his dad—he had a room full of trophies at their lake house to
attest to that, which included bear, mountain lion, even a jaguar
and a secret room full of weaponry. He wasn’t too sure about his
dad’s “so called” techniques but he could certainly use some of his
weapons right now.

BAD
TASTE IN YOUR MOUTH

SATURDAY * 11:43
PM

Barnaby felt like the
worst kind of coward but he couldn’t get his feet to move past the
threshold of the door leading into the foyer. The terrible sound
coming from outside was getting louder making his skin crawl. Up on
the second level he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye.
Hidden in the shadows just beyond the banister, he could see
the
guy
Evie had
been with earlier, watching… his body still as a statue. Something
in his brain clicked into place and all the stuff his mom had said
about gargoyles… He rubbed his shaking hands over his face. When he
lowered them, the strange woman was looking pointedly at him. In
that moment, he knew she was not a normal human being. No, she was
something else…something dark and scary.

“
Moriah stop being stupid,”
Heather bit out and made a grab for her arm once again.

“
I told you not to touch
me,” Moriah warned, shaking her arm loose of Heathers
grasp.

“
Fine. Go ahead on out
there.” Heather stepped to the side and crossed her
arms.

Moriah raked her hand through her hair. “I
don’t want to go out there but what about Evie?”

“
What about her?” She
sighed. “Listen I just don’t want you to do something stupid that
would result in us all getting eaten by the crazy redheaded bitch
and her giant pimp boyfriend, okay. You saw what she did to that
poor bug. I mean who does that shit. She has to be out of her
freaking mind.”

“
Well someone has to do
something?” she argued.

“
Yeah,” Heather pointed to
Simons back. “He is doing something. Give him some time…okay,” she
pleaded.

Moriah sighed and jutted out her chin. “Five
minutes. I’ll give him five minutes.”

“
Okay. In
five minutes I will help you if he doesn’t let her go.” Heather
watched Moriah’s face go blank. Obviously, she was in shock.
Heather knew the feeling and had to shake her head. What in the
hell was she making promises for? She didn’t even like Evie and
Moriah…
come on,
she liked her even less. And yet she knew when the time came
she would do her part.
Or would
she
?

WITCHY WOMAN

SATURDAY * 11:49
PM

“
Centurion, I asked you a question.” Sybarite ran her tongue
across her sharp teeth, toying with a long strand of her hair. Back
and forth, she twisted the length around her long finger. “I
am
waiting
.” The
yellow slits in place of irises grew in size as she leaned forward
to look at him pointedly.

“
My companion?” he asked.
“I can’t say.”

“
What do you mean you can’t
say?” she asked, jerking her head strangely to the side.

“
When I awoke, he was not
there.” He shrugged indifferently. ”I guess he ran off.”

“
Ran off?” she asked. “Why
would he do that?” Her expression instantly confused.

Simon merely shrugged
again.
Holy Fuck!

“
Words eluding you
centurion?” she asked and narrowed her eyes. “What happened to that
sharp tongue of yours?” she prodded and then smiled, revealing rows
of razor edged teeth.

“
I can’t read his mind,”
Simon hedged.

Sybarite leaned back, as though she was
considering his answer. “Right…” she added slowly, sounding
distracted. “ I seem to have forgotten. He is the reader. You are
the charmer.” Suddenly she laughed as though her words were amusing
to her alone. “Come Centurion. Charm me with your wiles if you
can,” she wheedled throatily.

“
Watch your tongue, woman,”
Dythius warned jerking his head toward Sybarite. “Remember, it is
I, who will be between your thighs this eve, not some lowly
Centurion.”

Sybarite smiled wickedly and turned towards
the lowlings. “Find me a chair. I tire of standing.”

The lowlings grunted eagerly, their stout
legs and arms moving frantically to do her bidding but they ended
up fighting with each other instead. Guttural whining and hissing
ensued, as they started an all-out battle with one another.
Anguished cries filled the air, along with the gruesome sound of
flesh tearing from their bodies.

The sound of car trunks
slamming closed repeatedly is what finally woke Evie. She recoiled
from the noise, her body convulsing with fear. It reminded her of
the one-time her mom and dad had taken her to Alligator Adventure.
It had stunk horribly but that wasn’t what scared her…no it was the
sound of the Alligators made when they were being fed. It sounded
like hundreds of car trunks were being slammed shut simultaneously.
She opened her eyes and instantly wished she hadn’t—ghastly
creatures filled the foyer.

The prizefighter was back
thumping wildly against Evie’s ribcage as she stared down at the
hideous stout legged creatures having a free for all in the foyer.
Hunks of gray flesh were on the ground, dripping and spattering the
checkered tiles with inky black ooze. A rancid smell filling the
air…she covered her mouth, about to be sick. The smell was the same
as the one she smelt last night…
Ohmigod!
What are they?
For some reason her
flight mode
wasn’t
working and neither was her
fight
mode
. She guessed she was too stunned to
move or she had turned into a complete idiot. Her gaze drifted to
the woman standing in the center of all the chaos. She was utterly
beautiful…she thought and then blinked, a surge of terror shot
through her. She was not beautiful …she was a
monster.
Each strand of the woman’s
hair lifted away from her head, moving of its own accord.
Instantly, she thought of the mythological creature Medusa. Not
believing what she was seeing any more than she had a minute ago
she shut her eyes and reopened them again. It wasn’t to block out
what she was seeing, but rather to elucidate what she was seeing.
Each time she blinked, she saw something different. One-moment
actual snakes were encircling the woman’s head and then when she
blinked again, the woman looked ….beautiful—magnificent, ethereal.
Blinking furiously now, the image switched each time from a
glorious Goddess and then into a gruesome monster. It reminded her
of those freaky anime trading cards…one moment the characters look
all hot and innocent and then you flick it another way and the
character turns into a scary monster.
Fuck
this.