Gryphon and His Thief

Karen Michelle Nutt

Smashwords Edition

The Gryphon and His Thief

Presented by
Publishing by Rebecca J.
Vickery

Copyright © 2014 by Karen Michelle Nutt

Cover Design Copyright © Katrina Gillian

Edited by Katrina Gillian

Licensing Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to
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people, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you
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and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of the author.

The Gryphon and His Thief
is a work of
fiction. Though some of the cities and towns actually exist they
are used in a fictitious manner for purposes of this work. All
characters are works of fiction and any names or characteristics
similar to any person past, present or future are coincidental.

Dedication

To my readers! Without you, my tales would be
forgotten.

You rock!

Special Thanks

To Cathy, for always reading my rough drafts.
A million thanks and more for all your thoughts and suggestions.
You are the best!

And to Katrina, for her artistic eye and
always creating beautiful book covers.

To view more of Karen Michelle Nutt work or
stories, visit: www.kmnbooks.com

Some Treasures are Priceless…

A long time ago, a Gryphon shifter’s duty was
to guard and protect the people of the tribes, but Darrien Andros
failed to keep his human wife safe from harm. Cursed for the crime,
he must guard everything in the
Museum of Cursed Antiquities
forever, never to truly live and never to die. Centuries have
passed, but when he encounters a thief, who uncannily resembles his
dead wife, he is convinced he has a second chance.

Calli Angelis is hired to steal Hecate's
Stone from the Museum, believing she would be returning it to its
rightful owner. She never really trusted the person who hired her
and now Darrien makes her doubt her motives, too. He also has her
questioning the possibility of reincarnation when the attraction
between them ignites into something she can no longer ignore.

As the two work together to unravel the
mysteries behind the stone, it becomes apparent an old and
dangerous enemy from Darrien’s past is determined to have history
repeat itself.

Chapter One

Calli Angelis glanced around the empty
parking lot with only the light from the moon to illuminate the
empty car spaces. Bushes and fairy duster shrubs with their pink
and red flowers decorated the vast Arizona desert behind it, along
with rocks and gravel. The weather proved mild for October, and
sage scented the air.

She dressed for the occasion with dark
clothing, hiking boots, and a ski mask, making sure her ginger hair
stayed hidden and didn't flap in the wind like a fiery warning
flag.

Confirming she was indeed the only one
lurking around the
Museum of Cursed Antiquities
, she fished
out her tools of the trade attached to her tool belt and went to
work on the lock. The museum was more like a glorified warehouse,
rustic and foreboding.

With her forefinger and thumb, she worked the
tool and listened for the click. To think she almost hadn't taken
this job. Professor Leander had struck her as a little on the weird
side, but in the end, who was she to judge as long as her offshore
bank account had multiple zeroes behind a grand number.

Since her father's passing less than six
months ago, she'd been on her own. Cancer was a real bitch. Her
father had been tough as nails, but the disease had won anyway. So
when Professor Leander offered her a way out of a pile of bills and
creditors who kept calling the house, she ignored the niggling in
the back of her mind and signed on to do the job.

It had taken her over a month to trace where
the artifact had been taken once it had been unearthed at a
location just north of the Delphi Archeological site in Greece.
Professor Leander, or rather the Leander Corporation, funded the
dig. It had been well guarded, but someone still had managed to
infiltrate the compound and steal the item from right under
everyone's noses. The professor suspected it had been an inside
job, but she hadn't been able to prove it.

The resounding click of the lock made her
smile and she reached for the door handle with confidence.

Earlier today she'd cased the place. Not one
person visited, but a nerdy looking guy, who kept his nose in a
book and sipped tea all day long, seemed to be the curator. Casing
the place for hours on end proved tiresome, and she must have dozed
for a second. She hadn't seen the guy leave the building, but for
the last half hour, the lights remained off and the place appeared
as quiet as a tomb. If she had more time, she'd wait another day
and stake it out again, making sure she had caffeine in her system
to keep alert, but she didn't have the luxury. She had until
October 31st, to place the item in Professor Leander's hands or
she'd forfeit the second installment promised to her for her
troubles.

She was cutting it short, but she still had
plenty of time. She'd nab the item tonight, deliver it to the
professor tomorrow then head on over to New Orleans for some rest
and relaxation… Well, more like
party hardy
at a costume
ball her cousin Mick was throwing for Halloween. The man knew how
to
rock and roll.

Luckily, the museum didn't possess an alarm
system so she didn't have to worry about disarming it. "In and
out," she murmured. "Easy-peasy." Her hand slipped the flashlight
from her tool belt and she clicked the button. Light illuminated
the place, highlighting the items in a grotesque glow, making the
place appear more like a house of horrors than a museum. "Museum of
Cursed Antiquities," she reminded herself. With this view, she
could well imagine the title to be true. Everything seemed to be
catalogued in sections in a semblance of order. Dolls to the left
of her, some small, some as tall as a toddler, all with various
hair styles from bald to curly, and hair color ranging from dark to
light.

"What the heck…" Had the one with the sailor
hat winked at her? She cringed at the thought and hurried on down
the path. Furniture came next, chairs, sofas, lamps…then torture
devices. She passed by a guillotine that stood in the corner on the
right. The sign stated:
Haunted by the headless Lady Marie
Devull
. Well, really now. The woman was probably looking for
her head. No wonder she haunted the darn thing.

Her fingers subconsciously caressed the
chrysoprase amulet she wore on a silver chain around her neck. Her
father claimed the apple green and slightly fluorescent stone was a
thief's stone used in ancient times to protect the person from
being hanged or…beheaded. In this century, hopefully it warded off
being arrested too.

She strode past a curio filled with items
that were haunted or cursed by their previous owners—gloves,
photographs, brooches—to name a few. At the end of the aisle,
Sarcophagi stood in a row, like soldiers guarding over the damned.
All were decorated with painted representations of the deceased—or
so she imagined. Sightless black eyes and ghastly grins... "I take
it your curse is being ugly buggers." She stifled a laugh and
pursed her lips. She shouldn't make fun of the dead, and most
assuredly not in here.

To the right was another room, the sign above
stated
Rocks, Minerals, Jewels, and Stones
. "Exactly what I
was looking for," she murmured. As long as the curator documented
and logged the new arrival, the stone should be in there.

She took a step into the room only to come up
short as the light from the flashlight landed on glowing eyes.
"Holy—" the curse stuck in her throat as she stumbled back. Her
heart had surely decided to lodge itself in her throat, but she
forced herself to take a deep gulping breath and let it out
again.

"Get a grip," she murmured and shone the
light in the direction of the glowing eyes to reveal the threat as
an enormous statue of a mythical beast with the body, tail, and
back legs of a lion and the head, talons and wings of an eagle. It
was both fierce and majestic with eyes made of precious stones – or
so she assumed with the way the light reflected off of them. She
shone the flashlight at the base, looking for a card stating why it
was in the museum, but couldn't locate one. "So Mr. Gryphon, I'm
curious, why are you here?" She didn't know much about the
creatures, but a portrait of a Gryphon hung in her father's study…
her study now. She never had the heart to change the décor and
truthfully, she'd always liked the painting.

Her hand smoothed over the flank of the
statue, not fearing she'd leave fingerprints since she wore gloves.
"You are a beauty." She sighed with regret. "Sorry, Big Boy, I'm on
a job. Can't stop to chat." She patted the creature and moved
toward the glass case located a few feet behind it. A long
forgotten teacup sat on top, half filled, a slice of lemon resting
on the saucer. She removed the cup, placing it on the ground at her
feet. Her gaze then shifted over each item in the case, skimming
the information listed on the cards. She had in mind to leave the
curator a thank you note for being so meticulous in cataloging the
artifacts.

She finally spotted the item she'd come to
retrieve. There was a card there, but the info hadn't been typed on
it yet. There was only the name of the item and a number, probably
a catalog number since all the other exhibits possessed one
too.

Her hand smoothed along the lip of the case,
feeling for the release mechanism. "There you are," she murmured
and pressed the lever. The top opened with ease. She shook her head
wondering why the owner was so trusting. No alarm system, no locks
on the curios… Heck, she was surprised the front door hadn't been
left wide open.

"Yeah, enter at your own risk." Guess there
wasn't a high demand on cursed objects. She slid the case open and
reached for the egg shaped stone. Once she had the stone in her
grasp, she carefully closed the glass top.

She stared at the item with curiosity. It
wasn't anything special to look at and if she'd seen it on the
ground it wouldn't be a stone she'd snatch up as a treasure. Black
as ebony and smooth to the touch, it sat in the palm of her hand,
but even through her glove, she could feel the stone radiating
heat. Her eyebrows furrowed, as she wondered what curse it
harbored, and if she somehow triggered it to respond when she
picked it up.

She turned it over in her hand to inspect it
further. She rolled her eyes at the absurdity of her line of
questioning. "Curses…yeah, right," but she didn't completely
dismiss the idea an object could be cursed. She had her share of
superstitions passed down through the generations and it was hard
to shake them off as being silly folklore. Besides, if the stone
was truly cursed, it couldn't just rub off on a person by touching
it. Professor Leander had obviously handled the item at the dig
site with no worries.

She slipped the stone in the pouch secured at
her waist. She closed the lid to the case and returned the teacup
where she'd found it. She then turned to leave, but came up short
as she shone her flashlight in the direction she'd taken when she
entered the room. "Where in the heck is the Gryphon?" she said
aloud. She really had to stop talking to herself.

The statue stood over six feet tall and had
to weigh a ton. It would be difficult to miss, let alone forget
where it stood in the room.

She shook her head. She must have
miscalculated where it stood in the dark. She shifted the
flashlight, letting the light shine around the room in a slow arc,
expecting to find the creature standing as regal and unmoving as
she'd left it, but it wasn't there. "Oh come now. It couldn't have
taken flight." There was no room for it to fly if it could—and
it couldn't
, she reminded herself. It was a sculpture not a
living breathing creature, and yet the fine hairs on the back of
her neck rose to attention.