Gryphon and His Thief (9 page)

"Tell me about it," she said as she eyed him
over the rim of her teacup then indulged again. She really had no
idea how to drink tea properly. One simply did not gulp it down
like a pint of beer.

"I'll have another," she announced as uncouth
as a barmaid, which just proved his point.

He stared at the cup for a second before he
reached for it with a sense of triumph. This was his opportunity.
There was a phone hanging on the wall in the kitchen. "I'll be
right back." He stood, but she did also. He couldn't have her
traipsing along with him. His gaze caught site of the large leather
bound book sitting next to the computer. "Um… I can manage fine.
While I'm warming the water in the kettle, you can browse through
this." He placed the cup down to reach for the book.

"What is it?" she asked, curiosity lighting
her eyes.

"It's a catalog of the cursed items here in
the museum. I'm sure you'll find Hecate's Stone you speak of listed
with the history of how it became cursed." He pushed the book
toward her.

"Thanks," she said and plopped down in his
seat, making herself right at home. He picked up the cup again and
wondered if he should have been so willing to give her the
information, but it proved too late to second-guess his willingness
to help her now. He hurried toward the kitchen. At the door, he
chanced a glance to see if her curiosity was still piqued. She
flipped through a few pages then paused as if to read one of the
passages. He let out a sigh of relief he'd been holding and turned
away.

Once in the kitchen, he placed the teacup on
the stove and rushed to the phone, mounted on the far wall. He'd
only picked up the receiver and punched in two numbers when he
heard the kitchen door behind him open. He closed his eyes and
cursed.

"Hang up the phone, Darrien," she told him,
her voice cold and unnerving.

He turned to face her and noticed the
revolver. It fit nice and snug in the palm of her hand, but it
might as well have been a machine gun for all it mattered. His
hands flew above his head in surrender. "I'm sorry, but I had to
try."

She rolled her eyes heavenward before she
leveled her gaze on him once more. "I suppose you did have to try.
I would have if I were in your shoes. I did warn you, I'm not a
great storyteller, but I thought you and I had an understanding. We
can't call the cops, assuming that's who you were about to
call."

He didn't bother denying the fact. "What now?
Are you going to shoot me?" he asked.

She waved the gun at the other room. "I want
to show you something."

He lifted a brow, but didn't argue. The woman
held a gun on him so options were at a minimum.

"Sit," she demanded once they were back at
his desk. He did and chanced a look at her. She surprised him by
placing the gun down on the desktop. "I don't want to hurt you,
Darrien," she told him and he wished she wouldn't use his first
name with her easy-on-the-ears voice. It distracted him and he
needed to stay focused if he wanted to get out of this alive.
"Believe me, I don't," she added for good measure. She must have
sensed he didn't believe her.

"But you will if I don't cooperate," he
said.

"No." She actually seemed insulted that he
would suggest such a notion. "I need your help." She let out a
frustrated sigh. "I really wish you weren't the one here right now.
I need him." She pointed to the Gryphon.

"The statue talks to you?"

"Yes… I mean no." She moved so fast to sit
down on the desktop, it startled him, and he pushed back in his
chair with his feet, the wheels sliding him along until her boot
caught the edge of the chair and she rolled him back in front of
her. She did all this without pausing as she prattled on about her
conversation with the Gryphon, or rather his other self. If he were
inclined to believe her story.

"You can shift to your human side also when
you're united with your Gryphon self, you see?"

No, he didn't see. "Let's for a moment
believe what you've told me is all true, and you are indeed the
sane one here…"

She opened her mouth to no doubt complain,
but he held up his hand to halt her words.

"Let me finish, if you will. How do you
propose I help you when…he," he waved toward the statue and all its
finery, "could not?"

"You keep forgetting. You are the
Gryphon."

"Right-o."

"You said the items in the museum are all
cataloged. Find the Gryphon in that book of yours. You weren't
lying about the contents were you?"

No, he hadn't lied, but she didn't wait for
his response. She pushed the book toward him and waited for him to
comply with her request.

He had a hunch if he just dismissed her and
insisted she leave the premises, he'd have a real fight on his
hands. The gun lay as a reminder of the fact, giving him no other
choice. She claimed she wouldn't hurt him, but really, did he want
to take the chance? Not really. He'd have to play along for
now.

With a sigh, he leaned forward in his seat
and scanned the contents, looking for the entry regarding the
Gryphon. A few minutes later, he came across it in living color.
There was a sketch of the beast, not a photo so the item had been
with the collection for a long time. He read the description of the
curse handwritten beneath it. "Cursed to guard treasures," he read
out loud. "Never one with itself," he said with less confidence.
What did that mean? Not one with himself.
"Darkness is for
the beast as light is for the human soul." He stared at the
passage. Calli might have told him a similar story, but it didn't
mean it actually referred to him. He was about to tell her so, but
then she shoved her mobile phone in front of him. A video played
and it took him a second more to register what he viewed.

He shook his head in disbelief, but how could
he deny what she'd caught on film? He bloody well shifted into the
Gryphon then something resembling a ghostlike being… "This cannot
be real," he said, but his gut told him what he viewed was indeed
all
too
real. He played it again. Then
again…and yet again. All the blood seemed to rush to his head and
the room tilted. "I don't feel so…well," he said. A silvery light
blurred his vision right before everything went black.

Chapter Eleven

"Darrien!" Calli cried as she jumped off the
desk and tried to stop him from toppling from the chair. He may be
Nerdy Darrien, but it didn't make him any less impressive in size.
She only managed to fall over too, with him landing on top of her.
All the air went out of her in a
whoosh
.

"Darrien…ouch…uh…" she grunted and shoved at
his shoulders. Just her luck, his geeky side was a fainter. She
shoved again, trying to squirm free. "God, you are heavy.
Ugh!
Move, will you?"

He groaned in protest, but she wasn't
entirely sure it had anything to do with his unconscious state, but
rather her rubbing against him as she tried to wiggle free. "This
cannot be happening," she murmured, but apparently it was. He
didn't roll away as she hoped. Instead, she only managed to ignite
his passion. His lips found hers and he kissed her…again…or rather
Nerdy Darrien kissed her. It seemed some things the curse could not
control. His ability to kiss proved one of those things.
Boy,
did Beastie Darrien and Nerdy Darrien have this in common
.

Passion overrode her need to be free and her
eyes fluttered closed as she took what he offered, savoring all the
subtle variations of his kisses. Her fingers spread into the silky
softness of his hair. A moan of pleasure escaped her lips, the
sound surprising her. A glass of cold water in the face couldn't
have been better. Her eyes popped open as reality came hurdling
back. What she was doing proved to be all kinds of wrong. Darrien
wasn't really conscious, even if his libido had awakened to greet
her. She moved her head to the side, breaking their lip-lock and
taking a well-needed breath. Then she promptly slapped his face.
"Wake up!"

Darrien sputtered and his eyelids snapped
open. He blinked a few times in rapid succession as if he had
trouble focusing without his glasses.

"Calli?" he asked, his voice shaky and
disoriented. Then he must have noticed the intimate situation they
found themselves in. His face turned three shades of red as he
scrambled off her. "Sorry," he said as he searched for his glasses,
his hands outstretched and his fingers gingerly feeling the
floor.

Yep, he did a great imitation of being a
blind man, only it seemed he wasn't acting. He was truly sight
impaired.

She spotted the eyewear and reached for them.
"Here," she said and knelt in front of him to place the glasses on
the bridge of his nose. Their eyes met and for a moment she thought
perhaps he would kiss her yet again. Her heart fluttered in
response, and her breath caught in her throat just thinking about
those lips on hers. She really didn't understand this immediate
attraction. Love at first sight was not her MO, and lust at first
sight wasn't either.

The song,
It's in His Kiss
, popped
into her head, but she shut that nonsense down right away.
If he
loves you—
She was not going there. Kissing didn't mean love.
It's a good start
, her mind casually mocked her. "Stop
it."

Darrien frowned at her outburst and lifted
his hands to the side. "I'm not doing anything."

She waved him away. "I know. Put your hands
down," she ordered, which didn't put him at ease. "Sorry. I'm just…
Forget it, will you?" She glanced away. She couldn't stare into
those hypnotic eyes of his and stay focused on what mattered
here.

Starting a relationship with any guy was too
much to handle in her line of business. Relationships were about
trust and she'd have to lie about where she went and the jobs she
pulled. Some people were too narrow-minded to appreciate her line
of work. As for Darrien – heck, he had his own issues. Split souls
proved a new one on her, but the confusion would be more than she
wanted to take on. It would seem like she was cheating on Beastie
Darrien if she were to kiss Nerdy Darrien…and vice-versa. No, she
couldn't… No, kissing either of them…ever again – even if both
Darriens could make her toes curl.

"I am sorry," Darrien said again, and he did
look contrite. His face remained flushed and his eyes bright. "I
don't understand what came over me," he added and pursed his
lips.

Her cheeks felt a tad bit hot too. "Don't
worry about it. Can't fault you for something you didn't know you
were doing. Besides it wasn't all that bad." His gaze riveted to
hers and she wished she hadn't added that last part.

He cleared his throat. "Well then," he said
and rose to his feet, offering her a hand up.

"Thank you." His grip proved strong and warm
and made her wish he would pull her into his arms. "Uh…we
should…uh…" Her thoughts not only tripped her into stuttering, but
it also startled her enough that she stumbled right into his hard
chest to receive her wish. Darrien's arms went around her, bracing
her fall and bringing her up close and personal all over again.

"I have you," he told her.

The funny thing was, she believed he did, in
more ways than one. She steadied herself and gripped his forearms
as she took a step away, if only to take a well-needed breath and
gain control of her emotions. "Aren't we the stumbling duo?" She
chuckled as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Darrien
froze and stared at her as if the gesture was out of the ordinary.
"What?" she asked. "You aren't going to faint again, are you?"

His eyes focused then and he blinked. "Faint?
No, of course not, but I had the strangest feeling of
déjà
vu
. Quite put the hairs on my arms on end." He rolled back his
sleeve to show her the evidence. "The way you tucked your hair
behind your ear... Well, it seemed familiar."

"Oh..." She didn't quite keep the
disappointment out of her voice. She'd thought he referred to their
kiss. Guess she needed some work on her technique to make it
memorable. Her fingers itched to tuck another wayward strand behind
her ear, but she held herself in check. "Like I told you, we've
already met. You're probably picking up on last night's
introductions."

"Yeah. Right-o. So you've said, and perhaps
you're correct." He glanced at the book opened to the page
dedicated to the Gryphon. Then his gaze shifted to the real deal,
the statue in the flesh… well, stone anyway. "I'm a Gryphon," he
said more to himself than to her, as if he wanted to try out the
statement and see how he felt about it. He chuckled, but she knew
he was not happy he'd been forced to learn such a secret. "A
Gryphon is a fearless beast," he said. Sadness dimmed his eyes to a
dull gold brown. "I am no such thing, I'm afraid."

"Noble and loyal are traits also and I bet
those adjectives fit you."

"You know nothing of such things, Miss
Angelis."

She gave him a smile. "I believe we
established I know more about you than you do." Her statement
didn't exactly cheer him. "Listen, we'll sort this all out later,
but right now I need your help in finding out who Professor Leander
truly is and why she's so determined to have Hecate's Stone."

"Perhaps we should be more focused on how she
knew about the stone in the first place?" he countered and his left
brow rose. "I can assure you this: she never owned the object in
question. Even if her corporation funded the dig, they would not
deliver it into her hands. There are certain channels one would
follow to insure the safety of the artifact. The fact she hired you
without the press and she wired your money to an offshore account
only proves she is hiding something."

"She convinced me otherwise with her story
about the company losing their funding. She claimed if the press
got wind that an artifact went missing, it would appear as if they
were incapable of guarding the site against fortune hunters. They
would be shut down." She pointed to the computer on his desk. "Does
that work?"