When a Gargoyle Awakens (18 page)

She had already looked into buying some kind of magical books – but she had no idea what to look for, and those that sounded like they might be authentic were pricey.

“No,” he rumbled, in a voice that brooked no argument.  “I will not allow you to take such a risk.”

She opened her mouth to argue nonetheless, and he reiterated his previous sentiment.  “You will not do this.  Promise me you will not do this.”

Kylie scowled at him and mumbled incoherently.

“No, Kylie, you will not do this and that is the end of the matter.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

The very next day, Kylie looked around surreptitiously before she pulled a book off the shelf and slipped it into her oversized purse.

Yes, she was completely ignoring what Luc had told her, and she was borrowing one of the professor’s books.

None of the books had been catalogued yet, so Kylie told Bea she wanted to start with them.  Bea agreed it was a good idea.  Boy, she was getting good at subterfuge.  It was a gift, really.

While they were working at Andrew’s house, Bea had hired an extra set of hands to watch the antique shop.  It was a teenager called Gwen who looked like she would burst into tears if you raised your voice a smidge too loudly, but she seemed competent enough and had actually sold quite a few items.  Unlike Kylie, she seemed to have a natural aptitude when it came to selling antiques.

Kylie had scanned the bookcase until she found a book that she thought might be helpful – it was on transmogrification.  She seemed to think that had something to do with changing shape or appearance, so surely that would apply to changing statues.  She had no idea but figured it was a start.  Besides, if it were no good, she could just borrow another book.  It was easy to borrow this one; it would be easy to do it again.

She was just about done congratulating herself when she heard a cough behind her and every inch of her froze in terror.

Slowly and reluctantly – because she really hoped that a meteor might strike in the interim – she turned to find Holling smiling at her.  Smiling in amusement – not glaring in fury.  She wasn’t sure which was worse.

“Is that your book?” he drawled.

“I was going to bring it back, I’m not a thief,” she blurted as surely she turned paler than an albino.

He sniggered.  “I’m sure.”

The urges to flee and burst into tears warred within her.  “I just wanted to borrow it to read.”

Holling stepped toward her, and she forced herself not to move backwards.  His arm brushed against her and every hair on her body raised in objection to his presence.  His touch made her shiver, but not even in remotely the same way that Luc did.  It was strange, but she was more scared and more repulsed by this gorgeous man than she was by a gargoyle.  Not that Luc was repulsive – not at all.  He was actually a handsome creature.

He reached into her bag, and she let him.  She froze on the spot in horror.  She’d never done anything like this.  She’d never misbehaved when she was growing up – she hadn’t needed to, she was allowed to do almost anything she wanted so she rebelled by being a well-behaved angel.

Holling pulled out the book and turned it over in his hands.  His eyes gleamed.  “Late night reading?”

“It, uh, just looked interesting,” she said, faintly.  “My friend Maggie is always talking about magic and witches, so I thought…”  The words just trailed away from her.

He watched her for a few beats before slowly returning the book to her bag.  “Why don’t you have dinner with me and I won’t say a word?”

Kylie stared at him in shock.  It was the most overt he had been about his interest in her.  In fact, it was blackmail.  He was blackmailing her to go out on a date.  She considered that a lot of women would actually be flattered by this – that he would stoop so low just for a chance to enjoy her company.  Kylie was no longer one of those women.

“I know how uptight Lara is about Andrew’s possessions,” he continued.  “I don’t see the harm in you borrowing a book.  And I don’t see the harm in the two of us getting to know one another a little better.”  He lifted his hand and for a moment Kylie thought he was going to slap her.  She breathed out when he didn’t but tensed right up again as he pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear.  It was a gesture that Luc sometimes made when they were talking.  He would smile and say that he wanted to see her face.  His sharp talons, which could be so deadly, would lightly graze her cheek as he took the utmost care not to hurt her.  When Luc did it, it made her all warm and bubbly.  When Holling did it, it made her cold and uneasy.

Every fiber of her being told her not to say yes to him.  She wasn’t fond of Holling – no, that was an understatement, she was creeped out by him - and to say yes felt like it would be a betrayal of Luc.  She didn’t like the feeling, but it was there.  Apart from her own niggles of guilt, she wasn’t sure if she could leave him alone at night.  Luc quizzed her about her days, and became silent and still if she ever mentioned a man’s name.  She didn’t want to confront it, but she knew he was jealous.  It wasn’t an emotion she was used to eliciting in a man.  Brian could have cared less if she had spent the night sleeping over at an ex-boyfriend’s apartment.  But Luc was unhappy if she even talked to another man. 

Kylie almost told Holling to call the cops and slap her in irons, but she thought better of it.  She didn’t want to lose access to Andrew’s house.

“I’d rather do lunch,” she said, grudgingly.  She hoped her face didn’t reflect her inner mood – sourer than a lemon.

He brightened almost manically.  “Perfect, how about tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she said, morosely, as if she were being led to the gallows.  How bad could it be?

Chapter Twenty-Five

“You look pleased with yourself,” simpered Lara, sidling towards him with wary cautiousness.

Good, she thought, perhaps something would cheer him up.  He was a freaking emotional roller coaster.  A couple of nights ago one of Holling’s associates had caught Gustave sneaking back into town; they’d snapped him up and were trying to get information out of him.  Sadly, the old man wouldn’t even tell them why he had been trying to get back into town.  He was a tough old bastard she’d give him that. Holling had some of his idiot friends interrogating him non-stop, but the old guy was locked up tighter than a vault.

She sighed, and some of the tension left her as he allowed her to slip her arms around him.  He only ever allowed her to do that when he was happy.  When he was mad, he could easily send her sprawling across the room with a backhand.

The times he did that were her fault, though.  She should have known better than to fawn all over him when he had more important things to think about.  At least, that’s what he said.

He really was in a good mood, because he patted her hand in what might have been considered a tender way.  She almost mewled like a kitten but remembered herself.  Holling didn’t like displays of affection.  She was already pushing her luck by hugging him.

“I caught Kylie Summers trying to steal a book on transmogrification,” he told her, gleefully.

“How dare she?  I’ll have that little bitch arrested!” snarled Lara.  Stupid, fat sow!  Lara wasn’t overly fond of any women, judging them all to be rivals.  She didn’t have female friends.  But she particularly disliked the way Holling tried to flirt with the cow.  Holling was hers.  Arresting her would suit Lara down to the ground.

“No, it’s a good thing.”

“It is?” she asked, uncertainly.

“Yes,” he snapped, impatiently.  “It means I’m right.”

“You’re always right, my love,” she said, adoringly.

His eyes tightened, whether, from the endearment or her compliment, she couldn’t tell, so she hurried on.

“So what have you done with the book?”

“Nothing, I let her take it.”

“Why?”

He rolled his eyes in aggravation.  “Because it means that she does have magic – she’s trying to wake one of them up.  Transmogrification is about changing one thing to another – why else would she want the book?”

Lara uncharitably thought that she was probably trying to turn her cat into a boyfriend.  Dumpy women like Kylie tended to have lots of cats and enjoy knitting.  She didn’t say it, though.  Holling was excited, and when Holling was excited that was good for her.  Besides, what did she know?  Maybe Holling was right?  Maybe Kylie the dump truck was some kind of witch and really was getting close to waking one of the gargoyles.

Lara wouldn’t be able to tell if she had magic.  The magic had dried up in her family over a century ago.  Too much breeding with the human cattle.  The capacity for magic lay within her, though.  All she would need would be a spark to set her going and who knew what she would be capable of.

She knew she was an embarrassment to Holling, and that was why he wouldn’t marry her.  Holling was embarrassed for himself, too.  He didn’t like to admit it, but his family’s magic had been waning for centuries.  Holling was the weakest practitioner in his family yet.  His younger sister – she who shall not be named - couldn’t do anything at all.  Another generation and it could be completely gone.  His family had always been so proud of their heritage, valuing magic over all else, only mating with other practitioners.  Lara secretly believed that it was the inbreeding that had caused their magic to go sour.  Anyone who couldn’t do magic was persona non grata to the late Holling senior – even casting out his own daughter.  Lara was relieved that Holling didn’t feel the same way.  He loved her, and they were going to get married.  He’d said so in a roundabout way.  She knew that he probably wouldn’t want her if she weren't a descendant of one of the Noir Clans, and, therefore, capable of wielding magic, but that didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered.  The important thing was that she had Holling.  He was hers.  And when they finally did manage to wake one of the blasted creatures, the magic would finally be theirs, and both of their families would once again be the powerful forces they once were.  It was the agreement Holling had made.  He would help find and wake the gargoyles, and in exchange they would be permitted to kill one and absorb Merlin’s magic.  The rest of the gargoyles would do as they pleased, but they would have an alliance with Holling.

This was all Holling’s dream, but given that all of Lara’s thoughts and hopes entirely centered on him – she had taken it on as her dream, too.

Lara kissed his cheek but stilled as he glared at her.

“What are you doing?” he snapped.  “Where’s Andrew?”

She tried to shrug, indifferently, to hide the terror she felt inside.  Holling wasn’t a powerful practitioner, but the flashes of pain he could create in her mind hurt, as did his fists.  “Out.”

“Out where?”

“I don’t know; I think he went to talk to that Maggie girl.”

“Why didn’t you stop him?” he snarled.  He pushed her away and began pacing up and down.

“Why would I?”  She could care less where Andrew was at any given time of day.

“Haven’t you noticed how much time he’s been spending with that girl?  Are you really so stupid?”  His voice had become a howl.

“What does it matter?”

“It matters because if he suddenly decides to drop his cold bitch of a fiancée and take up with a sweet, small-town girl -”

Lara held back a snort, that trainwreck with ripped tights and eyeliner that would embarrass Cleopatra was not a sweet girl.

“Then we’ll be kicked out of here and everything I worked so hard for will be gone.”

Lara felt a stab of irritation.  He had worked so hard for?  She was the one who had to do most of the work – flat on her back with a man who had an impressive ability to recover.  Holling was practically using her as a whore.  Not to mention the fishmonger – seducing him into following Kylie around town was easy, but she wasn’t sure she could ever get rid of the smell or the feel of his sweaty hands on her body.  Of course, Holling didn’t know about that yet – she was saving that as a surprise for him.  Not that it had done much good yet.  Visits to the library and grocery stores were yawn worthy.

“Do you know how long it took me to track the gargoyles down?” he demanded, in his familiar ranting voice.

Lara tried to be reasonable – not always a safe thing to be where Holling was concerned.  “Surely there are other gargoyles in the world?”

“Not like this,” he spat.  “The professor has at least twenty gargoyles hidden somewhere.  At least twenty!  But if I’m right, that could be closer to fifty.  The collection has grown and grown since they were first turned.  And there isn’t time to find others – we have eighteen months until the gargoyles remain stone forever, and all the magic is lost.”

She bit her lip.  “What about that female gargoyle you found in France?”

“She’s a last resort.  Storming a monastery and killing monks is not a high priority.  Besides, I want this one.  I need this one.”

“Which one?” 

“I know the professor had him,” Holling muttered to himself.  “He’s the descendant of the first gargoyle, of Guinevere’s gargoyle, of Demon.  I know he’s here somewhere.  She wants this one.”

Lara knew who the ‘she’ was, and she was caught between a shudder and a disdainful scowl.  “Which one?”

“Lucifer.”