When a Gargoyle Lives (Gargoyles Book 2) (17 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

“What are you going to do to Chloe?”

They had tied her to a chair and left Ingrede guarding her.  The only people who had not made the trip to Portland were Drago, who could not be trusted out in the world and Annis, who was at home taking care of the baby.  She had offered to come, but both Chris and Luc shot her down.  Chris had tried to insist that Brenda stay behind, but she would not hear of it.  He had her promise to stay out of any danger, but he wasn’t sure he believed her, and this was given with a stern warning that they were going to have a long conversation about everything later.

Kylie gave her mate an accusing look, and he sighed.

“I do not know, little one.  But the safety of the clan…”

“I don’t know if I can agree to that.”

“I adore you, little one, but your disapproval would not stop me.”

“Luc!  So all the stuff you spouted about us being a team, and making decisions together was just crap?”

“I am not sure I quite agreed to that.  But would you really argue for that creature in there?  She is vicious and deceptive.”

Her lips puckered, and her eyes took on a stubborn glint.  “But she is still a person.”

“Kylie…”

“We need to get moving,” interrupted Chris.

“Yes,” agreed Luc, just a shade too quickly.  “We are losing nighttime.  Do you know where this place is?”

Chris nodded.  “Kylie can just follow me.”

“Good, then we can finish our discussion on the journey.”  Kylie spun on her heel and stiffly walked back to the van.

“Yes, I feared as much,” muttered Luc.

*

Ric silently rumbled in triumph as he freed himself from the chains.  He remained turned from the viewing mirror.

So technically he was free but still trapped in a locked room, which was likely to be just a small room in a much larger building with plenty more locks.  He flicked his tail as a sliver of hopelessness trickled through him, but all hope was not lost.

It was not the first time he had needed to escape a prison.  A thousand years ago he had been caught by an enemy and imprisoned.  He had picked his locks in much the same way he did now. Back then he used the sick prisoner routine - it was still fresh at that time, and jailers still fell for it.  The whole incident had been, as they say, a biscuit walk.  Or perhaps that was cake walk.  No matter.

It was just that humans had become much cannier at keeping people locked up.  In his day, they had no such thing as two-way mirrors and cameras.  Jailors tended to be members of an army who had become too old or rotund to fight.  They were not hard to trick and escape from.

A part of him had hoped that threatening Chloe really would lead to his release, but in his heart of hearts he had known it never would succeed.  Adler was not the type of man who could care about people.  He dreaded to think about the things he had done to Twenty-Six over the years.

Twenty-Six.  That was a terrible name.  When they escaped together, because there was no way he was leaving her there, he would make her choose a new name.

As dire as the situation was, at least he believed Brenda was safe… for now.  He didn’t think Adler was lying about that.  But, they knew she was important to him – how long before they decided to use her against him?  If he did not do as they wished, they might hurt her.  That was unacceptable.  Ric was leaving before they had the chance.

Now, he needed a plan to deal with the cameras, the automatic locks, the security guard and that damn viewing mirror.

Funny.  The A-team never struggled this hard, and usually, their odds were much worse.

*

Brenda fretted as Chris drove them to the lab.  God she hoped they weren’t dissecting Ric!  Prison conjured up lots of awful imaginings.  Somehow the ones a lab conjured up were worse.

Chris had borrowed one of his officer’s vans and had Cai and Gracchus hunched in the back.  Kylie was driving the other van.  Gracchus had wordlessly got in their van rather than Kylie’s van, which he rode in on the way down to Portland.  The tension between Kylie and Luc was not pleasant, and they were probably yelling at each other at that moment.

Chris had noticed two black cars following them as they left town and had his officer – who was already awake from Chris banging on his door asking to borrow the van – intercept them for speeding.  They hadn’t reappeared on the journey, and Chris was sure they hadn’t been followed by anyone else.

Brenda felt so useless.

Anything could be happening to Ric, and the most could do was wait in the car.  She’d wanted to confront Chloe, but no, she had to stay in the car.  She had complained until Chris and Luc gave her the ‘don’t fuck with me’ look, and not wanting to delay finding Ric, she had acquiesced.

She wasn’t the only one itching to get out of there.  While Kylie, Luc, and Chris disappeared to talk to Chloe, Cai and Gracchus had practically been beating their chests, readying for battle.

Hopefully, they were going to be disappointed.  Brenda just wanted to find Ric and get the hell home.  She could do without the battle.

“You should have told me what was going on,” said Chris softly.

“Would you have believed me?”

“Probably not,” he admitted ruefully.

“Thank you for helping.”

He blew out a breath.  “You and I are having a long conversation about this and what exactly is going on with this Amalric gargoyle when we get home.”

Brenda absently nodded and looked out the window.  She didn’t know why, but being apart from Ric felt like a part of her was withering and her heart seemed to clench in pain.  Her logical side told her it was probably heartburn after the chili, cheese fries.  But no, it was because of Ric – she was sure of it.  She didn’t know what he’d done to her, but somehow she knew she wouldn’t be happy without him.

As crazy as it sounded, she lo….

“We’re here,” said Chris.

Brenda blushed, both happy and displeased that her thoughts were interrupted.  Kissing a gargoyle she barely knew was one thing – that was strange enough behavior – but admitting the L-word for one?  Was she ready for that?

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chloe tested her bonds.  Fuck they were tight.  But not unbreakable.  This was her apartment, and she kept a few handy knives around in case of emergency.  But those emergency scenarios hadn’t exactly taken into consideration being baby-sat by a terrifying monster.

She watched the lean, female gargoyle prowl through her apartment.

“What’s your name?”

The female flicked her tail but didn’t stop her scrutiny of Chloe’s possessions.  She was currently inspecting a jar of honey.

“Quiet, human.”

“How long is this going to take?”

“I said quiet.”

“You only have a few hours left until daylight.  You planning on turning to stone here?”

The female whipped her head to look at her, eyes gleaming.

“Quiet or I will gag you.”

“How many are there?  How mmhm fhmmm uhmmm.”

The last few words were muffled as a cloth was unceremoniously shoved into her mouth.

*

Chris peered through his binoculars.

“You really come prepared, a stalker would be proud of you,” murmured Kylie.

He ignored her.  She was tense from her argument with Luc, scared for Amalric, and she was trying to lighten the mood.  Even a gargoyle wasn’t strong enough to lighten this mood.

“Do you believe this to be the place?” asked Luc.

“It just looks like a warehouse, nothing special.  Except they have armed guards outside, and that looks like an electric fence.”

“This is bad news?”

“Well, warehouses usually do have guards, and yeah they usually have guns, but not automatic ones.  And the electric fence isn’t exactly normal for this area.”

“Maybe that’s to keep whatever is in there, in there,” offered Gracchus.

“Around here there are warehouses for clothes and things like that.  Most purses don’t try to make a break for it.  So yeah, I’d say something bad is going on in there.”

“Ric,” murmured Brenda, shivering next to him.

Damnit, he’d told her to stay in the van!  Chris controlled his temper, barely.  Why he had allowed her to come, he didn’t know.  He made for a terrible parent.  Allowing his niece to run around with mythical beasts was hardly going to win him any parenting awards - that was for sure!  It was perhaps lucky he’d never had kids of his own.  He expected to feel the surge of grief that always assailed him when he thought of his late wife, Mara.  But no, it was only a slight twinge this time.  Huh.

Although he hadn’t won the argument with Brenda – who was headstrong beyond belief – he was glad that at least Drago had not accompanied them.  The huge male had tried to offer, but Luc told him in no uncertain terms, no.  He wasn’t sure the male was exactly stable and didn’t want to spend time worrying about what the heck he was up to.  Chris imagined it was like setting the Hulk on the loose.  Or at least, Frankenstein’s less civilized monster.

For some reason, he was also relieved Annis was left behind, although he was concerned about her being alone with Drago.  He had hinted as much to Kylie, and she had assured him Annis would be safe.  But he couldn’t help his worry.

This whole situation was crazy.  He was a police officer; he shouldn’t be contemplating breaking into somewhere, he should be informing Homeland Security of the gargoyles’ very existence.

Perhaps he was still in shock.  Not every day you find out some statues come to life every night.  He’d been to Paris on his honeymoon with Mara.  Their visit to Notre Dame Cathedral might have been quite different if he’d had this knowledge back then.

Chris squinted at the guards.  They looked like mercenaries.  They looked tough, but they shouldn’t be too hard to get past.  Hell, with any luck they’d just wet their pants and run away when they saw the huge male gargoyles advancing on them.  Of course, he hadn’t done anything of the sort – even with Drago charging him.  But then he had been concerned for Annis’ welfare.  Which was also probably another reason why he wasn’t ringing up Sanchez and getting her to haul ass to Devil’s Hang with a buttload of gargoyle sized butterfly nets.  The thought of Annis being strapped down and tortured filled him with a guilty ache.

No, he didn’t want to risk any of them being hurt.  Maybe five years ago he would have - he would have followed the rules to the letter, but things had changed.

Changed so much that he was now contemplating breaking the law for the sake of some mythical creatures.  Life can be really bizarre sometimes.

“We need to get in there,” he murmured.

“Yes,” agreed Luc, “we must lay siege to their fortress.”

Kylie stifled some giggles.

Chris wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that was about.  “We don’t know what’s happening in there; they could have a hundred men.”

“We will fight them all,” declared Cai.

“Perhaps I should just approach them in my official capacity as a police officer.”

“And they’ll get suspicious and what if they kill him?” whispered Brenda.

“Perhaps if they were distracted, I could sneak in and poke around.”

Luc protested.  “I should be the one to go.”

“I can go more unnoticed than you.”  His eyes flicked to Luc’s horns, his wings, and his tail.  “No offense.”

“I will not allow to you to risk your life for my clan mate without me.”

“Maybe if we called the FBI in.  I could give Sanchez a tip and…”

“And what would they do if they found Amalric in there?”

“Somebody do something before I do!” exclaimed Brenda as quietly and with as much exasperation as she could manage.

Chris scrubbed a hand down his face.  “So we have a heavily guarded facility, probably with a lot of alarms and fun security measures, and we have no idea what’s going on inside.”

Luc rumbled in agreement.  “That appears to be the case.”

“Not great odds.”

“No.”

“Okay, well, this is probably suicide, but, unless we can come up with a better plan in the next ten seconds, we better go with what I’ve got.”

*

Ric considered that if he managed to grab Adler in a chokehold, he’d probably make it out of there.  Adler may not care for any other living thing, but most likely he wouldn’t want himself to die.  He was pondering this when the lights went out.  There were a few shouts and the gentle hum of power ceased.

It was a power cut!  Everything was switched off.  No cameras, no automatic doors…

He smiled at the mirror, and threw the chains through it, managing to hit and knock out two very surprised security guards.  He jumped through the newly made hole, ignoring the males and exited into the corridor.  There were some more security guards, but he dropped them before they even reached their tasers.

Distantly, there was shouting as well as some gunfire.  His clan, perhaps they had come for him, perhaps this was their doing.  He wanted to go to them, to help them fight, but no, there was a gargoyle who needed him more.

The corridor smelled ugly, like disinfectant, but he detected Twenty-Six’s lingering scent.  Not intoxicating like Brenda’s but not altogether repellant.

Ric followed it, only stopping when a door flung open and a portly man in a white lab coat ran out of it.  He almost swallowed his tongue when he saw the huge gargoyle wandering free.

Ric didn’t move, he didn’t have to, the man started cowering and whining without any effort.

“Please don’t hurt me, I… I didn’t want to do anything to you.  It was Adler.  He’s crazy!”

Ric grunted, and the male started crying.

“Who are you?”

“D… Dr. Foreman,” he stuttered.

Ric curled his upper lip.  “Another doctor.”

The man’s jowls quivered as he shook his red face.  “Yes, but I… I never wanted to hurt anyone.  I never wanted to do the tests - that was all Adler.”

But you probably did them anyway thought Ric.  This pathetic male wasn’t worth his time.

“Where is Twenty-Six?”

“I didn’t want to hurt her!”

“Where is she?” snarled Ric, tiring of his cringing.

“D… d… down here.”

Ric gripped him by the shoulder.  “Show me.”