When a Gargoyle Lives (Gargoyles Book 2) (18 page)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ingrede inspected what she later discovered to be a microwave.  Since waking, she had not spent much time discovering the new and interesting things of their new home.

That was partly because Cai did not like the new world, and did not wish for them to become attached to it.  She inwardly huffed.  As if there were some way for them ever to go back.  But most of her time was spent keeping Wolfe amused, which she did not begrudge in the least.  In fact, she enjoyed it more than she could admit, especially to her mate.

Things were very different to how they would have been back in her time.  Wolfe was already showing signs of crawling and flapping his wings.  Gargoyle younglings develop much faster than humans.

Ingrede understood that human mothers held onto their young as long as they could.  Sometimes too long, Maggie had remarked with a knowing look – although Ingrede didn’t really understand that and Maggie told her she would explain it another time.

Gargoyle mothers gave their young over to the clan when they were about four weeks old.  The mothers were still their mothers, but their involvement in their upbringing was tenuous at best.  It was the older gargoyles that could no longer fight who saw to the younglings’ needs so that the mothers could train and fight.  It was sometimes brutal.  She had been handed over at five weeks old – her mother disappointingly told her she was much slower than the other younglings.  And her training and upbringing had been cold and lonely.

But warriors could not have a youngling clinging to them while they went into battle.  At least, that is what her mother and sister had told her.  They had happily handed over their young.  Conversely, Ingrede had felt a dull ache about giving away her baby since before he was born.  She had wanted him with her for as long as possible and had dreaded being separated from.  She would have still seen her child, but it would not have been the same.  She wanted him to grow into a strong warrior – of course, she did –but did that really have to come at the expense of her time with him?  She had tried to voice those thoughts to Cai back in the day, but he did not understand.  He had been horrified when she had produced tears over losing Wolfe and had left her to ‘compose herself’.  Ingrede had been so worried that she even considered leaving the clan to raise Wolfe on her own.  Then the fight happened, and they turned to stone…

Cai mated her because she was a strong warrior and would bear him strong younglings.  She hadn’t ever thought otherwise.  While she felt the stirrings of affection, his use of her went so far as to continue his line and slake his physical needs – which she was not complaining about, he was an excellent lover.  Her mother had arranged the match as soon as she came of age.  Ingrede was a strong warrior and was not going to stop being that, but she did not want to lose the connection she had with Wolfe.  The idea of him becoming as distant and apathetic to her as she had been to her mother horrified Ingrede.  But maybe now, things would be different.  She was sure she could make Kylie and probably even Annis support her.  They would understand her need.  It had been a wrench just leaving Wolfe that night – the first time they had been parted since his birth – but Amalric was in danger, and she would not let her clan down.

Cai was unhappy and out of place in the new world, but inside, Ingrede was joyous.

She spun as she heard some muffled bangs behind her.  Ingrede growled as Chloe thumped her chair along the floor, moving towards a table.  Not an easy feat as she was tied to it.

Ingrede was furious, but not at Chloe, at herself.  She had let herself daydream when she had a job to do.  Some warrior she was!

“Stop that,” she hissed at Chloe.

Ingrede snarled as Chloe pulled apart her ropes.  Damnit!  There was a knife on the table that Ingrede had missed.  She was such a fool!

Chloe flung the knife at her, and Ingrede turned almost in time to miss it, the knife grazed her wing.  Her fury at the human overwhelmed the trickle of pain.

Chloe let out a triumphant scream and ran straight to the balcony and flung herself over it.

Open-mouthed – because in all her years, Ingrede had never been more shocked by anything she had ever seen – Ingrede peered over the balcony railing to see Chloe sprawled at the bottom of an empty swimming pool.  Blood seeped out of her head.  No doubt she was dead.

“Why on earth…” muttered Ingrede.

The pool had been covered in tarpaulin when they arrived – perhaps Chloe did not realize the pool was empty when she jumped.  The odd human certainly did not appear suicidal.

“What was that?” called a voice nearby.

Ingrede leaped off the balcony and flew into the night.

*

Ric found Twenty-Six trying to read a magazine by flashlight.  She barely flinched as he roared and smashed his way through the door, she certainly didn’t take her eyes off the article on cellulite.

“Is this your doing?”

“Are we leaving this dump or do you wish to stay here and flap your mouth all night?”

She looked up and for the first time, a flicker of vulnerability crossed over her sullen face.  “For how long?”

“Goddamnit, forever.”

“Where would I go?”  She toyed with a small stuffed bear.

“With me to our clan.  Now are you leaving on foot or slung over my shoulder?”

Twenty-Six bit her lip.  “Can I bring Lucky Bear?”

Chapter Thirty-Six

“How can you be so calm?’ snapped Brenda.

“Trust me, I’m not,” said Kylie.

“What do you think’s happening?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“I can’t stand waiting any longer.”  Brenda grasped the keys.

Kylie placed a hand on her arm.  “No, we need to stay here.”

“I need to do nothing.”

“Honey, what exactly are you going to do when you get in there?”

“I… I…”  She slumped back into the seat.  “I don’t know.”

The darkened building suddenly illuminated.

“The power’s back on,” breathed Kylie.

“Probably not good.”

“They’re already in there, so it can’t be that bad, can it?”

*

“You, stop!”

“Holy fuck, what is that thing?”

Luc glared at the two males.

“It’s one of their lab experiments.  Thing must have got out when the power went down.”

“Get down on the ground, monster,” ordered one of the guards.

Luc continued to glare.

“I said get down.”

“Maybe it doesn’t understand.”

He rolled his eyes.  They had taken out the power supply, which had been easy enough.  Luc had picked up a nearby bicycle and hurled it at the power lines.

Kylie was warned to stay in the car and for once she had not argued, perhaps because Chris wanted her to make sure that Brenda stayed behind.  The female was so jittery that she was actually starting to bother him, and given a chance she might do something entirely reckless. She was no more suitable for a fight than Kylie.

But he believed he knew why she was so upset.  She bore the same desperate look at the thought of losing Ric that he wore whenever Kylie did something reckless.  The one he had when Kylie insisted that she confront Chloe.  Grrr.  His female would be the death of him.

At least, Brenda’s presence would calm Amalric if he needed it, although her uncle might not be so pleased with their relationship.  It was perhaps fortunate for him that Kylie did not have an overprotective male relative in her life.  Not that it would have stopped their mating.  But it would have been annoying.

“Get down!” howled the increasingly florid security guard.

Chris warned them the facility may possess a backup generator, and so they had to hurry.  Cai and Gracchus approached one door while Luc, flying a tense Chris over the fence, took the other entrance.  They took out four guards, and we're now making their way through the building.

Chris took one corridor while he the other.  For such a large place it was not very populated.  Most of the rooms he had come to appeared to be empty cells, and that did not bode well.

He had taken out two more black-clad men, but unlike the outside guards they did not have automatic weapons.  Theirs appeared to be electrical, and while they were painful, the pain was manageable.  The sweating creatures trying to order him around appeared to possess the same type of weapon.

Luc flexed his wings.  But before he could take them, one of them made a fuzzy sound, his eyes rolled to the back of his skull, and he slumped to the ground.

The other spun.  “What the fuck?”

Luc grabbed him, hurling him against the wall.

“I could have managed them,” he rumbled.

Chris raised an eyebrow.

“But, thank you,” he added after a few moments.

Chris looked down at their unconscious bodies.  “Shame, we could have asked them where we were going.  Although the last two guys I met didn’t know.”

“You took one of their weapons?”  Luc nodded at the taser.

“Yeah, figured it was better than shooting them. They're probably just hired guns, don't deserve to die for this.”

“You are like Kylie.”

Chris smiled faintly.  “That a bad thing?”

“No, I am sure the world would be a better place if everyone were like my mate.”

“Yeah, about that…”

“Choose your words wisely,” warned the gargoyle, puffing out his chest.

They stilled as the lights flickered back on.

“Hey, you there!”

More guards spotted them and were coming their way.

“Another time.”

*

Kylie and Brenda watched in horror as SUVs arrived and more black-clad mercenaries poured out of them.

“Well, the power being off meant the alarms weren’t working.  Apparently, now they are, and their backup has arrived.”

“I don’t suppose you have a handy spell tucked away that would put them to sleep or something?” asked Brenda.

“Sure, I’ll just get out a spinning wheel and grab a princess.  I’m not exactly good at magic.  I tried to clean a plate by magic the other days and made them all disappear.  We had to buy new plates.  The old ones will probably turn up one day… I hope.  They're imported Wedgwood - fancy and expensive.”

“There has to be like thirty men down there, armed to their freaking teeth.  Now can we do something?”

“I don’t know… hand me the binoculars.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Foreman led them through a lab.  There were huge tubes filled with green looking liquid and, frankly, disgusting, mutated creatures.

“What is all this?” murmured Ric, staring at something that appeared to have five ears.

“What do you think?” sighed Twenty-Six.

“I don't know.”

“What exactly do you think they've been doing here?”

“You said they were breeding us, like animals,” he added on a growl, giving Foreman a swift kick.

“L… l… lots of endangered species are bred in this way,” stammered Foreman.  “It is how the species survives.”

“Not quite how,” sneered Twenty-Six.  “That thing you’re looking at, that was supposed to be a gargoyle.”

Ric reared back from the deformed creature.  Yes, when he looked carefully, he could see the makings of some wings.  But it was the three arms and the massive head that took his attention.

He pulled Foreman closer to him, leaning down, staring directly into the trembling human’s face.  He could probably see the sheen on Ric’s fangs.  “What is she talking about?”

They heard gunfire and Foreman cringed even more.  “Do we have to talk about this now?  We're under attack!”

“Probably by more of my kind.  And the other males in my clan are not as warm and cuddly as I.”

“There are more like you?” Foreman quavered.

Ric grinned, showing the human his full set of teeth.

“She is talking about the tests and experiments,” he blurted.

“Why do you think I'm called Twenty-Six?” she said in grim amusement.  “They had a male gargoyle and a female gargoyle, and they used them to create lots of little gargoyle babies, except they weren't just normal babies.  Isn’t that right, Dr. Foreman?”

“We should…” started the human.

“Tell me or I break your neck now!” snarled Ric.

Foreman sagged even further in Ric’s clutches.  “They wanted gargoyles who would not turn to stone during sleep.  We tried infusing them with different animal DNA, but none took.  Only Twenty-Six survived, and we don't know why.  She still turns to stone when she sleeps, but she can sleep at any time of day.  The others though… some didn’t even make it past infancy.”

“How many?”

“Thirty,” he whimpered.

Ric’s eyes flashed.  “You created thirty gargoyles and all, but this one died?”

“It… it wasn’t our fault, they rejected the material we put in them… it wasn’t our fault!”  Foreman was becoming hysterical.  “I’m… I’m sorry.”

“You will be.  Twenty-Six, you seem very familiar with this place…”

“I should be,” she huffed, “after all the years I lived here.”

“What would be the quickest way to destroy this lab?”

Twenty-Six grinned.  “The good news is there are plenty of flammable liquids around here.  We set fire to this place, and kaboom!”

Foreman shook his head.  “No, no, no, you shouldn’t…”

Ric gave him a stinging slap on the back.  “Don’t worry, if you’re good, we won’t leave you in here.”

Twenty-Six let out a sound of disgust.  “You’re taking him, too?”

“Indeed.”

Foreman simpered.  “Thank you, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.  My chief will want to speak to you on what you have done here.”

“Oh, thank you… ugh!”

Blood blossomed on his white lab coat.  His face turned white, and he crumpled to the floor, slipping out of Ric’s hands.  Ric roared and looked up to find Adler, flanked by two bruised security guards, smiling at them, a gun clutched in his wrinkled hand.

“Why?”

Adler shrugged.  “He was a fool, and we are in rather a rush.  Sadly, I will have to leave behind my specimens, too.”  He cast a wistful eye across the lab.

“These poor deformed creatures?” sneered Ric.

“Yes, they may not seem like much to you, but each one of them represents a step close to perfection.  You are magnificent creatures, but you are severely flawed.  Just think of how much improved you will all be when I find a way to stop you from turning to stone.”

“You’re insane.”

“I’m a visionary,” he said modestly.

“No, insane.  How many have you killed?”

Adler frowned.  “What does it matter?  They were all necessary sacrifices.”

Ric rolled his shoulders, unfurling his wings.  “Are you going to shoot us?”

“No, that would be too much of a waste.  As I’m sure you can tell, some of your associates have found us.  I’m not sure how, but I won’t dwell on that.  It is time for us to move to another location, and cut our losses here.”

Ric curled his upper lip.  “If you want me, go ahead and shoot.”

“I don’t think it need come to that, although, rest assured if it did, I would only shoot you where I was sure you could heal.”

“You’re a prince among men,” taunted Twenty-Six.

“I would save your breath, my dear.  I do not want to shoot you, but there are other ways to make you comply.”

He pulled a small device out of his pocket and Twenty-Six blanched.  Her natural, purple skin paled to a violet at best.  “No.”  She stepped back, and her chest started heaving as tangible fear assailed her body.

“We have not needed this since you were a teenager, but as Amalric does not wish to comply, I am afraid I must show him the price of disobedience.”

He pressed the device and Twenty-Six let out a keening screech.  She clutched her head and her body writhed in agony.  Her legs trembled, struggling to hold her and Ric grasped her.

“What is this?” Ric bellowed.

“Sadly,” shouted Adler, loudly to be heard over Twenty-Six’s agonized wailed, “we did not have time to implant your chip.”  He waved the device.  “It just gives our subjects a little persuasion when they do not want to do something.”

“Turn it off!”

“Will you come with us willingly?”

Tears streamed down Twenty-Six’s cheeks.

“Yes,” he forced out through gritted teeth.

“You will not try anything?”

“No, just turn it off!”

“Of course.”

Twenty-Six collapsed into Ric’s arms, her body shivering as a trickle of blood crept out of her nose.

“She will be fine,” said Adler, dismissively.  “I would not kill her.”

Ric heaved her small body into his arms.  “No, just torture her.”

“As long as you behave, it will not be necessary for us to do this again.  I am afraid we are in a hurry, so we don’t have time for proper transportation.”

Ric snarled as the security guards each shot a tranquilizer dart at him.  He weaved slightly and vaguely wondered why three Adlers were now talking to him.  Where had the other two come from?

“That should be enough to calm you, but not enough so that you pass out.  Now, let’s get moving.  As much as I would like to meet your comrades, I would prefer it under more manageable circumstances.”

“Like when they’re chained to the floor in a cell,” slurred Ric.  Now where did all those fairies flitting around all the Adlers’ heads come from?  And why were they all setting fire to their own lab?

“You already know me so well, now, move.”