Rocked by Love (Gargoyles Series) (7 page)

And hadn’t five minutes of her company in the bell tower provided those answers already?
His inner voice smirked. Dag ignored it.

The list of things he had chosen to ignore had grown impressively in the few hours since he had regained his awareness. He would ignore his strange fascination with the small human female who had spurred his awakening. He would ignore the oddity of a female Warden, the first in his many centuries of existence. He would ignore that each of his three woken brothers sported a female Warden whom they now claimed as mates.

Most of all, he would ignore the oldest legend of his kind, the one that told of a bond between a female of power and a Guardian like him that could free him from his endless pattern of sleeping and waking. A legend that offered him a life of his own, free to live according to his desires with a human female at his side to the end of his days.

Irrelevant.

Dag needed to focus on the matters at hand. After speaking to Knox and the witch Warden, Wynn, he understood what the low-level itch at the back of his neck signified. He could sense the threat from the Darkness rising, one greater than any he had faced before. In the past, he had woken to fight against the experimental pushes by the Seven, the subtle probes of their evil seeking a weakness in the prisons that contained them. When matters had become grave indeed, he had even fought beside one or another of his brothers, joining forces to defeat a stronger incursion. Never before had he known anything like this.

The thought of one of the Seven fully present on the human plane nearly staggered him. The last time such a thing had happened predated Dag’s summoning, but each Guardian who ever existed came into the world with the full knowledge of his race, each individual’s experiences cataloged and shared, almost like a hive memory. Each Guardian could access such knowledge at will, so he knew several of his brethren had died returning the Demon to its prison plane of existence. To know also that this time, the Guardians faced the added challenge of fighting without the full strength of the Wardens Guild behind them merely added to his concern.

His greatest worry, however, centered around Kylie herself. He understood that of the current female Wardens, only Wynn had previous knowledge of the Guild and its doings. From what she had told them, only she had any real experience in the practice of magic as well. However, Kylie not only lacked the training of a Guild Warden, she seemed surprised to hear her abilities classified as magic at all. How was such an innocent and unschooled human to face the concerted attack of a
nocturni
sect, let alone one of the Seven itself?

The answer, of course, was that she couldn’t. Dag would need to remain vigilant, ready to place himself between the female and any harm that might come to her. Unfortunately, he somehow already recognized that doing so might see him incurring an extra level of harm himself—the first from the evil attack, and the second from Kylie herself, enraged at being thrust aside and prevented from fighting her own battles. Already he had noticed her stubborn independence and her sharp tongue, one he would not mind taming, given the correct opportunity.

Dag stood beside her desk and picked up a small, fur-covered object for a closer examination. It appeared to be a child’s toy in the shape of a soft cat, pale gray with darker stripes. But when he picked it up, a recorded voice emerged from it and sang some sort of awkward lullaby. This was the female he was supposed to permit to stand beside him in battle?

What was it she had said several times over the course of the evening?

Oy vey.

*   *   *

A good five hours of sleep had been exactly what Kylie needed to face the day with renewed energy and a return of her normally optimistic attitude. Well, five hours of sleep and an ice-cold bottle of imported cola. Cane sugar and caffeine, baby—the breakfast of champions.

Especially when accompanied by a toasted onion bagel schmeared with a half-ton of creamy butter.

She had stumbled down from her rumpled bed, popped the top off her soda, and dropped her bagel in the toaster oven before her erstwhile houseguest made his first appearance. She wasn’t sure if he’d been lurking in the living room like the statue he had started out as, or had been inspecting the water seal in her basement. Either way, she had the kitchen to herself one moment, and the next, blam! Instant gargoyle.

Okay, so he wore his human form, but still, his way of moving silently continued to creep her out, especially when she considered what a big guy he was. If
she
couldn’t walk across the creaky old wooden floors in her supersoft fuzzy socks without making a huge racket, then he sure as heck shouldn’t be able to pull it off. It just went to show that there really was no justice in the world (she had suspected this since she was five, and the kindergarten teacher had let Ari Milner play with the wooden blocks even though Kylie had
clearly
gotten to them first).

Luckily, she possessed decent peripheral vision, or she would have dropped her soda when he spoke and had to clean up shards of broken glass on an empty and insufficiently caffeinated stomach. “You yell ‘Boo!’ at me, and I’m so not sharing my bagels,” she warned.

Dag paused. “What is a bagel, and why would I want a share in yours?”

A thought flashed in Kylie’s head for a split second, just long enough for her to wonder if he thought she was sexually propositioning him. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from bursting out with a belly laugh. Or, you know, jumping his bones.

“Oh, Goliath, you really need to get out more. Here, I got this.” She pulled out another bagel and waved it under his nose. “This, my friend, is manna from heaven, the greatest gift my people have bestowed upon the earth. Watch and learn.”

The second bagel joined hers in the toaster, and she leaned back against the counter to wait for the achievement of golden-brown deliciousness. Dag alternated between eyeing her and the toaster oven in silence. Not much of a talker, was he?

Despite her amusement at the idea that she had used bread products as a tool of seduction, Kylie had to admit that her reaction to the hulking man-shaped monster in her house hadn’t been some sort of post-traumatic stress. He really was just as hot as she remembered, which in itself felt totally weird; not because he wasn’t human, but because he so wasn’t her type.

Kylie knew her people, and she always dated among them. Her boyfriends, hookups, and crushes had always been geeks of one variety or another, either compunerds like herself, or sci-fi fanatics, or academic head cases like Bran. For heaven’s sake, even with all the eye candy in the
Star Trek
movie remakes, her favorite of the group continued to be Simon Pegg. His character in another movie,
Paul
, was the closest she’d ever seen to her dream man on the big screen. So why did this giant, muscular, rough-faced, and gruff-voiced behemoth get her panties in a twist every time they wound up in the same room together?

Testosterone poisoning,
her inner voice grumbled.
Only logical explanation. For pity’s sake, open a window or something before you lose control and try to feel him up. Or worse.

Her inner dialog had so distracted her that she nearly jumped out of her skin when the beep of the toaster cut into the silence. Cheeks flaming, she turned to grab a couple of plates from the cabinet, and hopefully a good handful of her rapidly disappearing self-control.

“I’d ask if you want butter or schmear, but since this is your first bagel, you get schmear,” she babbled as she reached into the refrigerator. “It’s only right to get the full experience. Well, fullish. I don’t have any lox in the house. I personally find fish disgusting, especially for breakfast.”

“Are you speaking this Yiddish language again?”

Kylie chuckled. “No, that was all full-on American.” She thrust his plate at him and prepared her own bagel. “You want anything to drink? Coke? I have coffee, too. I don’t drink it, but it seemed polite to keep it in case I ever got company. I have one of those little cup machine thingies.”

Dag lifted his gaze from the white-topped brown delicacy on his plate to blink at her. His mouth opened and closed once before he actually spoke. “More American?” He sounded pretty unsure.

“Yeah, you sound like a man who needs caffeine, and you look like a coffee drinker to me. Hang on.”

She flipped on the machine that lurked mostly abandoned on her counter, then rummaged through a drawer beneath it. It took a minute, but she finally found a K-Cup of indeterminate variety and fitted it into the brewer with a small grunt of satisfaction. Like she would know the differences among the twelve bazillion types of coffee in the world. Dag could take what she gave him and be happy.

A few moments later, she passed him a steaming mug of dark liquid, grabbed her own breakfast, and headed for the office. “Come on,” she called over her shoulder. “This is a working brunch. We’ll eat in here.”

“I am unfamiliar with that term. ‘Brunch.’ Is it more of your Yiddish?” Dag settled in the cat’s chair once again and sniffed his coffee before taking a sip. Kylie decided to interpret his ensuing grunt as approval, given that he went right back for more.

She had to laugh at his question. “No, brunch is about as Waspy as you can get. It just means a meal you eat sometime between breakfast and lunch, instead of having either of those individually.” She took a bite of bagel and chewed while she eyed him. “You know, no offense or anything, but being a Guardian sounds like a pretty crappy job if you spend most of your existence encased in stone and never get to experience things like brunch and bagels.”

Dag shrugged, eyeing his cream-cheese-topped food with obvious suspicion. “We are not encased in stone, as you say. We become the stone. And it is the reason for my existence. If I am not a Guardian, I am nothing.”

She scowled. “That seems kinda harsh.”

“It is the truth. Guardians are neither made nor born. We enter into this world fully formed, and only because we are needed to fight against the Darkness.”

Finally giving in to the inevitable, Dag crunched into the chewy baked dough and grunted even louder than he had over the coffee. He eyed the treat again, this time with a great deal more respect. And greed.

Kylie’s expression transformed into a grin. “Told you,” she said before turning her attention to her computer monitor. Specifically, the one in the center. Her right foot began to jiggle with energy. “Okay, time to nut up or shut up.”

She got a feeling that comment only sailed by because Dag’s mouth was full, but she was already tapping away at her keyboard and picking up the thread of her months’-long correspondence with last night’s no-showing informant. So far, he provided her most likely foot in the door to the world Wynn had described to her last night.

She looked up briefly when Dag spoke again, just long enough to notice that not even a crumb remained of his first foray into bagel nirvana.

“We have not yet discussed how we will proceed,” he said, his serious expression somewhat marred by the glob of white cream cheese clinging to the corner of his lips.

Kylie bit back her smile. “You don’t think so? Then what do you call that marathon video chat we had last night? A sewing bee? We went through this with Wynn and Knox. The rest of those guys are going to concentrate their efforts on locating the remaining Guardians and any surviving Wardens they can find. I am—I mean, we are—going to take over the search for the Hierophant. I can search in ways the others just don’t have the skill set for.”

He glowered at her. You know, some more. “I remember what was discussed a few hours ago, human. I referred to the fact that the other Guardian and Warden expect the two of us to work together, and we have yet to strategize between ourselves.” He leaned back in his chair with his coffee in hand, his face somehow managing an expression of both stoicism and smugness at the same time. Impressive.

“I must wait until nightfall before I fly over the city,” he continued, “to minimize the chances that I will be seen, but while the sun yet shines I can begin to search for any trail the
nocturnis
have left around the city. It may take quite some time, and I will expect you to stay close to me and follow my orders. You may still be in danger after the attack on you yesterday.”

Kylie stared at him while he spoke, her brows gradually furrowing and her head tilting farther and farther to the side until her ear nearly brushed her shoulder. “It’s like you actually think you’re going to run the show here. That’s so cute.”

“Cute.” Dag’s features curled around the word as if it tasted putrid. “Female, your unthinking tongue will get you into much trouble one day. I am a Guardian. I have existed to fight this evil for more than a thousand years. I do not merely believe I will direct our actions, I know it. I will ensure it. You may have a human disregard for your own safety, but I am sworn to protect your race, and I will do this whether you like it or not.”

She waved a hand in his direction and turned back to her keyboard. “Nice speech, Goliath, but in the present circumstances, I am way better equipped to find out what we need to know than you are. You think wandering aimlessly around the city is going to get you anywhere? Yeah, maybe in a couple decades or so. I bet you cash money I can put us on the trail of these nocturnal guys in less than an hour. How much you want to bet?”

“
Nocturnis.
You cannot even remember their name, and yet you think to defeat them by yourself? This makes your wager not only foolish but unwinnable.”

“I never said anything about beating them up with one hand tied behind my back. I’m wily, not suicidal. I plan to stay as far away from Demons and demonic minions as I can during this whole shebang. But when it comes to finding things out, I’ve got the mad skills. I can locate these losers way faster than you can, that’s all I’m saying. I’ll point the can of whoopass, but you and the other winged warrior types can take care of opening it and spreading it around. Happy?”