When a Gargoyle Lives (Gargoyles Book 2) (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ric looked up as a wizened old human entered his cell, followed by Chloe.  At first, he thought she may have been abducted because of him, but that thought turned to fury on seeing the sneer on her face.

No, she was part of all this.

The old man gave him an approximation of a smile.  It was what Ric technically supposed was a smile, but there was no warmth or feeling in it.

“Ah, good, you’re…”

“Where’s Brenda?” Ric snarled.

The old man paused before clearing his throat.  “I am…”

“Where is Brenda?  What have you done to her?”

The old man looked mildly amused.  Chloe, on the other hand, looked entirely put out.

“Your little girlfriend’s fine,” she hissed.  “I’d be more worried about yourself.”

“As I was saying…”

“If you have hurt her I will tear every last one of you to shreds.”

Chloe reached for the taser strapped to her hip, but the old man put a wrinkled hand on her arm.

“No, my dear, I find his attitude commendable.  Here he is in a strange place, chained and at our mercy.  He finds he has been betrayed by someone he befriended,” he inclined his head indicating Chloe, “and yet all he can think of is his beloved human girl.  Gargoyle loyalty is really remarkable, and something that should be preserved… as long as they are loyal to the right people.”  He added the last part after a pause.

The man looked at the Ric.  “She was not hurt or involved in your acquisition in the slightest.  All we wanted was you.  I believe Chloe and her colleagues used a listening device to record her voice and then used the words they needed to entice you out of your hiding place.  I suppose that must be ingenious to you, but it is quite old hat to us.”

“You better not be lying,” rumbled Ric.

“I swear on my Hippocratic oath; I will never lie to you.”

Ric didn’t fail to notice Chloe rolling her eyes.  Yes, he would take that promise with a pinch of pepper.  Or was that Chili flakes?  Or whatever the human saying was.

“I am Dr. Adler, and you already know Chloe.”

Ric grunted but did not take his eyes off the old man.  Chloe may be younger and packing weapons, but this man held all the power.

“You are here to help us with the next generation of gargoyles.”

Ric snorted.

Adler held out his gnarled hands.  “Do you not want the gargoyle race to continue?” he asked in a suspiciously reasonable voice.

Ric snorted again.

“He’s not much of a talker,” snapped Chloe.

He ignored her and continued to watch Adler, although he couldn’t fail to hear her loud and exaggerated huffs.

“There are so few of you left, isn’t that right?”

Ric said nothing.

“We know of you, and Lucifer and Ophelia…”

Ric said nothing.

“You do not wish to tell us of any others?”

Ric said nothing.

“No matter.  However many there are, it won’t be many.  Which is why we are fortunate that we found you.”

Ric broke his silence finally.  “Abducted me.”

“If we had asked, you would not have come.”  His tone was unbearably reasonable and did not match up with the crazy words he was saying.  Ric was almost tempted to believe Adler was doing the right thing.  The old man was almost hypnotic.

“We had to take a more direct route.  But now that you are here, you can be assured that you are doing your part in the continuation of your race.  And as long as you show us respect, your time here can be very easy.”

“And if I don’t?”

The awful smile returned.  “It will make the last two hours of your life seem like a very pleasant dream.”

Adler clapped his hands together.  “Now, the bathroom is through that panel.  If you need to go, indicate this to the mirror.  Dawn is still hours away.  You must be hungry.  I will have someone bring you something, but first maybe we can introduce you to our other inhabitant.”

Ric slowly walked towards them.  Adler didn’t flinch, but in spite of Chloe’s cocky glare, he scented her fear.  Of course, the chains stopped him before he managed to get anywhere near them.

“Welcome to your new home, Amalric,” said Adler.  “You’re going to be here for a very long time.”

*

Annis rolled Chris away from her and threw herself over him, covering him with her body and her wings

“No, Drago, calm down.”

“He was hurting you,” snarled the huge male.  “I heard you scream.”

“It was a misunderstanding.”

Chris had gone still under her, understanding the danger the enormous gargoyle posed.  “My gun,” he mumbled.

Annis whipped her head to look at him and growled lowly.  “No, I won’t let him hurt you, but I will not let you hurt him either.”

“And who’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt you?”

She looked at him in shock.  “You are worried he may hurt me?”

“Annis!”  Drago pulled her away from Chris.

“No!” hollered Chris.

Drago roared, and he charged at Chris.  Another creature, the same species as Annis and the one she called Drago hurled himself at Drago, pushing him back, forcing him out of the kitchen, snarling and clawing at him.

“Chris!” exclaimed Kylie running into the room.  “What happened?”

“What the hell is going on?” he yelled.

“Uncle Chris!”

Brenda stared in shock at him.  She was flanked by two more male creatures of the same species.

“Brenda, what the fuck is going on?”

Chapter Thirty

“Gargoyles are real it’s a long story we don’t have time for at the moment but these are all gargoyles Kylie is mated to one of them and Ric one of the gargoyles has been kidnapped, and we need to help find him right now!”

Brenda blurted it all one long breath.  She was panting at the end of it.

Chris gave her a ‘huh’ look as he clambered to his feet, helping Annis get to hers.  She stared at his outstretched hand for a moment before blushing and allowing him to help her.

“One more time,” he said.

Kylie stepped forward and placed a hand on Brenda’s arm.  “What was that about Ric?”

“He’s been kidnapped!  We need to do something!” she cried, barely able to contain her trembling worry.  “There was blood on the ground and… and he’s gone!”

Annis bobbed her head.  “Yes, just before… ah, Chris arrived, there was a phone call.”  She recited the details, her face flushing in embarrassment as everyone stared at her in increasing horror.

Brenda gasped.  “Oh, no.”

Kylie put her hands on her cheeks.  “Oh god!  Luc?  Luc, we need you.”

“I’m a bit busy, little one,” he called in return.

“I will calm Drago,” said Annis.

Chris stood in her way.  “Are you sure you’re safe with him?”

“I will be fine… thank you.”

She flitted out the room.

Brenda arched an eyebrow as Chris retrieved his gun from the refrigerator.

“Okay, guys,” he said, “I think we need a few explanations.”  His eyes, tinged with disappointment, rested on Brenda.

*

Chris was taking the news that gargoyles existed better than Brenda could ever have expected.  Perhaps meeting Annis first had softened the blow for him.

With edgy movements, Chris paced the room.  As did Luc.  They were almost mirrors of one another.  Except one was huge, red and possessed horns and wings.

The huge gargoyle she had not met before, Drago, was sitting quietly, trying to drink water out of a glass.  He seemed to be having difficulty.  The only thing keeping him quiet was Annis rubbing his arm.  Chris flicked glances in their direction every few seconds.

“We’re running out of time,” said Brenda.  Every passing moment got them closer to the time when they were supposed to meet with Ric’s kidnappers.  It was a trap.  They were sure of that.  And with every passing second, they still had no plan for getting Ric back.

He better be okay.  She dreaded to think of what was happening to him.

“I have a lot of questions,” said Chris, “but if you’re saying your friend has been kidnapped, then we need to do something about that.  Maybe the FBI…”

“No,” said Kylie firmly.  “We’ve already had to deal with a lunatic who wanted to turn gargoyles into slaves so he could take over the world.”

“We are taking things one step at a time,” said Luc.  “And the step we are on right now does not include telling the government that gargoyles exist.”

Chris shook his head.  “We need to…”

Brenda took his hand.  “Please, Uncle Chris.  Ric defended me from Kevin.  He’s… ah, special.”

“Brenda…”

“Please!”

Chris grunted and rubbed his eyes.

“Okay, given that I had no idea you were in my town, whoever found you must have been hanging around for a while

“Unless Holling told whoever it was,” said Kylie as she slumped into a chair.

Chris frowned.  “Holling is involved in this?”

“Holling tried to take Luc prisoner.”

“But…”

“Long story; explain later.”

Chris looked at Annis.  “Didn’t you say Ric ran out of here because he thought Brenda was in trouble?”

Her eyes lowered.  “Yes, that is correct.  He was very agitated when he thought she was in danger.”

Brenda’s cheeks turned bright red as scrutinizing gazes were turned in her direction.  They probably knew why he was so upset.  She could feel her face burn, particularly the parts of it Ric had kissed.  She felt like she had a neon sigh over her head declaring she had made out with a gargoyle.  Kylie looked sympathetic.  Luc looked knowing.  Chris was stunned – hit with an oncoming freighter train stunned.

But he managed to compose himself, and he coughed, whether it was to hide his embarrassment or hers she wasn’t sure.  “We’ll return to that later.  So whoever did this must have been watching you, so they must have been seen around town.  Anything unusual happen recently?”

“Chloe!” exclaimed Brenda.  The bitch!

“Amalric accidentally met a human in the woods,” explained Luc.  “She knew of our existence.”  Every muscle in his body was tensing, and given the loud thumps as his tail whacked against the floor, Brenda guessed he hadn’t been particularly thrilled when Ric told him that tidbit of information.

“And she gave him the cellular phone,” piped up Annis, feeling a little bolder than usual for some reason.  “The false news that Brenda was in danger was communicated by that phone.”

“Yes, and we’ve been checking up on her,” said Kylie.  “She told Ric that she was staying in a B&B, but I checked all the B&Bs and asked around town…”

“You asked Myrna,” interjected Chris.

“Yes, she’s quicker at spreading information than the internet.  No one’s heard of this Chloe.”

“Well, she was in town last Saturday,” grumbled Brenda.  “I bumped into her – I just thought she was a tourist.”

“Maybe she’s involved in this,” said Chris.

“But how does that help us?”

“You got a computer?” he asked Kylie.

“Yes, absolutely, let me grab my laptop.  Ignore the claw marks.  Some of us get a little angry when it freezes up.”

“That was not my fault,” muttered Luc.

Everyone watched with interest as Chris tapped at the keys.  He was silent for thirty seconds until Brenda couldn’t stand the clickety-clack anymore.  She wasn’t the only one.  Baby Wolfe wriggled and burbled in his mother’s arms while the huge male gargoyles shifted and flicked their wings.

“What are you doing?”

Chris kept his eyes glued to the screen.  “Checking out the town cameras.  Why do you think we have no crime here anymore?  We catch everyone.”

Brenda frowned.  “The town has cameras?”

“Yeah, I persuaded the council digital cameras were a good investment.”

“How’d you manage that?” asked Kylie peering over his shoulder.

“Well, Martha is a council member and she… ah…”

“Fancies the pants off you, got it.”

Red dusted his cheeks, and Brenda tried to withhold her snigger.

“I can check on the cameras online, wherever I am.  Last Saturday, here we go.”

Chris let out an oomph as everyone pressed against him, trying to get a look.

“That her?” asked Chris as he caught a still of a woman helping Brenda collect her belongings.

“Yes.”  Angular bitch.  She knew she was trouble.  She knew she hated her.  If only she could actually be happy about that.

Chris stilled the feed and caught a shot of the license plate of her car.  “Okay, let’s run the plate.”

He did, and it was a dead end.  He groaned.

Luc was becoming more and more lost by the moment as he squinted at the screen.  “What is wrong?”

“That’s just a shell company.”

“They sell shells?” repeated Luc.

Kylie patted his shoulder.  “No, babe, it’s a fake company.”

Chris searched to see who it was owned by, and then who that one was owned by, and then who that one was owned by.  It went on for a while.

“MLF Security,” he said finally.

Brenda rolled her eyes.  “Well, that still tells us nothing.  I’ve never heard of them.”

“I can’t find anything about the company, no website, no information about people who work there – either it’s another fake company, or maybe they’re doing something they shouldn’t.  But, I may know someone who can give us a few answers.”

*

Ric growled as a female was thrust into his cell.  Not just any female – a gargoyle.  There were more gargoyles!  They had more gargoyles!  The thought elated him until he realized they must all be prisoners, too.

“Who are you?” he murmured as he looked her up and down.  She was on the small side for a female, barely larger than Annis, who was tiny for a female.  Not that there was anything wrong with that, he had belatedly come to realize.  Brenda was on the small size, and sometimes wonderful things came in small packages.  Truly wonderful.  Brenda may be small, but she had luscious curves, with perfect soft breasts just the right size to suckle, and a rear that was just made for his hands…

The female scowled at him, and he shook himself out of his daydream.  “Twenty-Six.”

“Twenty-Six?” he repeated.  “Twenty-Six what?”

The female rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and tapped her clawed foot on the ground.  “That’s my name, numbnuts.”

Ric blinked at the insult.  She was certainly… different for a female gargoyle.  Perhaps she had spent a lot of time with humans.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  She was assimilating with human society.

“I am Amalric; you may call me Ric.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Was it his imagination, or was there a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice?  It did not matter.  Knowing there were more of his kind alive was the important thing.  Whether they were unpleasant and made Ric want to challenge them to a fight to beat out their obnoxiousness was a secondary matter.

“What is going on here?”

“This is called a meet and greet, a getting to know you.”

“No, what is happening here in this place?  What do they want to do with us?”

He noticed that the female was not in chains like him.  Perhaps she was not a strong gargoyle.  Annis was not either.  She probably could not hold her own against a male human.  He heard Brenda’s voice in his head.  Not that this diminished her in any way.  Not, at all.  Lord, he missed Brenda’s disapproving voice.  He’d even take her teasing at that moment.  He was one lovesick, puppy-like gargoyle.

Completely unconcerned, like it was the most natural thing in the world, Twenty-Six declared, “Mate us.”

Time virtually stopped for Ric.  Perhaps he should have considered it as a possibility when Adler was spewing out his garbage about continuing the gargoyle race.  But Ric couldn’t have been more surprised than if she’d said dress up in clown costumes and tickle each other with feathers.

“Mate us?!” he roared.  “What in Hades does that mean?”

The female sighed theatrically.  She did not appear to do anything subtly.

“Have sex, screw, do the nasty, create little gargoyles – do you want me to go on?  Because I can you know.  Knock boots, hump, get it on…”

“No, no chance, no way, absolutely not!”  His thoughts turned to Brenda, and he growled.

She didn’t seem put out by his reaction.  More bored than anything.  “If we don’t, they’ll hurt you.”

Ric flicked his tail.  “How many others are there?”

She shrugged.  “There were others when I was a kid.  They used to make us play together.  By which I mean they used to make us solve puzzles and shit like that competing against each other to see who was the fastest.  But I heard they all died.”

“Died?  What on earth are they trying to do?”

“Duh!  Mate us, have you been listening?”  She muttered something about idiot males.

“But why?”

“I guess to create super babies or something, or maybe there are some really freaky people out there who want to adopt gargoyle babies.  How should I know?  They don’t exactly keep me in the loop of their nefarious plans.  I’m lucky if they even let me watch TV.  Although they don’t let me watch Sex and the City anymore.  They thought it was giving me an attitude problem.”

Imagine that thought Ric.  “How long have you been here?  When did they wake you?”

“What are you talking about?” she snapped.  Her wings ruffled with increasing agitation.

“When did they wake you from your sleep?”

“Sleep?  What the hell are you twittering about?  I was born here.”