“Hungry!” Ivas growled, pushing the plate back to my side.
“Are you feeling okay?” Mathew asked worriedly, while I took the plate and moved it to my other side.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just not hungry.”
Mathew glanced at Ivas while he wobbled to my side, taking the plate I discarded and bringing it back to me. “Hungry…” he insisted.
“Ivas, stop. I don’t want food right now.”
“Family!” he roared, calling people’s attention to us.
“No,” Mathew scolded. “Do not yell at your mother. If she’s not hungry, that’s the end of it. She can eat later.”
Ivas’ eyes followed the plate when Mathew placed it on the other end of the table, and I sighed, knowing what was coming. He didn’t take “no” well. Jumping on the table, Ivas pulled the plate back, and thrust it against my chest.
“Hungry!”
“Stop saying hungry,” my husband chided, dragging my Gargoyle down from the table.
“You are making a scene,” I glared.
“Me?! He’s the one who jumped on the table?” Mathew whisper-hissed, holding Ivas’ arms firmly as he began to thrash about.
“Family!” he whined.
“How do parents deal with this crap?”
“Don’t look at me!” I complained too. “I just end up doing whatever he wants, because there’s no changing his mind, yah?”
“Hungry…” Ivas grunted in the middle of what appeared to be a toddler tantrum.
“Fine! I’ll eat,” I snapped, taking a piece of bread from the plate, but Mathew stopped my hand.
“Stop spoiling him. That’s the reason he behaves that way. You let him get away with whatever he wants.”
Sighing, I watched Mathew pull Ivas off the floor. “Enough!”
My Gargoyle’s beaklike mouth opened wide, but only a strange guttural sound came out. And yet, his glaring eyes said he fully expected my husband to know what that meant.
“That’s not even a word,” Mathew protested. “Why can’t you just speak like the rest of us?!” he growled, struggling to hold Ivas once he began to thrash in his hold again. “Damn it, Ivas. Why can’t you be a man so I can understand what you are saying?!”
Mathew’s voice suddenly acquired a powerful timber, magic affirming his accidental command, and green energy burst from his hands, rushing into Ivas.
My Gargoyle froze.
“No!” I gasped, but it was too late. Mathew’s unstable magic engulfed Ivas’ entire body.
Shocked, my husband let him go, and we both stopped breathing. The next moment, my Gargoyle’s eyes illuminated in a green so intense we had to look away, and he shot into the air. Flying faster than he ever had, Ivas soared through one of the open windows towards the mountain.
“Holy shit!”
“La naiba!”
Mathew and I cursed at the same time, exchanging a panicked glance, and jumped to our feet, running out of the room after him.
“What happened?” Antoine asked when we almost crashed into him on our way out of the castle.
“Ivas!” The name was the only thing we could answer, wings snapping out of our backs, and taking to the skies.
This Christmas Eve was definitely cursed, and destined to be a disaster.
Chapter 5
“Ivas!” Mathew called urgently, flying in the direction we had seen him take—towards the frosted flower meadow behind the fortress.
“Come back, Ivas!” I called after him too, trying to catch a glimpse of the Gargoyle Shifter once more. He’d disappeared in the sky.
“Do you think he used one of his swirling portals?” Mathew asked, taking my hand in the air and guiding me to descend.
“No. I don’t know. I didn’t see him open a portal.” Worry clawed at my chest with every breath as we landed in the meadow, and I glanced all around us. “We have to find him, baby. We have to—” My voice cut off with the sob that lodged in my throat, and Mathew pulled me into his arms.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I would never. I-I’m not sure what happened.”
“I know,” I whispered, certain my husband loved him as much as I did. Trying to get a hold of my emotions, I pulled away. “It was that damn Witch. She did something to your magic.”
Slowly, I spun in the clearing, my gaze sharply combing the area while I forced myself to breathe the tears away. This wasn’t the moment to lose my shit, which to be frank, was very unlike me. My gaze returned to Mathew, who was crouching on the ground, bringing a pinch of snow to his mouth, tasting it. My husband’s eyes glowed when his Wolf Shifter nature awoke, and he began to track Ivas.
“Come out, baby!” I called to my Gargoyle, fearing the magic was doing the worst to him.
Anxiety and concern made my stomach twist violently, and a new wave of nausea hit me. Whirling around just in time, I ran the few steps to the trees and heaved, emptying my stomach from the few things I’d eaten that day.
“Are you okay?” Mathew’s hand gently stroked my back, infusing healing energy into me to make me feel better. “I’m in control now,” he assured when I glanced back at him, and offered me fresh fallen snow to clean my mouth.
Nodding, I sucked on the snow, taking a few calming breaths. “I’m better. Thank you.”
“Let me know if you feel bad again.” Seeing me nod, he took my hand in his and motioned for us to cross through the trees on the other side. “I think I found him.”
My red heels sunk in the snow with each step, but I didn’t care. Lifting the soft skirt of my dress—and thankful I had changed out of the humongous ball gown—we walked across the clearing, entering a forest of white sprinkled pines. The sweet scent of mint and Christmas drifted through my nose, giving me comfort.
“Ivas, it’s Mommy and Daddy. Please come out!” I called, moving with Mathew in the direction he had tracked.
“Ivas, I’m sorry! Come back please,” Mathew called too, continuing to guide us. He could smell him with his wolf senses. Nodding towards a cluster of pines ahead on our left, my husband pulled me along, stopping only a few feet away.
“Ivas?” I called softly. “Are you there?”
“Faaamily…” His broken call came from behind the trees and Mathew and I glanced at each other.
“You are our family, Ivas,” my husband assured. “I just want to say I’m sorry and make sure you are okay.”
Nothing.
“Are you alright?”
“Nooo…”
“Is he in pain?” Mathew asked, tortured eyes falling on mine.
I sighed. “It’s not your fault.” Kissing his cheek, I let go of his hand and approached the tree. “Ivas…”
“Ivas, can you show yourself please?”
“Baaaby…”
“Yes, baby, come here with Mommy.”
“Please…” Mathew begged, feeling terrible.
Only silence reached us, so my husband and I exchanged a glance, and I stepped forwards. “Ivas…?”
Rustling came from behind the tall pine tree as he nestled against the low branches, hiding. Silently, I got closer, seeing the tip of his right wing, and walked around the foliage until I finally found him.
Utter shock rippled through me the second my eyes fell on Ivas, and the breath was punched out of me. The ground under my feet violently tilted.
“Mommy?” Ivas called when my body collapsed to the ground, and the last image I saw before my eyes rolled back, was that of the young man kneeling over me…
Soft green eyes filled with worry.
“Where’s Ivas?!” I yelped, sitting up abruptly when I came to again.
The walls of my room swayed slightly, and I had to shut my eyes, gripping the bed to make the room stop spinning.
“Dariah,” Mathew breathed, relieved, sitting next to me and kissing my temple while a flurry of whispers resumed in the background. “How are you feeling?”
“What do you mean?"
Stroking m
y hand slowly, he considered his next words for a moment. “You fainted.”
“Fainted?” Confusion captured my eyebrows and I shook my head adamantly. “No, I didn’t. I found Ivas, I—” My eyes widened with the memory that returned. “Ivas!”
Pushing my husband aside, I scrambled off the mattress and ran around the bed, only to halt when I found Antoine, Zoe, Dove, and Alfie, all gathered around something in the sitting area… around someone.
Antoine’s hands gripped my shoulders, as though to protect me from what I was about to see, and his eyes briefly connected with Mathew’s beside me before they focused on me. “You should take a moment to prepare before you see him.”
“See him?” My eyes widened even more. “Ivas? What happened to him?”
Pushing Antoine out of my way too—which wasn’t an easy feat, considering he was a 6”4’ wall of muscle—I rushed forwards and saw everyone carefully step away, revealing what they had been concealing from me.
The loudest gasp left me, and my hands flew to my mouth when my eyes fell on the young man sitting on the chair.
“Ivas…?” I whispered, disbelieving.
Mathew had turned my Gargoyle Shifter into a man.
“Mommy?” he asked in a soft voice.
The room violently spun, and darkness pulled me under as I crumbled into someone’s strong arms.
Damn it.
“What did you do to my baby?!” I roared, sitting up abruptly when I woke up on the bed... again.
“Me? I thought you said it wasn’t my fault?” Mathew defended next to me.
“That was before you turned him into a man!” I fumed, heart slamming against my chest while I pushed him out of the way and scrambled to Ivas’ side. Antoine halted me when I wobbled towards him like I was drunk.
“Maybe you should rest a little more.”
“I’m fine. Let me see him!”
“You fainted. Twice. And you are not a fainter, Dariah,” he protested. “Just calm down.”
“What did you just say to me?”
“Oh, no he didn’t…” Dove mumbled from behind him, just as my nostrils flared, sharp fangs descending, and claws extended from my fingertips.
“Antoine Laurent, I love you, and you may be four times bigger than me. But if you don’t get out of my way this second, I’m going to make myself a new purse from your balls!” I seethed. “Get. Out. Of my way.”
His electric-blue eyes widened with the threat, and he lifted his hands in surrender, carefully stepping away.
“What’s that look like? Ostrich skin?” Zoe asked, bursting into laughter with Dove.
“Hey, you are a beneficiary from that particular part of me. I would think you’d want to protect it,” Antoine huffed, and Zoe snickered.
The voices got lost in the background, my attention fully focused on the soft green eyes that followed my every step to him. The young man sat with a large blanket loosely wrapped around his body. He held it to him, appearing scared, like he was a lost child who had just been found.
I supposed that was exactly what he was. A lost child in a world he’d seen in a completely different way until now.
“Ivas?” I whispered and saw him slightly nod, his fingers gripping the blanket tighter.
Except, they weren’t the clawed fingers of a menacing mythical creature anymore. They were normal. Soft skin in a beautiful chocolate hue covered his entire form. His now human head showed a slight shadow where his hair should be, like someone had closely shaved it and it was beginning to grow, and so did his square jaw—sporting a five o’clock shadow.
He had small ears, slightly pointy, plump lips, and soft features that accentuated his curious and innocent expression. The same defined muscles he had when he was a Gargoyle were present along his shoulders and the portion of his arms and chest that was visible. He seemed so tall, even though he was still sitting down.
The young man was endearingly handsome, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was my Ivas. Nevertheless, he wasn’t a “man” by any means. If anything, his features resembled that of a teenager, perhaps a seventeen-year-old.
“My baby,” I whispered, opening my arms to him, and relief captured his gaze.
Throwing the blanket down, he lunged towards me, wrapping his arms around my waist and hugging me gently like he always did.
“Baby…” he whispered, but his voice was much softer now, missing the strained quality that his other form inflicted when he forced himself to speak—something he had never been meant to do until he met Mathew.
“Yes, my baby,” I cooed, stroking the top of his head where his crest used to be.
“He sounds so… normal,” Zoe murmured, amazed, looking at Mathew. “Was that a spell you used?”
“No. I don’t know. I didn’t mean to do anything to him,” Mathew explained from behind us, worry and guilt still clouding his words.
“It’s okay. You are okay,” I assured Ivas as he held on to me, soothingly stroking his back. Did he still have his wings? I couldn’t remember.
“Not okay,” he spoke, and I froze, glancing down at him at the same time he lifted his green eyes to me, which reminded me of my husband’s magic. “Hurt,” Ivas whined. “Ivas hurt.”
“Holy shit,” Antoine gasped. “He’s, like, actually talking…”
My gaze snapped to Mathew’s, and realization captured his expression. “That’s it! That’s what I did. I wished he was a man and I could understand what he was saying…”
“You wished he was a man?” Antoine questioned, seeming confused.
“He was having a tantrum, trying to force Dariah to eat,” my husband explained.
“Ha! Classic Ivas,” Zoe snorted, crossing her arms over her chest and pushing up her boobs in the sexy black outfit she wore—instantly hypnotizing Antoine.
“My magic was erratic, and it burst out before I could stop it.”
“Ivas hurt…” Ivas spoke in the third person, calling my attention back to him, and concern gripped me.
“You are hurt? Where, baby?” I asked, worriedly checking his head and shoulders.
“Hurt,” he pouted, touching his face and ears, then glanced down at his human hands, showing them to me.
“Awe, he’s so cute. He means his new form,” Zoe realized it at the same time I did, but my gut tightened.
“No, baby. You are not hurt. You are just… different now.” I took his hand and pressed my palm to his, finger against finger. “Like me.”
He blinked, an intelligent gleam entering his irises. “Different?”
Amazed at how fast he was picking up our words now, I observed him. Before, it had taken him months. “Yes.”
“Different is good,” Alfie offered, coming closer to observe him, and Mathew and I exchanged a glance. Alfie had been his lab assistant at Oxford when this all began, a Biological Chemist, and he was almost drooling at the prospect of a new specimen before him.
“Ivas different,” Ivas concluded, happiness curving his lips. Yet, instead of the terrifying, razor sharp grin he always had, a dazzling smile illuminated his expression, even with the small fangs he sported. “Different good!” he jumped excitedly, and my eyes widened when other things jumped with him.
“Aaah!” I squealed, turning away from him. “He’s naked! Why is he naked??” I demanded of anyone who could answer, trying to erase the image from my mind.
“I think the most important question is, why does he have genitals when he didn’t before?” Mathew asked, his scientific brain taking over, and I glared at him.
I wanted to smack him. “Why, Mathew? Why??”
“Sorry.”
“Sorry? You are sorry?!” I shrieked. “My Gargoyle Shifter has a penis!”
“And damn.” Antoine whistled, clearly impressed, then turned to my husband. “You still have that spell, right?”
“Antoine…” I warned, so close to losing my shit.
Lifting his hands in surrender, he stepped away, but he laughed.
&n
bsp; When my eyes returned to my husband, the blood had rushed into my irises, letting him know I meant business. “Change him back,” I seethed. “You have to change him back!”
“No!” Ivas whined behind me, and I turned to find pretty much everyone around us struggling to hold him and put a pair of Mathew’s shorts on him.
“Yes, baby. It’s going to be fine,” I explained, stepping closer. “Daddy is going to make you a Gargoyle Shifter again, and everything will go back to normal, okay?”
“No!” He roared at me. Roared. The chest rumbling sound blew the hair back from around my face.
Not the first time he had done it either.
“Ivas…” I warned in a firm voice, but he shook his head.
“Ivas good. Ivas different. Like you…”
Jerking away from the others, his Dragon-like wings erupted from his back and he ran past us, jumping off the balcony.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I ran after him, bursting into the sky with Mathew and Antoine by my side.
Chapter 6
My heart constricted as I followed Ivas through the sky, flying around the fortress to the place where all of this began. The river just behind the bell tower.
Landing a few feet away from him, I saw his human form straighten fully, walking towards the edge of the riverbend. Kneeling next to the water, he glanced at his new form in the reflection, touching the soft features that now formed the man he saw. The water rippled when his fingers reached for the reflection, and he pulled away, amazed.
“Ivas…” I called in a low voice, taking a few steps towards him. Mathew and Antoine followed.
“No,” he moaned, turning his back to me and sitting with his hands between his feet like he always did on the tower. “Ivas protector,” he chided, glancing over his shoulder at me. “Ivas friend…” He shook his head, pain coming through his eyes when he looked into mine. “Ivas family.”
Emotion clogged my throat with his words, and I nodded. “Yes, Ivas. You’ve always been there for me, even before Antoine found me. You protected me and gave me hope when I didn’t have anyone else. You are my family. I love you, that is why I want to help you get back to your normal self.”
Curse of Christmas: A Collection of Paranormal Holiday Stories Page 19