“You will go with Rowan. If you give one ounce of trouble, I will give you to the Gargoyle.”
Vasile’s eyes rounded, “Yes, sir.”
Before he turned him loose he asked, “Why did you save her?”
“It was the right thing to do. I was afraid to go against my brother. He was all I had left, and it was just talk for a long time. But then when he actually acted on his threats… I couldn’t let her die. I was afraid, and I was almost too late, but I couldn’t let her die. No matter what it meant for me, I had to try to save her.”
Enthrall said, “Go to the house, stay out of the way of the Goyle. He may not see it as we do.”
Vasile nodded and followed along behind Rowan like a well-trained puppy dog.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
After the flames on the outside wall were put out, it became apparent that only the wood siding that had of late been added to the brick structure had burned. The bricks were scorched, but not damaged greatly.
Carolena had seen Destroy arrive with Lore, knew that Rowan’s parents and the servants had seen Enthrall ghost away to fight the flames and rescue Rowan. And now they’d see Destroy.
She turned to them: the butler, two maids and Rowan’s parents. “The things you will see tonight are not what any person expects to see. But please allow me to assure you that you are not in danger. They are people just like us. They are just different species. Please, do not be afraid. They are my friends, my family.” She sighed, this was the last thing she wanted to do, the last thing Enthrall would want. But they’d been put in a position none of them expected.
One of the maids, a woman of about thirty was jumpy, nervous and crossing herself repeatedly. That was the one that Carolena needed to worry about. The other two seemed to be okay.
“I am at your service, Miss. If you trust them, I do as well,” the butler said.
“Thank you, Andrew, I appreciate that.”
The older maid said nothing, but nodded her agreement.
The younger one was near panic, “They’ll kill us, they’ll eat our souls. They are evil incarnate!” She was trembling and near tears as she constantly crossed herself.
Just then, Mamaie, with Destroy in tow, approached them. He saw Carolena and hurried to her, pulling her into a hug that made her feet leave the ground.
“Carolena! I’ve missed you! How are you? Are you well?” he asked in a slightly more growly voice than usual, placing her on the ground and examining her much the same way that Carnage would have if he’d been there.
“I’m fine, Destroy. I’ve missed you, too. How is Lily? Is Carnage doing well?” she asked.
“Both are fine,” he answered, glancing back over his shoulder to see Rowan approaching with the human male following close behind.
He hurried to get to Rowan and swept her into his arms, lifting her from the ground and holding her to him. He snarled at the human male following her and then to Rowan said, “You do not ever leave me again! And the next time I’m killing enemies, do not stop me!”
Rowan didn’t miss a beat, “You will not tell me what I will and won’t do. And you can kill all the enemies you want to, but not the good guys.” She thumbed at the human sidling closer to Carolena, “He is a good one. He saved me.”
“After he allowed you to be chained to a burning post to begin with!” he said exasperatedly.
“It wasn’t burning when I was chained to it,” Rowan yelled at him.
“Really?!” he yelled, “That’s your basis for not breaking him?”
“Destroy!” she shouted.
“Rowan!” he shouted back.
They both waited, having a standoff until she took his face in her hands, “I missed you.”
The big bad Gargoyle melted, “I missed you, too.” Then he brightened, “I made you a house.”
Carolena looked to Rowan’s parents, “See? Just like us, only different.”
“Mr. Lore?” Rowan said respectfully to the mist inspecting the side of the house, to ensure that no embers remained.
Slowly the mists gathered, and he stood there before Rowan, his head tilted curiously, “Yes?”
“Enthrall said to come help him,” Rowan said. “Please.”
Lore rolled his almost transparent eyes, “Oh, very well,” and immediately his mists dissipated, and he disappeared.
The younger maid stood there, confused, trembling.
Mamaie took notice of her. She focused her old eyes on the young woman and walked over to her slowly, murmuring a few basic words in Romanian. “You can stay here, or you can go. I really don’t care which. But know this, no matter what you say you’ve seen here tonight, any you tell will believe you insane. You’ll end up locked up for the rest of your days. Oh, and there’s that little matter of the curse I’ve just placed on your head. You speak of us, of them,” Mamaie indicated Destroy standing holding her granddaughter so protectively, “and you’ll die a slow, painful death along with all in your family. So go ahead, run. Tell them all to your heart’s content. Gargoyles and Vampires and…” she paused, not knowing what to call Lore.
“Ancients,” Carolena supplied.
“Ah, yes! Thank you,” Mamaie said, “Ancients! Who ever heard of such a thing?!” Mamaie scoffed.
The woman turned and ran around the side of the house, wailing every step of the way.
“Mamaie!” Rowan chided.
“What? The girl would have run her mouth; now she’s afraid to. Let her run,” Mamaie said. “We’ll need better than her when we open this house as a shelter anyway.” Then she pinned Vasile with her sharp eyes, “What of you? Should I curse you, too?”
“No, ma’am. I would like to help make repairs to all the damage we did. If it’s okay,” he added, looking from Rowan to Carolena, and back to Mamaie.
“I should say it’s the least you can do!” Mamaie snapped.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
The rain that had been falling all around them, but not on them, as Rowan stood with them, began to fall in earnest once she left his side to go to the house. Now Enthrall stood in the pouring rain, with Lore helping him add body parts to a fire that threatened to go out at any moment.
“Goyles are very messy,” Lore commented as he tossed a hand onto the sputtering fire.
“Indeed,” Enthrall commented. He stopped and looked up at the sky, “We’re never going to be able to burn all this with the downpour she’s called down.”
Lore looked around the lawn and into the trees, “I could dispose of it.”
“Where?” Enthrall asked.
“In the mists,” Lore answered.
“Will they ever disappear?” Enthrall asked.
“No. They will just linger here and there until some such day as they may or may not appear again,” Lore answered.
Enthrall shook his head, “Just go ask Rowan to please stop the rain.”
Lore looked at Enthrall, “I grow tired of the human issues we are encountering. Why must it be cleaned?”
“Because we are not human. If a human finds it, they will think there are serial killers on the loose and will investigate. It could cause all kinds of trouble. We can’t just leave it lying about,” Enthrall explained.
“Why would we care? We’ll be gone by then. We could be gone now. In fact…” Lore’s mist began to dissipate.
“If you leave me here to do this alone, so help me…” Enthrall shouted.
A deep melodic laughter surrounded Enthrall, “So help you, what?” Lore teased.
Enthrall wasn’t sure what he could threaten that would matter, but he said the one thing that first sprang to mind, “Then I won’t tell you about my mate.”
The laughter stopped. Lore became corporeal again. “Your mate? You’ve found her?”
“I have. Now please, go ask Rowan to stop the rain while I fan these flames,” Enthrall asked.
“As you wish,” Lore answered, anxious to hear of Enthrall’s mate.
Chapter 29
Early the next morning th
ey all sat around the huge formal dining table. Everyone but the maid that had run away was there. After Lore had determined that the embers were no more, and Enthrall agreed, Destroy had taken hold of the door knob and twisted it until it broke in two, falling to the floor inside the house and the patio at the back of the house. They all gratefully entered the home and sat at the dining table as Andrew and the elder maid, Edith, prepared food for them. Once served, Carolena and Rowan insisted that the two servants join them for the meal.
As they sat, eating, each quietly reflecting on what could have happened, Destroy could take it no more.
“Well?! Will you have me or not?” he shouted into the quiet calm of the morning.
Everyone startled, and Rowan turned very irritated eyes on him. “Don’t yell like that!”
“Well, damn, woman! I’m tired of waiting. Do you have any idea what you put me through?” he complained.
“I said you were mine! I said I missed you. What else do you want?” Rowan demanded.
“I want you to say that you are mine and that you love me. That you will never, ever leave me, and you are my mate,” he said proudly, smiling.
“Is that all?” she asked sarcastically.
Destroy thought about it for a moment and then grinned, “No, it’s not. I want a little one. A baby that is just like Lily. And a boy baby, too. So, you know,” he said, waving his hand in the air, “Say we’ll have those, too.”
Rowan’s eyes narrowed, “The way it’s done among my people is that a man gets down on his knee and professes his love for the woman. He presents her with a ring, then offers his undying love, protection and providence to her and any family they may ever have.”
“Is that how it’s done?” he asked, smiling wickedly. He pushed his chair back from the table and winked at Carolena as he dropped down to his knees. He took Rowan’s left hand in both of his and when he looked up at her, all trace of his cheekiness was gone. Nothing but sincerity shone from his eyes.
“Rowan, I love you with all that I am. I’ve waited and waited and waited for you, and finally believed that maybe I would always be alone. But then you came barreling into my life. You brought warmth and light and laughter and smiles. If you will allow, I would be honored to love you, provide for you, and protect you for all eternity. I want to make you smile. I want to irritate you until you get that cute little crease between your eyebrows. I want to hear you sigh while you sleep. Every single day. Allow me to love you, Rowan. Allow me to be yours.”
Rowan smiled at Destroy where he knelt before her. Life with him would surely never be boring. “Yes. I will allow you to be mine. You are mine. And I am yours.”
Destroy grinned and took a purple ribbon out of his trouser pocket. He smiled when she gasped, but continued with what he was doing. He wrapped the ribbon around her wrist, tying it in a perfect little bow at the top. “I love you, Rowan. I will never disappoint you. I will never make you cry.”
“You’re making me cry now,” she said, looking at the bow on her wrist.
“Well, except for now. Going forward I mean,” Destroy answered.
“Where did you find this?” she asked.
“I took it out of the coat in the hallway. It smelled like you — the coat — so I picked it up to sniff it. I saw the ribbon sticking out of the pocket and knew it meant something to you since you kept it.”
“How did you know I’d say yes?” she asked, hugging him.
“You’re mine. Didn’t matter if you said yes or not. You’re not leaving me again,” he stated matter of factly.
Rowan sat back, “Doesn’t matter? Yes, it does matter! I’ll go wherever I please!” she announced.
Destroy sat back in his chair, facing her and looked directly in her eyes, “Mine,” he said simply.
Rowan said, “Did you hear what I said, Ribbons?”
“Mine,” he said again, smiling at her nickname for him.
“Destroy?!” Rowan protested.
“Mine. Mine. Mine,” he said.
Rowan’s grandmother looked from one to the other to Carolena, “Do they do this all the time?”
Carolena shook her head, unsure, but Enthrall spoke up, “Yes, they do. All the time.”
“Good,” Mamaie said. “They will have a passionate marriage.”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Two weeks later the scorch marks had been cleaned from the bricks. The wooden siding that covered the rear of the house had been replaced. And all the kerosene had been cleaned from the premises. The exterior doorknobs had all been changed and were fully operational once more.
Rowan had agreed to take full possession of the property, and her parents and grandmother had accepted her offer to live at the house and run the women’s home for her. She would be traveling back and forth to see to finances and issues that only she could, but they would run it in her absence.
Rowan had agreed to Destroy’s demand that she accept him, and he’d happily gone back home with Lore to wait for her return. He had a house to finish for her, after all.
Enthrall and Carolena were wrapping up the end of their legal business and were nearing the end of their stay. Not much longer and they’d be headed home to Louisiana. At least Carolena would be.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Carolena pushed the doors to the Thorpe Law Firm wide as she entered unannounced.
A secretary smiled politely at her, “May I help you?” she asked.
“Yes, I’d like to see Ms. Felicity Goins, please.” Carolena asked.
“Oh, well, yes. Alright. May I tell her who calls?” the secretary asked.
“Yes, ma’am. Tell her it’s Carolena Ashlar.”
No sooner had her name left her lips than footsteps could be heard in the next room, and the door behind the secretary opened to allow a very flustered Mr. Thorpe to enter the reception office.
“Mrs. Ashlar, I mean, Larocque, may I help you? Surely anything you need I can address for you. I handled all your father’s business personally,” Mr. Thorpe said.
Carolena smiled coldly, “Yes. I am aware. I’d like to see Ms. Goins please.”
“Well, of course,” a very offended Mr. Thorpe answered as he rushed to the door on the other side of the reception office to bring Ms. Goins back with him.
Carolena could hear him coaching Felicity on their way back into the reception room.
As they entered the room, Carolena caught Felicity’s eyes at once and smiled warmly.
“Mrs. Larocque, what a pleasant surprise! How may I help you?” Felicity greeted her.
“I have a proposition, Ms. Goins.”
“Oh?” Felicity asked.
“Indeed. Are you aware that I’m a very wealthy woman?” Carolena asked.
“I am. I drew up your paperwork, Mrs. Larocque. I’m well aware of your net worth,” Felicity answered, not quite sure where this was going.
“Would you like to oversee all my holdings and legal interests, Ms. Goins?” Carolena asked.
Felicity’s mouth opened and closed several times. “I know the law better than any other lawyer I know. But I don’t have a law firm to stand behind me, Mrs. Larocque.”
“You do now. I’m providing the capital. Pick your place, pick your employees, or do it yourself. I really don’t care about the details as long as it’s not done here.”
“You can’t do that! Ms. Goins is a trusted and valued employee of this firm,” Mr. Thorpe shouted, his face turning red.
“Are you offering me a job, Mrs. Larocque?” Felicity asked again. She had to be sure before she did anything she’d regret later.
“My name is Carolena. And I’m offering you a job in your own law firm,” Carolena answered, smiling at her.
“Just one moment,” Felicity said. She hurried from the reception office back to her little broom closet where Mr. Thorpe treated her as little more than a glorified secretary. She looked around the office, picked up her briefcase that contained an assortment of standard documentation, her potted fern, grabbed her coat
and her handbag off the back of her chair, made one more cursory sweep of the office to make sure she’d left nothing personal and rushed back to the reception office.
As she got to the door, she heard Mr. Thorpe’s voice, “Ms. Goins is an attorney of the highest standards, I knew she’d never accept your offer.”
“Bye, Fred,” Felicity said as she squeezed past him and made her way to join Carolena where she waited near the front door.
“What?! How can you leave me? I have given you a wonderful opportunity! You’ll never work in this town again!” he blustered.
“You should have treated me as an attorney, not a secretary. And in case you didn’t hear, I’ll have my own firm. See you later, Fred,” Felicity told him as she walked through the door Carolena now held open for her, since her hands were full.
Carolena paused at the door right before she let it close. She plastered a huge smile on her face and waved, “Bye, Fred!”
On the ride home Carolena explained her plans for a women’s shelter to Felicity. She explained that she lived in very rural Louisiana and would not always be available. She wanted Felicity to oversee her investments, oversee her holdings, and ensure that the shelter had a fluid bank account to draw from as needed.
“I can do that,” Felicity said.
“I know you can,” Carolena told her. “I also want you to draw up papers to transfer ownership of the shelter to Rowan Enescu. She will own the property and oversee all that needs to be done.”
Felicity had produced a pad from her briefcase and was scribbling away as Carolena spoke.
“I’ll also need you to decide what is a fair salary for you. I need you to pick out an office, decide what you need to get up and going, and let me know the amount. Then transfer it to a working capital account.”
“I don’t want to have anything handed to me. I want to earn everything that you are offering,” Felicity told her earnestly.
Destroy, Book 2, Whispers From the Bayou Page 23