by Jones, L. A.
Now the both of them stood staring at the redheaded and badly bruised girl sleeping on their couch. Completely oblivious to the conversation and the dangers surrounding her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"How are you feeling?" asked Shayde.
Aradia looked up and saw Shayde descending the staircase. She was dressed once again in a knock outfit entirely consisting of the color black. She wore a mini skirt, black boots that came around her ankles, a low cut sleeveless shirt studded with rhinestones, and diamonds in her ears.
"Much better thanks,"'Aradia said with a smile.
Shayde returned the smile. They just stared at each other until Shayde said, "Look um Whisper and I have an errand to run in New York."
Aradia grew frightened. "What? But what about me? You know I am not strong enough to defend myself. I mean yeah I have been spending the last week eating and sleeping here and my injuries have healed but..."
"So come with us," Whisper said as she too descended from the staircase. She was pulling on a cropped black sweatshirt over her head. Her belly button ring jangled as she walked down the stairs. She wore black short shorts and her black wedges clonked on the floor.
"What?" Aradia said.
Whisper shrugged as she straightened her glasses. "The way I see it Saul has been spending the last two weeks tearing up all of Salem. The fact that he hasn't found you yet probably means that he's getting desperate. He is bound to come looking for you at our place."
"So," Shayde added with a bit of sly smile. "You can travel with us while we scout out new apartments in New York."
"And stay with us while the moving crew moves all our stuff,"' Whisper finished her bride's sentence and laid a hand on her shoulder.
Aradia looked relieved but the her expression changed to confusion. "Why would you want to move your stuff?"
Whisper rolled her eyes. "Because all our stuff has your scent on it. If Saul comes here and smells you...well I doubt he will be happy."
"If we move all our stuff," said Shayde, "then he can't smell you. For further precaution, we have hired a clean up crew to hose down the area."
Aradia didn't respond but only for a few minutes. "If you do all that," she pointed out hesitantly, "won't Saul know that you have taken me?"
Shayde and Whisper both sighed.
"Yeah," Whisper admitted rather reluctantly, "but he is going to find out sooner or after. At least this way we will be able to buy more time."
"Besides," Shayde added and cocked her head, "do you really want to spend the rest of your life running away from this guy?"
Aradia couldn't look her in the eye.
Shayde nodded. "I thought so."
Whisper stepped closer to Aradia and put her hand on her shoulder. "You are not strong off to take him on now Rai but you will be."
"And soon," Shayde added..
"I am actually glad that we are coming back to New York," Aradia said as she sat in the back of their black Ford Escalade.
"Oh and why is that?" Shayde inquired.
"Before we left I made some appointments," Aradia clarified, "but because of Saul I wasn't able to keep them."
Shayde merely nodded.
"There is one thing that worries me though," said Whisper.
"What's that?" Aradia asked.
"Your family," Whisper asked, "are they safe?"
Aradia grew quiet for a moment. "The tournaments for the next Silver Moon pack alpha have been progressing rapidly for the past few months so much so that the Morales family has become way too injured to take care of each other. My family has moved in to their house to help."
"How will that keep them safe?" Whisper asked, sounding puzzled.
"They may be injured but the Morales family can still transform..."
"And the bite of a werewolf in a werewolf form can kill any other hidden most especially a vampire," Shayde concluded.
"Exactly!" Aradia nodded with satisfaction.
Whisper was still curious though. "How do you know all this?"
Aradia didn't answer so Shayde did. "I told her."
Whisper's head whipped around. "You?"
Shayde nodded. "Yep!"
"Well then how in the hell did you find out?" Whisper demanded.
Shayde shrugged. "Eventide told me which he heard through the local gossip. Aradia may be out of the public view but that doesn't mean her family is. Furthermore, her sister is dating a werewolf that in itself is enough to get her scrutiny. How do I know that this Aradia's family of which I speak? Well first of all their name is Preston which truth be told is not a common name. Second, what other couple lives in Salem whose father happens to be the district attorney and has two African American foster children?"
Whisper snorted and then returned her eyes to the road. "I would have appreciated the explanation without the sarcasm."
Shayde just smiled.
"How did they look?" Aradia asked.
There was an awkward silence in the car.
Shayde just sighed and said, "I wouldn't know I didn't actually see them. Eventide did and I doubt he would notice such things."
Aradia leaned back in her seat. After a few more awkward and painful moments passed she finally said, "I miss them."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"You got a lot of nerve showing your face around here!" Kaiser snapped, "especially after you ditched me!"
Aradia began to argue, "I did not ditch you..."
Kaiser leaned against his door and folded his arms."Oh yeah? Then what do you call standing me up at our agreed meeting time eh? Bad manners?"
Aradia hung her head. "I am sorry Kaiser. I really am. I didn't mean to stand you up. I wanted to meet you but my boyfriend..."
She stopped herself. After the way he has treated me, how can I still call him my boyfriend?
"Your boyfriend what?" Kaiser inquired and raised an eyebrow.
Aradia sighed. She may have been getting her energy back but one week was hardly enough to undo months of drugs and booze. Therefore, she was still powerless but most especially her injuries were not fully healed.
As she had done when she saw Shayde she pulled off her hood. Kaiser's eyes widened as he saw Aradia's injuries.
"Sweet Jesus!" He gasped, "what happened to you?"
"You ever heard the phrase 'love is a battlefield' ?" Aradia quipped sarcastically, "well Saul takes it way too literally."
Kaiser opened and closed his mouth awkwardly. Until finally he clenched his fist and muttered, "I will kill that son of a bitch!"
Aradia, with painful difficulty, raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Kaiser stood flabbergasted. "Why?! Jesus Aradia, have you looked in a mirror lately? Have you seen what he did to you? I mean seriously look at your face."
Aradia hung her head. "I can't without crying and the salt in my tears sting my face."
Kaiser didn't know what to say. He just ran his fingers through his hair. "My God Aradia, is there anything I can do?"
Aradia raised her face to meet Kaiser's. "Actually there is you can tell me what you were going to tell me when we were suppose to meet up."
Kaiser's jaw dropped in surprise. "You're serious? After what your boyfriend did to you, you still want to know about the drug trade?"
Aradia didn't break his gaze. "Yes I do and I will tell you why. The drug was used to poison the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack back in Salem. Only he got the drug, not from a dealer, but from his doctor! Another thing, Saul showing up out of the blue and saying he knows all about my past...I don't care what he says because it still seems awful suspicious."
"Furthermore," Aradia added and leaned in a bit closer. Her whisper dropping to that of a whisper, "I think that there might be a connection."
Her words had a curious effect on Kaiser. His brow wrinkled and then his eyes widened.
"Get inside," he hissed, "hurry!"
Once inside his apartment, Kaiser bolted the apartment with three different deadbolts.
"After the last
time we talked," Kaiser said, "I did some research and it turns out I was right that whoever is making the stuff has some serious cash. Enough cash to buy a whole factory to manufacture the stuff, and their own trucks to transport the things."
"I thought you said that stuff was imported," said Aradia.
Kaiser snorted. "Apparently, I was wrong."
Aradia smirked just as Kaiser went on. "I did some more digging and was able to find out where the factory is."
Aradia shot straight up from her seat. "Take me there!"
Kaiser took Aradia along the outskirts of the city until they came to an ominous area surrounded by fences and eerie street lights. Trash littered the streets and abandoned stripped cars sat near the curbs like garbage cans. What Aradia found interesting were there no people anywhere near the factory. No bums sitting on the street drinking out of paper bags, and no sketchy hooded guys leaning against the lamp posts smoking.
"It's cause they know this place is off limits," Kaiser explained, "before the factory got bought people hung out here but once it got occupied people started disappearing. A more or less subtle way of showing that this area is extremely dangerous to those who shouldn't be here."
Aradia and Kaiser were sitting on top of the buildings that stood over ten feet from the factory. They were far enough away as to not draw attention to themselves and yet close enough to see what was going on. Not that there was much going on save for the lights being seen in the windows. The windows, however, were too fogged up for anything besides the light to be seen.
"How do we get inside?" Aradia asked.
Kaiser laughed. "We don't."
"Why not?"
Kaiser threw his head back and laughed harder. "The factory is surrounded by a thousand voltage fence, guarded by fifty vampires, twenty attack dogs with video cameras every square inch."
"See that gate," Keon said as he pointed, "that's the only way in and it's almost impossible to do so without proper authorization. At least not without getting killed!"
"How do you know all this?" Aradia demanded.
"About a week ago, some poor sucker tried to sneak in. I am guessing he was one of those serious junkies completely hooked on the shit. He tried to get in to get more access to the stuff."
"But the stuff is dirt cheap," Aradia argued, "why would he bother?"
Keon shrugged. "Maybe he was broke or maybe he just tired of paying for the stuff and wanted it for free."
Aradia nodded at the validity of that. She then turned back to survey the building. Pretty much what Kaiser said was true. Vampires patrolled the area with two guard dogs, the fence was so electrified that looked like it was glowing in the night, and Aradia could see shiny specks moving around the tops of the fences. I am guessing those are the cameras.
Aradia was still feeling too weak to use her powers and besides devising a tactic into getting into the factory would take weeks or even months. She didn't have that kind of time! Frustrated, she rubbed her hand over her face. As her fingers spread over her eyes, she noticed something.
"What about the roof?"
Kaiser was stunned. "What about it?"
"Do you know anything about the roof?" Aradia asked.
Kaiser cocked his head. "Considering that we are like ten feet away from the building and I am werewolf not a werebird not much."
Aradia squinted her eyes. "Roofs on factories usually have access panels right? Or at least doors to access the roof..."
Kaiser shrugged while Aradia just raised an eyebrow.
Kaiser could guess by the look of seriousness what she was thinking. "So what? You're planing on getting a broomstick and fly up there?"'
Aradia didn't even dignify that with an answer. Instead she stared at the building and all it's defenses. Kaiser does have a point though, you would have to fly in to get on top of that roof without being noticed. Fly or at least have wings.
The last thought made Aradia pause. A small curious smile then slowly began to curve up her lips.
Chapter Thirty
Aradia knew finding one gargoyle in the city of New York would be hard but she had to try. At least she had some ways of narrowing the search down. The vampire that had attacked her had been near Kaiser's apartment, and the building had had a pool. Although the night was still a jumble she did the best she could to find the building. She looked in every building within five block radius of Kaiser's apartment building. To help keep her safe, Shayde and Whisper accompanied her. It also made the search go a lot more quicker.
"I didn't find anything," Whisper declared as she left one of the buildings.
Shayde nodded but couldn't stop herself from asking, "how did you get invited in?"
Whisper raised an eyebrow and stared at Shayde until she finally said, "oh yeah."
"You keep forgetting that all I have to do is take off the glasses and I can hypnotize anybody." Whisper embellished this by taking off her glasses and raising her eyebrows playfully.
Shayde laughed and hugged her. Whisper also laughed and put her glasses back on. She wrapped her arms around her bride and held her close. Slowly Shayde lifted her head and stared into Whisper's eyes. Their expressions became blank as they both closed their eyes and leaned in forwards. They then kissed each other passionately at least until Aradia cleared her throat.
"Sorry," she said, "I don't meant to interrupt but..."
"We know," Shadye said as she nodded. "You have a drug bust to make."
Aradia laughed under her breath. Whisper just coughed and said, "we've checked all the buildings, no luck so far on finding the elevator you described."
"Then I guess it's a good thing I just found it," Aradia said with a smile.
After inviting the couple into the building, Aradia and the others took the elevator to the top floor.
"Just what exactly are we looking for?" Whisper asked as they stepped outside.
"A gargoyle," Aradia explained which didn't explain that much to Whisper.
Noticing the confused look on her bride's face Shayde asked, "Why?"
Aradia waved a hand at them. "I will explain later."
She neared the edge of the building and gazed around. She knew there was a one in a million chance that Agrippa would even be near here but such a chance was better than nothing. However, whether it was by pure luck or not Aradia saw something.
"Whisper," Aradia asked, "can you see what is over there?"
She indicted where by pointing with her whole arm. Whisper moved closer and narrowed her eyes.
"Holy shit!" Whisper murmured, "You are right something is there!"
"What?" Aradia sounded extremely anxious.
At first all Whisper could do was shrug. "I can't see it too clearly but what I can see is something that has pointed bat like ears and a bat snout..."
Aradia looked like Christmas had come early this year.
Or perhaps a more appropriate holiday would be Halloween especially with what Aradia, Shayde, and Whisper found. The reason Whisper hadn't been able to see Agrippa clearly was the fact that he had been blocked by three other gargoyles. All of them resembling bats except with a few major differences. One of them had pearly white alabaster skin with ram horns on their head and as snout shaped like a dog's. Another had a horn in the middle of their forehead, and wider eyes with small pupils. His skin was a deep gray like weathered granite. The last one had a cat snout and it's skin was a deep brown.
"Dear God," Whisper muttered.
Shayde merely nodded.
Aradia looked around at them until she finally spotted Agrippa. She walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He didn't move, he was still as cold as stone.
Aradia sighed. Now what do I do?
"How do we get them to wake up?" Shayde inquired.
Aradia opened her mouth to say, "I don't know" but then saw out of the corner of her eye that the sun was setting.
I wonder...Aradia thought as she turned to stare at Agrippa. Nothing had happened so far but then again the sun h
adn't set completely yet.
Once it did, Aradia heard something. It sounded like stone cracking. She then looked back at Agrippa and saw large crevices appearing in his skin. Aradia, Shayde, and Whisper backed away and pressed themselves against the wall. Soon the crevices grew larger as large chunks of fall began to fall off their skin. Each of the gargoyles's eyes began to glow bright yellow as their limbs started to move and then with one huge yell all of the gargoyles burst to life. They stretched out their arms like a child would except their stretching was accompanied by loud ferocious roar. Their big feet gripped the sides of the walls and crunched them causing small stones that fell to the ground like snowflakes.
At first the gargoyles looked like terrifying monsters when they awoke but once the stone skin had fallen off they behaved more like grown men waking up from a deep sleep. Complete with scratching under their arms and yawning.
Aradia, Shayde, and Whisper stayed quiet as mice at least until one of the gargoyles noticed them.
"Heads up guys," he said, "we got company!"
All of the gargoyles spun around and saw the three women. At first they all just stated at each other in tense silence but then Agrippa's eyes narrowed.
He pointed at Aradia with a long clawed finger. "Don't I know you?"
Aradia breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah you do! You saved me remember?"
Agrippa raised an eyebrow and after a few moments he said, "oh yeah."
He then hopped off the ledge and turned to stare at them. He then folded his arms and leaned back. "So? What do you want?"
Aradia sighed heavily. "First, I wanted to apologize for standing you up but you got to believe me that it wasn't really my fault."
"Is that why you are here?" Agrippa said accusingly, "to offer feeble excuses?"
"No," Aradia said passionately and shook her head. "No that's not why at all."
"Then why?" Agrippa demanded. The gargoyles looked like they were growing restless.