“Don’t start.” Brian didn’t look at him. He’d never live it down. He’d never been so glad to see Tony as he’d been that night. After three hours of waiting alone with the women, he had been as nervous as popcorn in a hot frying pan. He focused on the wares of the stalls.
“What’d you get? Something like seventeen propositions and one proposal? All from four Canadian women.”
“Shut up.” Then, to take the sting out of his words, he glanced at his friend and smiled. “It made me feel cheap.”
Tony burst out laughing. The noise was so loud and hard, people turned to stare. The attention only seemed to inflame his humor. He wrapped his hand around his stomach with one arm, laughing and wiping his eyes with his other hand. He was still chuckling when his cell phone rang.
“Silver,” he answered, wiping his eyes again. After a brief pause he said in a gentle voice, “No. I’m fine. Just laughing at Brian.”
Brian listened and tried to interpret the conversation, based on what he heard Tony say. It had to be Bellerophon on the other end. Tony never used that tone with anyone else. Not even any other woman. Were the two in love? The thought of it brought him a stab of worry for Olivia. All levity aside, what the lawyer had told him about her frame of mind worried him more than anything. Would she really try to kill herself? He had to find her. Where was she? He shaded his eyes and looked around the crowd, almost expecting to see her watching him.
“No, we haven’t found her yet,” Tony continued. Then, he said, “I don’t know, some horrible little place in China.”
Brian moved to the next stall, and Tony followed slowly, listening to his caller. After a moment, he said, “That’s interesting.” He put his hand over the phone and said to Brian, “They found Carl Hall’s body. He was sitting in his truck in front of his house where he was shot. Brett is being held for his murder.”
That didn’t surprise Brian. A boy could only take so much abuse and that one had swallowed more than his fair share. He turned to the items the next merchant had for sale and froze. There, on a brilliant red scarf was the image of a golden griffin. He snatched it from the wall and studied it. It was a glamorized version, true, but the griffin looked like Olivia. Griffin mythology wasn’t new in China, but the images had changed with time. This one was current. Without turning, he reached behind him and patted his hand on Tony. “Hang up. She’s here.”
“Gotta go.” Then Tony stood beside him, staring at the scarf. “Are you sure? It could be a coincidence.”
Brian lifted his gaze and looked around the stall. Griffins in gold graced more than half of the stall’s brightly colored items. “Oh, yeah. I’m sure.”
He dug in his pocket and removed some coins. Holding them out to the young woman who manned the stall, he said in Chinese, “I want this. It’s beautiful. Did you paint it?”
She smiled at him and reached for the money. It was, no doubt, way more than she usually got for her scarves. She chose to answer in English. “My father paint. I sell.”
“Where is he?”
She motioned to one of the sharply pointed karsts that stood back from the river. It looked like any other. “He there. With my son.”
Chapter 63
Olivia was caught in a vision at Tony’s lake cabin. She and Brian both leaned way out through a giant glassless window, watching the moonlight play on the water. The silver reflections swirled and twisted and became a tiger. Other ripples formed into dark, hideous shapes with gaping maws and heavy claws. The pines shadowed them, even as the snow camouflaged Tony. She hid beside her love inside a broken stump. Her heart twisted, pushing her grief to the surface. Brian pulled her to him and she inhaled his musk, soaking it in as if it was a balm.
Suddenly aware of someone in her clearing, hoping it was the boy, she snapped open her eyes. The scent from her daydream strengthened, and she wondered if she wasn’t awake, but still trapped in her tortuously enjoyable vision. Two men stood in front of her: Tony and Brian.
Brian.
Only not.
He was ghost-thin. Almost like a stick. He’d shaved his beard and moustache and had cut his hair. Still, his dark brown eyes glittered and his pale skin crinkled at the corners of his mouth as he smiled.
Her mouth dried. What was this? Terror cascaded through her. She lowered her head and hissed, spreading her wings and sidestepping in a wide circle around him. He stopped and slowly raised his hand in a gesture she knew so well. That hand had once before soothed the beak of an angry griffin. She shifted to human form and snatched her blanket from her nest for a cloak. She stared at him for a moment. He lowered his hand, but said nothing.
She shook her head, trying to clear the webs of the vision, but it remained. She was convinced she’d finally gone over the edge into permanent insanity. Her voice low and cracked from disuse, she asked, “Are you a ghost?”
He smiled that unique-to-Brian smile again and shook his head. “No.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. Brian? Could it be? Blinking furiously to keep tears at bay, Olivia stared at him and dropped her hand to her side, afraid to ask, afraid to hear he’d hidden away from her on purpose. But she needed that answer too. “Where were you?”
He took a step toward her. Still unconvinced of reality, she retreated. He took another slow step. “I was held captive. As soon as I escaped, I went looking for you.”
“But I was gone.”
He nodded, still coming her way. She let him. He said, “I figured out where you’d gone and made Tony bring me. It took us awhile to figure out exactly on which peak you’d built your nest.”
“You knew I’d be here?”
“Where else?”
“Is this real?” Blinking didn’t stop her tears anymore and they cascaded down her face.
He opened his arms. She stepped into his strong embrace, inhaling his unique male musk. It smelled like heaven. His heart beat strong against her and his breath roared in her ear. He held her for a long time, kissing her hair and rocking her. Maybe she was still dreaming, but she never wanted to wake from this.
“Brian, I’ve done some terrible, terrible things.”
“It’s in the past.”
Olivia heard a soft cough and looked around Brian to see Tony beaming at them. He said, “Besides being held prisoner, he had short-term amnesia. He couldn’t remember anything of what happened. He couldn’t even remember that first night, at your apartment.”
Brian pulled her attention back to him, with a hand on her chin. He met her gaze with his own of sincerity and tenderness. “You know, wolves mate for life.”
A fire of love and desire for this man raced through her body and she smiled up at him. “I think Griffins must also. I don’t want anyone else. Ever.”
He lowered his lips to hers and pulled her into a deep branding kiss. Knowing how all her visions ended, she’d tried to keep her guard up, to keep from being sucked in too far, but his kiss crumbled every wall she’d erected. The aching gap in her equilibrium, her reality, slowly began to fill.
“Not to interrupt, but to interrupt anyway, what the hell is all this?” Tony bumped a bowl filled with copper and brass beads with the edge of his foot.
Brian answered for her, looking around the clearing. He chuckled. “Tribute. Our Olivia has a following.”
She grimaced. “I can’t keep them away. Every day, more show up.”
He turned his beautiful brown-eyed gaze on her again. “Well, we can’t stay here. Besides, I like a bed to sleep in.”
Still not entirely sure she wasn’t hallucinating, she said, “There is one person I’d like to see again before we go.” If this wasn’t real, she was willing to play along. Why wake? So far, this vision had been drastically different than the others. Would it end the same way?
“We passed two groups of people on the way up: two women and, a fair bit behind them, a boy and an old man.”
“The second group is them.”
The three of them sat down on stones at the edge of her small
rock home. Brian kept hold of Olivia, as if afraid she’d leave, which was fine by her. She told both of them about her time there and the boy who had saved her. Brian described the years he’d lived in the area. Tony, while chiming in occasionally on their conversation, poked through the tribute bowls. He’d pick up a piece of something, examine it in the light and either pocket it or put it back. Most things went back to where he’d gotten it.
Growing tired of his treasure hunt, Tony wandered to the edge of the crag and stood on top of the outcropping. Eventually, he said, “The two women are approaching now. I can see the old man and the boy not too far behind them. The women must have stopped for quite a while.”
He hopped down, grinning and rubbing his hands. “At last, we can get out of here. I need something to eat besides these berries.” He flipped his hand toward the bowls.
Brian frowned at him, but said nothing. She just grinned. Same old Tony. Brian asked her, “What do we do? Should we hide?”
Olivia shook her head. “Just sit and wait. If they see I’m gone, they hopefully won’t stay.”
It was as she’d said. Brian, who spoke Chinese, explained to the two women that she’d angrily left and it didn’t look as if she’d return. They were distraught, but left their gifts behind with a prayer in the hope that she’d come back. After they left, Olivia said, “I need to be griffin for the boy. It’ll frighten him if I’m not here.” She owed him and his grandfather one last visit with the beast.
He nodded, but didn’t look pleased as she pulled away. In truth, it scared her to let go of him. Any minute now, this part of her daydream would end as they always did. She knew that the boy and his grandpa would never arrive. Instead, Brian and Tony would disappear and the horror of that fall in the ravine and the endless gulf of loneliness and guilt would start. Yet, shifting to griffin had to be done. The vision had to run its course. There was nothing she could do to stop it anyway.
Slowly, she backed away and let the griffin have her body. She didn’t take her gaze off Brian as she grew and stretched into the beast. She expected this vision would change. And when it did, this time, she’d finish it, throwing herself over the edge of the mountain to die on the rocks below. She couldn’t take it anymore. The hallucination this time was too perfect, too cruel, for her to continue living without Brian.
She’d just settled into her nest, still facing Brian when her dark-haired Chinese boy stepped into the clearing. Her heart stopped. The presence of the boy had always before brought clarity to her life, such as it was. With him near, the visions dissipated. But, he was here. And yet, so was Brian. Was this…could this be…?
Olivia stood abruptly, sending the boy, open-mouthed, scurrying to his grandpa. Before now, she’d always moved with great care to keep from startling either of them. But now, she had to know. She stalked to Brian, still in her griffin. Cocking her head at him, she watched for signs of a glimmer or transparency. Seeing none, she lowered her head and jabbed the smooth curve of her beak against his chest. He felt solid enough.
As if he read her mind, he asked, “Still not sure I’m real, huh?”
She chattered her love to him, not caring that he didn’t understand and not wanting to move away from him long enough to change to human. He smiled and raised his hand, stroking her beak. His smooth hand dissipated her fears. Dear God, it’s real! Brian was real! He was alive! She lifted her head and placed it on his shoulder, rubbing her beak against his chin. While she crooned softly, he told their story in Chinese to the boy and his grandpa, Tony looking on.
When Brian finished, neither the boy nor the old man moved a muscle. If they believed the three of them were possessed demons, they didn’t show it. That was good. Olivia tromped to her nest and returned with the chess pieces in her beak. She dropped them in the boy’s hands and he curled his fingers over them. He looked around her at Brian, who gave him her thanks.
As the boy shifted his gaze back to her and then to the gift in his hands, she saw the sorrow there. She could tell he knew this was goodbye. While the two Chinese watched, Brian grew into the wolf, his clothes splitting and scattering to the ground in rags. Seeing his skin furrowed over his ribs hurt her. He’d been so close to death. Then Tony changed to a snarling and spitting silver Bengal, showing off. The boy backed away, eyes wide, but the grandpa reached out a shaking hand. Tony stilled as the old man stroked his white fur.
Then the three of them turned away. Brian and Tony bounded down the steep mountain like it was a playground, while she plunged off the edge of the crag, catching the air currents beneath her wings and lifting high into the sky. She looked back at the boy and his grandpa still in the clearing. They stood with their eyes shaded, watching as she sailed away.
Olivia had no idea where they were going. Nor did she care much, but, as she kept Brian under her watchful eye, she knew the two of them would find a nice quiet cabin on a lake somewhere far from civilization. As for Tony, who knew what he would do.
The End
Publisher’s Note
Please help this author’s career by posting an honest review wherever you purchased this book.
About Wendy L. Koenig
Wendy Koenig has been writing since she was a young child in Illinois, filling spiral notebooks with poetry and short stories. It wasn’t until after a short stint in the military that she began working on novels. It was also then that she began seeking publication.
Her first piece to be printed was a short children’s fiction, “Jet’s Stormy Adventure,” serialized in The Illinois Horse Network. She attended the University of Iowa, honing her craft in its famed summer workshops and writing programs. She graduated from the University of Maine, Presque Isle, in 2006. Her first novel was published in 2007. Since that time, she has published and co-authored numerous books.
Several of her stories have taken international awards: First Place Short Fiction and Second Place Novel in the 2005 Abilene Writers’ Guild International Contest, Second Honorable Mention Novel in the 2005 CNW/FFWA International Writing Competition, and Second Honorable Mention Novel in the 2007 Frontiers in Writing International Contest.
Her short stories and poetry have appeared in multiple venues, including KidVisions eZine, Upcountry eZine, Echoes magazine, and the annual Breathe anthologies. She currently writes adult and Young Adult science fiction and action/adventure, as well as adult romance.
She currently lives in New Brunswick, Canada.
The Last Griffin Page 23