by E A Price
When a Gargoyle Pretends to be Santa Claus
E A Price
Copyright ©2016 by Elizabeth Ann Price
All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of my overactive imagination or used in a completely fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events and places is purely coincidental. Though if Santa really was a gargoyle, that would be totally awesome, and I would definitely start believing again.
Happy Holidays!
Previously
During King Arthur’s reign, to defeat his enemy, Morgan Le Fay and her legions of magical beasts, the King, his magician Merlin, and the leader of the dragon race sacrificed themselves to create a race of warriors. They became known as gargoyles.
After defeating Morgan, the gargoyles lived in tentative peace alongside the humans. But not all gargoyles were happy with their place. A female called Ophelia, second in command to Lucifer, a descendant of the first gargoyle, made a deal with the enemy, known as the Noir Clans, and gave them the spell used to bring the gargoyles to life. The armies of the Noir Clans rallied and in an attack, they used the spell on the gargoyles to put them into a stone sleep, that if not reversed within a thousand years would become permanent. Those who were not immediately destroyed were sheltered by the descendants of Arthur’s allies - the Blanc Clans. For years, attempts were made at waking them, but they were unsuccessful.
Almost a thousand years later, Lucifer, along with dozens of other hidden gargoyles, was being sheltered by a man called Professor Hardcastle, who lived in a town called Devil’s Hang. After his death, his heir and nephew, Andrew held a party at his house. A woman named Kylie Summers stumbled upon the gargoyle Lucifer, and while drunk, kissed the stone gargoyle and awakened him. Kylie was discovered to be a distant (very distant) relative of one of Arthur’s allies.
While Kylie and Luc fell in love, a man named Holling, a relative of one of Morgan’s allies, was attempting to revive the gargoyles to create an army. He held Kylie hostage to lure Luc to him. When Luc tried to rescue her, Ophelia was discovered to be alive, and she killed Holling. Disgusted at Luc’s relationship with Kylie, Ophelia tried to kill her. Ophelia escaped, and it was discovered that she had been working with Holling, trying to create a new clan of gargoyles.
Luc and Kylie mated and began working to decipher the locations of the other gargoyles Professor Hardcastle hid.
On learning of Holling’s death, the Council of Magic Users sent mercenaries to watch the mansion, to try and discover if the gargoyles had been reawakened and report back their findings.
One of the newly awakened gargoyles, Ric, was seen in the surroundings woods by a human called Chloe. They continued to meet in secret, and unbeknownst to Ric she was one of the mercenaries sent to watch them. While Chloe tried to seduce Ric, he fell in love with a human called Brenda.
Ric was kidnapped by the Council of Magic and taken to a medical facility, where he met Twenty-Six – a gargoyle who had been bred in the lab. The council was using gargoyle DNA to try and breed new gargoyles that stay awake in daylight.
Luc, the gargoyles and Brenda’s uncle, Chris attacked the facility and Ric and Twenty-Six were freed. Luc confronted the leader of the Council of Magic, Blackthorne, and told him that they would leave him alone if he left them alone.
A few weeks later, while trying to retrieve a new gargoyle, Annis and Chris were kidnapped and hunted for sport. They managed to free themselves and the pair mated.
It was revealed that the kidnapping was engineered by Ophelia, in an attempt to get rid of the male gargoyle, Gracchus. A new clan gargoyle called Lief was working with Ophelia, and he left the clan to return to Ophelia.
Kylie visited the new doctor in town in order to retrieve contraceptive pills, but the doctor gave her fertility drugs instead. The doctor was shown working with Blackthorne, and their plan is for Kylie to become pregnant with Luc’s child.
The story will be continued… on the next page, or rather, within the next few pages.
Main Characters
Humans
Kylie Summers – Luc’s mate, and technically a witch. Her magical ability lay dormant until she stumbled upon Luc as a statue. She’d like it to be known that she doesn’t normally run around kissing statues. She isn’t a hussy for stone men, she was just very drunk.
Chris Wyatt – Annis’ mate, Brenda’s uncle and the local chief of police. A former detective from Portland, he now runs a police force made up of three people and a dog named Bob who refuses to obey.
Brenda Halverson – Mate of Ric and currently a high school senior. Spends her time acting as a referee between her overprotective mate and uncle who is looking for any reason to shoot him.
Bea – Kylie’s aunt, but not biologically. Also a witch, she has some healing ability. Belongs to the magical community, and is one of many guardians Kylie had while growing up.
Maggie – Kylie’s best friend, a goth, and a lover of all things supernatural. Currently helping to track down all the missing gargoyles. Secretly enjoys Boggle.
Andrew Hardcastle – The nephew of Professor Hardcastle, who hid and protected the gargoyles for many years. Owns the Hardcastle Mansion where the gargoyles are currently living. Maggie’s boyfriend and favorite Boggle victim.
Gustave – Former manservant of Professor Hardcastle. Working with Kylie and the gargoyles to find and wake the others. Does not like to be compared to Alfred from Batman.
Martha – Maggie’s cousin, and unflatteringly described as a ‘braindead twinset’ by Maggie. They don’t really get on. Struggling with her nightmares.
Joely Greene – waitress, widow and mother to Daphne. Has a thing for burly men.
Daphne Greene – Joely’s daughter. Loves Santa Claus
Gargoyles
Lucifer ‘Luc’ – Kylie’s mate and a direct descendant of the first gargoyle created. His interests include awaking his gargoyle brothers and sisters and keeping up with his human mate’s mood swings.
Annis – Mated to Chris. A female with a deformed wing. Smaller and slighter than normal females, she is unable to fight, hunt or fly like gargoyles, but she makes a mean casserole.
Gracchus – A male a few years older than Luc. Genial and easygoing, he hints at a darker past, but is accepting of their new life, particularly the invention of TV. His favorite TV show is now Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Amalric ‘Ric’ – A young male, recently mated to Brenda and the first gargoyle to be woken after Luc. Annoyingly cocky but Brenda manages to tease that out of him… most of the time.
Dragoslava ‘Drago’ – Otherwise known as the thing in the basement. The male struggles to adapt to life after being asleep for so long, and on waking spent a month chained in the basement due to his uncontrolled anger. Not keen on clothes. Currently brooding over his recent dreams.
Twenty-Six – The female bred in a lab who is able to sleep at any time, day or night. She was the twenty-sixth of the experiments to create a superior species of gargoyles. She is considering changing her name, though cannot make up her mind.
Brom – A newly awakened male gargoyle originally hailing from Iceland. Has a shortened tail, which is a sore subject for him.
Ingrede – A female, mated to Cai and mother of Wolfe. Currently pregnant with her second youngling, and enjoying dressing Wolfe up in very cute knitted outfits.
Cai – Ingrede’s mate and father to Wolfe. Exceedingly proud of himself for fathering a second youngling with his mate.
Wolfe – Cai and Ingrede’s son; insufferably cute and obsessed with a stuffed penguin that invariably gets thrown at people’s heads.
Tristan – A male gargoyle with an interest in books.
Grey – Another male gargoyle, whose only interest seems to be in being mean.
And Bob the dog – Of unknown parentage, he just showed up in town one day. Honorary member of the local police force.
Grey shivered slightly as the flakes of snow dissolved on his wings. He pulled the makeshift cape tighter around his shoulders.
Brom chuckled. “What’s wrong, brother? Can’t stand the cold?” he taunted.
“Who are you to judge?” grumbled Grey. “You are wearing furs.”
Brom pulled his own arctic fox fur cape around his shoulders. It had once been a brilliant white, but one of his old clan females thought to dye it to ensure he could remain stealthy when hunting. It was now bright red with a trim of white around the edge and hood. Unless he were trying to hide from a colorblind deer, it would not do him any good. But it was warm, and in spite of the human woman Maggie’s strange objections that no one should wear fur, he was going to wear it.
“If you were fast enough to hunt and kill your own animals, you too could have furs.”
“Just try and keep up brother,” sneered Grey. He shook out his wings and dove off the roof of the mansion.
Brom grumbled and inelegantly dove off too. While Grey was lithe and slim, Brom was large and sturdy. Brom was built for strength and could weather any cold snaps, but he was not made for speed. Which meant Grey was just a wee bit faster than. Just a wee bit. Not by much. Not at all.
Brom flapped his wings, cursing the slimmer gargoyle under his breath. Grey smirked as Brom pulled level. Brom resisted the urge to reach out and clout him. He’d probably send them both sprawling to the ground. He was not the best at flying.
It had been steadily snowing for the last two weeks, and the gargoyles were reveling in the moderate freedom it afforded. With visibility so poor, humans were unlikely to see them, and Luc was allowing them a little leeway when it came to leaving the house and grounds. Not that they didn’t usually try to sneak out anyway, and Brom doubted Luc didn’t have some idea of what they were up to. He was just usually too wrapped up in his human mate to be truly annoyed at them.
They passed over the trees, soaring through the white sky, the delicate snowflakes beating against their wings. Brom closed his eyes for a moment. He could almost believe he was home again, back with his birth clan, enjoying the solitude of their lives in Iceland where they left the humans alone, and the humans left them alone.
“Something is happening in town,” said Grey with interest.
Brom grunted. The humans were always rushing to and fro about something.
“What is that?” Grey peered into the distance.
“We should not get too close to town,” complained Brom.
“I will not let them see me. If you are afraid, turn back.”
Grey ignored Brom’s harrumphs and dove towards a nearby roof, landing lightly. Brom groaned and followed him. He would happily leave him there to his fate, but he would not allow Grey to claim later that Brom had shown fear. He’s sooner get caught and dissected by the humans than have that dragon’s rear of a gargoyle tell the rest of his clan that he was a scaredy-bat or cat or whichever animal is supposed to be extremely cowardly.
Brom landed on the neighboring roof with perhaps a little less grace than Grey. The whole roof seemed to shake and shudder in fact. He ignored the smirk he knew was coming from Grey and focused instead on the large fir tree surrounded by an inordinately large amount of humans.
*
“Mommy, mommy, mommy!”
“What, what, what?!”
Joely Greene gave her six-year-old an exasperated look as Daphne tried to wrench her arm off while jumping up and down.
“When’s Santa getting here?” Daphne asked with a wide gap-toothed grin.
Joely smiled. She really should enjoy every moment of this. How many more years did she have left of Daphne believing in Santa? Daphne had already rumbled her as the tooth fairy, and she couldn’t give a fig about the Easter Bunny – unless it involved toys and money, she wasn’t interested.
Joely kneeled down and tightened Daphne’s scarf. “Soon, baby.”
She hoped. They were freezing their butts off waiting for Santa to arrive. Daphne caught a cold easier than she could catch a ball, and Joely couldn’t afford to take any time off work. She wasn’t overly fond of her job at the diner, but she had a decent chest and no qualms about leaving the top few buttons of her top undone – tips were great. Skeezy maybe, but she was a single mother with no family to help her out, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Or at least, hopefully, not for much longer.
Chuck, the guy she’d been dating was going to propose. Or at least, she heard from Myrna at the library, who heard it from her boyfriend, who got it from one of his customers in his grocery store that their aunt had seen Chuck buying an engagement ring in Portland. So, surely, that meant he was going to propose, right?
Maybe on Christmas day, she thought wistfully. They’d curl up by the fire, watching the flames crackle… Or more likely he’d toss her the ring box while he was drinking a beer and ask her if she wanted to go for it.
She’d say yes. Of course, she would. Chuck was hardly romantic, or her dream man, but he had a steady job, and he liked Daphne. She’d dated guys who couldn’t stand being around her daughter – didn’t like it when they had to make plans to include Daphne or that she came first. They were soon kicked to the curb. Dickwads.
Besides, Daphne’s father had been romantic and dreamy, but just not great at planning or handling money. So when he got sick, paying his medical bills wiped them out. Joely felt a tear prickling the corner of her eye and quickly dabbed at it before it froze on her cheek. She had loved every minute with him, and for a couple of years, they had been the happiest little family on earth. She cherished the time they had, but now she needed to be practical.
Daphne swung her hand and started jumping up and down. What was the freaking hold up?
The town planning committee, spearheaded by her highness Martha the perfect had decorated the town to an insanely gorgeous degree and to top it off, they had found a sled and a couple of reindeer to drag a Santa into the square to turn on the Christmas light and give out donated toys to kids.
Daphne couldn’t wait. Nor could Joely – she needed out of the cold and back to work pronto. The new waitress was younger than her – Joely didn’t need her pinching her best customers.
It was actually Chuck who was playing Santa. His gut was a little on the large side, so he fit the suit better than anyone else in town.
Sick of waiting, Joely asked local witchy gift shop owner Maggie to watch Daphne while she lit a fire under Chuck.
Rubbing her hands, she jogged over to the storage shed where they were keeping the sled. The two reindeer were standing outside shaking their antlers.
“What are you still doing out here?” she murmured.
They weren’t talking, so she pushed her way into the shed, her jaw dropping as she was confronted by Santa’s naked ass jiggling as he pounded into Lola – his elf – who was currently sprawled on the sled. His grunts and her squeaks abruptly stopped as Lola shouted, “Oh, shit!”
Chuck pulled away from her and Lola scrambled down, sprinting around the back of the sled to hide.
Chuck’s normally florid face burned brighter than Christmas tree lights. “Jo-Jo, it’s not what it looks like.”
Joely felt a strange tenseness like she wanted to explode but wasn’t quite there yet. “It looked like you were stuffing
her stocking, Santa.”
He gulped, and his manhood wilted. With his pants around his feet, large belly squeezing out of his red coat and beard askew, he really was a pathetic, sweaty looking sight.
“I’m sorry,” whined Lola. The nineteen-year-old emerged looking as fresh as a daisy. As if Joely didn’t already hate her. “I just got dumped this morning, and Chuck was so nice to me… it got out of hand. He was just helping me out.”
“How sweet,” sneered Joely.
“He told me how much he cares about you,” added Lola, clearly unable to see the burgeoning murder in Joely’s eyes.
They both stared at her expectantly with sad expressions on their faces. Puh-lease. If she could withstand an adorable six-year-old begging to extend her bedtime, she can withstand these two assholes.
“I just came to tell you that everyone’s waiting in the square for Santa, but please, by all means, finish.”
“Cupcake,” protested Chuck in a whiny voice.
“Good news,” said Joely in a bright voice, “now you two have something in common – other than you both being complete shits – you’ve both been dumped today!”
With that, she did the obligatory stomping exit and slammed the door enough to make even the two bored-looking reindeer jump.
Christmas cookies and freaking holiday hearts she was annoyed!
Joely stormed back to the town square and grabbed Daphne, ignoring Maggie’s inquisitive looks.
“But… Santa?” protested Daphne.
“We’ll drive to the mall and see him there, baby. I promise.”
“No, it’s Santa!” squealed Daphne.
Joely looked up and down the street to see if Chuck had followed her. She was about ready to deck him alone for screwing this up for Daphne, never mind the cheating thing. There was no sign of him, and she realized Daphne was pointing up at a roof. Joely looked up, but there was nothing there.
“Baby…”
“I saw him!” she squealed excitedly.