Trouble with Gargoyles: an Urban Fantasy (Moonlight Dragon Book 3)

by Tricia Owens

  "That's a problem for my species to deal with," Vale said, his face as stony as his statue form. "I don't recall the gargoyles asking for your help."

  "If you can't handle your own, then it's up to someone else to do it!"

  Vale took a step toward him but I jumped between them. "Let's go back and focus on the gargoyle you saw breaking into that apartment. You're one hundred percent certain that it was a gargoyle? It couldn't have been anything else?"

  Gareth shook out his shoulders. "I know what I saw. I'd swear to it in a court of law."

  "Handy if what you were planning to do was legal," Vale muttered with a glare.

  I gave him a look and he spun away, arms crossed. I squatted in front of Gareth. "This is more important than you realize. Tell us everything you know about that gargoyle and what it did that night."

  Gareth sneered. Even his snake tattoos wiggled insultingly. "Why should I?"

  I heard Vale turn on his heel as if he were about to leap back into the fray, but I beat him to the punch. "Because if you don't cooperate," I said softly, smiling at Gareth, "I'm going to let my dragon bite all your limbs off before he burns you to a crisp."

  I let him see in my eyes that I was serious—at least about the part about Lucky biting some part of him; I wouldn't kill anyone except in self-defense. What Gareth saw in my eyes was enough for him to take me seriously.

  "I saw it clearly in the moonlight," he began, darting a nervous look at Vale, who remained behind me. "It had been waiting in the trees for the woman to come home. I know because I had been following it for over four hours, trying to corner it."

  "How did you know about it?" I asked.

  "The SOS is worldwide. We have a network of watchers. We've been following this gargoyle since it was first spotted in Vancouver a couple of months ago. It reappeared every few days in a different state. We thought it was a new gargoyle, until it showed up in Las Vegas. That's when we realized it was Vale."

  I kept my expression neutral, but I was bothered by what Gareth had said. Either the gargoyle they'd been tracking had been Vale, or his brother had stopped in Vegas and neither of us had been the wiser.

  "Go on," I told Gareth.

  "I didn't become involved until it showed up in California. That's when I was sent to track it."

  "You found it in a tree."

  "That's right. While the woman was parking her car, it climbed out of the tree and inside her apartment. I don't know what happened once she entered. I heard her scream once and that was it. About two minutes later, the gargoyle crawled out of the window and flew away."

  "You didn't think about helping that woman?" Vale growled.

  Gareth glared at him. "I was parked a block away, watching everything with binoculars. By the time I arrived at the apartment, you—excuse me, the mysterious gargoyle—was in the process of leaving. I had to follow it. I couldn't keep up, but I knew where it was heading."

  I stood up and took a step back from both of them. I didn't know what to think.

  "Moody."

  Vale's deep voice, the one I found so sexy, sent a shiver of trepidation through me. He was watching me with those dark eyes, probably reading every thought that ran through my head. He motioned for me to join him in the studio. For the first time, I was nervous about being alone with him.

  And I hated myself for it. How shallow were my feelings for him if I could doubt him the first time a stranger accused of him of wrongdoing? Angry with myself, I led the way through the bead curtain and into my bedroom.

  "Tell me what you're thinking," Vale said at once, crowding me against the edge of my bed.

  Rather than push him away, I sat on the mattress and looked up at him calmly. "I believe he followed a gargoyle here. I don't believe it's you."

  He stared at me for a long moment. Then he released his breath. "Thank you."

  "Is it someone you know?"

  It was my turn to hold my breath. I knew what answer I expected. If he didn't give it to me...we might have problems.

  I watched him turn to gaze sightlessly out the back window. "I think it's Xaran. I think it's my brother." He glanced at me almost anxiously. "I'm sorry I didn't say something sooner."

  "No, it's alright," I said, relieved. "You have no idea how glad I am that you admitted it might be him. I had some suspicions, but I don't know your brother or your relationship to him. I didn't want to assume anything."

  "As soon as I heard Diana's story I had my suspicions, too, Moody. I needed to go there and see for myself."

  "What did you see?"

  "Nothing in her apartment, but Gareth was right. Xaran had been waiting for her in a tree. He left a mark in the bark there, something he carves when he's bored."

  "Why is he threatening people to learn about you?" I laughed uneasily. "I know you don't own a phone, but surely gargoyles have other ways to communicate with each other? Especially royalty—"

  "Being an heir means nothing," he said tensely. I'd touched a sore spot. Why did it hurt? Vale began to pace the studio. "When I left Europe I left all that behind. Xaran knew that. He agreed to let me go while he dealt with the demon king on his own. He'd said he was fine with it."

  "He's doing reconnaissance," I suggested, "trying to learn who you're hanging out with and whether he can trust me."

  "He agreed to let me go."

  "Vale," I said, rising to my feet and coming up behind him. "Why is this a big deal? What's going on with your family's throne?"

  "I told you that a demon sits on the throne. That's not problem enough? Xaran obviously needs my help overthrowing it."

  But there was something in his voice that didn't ring true to me. I couldn't put my finger on it, and that bothered me a lot. Distrusting your boyfriend wasn't supposed to happen without a reason, and yet I didn't fully trust him on this and I didn't know why.

  "We need to contact him," I declared. "He can't keep going around threatening the people who know you. And with this SOS group out there, that's just asking for an ugly confrontation."

  "I can get rid of them," he said darkly as he turned to face me. The light was at his back, but I could still see the grim cast of his features.

  "Scare him, don't hurt him." I let him know by my tone that I wouldn't condone anything else. "I've had enough of violence lately."

  He cocked his head. "What happened while I was away?"

  "It doesn't matter right now," I said as casually as I could. "I just don't want you to give the SOS or anyone else another reason to fear you. We need fewer enemies, not more. Once they're gone, we'll deal with your brother."

  Vale rested a hand on my shoulder. I knew him well enough by now to tell that something was on his mind, something that might not have anything to do with Xaran or the SOS. Something that might be personal between us and explain why he'd shown up with roses.

  When the silence stretched, I prodded him. "Go scare him off, Vale, so you can take me to your place like you promised."

  He gently squeezed my arm. "Stay here."

  I remained in the dark while he went back into the shop to deal with Gareth. The masculine murmurs of their voices remained steady, even though I'd half-expected Gareth to resist at least vocally. But I heard nothing of strife between them and when, about ten minutes later, the bead curtain parted and Vale stepped into the studio, I knew that Gareth had been taken care of, whatever that meant.

  "Close the shop and we'll go?" Vale asked hopefully.

  I searched his face for signs that the confrontation with Gareth hadn't gone pleasantly. But Vale was a handsome cipher. In the end, all I could do was say, "Let's go."

  ~~~~~

  We took a ride sharing service to the Naked City. It certainly wasn't my first choice for a date, that was for sure.

  The neighborhood behind the Statosphere tower, known colloquially as the Naked City, was a sketchy one. Some considered it one of the most dangerous in the city, though as a magickal being my opinion on that was skewed. Dangerous to me was eight miles be
neath Area 51, where the Oddsmakers were.

  But for most people this was an area you avoided at all costs unless you had no choice. It was rife with gang activity. For some reason this was where Vale lived. I couldn't disguise my confusion as the car let us out on a street stretching within the shadow of the city's most iconic landmark.

  "Why here?" I asked, keeping my voice low as we walked across a weed-filled yard up to a battered old house with graffiti-covered walls and plywood nailed over its windows. "You didn't bring me out here to knock me off, did you?"

  "I realize it's not the most romantic of locations," he said wryly as he unlocked the deadbolt on the front door, "but it's where I spend my time when I don't spend it with you."

  "Not in Summerlin?" I asked, pretending to be disappointed.

  "I only told Zach that so he wouldn't try to stalk me."

  Sadness prick me at the mention of my dead friend. "Good call. He totally would have."

  Inside it was bare, practically empty. The carpet was worn but seemed clean and the kitchen wasn't crawling with roaches (probably because it didn't look like anyone had ever cooked anything in there). There were clothes in the closet of the sole bedroom, but no bed. After my quick, depressing tour, I returned to the living room where Vale waited.

  "You're such a liar," I said. "You don't live here. Not really."

  He broke into a grin. "I was waiting for you to dump me when you saw this place."

  "I wouldn't have dumped you, but I would have seriously reassessed my options. So where do you live?"

  "I actually do crash here on occasion. When my first choice isn't available."

  "Your first choice?"

  He held out his hand. "I'll show you after we eat. For practical reasons."

  He held my hand as we walked out of the neighborhood and up to the Strip. North Las Vegas Boulevard was pretty sketchy, too, and I nervously eyed some shady characters. But Vale walked with purpose and he must have radiated danger because no one bothered us. Hell, no one looked our way twice.

  To my surprise, Vale took us inside the Stratosphere. At just over eleven hundred feet high, it was the tallest freestanding observation tower in the U.S., according to my handsome tour guide. He led me to an elevator which we rode seemingly forever, finally ending up on the 106th floor.

  "Oh, my gosh," I breathed as we stepped out and I saw the sign for Top of the World. "I've always wanted to eat up here."

  "I'm glad I'm the first to bring you," Vale murmured.

  "I wish I'd worn something nicer!"

  His lips brushed my ear. "I told you before. I think you're beautiful as you are."

  It was easy to forget everything that had happened today and curl my arms around his waist and kiss him. Easy to pretend that my greatest concern was whether I'd get the surf and turf and whether I'd let Vale drink champagne directly from my lips at the end of the night.

  We ate dinner and we laughed. We admired the beautiful view of the city and we admired each other. Everything that had happened to me lately felt like they'd happened to someone else, like I'd watched a horror movie that I wouldn't have to watch again and could forget.

  "You know, you never included ex-girlfriends in your list of potential enemies," I teased during dessert. "I'd think that any woman who dated you would fight tooth and nail to keep you if you treated them like this."

  He smiled and stirred his coffee. "My last girlfriend was born before your mother was born. This isn't something I do on a regular basis."

  I did my best to hide how thrilled I was. "What was she?" My smile wavered. "Is she still alive?"

  "She was a non-magickal." His eyes seemed darker. "She died a long time ago. Before she should have."

  I was suddenly sorry I'd asked.

  He curled his hands around the cup. "She was killed during an attack on me."

  "The SOS?"

  "No, it was a predator aiming to take out an heir to the Gargoyle Throne. The attack was inevitable and I should have—" He shook it off. "For a long time I hated myself for bringing a non-magickal into my life. She didn't deserve what I did to her. She would have lived a long, happy life had she not met me."

  "You didn't do anything but love her," I insisted. "It's not your fault someone else killed her."

  "It's been a long time, and I've mostly accepted that. But I came away from it vowing never to love another woman who couldn't defend herself." He reached across the table and took my hand. "Your power drew me in, Moody, I admit that. But for as important as that is for me, it's you, regular Anne Moody, who makes me want to take you to dinners like this every night."

  "I honestly don't know why you think I'm anyone special. Without my dragon, I'm not that great."

  "With your dragon or without it, you're more than who you see when you look in the mirror. If I were ever in danger, you would—and I quote, "fight tooth and nail"—to save me. Even as a guy who likes to believe I'll be the one doing the saving, that's an incredible turn-on. You, Anne Moody, turn me on like no woman ever has."

  Feminine power had never felt so good. I shivered. He saw and didn't smile smugly. Rather, his chest rose with a deep breath, and he murmured, "We need to get out of here before I do something that will get us thrown out."

  Vale paid the check with cash. I didn't know where he got his money from but I didn't bother to ask. This was a dream and I didn't want to wake from it, not yet.

  "Can we go to the observation tower?" I asked once we'd exited the restaurant. "It's the next floor up."

  "Another time. I've got other plans for you."

  Of course, that filled my head with all sorts of images and all of them were better than a view of Las Vegas. We rode the elevator back down to the casino level and went outside. It was a bit of a mood killer returning to that rough neighborhood after the magical night we'd had. I was toying with the idea of suggesting we simply get a room at the Stratosphere. As if reading my mind, Vale drew us up short beside a retaining wall that separated the casino property from the residential area.

  "You want to know more about me," he said as he faced me, taking my hands. "I understand. So I'm going to teach you something about me. About gargoyles." He grinned boyishly and released my hands. To my shock, he shrugged out of his jacket, folded it, and set it on the ground near the wall. Then he began unbuttoning his shirt.

  "Is this a gargoyle strip tease?" I asked, glancing around to make sure we didn't have an audience.

  "Something like that."

  He had the shirt open. Shrugged it off. Next, he worked on his jeans.

  "So this idea you had that would have had us thrown out of the restaurant," I said with a nervous chuckle, "that didn't have anything to do with public sex, did it? Because I might be down with that, but not in an alley where I'm afraid I'll be knifed or urinated on."

  He grinned. "No, Moody."

  I pretended to wipe sweat from my forehead. "Whew. So what are you showing me besides how hot you are?"

  "The thing about gargoyles is that we crave altitude. The higher the better. It's something we can't control. Like an impulse."

  I raised my eyes to the Stratosphere, towering over us like a giant white needle. "That's why you live right next to the tallest building in the city?"

  "Exactly. But that's not enough for me." He toed off his shoes and then removed the last of his clothing. I took a long look because that's not a sight I was ever going to grow tired of. He held out his hand. "You'll have to trust me."

  He was smiling, but I wondered if the question held deeper significance.

  "I do," I said. It was true until something changed.

  He transformed into his gargoyle form. We're going for a ride. Whatever you do, don't scream.

  ~~~~~

  I didn't scream, but only because my heart was blocking all sound from escaping my throat. While logically I knew that gargoyles must be able to fly at incredible speeds in order for Vale to make it to California and back before sunrise, I hadn't honestly appreciated just how
fast that was. I shut my eyes and whimpered as Vale's gargoyle launched us from the ground into the sky, zooming alongside the white spine of the Stratosphere. The wind rushed by so quickly it sounded like a tornado in my ears.

  Abruptly we slowed, and my stomach somersaulted unpleasantly. Slightly nauseous, I opened my eyes and immediately wished I hadn't. Vale's gargoyle held me by my arms while hovering just underneath the Top of the World restaurant where we'd just eaten. We were eight hundred feet up and tucked within the shadows of the support beams there.

  "Oh, my god," I groaned when I made the poor decision to look down.

  No, keep your eyes on me, Moody.

  The gargoyle flew us to a small platform that was supported by the branching legs of the tower, just beneath the disc of the restaurant. Though the platform was the approximate size of a large Jacuzzi, I couldn't help feeling like I was balanced on something the size of a dinner plate. Vale's gargoyle settled almost delicately near the edge, like a pigeon, though I'd never make that comparison aloud. It blinked at me with its topaz eyes, something on its face signaling approval.

  This is where you'll find me most nights.

  I forced myself to calm down. The platform was flat and stable. It would take deliberate effort to slide off it and I wasn't about to make any effort. I craned my neck back and checked out the underside of the restaurant, watching how the apparatus slowly rotated. Distantly, from the other side of the tower, I heard the occasional scream of a tourist jumping off the roof in the controlled descent ride, which was like bungee jumping for the less adventurous.

  Stretching out in front of me was the entire Las Vegas valley. It was gorgeous, like a platter full of jewels lit from within. The lights seemed even brighter and more colorful without a sheet of glass separating me from the view as had been the case during dinner.

  "It's beautiful," I told Vale's gargoyle. "I can see the appeal."

  I can't help myself from coming up here. He sounded slightly sheepish. I guess we're all subjected to the pull of our blood. We're victims to it, in a way.