by Vi Lily
"Lass, I'd do anythin' fer ye, to see ye smile. Now, do ye think ye might grace me with one o' those smiles instead o' these tears?"
Her grin was nearly as wide as her face and she kissed along his jaw, surprising him once again with her lack of fear of him and her affection. Avisha laughed at her enthusiasm.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she said with each kiss. She then put the bar back and rolled the top of the bag down and reached around him to place it back into the pack.
"I'm looking forward to sharing this with you and Carlie," she said as she wiped her tears once more.
"Now, can we get our asses in gear now and go get her?"
Avisha laughed. "Aye, lass, let's 'get our arses in gear'," he agreed, even though he didn't know what "in gear" meant. He then tossed her up on his shoulders, between his wings, and laughed when she squealed from the shock of the sudden movement.
"Hang on, love," he called up to her as he spread his wings.
He laughed when she whooped and shouted, "Look out, Osgard, you're about to get your ugly 'arse' handed to you by a gargoyle!"
"And his very talented mate," Avisha mumbled.
"What?" Gwen called down to him.
"Nothin', lass. Nothin'."
Chapter 11
A VISHA IS flying really high and I should be freaked out. I mean, I do not like heights, not at all. The times that Carlie and I have climbed high up in a tree to hide were the worst moments of my life. I spent the entire time clinging to her and to a branch until my muscles were cramped.
But I'm not afraid. Not at all. It's so weird, but I know that if something happens, if I somehow fall off—which is a real possibility with the waves of dizziness that keep hitting me—the big guy is going to catch me. I trust him completely.
My trust doesn't come easily. In fact, besides my parents, Avisha's the only other, uh, person, that I've ever trusted completely. Even my DEE friends hadn't earned that from me, not completely.
So, I'm not worried about falling, because he won't let me. Plus, there's the cool fact that my legs are wrapped around his neck and his wings are behind me, keeping me in place. It's better than a saddle.
We fly over hills and mountains, meadows and valleys, lochs and streams, but there is no sign of the mob anywhere. I'm starting to get a bit panicky—again—and Avisha must sense it, because he starts to descend.
After landing in a small clearing surrounded by a thick wooded area, Avisha pulls me off his back and sets me on the ground in front of him. I immediately sway, and he hurries to steady me. Too late—my legs buckle again and if he weren't holding me up, I'd be on the ground.
"Lass!" I hear him yell at me as the dizziness swamps over me, the edges of my vision turning black. I know I'm going to pass out, no matter how hard I fight against it. I don't have time for this…I have to find Carlie. I refuse to let my head injury beat me.
But regardless of how stubborn I am, I can't stop the blackness.
>†<
Gwen crumbled before his very eyes, but Avisha didn't let her fall. Instead, he cradled her to his chest and ran a paw over her head. It's then that he felt the lump, nearly in the same place she'd hit her head before. Her dark hair was wet, and he ran his claw through it, grimacing at the red staining his paw. She was bleeding much worse than he thought.
He was angry with himself for not insisting he tend to her before they left to search for her sister. The lass had made it seem that the injury was not worth the worry, but now he knew she was making it seem much less for the fear of Carlie.
Avisha had seen stronger, larger men die of head injuries such as the lass had. He knew that it was not a good thing that she'd hit her head in the same area twice in less than a month.
His heart pounded as he realized that the wound could take her from him.
Maeve—and any other healer in his time, for that matter—would not have the skills needed to help the lass. He wondered if those in the future would. They had to; the art of healing the human body had to have advanced in fifteen centuries, surely.
The lass had been adamant about not wanting to see a "doctor," which he now knew was a healer in her time. She said they had a way of tracking her and that doctors were required to turn her over to the authorities.
So, the choice was to keep her here in his time, where there was a very good possibility that she would die, or take her back to her own time with the chance of her being captured by the men at DEE who sought her and her sister. The known versus the unknown.
He chose the unknown.
Avisha was once again thankful that the lass wasn't awake for the time travel as he felt his innards being ripped apart, only to be put back together again as he exited the portal he'd created.
No sooner did he close the portal, then he reached out to Bogdan. He didn't bother trying Yehoash, knowing he wouldn't wish to leave his mate and children. Avisha was thankful for both the ability to "call" to his brethren through the inner spirit, but also for the ability to time travel to nearly any point he wished, because he needed the cover of the dark forest to hide.
In just minutes, Bogdan touched down in front of them. "Brother, what—" He stopped as his eyes took in the lass Avisha held in his arms and he immediately turned to his human form. Never before had Avisha felt such envy as when he watched his brother run human hands over his mate's face.
Bogdan raised his dark green eyes to meet Avisha's. "Yer mate?"
Avisha nodded. "Aye, and she's hit her head and fell asleep."
Bogdan looked over his shoulder toward the nearby town. "There's a hospital there. We'll need to stop by my house and get some proper clothing, then we'll take her in." He shifted, then turned and took to the sky. Avisha hurried after him, wondering why Bogdan wasn't concerned about being seen in the light of day.
"How can I go to this hospital place like this?" he called to Bogdan as he reached his side.
His brother turned to look at him and frowned. "What do you mean?"
Avisha huffed. "As a gargoyle, I mean," he said with no small amount of frustration. He didn't remember his brother being so daft before.
Bogdan smirked, his gargoyle mouth turning up at the corner. "So change."
"Do ye no' think I would if I could?" Avisha practically yelled at him. "Apparently I have no' done enough good to be given that boon."
They must have been near Bogdan's home then, because he started to descend without answering and Avisha followed. He realized then why Bogdan wasn't concerned about flying about during the day—he lived far from the town with no one in sight.
Avisha didn't want to waste time waiting for the man to change clothes, but he had no choice. Bogdan obviously knew the time they were in better than he…maybe proper clothing was required before one could receive the help they needed.
Bogdan immediately shifted back to human form as he walked to the front of a rather small home. Avisha noted that it only had three stories and certainly wasn't a fortress. He wondered if his brother was hurting financially. Surely no'. He'd said before that he'd accumulated wealth. It was strange that he chose to live in such a small home though.
Avisha folded his wings as tightly as he could to fit through the narrow door. He had to nearly fold himself in half to clear the top, though.
Bogdan stopped as they walked into a sitting room and turned to him. "Brother, I do no' know what you mean by 'doin' good' to change to human. Surely you know you can change whenever you wish."
Apparently, the look on Avisha's face was enough of an answer. Bogdan threw his head back and laughed, then clapped him on shoulder.
"Put yer woman on that sofa there," he said as he indicated a comfortable looking bench. It was covered with a material whiter than any Avisha had ever seen and padded on the bottom and the back. Avisha had never seen anything like it, not even in the homes of royalty.
"She's bleedin'," Avisha told him as he shook his head.
Bogdan just shrugged. "So I'll buy another sofa."
&n
bsp; He carefully did as his brother instructed and laid the lass flat on her back on the soft bench…"sofa" Bogdan called it. The lass never moved even an eyelid.
"She's out cold, aye?" Bogdan said as he peered around him.
"Aye," Avisha sighed. "She didnae even twitch when we came through time."
Bogdan didn't say anything for a minute, then he laughed and clapped Avisha on the shoulder once again.
"Brother, we have much to discuss. Come with me to my bedroom and I'll tell you what's changed over the past century."
Avisha sat on the bed while he watched Bogdan pull a shirt over his head. His brother was considered a very good-looking human; he knew this from the time they'd spent together before Avisha had given up on mankind. The women were always throwing themselves at the man, something they never did with him.
His eyes traveled to the surprisingly clear mirror Bogdan had in the corner of his room. It was far superior to the one he had procured in Germania that gave a warped impression.
Avisha was still shocked to see himself in human form. And more than shocked to discover that he could now shift at whim.
Bogdan had told him that nigh on half a century before, the Creator had "changed the rules" of the Fallen Moral so that they could change to human form whenever they wished. It was necessary in order for them to interact with the humans, whose population had grown to immense proportions, while the Fallen Moral had only increased their numbers by a few.
That lack of population increase for the Moral was a good thing. Avisha would much rather the angels stay in the good graces of the Creator where they belonged.
The Creator had also decided the Moral could take mates. Since they were becoming outnumbered and mankind was still prone to depravity and hurting one another, the Creator wanted the Moral to procreate.
And, like Gwen and Carlie, it seemed that children born of the fallen angels were endowed with some of their fathers' special abilities.
That had made him think of Gwen and the way she'd been "enhanced." Avisha knew without a doubt that the Creator had planned her creation—and those of the others like her—as well.
When he'd mentioned to Bogdan that he'd tried to change back to his human form before, but that he had been stuck as a gargoyle, Bogdan had surmised that maybe it was because he'd gone back to the past, back before the rules had changed.
While that made sense, Avisha didn't like hearing it—that meant that in order to be a true mate in every sense to Gwen, including children, they would have to stay in the future, where she and Carlie were hunted.
There would be hard choices to make.
Bogdan had also told him that if he time-traveled in human form, not only did it not cause pain, but it actually tickled, which explained Carlie's reaction when he'd taken her to the past. He'd said that traveling through time as a creature caused great pain because the unnatural form warred with the natural.
He'd also given Avisha some unsettling news. After he'd gone back to the sixth century, Bogdan had looked into Diversified Engineered Environments and discovered that the global company had been under the watchful eye of the Fallen Moral for nearly a decade.
There was suspicion that the Fallen Immoral were behind, if not the company's very creation, at least its current operations. The thought of the demons pursuing his Gwen and Carlie was enough to make Avisha's skin crawl…and the gargoyle inside of him want to roar.
His brother caught his eye then when he tossed him some clothing. Bogdan grinned at him.
"You know the lasses love the muscles in this time, brother, but we can't be walkin' around half-naked, showin' them off."
Avisha had laughed at that as he pulled the clothes on but knew that no one would complain about Bogdan being "half-naked." As Gwen would say "The dude was very easy on the eyes."
Where Avisha was light, Bogdan was dark. Avisha's human hair was a golden blonde, but Bogdan's was nearly jet black. His dark green eyes were striking against that hair, while Avisha had always thought his own blue eyes were rather dull.
The biggest difference between the two of them, however, was in Bogdan's chiseled features. The lasses had always claimed his face was more beautiful than any marble statue in Rome. Avisha knew his own features leaned more toward a craggy cliff.
He suddenly did not want Gwen waking and seeing Bogdan.
Thankfully, they were nearly the same size in human form, which was still much larger than most. The clothes and boots Bogdan gave him fit perfectly and soon they were traveling to the hospital—in a conveyance that had shocked Avisha.
It was an odd-looking carriage type thing that had the same type of black wheels of the things the men were riding who were chasing Gwen when he'd first come across her. This thing, too, moved without horses—and at great speeds.
Bogdan had taken in the way he was clutching the seat and the door and had laughed. "It's all right, brother. You'll get used to the new and improved world soon enough."
Avisha had his doubts about that, but he managed to grit out, "What do you call this monstrosity?"
"Hey, now, don't be dissin' the Rover. This thing cost me a mint to here." He laughed again as he took a corner much too swiftly for Avisha's liking. He was having his doubts that they'd even survive the trip to the hospital, and he voiced his thoughts.
"Brother," he gritted through clenched teeth, "I ken we're immortal and could survive slamming this metal beast into a tree, but my mate isn't immortal."
Bogdan seemed to take pity on him then. "My apologies, Avi. I seem to keep forgettin' that you've just awakened from a very long sleep. Our brothers and I have…evolved, for lack of a better word…with the world, so these modern machines and such are no' strange to us." He took a hand off the wheel then and patted Avisha's arm.
"You'll adapt soon enough." He laughed again when Avisha yelled at him to put both hands on the wheel.
Not soon enough for Avisha's liking, they arrived at a large building with a sign out front that had letters Avisha didn't recognize. They were the same type as those on the cards Gwen had carried in her pack. Unreadable to him.
It seemed he would have a lot of adapting to do, if they stayed in the twenty-first century.
Chapter 12
I COME to awareness slowly. I've been asleep for a very long time, from the stiffness in my joints. I move to stretch, but my limbs feel like lead weights. I literally don't have the strength to lift my own arms.
What the hell?
I think I must be having one of those sleep paralysis things—you know, where you dream you're awake but can't move. You're not really awake, not really asleep, just in a sort of limbo. I hate that. It's freaky.
But this isn't like that, because I can feel pain. When I've had that paralysis thing, I wasn't feeling anything except panic from not being able to move. My head is pounding, though, and my back hurts. And like I said, my arms and legs are stiff.
I manage to groan and I feel a hand run down my face. I frown at that. It definitely isn't Avisha, because I can tell it's a human hand touching me. I slit my eyes open, but the brightness is too much, too painful, so I close them again.
"It's all right, lass," a deep, grumbly voice tells me as he strokes me again. I cringe; the voice is Scottish, but it's not Avisha. I try to scoot away from the touch.
"Sorry," the unknown voice says. "I didn't mean to startle you." Whoever it is doesn't speak like Avisha, either. His speech is more modern, even with the accent.
My ingrained manners tell me I should at least acknowledge the apology, but at the moment I don't care if I'm being rude. It's weird, but for whatever reason, I don't want another man touching me but Avisha…Avi, as this dude called him.
Plus, the idea of speaking is making my head pound even harder.
I hear loud voices coming from somewhere nearby. Not too close, but not too far. I try to open my eyes again, but the light is just too much…it makes the pain in my already pounding head unbearable.
The man clears his throa
t. "I'm Bogdan, Avi's brother. His spiritual brother, if you ken what I mean."
Okay, maybe this isn't a bad guy after all. But still, he was touching me without permission. Yeah, it was just a head petting thing, I know. It's just kind of rude, I think.
I open my senses just a little, because my head freaking hurts and I realize that he definitely means me no harm at all.
"No, lass, I wouldn't harm you," he says softly and I squint one eye open to stare at him. What is he, like some kind of mind-reader?
He laughs softly. "Yeah," he says. "I am. But don't worry—I don't like to invade the thoughts of others. I just did so with you to ken where your thoughts were travelin' so I could help you with your fears."
Okayyyyy…not even going to ask questions about that, because, like I've said before, I'm used to weird. I open my mouth to ask a question, but my lips are so dry I lick at them first.
"Where's Avisha?" I whisper. Dang, my throat is killing me too, like I swallowed a handful of sand and then followed that up with lemon juice.
"He's gone…to see to your sister."
I chance another slitting of the eyes, but no way. "Light," I grimace, and Bogdan moves away from whatever it is I'm lying on. I think it's a bed, but it's not comfortable, not like the feather mattress in the fortress.
After a second, I can see the light go out behind my eyelids. But it's weird, because I didn't hear him blow out a candle or snuff a lamp…instead, I heard the click of a switch.
What the…
I carefully open my eyes again and I look down and see that I'm covered in a sheet…a cotton sheet. A white cotton sheet, and the bed I'm in has shiny steel railings, which, of course, is impossible. Unless I'm not in the sixth century any more…
A bit of panic hits me and I look toward the guy who's moved next to my head. He's a big dude and really muscular. He said he's a "spiritual brother" of Avisha's, which probably means he's a fallen angel too. I wonder if he can shift like Avisha, if he's a gargoyle too, or what.