by E A Price
“What do we have?” he purred.
“Ah… ummm…”
To be fair to Julie, she was only twenty-three and had confirmed to Melissa on a girls’ night out that she’d only ever been with her high school boyfriend. Feeling the full force of Colt’s smolder was probably a little too much for her.
Julie looked down at the dead body, and that seemed to sober her. “Ah, female, mid-forties. We need to do a proper autopsy, but it looks like a wild animal attack.”
Melissa looked at the dead woman and tried not to wince. She looked like she’d died in an awful lot of pain. If Melissa weren’t so well trained, she might just gag at the stench of blood. But no, she’d wait until later, until she was out of earshot of the male detectives and then she’d gag and possibly throw up.
Colt stared down at the woman, a grim expression on his face. “What kind of animal do you think?”
Julie shrugged. “I’m no expert…”
Colt looked up at her in a way that suggested that she better answer him and quickly.
“Ah, I’d guess by the size of the claw marks a wolf – a very large wolf, or maybe a small bear.”
“This is very tragic, but what exactly does this have to do with us?” asked Melissa.
She was sorry for the victim, but honestly, a wild bear attack was much more in the wheelhouse of Fish and Wildlife. Now if it were an alien bear…
“Humph,” snorted Simpson, lumbering toward them. “The last thing I wanted was to call you.”
He started glaring at Colt, but when this earned him a narrow look, he quickly moved along and started glaring at Melissa – she was a much easier target for a glare.
“But, we have a crazy witness, and my captain insisted we call you. I said we could handle it. I said the witness was…”
“Witness?” said Colt, crisply cutting through the beginnings of a rant.
“Yeah, some crazy old…”
“What did the witness say?” asked Colt, bristling with impatience.
Simpson humphed and smiled nastily – which happened to be his usual smile. “Crazy bitch said it was a beast that walked on two legs.”
Could have been any of the patrons who frequent the nearby bar, Lucky Tuesday thought Melissa sourly. She made the mistake of going there for a drink once – it was full of gorilla-sized men who were all hands.
“We need to speak to her,” said Colt.
Melissa pursed her lips. She was always in two minds about witnesses. She was a believer in the supernatural, and hell she knew gargoyles were real so why not Bigfoot or werewolves? But for the most part, witnesses to the crimes she got called on for were always either hallucinating or lying or were just mistaken. She hadn’t ever met a witness who really saw what they initially claimed they did. Yet, she believed in her heart it was possible they could see something. She had once thought she saw a gargoyle, and hey, now she knew for a fact that they were real.
“Good luck with that. The woman was screaming the place down, so a uniform took her home. Here’s her address.”
Simpson tossed a piece of paper at them and stomped away.
“He’s fun,” said Colt without much amusement.
“Lucky you caught him on a good day,” said Julie.
“Let’s check out our witness,” he said and then winked at Julie, sending her into spasms of embarrassment.
Melissa said goodbye and scurried after Colt who was already striding away.
“I reckon she probably just saw a bear,” said Melissa.
“Probably,” muttered Colt, though as they drove to their witness’ house, he seemed distracted and worried.
Melissa didn’t dwell on it; she was mentally compiling her list of questions for Gracchus. Most likely this was just a case for Fish and Wildlife anyway, and she had a gargoyle to think about.
*
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so scared,” admitted Melissa as they got back in their car.
The woman did seem terrified. Their interview didn’t exactly go well. Their witness had been walking her dog when she saw the… incident. But when probed about what exactly she did see, she just started alternately babbling and screaming. The woman was near-hysterical, and after some loud objections from her family and doctor – who was there to give her a sedative, they decided to leave and perhaps visit her when she was a little calmer.
“Maybe she did see something unusual…”
Though, Melissa imagined that seeing a live bear attacking someone would be pretty darn scary too.
“Here.”
Colt passed her his phone and Melissa zoomed on a photo, frowning. “Are these pill bottles?”
“That’s the medication she has in her bathroom.”
“You were checking out her bathroom? When were you doing that?”
“When she was running around the room throwing fruit at everyone.”
Maybe the family would think twice before displaying such a large bowl with a vast array of fruit in it again.
“So what?”
“At least one of those is something doctors prescribe when their patients suffer from hallucinations or delusions.”
Melissa squinted at the photo. “Are you sure they’re hers?”
“They had her name on them.”
“That doesn’t mean…”
“It’s the most obvious explanation,” he said simply, and if she didn’t know any better, he seemed a little relieved.
“Hmmm.”
She passed him his phone back and tried not to seem too miffed. As someone who had once been forced to take a similar medication when she was a kid – thanks to the gargoyle incident, which she totally wished she could rub in her mother’s face – she had a lot of sympathy for the witness. Just because she had seen things that others didn’t believe, didn’t mean she didn’t see them. Melissa knew that from her own experience.
“Chin up, Sanchez,” said Colt, flashing her a killer smile, “maybe the next one will be a vicious werewolf.”
Melissa grinned in spite of her misgivings. “We can but dream.”
Who knows, maybe the next one would be a gargoyle…. Not Gracchus though, no, rightly or wrongly, she didn’t consider him dangerous. No, there was something about him that made her all warm and happy, and it was only a few hours until she could see him again.
Eight
Gracchus closed his eyes for a moment and allowed the cool breeze to flow over his body. Aleck, his younger brother, flying beside him chuckled.
He opened his eyes and looked over at his younger brother. “What has you so amused, brother?”
His brother, twisted in the air until he was flying on his back, looking up at Gracchus in a cocky way only his brother could manage.
“I thought the clan chief was going to get down on the ground and kiss your feet.”
The two of them had been away from home for a few weeks, trading with another clan. They had not intended to stay away so long, but the clan chief had been insistent, and Gracchus had not wanted to offend him. The clan was larger than their own, and they would depend on their superior hunting grounds come winter.
Aleck for his part had been more than willing to stay a few extra days. He had been enamored of the females in the clan. The hormonal young gargoyle’s libido nearly raged out of control on a daily basis.
“He was very hospitable,” said Gracchus evenly.
Aleck snorted. “I thought the male wanted to mate you at one point.”
Gracchus ignored his brother. The clan chief had heard of Gracchus and his prowess in battle and had merely been impressed. It did not hurt Gracchus’ ego and meant that negotiations were a little easier than expected.
“He was disappointed when he heard you had a mate,” laughed Aleck.
True the chief had been, but only because he had hoped for a mating union between their clans. He did not seem quite so keen to enter one with Aleck and one of his females.
Gracchus thought of his own mate, Isolda - a strong, pati
ent female, pregnant with his young. He found his own patience to be reunited with her wearing thin. He pushed on ahead, with Aleck fumbling through the air in his wake. But as he neared their clan ground, he sensed something was wrong.
“What is it?” panted Aleck, as he finally caught up.
“Where is the sentry?” murmured Gracchus.
Their clan always kept gargoyles on guard, ready to catch intruders. They looked at each other as a scream pierced the night, and without missing a beat surged toward their clan.
“Arthur’s sword,” cried Aleck at the destruction before them.
Beast men besieged their clan grounds. Clan mates were fighting them, while others lay dead. Fire alighted their home while screams and yells beat against their ears.
“Isolda,” howled Gracchus.
He tore through their grounds, scenting and searching, tossing the beast men out of his way, until he found her. His poor mate, lay crumpled and bloodied. He lifted her into his arms.
“Isolda,” he murmured, clutching her face.
But she had breathed her last breath. Her life was gone, as was the youngling growing inside her. Fury and pain thundered through him, and Gracchus threw an angry roar into the sky.
A snarl sounded behind him, and as he whipped around, a huge wolf lunged at him.
*
“Kisses? Kisses, where are you?”
Jimmy groaned as a couple of teenage boys sporting ripped jeans and an air that suggested they were up to no good snorted with laughter.
“Will you stop yelling that name?” he hissed at Clara.
Clara glowered at him. “No. Unlike you, I actually want to find our dog.”
“I can’t believe I let you call her kisses,” he muttered trailing behind his forceful girlfriend.
Gracchus remained still as their bickering voices washed over him. His limbs ached from slumber, something he noticed more and more these days, and he wanted to stretch, but he could not risk the humans seeing him alive. Certainly not these two humans anyway.
“You said Kisses was a cute name,” argued the strident female.
“Yeah, well, I’d say anything when you were holding that part of me.”
“Ugh! Well, don’t worry, I won’t be holding that again for a while!”
Gracchus heard them approaching. Heard the stomp of the female as she crushed everything around her in her anger.
“Babe,” whined the male, tailing her with softer footfalls.
The female walked past him, smiling shyly at him, but the male slowed and stared at him.
“Jeez, creepy thing,” he muttered. “Feel like it’s looking at me…”
He started leaning closer.
“Jimmy!”
He jumped and ran after Clara. Gracchus relaxed a little, and after waiting a few moments, spread out his wings and let out a small growl of satisfaction. But as he remembered his dreams, he grunted and idly rubbed the scar on his chest.
The beast man hadn’t hurt him physically, not really. A couple of the beast’s claws landed, and Gracchus had a scar, but it was small, and in his rage, Gracchus hadn’t felt any pain from it. It was a reminder though, but he didn’t usually dwell on what happened.
For a long time he had blamed himself for not being there, blamed himself for not saving his mate and child, but as time passed, he had learned to live with it. It was not his fault. The world could be cruel and unkind, and it was something everyone must come to accept.
He certainly had not dreamed of that moment in a long time. He wondered whether it was Melissa’s presence that had him thinking of his mate. Maybe he was just thinking of his brother, Aleck. There was always a chance that Aleck was still alive, even if only a small chance.
Gracchus rolled his shoulders and spread out his wings. It was raining, and the night was murky – perfect weather to remain hidden, and it didn’t take him long to reach Melissa’s apartment.
He found the balcony window open and waiting, and as soon as he stepped through, a fluttering young woman who was all excited smiles and giggles set upon him, professing how she was worried he wasn’t coming and then worrying over how wet he was.
His ego enjoyed how pleased she was to see him. It was rare to elicit such a reaction from a female – female gargoyles tended to be haughty or aggressive toward any males they were interested in.
She disappeared for a moment and returned brandishing a green towel featuring pink creatures he understood to be flamingos. She started patting his body with the towel. He watched her in amusement as she diligently worked to dry him, and as her hands rubbed his chest, he felt a strange twinge inside him.
When she caught his eye, she suddenly stopped, and pink suffused her cheeks.
“Ah, perhaps you ought to do this.”
She held out the towel to him, and he resisted the urge to tell her she seemed to be doing a mighty fine job all by herself. Instead, wordlessly, he took the towel and did a quick pat of his body. He usually wouldn’t bother, but he didn’t want to ruin any of her furniture.
“Come in, sit down,” Melissa entreated. “I got you a coke. Do you want something to eat? What do gargoyles eat? What’s your favorite food?”
Her heart-shaped face lit up in feverish interest.
Gracchus raised an eyebrow. “Have you started your questions already?”
Melissa looked a mite embarrassed, but it did not last long. There didn’t seem to be much that could quell her enthusiasm for long.
“I don’t have much in my refrigerator, but I can order something. How about Chinese? Or…”
“I will have some orange chicken and egg fried rice.”
Her large, warm eyes blinked at him for a second before her dark pink lips stretched into a huge smile. “That’s just what I always order! I’ll get double, and while we’re waiting for it, we can start putting a dent into my list of questions.”
Her eyes flickered to what seemed to be a lengthy list.
Gracchus nodded and tried not to look too concerned. He was a gargoyle who had once fought seven beast men at once and came out the victor – surely he could handle one small, shapely human and her immense curiosity?
“Yes,” he agreed, “let’s begin.” How hard could these questions be anyway?
He carefully lifted the diet coke to his lips to take a sip.
“How do gargoyles make babies?” she blurted.
The diet coke spluttered all over her face.
*
A large amount of diet coke and orange chicken later, and Melissa was still bubbling with questions.
They had talked for hours, and Gracchus had perhaps divulged more than he should of about their past, but he found himself keen to keep her attention, eager to impress her. He wasn’t exactly proud of himself for it. He told her of their previous life, of the curse, but he told her nothing of their current circumstances. Instinctively, he trusted her, but he knew he had to be careful, for the sake of the younglings at least. He had watched enough movies and TV shows about aliens to realize that humans were wary of unknown species – he could only imagine what they would wish to do to them if discovered. Though, they could not hide forever.
Gracchus was too old and had seen too many things to hate humans outright. He knew there were those who were good and those who were bad, but he had never enjoyed the company of a human half as much as he did Melissa. True, he might consider his clan mate Chris, a friend, but he would not say Chris was the talkative type, and usually, nor was Gracchus. But in Melissa’s company, he had found it hard to stop talking. She was easy to be around.
Slowly and reluctantly, he made his way to the window. It was still dark, and dawn would not come for a few hours yet, but he needed to go. Melissa was yawning, being up all day was starting to take its toll on her, and besides, Gracchus found himself assailed by a strange restlessness that only fighting or hunting could ameliorate. Well, there was one other energetic pursuit that could remedy it, but where in Portland would he find a female gargoyle at tha
t time of night? As he thought about that, he looked at Melissa, saw the way her eyes sparkled, saw the way her tight clothes clung to her lush curves, and then he started hurrying to the window.
“Are you coming back tomorrow?” asked Melissa, rushing after him.
Gracchus paused. “Ah…”
She smiled up at him with a hopeful glint. He was supposed to be vetting her to see if she could be told the truth about their clan, to see if she could be an allay. He needed to come back and spent more time with her. By the knights of the round table, he wanted to come back. Yet there was a feeling inside of him that to do so would be dangerous.
But, as he looked at her small face, at her warm brown eyes, her button nose, and rosebud lips, he couldn’t detect anything dangerous about her. How could one so small and pretty be dangerous?
Perhaps that is what her burglar the previous evening thought too – and he was shown the error of his ways.
“I will,” he replied evenly, “after sunset.”
“Good,” she breathed.
He was surprised at just how relieved she was to hear that. Her soft, and somewhat ample chest heaved, and it was a struggle for him to drag his eyes away from it.
“Until tomorrow then,” he said as the restlessness within him grew.
“Wait, Gracchus.”
Gracchus stilled as she placed a hand on his arm. He looked down at the small brown fingers spread over his bicep, marveling at how tiny she was compared to him. Not too small a voice inside him said – after all, Kylie was smaller than her, and Luc was larger than him and yet they…
“Yes?” he snapped slightly forcefully.
Though, if his tone affected her, she didn’t show it. No, the dull pink flush on her cheeks was for an entirely different reason.
“Humans and gargoyles…” she started uncertainly.
“Hmmm?” he muttered, distractedly as he continued to stare at her hand, trying his best not to consider the logistics of humans and gargoyles mating and failing miserably.
“How well suited are they?”
“To what?” he murmured only half-listening.
“To each other?”