Chapter Fifteen
While Valor watched me unhappily, I sorted through my internal database of gargoyle knowledge. There wasn't a whole lot there but it was enough for a few questions. "When Victor first got here, he said I was fair play because I wasn't wearing your rune. That suggests a gargoyle could give his rune to a human girl without killing her." When Valor said nothing, I continued. "And I assume your father must have given his rune to your mother."
"Aye," he admitted reluctantly. "It's not impossible."
"How does it work?"
"It's risky," he answered as his mouth formed a stubborn line. "And I don't want to place you in danger."
"But I'm in danger now," I argued. "I'm in danger anytime I'm out with you and the other gargoyles. If I was standing next to Victor and something startled him…"
But Valor refused to discuss the matter. Eventually, I gave up and I went down the hall to the bathroom and changed into my pajamas.
I had all day Thursday to wonder about the wearing-of-the-rune business. By fifth period, I decided I'd take Dare for a driving lesson after school and pump him for information. But before I headed home, I stopped at the library and picked up some children's easy-readers then swung by the store for some wide-ruled notebooks. After Dare's driving lesson, I planned to start teaching the gargoyles to read and write.
When I pulled up to the garage a little later, Valor was waiting for me in the driveway. I half-hoped that he wanted to talk to me privately, without the rest of the gargoyles listening in. Their super hearing made a private conversation impossible. But as I stepped from the garage, Valor kept his distance, which was majorly depressing. I hoped he didn't still think he was a threat to me. 'Cause if he did, I was never gonna get a follow up kiss. And I wanted more. As in, a lot more.
"I need to tell you something," Valor started. He buried his hands in the front pockets of his jeans like he didn't trust himself not to touch me.
I could tell from his tone he didn't have good news. A stiff breeze cut across the driveway. It carried an icy chill that felt like winter coming and I wrapped my jacket across my chest. "What is it?" I asked.
He eyed the treetops uneasily and motioned me back into the garage. After he followed me inside, he closed the doors.
"What's going on?" I exclaimed quietly as I flipped on the lights.
He turned to face me and searched my face. "While you were at school today, we heard some troubling news on the television. Evidently, a stone statue is missing from a collector's home in Denver."
Puzzled, I looked at him.
"The television reporter called it a gargoyle. Only it's not a gargoyle, of course. It's a harpy."
"So a harpy statue is suddenly missing in Denver and you're worried because…"
He let me figure it out for myself.
"Oh," I murmured, finally catching on.
He nodded grimly. "We're afraid it's woken up and is looking for us."
I felt a horrible breathless ache of worry in my chest as I watched Valor's face in the dark garage.
"The owner reported the piece as stolen," he explained. "She imported it from England over ten years ago."
"But how could the harpy be looking for you? How would she even know you were in America?"
"Harpies have a sharp sense of smell," he explained as he reached up with one hand to rub the back of his neck.
"They can smell you?" I asked, shocked by the idea.
"It's the venom," he growled. "They can smell the venom beneath our hackles."
I hated the tension I could see in his body language. "How good is their sense of smell?" I asked. "Because Denver is thirty miles away."
He shook his head. "Thirty miles is too far. But we went shopping in Denver a few days ago."
"Denver's a pretty big place," I pointed out, not wanting to think there was a harpy on the loose.
He pinned me with his serious gaze. "The collector's home was in a place called Cherry Creek."
My heart bottomed out. We'd been shopping at the Cherry Creek Mall on Monday. "How close would a harpy have to be to pick up your scent?"
He rolled his shoulders and his black hair fell over his eyes. "Within five or ten miles, maybe."
"That would do it," I muttered, worried. "But there's only one harpy, right?"
"As far as we know," he confirmed, sweeping his hair behind his ear.
"And she might have been stolen," I insisted hopefully.
He nodded but didn't seem too optimistic on that score. "The police are claiming it was an inside job. They suspect the owner is trying to collect on the insurance."
"Why do they think it's an inside job?" I asked, afraid of more bad news.
"There were no signs of forced entry other than a large plate glass window that was broken. But apparently, the window was broken from the inside."
"That doesn't sound good," I commented as a chill traveled my spine. If the window was broken from the inside, that might mean that the harpy was breaking out instead of someone breaking in. "Well, the good news is the harpy doesn't appear to be here. If she was, she'd attack, right?"
"Not necessarily," Valor answered. "She might watch us first to see who she could use against us."
Maybe that explained why he'd stood like a mile away from me while we were outside.
His next words carried a low note of dread. "If she knows what you mean to me, she'll try to use you against me."
I didn't understand why he seemed so worried. So far, he hadn't confessed to anything more than being attracted to me. If he felt anything stronger than that, he'd hidden it from me. "How will she know what I mean to you?"
"She wouldn't if I were strong," he answered as he reached out to tuck a wayward curl of hair behind my ear. "But I'm not strong. And one day she'll see us together, doing this." He leaned down and drew me into a long, searching kiss. His lips moved restlessly over mine, his hand gripping my nape and angling my head as he opened my mouth with his lips and deepened the kiss with a startling urgency.
I responded with an unsettling urgency of my own that was similar to hunger. My fingers knotted in his cotton T-shirt and I pushed my body against his hard frame, trying to get closer to him.
As Valor's damp lips slid across my mouth, I felt something warm trickle down my neck. He quickly broke away from me with another modern curse. "I'm sorry," he muttered as he looked down at the blue venom dripping from his barbs. "I'm…sorry, Kenz."
"Don't be sorry," I whispered breathlessly, wanting to console him. Wanting to reach up and cup his jaw in my hand. "I'm not."
He wiped his hands on his jeans then carefully curled his fingers around my neck. His thumb rubbed over the hollow at the base of my throat as he pressed his forehead against mine. I could feel the uncertainty and confusion that tightened through his limbs, his desire to kiss me warring with his determination to protect me, not only from the harpy threat, but from himself.
"C'mon," I said, and gave him a watery smile. "Help me get my stuff from the car."
His voice was still rough with emotion as I opened the car door. "What's all this?" he asked.
"I'm going to teach you guys to read and write," I announced as enthusiastically as I could manage.
"That…sounds good," he murmured, although his gaze was still stuck on my mouth.
"What about driving lessons?" I asked cheerfully, trying to distract him, which I thought was pretty nice of me since I'd have preferred him to start kissing me again. "Do you think I should teach the rest of the pack to drive?"
"Maybe you could hold off on that for now," he said. His expression was solemn as I handed him two plastic bags.
I lifted my head to look at him. "Why?"
"It's just that…all of us can fly except for Dare. I think it would be good for him if he was the only one who could…" His voice trailed away but I could see where he was going with the idea. He wanted his brother to have an edge on the rest of the pack. Something that would set him apart from the others and st
rengthen his confidence.
Impulsively, I threw my arms around Valor's neck and gave him an emotional hug.
Sadly, he didn't hug me back. He stood with his hands fisted at his sides while blue venom streamed from his hackles, down over the white plastic bags onto the concrete floor.
"I'm sorry," I said, and collected myself. "I shouldn't have done that."
"Maybe not," he rasped in agreement.
And as I gathered the stack of children's hardbacks from the front passenger seat, I could see I wasn't going to get any more kisses until the venom issue was resolved. I decided I was going to have to work on the problem the first chance I got. In the meantime, I headed toward the back of the garage with Valor at my side.
Inside the house, the curtains were drawn and the mood was subdued. It was obvious that everyone had harpies on their minds.
I dumped the notebooks and hardbacks out on the dining room table and turned on the lights. Then I asked Dare if he wanted to go for another driving lesson but he decided we should lie low, in case there was a harpy around. So we started writing lessons, instead.
Victor and Dare applied themselves with a lot of enthusiasm, while Havoc and Defiance seemed less passionate. But they did better than Reason, who spent most of his time doodling in the margins of his notebook. And all of them outperformed Valor who seemed to have trouble focusing. I don't know if he was worrying about me or his barbs or harpies but he definitely wasn't thinking about reading or writing.
"We've decided to set up a day and night guard," he told me when we went up to my room for the night. "Defiance, Havoc and I have the night watch this week."
"What about me?" I asked. "Shouldn't I take one of the watches?"
"You have school," he pointed out sternly.
I thought maybe I'd get a kiss goodnight but Valor wouldn't let me anywhere near him. Which just reinforced my determination to learn more about the venom issue as soon as possible.
I got my chance the next morning before school. Valor was still awake when I stepped out of bed. But when I returned to my room after showering, I found him fast asleep on top of my quilt with his face buried in my pillow. You can't imagine how nice he looked sprawled out on my tartan quilt. I was tempted to watch him for a while but forced myself to hurry downstairs so I could get some questions answered while he was asleep.
I passed Havoc and Defiance on the stairs, coming off the night watch. They gave me a sleepy "good morning" as they headed for the bedrooms on the upper level.
I found Victor eating cereal in the dining room so I grabbed a bowl and joined him. After a little small talk to work up my nerve, I launched my first question. "How is it possible for a gargoyle to give a human his rune? How can he mark her with his venom…without killing her?"
Victor's sharp gaze cut to my face. I could tell he was already suspicious and I'd only just started. "You can build up a resistance to the poison by drinking it diluted in water."
I tried not to act startled. I hadn't expected such a simple solution. "Is it dangerous?"
"It's not without risk," he admitted with a shrug. "But it's been done before."
"How long does it take to build up a resistance?"
"You start with one drop of venom in a cup of water and increase the amount every day until you're up to about this much," he said, indicating the tablespoon in his hand.
I looked at the tablespoon and figured it might take a week to ten days. "Then I'll be immune to the poison?"
Victor tilted his head and narrowed his gaze on me.
I realized I'd said the wrong thing. "How long do you have to drink the venom?" I improvised quickly.
"At least two weeks. A month to be safe," he answered slowly. But I could tell he was on to me. "Why do you ask?"
I babbled out a long explanation about expanding my gargoyle knowledge but I don't think I fooled him.
"Did Valor's barbs…bleed while he was with you?" Victor asked.
"Not blood," I answered cautiously.
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. His blue-green eyes glinted with interest. "Did they bleed venom?"
I didn't want to betray Valor so I kept my mouth shut.
"And how did he explain that to you?" he asked after a pause.
"He said instinct sometimes kicks in when a gargoyle's with a girl," I ventured tentatively. "And it makes his barbs leak."
"A girl?" Victor questioned. "Is that what he said?"
"Um, yes," I lied.
Victor chuckled softly. "It's not a girl that causes it to happen, MacKenzie. It's the girl."
"What do you mean?" I asked a little breathlessly.
The glow in Victor's eyes was warm as his gaze connected with mine. "It happens when a gargoyle meets the girl. The girl he wants to share his rune with. That's why his barbs extend and start leaking venom. Instinct makes him want to mark her as his own."
I just stared at the golden gargoyle.
"Valor's in love, m'dear. With you."