When A Gargoyle Investigates Read online

  When a Gargoyle Investigates

  E A Price

  Copyright ©2018 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, species, and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to humans and gargoyles living or dead is coincidental. This story is sadly in no way based in reality… at all… in any way… whatsoever.

  Note on the use of term ‘Wendy house’ – for anyone who doesn’t know, a Wendy house is a child’s playhouse, and gets its name from Peter Pan. Most commonly I believe they are just called playhouses, but come on, isn’t the term Wendy house just so adorable!

  No gargoyles were hurt in the making of this story, though some came close to getting their hearts broken.

  Contents

  Previously

  Characters

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  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.

  Over Christmas, the gargoyle Brom found a human mate called Joely after her daughter, Daphne mistook him for Santa Claus. Kylie also discovered she was pregnant.

  Meanwhile Drago found his mate in Martha – who discovered she was psychic, and that her father (who she had thought to be deceased) was alive and had been kept imprisoned by Blackthorne for many years. He escaped along with a woman called Danica, who happened to be pyrokinetic. Both Martha’s father and Danica are now hiding out at the mansion, and her father told the gargoyles how there were other gargoyles at the institution where he was kept, except, they were guards and not inmates.

  Tristan found his mate in a young human called Gwen, and after her ex-boyfriend tried to burn her house down, she and her mother moved into Martha’s house.

  Castor found a mate in Tilly, who also works for the town doctor as a receptionist. While trying to use Tilly to get to the other gargoyles, both Ophelia and her ally Lief were killed. Ophelia’s own gargoyle clan were unaware of their fate, or of the other gargoyles, but it appears that they have their own witch to awaken gargoyles.

  Meanwhile, Gracchus was dispatched to watch over a human called Melissa Sanchez, to see whether she could be deemed trustworthy.

  The story will be continued… right now.

  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 – 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.

  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 mis
sing 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 fiancé 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.

  Blackthorne – A descendant of one of the original Noir Clans. A member of the Council of Magic made up of other descendants. Involved with creating Twenty-Six and has various other nefarious schemes ongoing.

  Melissa Sanchez – An FBI agent in Portland, and friend of Chris’. Assigned to the ‘weird’ cases, like UFO and Bigfoot sightings. Her personal preference is for Bigfoot and gargoyles.

  Colt Hunter – Melissa’s new partner. Yes, that it his real name.

  Martha – Maggie’s cousin, and mated to Drago. Recently discovered she was psychic thanks to some very lurid dreams.

  Joely – Brom’s mate, waitress and according to Brom, a ‘saucy wench’.

  Daphne – Joely’s daughter. Despite being told otherwise, is still convinced Brom is Santa Claus.

  Guinevere ‘Gwen’ – Tristan’s mate who works part-time in Bea’s antique store.

  Tilly – Castor’s mate, doctor’s receptionist, baker extraordinaire and lover of the color pink.

  Marsters – A member of Blackthorne’s magical council.

  Captain Bell – Head of security for Blackthorne. Previously arrested by Melissa, and was involved in kidnapping Ric.

  Dr. Casey White – The town’s doctor and an unbeknownst to the gargoyles, an ally of Blackthorne’s.

  Danica – a young woman with pyrokinetic abilities imprisoned by Blackthorne since she was a child. Obviously, she has issues.

  Allen – Martha’s father and also a psychic. Had been kept imprisoned by Blackthorne for many years.

  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 his human mate out of trouble.

  Annis – 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 and is mated to Chris.

  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 currently Elementary.

  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.

  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, but is improving now that he is mated to Martha. Though, if any male dares look at her…

  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.

  Brom – A gargoyle hailing from Iceland and newly mated to Joely. Has a much shorter tail than other gargoyle, which he is very sensitive about.

  Ophelia – Luc’s former second in command who betrayed the gargoyles and is currently on the loose, with numerous evil plots on the boil. Now dead, killed by Castor while trying to hurt Tilly.

  Ingrede – A female, mated to Cai and mother of Wolfe. Her mating was arranged, but she has feelings for Cai, particularly as she learned he requested to be mated to her and has feelings for her too (even if he has difficulty admitting them). Discovering the joys of shampoo and hair care. Her hair has never been so glossy.

  Cai – Ingrede’s mate and father to Wolfe. Learning how to get in touch with his finer ‘female’ feelings in order to appease his pregnant mate. Has been watching reruns of The View to get inside the female mind.

  Wolfe – Cai and Ingrede’s son; insufferably cute and obsessed with a stuffed penguin.

  Tristan – A bookish gargoyle and formerly a tactician for his old clan. Newly mated to Gwen.

  Grey – An aggressive gargoyle, nicknamed ‘princess’ by Danica.

  Lief – An ally of Ophelia’s. Now dead.

  Castor – A newly awakened gargoyle and old clan mate of Annis, mated to Tilly.

  Leo – An older gargoyle recently awakened.

  Ryia – A scary female who a few of the others tried to mate to Drago. It was a relief that it didn’t work out, there was a fear from the non-matchmaking faction that the two would destroy each other.

  Aleck – A gargoyle from Ophelia’s clan. He is not aware of the other gargoyles, or Ophelia’s death, or Lief’s death – he is pretty much in the dark about everything.

  Elson – Another member of Ophelia’s clan, also totally in the dark.

  Other

  Bob – Dog of unknown parentage, he just showed up in town one day. Honorary member of the local police force.

  Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro, Tigra and Kevin – Melissa’s comfort of cats.

  One

  “How much longer?” whined David, flexing his arms in frustration, jostling Melissa and almost making her lose her place.

  “I’m bored,” added Alex.

  “Me too,” complained Daniel.

  Melissa pursed her lips and re-started the paragraph. She and her brothers were packed into the back of the car like sardines. While she wanted to read her book, all her brothers did was complain. She’d suggest they find books to read, but to them, reading was lame, and only something nerds like her did.

  Their mother twisted round to look at them. “Not long now, sweethearts. Another half hour and we’ll stop for dinner. Why don’t you play ‘I spy’?”

  Melissa tried not to groan. Her brothers were terrible at games. On a similar road trip, they once spent half an hour trying to guess the answer of an ‘I spy’ clue. It started with ‘R,’ and none of them could get it – it was R for road!

  “Missy, honey, don’t you want to put your book down and join the game?” asked her mother.

  Actually no, she'd rather disappear into the book altogether. Melissa peered over the top of her compendium of cryptozoology animals and sighed inwardly. Her mother had such a worried, hopeful look on her face to which she didn’t feel like she could say no.

  Her mother was always worried about her reading too much, and not wanting to leave her bedroom. She didn’t voice her own opinion that she should be more worried about Alex, who would eat anything from spiders to two-month-old noodles for a buck.

  Reluctantly, Melissa closed her book, and her mother smiled in relief.

  “Okay, I spy…”

  Before Melissa could groan, her dad did it for her. “Honey, how about a different game? I think we’ve espied all we can for one trip.”

  He flicked Melissa a look in his mirror and winked at her. She smiled in gratitude.

  “Like what?” asked her mother.

  “How about a points game. Whoever gets the most points can have two desserts when we stop.”

  That roused Melissa’s brothers into taking an interest. They were bottomless pits for food.

  Her mother chuckled. “Okay, what are the rules?”

  “Two points if you see a bird. Five points for a skunk. Ten points for a beaver, and… a hundred points for a polar bear.”

  “I’m going to see a polar bear!” declared Daniel, eagerly trying to peer out of the window.

  “No, I am,” said David, attempting to clamber over Melissa to get a better view.

  “Polar bears aren’t indigenous to this state,” said Melissa.

  “What’s indigestionous mean?” asked Alex, frowning.

  “It means native – they don’t live here, sweetheart,” said their mother.

  “Go
od point, sprite,” said their dad with a laugh. “What could be worth one hundred points?”

  Melissa considered it for a moment before replying, “A black bear.”

  “A black bear it is.”

  “I’m still looking for a polar bear,” muttered Daniel.

  “Well I hope you have good eyesight,” said Melissa primly, “you’ll need it to see all the way to Alaska.”

  Her dad chuckled, but her brothers ignored her in favor of peering out the window at the passing scenery, hoping to catch a glimpse of an animal, hoping for that second dessert. Melissa already knew that no matter who won, all of them could have a second dessert if they wanted. Their parents wouldn’t single one of them out with a special prize – they knew their other kids would mutiny.

  Progress was slow and hampered by the fact that her brothers were dirty, rotten liars who constantly claimed to have seen things they didn’t. It started with David asking how much he could have for a bald eagle and only got worse until Alex claimed he saw five alligators and wanted a thousand points for them.

  Melissa idly stared out the window. David, tiring of receiving Melissa’s pointy elbow in his side, was huddled with their other brothers on the other side of the car.

  She didn’t really expect to see anything in the dark, but she supposed it was keeping her brothers relatively quiet, so she conceded it was a pretty good game.

  Her eyes narrowed as she caught some movement in the treeline. A bird perhaps… it seemed quite big. Maybe it was a bald eagle!

  It detached from the trees and soared into the sky, huge wings spreading across the night sky, before disappearing into the darkness. It couldn’t possibly be…

  “Did you see that?” she whispered, barely trusting her voice.

  “What did you see, sweetheart?” asked her mother. “A skunk?”

  “No, it was… It wasn’t an animal. It was something else…”

  She knew what it was. Knew it from her book. She’d know those wings, horns, and tail anywhere. It was a gargoyle!

  “She’s making it up,” grumbled Daniel.

  “She didn’t see anything,” agreed David.