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Discussions - Chapter 7
By Kudara
Disclaimer: All
the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena Vista
Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these
copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction
work. All original characters are the property of the author.
Warning: None
Notes: Dominique
Destine’s home, and the character’s
Candice and Gregory are from ‘The Gargoyles Saga’ world and
adapted for use in this story. Paper batteries not something I
made up
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6945732.stm. The song
lyrics mentioned are from “Send Me A Lover” by Celine Dion.
Rating: Teen
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep
writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike
about the story.
Revision History: 06/13/08
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December 10th, 1997
Morning - Outside Jason’s Apartment
Building, Manhattan
Kendra stared at the building where Jason’s
apartment was located. She had been sitting here for ten
minutes staring at it trying to figure out what in the world she
would say to her cousin. She was fairly certain that “hey Jason
guess what I found out while I was trekking though the Canadian
wilderness. The Canmore’s have been ensorcelled for the past
thousand years by these three fey called the Weird Sisters so
that we would make sure Demona didn’t get lazy and out of
shape,” wouldn’t work too well.
For one thing, it would raise questions
about what the fey were and how it was that she had come to know
about them. Secondly, she really didn’t think that Jason would
believe her, at least not without her showing him things, such
as the fact she had the ability to shapeshift and revealing the
existence of the chosen. That was completely unacceptable, she
was hardly going to trust Jason or her other two cousins with
that type of information about herself or anyone else.
A white van pulled up outside the building,
and Kendra sat up straighter as she saw the lettering on the
side of it. There was a possibility that someone else in the
building might need wheelchair accessible transportation, but
there was a good chance the van was for Jason. Luck was with
her, a few minutes later her cousin wheeled himself out of the
building. It only took a moment for her to see the expected
tattered remains of sickly green fey magic upon him. Kendra
sank back in her seat with an unhappy sigh, “Great,” she
muttered to herself, “now how am I going to free Robyn and Jon?”
Night - Wyvern Castle atop the Eyrie
Building, Upper Manhattan
Angela gazed pensively at the lights of the
city far below the castle as she wondered what her mother was
doing right now. Was Demona plotting against Elisa and Goliath
or against Macbeth as the clan feared, or…the young lavender
female’s thoughts trailed off uncertainly. Angela really had no
idea how learning what the Weird Sisters had done to her would
affect her proud mother. That Demona would not be pleased was
an easy conclusion to make, what her mother would do after that
was not so easy for her daughter to predict.
The young female sighed unhappily, despite
how much Demona had hurt her every time she tried to reach out
to the older female, despite all the lies her mother had told
and the way Demona had manipulated her, Angela still felt some
concern for her mother. Yet her father had been very clear that
she was not to go seeking Demona out, not until the clan had a
better idea what the immortal gargoyle was planning.
Angela suspected her father believed that
Demona was plotting against Macbeth and had cast a spell on the
immortal king making him believe that the Weird Sisters were
responsible for Demona’s betrayal of him in the past. She
didn’t know what to believe, she knew that it was certainly
something her mother was capable of doing. She had to only
think of everything Demona had done to manipulate her into
believing the older gargoyle was helping the clan against the
Quarrymen, when in reality Demona was trying to kill Goliath and
take the clan leaders position, to know to what levels of
deception her mother was capable of pulling off.
The other possibility that the clan feared,
provided that what Macbeth told them was the truth and this
wasn’t another of Demona’s schemes, was that either Demona was,
or would shortly be, plotting her revenge against Goliath and
Elisa. In all the time she had known her mother, Demona’s
fiery, and frequently irrational, temper had certainly been
something Angela had noticed about the immortal gargoyle’s
temperament. Considering that her mother hated Goliath and
Elisa already and had tried to kill both of them before, even
Angela thought it was reasonable to fear that Demona would lash
out at Goliath and Elisa for allowing the Weird Sisters to cast
a spell on her causing her to forget the events on Avalon.
“Angela?” Broadway’s hesitant voice from
behind her interrupted her thoughts. She smiled at him warmly,
she knew he wasn’t the smartest or quickest, but he was the
kindest and best tempered of the Trio as well as the strongest
of all three of the young males. “Are you alright?” he asked
with a concerned look.
And the most thoughtful, Angela added to
her mental list of his qualities. “I was thinking of my
mother,” she admitted, “wondering if she will try and attack
father and Elisa.”
He shifted uneasily beside her, “She does
have a temper.”
Angela’s short laugh carried little humor,
“I know.”
“We’ll stop her if she does, we won’t let
her hurt Goliath or Elisa,” he said confidently.
The young lavender female nodded. She was
silent for a long moment before changing the subject, “When is
Elisa going undercover?”
“Tonight,” Broadway said, his tone worried,
“she joined the Quarrymen while we were asleep during the day.”
Angela frowned in concern, “How will we
know if she needs help?” The thought of what might happen to
Elisa if the Quarrymen found out Elisa’s identity frightened
her. Jon Canmore’s willingness to kill his own clan for
associating with Demona showed how ruthless and dangerous he
was; she doubted he would hesitate to hurt Elisa once he
realized she was spying on him.
“Matt’s watching out for her and Goliath’s
in contact with him, if anything happens we’ll know about it,”
Broadway reassured her.
The lavender female glanced over at him,
there were some rather obvious issues with that plan and she
could see by his worried look that he was well aware of them.
“Yes, but will we know in time to protect her,” she spoke her
biggest worry aloud.
Broadway looked over at her, his expression
both understanding and firm, “That’s why we have to stay nearby
and ready, just in case Elisa needs us.”
Angela stared at him for a moment before
looking back over the city, “I understand,” the young female’s
determination firmed. Elisa had never let her down and had
saved her life and the lives of the clan several times, she
wouldn’t let herself get distracted by her concern for her
mother while the human woman was in such danger.
Night – Destine Manor, Forest Hills
Gardens, Long Island
“Let’s go gliding,” Demona tossed the
reports she had been reading down on the coffee table and looked
over at Kendra, who was reading a novel, expectantly, “I’m tired
of reading these and you need the practice.”
The black haired woman looked startled for
a brief moment before she smiled broadly, “That sounds like a
wonderful idea,” she agreed sounding relieved.
The gargoyle stared at her lover bemused as
she practically bounded to her feet, laid the book she had been
reading on the coffee table, and waited expectantly by the
couch, her blue eyes gleaming with eagerness. A short five
minutes later, they were standing outside on the second floor
balcony. Demona stared at up at Kendra’s dark winged form. The
jaguar’s chosen was already standing upon the railing, balancing
upon it effortlessly and staring out into the night and taking
deep breaths of the cool air, her tail switching from side to
side in not quite an agitated motion. The brightness of the
night caused Kendra’s glossy black wing feathers to gleam,
catching the gargoyle’s attention. She looked up at the source
of the light, and her eyes widened in comprehension as she
looked back at her lover. “It’s almost the full moon,” she
commented quietly.
“It is,” Kendra agreed looking up at the
sky, “I’ll need to head up to my estate this weekend.” She
glanced down at Demona, her blue eyes intense against the
darkness of her black furred face, “Come with me,” she
requested.
The fiery haired gargoyle didn’t even need
to think about it, “Alright.”
The blue eyes lightened, “Good,” the winged
jaguar extended her hand.
Demona stared at Kendra’s outstretched hand
and then at the railing upon which the jaguar’s chosen was
standing. She extended her own; her lover’s warm hand wrapped
around it and then Demona drew in a startled gasp as Kendra
simply lifted her into the air high enough for her to stand on
the railing with the winged jaguar. She caught a glimpse of
Kendra’s dark, wine red lips curving into an amused grin just
before her lover leapt into the air and with a powerful downward
sweep of her feathered wings took to the air. Shaking her head
in amusement, the gargoyle followed, obviously Kendra had
already incorporated some of the changes she had been talking
about earlier into her winged form to make it stronger, quicker
and more agile.
Gliding swiftly to catch up, Demona pointed
to the south, “Forest Hills Park is directly to the south of us
just over the Interborough Parkway, and west of that is a golf
course. Lets practice turns and loops there and then we can
head north to let you experience gliding over streets and
buildings. The asphalt holds in heat no matter what the season
and that causes a constant slight thermal effect.”
“Much wind shear along the buildings?”
Kendra inquired as they curved gradually toward the band of
trees that was the park.
“Not where we’re flying tonight, but in
Manhattan yes, it can be very tricky gliding among the buildings
with the unpredictable updrafts and even occasional downdraft,”
Demona said, “so we’ll wait until you’re ready to fly there to
go over the bridge. Besides I don’t want to run into the clan
yet and that’s their patrol territory.”
“Ok,” Kendra agreed easily as they reached
the park. As Demona watched and called out advice, the winged
were-jaguar practiced ever-tightening turns and then vertical
rolls, which Kendra had just learned how to do before they left
Canada.
Demona watched Kendra’s gliding closely,
but there were only a few corrections she needed to make. The
gargoyle marveled at how swiftly the were-jaguar was learning to
fly; it had been less than two weeks, yet Kendra was already
starting to look at home in the air. Suddenly the gargoyle was
very grateful that Kendra hadn’t decided to become a hunter.
The Canmore’s were unusually skilled warriors for humans, but
her lover’s physical abilities far surpassed those of the rest
of her family. Demona strongly suspected Kendra’s physical
prowess predated her becoming one of the Jaguar’s chosen, and
she wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that had been what had
drawn the Jaguar priestess’ attention to the young Kendra.
“Ready to fly over the city?” the gargoyle
asked.
Kendra did one more roll before turning and
gliding next to the flame haired gargoyle, “Sure,” she looked
northward, “that way?”
Demona nodded, “That way is Forest Hills,
it will do nicely for your introduction to gliding over city
areas.”
The newness of being able to fly had still
not worn off, and Kendra looked with interest at the landscape
passing below them, the houses, and streets with cars and trucks
moving along them. As they approached more densely populated
areas, she noticed that they were gradually rising in the air,
“We’re gaining altitude, is it because you don’t want them to
see us?”
“Not many tall buildings in this area to
block their view of us,” Demona explained, “so it’s a good idea
to present less of a silhouette against the night sky for the
humans to notice.” She smirked, “We don’t want your cousin to
show up, escaping from Quarrymen flitters and helicopters
definitely falls under advanced gliding lessons.”
Kendra smiled briefly, she knew Demona had
meant the comment to be amusing but it reminded her of the news
reports she had read about the kidnapping. “No we don’t want
that,” the were-jaguar said, “especially given the fact that for
all his prostrations that he’s protecting people, he doesn’t
seem to give a damn who gets hurt when he’s hunting,” she
growled thinking of the people on the street below Nightstone
who had been injured by the falling glass from his kidnapping of
them.
Demona glanced over at her, a concerned
look on her face, “You know he’s being controlled by the Weird
Sister’s spell.”
The were-jaguar frowned, “It’s not forcing
him to not care if he hurts anyone else while he’s hunting you
or the other gargoyles.” Demona looked away abruptly, but
Kendra had already noticed the flash of pain and remorse on the
gargoyle’s face. She could guess what Demona was thinking, the
enchantments on her hadn’t forced her to war on humanity either
and yet she had chosen to do so, killing the innocent along with
the guilty.
Kendra continued, “I saw Jason, and even
broken as the spell was, I could easily tell that it was just
one enchantment that had been on him. My cousin’s actions
aren’t anywhere close to being as controlled as yours were. I
suspect that what Jon’s doing now is mostly his own choice
because he can’t accept that he was the one who crippled
Jason.” She wasn’t quite so willing to let her cousin off the
hook without holding him accountable for at least some of his
decisions, especially given the rather radical difference in the
amount of fey spells on her cousins and the mass that had bound
Demona before the Ancient One freed her.
“You mean like I kept blaming the humans at
Wyvern Castle for my clan’s massacre,” Demona said finally
turning back toward Kendra. Her green eyes were bleak as they
met her lover’s blue ones, “Or telling myself that I was
claiming vengeance for those gargoyles that died over the
centuries the night I killed those humans I turned into stone?”
The were-jaguar stared searchingly at the
flame haired gargoyle’s expression, “But you’ve accepted your
share of the guilt for those actions and you regret them,” she
said, her tone softer.
“Yes, and it took me ten centuries to admit
that I was just as guilty as Robbie for the slaughter of my
clan” Demona pointed out sadly.
Kendra growled in irritation, but she
couldn’t deny the point Demona was making. It wasn’t fair of
her to completely forgive her lover for her past and be
unwilling to forgive her cousin. Finally she sighed, “I know,
that’s why I’m not going after Jon for what he did to us. I
need to find him and break the spell on him and hope that stops
him from doing anything else crazy.” She didn’t mention that
she had her doubts as to whether that would actually get Jon to
stop with the Quarrymen nonsense.
Demona was silent for a moment before
offering, “I know where the Quarrymen headquarters are located,
or at least the public ones.”
“I need to get close to him for only a few
seconds to dissolve the enchantment,” Kendra said, “and that’s
all I’m going to do.” She stared down at the city streets below
them, feeling the updraft of warmer air Demona had mentioned.
“I know the spirits would rather I taught him how to do it
himself,” she looked over at the gargoyle grimly, “but I don’t
trust Jon with that much information about me or you or anyone
else. I think he’s too unstable.” She looked down once again,
watching the small matchbox-sized cars move along the street,
“And I’ll have to go visit Robyn in prison to see if she’s
broken the enchantment on her like Jason broke his, if she
hasn’t then I’m not certain what I can do until she gets out of
prison.”
Demona commented, “I guess it’s a good
thing that the Weird Sisters are trapped on Avalon or they would
have probably enchanted them again.”
Kendra looked pained, “That’s the only
thing that bothers me about not telling them, it leaves them
completely unprotected from the fey,” she admitted. “The only
thing I can do is keep an eye on them.”
The flame haired gargoyle offered, “At
least if they do, we’ll know that the Weird Sisters are about
again, and it’s easy enough to dispel any enchantment they place
on your cousins.”
Kendra nodded, then changing the subject
she said, “I can feel the updraft you mentioned,” she glanced to
the north where she could see the tall buildings of the city,
“how is it different over Manhattan?”
Demona looked over at her with a raised
brow for a second before responding, “I’m sure you’ve felt the
slightly stronger updrafts?”
They crossed over one right then, and
Kendra adjusted her wings to steady her flight, “Like that one?”
she commented with a grin, “It feels sort of like we’re going
over waves in the air.”
“Yes, like that one, and yes, I guess it
does,” Demona agreed with a smile, “the ones over Manhattan are
much stronger and more abrupt. If you aren’t prepared for them
they can actually be rather startling when they lift, or perhaps
I should actually say bounce, you up in the air.”
“I can see how that would be startling,”
Kendra commented, amused. She looked up at the sky above them,
the almost full moon, “I’m glad we came out tonight, I’ve been
feeling rather cooped up lately,” she admitted softly.
The gargoyle stared at her for a long
moment before asking, “What do you usually do at night?”
“Walk around my estate or change and go for
a run though the woods,” Kendra responded, taking a deep breath
of the night air. This wasn’t quite the same, but it was
definitely close enough to dispel the trapped sensation she had
been feeling.
Demona stared at her lover, the words and
the way Kendra was acting served as a strong reminder of the
wildness inside her lover, “We can go out for a little bit every
night,” she promised. She wasn’t sure how she could cut her
workload more, but she would find a way, seeing how even this
short glide had relaxed Kendra made it clear to the gargoyle
that the jaguar’s chosen needed this time outside.
Kendra glanced over at her, “Is there
anything I could be helping you with to lighten your load?”
Demona immediately shook her head, “No, I
don’t want you doing the job of a personal assistant. You’ve
got quite enough to do already with your own Division,” she
grinned slyly, “or if you don’t yet, you will be soon enough.”
The winged were-jaguar chuckled at the
answer. She knew Demona was correct; the meeting with Jean this
morning had definitely started the ball rolling on the fuel cell
company acquisition. “Would one of those help?”
Demona laughed dryly, “Yes, but after the
last one, I decided it was safer to do without.”
It took Kendra a moment to make sense of
the statement, “Robyn,” she commented remembering finally.
The flame haired gargoyle nodded, “Yes
Robyn, pity she turned out to be a hunter. She was very good at
the job.”
“What about another chosen?”
“Another…” Demona’s voice trailed off and
she got a thoughtful look on her face, “that might work; there
would certainly be no doubts in my mind as to whether or not I
could trust them. The question is whether there is a chosen
with an interest in business, I might be wrong but I’m getting
the idea that you and I are oddities, most of the others don’t
seem to be…”
“Motivated by money and power?” commented
Kendra with a grin.
Demona chuckled, “Something like that,
yes,” she admitted. “Still it won’t hurt to ask if there is
anyone who would be interested, I’ll give Rachael a call
tomorrow, she seems to know about everyone.”
December 11th, 1997
Morning - Nightstone Unlimited HQ, Lower
East Side Manhattan
“Good morning Rachael,” Dominique said as
soon as the senior Owl’s chosen answered the phone.
“Dominique,” the Cree woman replied warmly
as soon as she recognized the redhead’s voice, “I understand
Margaret will be in New York City for Solstice too and that
we’re going out with Robert to see Phantom of the Opera?”
The redhead grinned, Rachael sounded rather
excited, “I haven’t checked with his Aunt and Uncle yet, but I’m
hopeful that he will be able to come with us,” she said, “I’ve
already gotten us tickets for the show and arranged for
transportation for all of us.”
“I hope he can,” Rachael responded, “this
is turning into quite the little gathering. I haven’t seen
Margaret in many years and Robert only once in person.”
“I’ll try my best to arrange it so that he
can come along,” Dominique assured her, “I can’t guarantee
anything though.”
“I’ll understand if you can’t, his Aunt and
Uncle don’t like him going out, and I get the feeling that there
are very few people they would approve of him socializing with,”
said Rachael.
Dominique recalled how Robert’s aunt had
referred to Rachael as that Indian woman, “I suspect you’re
right,” she agreed dryly. “Actually though, I wasn’t calling
about our Solstice plans.”
“You weren’t,” Rachael sounded surprised,
“why were you calling then?”
“I was wondering if you knew of anyone who
had both the training and interest in becoming my personal
assistant,” Dominique said. “The last one I hired turned out to
be Kendra’s cousin, Robyn Canmore, and the working relationship
between us ended on less than a cordial note on either side.”
The redhead smiled at the amused sounding snort on the other end
of the phone, “I thought I might have better luck asking you if
you knew someone, not to mention it might be safer for me.”
Now Rachael did laugh aloud, “I’ll ask
around, see if there’s anyone either in business or pursuing a
business career. I know of one young woman that might be
interested, she just graduated this winter from the University
of Phoenix. I’m not sure she would want to move to a big city
though; she has a horse and loves riding. I don’t know if that
would work out very well for her.”
Arizona, horses, it didn’t take Dominique
long to come up with the picture of a cowgirl in her mind, “She
has a business degree?”
“Yes,” the Cree woman confirmed, “she just
got her bachelor’s degree.”
“General business or?” the redhead asked,
she had been hoping for someone with a master’s degree, but it
was worth more to her to have someone she could trust than a
person with an advanced degree that she could not.
“Umm…” Rachael hesitated, “I’m not sure, I
think Sharon said something about a double major in business?”
Dominique’s interest was stirred, a double
major sounded promising, at the very least it meant that this
Sharon had more than just a general business degree. “I’m sure
something could be worked out for her horse, if she’s
interested.”
“I’ll ask and let you know, or did you want
to contact her yourself?” Rachael inquired.
Dominique thought of the work she needed to
do today, “Would you mind contacting her?”
“Not at all,” Rachael assured her, “will
you be around tonight?”
“I can be,” Dominique responded.
“Seven o’clock?”
“Alright,” the redhead agreed, “I’ll see
you then.” Dominique hung up the phone, grabbed a notebook and
started listing the things she needed to get done in order to be
ready for Rachael’s arrival and their Solstice eve celebration.
She needed to call the cleaning service and get the house
cleaned, and the guest room downstairs needed to be prepared for
Rachael’s stay. She continued writing down her to do list: she
needed to get some decorations and have them put up, and put in
an order for groceries. That brought Dominique’s thoughts to
the Solstice meal. She wanted to have something nice and
elegant for the dinner which meant that she needed to get the
meal catered, because she certainly wasn’t a skilled enough chef
to prepare the type of meal she wanted to have, nor did she want
to spend the time making it.
Dominique was looking at the list trying to
think whether there was anything missing, when it dawned on the
redhead that the small, quiet celebration she had initially
envisioned had certainly grown. Now she was getting the house
decorated for the holiday and planning a dinner, bemused she
shook her head, her life certainly had changed rather
dramatically since the Ancient One chose her. She had Kendra
who was both friend and lover, Rachael and Robert who were her
friends, and now Margaret and possibly Sharon as potential
friends.
How different this year was from last year,
Dominique mused, she had still been fuming over the failure of
the carrier virus a year ago. A chill swept through her at the
thought of what would have happened had Goliath not caught the
canister, Kendra and Rachael might have survived, but young
Robert wasn’t immortal. The thought made her feel ill, and
reminded her that there were still stocks of the carrier virus
stored in the lab along with Dr. Sevarius’s research papers.
Her jaw firmed, that was easy enough to correct, and she needed
to talk with Mr. Pierre about shifting the focus of the
Biological and Chemical Research Department anyway.
She glanced at her list once again before
rising and walking out to her secretary’s desk. The dark
skinned woman looked up inquiringly as she approached. “Candice
could you find me the names of some caterers and decorators, I’m
planning a holiday get together at my house.”
There was a moment of silence, and despite
her grim mood, Dominique found the brief stunned look on the
woman’s face amusing, she had never made such a request before.
“Of course Ms. Destine,” Candice finally responded, “for how
many people?”
“Five…” Dominique frowned, thinking of the
unknown Sharon who might or might not be working for her by that
time, “or six perhaps, I’m not certain.”
She was walking toward the elevators when
her steps slowed, memories of the past reminding her of the
human celebrations usually associated with this time of year.
She turned and walked back to Candice’s desk, her secretary
looked up alertly. “I believe it’s customary for there to be
some type of corporate Christmas party?” she said ignoring the
fact that she certainly hadn’t authorized any type of party the
past two years. Candice gave her such a blank look in response
to her question that Dominique wondered for a moment if she had
accidentally spoken in Scots Gaelic or French instead of
English.
“A Christmas party?” the woman finally
responded, “Here, or at a hotel or a dinner cruise?”
“I suspect it’s too late to arrange for one
elsewhere,” Dominique replied, “why don’t you and Mrs. Merrill
discuss the possibilities and get back to me with the
information by the end of the week. Something catered during
the day might be the best choice considering it’s already the
eleventh.”
“Yes, Ms. Destine,” Candice sounded
slightly overwhelmed and the redhead stared at her in surprise.
There had definitely been busier weeks at Nightstone that hadn’t
ruffled the woman in the slightest. Still, maybe there was more
to arranging one of these parties, especially a last minute one,
than she realized, Dominique considered.
She looked down at the calendar on her
secretary’s desk, and sighed in resignation, “Also prepare a
memo for me to sign announcing that we will be closing at noon
on the 24th for the Christmas holiday.” She didn’t
wait for Candice to respond before turning away from the woman
and striding toward the elevators, she didn’t like the idea of
paying for another half day of vacation, but she knew that both
Xanatos Enterprises and Cyberbiotics gave their employees a half
day, therefore she would as well. As she stepped into the
elevator, it occurred to her that Macbeth would doubtless get
the credit for both the party and half day off. Dominique
smiled wryly, at this rate he would be a popular man around
Nightstone.
Thirty minutes later, “The carrier virus is
certainly a mixed bag,” Dr. Sanders, the Biological and Chemical
Research Project Lead in Research and Development’s Special
Projects Department, said, “on the one hand, Dr. Sevarius did
engineer it to not be able to replicate so it’s fairly harmless
on its own. On the other hand, the wide range of vectors it has
gives it a deadly potential when it’s bound to a pathogen that’s
capable of replicating once it finds a suitable host.
Especially if that pathogen is highly contagious once it’s
released into a population…” her voice trailed off uncertainly,
“Ms. Destine?”
Dominique gripped the console in front of
her in a white knuckled hold, “I had forgotten that the carrier
virus couldn’t replicate on its own,” she admitted absently.
Dr. Sanders gave her a rather odd look,
“From his notes I gather that both you and Dr. Sevarius agreed
that if it were allowed to replicate the chances of it mutating
were simply too high, thus negating its value as a carrier
virus.”
“Yes,” the redhead agreed still sounding
strange as she stared at the screen where the virus rotated, “I
remember that now.”
There was a moment of silence as Dr.
Sanders glanced over at Mr. Pierre with a puzzled look. The
large man shrugged, he didn’t know what was going on with Ms.
Destine on any more than the researcher did.
Finally, the redhead released the console
and turned around to face them. She appeared composed, as if
the brief moment before had never happened, “Still it’s too
potentially dangerous,” she said, her tone firm and commanding
once again. “Dispose of it properly along with all the other
things Sevarius was playing with and get rid of every piece of
information that would allow someone to reproduce it.”
“Yes Ms. Destine, I’ll start on that
immediately,” Dr. Sanders said, a pleased look on her face.
Dominique spared a glance at her, taking in
the woman’s expression and feeling reasonably certain her orders
would be followed. She knew Dr. Sanders hadn’t approved of some
of the research Nightstone had been conducting; now she had just
given the researcher permission to dispose of most of them. As
for the rest, “Also, unless the project has a therapeutic focus
all research projects in your section are suspended pending my
review.” Dominique ignored the stunned look on the woman’s
face, “Those researchers affected by this suspension will be
working with Mr. Kirkland on his current project,” she turned to
the Research and Development Division manager, “Mr. Pierre if
you will fill Dr. Sanders in please.”
The redhead listened as the ebony skinned
man explained the new battery technology Mr. Kirkland had
developed and why the Biological and Chemical Research Team
might be able to solve his current problem. “Mr. Kirkland
developed a new type of battery technology four months ago using
a thin cellulose sheet soaked in ionic electrolytes with
embedded carbon nanotubes. Our current problem is how to
produce larger and cheaper sheets of these paper batteries for
commercial production.”
“Has Nightstone already patented this?”
asked Dr Sanders with a slight frown, she didn’t recall hearing
anything about this new battery technology at any of the
department meetings.
Jean Pierre shook his head, “Not yet, Ms.
Destine just gave us the go ahead to submit the patent
application for it. They should go in at the beginning of next
week.” He waited a second to see if she had any more questions
before continuing, “What I’m hoping is that if we diversify the
scientific backgrounds of the researchers working on this
project we will come up with some new ideas on how to produce
the size sheets we need at a reasonable cost.”
“Mr. Pierre, Dr. Sanders,” Dominique
interrupted them, they immediately stopped and looked her way
inquiringly, “I believe you two can handle this from here. Dr.
Sanders I’d like a report on what you disposed of and how it was
disposed for company records.”
Dominique was able to hold together her
calm façade until the elevator, once the doors closed with only
her inside she leaned against the wall choking back both
incredulous laughter and the prick of tears. How could she have
forgotten that one rather relevant fact about the carrier virus,
Dominique wondered. The carrier virus couldn’t replicate, and
the disinfectant she had spent so much time and difficulty
obtaining certainly couldn’t reproduce itself. The spell she
had cast upon it would have spread the virus and disinfectant
across the entire globe, but it would have also dispersed the
matter in that one canister so widely that it would have had no
effect at all upon anything.
The disappointment and horror in her
daughter’s eyes, the disgust and loathing in Goliath’s and
Brooklyn’s, the crippling of Kendra’s cousin Jason, all of it
for nothing, for a canister of liquid that without the dispersal
spell would have simply been a puddle of relatively harmless
disinfectant on the floor of the cathedral. “Damn them,”
Dominique whispered bitterly in the silence of the elevator,
knowing just whose enchantment it had been that had been the
root cause of it all.
Late Afternoon - Surveillance van
outside Quarryman Headquarters in Lower Manhattan
Elisa Maza, disguised as her Sally persona,
opened the back door of the van just enough for her to slip
inside, and shut it quickly behind her. “Anything interesting?”
she asked Matt who had one cup of a pair of headphones up to his
ear.
He shook his head, “Not so far.”
The detective’s eyes scanned the bank of
monitors along one side of the interior of the van; they showed
views of the outside of the van and the building the task force
was monitoring. A familiar face caught her attention, her eyes
swung back to one monitor as she stared at the black haired
woman watching the same building they were monitoring.
She made an irritated sound that drew
Matt’s attention, “What is it?” he asked.
As an answer Elisa pointed at the monitor,
“Kendra Canmore, I guess that’s why Demona said she wasn’t going
after him, she doesn’t need to.”
“What do you think she’s after?” Matt asked
after a few minutes of watching Kendra Canmore watch the
Quarrymen Headquarters.
Elisa replied dryly, “Besides watching the
building? I don’t know, maybe she’s waiting for Jon to show.”
“Whatever it is,” Matt said a moment later
as a familiar car approached, “we should know soon.” The two
detectives waited, tense and ready to move, a dozen scenarios
running though their heads as they tried to figure out what
might happen in the next few minutes.
Kendra Canmore straightened as soon as she
saw Jon Canmore step out of his vehicle; she crossed the street
and followed him, catching up to him with swift long strides in
a few seconds. Her collaring of him was one of the smoothest
either detective had seen, in one motion she grabbed his shirt
and twisted his arm down and around behind his back, and in the
next the both of them were continuing down the street. Jon was
struggling, but it was clear that he was getting nowhere; his
attempts to get free weren’t even throwing Kendra off stride.
Matt whistled in admiration, “Nice,” he
muttered.
“Yea, but now that she’s got him what is
she going to do with him,” Elisa commented, worried.
Matt glanced at her, “You don’t think she’d
kill him do you?”
“He did try to kill her,” she pointed out.
As Kendra and Jon Canmore disappeared into an alleyway the two
detectives eyes met, “I’ll go,” Elisa said, “that way Sally can
save him if it’s needed.” She paused a moment to check her
blonde wig, slipped out of the van and crossed the street, then
headed toward the alleyway that the two Canmore cousins had
disappeared into. She hugged the building’s brick wall as she
approached the alley, and cautiously peered around the corner.
“I didn’t want to kill you, but you chose
the Demon over your own family,” Elisa heard Jon say angrily as
she looked into the passageway. Kendra and Jon were fighting,
or rather Jon was fighting and Kendra was brushing off his
attacks with almost contemptuous ease. To the watching
detective, it was painfully obvious that Kendra was much more
adept in the martial arts than her cousin. Yet another skill
she could add to the growing list of Kendra Canmore’s talents,
thought Elisa sourly, remembering the ice skating exhibition.
“You mean a bunch of murders and child
killers don’t you,” Kendra responded contemptuously.
Jon growled, renewing his attack and trying
desperately to land at least one blow, “They’re demons, you
can’t murder a demon, you send it back to the hell that spawned
it.”
At least Kendra didn’t appear to be
interested in killing him, Elisa thought to herself, as she
listened to the two cousin’s argue.
“They’re not demons, Jon and you know it,”
Kendra replied coolly, “you just can’t accept that Jason’s
injury is solely your fault, so you’re blaming them for it.”
Jon’s angry yell in response to this
statement, and a rapid flurry of blows between the two cousins
had Elisa rethinking her previous thought, but before she could
intervene, Jon was down on the ground.
Kendra stared down at the unconscious man,
in an almost gentle tone she said, “But then I know that you’re
not acting completely of your own free will right now.” Her
voice turned colder, “Just as our family hasn’t acted entirely
of their own will in spending the last thousand years committing
genocide while they were chasing Demona around to make sure she
kept her warrior skills honed.” Kendra knelt beside him, “Those
three bitches are to blame for that, and if I get the chance
I’ll kill them for what they turned our family into,” she
finished harshly.
Elisa’s eyes widened in shock at the angry
words, and she watched as Kendra placed a hand on Jon’s chest
and then closed her eyes. The detective stared puzzled at the
unmoving woman; it almost looked as if Kendra were praying over
him. Finally, Kendra moved again, staring down at her cousin
thoughtfully for a long moment before rising to her feet.
Elisa ducked back around the corner, her
mind was whirling and she didn’t know whether she wanted to
confront Kendra Canmore about what she had said right now or
not. Her feet started carrying her away from the alley and back
toward the surveillance van where her partner Matt was waiting.
She needed some time to think, about both what she had just
heard, and what Macbeth had said about the Weird Sisters
meddling in his and Demona’s lives, before talking with Kendra
Canmore.
She slipped back into the van, “Did she
give any sign that she saw me?” she asked Matt immediately. She
wasn’t quite yet willing to accept what she had heard at face
value, it might be another part of a plot by Demona to have them
thinking what Macbeth had said was real, though she couldn’t
think of any reason why Kendra Canmore would be willing to go
along with such a plot.
“I don’t think so,” he responded, “she
glanced up and down the street before leaving, but she didn’t
seem to look at you any longer than anyone else.” He stared at
her, curiously, “What happened?”
Elisa related what she had seen and heard
in the alleyway, “I still don’t get what she was doing though,”
she said puzzled.
“Woa,” Matt said, “so what Macbeth said was
real then…”
“Maybe,” the dark haired, dark eyed woman
commented uncertainly.
Matt frowned, “Why would Kendra Canmore be
caught up in a scheme by Demona against Macbeth though?”
“I don’t know,” Elisa admitted, that was
the one thing she couldn’t think of a reason to explain, “but
then we don’t really know that much about her except for the
little that Jason knows,” she said thoughtfully.
Bluestone glanced at her, “Well, are the
Weird Sisters capable of doing what they’re saying?”
Elisa thought of what she knew of the three
fey, how they had been willing to kill the young gargoyles,
Princess Katherine, Guardian Tom and the Magus just to get their
revenge for the Magus defeating them. How they had lied to
Oberon and Titiana in an effort to get Oberon to kill or drive
away the young gargoyles when their first effort with Demona,
Macbeth and the Archmage had failed. “Yes they are,” she stated
in a hard tone.
A crease formed between the red headed
detective’s eyebrows, “Then why are you so determined to believe
this is all a scheme of Demona’s?”
She scowled at him, “You know how many
times she’s pulled something like this.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s doing it this time
though,” he said reasonably, “what does the evidence tell you?”
“That it could go either way,” she
responded immediately, annoyed, “and how many times has it not
been a scheme by Demona?”
Matt couldn’t argue with that point, so he
didn’t try, “Wouldn’t it explain though why she helped Kendra
across Canada? If she knew the Canmores had been enchanted by
the Weird Sisters, it would have gone a long way toward her not
holding her family against Kendra.”
Stubbornly, Elisa maintained, “If they were
in this together, it would explain why Demona helped Kendra as
well.”
Matt sighed; they were back to this again,
“Once again, why would Kendra help Demona? It’s not like she
needs a cut of Macbeth’s money.”
She stared at the monitor bank for a moment
with a scowl before glancing over at him, “You saw how she acted
in the park at the Quarrymen rally, maybe she just thinks it
fun. Or maybe there’s a motive there we don’t know about
because, as I just said, we don’t really know much about her.”
Bluestone stared at her narrow eyed, “You
don’t like Kendra Canmore do you?” he said, his tone perceptive.
“What?” Elisa said incredulously, trying to
ignore the twinge of discomfort she felt at misleading her
partner. It wasn’t as if she was lying though, she didn’t
dislike Kendra Canmore, being jealous wasn’t the same as
disliking someone.
Matt shrugged, “I’m just mentioning that
you always bristle when her name’s brought up,” he turned his
attention back to the monitors and sat up in his chair, “there’s
Jon, I guess he woke up.”
Elisa turned her attention back to the
monitors and watched with Bluestone as the blonde man looked up
and down the street before heading into the building that housed
the Quarrymen headquarters. She looked at her watch, “It’s
about time for Sally to show up.”
Matt wasn’t willing to let his partner
change the subject yet, “When are you going to tell the clan?”
She frowned thoughtfully, “In a few
nights,” she decided, she gave him a firm look, “I’d rather tell
them myself.”
He stared at her, “Alright,” he finally
acquiesced, “but they need to know about this.”
“I know,” Elisa agreed quietly, “if this is
a scheme by Demona I’d expect her to try and contact Angela, but
she should be safe for another few nights. She didn’t argue
with Goliath when he told the clan to stay away from Demona
until we had a better idea what was going on.”
“And if Demona doesn’t?” asked Matt.
Elisa shook her head, “I’ll be surprised if
she doesn’t,” the dark haired woman admitted. “And even if this
isn’t another plot of hers, as Brooklyn pointed out a few nights
ago, she’s still attacked the clan repeatedly, killed several
people the night she used that spell to change people into
stone, and tried to wipe out the entire human race just over a
year ago. None of what I’ve heard so far changes any of that.”
Night - Destine Manor – Forest Hills
Gardens, Long Island
“Ahh, I had wondered if that disinfectant
was really that dangerous,” Kendra commented, winding her
spaghetti around her fork, “I mean, disinfecting the earth of
all the germ like humans on it sounded pretty catchy, but it
seemed a little short on the scientific principal side. Binding
the carrier virus to a pathogen would have made so much more
sense.”
Demona stared at her lover, confused, she
wasn’t certain what reaction she had been anticipating, but this
certainly wasn’t it. “But it caused your cousin Jason to be
crippled,” she pointed out guiltily.
The black haired woman shook her head, she
finished her bite of food and took a sip of her wine before
responding firmly, “No Jon did that because none of my cousins
stopped to ask themselves if what you were claiming was actually
possible. What you did was use a relatively harmless
disinfectant instead of a pathogen in one of your plans to drive
the entire clan father away from you. Considering that a
pathogen would have worked just as well, I’m really glad you
decided to use the disinfectant.”
The flame haired gargoyle gave Kendra a
puzzled look, not immediately following her line of reasoning.
“Using a pathogen certainly would have guaranteed that you
remained alone. I doubt the clan would have wanted to have
anything to do with you after you succeeded after all, and with
the praying gargoyle you would have been able to protect the
other gargoyles from being harmed by whatever pathogen you
chose,” Kendra pointed out. “Which means that the interesting
question is why you so conveniently forgot about the carrier
virus not being able to replicate, and why you chose to use a
disinfectant instead of the more logical choice of a pathogen in
the first place,” she commented.
Demona sat back in her chair, stunned, she
hadn’t thought about the fact that she could have chosen a
pathogen instead of the stolen disinfectant and fulfilled the
demands of the Weird Sister’s enchantment just as well. The
gargoyle shuddered, she was pleased that she had used the
disinfectant, but it did raise questions as to why she had gone
through all that effort to steal the canisters of it from
Xanatos when Sevarius had several pathogens she could have
chosen from that he had been playing with in his laboratory at
Nightstone. It was almost as if she had willfully blinded
herself to that possibility, and instead chosen something that,
while it sounded threatening, had little possibility of actually
being harmful. She had no answers for Kendra’s questions, she
didn’t know why she had forgotten about the carrier virus not
being able to replicate, nor did she know why she had fixated
upon Xanatos’s disinfectant instead of one of the pathogens in
her own lab, and the two unanswered questions left her feeling
deeply unsettled.
When Demona didn’t respond after a few
seconds, Kendra continued, “It’s too bad Robyn didn’t research
the carrier virus more thoroughly before she stirred everyone up
to go and stop you, but maybe the enchantment on her was to
blame. The one on Jon…” she shook her head, “I have no idea
what it was supposed to do,” she admitted, “but I really didn’t
like what it looked like…”
Demona frowned, Kendra appeared really
bothered by this, “Why, what about it disturbed you?” the
gargoyle prodded, trying to get her lover to continue.
Kendra looked at her, “I’m not sure, but I
got a very nasty feeling about it when I was looking at it. The
threads of the enchantment connected certain areas of his brain
together, but nothing else. I’m glad we’re going to the spirit
realm tonight, maybe one of the spirits will have an idea what
exactly it was doing to him.”
“I’m certain one of them will,” Demona
responded reassuringly.
Forty minutes later, they curled together
on the couch and made the transition from the living world into
the spirit realm. They stepped out of the house and into the
yard; the Ancient One and the Jaguar spirit were waiting for
them. “My chosen,” the Jaguar spirit addressed Kendra, in his
rich, commanding baritone, “You have news of your cousin?”
Kendra went immediately to the Jaguar
spirit, kneeling in front of him and meeting his green eyes in
silent communication.
While the two of them were communing,
Demona quietly greeted the Irish Elk spirit, “Ancient One.”
First his ears and then his great brown
eyes shifted from watching Kendra and the Jaguar spirit to her,
“My chosen,” he responded in his great deep voice.
Finally, Kendra and the Jaguar spirit
stirred once again, the Jaguar spirit turned toward the Ancient
One, “I have never seen a fey enchantment like this one,” he
sounded troubled. This time, as Kendra and Demona watched, it
was the two spirits whose eyes met for a moment.
The Irish Elk stamped his foot, “The Wise
One may know more than even I, a few of her chosen have been
examining this spell since recent events brought it more to our
attention. I have my suspicions as to how this enchantment
affects the other Canmores, but we should confer with her to see
what she has learned.”
The great stag sounded angry, Demona
frowned, remembering what Kendra had said about the enchantment
and how it had made her feel to see it. She started to worry
about what it was that the Ancient One suspected, and how it
might affect Kendra. Only a few seconds later the Eagle Owl
spirit came winging out of the grey mists to land in between the
other two spirits.
“I do know what the spell on the Canmore’s
does,” the Wise One stated immediately without even greeting
anyone, her tone coldly angry, “One of the Eagles chosen,
Ishmael, who is a physician, recognized what it was doing from
some new research into the physical causes of drug addiction.
The enchantment mimics the effect of certain addictive drugs on
the human brain; it activates the dopamine reward circuit in the
brain whenever the person it is placed upon performs the desired
behavior. In this case the behavior they wanted was for the
Canmores to pursue and attempt to kill Demona. Unfortunately
the enchantment is not specific enough and any gargoyle’s death
will activate the enchantment, though not as strongly.”
Kendra turned toward the Wise One, her
expression incredulous, “They addicted them to killing
gargoyles?”
The Eagle Owl spirit ruffled her feathers,
“Not just killing, even thinking about harming a gargoyle will
cause a weak activation of the enchantment,” she snapped her
beak together angrily. “As I said, by the look of the spell I
suspect they didn’t intend for the enchantment to be triggered
by anything but Demona, but they didn’t take any steps to limit
the stimulus that caused the enchantment to activate over the
centuries they used it either.”
The black haired woman’s expression slowly
changed from disbelieving to enraged, she turned and walked a
few paces away from them. Demona heard her take a few deep
breaths and started to cross over to her when a wild cry of raw
fury and pain erupted from Kendra’s throat as she fell to her
knees. The flame haired gargoyle could feel the anger radiating
off Kendra, and the sense of danger emanating from the black
haired woman was something she hadn’t felt since that first
meeting between them in her office.
The great stag stepped in front of Demona
as she started towards Kendra, “Chosen,” he cautioned.
Demona stepped around him, she knew Kendra
would never hurt her, “Kendra,” she said softly as she
approached the black haired woman. It got no immediate
response, “My love,” she tried again as knelt a few feet away.
That got a response, Kendra’s head turned,
their eyes met, “How could they have done something that
perverse? To make my ancestors feel pleasure when they murdered
or thought about hurting…” the sapphire blue eyes were filled
with anger, but underneath it they were haunted, pain filled.
Then Demona felt it, the sharp pain of the wound this knowledge
had made in Kendra’s spirit, the bewilderment and anger she was
feeling.
The gargoyle opened her arms, her heart
filled with a deep, aching pain for her mate, and then they were
full of her hurting lover. She wrapped her wings around the
woman and silently held her, rocking her gently back and forth.
She didn’t know what to do to lessen Kendra’s pain, except what
she was doing now, holding the black haired woman and letting
her know that she cared and would be there for her. Just as
Kendra had been doing for her ever since the gargoyle learned
that the past thousand years of suffering had been the Archmages
vengeance against her. Gently Demona stroked the long, silky
midnight black hair and thought about how much she loved the
human woman in her arms, how much she wanted to just take this
pain away from her and protect her from anything that might hurt
her like this in the future.
After a minute or two, Kendra shifted in
her arms, moving so that she could hold the gargoyle in return,
“You’re making it very hard for me to remain angry,” she
murmured. Demona gave her a confused look; the black haired
woman pulled away enough so that she could reach up and pull the
gargoyle’s head down so that the bony eyebrow ridge rested
against her forehead. “Feeling your emotions,” Kendra
explained, rubbing her brow against the gargoyle’s gently, “is
making it impossible for me to remain angry with the Weird
Sisters.” Their lips met in a brief kiss, “What I’m feeling
from you is so very beautiful my love.”
Demona closed her eyes, their foreheads
were still touching and they breathed into the shared space
between their faces. Her wings held Kendra’s body tightly
against her own. The anger and pain she had felt from Kendra
receded, replaced by much different emotions. Tender and
gentle, fierce and protective, bright and passionate, the
strength of them brought tears to her eyes as she shifted to
bring her body into even closer contact with her lover’s. The
gargoyle wanted to stay here forever wrapped up in these
feelings, wrapped around Kendra.
The slight sound of feathers rustling
reminded the two of them that they were not alone, “Demona,
Kendra,” said the Wise One, sounding rather stern and
commanding. Her tone was quite unlike anything either of them
had ever heard from the Eagle Owl before, and surprised they
broke apart from each other and looked over toward her. The
spirit regarded them steadily, “I understand it is a temptation
to remain here and feel one another’s emotions, but it is not
safe for either of you to do so. In the past, other chosen who
were mates have seriously damaged their physical bodies when
they remained here too long. I do not wish to see that happen
to either of you.”
The flame haired gargoyle’s green eyes
widened at the Wise One’s warning words. Considering the
thoughts she had just had about wanting to stay here forever in
Kendra’s arms, she could understand only too easily how it had
happened. Reluctantly, they released one another, moving apart
until they were able to rise to their feet once again. Kendra
reached out and gently stroked down the side of Demona’s face,
before turning to the Eagle Owl spirit, “Thank you for your
warning.”
The Wise One twitched her wings back into
place before replying, “You are welcome young jaguar, now my
senior chosen is waiting with one of the young Horse’s chosen
for you.”
“Concentrate on her image and will yourself
to her as you travel, chosen,” the Irish Elk spirit advised.
Demona frowned, the directions he was
giving sounded rather odd, yet… she thought of the Cree woman
and began walking. The swirling mists got closer instead of
clearing in front of her as they normally did. In her surprise,
she let her concentration waver, and the mists receded from in
front of her revealing more of her yard.
“Do not let your concentration waver
chosen,” the great stag instructed. The gargoyle nodded, she
had already guessed what had happened. Once again she
concentrated, and this time when the mists remained steady she
kept her concentration on the Cree woman’s image and walked into
them. When they cleared almost immediately in front of her, she
recognized the woods around Rachael’s home in Canada.
“Cool,” Kendra commented as she appeared
out of the mists beside her, the black haired woman turned and
looked back at the mists from which they had come with a
delighted smile. Demona smiled at her, Kendra was right it was
a very interesting way to travel.
Rachael was already standing beside her
home; beside her was a much younger woman with short brown hair,
wearing black chinos and a long sleeved white shirt. This was
probably Sharon, the gargoyle took a moment to look her over,
the woman was a few inches shorter than either she or Kendra,
and appeared to be rather muscular and solid looking. At first
glance she rather reminded Demona of her IT Division manager
Jordan Conrad, though she wasn’t as slender. Standing behind
the young woman was a very large and powerful looking dark bay
stallion that the gargoyle immediately guessed was the Horse
spirit.
“Demona, Kendra” the Cree woman smiled
warmly as she welcomed them. “This is Sharon McDonald, one of
the Horse spirit’s chosen and the Horse spirit.”
“Pleased to meet you, Ma’am,” the tanned
young woman said, stepping forward with bold self-confidence and
holding out her hand to Demona.
Her hazel eyes met those of the gargoyle
without any guile and Demona’s first impression of the young
woman was that she was rather open and honest. Mindful of her
talons and amused by Sharon’s manner, Demona grasped the
proffered hand and shook it, “I’m pleased to meet you as well.”
The gargoyle found it interesting that the young woman was
treating this as if it were an interview; it meant that she was
at least curious about the position.
Demona’s eyes went to the spirit standing
behind his chosen, “Horse spirit,” she acknowledged him
respectfully. The greeting was quickly echoed by Kendra who was
standing a little behind and off to the side of the gargoyle.
“Ancient One’s chosen, Jaguar’s chosen,”
the equine spirit replied lifting his head and giving both of
them but especially Demona a long assessing look.
“Rachael told me you were interested in
filling a personal assistant position?” Sharon inquired,
breaking the silence.
Given the Horse spirit’s obvious interest
in this matter, the flame haired gargoyle decided it was best to
be completely honest about why she was looking for someone.
Demona wanted both Sharon and the spirit protectively watching
over her to have a clear idea about what the gargoyle expected
of the young woman if she accepted the position, “I am. With my
magical lessons and teaching Kendra how to glide, my evenings
are rather full these days. I’d like to have the time to spar,
work out, and learn how to dance as well, but I need to start
taking less work home with me to have more time to fit them in,
thus the need for a personal assistant.”
The hazel eyes softened, and Sharon nodded,
“I can understand that. I don’t have any official work
experience besides two summer internships with local businesses,
but I did just graduate with a double major in International
Business Management and Business Administration from the
University of Phoenix.”
Demona’s brow raised, that was an
interesting choice of majors and potentially a good fit with the
type of work the younger woman would be doing for her.
“Official work experience?” questioned the gargoyle, wondering
exactly what Sharon meant by that.
“I’ve been helping my Dad with the ranch
ever since I was twelve or so,” the young Horse’s chosen
explained, “it’s why I decided to go into business
administration. I realized I enjoyed understanding how the
ranch worked and stayed profitable so much that I decided that
was what I wanted to do for a living.”
“He doesn’t need your help?” Demona
inquired carefully.
Sharon grinned, “He’s got my two older
brothers to help him. I’m sure he would find something for me
to do if I wanted, but he doesn’t need me to work on the
ranch.” Then apparently suddenly mindful that such an
expression wasn’t quite appropriate for an interview, she
sobered abruptly.
“Relax, Sharon,” Demona smirked at her,
“this is somewhat informal for an interview after all.” The
gargoyle was pleased to see that though the shorter woman did
relax, she didn’t take the invitation as an excuse to relax too
much. “I understand that you have a horse?”
The hazel eyes warmed appreciably, “Bree,
she’s a three year old Appaloosa mare,” she smiled, “I picked
her out when she was just a foal and trained her myself. Even
when I was in school I always came out on the weekends to ride
her. That’s the main thing I’m concerned about with your
company being located in such a big city, where will I keep her
and how often will I get to see her.”
Knowing whose chosen she was, Sharon’s
obvious love for the animal didn’t seem so odd to Demona
anymore, “If you’re interested in the position, I’m sure that
something could be worked out for your horse.”
“Up near where I live in Dutchess County,
there are several very nice stables. It’s only a two hour drive
from the city and I’ve got more than enough room if you want to
stay at my estate on the weekends to see her,” Kendra offered.
“If I can find a stable that would exercise
her, that might work,” Sharon responded, her eyes brightening
hopefully.
“Will you need to go up every full moon?”
the gargoyle asked, her eyes flickering briefly back to the dark
bay spirit standing behind the younger woman.
Sharon looked puzzled for a moment, then
understanding filled her eyes, “No, that won’t be necessary for
me.”
Demona was relieved, that would have made
things more difficult as well as being awkward to explain at
work. “I’ll need you to send me your resume so I can look it
over, if you can send it to my email address I can take a look
at it this weekend.”
Sharon suddenly looked a bit overwhelmed,
“I can do that, does that mean I might have the position? I
haven’t even talked to my family about the possibility of me
moving to New York. Dad’s going to…” Her voice trailed off,
but Demona could make a few guesses as to how Sharon thought her
father might react to this news.
“Why don’t you both take the weekend and
think about it,” Kendra proposed, looking over toward Demona
with a raised eyebrow to see if this suggestion met with the
gargoyle’s approval. “We can meet again on Sunday night after
you’ve had a chance to look over her resume,” her gaze shifted
to Sharon “and you’ve had a chance to introduce the idea to your
family.”
Demona nodded, “That sounds like an
excellent suggestion.”
December 12th
– Friday
Afternoon – Park
Avenue, Manhattan
They had put their clothes for the weekend into Kendra’s car
this morning so that they could leave directly from Nightstone.
Now they were driving north on Park Avenue headed out of town to
Kendra’s estate in Dutchess County.
The work day had went well in Dominique’s opinion, by
mid-morning Dr. Sanders had sent up a report detailing how she
had disposed of the biological and chemicals in Dr. Sevarius’s
old laboratory and the steps she had taken to destroy any
research information that could be used to replicate the carrier
virus. The redhead had been impressed; the researcher had been
quick and thorough at completing the task. Apparently, she had
been right about how much Dr. Sanders disliked Dr. Sevarius’s
work. In return, Dominique had reviewed the department’s
projects and sent a list of those she wanted discontinued to Dr.
Sanders. Those researchers on the discontinued projects would
either be assigned to Dr. Kirkland’s team or reassigned to other
projects in the Biological and Chemical Department.
Sharon’s resume had been waiting in her inbox when she got into
work, and Dominique had been rather impressed with it, the young
woman hadn’t mentioned that she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She
had also looked up the courses required for both majors and been
pleased with the breadth of coursework required. The major
concern remaining in the redhead’s mind was whether or not
Sharon would be able to deal with the formality she would
require of the young woman while they were at work. That
however was something they would both have to discover if the
young woman accepted the position and Dominique already knew she
was going to offer it to her.
“I wasn’t searching to end this hurting, but out of nowhere you
made me feel.”
The opening lyrics of the song playing on the radio caught the
redhead’s attention, pulling her thoughts away from work and to
the woman sitting next to her in the driver’s seat of the car.
She stared at Kendra’s profile, taking in the straight nose and
strong line of her jaw, thinking of how her lips had traced over
the same soft skin she was looking at now, the night before.
Their lovemaking last night had been unusually intense, each
staring into the other’s eyes as they touched and caressed one
another, searching for the emotions they had felt from each
other in the spirit realm.
“Send me a lover, someone to believe in,
Please send me someone I can hold,
Baby now send me lover, a new beginning,
Someone to take away the cold,
And give me back, what I’ve been missing,
All the love that waits inside your heart.”
The words of the song seemed almost meant specifically for her;
she had been so cold and alone for so very long before Kendra
came into her life. She reached out toward Kendra intending to
simply place her hand on the woman’s strong thigh. Instead, her
hand taken in a warm, strong clasp, the redhead looked up from
their entwined hands to see Kendra glancing at her with a soft
smile.
“It still astounds me, the way you found me,
It’s almost too good to be true,
From our first meeting,
I had a feeling the rest of my life I’d spend with you.”
Dominique smiled; well it hadn’t been quite that soon, though
she had definitely been interested in Kendra from their first
meeting. She almost had to laugh at herself now, thinking of
all the reasons she had made up in her mind for why she accepted
the investment, the sparring match, and then not telling
Kendra’s secret. The last thing she had been ready to admit
that first week was that she found Kendra herself interesting,
not the information the woman had or what she might be able to
tell the clan.
“I just can’t turn my back on what I know is true,
I’m into you in every way.”
They pulled up to a stoplight as the refrain of the song began
again, Kendra turned toward her and Dominique needed no urging
to lean over and meet her lover’s lips.
“I thought that love was only a word that I would never feel
All the passion that I hold inside was just a dream
Out of your heart you spoke to me all that I'd imagined
And I've fallen so in love with you.”
Afternoon – Also
on Park Avenue, Manhattan
“I don’t know what they’re up to, but something big is
definitely happening, Castaway is constantly in meetings with
the other Quarrymen leaders,” Elisa said, her eyes narrowed
against the glare of the setting sun reflected from the glass
sides of the buildings lining the street. She glanced idly at
the black sports car in front of her and smiled as she saw the
two figures inside take advantage of the stop light to lean over
and kiss. It made her think of Goliath; perhaps someday they
would be able to display their feelings for one another as
openly as the couple in the car ahead of her. She blinked in
surprise as she saw the hair silhouetted against the light.
Either the guy in the driver’s seat had very long hair or it was
actually two women in the car ahead of them, with the glare off
the buildings and the dark tinted glass of the windows, she
couldn’t really make out enough detail to tell.
“What do you think it is?” Matt asked.
She shrugged, “As I said I don’t know, they don’t trust Sally
quite enough yet to tell me. Whatever it is I’d expect it to go
down in the next week or so.” Elisa raised an eyebrow as the
woman in the driver’s seat leaned farther over, her silhouette
providing undisputable evidence that she was indeed female, and
cupped the other woman’s head and the woman in the passenger
seat did the same. The detective couldn’t see much detail, but
she didn’t need to tell that the kiss between the two was
getting more heated.
“Hey, that’s two women,” Matt said sitting up in his seat and
looking with more interest at the two figures kissing in the car
just ahead of them.
Elisa rolled her eyes; she had wondered when he would notice
that. She glanced at the car absently noting it was a Jaguar,
the same type of car Kendra Canmore drove, she remembered, that
first day she had met the annoying woman. She frowned as she
recalled the frank up and down appraising look Jason’s cousin
had given her; she couldn’t remember ever having been so openly
cruised by another woman before. It had been irritating and
even more so when she realized that Kendra was just doing it to
see if it would rattle her.
The light turned green and the two women in the black Jaguar
seemed completely oblivious of the world around them. After
waiting a few more seconds for the two to realize the light had
turned, the detective pushed on her horn, it still took a few
seconds before the figures in the car broke apart. The two
silhouettes stared at one another for a few moments before the
diver finally sat back and the vehicle began moving.
“Are you going to tell the clan tonight about what you saw the
other day?” Matt asked, distracting her from the vehicle in
front of them.
She let up on the brake and stepped lightly on the gas to get
her car moving, “Yes, I’ll tell them tonight,” she confirmed.
“I just hope that it doesn’t distract Angela too much, the last
thing we need right now is her going off and getting caught up
in whatever Demona is playing at.”
Matt sighed, “She might not be playing at anything,” he pointed
out once again.
“I know,” Elisa growled, tired of this argument, “listen, I
recognize I’m not really looking at this objectively, but after
what she did to Angela less than a month ago I don’t think I’m
being that unreasonable in suspecting this is just more of the
same.”
“You don’t think that type of news is enough to make her rethink
everything?” Matt tried again; he didn’t like how his partner
was letting her emotions keep her from seeing all the
possibilities. It was a very bad habit for a detective to get
into. “I mean from what I’ve heard most of the reasons she
believes humanity can’t get along with gargoyles was because of
what she thought was Macbeth’s betrayal of her clan and the way
the Canmore’s hunted her. Suppose Macbeth’s story is true, and
Kendra Canmore wasn’t playing along in some scheme, and that
right now Demona knows that neither of those two things is true,
that it was just part of a larger scheme against her by the
Weird Sisters and the Archmage. Isn’t it reasonable to think
that might be enough to get her to stop warring with the clan
and maybe even the rest of us?”
“Maybe,” Elisa very reluctantly allowed after a few seconds.
The black Jaguar continued down Park Avenue as she slowed to
turn toward the Eyrie building, “but if that’s the case then
whatever’s going on with the Quarrymen is more important than
what Demona may or may not be thinking right now. Unless she is
planning something, they’re definitely the more immediate threat
we need to concentrate on at the moment.”
Matt couldn’t argue with that logic, if Demona wasn’t a current
threat then Elisa was right, they needed to focus on taking the
Quarrymen down and stopping whatever it was they were in the
middle of planning. |
