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Puppet Strings - Chapter 16
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, and is not authorized by the
copyright holder. All original characters are the property of
the author.
Warning: none
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: 03/27/08
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Dominique sat up, “I guess I’d better tell
you the rest,” she said reluctantly.
Thirty-five minutes later, “Those three Fey
bitches,” Kendra swore, “that damned enchantment they cast on
you so you would drive those you cared about away,” she growled.
The redhead was surprised by the cussing as
Kendra hadn’t really sworn around her before, but she was warmed
by the emotions provoking it. “Now you know why telling my
daughter about what’s happened won’t help me any. It’s too
soon; she would just think I was trying to deceive her again.
I’ll just have to hope that eventually she will see that I’ve
changed and come to me on her own.”
Kendra nodded unhappily. A few seconds
later, her eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to her, “You know
that does bring up an interesting point about Thailog, why
didn’t you drive him away?” she asked.
Dominique stared at her, her mind a
complete blank, “I…I don’t know, I should have shouldn’t I,” she
realized.
“Maybe you did know on some level that he
was lying, that he didn’t actually love you,” Kendra offered
hesitantly.
Dominique sighed, “Perhaps, the fact that I
didn’t drive him away indicates that I never really loved him
either, or the fact that he was a clone meant that I didn’t
really consider him to be a true gargoyle.” She caught sight of
the slight frown on Kendra’s face; it didn’t take much thought
to divine a reason for it. “It’s a good thing the Weird Sisters
didn’t think I could ever care about a human or I would have
been canceling our sparring sessions after the second one.”
The frown was replaced by a smile and
Dominique knew she had been right, “Kendra,” she waited until
she had her lover’s complete attention, “Never doubt that I care
for you very much, I’ve told you more about myself and my past
already than I’ve ever told anyone else including Goliath. I
always suspected that he wouldn’t love me if he knew the real
me, and so I hid the things about myself that I wasn’t so proud
of away from him. I don’t think he ever realized, but I knew
our mating wasn’t as close as it should be almost from the
start.” She grimaced briefly, “Knowing that the clan will
certainly tell you if I don’t, makes it more imperative that I
tell you about my past, but I’m also telling you because I want
you to know all of me.” She looked into Kendra’s blue eyes, “I
never want to feel as if I need to hide parts of myself from you
for you to accept me.”
“I never want you to,” Kendra replied
immediately, “and it’s not like I don’t have my dark side as
well. I know we’re supposed to see everything as having innate
worth, but when I deem something a threat, I will kill it
without the slightest bit of remorse. It’s one of the reason’s
I learned martial arts, so that I could avoid being placed into
that situation, it helps me back off defining someone as a
definite threat.”
Dominique was surprised, despite her
occasional talk about killing, Kendra just didn’t seem like a
cold-blooded killer to her. The woman cared too much to kill
without remorse. Then her logic kicked in and she realized what
Kendra was saying, the jaguar in her took over when it
determined there was a threat and jaguars preferred to kill
instantly. “I think I understand, it’s the jaguar in you isn’t
it?”
Kendra nodded, “I killed four men that I
could have subdued had I know what I know now. I don’t know if
they intended to just take my wallet or something worse, but I
didn’t take the time to find out. I was scared that I couldn’t
defend myself; I transformed and killed them all. Two of them
ran once I killed the other two, I tracked them down and killed
them anyway.”
The redhead could see the regret in
Kendra’s blue eyes, “You’re not remorseless, or you wouldn’t
regret killing them,” she said softly.
“That’s the human part, the other part of
me doesn’t regret it at all,” Kendra said and Dominique suddenly
understood part of the sorrow she was seeing in her lover’s blue
eyes was because Kendra didn’t wholly regret killing them.
“Then I’ll try and help make sure you’re
not put in that position again,” she found herself promising,
“Not unless there really is no other choice.” Demona was
surprised to find that she meant it. The idea of killing humans
that were threatening Kendra or she certainly did not bother
her, but since it troubled Kendra she was willing to make the
attempt to subdue if it didn’t endanger either of them.
Kendra looked surprised as well, “Thank
you,” she responded after only a brief moment of silence, “I
know how skilled you are, so I appreciate that.” The wind chose
that moment to pick up causing Kendra to shiver. She looked up
at the sky and could see that the sun was nearly overhead, “We
need to make lunch and then why don’t we move into the tent. I
don’t know about you, but these late nights have been taking it
out of me. I could use a nap before tonight.”
“That sounds good, I’m tired as well,”
Dominique immediately agreed. These long nights in the spirit
realm were draining physically, mentally, and, considering some
of the things she had learned, frequently emotionally as well.
She certainly wasn’t expecting tonight to be easy in any way.
She wasn’t sure what she and Macbeth would learn, but she was
certain that whatever it was the Ancient One had to tell them
wouldn’t be pleasant.
After a quick lunch they moved the sleeping
bags back into the tent, the wind had increased from the
occasional gust to more of a steady breeze with the occasional
stronger gust and they were both glad to get out of it. The sky
was also clouding over and it was starting to look as if it
might snow later.
Dominique could hear the wind outside the
tent as it caused the rainfly over the tent to rustle, outside
it was cold and windy, but in the tent it was quiet and still
except for the sound of their breathing. The down-filled
sleeping bag was thick around them and warm, and Kendra’s body
pressed sweetly against her back, thigh and leg, and one of
Kendra’s arms was wrapped around her waist. She heard her lover
draw in a deep breath, “You feel good,” Kendra whispered into
her hair.
The redhead rested her arm on top of
Kendra’s and hugged it tighter to her, “So do you,” she
acknowledged with a happy smile, lying with her lover like this
did feel very good. The woman behind her shifted and she felt
the brief press of lips against her temple before Kendra settled
again. She felt her lover’s body relax and the sound of her
breathing even out in sleep, but her thoughts kept her awake.
So much had happened during the past three days. Certainly she
had experienced more intense grief, after the massacre at
Wyvern, and Canmore’s betrayal of their agreement and the death
of her clan at Moray came immediately to mind. She had never
however, in her almost thousand years of life, experienced such
an intense mixture of emotions in such a short period of time:
anger, sorrow, regret, joy, happiness, and at the back of her
mind there was the whisper that added love.
Before meeting Kendra and the Irish Elk
spirit, learning about what the Weird Sisters had done to her
would have probably sent her seeking Macbeth and death. Now
however, though the scope of the tasks she had agreed to do were
daunting, she had no desire to seek oblivion. Instead, she felt
cautiously optimistic and hopeful when she thought about the
future; and that in itself was such a radical change for her.
The last time she had truly felt optimistic about the future had
been when she was allied with Macbeth, and even then it hadn’t
been this strange giddy, nervous anticipation she felt now.
Yes, there were things that she was not
looking forward to; she was not looking forward to the long
months of the clan and her daughter’s suspicion and distrust of
her motives. She was not looking forward to them trying to turn
Kendra against her, and she was almost certain they would make
the attempt. Of course, she was also certain that they would
fail. Kendra had forgiven her for killing humans that one
night, she had understood and forgiven her for her part in her
clan’s massacre by the Vikings, she knew about Paris and
Macbeth, Thailog and the clones, and the Assassin, everything
else she had done was relatively minor compared to those things.
None of those difficulties, however,
decreased in the least bit the anticipation she felt when the
thought about returning to New York and getting started on her
tasks. Nor did it diminish the pleasure and happiness she felt
when she thought about doing things with Kendra. She wanted to
do the things she had heard her employees talking about on
Friday afternoons and Monday mornings that used to send her to
her office seething with hatred. She could now admit to herself
that behind that hatred had been large amounts of jealously,
resentment and envy. Jealously and resentment that they were
able to do those things without fearing for their lives, and
envy that they had someone they wanted to do them with when she
did not. Now that the stag spirit had given her control over
her changes she could do all the things she had wished she could
do, she caressed Kendra’s arm around her waist, feeling a sweet
upwelling of happiness and joy, and now she had someone to do
them with as well.
Dominique remembered Kendra’s words, that
the best way to defeat the Archmage’s revenge was for her to be
happy and not alone, well why not. She wanted to go out to eat
together and then go to the theater or to a play or perhaps,
after she learned how, even out dancing. She wanted them to go
to the concerts in Central Park in the summer. She wanted to
watch Kendra ice skate…she never noticed when she finally fell
asleep with a small smile on her lips and her arm firmly over
Kendra’s.
Her internal clock telling her it was
sunset woke Dominique. Kendra was still asleep and barely even
stirred when the redhead slipped out of the sleeping bag; she
looked down at the black-haired woman fondly and decided not to
wake her. There was time yet before they needed to go to the
spirit realm, and she needed to fix enough food for them to have
dinner and a substantial meal after they were done. She slipped
out of her fleece clothing and quickly into her halter-top and
loincloth, and then quietly unzipped the tent and crawled out
into the small vestibule formed by the outer tent rainfly.
Shivering in the cold air, she resealed the tent behind her and
quickly unzipped the outer exit.
She paused briefly in surprise to stare at
the fresh layer of snow that blanketed the ground, she grimaced
at the thought of having to stand in it barefoot, but there was
really no other choice, the tent wasn’t quite large enough for
her to transform inside of it. Hissing at the cold of the snow,
she tiptoed out far enough from the tent to transform. Once the
transformation was complete Demona caped her wings around
herself to further protect herself from the weather, it was
still snowing and the occasional gust blew more from the pine
needles above. She glanced at the fire, not surprisingly, it
was completely out and she decided against getting another
started. They would not be sitting out in the open with it
snowing while in the spirit realm tonight, they would have to
remain in the tent. She carefully pulled off the grey nylon
tarp that covered the stove and food and began preparing dinner;
it would have to be stew again, that was the easiest thing to
reheat later.
She cut up the meat, browned it and pulled
out a bag of frozen stew vegetables. A quick assessment of the
remaining food in the cooler showed they had enough vegetables
and soup stock to make four more large pots of stew; Rachael
must have anticipated that it would be their primary meal. She
emptied the dried soup stock into the pot along with water, meat
and frozen vegetables, brought it to a boil and then reduced the
flame underneath it until the soup was simmering. She covered
it, now it would be thirty more minutes before dinner was
ready. She pulled out some bread and wrapped it in aluminum
foil and set it on the propane stove to warm for them to have
along with the stew.
What to do for the next half hour? Well
she had intended to explore the Ancient One’s lesson’s further,
but between Rachael’s news and discussion and then her need to
tell Kendra a few things about her past she hadn’t had the
time. Recalling the lesson, she attuned her vision to see life
energy, in an instant the world turned from greens and browns
and white patches of snow into brilliant streams of golden
light. Demona gasped, turning around and gaping in amazement at
what she saw all around her. Life energy, all the trees around
the clearing were lit up with it, reaching up toward the
darkening sky and down toward the life giving earth.
Movement in the forest caught the gargoyles
eye and she stared at the small brilliantly glowing form in
confusion before realizing what she was seeing. It was a hare
feeding off the bark of one of the pine trees; she let her
vision go back to normal and looked again for the hare. Even
with her excellent night vision, she could barely detect the
animal as it had a white coat that allowed it to blend almost
perfectly into the snow surrounding it, the only thing that
betrayed it were the small black spots on the tips of its
twitching ears. She altered her vision once again and watched
the feeding hare for a few minutes before turning her attention
back to the forest around her.
Kendra woke immediately noticing the
complete darkness of the tent and the fact that she was alone.
There wasn’t even the glow of the fire to be seen and when she
listened she could hear nothing, but a very slight noise that
might be a propane stove. Fighting down her unease, she rolled
out of the bag and dressed in fleece and the windproof jacket
and pants.
Crawling out of the tent, she first noticed
the fresh snow on the ground, but it only held her attention for
a moment, she was more interested in locating Demona. It wasn’t
hard to spot her; the only question in Kendra’s mind was what in
the world was the gargoyle doing? She glanced around the camp.
It had been the propane stove that she had heard from the tent,
there was a large pot on the lit stove and she could guess that
it had stew in it. She looked back at the motionless gargoyle
crouched by the base of one of the pine trees that bordered the
clearing and frowned in puzzlement. As far as she could tell
Demona was intently studying the trunk of the pine tree, the tip
of gargoyle’s tail flicked up and back down and then was still
for a few seconds before repeating the motion again.
Kendra studied the gargoyle for a few more
seconds, completely bemused by her behavior before walking
quietly over to crouch beside her. She stared at the tree
trunk, it was a pine tree trunk rather like all the others
around, the bark was reddish-brown, deeply ridged and scaly.
Sections of the bark looked like they had flaked off revealing
newer reddish bark underneath, and snow clung to it on the side
facing the wind. Kendra could see nothing about this particular
tree that warranted such intent study. “Demona, what are you
doing?” she finally asked, completely baffled by her lover’s
behavior.
Demona looked up abruptly as if startled by
her speaking; the gargoyle stared up at her silently an
expression on her face that Kendra found difficult to decipher.
Awe, wonder, she decided though she could not figure out why the
gargoyle would look at her that way. “Demona?” she asked again,
her tone slightly worried.
“Watching life energy,” the gargoyle
finally answered in a soft tone, she rose and turned to face
Kendra reached up and cupped her lover’s face. There it was
much stronger now that the distance was less, “Our life energies
reach out toward one another, when I touch you they even mesh
slightly.”
Kendra had a sudden sympathy for Demona
over the night when she first told about the gargoyle about the
fey enchantments on her. It was disconcerting to have someone
look inside you and see something that you couldn’t see. “What
does it look like?” she asked softly, matching Demona’s tone.
“Like golden streams of sunlight with motes
of deeper gold and forest green,” Demona said, she caressed the
side of Kendra’s face careful of her talons. “When I touch you
fainter wisps of energy branch out toward me, and mine toward
you,” she stepped closer, looking intently at where her hand
rested upon her lover’s skin. “Fascinating, some of the motes
are actually moving back and forth between us,” she said, a soft
smile lighting her face.
Kendra watched her lover’s face, feeling a
slight pang of envy over Demona’s ability to see what was
obviously an amazing sight given the gargoyles awed expression.
“I wish you could see,” Demona said, and
now Kendra had the impression that the gargoyle was looking at
her rather than within her.
Kendra smiled wistfully, “So do I it sounds
beautiful.”
“It is,” Demona assured her.
Kendra thought about the things she had
learned from the priestess and the Jaguar spirit, and then about
Rachael’s estimate that it would take two months of hard
studying for Demona to learn just the basics. She grinned, “My
talents lie in another direction. I’ll leave the life and
nature magic and the associated studying to you.”
The hand that had been touching Kendra’s
face dropped back to the gargoyle’s side as Demona chuckled
softly and gave the black-haired woman a wry look, “You would
have to remind me of that part, all I can do with it right now
is see it.”
“You’ll learn,” Kendra said confidently,
“From what Rachael hinted, I’m sure in a year or so you will be
doing things that amaze me.”
Demona nodded, “Hopefully,” she said in a
thoughtful tone. She turned and looked toward the propane
stove, “The stew should be done by now, we should eat and go.”
She looked up at the sky, “It’s stopped snowing, but I thought
we would remain in the tent tonight?”
“Probably a good idea, it seems like it’s
colder than last night,” Kendra agreed with a glance at the thin
slivers of cloudy sky she could she through the pine canopy.
She walked over to the stove and carefully lifted the lid of the
pot letting the steam escape out the far side, “smells ready to
me,” she commented.
The two of them returned to the tent to eat
their dinner. Afterward Demona went briefly back out to scrub
the dishes with fresh snow, store the remaining stew for later,
and secure the tarp back around the stove and food. When she
returned to the tent, they curled up together inside the
sleeping bag once again. This time Demona held Kendra, one wing
tucked beneath her and the other wrapped over them. The
gargoyle’s green eyes half closed in pleasure as she felt Kendra
stroke the inside of her wing gently with her fingers. If they
weren’t expected in the spirit realm tonight, she might entice
Kendra to explore some of the differences between their bodies
more; she was looking forward to having her lover’s gentle
fingers caress her wing joints and other sensitive areas like
the upper part of her tail. However, they did not have time for
it tonight, and the thought of what the stag was going to show
Macbeth and she put an immediate damper on her ardor. “As good
as that feels, I need to go meet the Ancient One,” she reminded
Kendra softly.
The fingers stroking the inside of her wing
stilled and in the dark she saw Kendra turn her head and look
back at her, “Something I should remember?” she heard the
interest and amusement in the woman’s voice.
“Mmm,” Demona smiled, “you haven’t really
explored my true form yet.” The smile faded as she recalled yet
again what was on the agenda for this night.
Kendra’s said softly, “I’ll keep that in
mind for later. Let’s get going, I can see you’re worrying
about tonight.”
The gargoyle didn’t bother denying it; she
closed her eyes and began breathing in deep even breaths. She
did not need Kendra’s assistance tonight; traveling to the
spirit realm this third time was as easy as calling up a
detailed mental image of her home or office. She looked around
as soon as they emerged into the shadowy realm and was grateful
to see the Ancient One waiting for her along with the Owl and
Jaguar spirits, but without Macbeth. Rachael was not present
either, and Demona guessed it was too soon for the Owl’s chosen
to have news for them.
“Good evening Wise One, Jaguar,” she
greeted the other two spirits respectfully before turning to her
own patron, “Ancient One, I wish to speak with you about Macbeth
and how much he will remember of this,” she indicated the
shadowy realm around them, “And you and I.”
Demona heard Kendra’s greetings to the
waiting spirits behind her as the great stag regarded her
intently for a moment, “You do not wish him to remember that you
are my chosen,” he said perceptively. “Show me your reasons for
this request.” The wise brown eyes caught her own as they did
when the spirit was teaching her, but instead of information
passing from the spirit to her there was a sense of waiting. It
took her a few seconds to realize what the Ancient One was
waiting for, hesitantly she thought back to the conversation
with Rachael earlier in the day. It was an odd sensation to
feel the information almost pulled from her, but she had to
admire the efficiency of it, it took a very short time for the
entire conversation to be reviewed in this manner.
“The Wise One’s chosen is not aware of the
fact that Oberon has commanded that the Fey remain on Avalon.
The Weird Sisters are not an immediate danger to you, but he is
fickle and they are skilled at evading his rules without
actually breaking them,” the Ancient One said once the gargoyle
was done. “As for your other concerns, I have not studied
humanity enough to judge whether or not your fears have merit,
however, I am aware that many of the chosen have recently
decided to keep their identities hidden because of similar
concerns. Therefore I will defer to your judgment in this; I
will ensure that Macbeth does not remember anything that will
allow him to realize you are my chosen.”
“Thank you,” Demona replied, “The human’s
have a saying, it is better to be safe than sorry. It would
seem to apply to this situation.”
The Irish Elk spirit’s ears twitched and
Demona wondered yet again if that indicated amusement or some
other emotion. “I will return soon with Macbeth,” was all the
stag said before he turned to leave.
She watched as his majestic form
disappeared into the mists and then turned toward Kendra and the
other two spirits. The were-jaguar form that Kendra had pulled
into herself the previous night was once again standing
motionless next to her lover and the two spirits. She moved
closer, she hadn’t had an opportunity yesterday night to get a
good look at the were-jaguar form Kendra was working on.
“Now duplicate this form and let us begin
working on the winged version,” the Owl spirit said as Demona
stepped up next Kendra. The gargoyle whipped her head around to
look at the woman beside her in astonishment.
A smile played around her lover’s lips,
Kendra turned her head enough to look at Demona out of the
corner of her eye, “Surprise.”
Demona stared at her for a moment longer,
feeling her lover’s mischievous humor, then turned back to the
were-jaguar form and stared at it, trying to imagine it with
wings. It wasn’t hard, after all the mutates all had them,
Kendra would probably end up looking somewhat like the mutate
called Talon the gargoyle decided. The Eagle Owl spirit
standing on the other side of the figure twitched its black and
white barred wings at that moment and the gargoyle realized that
Kendra might chose to go with avian like wings rather than
gargoyle like wings. “What type of wings are you using?”
“I don’t know yet, I haven’t chosen between
feathered wings or gargoyle like wings,” Kendra admitted. “Do
you have a preference?”
The slight husky note in Kendra’s voice had
Demona turning to look into her lover’s blue eyes. The warmth
in them, and the feelings she was sensing from Kendra, made it
quite clear why her lover was asking. Demona’s mind went blank
as she stared at the motionless were-jaguar figure. Did she
have a wing type preference? Satiny smooth feathers, bare warm
skin or perhaps even a silky soft covering of fur wrapping
around her body and pulling her close to her lover.
“Have I broken you?” Kendra’s amused voice
brought Demona out of her disjointed thoughts.
The blue gargoyle looked over at her lover,
noting the broad smile and mirth filled, yet warmly
affectionate, sapphire eyes that matched the emotions she was
sensing from the woman. “Of course not,” she replied loftily,
settling her wings into a cloak like form with her wing claws on
her shoulders. “I was just trying to think of what you would
look like with avian type wings instead of gargoyle wings,” she
claimed trying to keep the smile off her own face.
“Mmm,” Kendra smirked, “if you say so.”
She eyed Demona’s wings, “Of course, that’s a reason to go with
gargoyle style wings, I don’t think I could arrange avian wings
in the different ways I’ve seen you do with yours.”
“That is correct you could not, avian wings
are different from gargoyle wings,” the Owl spirit commented,
“for that matter so are bat wings.”
Demona thought about it for a moment, she
glanced over at the Eagle Owl’s wings for confirmation, “I’d
have to agree, the main thing that’s different about gargoyle
wings versus avian or bat wings is that the humerus is of an
equal length to the radius and ulna of the forearm of the wing
instead of being shorter. That’s what allows us to arrange our
wings to look like a cloak with the wing claws holding onto the
shoulders or around our shoulders like a cape with the wing
claws clasped together in front.” she said. “If you make that
one change it shouldn’t really matter what your wings are
covered with, I’ve met gargoyles with feathered wings and ones
with furred wings, though the membrane type wings like mine are
much more common.”
Kendra turned to stare frowningly at the
were-jaguar form, she lifted her hands and placed the fingers on
the figures forehead and then drew her hands apart. The form
wavered for a second and then duplicated itself and separated,
one following Kendra’s left hand, the other following her
right. Once they were about a foot apart, Kendra removed her
hands and then she reached out and drew the left most figure
into herself.
The gargoyle didn’t comment, though she
found it interesting that Kendra was keeping a non-winged
version of the were-jaguar form. It also caused her to wonder
just how many different forms the black-haired woman could make.
“Could you hold out your wings for me?”
Kendra asked Demona. The blue gargoyle obediently extended her
wings, knowing that Kendra wanted to get a good look at their
structure so she could duplicate it on her were-jaguar form.
Kendra moved around to stand in front of Demona, taking in the
structure of the gargoyle’s wings and the proportion of wing to
body mass. She then moved around the gargoyle, reaching out to
touch the outermost wing bone as she did so and letting her
fingers trail along its edge as she began examining the wing
structure closely. She examined the three small wing claws
closely and grinned as they briefly gripped her fingers before
releasing them. She then moved her attention to the wing’s
forearm, letting her fingers feel the radius and ulna beneath
the skin and flesh. “You realize that you actually have four
arms right?” she asked the gargoyle. Demona turned her head and
glanced back at the black-haired woman inquiringly. “In birds
and bats the front limbs evolved into wings, but you have both
arms and wings,” Kendra said.
“I hadn’t actually thought about it,”
Demona admitted looking at Kendra’s hand on her wing forearm,
“but I guess we do don’t we.”
Kendra nodded, and continued her visual and
physical examination of the wing underneath her fingertips,
moving onto the humerus.
If they had been alone, Demona would be
very tempted to let Kendra continue touching her wings and
discover for herself what parts of them were sensitive.
However, they were not alone and so she needed to stop Kendra
before her hands drew any closer to her wing joint and everyone
present got an education in the erogenous zones of gargoyles,
“Kendra, remember when I said that I would like for you to
explore my wings?”
The hands on her wing hesitated, “Yes…?”
Kendra strung out the word in a puzzled tone.
“Now isn’t really an appropriate time and
your getting rather close to where my wings would be very
sensitive to your touch,” Demona quietly informed her. Movement
from the two spirits with them drew the gargoyle’s attention,
but when she looked their way both the Owl and Jaguar were
staring intently at the were-jaguar figure.
“Oh,” Kendra said abruptly and pulled her
hands away from Demona’s wing feeling both embarrassed and
interested as she looked at the joints, which connected the wing
to the gargoyle’s back. That area was the only place she hadn’t
touched so she had a fairly good idea where the sensitive area
Demona was referring to was located. Kendra cleared her throat
and forced her thoughts away from where they had been headed,
“Could you move your wings around then so I can see how the
joint moves?”
Smirking, the flame-haired gargoyle began
moving her wings back and forth as Kendra watched intently.
After a full minute of moving her wings slowly back and forth,
Demona crossed her arms across her chest and asked, “How much
longer do I need to do this?” She stared in amusement at Kendra
who had knelt and was now directly underneath the gargoyles
wings so she could see how they moved from both the front and
back.
Kendra’s blue eyes met her amused green
one’s, and the black-haired woman blushed, “Oh sorry, umm, just
one more thing,” she said standing back up and stepping around
the gargoyle to stand at her back. “If you could bring your
wings as far back as possible and hold them please.” Kendra
stared intently at how the muscles moved as the gargoyle did as
she asked and then stepped to the side to see how the muscles in
the shoulders looked. “And as far forward,” she said stepping
around to the back again as Demona swept her wings forward. “Ok
I think I’ve got it,” she said absently as she moved over to the
were-jaguar form.
A soft clicking sound drew Demona’s
attention to the Eagle Owl spirit; she was snapping her beak
together rapidly. The Jaguar spirit sitting next to her was
regarding his chosen with what the gargoyle was ready to swear
was amusement in his green eyes. Her attention was pulled from
the two spirits to Kendra as the woman touched the back of the
figure in front of her and then drew her hands apart, in between
them black gargoyle wings formed. Kendra had gone with the same
type of wing claws as she had, Demona noticed seeing the three
digits.
“A bit wider I think,” Demona suggested.
“A hands length more to get the proper
amount of wing area for your mass,” the Owl spirit suggested at
the same time.
Kendra glanced at both of them before
turning back to her creation and doing as they suggested.
Demona moved until she was standing
directly in front of the now winged were-jaguar form. The
wingspan wasn’t quite as large as Goliath’s, but then the
were-jaguar form wasn’t as bulky or quite as tall as her ex-mate
either. “That looks right,” the gargoyle gave her opinion.
“Alright, let’s see if I’ve got the muscle
attachments right then,” the were-jaguar wing’s relaxed from
fully extended to a more natural arrangement with the wing arm
forming half arcs on either side of the figure’s head.
“Demona,” the Ancient One’s voice summoned
the gargoyle from the mists.
The flame-haired gargoyle stared in the
direction the voice came from, but could see nothing. She
frowned puzzled until realizing that the great stag had probably
brought Macbeth with him and didn’t want her old ally to see
Kendra and the other two spirits. She turned toward her lover,
“I need to go.”
Kendra nodded, looking off in the direction
from which the voice came from, “I should probably stay away for
this one, to keep myself out of Macbeth’s memories. Give the
Ancient One less work to do.”
Demona’s eyes showed her thanks for
Kendra’s understanding why she wasn’t asking the black-haired
woman to come along with them tonight. She stepped around the
were-jaguar figure in between her and Kendra and pulled her
lover into her arms, “Thank you,” Demona said softly as Kendra’s
arms wrapped around her waist. She pressed her lips against the
black-haired woman’s in a soft sweet kiss before pulling
reluctantly away, “I’ll let you know what I find out,” she
assured her as she turned away and began heading toward where
the stag’s voice had come from.
A wave of supportive strength and warm
caring emotions wrapped around Demona, she paused, turned
around, and looked back at the source of the feelings directed
at her. Kendra’s sapphire blue eyes met hers, a sweet ache
filled Demona’s chest as she saw the emotions she was feeling
mirrored in her lover’s eyes. The gargoyle allowed herself a
moment to take in the support Kendra was offering her before
turning resolutely back to the mists and to where the Ancient
One was waiting for her. Demona knew she wasn’t going to like
what she was going to learn tonight, but it was easier now to
face it, even though Kendra wasn’t physically with her, she
wasn’t alone.
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