Chapter Thirty-Two

“How the hell did a gargoyle find you after centuries of being away, and why the hell would they be looking for you now? How did this happen?” Kolton wasn’t annoyed at Simon. Having their evening ruined wasn’t his mate’s fault, but he had too many unanswered questions to keep them to himself.

“I’m sorry, mate.” Simon was driving them, weaving the car through the evening traffic. “I’ve been out of the clan for so long, it never crossed my mind that they’d still be keeping track of me. Remember I told you, I was sure I was disowned by now.”

“Clearly you’re not.” Kolton had wanted to translocate to the casino, but Simon pointed out they might need the car if the mystery gargoyle wasn’t close by. Kolton tapped his fingers on his knee, looking out the window at the other cars. This is taking to much time.

“It had to be connected to the birth – I don’t know, some kind of hive mind among our stone forms or something similar. That’s the only thing I can think of. I’ve never noticed it before, but then I’ve never given birth before either.” Simon cursed as a car cut in front of him, weaving to one side and then the other. Their car accelerated, overtaking the idiot with a burst of speed.

“But the egg’s arrival was more than a month ago – almost six weeks.”

“I think you’ll find they’ve been tracking me down since the birth. That’s why it’s taken so long for them to find me.” Simon swung into the turning that led to the casino parking lot. “Elijah said this man was looking specifically for Dr. Teeg. I’ve only used that name since coming to Vegas. Prior to that I was Dr. Teegan when I was living in Michigan, and before that… well, you get the idea. Every time I moved I tweaked my surname and got the Paranormal Council to change my degrees and paperwork to reflect new names and dates that fit with a comparable age to my appearance so I could keep working as a doctor.”

“I’ll fucking kill him, whoever this asshole is, if he threatens to take our baby.” Kolton was determined about that. Consort Ali had been bouncing up and down furious someone was threatening their child, and by extension their mating, and told Kolton specifically to do “whatever it takes.” Kolton was cashing that check at Lord Hades’ bank.

“If you kill him, they’ll simply send someone else.” Simon parked in Kolton’s spot, turning off the key. Taking it out of the ignition, he turned, resting his hand on Kolton’s shoulder. “You are the key to this, however. If the clan suspects for a second our child might not be a gargoyle, even though it’s in an egg…”

“How can they know that? We don’t know what our little one will look like, or what they may or may not shift into.” Kolton frowned. “Wouldn’t they know that, too.”

“I’m surprised they even realized it was me that gave birth. I’m sure I’m the only male in my clan’s history who has. It could be they think I’ve met up with another male gargoyle because if you recall, according to the lore in my clan, that is the only way an egg can eventuate – between two gargoyles.” Patting his shoulder, Simon added, “Just remember killing this person won’t solve a problem with the clan. It just postpones the inevitable conversation we’re going to have to have at some point with people who’ve never gave a damn about my existence.”

“I’m not promising anything.” Kolton glowered. “I’m the one who does give a shit about your existence and as far as I’m concerned your clan can fuck off and leave us alone. It’s a crime to interfere with a mating.” Every one of Kolton’s protective instincts was firing and he clicked up a pair of sunglasses so the flames in his eyes wouldn’t be visible to any well-meaning staff or members of the public. “Let’s go find this fucker.”

/~/~/~/~/

It took just over two hours to find the gargoyle. It took Kolton at least thirty minutes just to isolate the strange scent from a well-used lobby and reception area of his casino. It wasn’t like he could shift, but Elijah had taken in the gargoyle’s scent. The two men were shoulder to shoulder, walking a grid over the reception area, Elijah pointing out where it was the strongest. It might’ve looked weird to anyone else in the lobby, but Kolton never cared what someone thought of him. It wasn’t like he had his nose to the carpet, which is what his hound would’ve done.

Speaking of his hound, the following hour and a half were a struggle Kolton hoped he never had to repeat. He wasn’t a wolf or a dog shifter, even though technically he was a hound. His hellhound was a lot better at tracking scents than he was but only in his four footed form. The only reason Kolton had found Simon so quickly, back in the beginning when they met, was because he had Lord Hades’ magic from the box to follow.

The gargoyle didn’t have magic. All Kolton got from the scent was the impression of aged stone and moss, unusual enough that it should’ve been easy to track through downtown Vegas. But to track him, Kolton had to pull on his hound’s sense of smell without shifting, and that wasn’t easy. Kolton’s hound was all fired up, wanting to protect his family, and Kolton was starting to feel as though he was caught in a tug of war between shifting and not shifting.

Only Simon’s solid grip on his arm kept him in human form. The gargoyle had covered a lot of ground, but he stayed on foot. Kolton knew they’d have had real trouble finding the man if he’d gotten into a car.

“The person looking for me was clearly thinking the same thing,” Simon commented, when he mentioned it. “There’s no point in him spotting me, if he’s in a car, or both of us were, as with the way the traffic is flowing, he’d have lost me again in a second.”

We could’ve translocated then, but Kolton kept his grumble to himself. There had been times, back in the Underworld, where he and his pack had spent days tracking down errant spirits through the wastelands. If the intruding gargoyle thought he was going to give up now he had the scent, after just a few hours, then he was going to be shit out of luck.

“That’s him,” Simon said suddenly as they rounded a corner, keeping his voice low. “Straight ahead. Tall guy, black hair, long black coat. Looks like a Matrix reject with his dark glasses. Gods, clan living does nothing in encouraging my kind to blend in.”

Kolton spotted him immediately. In a crowd where most people were wearing loud shirts, shorts, and sandals, the gargoyle stood out. “He looks like he’s a cosplayer,” Kolton murmured. “That’s probably why the tourists aren’t all gawking at him.” As he spoke, the gargoyle ahead stiffened, his head tilted slightly to one side and then he turned and looked Simon straight in the face.

He hissed. It was only thanks to Kolton’s enhanced hearing that he heard it at all, and he was immediately in fight mode.

“Calm down,” Simon said, keeping to his low tones. “A hiss is just an asshole’s way of saying hello. Barnabus,” he added in a louder voice as they got closer to the gargoyle. “You’re a long way from home. Step this way. We don’t want to upset the tourists.” He pointed to an alley that ran between two shops. It was darker and better still, wasn’t in the way of nosy tourists.

Barnabus wasn’t scared of the dark. You should be, Kolton thought grimly. He was already sizing the man up against the dumpster midway down the alley.

“Where’s your mate?” Barnabus looked Simon up and down and clearly found him lacking. “I’ve scoured this city of sin for days looking for you. Where’s your mate? She has to be assimilated into our clan now she’s had an egg.”

“Excuse me?” Ooh, snooty Simon was so sexy. “Why on earth, after spending centuries away from the clan, should my mate be assimilated… and what kind of word is that anyway… but why would my mate have anything to do with a clan who mistreats children and refuses to interact with the real world?”

“Mistreats children?” To his credit, Barnabus looked genuinely confused. “Why would you say that? Look, you haven’t been around, so you wouldn’t know, but our clan – the clan that gave you life - is dying out. When we were alerted that someone attached to you had given birth to an egg, there was such jubilation. We haven’t had an egg in the clan for more than two hundred years.”

“Too much inbreeding, I’m guessing.” Simon shrugged. “That’s nature’s way of suggesting you get out and spread your seed a little farther than the confines of the clan. Try it, it will work.”

The confusion hadn’t left Barnabus’s face. “You can tell them that when you come back. I don’t know what pushed you out of the clan, but the elders want you back now this has happened.”

“I wasn’t pushed, I left. It was my choice when I found out I had been bonded to someone else in the clan before I had even hatched.” Simon folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know how you found out about my egg…”

“Life sparks are connected and speak through the stone. You wouldn’t have felt it because we haven’t had a new egg for such a long time. But look,” Barnabus seemed to think Simon was getting off track.

Kolton on the other hand was quietly fuming, waiting for his chance. Barnabus hadn’t even acknowledged he was there.

“Surely you see this changes things. You have found a mate. You have an egg – an egg that can bring hope to our members. They’ll greet your mate with open arms, and the nursery will once more…”

“You can stop right there. That ain’t happening.” Kolton wasn’t going to listen to a load of shit. He had an egg to get back to.

“This doesn’t concern you, whoever you are.” Kolton got a curled lip which could be considered a form of acknowledgement in some circles, he supposed. “Who is this person?”

“Remember the mate you claimed you would greet with open arms, while you were stashing my egg into an empty nursery?” Simon pointed in Kolton’s direction. “Meet Kolton. My mate. Fated not bonded.”

“Fated mate?” It was almost funny, watching Barnabus connect the dots. “You’re both men.”

“We definitely are.”

“He’s not a gargoyle.”

“Definitely not.” That was from Kolton.

“Where did the egg come from, then?”

“Me.” Simon rested his elbow on Kolton’s shoulder. “My mate has a big dick and knows how to use it.”

“You and him… But…but…that’s not possible. He’s not a gargoyle and you’re a man.”

“It’s not possible under your clan’s teachings. You should try living in the real world sometime.” Simon grinned. “But fine, if it’s not possible, then there is no egg, and you have no reason to be here. You can run back home and watch your clan die out.”

“But there is an egg. The singing stone told us so.” Barnabus was looking a little ragged. “The singing stone told us it comes from you.”

Simon nodded. “Yep. Me and Kolton. I swear on the stone.”

“The stone does not lie. It must be because of you.” Barnabus turned his gaze to Kolton, looking at him with such a fanatical fervor Kolton felt as if he needed a shower. “You must be the chosen one heralded by the ancient teachings handed down by our elders. You’re the one who can fill our nurseries with eggs, fill the arms of our grieving mothers…”

“Not happening. Fated. Mates.” Kolton pointed at Simon, then himself. “You can fuck off now. We’ve wasted enough time tracking you down this evening, and we’ve got a possible-not-possible egg to care for.” He turned, taking Simon with him. “We should get burgers before we head home, love. How does that sound?”

“Like all that tracking means you qualify for a second dinner.” But Simon was laughing, and that was all that Kolton was hoping for.

“Simon, no! I can’t let you take him. He’s the answer our clan is looking for. We need his mighty appendage!”

There was a whoosh and all of a sudden Kolton was knocked to the ground by a weight far heavier than him.

“Ward the alley,” Simon growled as Kolton rolled over to see two huge gargoyles locked together. He quickly threw up a bubble, making sure nothing could be seen from either end of the alley, before picking himself up.

We should probably help, he suggested to his hound who was beside himself with excitement.

No need. Our mate is winning. He’s fighting to save your dick. But Kolton knew it was so much more than that. His mate was fighting for their mating, their egg, and most importantly for Kolton, and that warmed him more than anything else ever had. Clicking up a bag of chips, because popcorn got stuck in his teeth, he leaned against the alley wall, prepared to stand back and watch the show. Damn, my man’s got moves.