New Gargoyles Coming Soon

The next in the Gargoyles series is imminent, for now, here is draft peek of what's to come.

*

Luc growled and stretched his limbs as he awoke from his sleep. He breathed in the damp night air and snarled softly. After hundreds of years of sleep, he would never take waking up for granted.

Luc flicked his tail impatiently, as the rest of his clan awoke, stretching and grumbling, relieved that they had woken at all. It was not something humans could understand. Gargoyles’ sleep was enforced. They turned to stone during the day; they had no choice in the matter. Being trapped in sleep, neither dead nor alive was tortuous.

Of course, now he had a very good incentive to wish to wake. He had a mate. His own mate. A female he could not live without. A human with pretty brown hair and soft curves and a penchant for driving him crazy in a very good way. He surveyed his clan. They believed his mating with Kylie was for the sake of the clan. As far as they knew, she was the only person on earth who could awaken the gargoyles, and they thought he mated her to keep her close. They were wrong. She was fated for him. Gargoyles were not known for their finer feelings, most eschewed the idea of love for political alliances and breeding, but he was different. He loved Kylie more than his hard heart could sometimes bear. And the gods help him, she knew it.

For the past months, they had been searching through the Professor’s books to find his fellow gargoyles. Slowly, they were bringing them back to the house in Devil’s Hang Kylie was waking them. The process was too slow for his liking.

Luc had liked Professor Hardcastle, but the mad had been fond of riddles and had kept the locations of the other gargoyles well hidden. Unlocking the riddles and puzzles was proving difficult and then the time it took to find the gargoyles and transport them was taking too long. The last gargoyle they found was in Brazil and that had taken over a week to transport back to the house. Kylie had suggested she travel to the gargoyles, but she would have to go without him, and that was unacceptable. The gargoyles were disorientated when they woke; they could hurt her. He needed to be there. He needed to be with her. He needed her close at all times. Luc was trying to lead the gargoyles, and he could not do it without her love and support.

So far they had woken four gargoyles, none from his previous clan. Gracchus, a male a few years older than him, he was a calm influence on the other gargoyles but somewhat jaded. A young, frightened female called Annis with a broken wing who was no more a fighter than he was a court jester. Amalric, a young male coming of age who butted horns with Luc at every given opportunity and met his leadership with sullen opposition, and a male called Dragoslava who… who had not come out of his sleep with his full faculties. They knew it would be a possibility – bing asleep for so long could not possibly have a positive effect, but the violence they all saw in Dragoslava’s eyes made even Gracchus pause.

At the permission of Andrew Hardcastle, the current owner, Luc allowed the other gargoyles to roam the house and grounds as they pleased. And had permitted them to go hunting out in the woods under his supervision – it was important they not show themselves to humans.

Dragoslava remained chained in the basement. They hoped that Dragoslava would improve and that his current incarceration was merely a temporary condition. If not, Luc would do what was necessary to ensure the clan’s survival. As clan leader in the past, he had performed this duty many times. It was never something he relished. He did not take lives lightly, but as leader, the duty should fall to him. He could not ask a member of his clan to do something he would not do himself. However, the fact that he was mated now would make the task difficult. He doubted Kylie would be able to accept his explanation and feared it would cause a rift between them. There was one thing being mated to a gargoyle and knowing of their brutal natures; it was another witnessing it first hand.

Hopefully, it would not come to that. Hopefully, they would be able to awaken more gargoyles soon. Perhaps they would get a healer. Annis had rudimentary skills, but she needed more training.

Luc would never admit it to his mate, but he was disappointed with the state of affairs. His clan back in the day had been one of the strongest, brothers and sisters united. He had envisioned rebuilding his clan with warriors – creatures strong enough to withstand the scrutiny and would undoubtedly endure when humans finally learned of their existence again. It seemed unlikely his clan would ever be the same. But he could not tell Kylie this. Kylie would take it as a failure on her part. Nothing was further from the truth. Without her, he would have nothing and he would be nothing. He lived, and he had taken her as his mate - that was something that could not have happened back when he was born. Their relationship would never have been accepted. Although he would always carry the sadness of how many of his kind had died, forging forward and creating a new existence for the gargoyles was important. A life where there would be no segregation between the species, where they existed alongside each other without the fear or repulsion, he saw in far too many humans growing up.

He would not wish for his children to be treated as outsiders or animals… if he and Kylie can produce offspring. No other gargoyle had mated with a human, so that was not something that he knew about. It something he wanted, but not something that outweighed the need to free his brothers and sisters.

At that moment, though, he needed to see his mate, he would ensure her safety and then enjoy the pleasure of her soft body. Sleep had left him hungry in more ways than one.

He nodded at his clan mates, which was met with mixed reactions and then went into the house.