Valor (A Greystone Novel)

  Chapter Eleven

  Valor's announcement took me by surprise. It was way more than I expected. I'd have been happy just to upgrade my status from hostage to trusted friend.

  I was gobsmacked and I wasn't the only one. A harsh laugh broke from Reason's chest, although he didn't sound the least bit amused. And Defiance was so stunned his mouth hung open for like two seconds.

  "You're asking a lot," Defiance muttered after he'd recovered from the initial shock. "We've only just arrived and we don't know MacKenzie well enough to make that kind of decision."

  "I know what I'm asking," Valor admitted. "But MacKenzie has looked out for us since we landed in her garage and invaded her home. We all know she's a good person."

  "There's a difference between good and trustworthy," Defiance argued, his gray eyes fierce with emotion. "There's a difference between kindness and wisdom."

  "I'm hoping my opinion will carry a lot of weight," Valor conceded. "I've been here longer than you have and I feel confident we can rely on MacKenzie to keep our secret."

  "But not all of you who've been here longer are convinced she can be trusted," Defiance pointed out as his gaze slid toward Reason.

  Reason lifted two fingers from the table, arrogantly acknowledging that Defiance was talking about him.

  "I'm convinced," Havoc offered seriously.

  I sent Havoc a small, cautious smile and tried to look like a quiet, reasonable, trustworthy person. I'm not normally much of a joiner. I don't quite fit in with most people my age. But this was something I wanted to be a part of. I wanted to belong to this beautiful wild, extraordinary family.

  But Reason argued it was too soon to admit me into the pack. Unfortunately, Defiance seemed to agree with him. I sneaked a look at Victor who tapped his fingers on the table and listened without commenting.

  "Then there's the matter of her hair," Reason continued. "She's very red. She might have bewitched you into trusting her, Valor."

  "That's ridiculous," I snapped, forgetting to look quiet and reasonable. "Even if I was a witch—which I'm not—I wouldn't begin to know how to bewitch someone."

  Reason ignored me and talked directly to Valor. "She might have done it without realizing it, if she wanted you to like her."

  I leaned forward and put myself in Reason's line of sight to get his attention. "And why would I want to do that?"

  "Human females generally think we're attractive," he said, his eyes mocking me.

  I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. "Don't flatter yourself, gargoyle. You're not that irresistible."

  Reason's eyes flashed. "Maybe I'm not, human. But what about Valor?"

  I set my mouth in a mulish expression. I couldn't answer that one without incriminating myself. Remembering my grandfather's advice that a good offense is the always the best defense, I went on the attack. "If I were a witch, Reason, you'd be the first to know it."

  He laughed with irritating insolence. "I know what you're suggesting, Mac. But perhaps I should let you know that a good witch can do no evil."

  I narrowed my gaze on him. "What the hell does that mean?"

  "Witches are either good or bad," Reason explained. "A good witch can cast no harmful spells. So you couldn't cast a spell that would hurt me or anyone else…just in case you were contemplating something dark and painful."

  "You must have read my mind," I snarked without removing my gaze from his face.

  Valor interrupted in a growl. "My brothers and I have more reason to distrust the red than you," he argued. "If we're comfortable putting our trust in MacKenzie, then it should mean something to the rest of you."

  "Valor's right," Dare volunteered firmly.

  "Agreed," Havoc spoke up in a strong tone.

  Victor shifted in his chair and everyone's eyes turned toward him. "If nobody has anymore comments, it's time to vote," he said.

  At the point, each of the gargoyles took a coin from his pouch or pocket that was similar to the one I'd sold online. One side had a cross stamped into its center. The other side was embossed with what appeared to be a cart.

  Valor placed his silver coin on the table. "I vote to admit MacKenzie into the pack."

  I studied the coin lying in front of Valor with the cross facing upward. I assumed that if the gargoyles put their coins on the table with the cross showing, it meant they agreed with Valor. If they placed the coin with the cart facing up, it was a vote against me.

  Havoc voted next and he sided with Valor.

  I was winning. Sorta.

  Reason voted after that, slapping his coin down with the cart facing upward. It was the first vote against me. It was Defiance's turn to vote next and he announced that he was undecided. I thought that meant he would forfeit his vote but I was wrong. When one of the pack is undecided, they leave the decision to chance. Defiance flipped the coin and it landed on the table with a dull ring. I stared down at the coin's cart and fleur-de-lis. It was another vote against me.

  The vote was tied as I turned my gaze on Dare. I was pretty sure he'd vote for me and he did. Only Victor was left. If he voted against me, it would be a tie. I didn't know for sure but I guessed that meant the decision would go against me. Victor took his time, turning the coin between his fingers. The tension stretched thin as I waited for Victor to cast his vote. My future rested in his hands. My stomach turned like the coin between his fingers.

  Victor looked at me for a long moment then placed his coin on the table. When he moved his hand, I saw the cross stamped into the silver coin. "I'll go with your judgment," he said as he pinned Valor with a sharp look.

  I glanced around the table at the rest of the gargoyles and most of them seemed satisfied with the decision. Even Defiance was smiling. I let out a deep sigh of relief but it was short-lived.

  "Just a minute," Reason spoke up. "What about Chaos, Force and Courage?"

  "What about them?" Valor asked cautiously.

  "Their votes need to be counted," Reason insisted.

  Valor sent a troubled look toward Victor.

  The golden gargoyle sighed and said, "My brother's right. Their votes need to be counted." He transferred his gaze to me and explained. "Since they're not here, their votes will be left to chance."

  "I'll flip for Chaos," Reason offered without wasting any time. "Since he's my brother."

  "He's my brother, too," Victor countered. The look on his face suggested he wasn't too happy with Reason for questioning the vote. "I'm the oldest, so I claim the right to toss the coin for him. Defiance can flip for his brothers, Courage and Force."

  With three more votes to be counted, there was no possibility of a tie. At the end of all the coin tossing, I would either be in…or out. I couldn't help but feel resentful toward Reason. I couldn't understand what I'd done to earn his unrelenting scorn.

  The first two coins landed with their crosses facing downward which meant the vote was tied up again. I tried to tell myself that the odds were against the third coin landing cross-down but I felt like things were going against me and I was so discouraged I couldn't watch the last coin fall. Instead, I fixed my gaze on Valor's face while the silver disk spun in the air and landed with a clank on the tabletop.

  Valor leaned forward to see the coin.

  When I saw him smile, I let out a second sigh of relief. Valor's hand slid across my knee beneath the table and squeezed my fingers, sending hot flashes of emotion up my legs into my heart. I looked around the table again and was surprised to find that most of the gargoyles actually looked relieved. Only Reason stared at the ceiling like he was bored with the whole situation.

  Victor grinned as he turned his gaze on me. "Welcome to the pack, m'dear."

  I was so thrilled I could hardly speak. "Thank you," I said. "I won't let you down." It probably sounded lame but what's a sixteen-year-old supposed to do when she's admitted into the gargoyle pack? It felt like the most special thing that had ever happened to me.

  With my acceptance into the pack sorte
d out, Victor and Defiance changed into some old jeans and we all piled into the car so we could drive to the city to shop for clothes. I only had seatbelts for five passengers so Havoc and Defiance sat behind the seats in the back with instructions to duck down if we spotted any police cars.

  We went to the Cherry Creek mall in downtown Denver and picked up T-shirts first. Havoc chose bright colors while the others stuck with black and dark gray. We managed to find belts for everyone although I could tell that all the guys envied Valor's white emo belt. We stocked up on jeans then looked at jackets and coats, most of the guys selecting either black or brown leather. I suppose the animal skins felt familiar to them.

  Only Dare couldn't find a coat he liked. He wanted something longer so we stopped by a thrift store on the way home where he picked out a vintage, black trench coat. With the collar turned up, I had to admit he looked cute. Tall, dark and vigilante-angel cute.

  And after we picked up some fast food at a drive-thru restaurant, we headed back toward the foothills and home.

  "Thanks for all the help, today," Victor said after the gargoyles had finished their hamburgers and were comfortably sprawled across the living room. "Is there something we can do for you in return, m'dear?"

  I decided Victor's offer was my chance to test the gargoyles. They'd said I was part of the pack but I wanted to find out if they actually trusted me enough to leave me on my own. "I'd like to watch you guys fly if you think it would be safe. It'll be dark soon and I don't think anyone would see you if you flew out over the park next door."

  They seemed happy to grant my wish. We waited until dusk then hiked over to the park. Just inside the park's boundary, there's a huge granite outcrop with a drop-off of like a hundred feet and that's where the pack took off from. Each gargoyle strode out to the edge of the cliff, opened his wings and glided away to the southwest, high above the trees. They were beautiful in flight. For several moments I forgot my ulterior motive and just enjoyed watching their graceful forms hanging in the air.

  But I wasn't alone. Dare had stayed behind to hold their jackets and T-shirts. And to "protect" me. I'd tried to convince them Hooligan was more than enough dog to handle my security needs but the gargoyles weren't having it. They insisted one of them had to remain behind with me. I was pretty sure it had more to do with their lack of trust in me than anything else, but I felt sorry for Dare anyhow. I could see the longing in his eyes as he watched his pack circle away above the park.

  "Maybe you can take off after they come back," I suggested as we watched the sky darken.

  Dare shifted the awkward pile in his arms. "That would be nice," he murmured. "Only, I can't fly."

  I stared at Dare as all the breath went out of my lungs and my heart beat brutally against my rib cage. He'd told me earlier that he used to dive from the sky at great speed, for fun. I knew there had to be something terribly wrong if he couldn't fly anymore. "What do you mean?"

  But before he could answer, Hooligan moved close to my side and growled into the shadows behind us.

  "What is it, boy?" Dare asked. He glanced over his shoulder into the dark forest that separated us from the house. The gargoyle's expression was troubled as he peered down the trail and murmured, "Hooligan's senses are better than mine."

  "He's probably just sensing a fox," I murmured though Hooligan wasn't one to bark at shadows or even foxes.

  "I don't think so," Dare answered quietly. His long coat swept the ground, the forest floor covered with a quiet carpet of brown pine needles. "Let's go back to the house."

  I glanced up at the skies as we headed through the trees toward the house. I hoped the rest of the guys would return soon. I wasn't exactly afraid but I knew I'd feel safer with the pack there. Safety in numbers and all that. As I checked overhead again, I realized the growling had gotten louder. I lowered my gaze back to earth and discovered my dog watching the house in the distance. A rumbling snarl vibrated in his chest as he padded forward.

  But Hooligan wasn't the only one growling. Dare was making the same noise.

  "What's wrong?" I asked in a low voice, getting more concerned as we drew closer to home.

  "Quiet," he warned as I followed his gaze down the trail. A dark form slinked through the shadows close to the house. Dare dropped his armful of clothing while I felt my pulse thicken in my veins.

  A sudden swooping sound hovered overhead, like huge birds beating their wings against the air. I looked upward and saw the sky filled with black leather sails. Reason landed in front of me, caught me and tucked me behind him. Victor did the same, passing me back to Defiance, who passed me another step backward to Valor. Valor put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his body while Dare stepped forward and Havoc landed beside him.

  "What is it?" I whispered.

  Valor shook his head. "Something bad."

  I held my breath, expecting a grizzly bear or mountain lion to loom out of the darkness. Although I'd never seen anything more impressive on our property than a young black bear—and that had been ten years ago when I was a girl—several people had reported mountain lions near our neighborhood. The big, golden cats are considered more dangerous than bears and more likely to attack humans.

  The gargoyle pack stood in front of me, their wings folded into vests, their bodies held taut, as if prepared for battle. A flash of light caught my eye as the moonlight glinted on metal and I could see Dare had his knife gripped in his fist. My gaze traveled immediately to Defiance's hands. He wasn't holding a knife. Instead, it looked like he had slipped on a pair of brass knuckles tipped with sharp spikes. When I checked out the rest of the guys, their hands were the same. Except for Dare, they all wore the strange weapons on their knuckles.

  A dark shape separated from the trees closest to the house and stepped onto the patio deck. I almost screamed when I recognized my neighbor's face. Not that he's horribly disfigured or anything like that. The guy's a perfectly normal-looking man in his mid-thirties. But his gaze is restless and cold and I've always avoided him. There's just something about him that makes me uneasy. I didn't know why he was creeping around my house at night but I doubted he was up to any good.

  Victor reached the house in a few long strides. He stepped onto the patio deck, followed by Defiance and Reason. It took both Havoc and Dare to hold onto Hooligan who was throwing himself at the house and howling like he'd lost his mind.

  I expected Victor to politely ask the tree-slayer if he'd lost his way. He's so dignified with his m'dears and all. But the golden gargoyle cut right to the chase. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

  It was clear that Blocker hadn't expected to run into a huge barking dog and six young men, any one of which looked like they could flatten him with a bare-knuckle punch. "Who are you guys?" he snarled. "What are you doing here?"

  "We're MacKenzie's friends," Victor answered in a voice that was menacingly soft.

  "Friends," he sneered, making my skin crawl. "Why should I believe you? I'd like to check with the girl and make sure you're supposed to be here. Make sure you don't mean to harm my young neighbor."

  I opened my mouth, ready to speak up for my friends in no uncertain terms but Valor turned away from the scene and pulled me against his chest. I had to peek around his shoulder to see what was going on.

  Victor put his face very close to the neighbor's. "We're supposed to be here. You're not. Piss off."

  The neighbor's tone turned ugly. "We'll see about that when I tell the girl's mother that she's got six guys spending the night with her."

  A tremor of rage vibrated through Valor as he looked over his shoulder at the deck. With one hand, he held my head against his chest. His other hand was knotted into a fist at his side. And as I watched, the thick skin on his knuckles peeled back to reveal spikes about an inch long.

  I stared, transfixed.

  Those weapons I'd seen on the gargoyle's hands weren't brass knuckles at all. They were some sort of barbs that slid from beneath their knuckles like a cat'
s claws.