Chapter One
Owen narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the statue placed delicately upon the parapet of Castle Wyvern's outer wall. It was beautiful, slender, graceful, clad in extravagant garments carved with the utmost detail. And the face…it was like that of an innocent child and an untouchable woman all at once. The blank eyes seemed to be just barely holding back weary tears, and the half-parted lips seemed to be forming a question, or a sigh perhaps. It was truly an exquisite piece.
It should also not have been there.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out the newest model of cellular phone that Xanatos Enterprises had produced. It was a prototype, the X-model, and taking time to get used to (especially the earpiece). But it also had more features than most cars, and a camera that outperformed professional photographers worldwide.
He took a quick photograph of the statue and stowed the X-model back in his pocket, hastening to inform his employer of the intruder upon the premises.
David Xanatos was the most powerful man in the world. He was rich, influential, controversial, intelligent, and according to the magazine he had stowed away in a drawer of his desk, America's number one sexiest man alive. Fox had brought him the magazine with a derisive laugh and left as quickly as she'd appeared, letting him get over the worst of his smugness alone.
And it was only a month later that he had finally gotten around to reading the article. Beyond his looks, the magazine called out his affiliation and support of the gargoyles in New York. He'd asked to meet with the author of the article and was not comforted to find that on the lapel of her suit jacket, she wore a Quarrymen pin proudly. Though he'd smirked and written her off, it was bothering him that the group of anti-gargoyle maniacs had infiltrated one of the most popular magazines in the country, thus positioning itself to print slanderous things about not only the gargoyles, but about he and his family.
"Mister Xanatos," Owen's voice was polite, afraid of intrusion. "I believe I've found something you need to see."
"What is it, Owen?"
Owen took a breath and raised his eyebrows in a gesture that clearly said, "I'm going to be delicate about this but it won't change the news."
"It would seem we have acquired a new addition to the castle, sir," he said gingerly as he quickly paged through files on his X-model.
"What sort of new addition?" Xanatos asked as his eyes narrowed.
"The sort you'll probably want to greet as soon as she wakes up this evening, sir," Owen found the picture he sought and turned it toward Xanatos.
"She?" he asked, leaning forward.
"Indeed, sir," Owen said as he held out the phone, whose full-color Hi-Def screen displayed a beautiful likeness of the statuesque female gargoyle slumbering on her parapet. "She."
The sky was shot through with crimson and fire, with rivers of rose and heather bleeding through it. The fading sunlight cast dark shadows across Castle Wyvern and throwing the new female's face into sharp relief so that only her eyes and lips remained alight.
"Have you given any consideration to what you will say to her when she awakes, Mister Xanatos?" Owen asked, eyes narrowing as he pushed his glasses up. Sunlight glinted off them like liquid gold.
"I have." Xanatos said nothing more. He merely stood, hands clasped behind his back, eyes focused on the female.
"Would you care to elaborate your answer, sir? Or shall I guess?" Owen asked, his voice dry and unperturbed, yet still communicating sarcastic amusement.
"I considered restraining and interrogating her, but that seemed so…barbaric. I thought about having her moved to the other side of the castle so she could meet Goliath and his clan first thing, but I'm sure she decided to separate herself from them for a reason, and it seemed rude to disregard her wish for solitude."
"You truly have put a remarkable amount of thought into this Mister Xanatos."
"I do try, Owen. In the end I decided just to wing it. I've always been a charismatic man. People didn't name me 'Sexiest Billionaire' for nothing, after all," Xanatos' mouth twisted into a wry smirk. The sun sank its final distance and threw the world into shadow. Xanatos stood straighter, eyes bright with excitement. "It's time."
Owen took a breath, unaware that he'd been tensing, anxious for the newcomer to awake and face them. The world grew still in its darkness before the pollution from artificial lights of the city below, then came the faintest of sounds. A soft trickling, which grew louder, rising into a deafening crash, as the stone skin shattered. She spread her wings wide, and threw back her head as she took a deep breath. She stretched and a breeze stirred her hair, which was a snowy white, made all the crisper against the warm burnt orange of her skin. She turned, still wearing the same expression she'd slept with—quiet, pensive, almost contrite—and faced them.
Right as her long, slender tail collided with Xanatos' forehead.
"Ah! Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean to! I just—!"she panicked, her voice airy, light. Frightened almost. However, in her panicking, she threw off her balance and slipped from the parapet, cutting off her apologies with a sharp gasp. Owen felt his stomach lurch, tightening as she tumbled over the back of the parapet, despite the massive wings she spread as she fell. As if by pure instinct, she pulled her wings in close, foregoing flight in favor of digging her claws into the stone, and gripping it with all her might. She made a pitiful face which communicated her terror and innocence all at once, and uttered an airy, "Help—me?"
"Shall I help her, sir?" Owen asked of Xanatos.
"It'd be cruel not to," Xanatos said, forgetting he'd been hit in the face and marveling at the newcomer's resemblance to a gecko as she clung to the parapet.
Owen stepped forward and wrapped a hand around her wrist. "Here, I'll help you down. Just let go of the parapet." Slowly, bit by bit, he got her to relax her hand. He gripped her forearm and was surprised by the taut muscles hidden in the delicate frame of the limb. She slowly released her hands and gripped his upper arms as if fearing for her death. He gave a gentle tug to loosen her from the stone and she dug her back claws in deeper, wrapping her tail around the parapet and squeezing her eyes shut as tears rolled down her cheeks. She was shaking in his grip.
"You really must let go, miss," he said flatly and pulled a little harder, wincing at the sound of her claws scraping across the stone.
"D'you promise I won't fall?" she asked in a meek sob.
He stared at her, contemplating the best way to get her to let go, before answering, "I promise I'll let go if you don't."
He almost felt her heart stop as her eyes snapped open. She released the parapet and threw her arms tight around his neck, yelling, "You can't let go of me, I'll fall!" She continued to shake, but did not seem to realize she'd launched herself off of the parapet, and now stood on solid ground. Owen's mouth grew taut and uncomfortable, but still he wrapped his stone left hand around her back, pulling her farther from the edge. "Don't be ridiculous. You are not going to fall." If he hadn't known better, he might have thought the female blushed as her tears stopped. She stood a little straighter, and slowly her shaking subsided.
"I've never known a gargoyle that was afraid of falling," Xanatos's voice woke her from the trance of relief she'd fallen into after Owen had saved her.
She turned toward Xanatos and smiled innocently. "Who? Oh, me? I'm not a gargoyle!" Xanatos and Owen exchanged a look and looked back at her wings and tail.
"No offense," Xanatos said, "But have you looked in a mirror lately?"
She looked awkwardly embarrassed for a moment, before starting, "Let me back up. My name is Nadja. I'm human. Or at least, I was."
"This should be interesting," Xanatos said under his breath.
"It's true! I'm Nadja Jones. I'm an orphan, but I got adopted when I was twelve. I'm twenty-three and I live in a small town in the Midwest. A farm town. Our local football team is the Lions!"
Xanatos shifted, leaning against a parapet. "Go on."
"I'm really into history, and literature, and mythology," she explained. "And I love, love, love old books! And weapons and stuff like that! Well, I went to the annual renaissance faire, because I always buy a knife each year, and there was a new shop run by three women I'd never seen before. They were gorgeous, but they kind of creeped me out, so I wasn't going to go in, but I saw an old book behind the counter and just couldn't not ask about it. I went in and they told me it was for sale, and then told me a ridiculous price. I laughed and sort of started to leave and they asked how much I had. And they took it. A fraction of their asking price. I felt like it was a steal.
"Well, it turns out this book was some kind of old spell book. It was all written in Latin, with some variations here and there, but from what I could understand it belonged to a sorcerer in the eighth century. It's called the 'Arcane Grimoire' if I translated it correctly."
Un-translated, that would have been the Grimorum Arcanorum. Owen and Xanatos both stiffened in recognition of the title. Nadja did not notice.
"Well, anyway. There was this spell in there to get in touch with your inner self, at least, that was how I read it. I got everything together, and on the full moon last week, I did everything I was supposed to. And I didn't feel at all in-touch with my inner self. In fact, if anything, all I felt was sleepy because the lavender had me relaxed and it was almost five in the morning by the time I was cleaned up.
"I was on my way home—I went out to a nature park and hiked some back trails—when the sun started coming up. I started feeling sick, and cold, and turned around just in time to see the sun break over the horizon before everything went dark. I stood in the woods all day, a random statue of a human girl, and I woke up at eight thirty the next night. Like this."
Xanatos stared in wonder. A human who'd been transformed into a gargoyle by the Grimorum Arcanorum was something indeed.
"Why come here?" he asked.
"Well, as soon as I realized what I was, I freaked out. I mean, I don't exactly live in the hub of sophistication. The Quarymen have the locals pretty spooked about gargoyles, with only a few exceptions. My adoptive parents are a couple of those who are, how to put it? Less-than-welcoming of gargoyles. I stayed in the woods for a few hours until I got my head on straight, then I remembered an article I'd read in People. I initially bought it to look at summer dresses, but it had you in it, and it said you were pro-gargoyle. I thought if anyone could help me, it was you. I'm sorry…I know it's rude of me to assume you'd help but I just…I didn't have anywhere else to go."
Xanatos took a breath and silently damned and thanked the writer of the article. He'd thought nothing good could come of being branded a "gargoyle lover," but it gave this girl somewhere to go, somewhere she wasn't in immediate danger. He at least had that to appreciate.
"You'll have to excuse me, Miss—Jones was it? I've been without manners. I am David Xanatos. The man you're currently strangling is Owen Burnett." As if realizing she'd been clinging to Owen the entire time she'd been speaking, Nadja let go immediately and covered her mouth in embarrassment.
"Oh! I am so sorry! I forgot I was holding onto you! Thank you so much for helping me, Mister Burnett!" she said, her face reddening as the men had not thought possible, given the color of her skin.
"Not a problem, Miss Jones. Though I must admit my curiosity: if you cannot fly, how did you get here?" Owen asked as he straightened his tie.
"Oh, well, to be honest, I hopped a couple of trains, and when I got into town, I used a bunch of alleys and fire escapes to go from building to building. It's a good thing this town is built so close together. I don't think anyone saw me. I knew I just had to find the tallest building in the city and I'd be in the right place."
"How did you get up to that parapet?" Owen pressed.
"Um…I sort of climbed up the building. Sorry about the holes in the side." Nadja hunched her shoulders.
"You climbed up a building thousands of feet in the air and were scared of falling fifty feet onto the helipad?" Xanatos asked dubiously.
"It's easy to climb if you don't look down. I put in earplugs and didn't look down. I left some pretty deep gouges though, if I thought I was going to fall. I got to this building at about nine last night. I got to that parapet just before sunrise. It took a very long time." She shuddered as if reliving the experience.
"I'd say our first order of business is to teach Nadja how to fly, wouldn't you agree, Owen?" Xanatos said lightly.
"Fly?" Nadja seemed to grow pale. "Me? In the air? Without a plane and in-flight movie and seatbelt?" She instinctively dug her claws into the stone wall.
"I'll say one thing for her, Mister Xanatos," Owen laughed derisively. "I believe she's human."