Mab opened the twin doors and walked inside. She was almost surprised to see no one there, but it only added to the ease of acquiring her intended target.
Now, to find the child. According to the few notes that Proteus had written in the back of that small book, it was a girl, small, young in appearance, and very human in face but having the wings and tail of her gargoyle lineage.
If it were her, she mused, she'd keep the child in a center room for safe keeping. Not in an outer room where anyone would be able to just walk in and take her.
Mab chuckled to herself. If the child were hers? She would have the child, the girl, in her keeping by the end of the night if her luck held.
The last energy pulse, distinct because of her mixed heritage. She was familiar with it, though it had been a long time since she'd felt anything like it. She remembered seeing the first gargoyles, feeling their power, and though they had been powerful in their own right, it had been weak in comparison to this.
After the Dragon Father had finally faded from this plane, the legend had been spoken of, where a single child would be born of all three races. She had heard the legend and waited.
She had put several of her spies in charge of recording the locations of all of the gargoyle clans around the world, waiting for word that such a child had been born. Century after century, she had lived with the disappointment when no word had come.
Then the dissent within her own kingdom had begun, starting with her son's obsession with that female, Titania. She had found Merlin, the child her son had conceived with a human tavern wench. She had attempted to train him, mold him into a weapon for her use and have at her side.
That had failed, spectacularly. Instead of retaining her kingdom, she had been kept in that damned iron prison cell.
Then, she had been woken from a sleep with the sudden burst of that familiar power. She reveled in the seductive sensation, tasted it on her tongue, and knew that it had to be hers.
She would not fail this time, and her son would pay for his betrayal.
They had almost made it across the great hall, when a blast of energy hit the three of them.
It was weak. Human magic, she sneered. All human magic had its roots in the Fae, where somewhere in time a member of the Fae race had lain with a human and begot a child. Most had either been bred out of them over time, or were so weak that they never even knew that they had magic in them at all.
Some, like the black clad humans that began pouring into the great hall, had managed to retain it and use it, but it was no match for her.
Her companions, however, were blown backwards and off of their feet, crashing into the long table in the center of the room.
Mab snarled at them. "Get up, you fools," her voice harsh as her face set itself in an expression of irritation. She turned to the humans, most having stopped in the doorway. Some had their hands outstretched, poised, she assumed, to fling more of their useless magic at them. Most, however, were standing with weapons ready to strike.
"Oh, now," she said, waving her hand from one side to the other and watching as the weapons flew from stunned hands. "Do you really think that your little toys are a match for me?" She snarled.
"Mine might be," a man's voice said from behind her. She whirled to find a tall, red haired woman with an odd mark over one eye and a similarly tall, dark haired man who was pointing an odd, metallic object at them.
Mab focused on the item, curious about it.
"No!" Helios shouted, and threw himself in front of her at the same moment that the object jerked in the man's hands.
One moment Helios was in front of her, and the next, he was on the ground screaming as an electrified band of chains wrapped around him. Just as suddenly, the screaming stopped as the flame haired Olympian seemed to go unconscious.
Mab stepped back with a foot, ready to push off for an extra boost of speed if needed, when a strong pair of arms came around her.
Without thought, especially after she'd come to understand how easily swayed these modern humans were, she reached up a hand and tapped an arm.
The arms dropped, and without looking at him, she pointed to the couple in front of her as the red headed woman seemed to be pushing something into the metallic object. "Stop them," she snarled.
The man she'd touched jerked, as if he were fighting the compulsion, then he was running full out at the couple.
Mab smiled as the man at the door attempted to fire his toy again, but because of the bespelled man running at them, he jerked and missed completely.
"David," Fox called, dropping the canister she'd been trying to load into David's modified net gun. "Duck!"
David ducked, and his wife kicked out, catching their attacker in the midsection. As he grabbed his belly and gasped, Fox efficiently whipped off his long face mask wrap and used it to secure his wrists behind him,
"Sorry, Shen," she said to the man, balling up a fist and with years of practice, knocked Shen out cold,stopping his struggles. She patted him on the shoulder and regained her feet.
She took up a bare-handed fighting stance and glared at Mab.
The man in the suit, the one the female had called David, got to his feet, glaring at the broken weapon in his hands that was now sending a small shower of sparks into the air. "They don't make these like they used to," he said, tossing the thing to the side with a sigh.
"What do you want?" Fox practically growled.
Mab didn't relax her stance. "I have come for the child."
"Which one," Fox asked, straight faced. "In this place, you have to be a little more specific."
"I come for the child of prophecy," Mab snarled back. "Give her to me, and the rest of you will live."
"You know," Fox said, "I'm getting real tired of you Fae coming here to try to take one of the kids. No one has succeeded yet," she said with a sneer and adjusted her stance slightly. "But you're more than welcome to try."
Mab let out a frustrated sigh. "Yes, I can see that you are." She held her arms out, as if in surrender. "Very well then. I invite you to try."
"This is not a good idea," Jove said under his breath from her side.
Mab only smirked, as more and more hands grabbed her to attempt to restrain her.
She sent out one compulsion, and suddenly the hall was filled with screams as those who had touched her dropped, grabbing their heads as if in pain.
Mab had never shifted her gaze from the woman. There was something familiar about her…
"You are part Fae," she said aloud. "Who is your parent?"
"Fox…" David warned her softly.
"Someone you don't want to mess with," Fox returned with a humorless smile.
"Oh?" Mab said, gesturing around her at the humans still writing in pain. "Look around you. Think you another Fae would frighten me?"
"Titania," Fox bit out. "Every member of the Fae knows that, and only someone stupid would try to…"
Mab's eyes practically sparked in her anger. "Titania," she spit out the foul name. "I owe that one a lesson."
"And you're the one to teach it?" Fox taunted.
"Fox," David practically snapped at his wife. "Stop teasing the crazy person."
Fox snapped her mouth shut.
"Yes," Mab said sweetly. "Listen to your mate, dear. I am only here for the one child, and it is not yours. Give her to me," she demanded, her voice turning from sugary sweet to menacing in a heartbeat.
"You're wasting your time," Aavoice said from behind her.
Mab turned a little so that she could look at the new intruder. There was a female gargoyle behind her, arms crossed and almost looking…bored.
"What say you?" Mab demanded.
The female pushed off the wall using a shoulder, and slowly approached Mab. "The humans can't help you," she said softly. "The truth is, the child you are after is under another Fae's protection at the moment, and was whisked out of here to another location. Their human child," she gestured to Fox and David where they stood grim faced, "Is with the Fae and the girl you seek. They," she gestured to the human couple again, "have no idea where their own child is right now, let alone the girl and the Fae."
Mab grit her teeth. "Fine," she said, bringing up a hand and calling up an impressively large fireball. "If you are no help, then…"
"I did not say that there was no one to help you," the gargoyle said, walking closer to her now. "I only said that THEY couldn't."
Mab flicked her gaze at the gargoyle. "Why would you help me?" she asked, suspicion dripping off of every syllable.
The gargoyle shrugged her shoulders. "You and I seem to share the same feelings about humans," Demona said, nudging one of the Wing members on the ground with her tail, disgust plain on her face. "You want the girl? She is a hybrid mix of races that should never have been born, but if you want her," she shrugged and looked back at Mab. "You can have her, with my blessing. You may have the power, but I have a feeling that you are new in town. I can help you with that. Once the other gargoyles in the clan find out who you're looking for, they are going to hide her. I know all of the places that they would go."
There was a loud series of thumps outside, and Mab knew her time was up.
"Very well," Mab said, opening a portal beside the gargoyle. "Come with me," she said, grabbing Jove's arm and shoving him through the swirling green portal ahead of her.
The gargoyle was about to go through herself when there was a gasp at the door. She turned to spot the younger female who looked at her in alarm as the other gargoyles were pushing into the hall on either side of her frozen figure.
"Mother?" she gasped. "What are you…"
Demona growled in frustration and dove through the portal just before it closed behind her.