Elisa leaned against the large gargoyle, feeling his body heat against her own. She pointed to a single star in the evening sky. "That star looks red instead of white."

Goliath looked up. "It looks white to me, but humans are better at seeing color than gargoyles."

"That's right. Your eyes are adapted for seeing in the dark. You must have more rods than cones."

"We learn something new everyday, don't we, Elisa?"

"I thought I had slept through that biology class." The policewoman suddenly stood up. "Look!" She pointed to a nearby abandoned building. A red-haired gargoyle with lavender skin was climbing the side. "For a second, I thought that was Demona." She squinted. "Who is that?" Drawing her mini-binoculars, she peered at the gargess, who crawled into an open window and shut it after herself. "Is there something you're not telling me? Where'd she come from?"

"Her name is Malevola."

"Gargoyles don't just fall from the sky," Elisa felt Goliath lift her. He glided to the fire escape of the top story.

"Demona got a human scientist to make her from our shared DNA," explained the clan leader.

"Sevarius?"

"No. A man called Lee Thal."

Elisa opened the door. "I think I've heard of him."

Malevola was standing in the middle of the empty floor, arms behind her back. "So you're Elisa?"

"I answer to that name," replied the policewoman.

"I've never been this close to a human before." Malevola stepped forward, and in a subtle but quick move, slammed the door and locked it.

Goliath, never one to be deterred by a locked door, pressed his ear to listen and watched the twosome through the glass window in the door.

"So," he heard the redhead say. "I want you to know I hold no grudge against you, or any humans. Not even that crazy one."

Elisa didn't like the direction this was heading. "Excuse me?"

The gargess pulled a bazooka from behind her back. "I'm going to end your life." The voice was shaky but chilling.

Quick as lightning, Elisa drew her service pistol. She noticed that Malevola's grip on the bazooka was wavering. She must not have much experience with that sort of weapon. "I can empty my magazine in the time you pull that trigger. And I'm a sharpshooter."

"I don't care. We'll both go out."

Outside, Goliath's eyes were flashing silver-white. "How dare she!" Taking the door knob in his claws, he was prepared to rip it off. But something held him back. The voice of reason. She's half your size, Goliath. And young, with no hand-to-hand combat experience. If you go in there and fight her, she'd be helpless. And you'd be no better than Demona. He sighed and decided to let Elisa deal with it.

Angela glided toward him, landing on the fire escape. "What's wrong, Father?" She peeked through the window and gasped. "That horrid girl!"

This is not my night, thought Elisa. Trapped in a six-story building with a kamikaze gargoyle. "Malevola? Do you need to talk? Because I'm a really good listener."

"I guess," she answered, keeping her weapon level. Malevola moved away from the door, closer to the closed window. "I don't know what to do. I don't even feel like a gargoyle. Goliath thinks of me as an unwanted guest and my mother seems to think I was put on this earth to serve her. Well, I can tell you one thing. She didn't go to all this trouble just to raise a fool."

You didn't go to all this trouble just to raise a fool. Thailog's voice echoed in Elisa's mind. Is she Goliath's or Thailog's?

"Father," breathed Angela. "You've got to stop her."

"I would in a heartbeat," replied Goliath. "But it wouldn't be a fair fight. Me, a giant, pounding a wayward hatchling less than a month old into submission?"

"Then I'll have to," declared the raven-haired gargess. She and her father embraced as if they were hugging for the last time.

On the roof of the next-door building, the rest of the clan convened.

Brooklyn looked worried. "Shouldn't we intervene?"

"No," came a female voice. Everyone turned to see Demona. Her white fangs glittered in her smile. "Let Malevola and Maza work it out amongst themselves."

Brooklyn stared at her. His eyes gazed upon the snake bracelet around Demona's arm. It reminded him of the situation he had gotten himself into. It seemed so distant, but resentment was still in his mind. He had let himself be manipulated by Demona, like a puppet. Her words had sounded so sweet, the way a talking snake would sound. It reminded him of a long poem he had read recently. Milton's Paradise Lost, where Satan, the "adversary" and rebel angel, tempted Eve in the guise of a snake in an effort to destroy humanity. Finally, he spoke. "You know, Angela thinks you're better than this! She thinks you deserve another chance! I trusted you once, and look where it got me. Only an optimistic angel would think you can be redeemed. Angela lives up to her name, unlike you. Your name ought to be Devilina, not Demona."

Demona turned her back, leaped off the roof and glided off without a word.

Back in the building, Angela and Malevola were still arguing.

"Why, Malevola?" Angela asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"I hate you for existing!" Malevola spat, eyes glowing vermilion. "Mother wouldn't let me hurt you, so I decided to hurt your friend. And since Elisa is Mother's nemesis, I'd gain her favor."

Angela lunged forward. The bazooka tumbled from her rival's arms and rolled across the floor. The other gargess made no move to pick it up again. Angela realized she still had Sibling Rivalry: How to Spot It and How to Stop It. "Too bad there's no chapter on renegade siblings." She tossed the book at Malevola. The heavy tome sailed parabolically through the air, landing in Malevola's arms.

Malevola staggered, hitting the closed window.

The air was filled with a cacophony of sound. The gasp that escaped Angela's lips, the shattering glass, and the painful scream that everyone heard last.

The redhaired gargoyle had fallen six stories and was lying on the ground. Angela picked up Elisa, opened the window, and climbed down.

Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington got to the fallen gargess first.

"She's still breathing." Broadway observed.

Malevola groaned. Glass shards covered her clothes and hair. Blood oozed from minor cuts on her arms and legs. A large shard protruded from her shoulder.

"Did Demona put you up to this?" Brooklyn asked.

"No," Malevola answered flatly. "I did it out of my own free will."

"I didn't think she'd fall through the window!" Angela cried shakily. She reached over and plucked the big glass fragment.

Big mistake. Dark red blood spurted from the wound.

"Tamponade," Lexington noted. "Put pressure on it."

Barely noticing she had cut her own claw on the sharp edges of the glass, Angela pressed hard on Malevola's laceration. Within a few minutes the flow of blood slowed to a trickle.

"It was a pretty high fall," Hudson reported to Goliath. "Nothing a day of stone sleep won't fix."

"Yes," the clan leader acknowledged. "It's keeping her alive until dawn that's the problem."

"I don't know," Elisa commented. "She's lost a lot of blood." She motioned toward the ground. It was moist and red. Malevola's skin had gone pale and she was unconscious. "I think she needs a transfusion."

Goliath picked up the unconscious gargoyle. "Let's take her to the castle's infirmary."

Castle Wyvern's infirmary had served as a quarantine area for ill servants and a recovery room for injured soldiers. Now it was mostly empty, save for a gurney and a few first aid supplies. Malevola was occupying said gurney.

Elisa opened a satellite bag. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"She's a life. That's all that matters," answered Goliath. "I'm her father. It'll probably be a match."

The detective shrugged, and pressed the needle into the clan leader's upper arm. After a few attempts, it penetrated the gargoyle's thick skin. Elisa pressed the pump. A small amount of red blood flowed into the plastic bag. She released the pump and withdrew the needle. She took the second hose and needle, and pricked Malevola's arm. The blood seeped into its recipient. Color returned to the gargess' skin. "I think it worked." The clan and detective cleared out.

"I didn't think she'd fall out that window," Angela said to no one in particular, looking through the glass window.

Hudson shrugged. "It wasn't your fault, lass." He went back into the infirmary and glanced out the window. The sky was beginning to lighten. Dawn was a few hours off.

There was a groan from the gurney. Malevola had regained consciousness.

The elderly gargoyle turned to her. "Are you all right?"

"If 'all right' means pain flowing through my body like electricity, then I'm hunky-dory," she replied sarcastically. "So what's my sentence?"

"Only Goliath can decide that." He leaned forward. "Your creator said you were named wrong. That you should have been named Abigail. That means 'father's joy'. Be your father's joy. Don't cause Goliath any more sorrow than you already have."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Hudson turned to Bronx. "Come on, boy. We might be able to catch the news before sunrise."

Brooklyn came in, followed by Lexington and Broadway.

Malevola swallowed hard. "You guys are a welcome sight. Look, I know what I did was dumb."

"Yeah, it was," agreed Brooklyn.

"We're all entitled to make mistakes," Lexington added. "Take me. I mistook actors' television personas for the real thing."

"I trusted your mother," said Brooklyn simply.

"I guess you all were right."

"Your mother isn't always right," Broadway commented. "You ought to think for yourself. I mean that as a friend."

"After this stunt, I'm surprised you three still want to be my friends."

Broadway leaned on the wall. "I once played with Elisa's gun, and it went off. I nearly killed her."

"She looks like a fighter," Malevola said. "And she forgave you?"

"Yeah. It took me a while to forgive myself, but somehow I did. We're imperfect."

Malevola quickly changed the subject. "Where's Angela? I need to talk to her. Alone."

Angela entered the room as the others left. "Why did you fall? You could have glided. The updrafts were pretty strong."

"I hate gliding. Heights make me nervous. I could barely climb the wall. Anyway...I'm sorry. I let my stupid jealousy control me. I'm sorry about the other stuff, too. What I said. I should have listened."

"I forgive you. And I can help you learn to glide. If you'll let me. You're one of us, Malevola. If we seemed alienated, it was because we've had some bad experiences...well, just bad experiences."

"Life should come with an instruction booklet."

"Or at least a warning."

"You're not so bad, Angela. Why did Mother keep me from you anyway?"

"I don't know much about my mother. Inside, there's some gentleness and love. Father used to love her. But it soured. He doesn't like to talk about it. I think Mother still loves him, deep down. She just keeps it hidden. She's bitter and vengeful on the outside. I just wish she'd shed that."

"Say, Angela. There's something I wanted to know."

"What?"

"I know next to nothing about you."

"Well, I grew up on a magic island called Avalon..."

To Be Concluded