OK I know it has been another dry spell, and I appreciate your patience! Here we go….let me know what you think!

Darwin

Chapter Eight: Truths Revealed

Tanner awoke with the grim knowledge that he was locked in a death-grip with Demona. His only advantage would be that she was still stone beneath his fingers. With that thought in his mind and his blood speeding up in his veins he was careful not to stretch too far with his hands. He instead flexed his fists together. He was altogether surprised then when he felt something snap and heard a loud feminine scream just before him.

Without thinking he released his grip as the last of his stone skin fell away. He looked about him quickly, trying to find the source of the sound he had heard while waking. Before him stood a woman, a human woman. She had bright red hair and a thin pointed face, which was masked with pain. She was stooped over clutching her hands together and making funny noises somewhere between a moan and a growl. Demona's sleeping statue was no where to be seen.

The woman looked up at him with loathing in her eyes, yet there was surprise there as well, "That's why you weren't at the building when I came for you at sunset!" She spit, straightening and still favoring one hand. Glancing at it Tanner could see that it had been broken, the index finger was nearly straight up and pulled back over the main part of her hand, "Why are you able to awaken before dusk?"

The woman was wearing a rough set of leathers to cover her more private areas. Humans did not wear anything of that nature on a normal basis, now Halloween was another matter. Yet it was no where near that holiday. An inkling of suspicion rose up inside him

He looked into her face a moment realizing that it was familiar, "Demona?" He whispered, "But…" He straightened, "What are you?"

She smiled at the surprise in his expression, "I should ask the same boy, after all you are the first Gargoyle that I have seen able to wake this early in the day."

"It's genetic," Tanner said simply.

She sneered, "Somehow I doubt that. It has to be magic."

Tanner looked away a moment, "That is part of the truth, yet not the whole of it."

Demona looked at him oddly, straightening and the pain in her face ebbed away. Tanner chanced a glance again and was shocked to see that her hand was now intact. She was flexing her fingers as if she wanted to strangle him.

She grinned maliciously at the surprise in face, "And yet I find it amusing that your father never told you about my situation."

"He told me that you were immortal, that only Macbeth could kill you, and then only at the cost of his own life."

"Again in part the truth, but not the whole of it," She answered evasively.

"You were also supposed to be in Paris," Tanner added, "So it begs the question, what're you doing here?"

She smiled demurely, "I have…interests in this part of the world… and I like to check in person on how things are going with my assets."

"Wonderful," Tanner growled, "And what do you want with me?"

"Oh nothing in particular, any of Goliath's clan is target for my wrath…you even more than most, I must admit. You represent the fact that Goliath is happy…and his happiness angers me."

Tanner straightened even further, realizing that she had lost her mind sometime in the thousand plus years that she had been living. Her thought process was twisted by her hatred. He winced at the pulling sensation in his wing. He pulled his large wings around himself, trying to look confident in his now superior position. She was after all only human now, and surely her strength was less for it. What he tried to hide from her was the tracing of his hand down the finger of his own wing that had been broken the night prior. Where the break had been was now a large lump. The bone seemed to be whole, but by the pain he knew that it was going to be another day at least before he was fully recovered. It was another drawback of having human blood mixed with the gargoyle, a night's sleep no longer healed all wounds, only a great majority of it. That meant that he was out of the gliding game for another night. That was going to be bad news as soon as she recovered her gargoyle form.

"It's evident to me that you have worked some other form of magic on yourself in order to turn human during the day rather than to stone," Tanner deduced, smiling as a thought occurred to him. He nodded toward her, "It must have been a long day for you, shaking hands with me all this time as the sun crawled through the sky."

She snarled at him but moved no closer, in fact she was stealthily stepping away from him. She was confirming for him that she was less as a human than a gargoyle. Tanner glanced to the sky, he had to subdue her now. If sunset came and she was still free he would be the one at the disadvantage for she would be able to fly and he would not.

Demona seemed to read that thought, bolting away from him, and Tanner leapt forward in hot pursuit. He had just about latched a hand onto her shoulder when she slipped under a stand of brush, and Tanner fell heavily trying to slide to a stop and follow. He pushed into the brush, slowed greatly by his greater bulk and his wings, which caught, painfully in some cases, on the jutting branches. He could hear her ahead of him crashing through the bush and then the patter of feet as she cleared the copse and ran down one of the many paths in the park. Another moment later Tanner broke through the tangle and skidded to a stop looking around desperately for Demona. He knew that she had gone to the left her padding feet fading into the distance.

Tanner turned that direction, moving forward slowly, unable to help the feeling that she would only go so far and then duck under cover and wait to ambush him, and would probably wait until the sun went down. He went to the point where he had thought he had lost the sound of her steps. He strained his ears listening for any possible sound, any hint that Demona was somewhere near here. But there was nothing.

"Damn it!" Tanner growled, spinning circles as he surveyed the trees around him. He spent long minutes looking along the edges of the track for a footprint, a claw mark or anything else to give him a clue as to which direction she might have gone. Again nothing was helping him, and reluctantly he admitted to himself that this fight was over for now.

Tanner looked about him trying to determine just where her was. Everything was much different from the ground and it took him nearly half an hour to figure out that he was totally the wrong side of the park to get back to the Eerie building. This was a long back that was for sure.

"Geez this is slow going from the ground," Tanner muttered under his breath. He glanced again at the sky realizing he was running out of time. The sun was sinking now toward the horizon at what seemed to be an accelerated rate. Tanner wondered why that was, it wasn't like the earth sped up toward the end of the day. He was back in familiar territory, near here was the café where Michelle and he had sat down to dinner just the other night. And to the east was the place in the park where the concert was. Those happy moments seemed so far away for him now, it looked as if there was going to be no end to the amount of pain he would have to endure because of Demona's hate.

Tanner grimaced quickening his pace. Soon it would be dusk and then Demona, wherever she was would catch up to him and use her ability to glide to advantage. She seemed intent on doing him bodily harm. He wondered vaguely why…and all that he could think of was that she was just the type. He lifted his wing into another position, as holding it wrapped around his body became uncomfortable. It allowed his leathers to drag and strained his already aching, supporting finger.

A noise reached Tanner from behind him on the path and he quickly took to the bushes. He did not need another problem on top of his already heavy load. He froze in the thick bushes to the left of the trail breathing shallow and his eyes wide. It could be Demona, perhaps she had been trailing him this whole time, probably wondering why he did not take to the trees when he should have. "Great," He thought, "Now she knows that there is something inferior about your ability to heal."

He watched silently as a pair of black pant legs passed casually by his position. When it wasn't Demona's bare legs, Tanner looked up and his breath caught in his throat. It was Michelle, coming back for their "date" no doubt.

"No," Tanner said softly gritting his teeth, suddenly wishing that she had picked today to back out of their meeting.

Demona knew what she looked like! Cursing under his breath he paralleled her path, trying to wend his way through the bushes without making too much noise. He didn't want to draw her attention to him. Yet he needed to stay close to Michelle in case Demona decided to take her revenge on Michelle instead of him. At least he had defenses against the Gargress.

He was so intent on Michelle that he hadn't noticed the sun had gone down around him. The rustle in the trees above him warned him only a fraction of a second before Demona landed on top of him. He had just enough time to roll over to catch her and block the brunt of the attack. He grunted in pain as her weight came to full bear on him and they rolled out of the concealment, across the path, and into the bushes on the other side of it..

Tanner tried to block her and was successful at first, but she was slightly faster acting than he was at reacting. He blocked one blow aimed for his head but was unable to counter the other hand and growled loudly as her nails cut his flesh across his chest. He gathered his arms up under her and forcibly threw her away from him.

He leapt to his feet even as she rolled over her shoulder, and somersaulted away from him. She landed lightly and immediately assumed a position of attack.

"Why aren't you in the air little gargoyle," She taunted him. Her tail was lashing wildly behind her and her hands were out with claws toward him. Her eyes glowed wickedly in the dark, "Could it have anything to do with that lump on your wing?"

Tanner growled angry with himself, evidentially he was not as subtle as he thought himself to be when checking over his injury. He tucked his wings in behind him tightly snapped together, with thumbs interlocked to keep them there and well away from Demona. She was sure to try and take advantage of the injury.

"Why don't you heal, little gargoyle?" She sneered, "Must be the same reason you can't get a proper night's sleep. Your father was always the strong one…as much as I hate to admit it his bloodline was never weak. It must be your mother…she must be weak stock!"

"You leave E…my mother out of this!" Tanner growled catching his slip only just in time.

Demona stopped a moment straightening slightly and eyebrows raised, "In my day, you wouldn't have survived this long! Gargoyles who didn't get enough sun always died out in the end. Darwin's theory right? Only the strong survive," She said.

Demona didn't wait for a response, rushing toward him intent on tearing him apart. Tanner followed suit, building up a sizable head of steam before colliding with her. There was a loud thud as their bodies made contact and yowling and growling could be heard for miles, that he was sure, as they continued to fight. Why they hadn't gotten Michelle's attention was beyond him, they rolled right across her path. Heck she probably did see them and ran screaming the other direction. Demona, luckily, didn't seem to realize that she was near otherwise this fight would not be occurring.

Tanner howled as Demona used his distraction to get another shot in. His upper arm bleeding profusely from the four long furrows that she had laid there. They broke apart and stood circling each other. They sounded like two tomcats their yowling echoed off of the trees around them. Tanner needed to end this soon, Demona had done him some serious damage this night, but he couldn't see just how.

Suddenly there was a flash of black and white inserting itself between the two gargoyles. Tanner blinked, as the identity of the person in front of him became evident. But, what was she doing here?

"Leave him alone!" Michelle yelled loudly. In her hand was a very large caliber weapon, which she had trained between Demona's eyes. Michelle backed up until her fingers encountered Tanner's chest and flexed puckering the skin under the tips, as if to ensure that he was solidly behind her.

"Michelle stay out of this," Tanner whispered to her, not having time to wonder why she was doing this or think about the implications of him knowing her name. Michelle only shook her head in the negative never letting her eyes leave Demona's face.

"Oh look," Demona smirked, "Your girlfriend is trying to save you. She must have a death wish."

The smile had faded from Demona's face and she leapt forward. Without flinching Michelle pulled the trigger and Tanner watched in utter shock as Demona's body lurched backwards and fell heavily to the ground.

"No I think that is you," Michelle said shaking the hair out of her eyes.