Togther Chapter 1: Married Life
A blast came between the married couple. Both rolled over and instinctively pulled out their iron weapons they just happened to be carrying. They started firing at the source of the blast and with instincts instilled with them over the centuries. It was a hot September day and the twosome had gotten together for lunch when they were interrupted. They fired at the squat, greenish-purple, with-a-slight-moustache female fae which started attacking them, unprovoked, which didn't surprise the them anymore. The two were slowly retreating, moving behind different blockades while firing at the magical creature. At a break in the fire, the wife moved behind the same blockade as her husband.
"So," she panted and said in an angry voice (that is assuming it has been determined there is a time when she doesn't sound angry), "what do you think?" she asked, sensing his confusion.
"Hmm," the husband thought as he reloaded, "naither of us are gargoyles, even if ye aire in at night...But they never attacked the gargoyles during the day before." He finished loading the iron into his gun, turn around the corner of the truck and fired at the witch. He caught a blast of magic in the shoulder, the pain he bore, the couple shared.
"That doesn't explain why they attack you." The wife took her turn shooting at the creature until she, too, ran out of ammo.
"Maybe, 'tis because I am magically linked to a gargoyle?" The husband suggested as he handed his spouse iron bullets.
"You know, they never attacked gargoyles in the past so openly or so often."
"What about yer friend Puck, would he know what his siblings are after?"
"I do believe he associates with Goliath's clan these days."
"Well, than perhaps I should pay them a visit, hmm?" His wife gave a sneer of confusion of why he would suggest such a thing. "They hate you, remember, not me." Her look at that moment suggested 'whatever' and both turned at the same time to start blasting the fae with all they had, hoping to weaken her but soon took cover again.
MacBeth jumped out from behind his defense and fired several rounds and was immediately blasted down by magic. His partner, shortly later, blasted the fae away from her husband.
"Why'd you do that!" His wife shouted, upset from the pain he caused her.
"Where were you?"
"Hey! I can sense your feelings, not read your mind!"
The battle started to get repetitious, the humans would injure the fae but her magic would help her quickly recover, then she would respond with injuring one of the linked pair, an injury they would quickly recover from.
"If they are attacking you because we are linked, wouldn't they know they can't kill us?" The woman asked when the duo was back behind the same defense again.
"Maybe we should carry iron chains with us as well as iron based weapons and of course our laser weapons." He answered her question. She growled at him for not paying attention to her, so he growled back, "look, we don't know what their motive is, we have been trying to figure that out since May." He nodded to his wife and they both they turned around to fire at the green-purple woman, but she was gone.
"Eh," the human-gargoyle sounded disappointed. They both kept their weapons ready and searched for the ugly Child of Oberon. They eventually gave up looking for her, went back to their home and reloaded on their iron.
MacBeth sat at his desk in at the front corner of his room, finishing up some last minute details before classes began. The school was small for being in such a high populated area of New York. Maybe it was just the class of 2005 that was small, because MacBeth knew their faces, many of their names; he knew the honors half of the class fairly well. The warning bell rang, his students slowly began to filter into the room. He recognized all of the students so far that walked in. They were all seniors, he had taught them as Juniors the year before. In some ways he considered these students friends, he at least got along with most, he could tease some and they could tease him.
The rest of the class filtered in as the final bell was ringing. You don't mark tardies on the first day. Besides, the ones that were late were unfamiliar faces to the teacher who had been working at the school since 1999, so were most likely new to the school.
"Welcome back." MacBeth began the class. "This, as ye know this is Advanced Placement European History. 'Tis not going to be an easy class. The curriculum will be focused on what will most likely be on the AP Exam. Study hard and you will do well on the exam and get credit for this class, if you don't work hard, well, then this was a waste of a class. But I know you well enough, I wouldn't have let you take this class if I didn't think you will work. For those of you who don't know me, I am Lennox MacDuff. I have a Master's Degree in History, I spend my free time studying King Arthur and other folklore and legends." That was about the extent of what he could think on that he could tell the class about without arising suspicion. "As last year, I will let you sit where you want, but I reserve the right to sit you where I want when I feel necessary." There was a quick shifting of seats for a few students. "And to make things easier," MacBeth approached two boys in their seats, "Adrian, Travis, I don't want you sitting anywhere near each other." There was a chuckle over the class and the good friends moved away from each other. "Chelsea, Sarah, you too. And Sarah, don't move next to your boyfriend, Justin, I actually want you to pay attention during class."
As they moved, the class went into a small chatter as MacBeth turned to the board and wrote some numbers. A few of the students recognized the numbers and groaned in disagreement. "Later on in class," MacBeth said over the murmur, "I will start into the introduction of the class. And yes, the numbers on the board are your first homework assignment. Read those pages tonight please." Many of the kids wrote the numbers down in their assignment books, some wrote them down straight into their text books, which were owned by the state of New York, not by the students.
"I went to California this summer," Adrian shouted out. MacBeth went ahead and let the first day be a little rowdy, they weren't going to have another day like this for a while.
"What did you do this summer Mr. MacDuff?" Trisha asked.
"What is your real name? One of these days we're going to figure it out," Justin blurted.
Answering Trisha's question and not Justin's, MacBeth started, "Well, I went to Scotland, Japan, India, Egypt, Italy, Germany..."
"You can't afford that on a teacher's salary!" Travis complained.
"Travis, do you really think that all I do in my spare time is study legends and correct papers?" Maybe another reason the students like MacBeth is because of how mysterious he was.
"Ooh, a secret agenda," one boy teased, "nothing too… illegal I hope."
To change the subject the teacher added, "I also got married."
"At your age!" one boy said shocked. Many of the girls, though, responded with noises that often referred to such things as babies and small fuzzy animals. "What's her name?" One of the girls asked. "It is a 'her' right?" a boy in the front row teased. MacBeth flicked his hand in the boy's direction.
"Her name is Dominique Destine. She kept her last name."
"Of course, how dorky of a name is 'MacDuff'!" Justin kept his argument going. MacBeth decided that now was a good time to get started into the curriculum.
MacBeth arrived at his home around four. He went to sleep and woke when Demona returned home with a frozen pizza. She started heating the oven while MacBeth sat at the dining room table working on the lessons for later in the week. Demona grabbed herself a coke and sat at the other end of the long, elegant table.
"And how was the first day of school?" She propped her legs up on the table.
"'Twent fairly well, first period was a little chaotic… I'll need to work on that."
"First period, that's that class of seniors you know pretty well, right?"
A beep came from the kitchen, the oven was heated. Demona's face tightened as if to say she didn't want to move from her comfortable position.
"I'll take care of it." MacBeth grabbed a coke after he put the pizza in the oven and set the timer. He came back and pulled up a chair right next to Demona "Enough about me, How are things at NightStone Unlimited?"
"Well, I think I'm finally starting to settle in the smaller office."
"Smaller? 'Tis perhaps a whole floor of that office building! Well, I suppose that is smaller."
"I actually like it better. It's good to have my office away from where I live... I haven't completed the secret rooms yet, I thought maybe you could help me with that on the weekend?" He nodded and then put his elbow on the back of her chair and ran his fingers along her face. "I had a few interviews today."
"The ones that were seeking funding?"
"Yes, they want to fund gargoyles research. There are some that want to study the history of gargoyles, others that want to compare their anatomy to humans. There was one group that wanted to do autopsies on gargoyles that died but I had to explain to them that gargoyles turn to stone when they die. I don't have a lot of patience for some humans."
"Um-Hm," He said as he admired her hair and face features with his fingers. Demona was starting to get used to how sometimes MacBeth sounded as if he wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, but she soon learned he was.
"The research would have to be done on the outside of live gargoyles, gargoyles that volunteer for it. I don't know if I'm going to fund any of that, but I have to admit, I am curious, a comparative study of humans and gargoyles." The gargoyle said to her human companion.
"Or we could do our own study." He said as he studied her.
"Or not, doctor." She gave him an evil glare and waved his hand away. "I think I will arrange to have Savarius' notes on gargoyles… stolen..."
"I think I can help with that." MacBeth gave her an evil glare.
"Since Savarius had done some studies of gargoyle genetics, seeing as he helped me and Thailog create the clone clan, I'd like to see what he had to say about gargoyle genetics."
"It shouldn't be hard to find some geneticists that would gladly do the gargoyle/ human comparisons, but be careful that we don't end up with another Savarius. What do you want to know?"
"We should probably keep some copies for ourselves, I suppose it would be interesting..." Demona was silent.
"Why do you what humans to learn more about gargoyle's anyway?"
"Oh, I guess just to prove our superiority."
"Aye, of course, human scientists are going to admit to gargoyle superiority."
Demona just pushed MacBeth away, got up and went to get the pizza out of the oven. When she got back, MacBeth stood up and caught her arm that wasn't holding the pizza and kissed her, which was dangerous, seeing as she was holding a hot pizza... They decided to eat the pizza on a couch in front of a TV instead of at the elegant table.
Parent Teacher Conference. MacBeth had to stay after school until nearly seven talking to parents of students that were struggling in his various classes. This annoyed Demona because she was hoping he would come over to her office and help her set up the systems. But she agreed to pick him up from work anyway. MacBeth stepped out of the school, looked up and realized that he and his wife had failed agreed on a place to meet. He paced around a bit before he started to go back into the building to climb to the roof. Before he reached the door, Demona flew down and picked him up.
"Good evening," MacBeth said to the gargoyle, "where were you,"
"Looking for you." she responded and she started for her office. Ahead of them they saw a police road block. If they had driven to Demona's office, they wouldn't have been able to get to it for the streets were all cut off, not that it mattered… they didn't even own a car. They decided to approach with caution.
A blast of purple light gave away the problem. Goliath's clan of gargoyles had a fairy surrounded. "Another fae?" Demona's eyes lit red and she pondered her next move.
"We better help!" MacBeth volunteered the two. "Why do they continue to attack? The only pattern in their attacks are that they seem to want to kill gargoyles. I fail to see their purpose."
"I don't think they've succeeded either," Demona landed near the battle but out of the way. "Do you have any iron?"
"No, I was in school, remember?" MacBeth said.
"There's some in my office, but the height of the battle seems to be taking place there." They stopped for a second to watch the battle. The fae was an incredibly skinny and long magical creature with long white hair.
Xanatos has supplied the gargoyles with iron weapons and also fought himself in his iron clan suit. The duo watched and waited for an opening. They watched as Goliath was blasted and he fell towards the ground. MacBeth could hear Demona grunt with delight.
"Hey," MacBeth delayed, "why don't you have any iron?"
"Here," Demona handed him some keys and pulled his laser of our his suit coat (the things he brings into a public school…). "I haven't installed the way to open my office from the outside yet, you'll find some iron inside. And it would be best if you kept out of sight too, because I'm going out in the middle of this."
"What?" MacBeth questioned her motive, "trying to impress your daughter still?"
"Hey, If I'm going to help my daughter's clan, I might as well announce it! And I'd really rather they didn't see us together."
MacBeth grumbled and entered the office complex like a normal human while Demona drew the fae's attention with the laser gun.
Several of the gargoyles were down and their spouses/girl/boyfriend were chasing after their falling lovers, caring more about them than the battle. Goliath was about ready to make one of his suicide attempts that he thinks he can always get out of because he's the main character and therefore always is the one to save the day, but Demona interfered with his heroic efforts, yanked Goliath's small iron weapon from his hand.
"Demona!" Goliath said in an angry voice as if to blame her for all of the problems in the world. She responded by giving him a nasty kick, knocking him off balance and out of the air. He plunged to the ground but Demona knew that wouldn't kill him, his suicide attempts, now that will kill him. She jammed the iron weapon into the end of her laser gun and shot it at the fae, disorienting him as other gargoyles came to draw energy from him.
As MacBeth opened Demona's office window, he noticed that several of his students had just exited a mall down below (obviously being in the mall long before the battle and clueless about the entire happenings of the world around them). The skinny fae blasted at a gargoyle and hit part of the building in the process. The rumble was about to fall on MacBeth's awe captivated students. He was already rushing down to save them. He quickly pushed them quickly to safety, but in doing so, he caught the fae's attention, almost as if he was looking for him in the first place. The magical being immediately ignored the gargoyles around him and shot a spell at MacBeth that captivated and stunned him. Demona, seeing what was happening, rushed to save her husband, forgetting for her desire to concealing their relationship. He looked like he was in agonizing pain but, surprisingly, Demona felt none of it. The spell lifted MacBeth off of the ground and suddenly dropped him.
"MacBeth?" Demona cried. The students looked at the fallen body in horror and confusion as a blue gargoyle came up to him and started calling him a name other than Lennox MacDuff. Demona gave out a cat screech. "MacBeth, get up!" She ordered.
The duo hadn't noticed it but the fae had disappeared and the other gargoyles were cleaning up but hadn't noticed MacBeth, except Angela. Fortunately for them, she already knew of their marriage and she descended on he couple.
"Come on Mother," she said gently to the angry gargoyle. The sound of sirens approached and she knew that the humans would take care of him. Demona refused to leave his side and pulled angrily away from Angela's motioning. "Come on," she said gently again and this time Demona obeyed. Angela escorted her back to MacBeth's castle. Angela set her mother down on the roof and stayed a bit incase her mother wanted to talk. Demona said nothing; she seemed deep in thought.
Finally the daughter said, "Mother, what is it, I've never seen you like this."
Demona just stared and finally said, "I felt nothing, nothing." Angela just waited quietly. "It's...it's almost as if, after so long of hating that spell, just when I wanted, it went away." Her eyes went red and angry.
"Mother..."
Demona grunted, "I never was a mother to you."
"Mother, it's not your fault, he's going to come out of this." They sat quietly for a while but Angela stayed a little longer until dawn was approaching.
"You better get home before they send out the entire clan, Xanatos' minions and half the city of New York looking for you."
Angela smiled gently, "alright, but I do want you to know before I leave, I haven't had the chance to tell you before because we haven't talked much but my egg..." Demona perked up at this, "it's due to hatch soon, I want you to see your grandchild." Demona just stared in thought as Angela said good bye, "see you Mother, I'll try to stop by tomorrow to see how MacBeth's doing." Demona smiled, it was nice to have some good news.
"Hello, I'm Mr. MacDuff's wife, can I see him?" Demona said in attempted politeness at first morning light. The receptionist gave Demona directions to MacBeth's room. Apparently he was on a high level as far as his injuries were concerned but not too high he couldn't have visitors. The nurse told Demona that he had been in and out of comas. She looked down on the sleeping man.
"It's amazing how I never thought I'd see you like this." she said to him. She ran her hand down his arm to a bandage that covered some wound. She pressed it; she felt pain on the same part of her own arm. That pain sent a feeling of relief and assured her everything would be alright.
On her way out, she met Elisa in the elevator. "Hello." Demona sarcastically greeted her enemy. Elisa smiled equally sarcastically. "Who are you visiting detective?"
"That's confidential." After an uncomfortable pause as they waited for the elevator to come to the right floor Elisa added, "and who are you seeing?"
"That's confidential."
After Elisa found the right floor, she came in to find MacBeth waking from his unconscious state. They talked briefly about the battle but MacBeth was too weary and told her he'd discuss it with the clan when he was better. After the detective left, MacBeth's four students he had saved at the mall came in. They were Justin and Travis and their girlfriends Sarah and Samantha.
"Hi Mr. MacDuff," they greeted him gently, which was unusual, but they were serious this once. MacBeth smiled. To lighten the mood he started to tease them.
"Wa-What were you doing at that battle? Don't you know to stay away from those situations?"
"What were you doing there?" Sarah smiled.
"Is this part of your 'other' life?" Travis teased.
"Now we know why you are always on the gargoyle's side when we discuss that subject in class," Samantha said, "it seems you've got a lot of gargoyle friends." The kids were particularly curious about the blue one but didn't ask. MacBeth just smiled, tired. "I'd rather you didn't spread this around school." The kids nodded in agreement.
"We better let him rest," Justin said. As the kids were leaving he added, "While we're keeping secrets, that one gargoyle called you 'MacBeth', what is your real name?"
"MacBeth." He said.
"Lennox MacBeth?"
"No, just MacBeth." The kids smiled and left, this just added to the mystery of their teacher.
That night Demona received a phone call from the school. It seemed they were running short of substitutes and resorted to asking family members to sub for absent teachers. Demona consented knowing that she could probably figure out what MacBeth was teaching and knew that was what he would have wanted.
"Hello," she entered first period, "I'm your sub for today, Ms. Destine, Mr. MacDuff's wife, I'm not a trained substituted but I'll tell you to do your work and make sure you don't cause trouble."
"Is Mr. MacDuff ok?" Students asked before class, once the girls started asking about how they met and what they did last summer she pointed to the pages in the book they need to read and answer questions from. "When you are done with your reading, work on your debate? I'm assuming you know what that means." And so the next couple days Demona covered MacBeth's classes, mostly just keeping them busy with book work and then after school going to the hospital to visit MacBeth, who was slowly recovering. Then at night she would keep up NightStone, you know, buying stock for pro-gargoyle companies, trying to throw off other stocks for the sheer amusement of it, checking out what magical or illegal items were available on the web and so on.
"Today you were scheduled to do your class debate, is that right?" Ms. Destine addressed the class, "but today you will just do a practice debate, your teacher should be back at school the beginning of next week."
The topic of discussion was gargoyles, big surprise. Demona tried very hard not to give an impression that she was biased in any way, which was very difficult for her. There were several students for each side, several witnesses and a jury, the teacher was to be judge. They presented opening arguments. The legal issue was whether or not gargoyle's should be offered citizenship. Demona basically didn't let the sides get very far in either of their arguments but instead continuously pointed holes in both.
"Armond, you are saying that these sentient beings should not be treated equal because they are not equal, it's a human government, only human's should have citizenship. Well, you know that it was once a white government but they eventually let blacks be citizen, sounds terribly racist." She said harshly. "And you guys, you say that anyone should be allowed to be citizens, what about the third species, faes? I'm sure you've seen the news about the gargoyles all over have been having problems with magically creatures, do you think they should be part of the U.S. too?"
One night when Demona came home and finished correcting the quizzes she had given based on the reading assignments she had been giving them, she found a chance to relax and went out to sit on the roof. She became particularly fond of MacBeth's mansion because it reminded her of the castle she had grown up in so long ago and helped her feel like herself again after posing all day as a human. She laughed at how peculiar she felt teaching humans. She was doing it all because of the love that she felt for MacBeth. That in itself was an amusing paradox. Sitting on that roof, she started to question her identity. It seemed almost unreal, how could things have changed so much in such a short time? Was she under a spell? Or was she being herself? Who was she? She was still the selfish gargoyle she had always been and hungry for love and friendship. She found someone she had a great deal in common with and yet were complete opposites. It's not as if she didn't have these honorable good qualities in her, it's just that for some reason MacBeth found a way to bring them out in her, as he had for 37 years long ago after they first met. He had also forced honor out of her the first time she met MacBeth when he just a boy, she found herself saving a boy she didn't know instead of getting her revenge, something that had always been important to her more than anything, except, for some reason, that once. She smiled at this thought, that is why she loved him, she was glad she didn't let him die.
Demona noticed a dark familiar figure starting up the path to the house. Exceedingly please at such a sight, she flew down and pick him up and carried him home.
"They let you out already?"
"Aye, they told me I was healthy, they couldn't explain my accelerated recovery." Demona just laughed. "'Tis not all, ye should have been there when I tried to explain why I do not have any health insurance. They dinna care anymore when I paid them in cash."
MacBeth entered the Eyrie Building lobby one night about a week later. It was the first chance he had after recovering and getting things back in place with his classes after being out for a couple weeks.
"Hello, I'd like to see Mr. Xanatos or Mr. Burnett." MacBeth knew he could not ask the receptionist to see the gargoyles because of this still lingering hatred towards them, and he didn't even know if the receptionist knew about the gargoyles. Owen Burnett met MacBeth a few minutes later and led him to the Castle Wyvern on the top of the mansion.
Goliath, Elisa, Hudson, and Xanatos were talking on the balcony. Apparently Brooklyn, Patch, Bronx, Lexington and Liberty were out on rounds about the city, the rest of clan were probably about the castle.
"Ah, MacBeth," the old gargoyle greeted, "glad to see ye up and out of that hospital."
"Yes," Elisa said, "It's good to see you, how were you hurt in the first place?"
"I really don understand how that happened, I dinna know that the Wyrd Sister's spell on me could be affected by another spell, believe me, being suicidal for many centuries, I tried to find one." MacBeth said.
"Why are these faes attacking us?" The smart and all important leader Goliath interjected. "I thought we settled our score with Oberon, I thought Titania was on our side?"
"Well, Titania is on my side anyway," Xanatos added, "but I'm human, the fae's attacks seem to be primarily directed at gargoyles." Xanatos went to the intercom and called his best friend Owen to come back to the roof.
"All I know is that I've seen many of these attacks over the last year or so, battling Eris, I saw attacks on Roman gargoyles during the summer and periodic other attacks. But the battle was never during the day."
"That only proves that they have some honor," Hudson added, "not to attack helpless gargoyles."
"But that doesn't explain why he attacked you." Elisa questioned.
"This is not the first time, I have been, in fact, attacked, even during the day, and I can sense that Demona has been attacked during the day as well."
"But why?" Goliath asked an in-depth question.
"All I can suggest is that I'm magically linked to a gargoyle."
Owen enters the scene closely followed by his pre-teen apprentice. "Ah, Owen," Xanatos addressed him, "can you add anything to this discussion on the reason the faes are attacking the gargoyles?"
"Like I said before, sir, I have no communication with my siblings on Avalon due to my banishment."
"I don't understand, they haven't accomplished their goal," Elisa spoke what was on her deep-in-thought mind, "they've never killed any gargoyles, as far as we know, and any injuries caused them usually heal over day, what's the point?"
"Perhaps they are trying to persuade the gargoyles into something?" Suggested Xanatos. Angela came out to listen to the discussion.
"Or the humans?" MacBeth stated, the other's looked at him. "Or maybe they are in league with some humans. Working with humans to weaken the gargoyles or at least their morale." Goliath looked at him puzzled, MacBeth returned with a look of 'what?'
"For a minute there, I could have swore you sounded like Demona." Goliath tangented. Angela and MacBeth traded looks.
"So you're saying that the faes are trying to scare us away?" Angela interpreted.
"Could Fox ask her mother if she knows anything about what these Faes are doing?" Elisa, asked.
"Titania visited after that battle with Eris," Fox's husband pointed out, "she said that Eris was arrested on Avalon but someone was involved in her escape."
"Dinna Queen Titania also say that Eris was protesting?" MacBeth remembered.
"That's right," Elisa remembered now too, "but what?"
"Maybe they are protesting gargoyle's existence?" Owen suggested, it wasn't a nice suggestion but it was a possibility.
"Or gargoyle's affects on humans?" Goliath thought.
"Or gargoyles and humans intermingling." MacBeth said out loud, without really meaning to. But that seemed to at least explain the concentrated fire and him and his wife. They discussed the situation further, traded information and cell phone numbers, so that they can be contacted if they need help in a future attack and so on.
"Angela!" Broadway's voice came from down the way. Angela got up, Goliath followed. The discussion started to break up after that when Broadway came out in a very nervous but adult way. "I'm going to be a father!"
The whole group got up and followed into a room where a temperature control system was set up and some hay arranged for the egg to rest on. The egg was rocking a bit and there was scratching, Angela was almost magenta with excitement and Broadway almost purple. The shell started to crack and the mother, father and grandfather fell close with anticipation. With four humans and four gargoyles, the small room started to get crowded.
"Come now," Hudson said, "family only." Owen and Xanatos left with Hudson, Elisa ran to Xanatos' wife Fox to get a blanket and other such things from a fellow mother. MacBeth sneaked to a spot at which he couldn't detect any security cameras or the like and pulled out his cell phone.
"How fast do ye think ye could get here?"
"What? The Eyrie Building? Are you nuts? Why?"
"Just get down here, Grandmother." With that MacBeth left the building.
Demona cautiously landed on a discrete part of the roof before approaching the group.
"What did you and Broadway decide on for a name?" Elisa asked, cooing over the infant gargoyle.
"We decided on 'Christina' if it was a girl." The proud mother informed. Broadway held Angela close who held her daughter so that Goliath and Elisa could admire the gurgling child. Also in the area was Xanatos with his wife who also had a baby (a few months old) in her arms.
"She's as beautiful as you." The father lovingly said to his mate, referring to how the baby had her mother's face.
"She has your wings," she nudged her husband, "and your skin, just a little darker."
"Looks like she has your father's horns," Elisa said referring to the purple gargoyle she stood near.
"I've only seen what your mother's horns looked like a couple of times but don't they look kind of like this?" Broadway imputed. With the reference to her, Demona decided that it was a good time to join the group.
"No, my horns stick out more, they are Goliath's horns," Demona said as she descended. Goliath turned angrily and positioned himself between Demona and the parents protectively. "Relax Goliath, I'm not here to hurt her." She growled at him, eyes glowing, as she brushed past him to see the child. As she looked at the girl she said softly, "-my- granddaughter" and then shot and evil look at Elisa.
"I was hoping you'd come," the glowing new mother beamed at her own mother. A glowing expression came over Demona's face as Angela let her hold the infant.
"You know, a millennia old and I've never held a baby, not even my own." Demona's glow shocked her ex who thought for a moment that it was his baby, Angela, she held in her arms, looking young and peaceful again.
"Well, I better leave," Demona said to Angela as she flashed her eyes at Elisa and Goliath who were watching her intensely.
"Alright, I'll come visit you soon, grandmother," Angela teased. Demona kissed Christina and Angela on the forehead before she departed.
Goliath, still processing Demona's seeming change in behavior, got a punch in the arm from her as she left.
Some time passed during which Demona and MacBeth developed their own unique pattern in their married life. During the day, MacBeth continued teaching school. He saw his students graduate and move on. The four that he grew closest too, Justin, Travis, Sarah and Samantha, he drew to suspect that they suspected he was married to a gargoyle but they respected his business and he deeply respected them and wrote them lots of nice teacher recommendations for college.
During the day, Demona continued her work with NightStone Unlimited and also started taking a few college classes after the insisting of MacBeth. At night, the married couple would do whatever they wanted. They stole artifacts for their own magical experimentation, conducted spontaneous magical experiments for the heck of it, which usually didn't hurt innocent people on MacBeth's insistence, and MacBeth helped Demona eliminate or at least control the lingering Hunter threat. They were happy together and felt free, realizing only now that their hatred (MacBeth of Demona and Demona of humans) had in fact made them prisoners in their immortality.
How the world had progressed as far as gargoyle's were concerned: the Supreme Court kept putting the subject of gargoyle citizenship off because a decision could not be reached; Congress would pass bills, veto bills, override bill and such continually over the gargoyles matter; and the president spoke out openly against gargoyles but everyone hated him anyway so he didn't have as much power as he thought he did. It seemed to be in a continual loop, as if they were trying to keep it unresolved. This matter was brought up at a discussion between Xanatos, Elisa, MacBeth and the gargoyles during the time that passed. They still had these meetings regularly for the fae attacks continued, randomly, and never again was a spell placed on anyone like the one MacBeth was attacked with.
"I don't understand how congress, the Supreme Court, and the president can all be so indecisive on the matter," Elisa started, "for 200+ years we've never had this chaotic of a system."
"I doubt anything like this was on the Founding Fathers' minds when they drafted the constitution, Elisa." Xanatos put it.
"But there is no pattern to the bills passed by the government except a circle." MacBeth noted. "The leaderships havena changed that much over the years, how do they continue to change their own minds so?"
Owen shook his head, "I really suspect that the faes are involved there too."
Brooklyn perked up, "Really?"
"How could that be?" Elisa's Detective partner Matt Bluestone, who happened to be there that time, asked.
"Believe me son," MacBeth informed, "'Tis not hard to have a spell be placed on ye and ye don even know about it."
"But that doesn't make sense," Elisa added her question without a second thought, "If the faes are trying to destroy us through the government, wouldn't they have done it by now? Why is politics going in a circle then?"
"There are probably unaffected humans with good consciences on our side counteracting them." Brooklyn added.
"Or we have faes on our side." Xanatos said calmly.
"If there are Faes in the government," MacBeth pondered, "they are probably more of the protesters Titania spoke about and perhaps there are faes in the system trying to simply counteract what these 'outlaws' are doing so that humans and gargoyles could make their own decisions."
"That would be good." Goliath added the profound and useless comment.
The discussion was interrupted by the mumbling of a baby, crawling out onto the balcony. The tiny blue gargoyle crawled over to the great big purple gargoyle, raised her hands up and said, "gwanga."
"Aw, hi Christina," Matt teased the little kid. Her babysitter, Liberty came out looking for her.
MacBeth went over and gently stroked the child's hair. "Gwangwa." She said innocently and stretched out for MacBeth who just smiled at the little girl.
"Silly Christie," Liberty said childlike to the young one, "that's not grandpa, no, he just tried to kill your grandma for centuries."
"Oh is that all I'm remembered for?" MacBeth teased.
With the subject changes, Elisa stated, "well, it's not as if we know that much about you. We still don't completely understand your story and I've learned not to take Shakespeare at his word."
MacBeth laughed, "Good decision lass." The group had broken up and all that remained to hear MacBeth's story was Elisa and Brooklyn, who, with a over a decade long grudge against Demona, wished to hear more about her. So he went ahead and told them of how he first met Demona, when 'The Hunter' was sent to kill his father. He told them how the hunter was really Gilcomgain, working for Duncan, heir to the throne of Scotland and cousin of MacBeth. He also told about how Demona, completely against her nature, saved his life that day that they met. He explained how Gilcomgain got MacBeth's girl and MacBeth's job and he didn't see Demona again until Duncan sent MacBeth and Gilcomgain to kill each other when MacBeth returned Demona the favor and saved her life. He told them about the spell the witches put on the pair, why they had the spell done originally...Elisa and Brooklyn knew why the Sisters really wanted the spell put on them. And finally he told them how Demona had betrayed him.
"It was actually all a misunderstanding," MacBeth started to defend her, "Ebode was trying to convince me to destroy her clan, she must have thought I'd listen to him..." MacBeth decided to stop defending her, there wasn't much point, either way, this story wasn't going to change the minds of Elisa and Brooklyn about her. "Now, yer turn, what happened while we were under the Sister's spell."
So Brooklyn explained how they were under the control of the Wyrd Sisters after Demona and MacBeth had met again and after Demona had turned the humans in the city to stone. He told him how the two stole ColdStone and other artifacts from Goliath's clan and worked side by side, much to the astonishment of the clan members. As a side note, Brooklyn told how Xanatos had used a MacBeth robot while the real MacBeth was out with the Sisters. Finally Elisa took over the explanation as she explained that MacBeth and Demona would finally be used as pawns in the ArchMage's battle for Avalon. When they were freed from the spell, Avalon sent them to Paris.
One evening at the end of the three years, MacBeth stopped by at a local antique shop, picked up a not-so-expensive item that was in good condition before heading home (this was MacBeth's way of playing his own stock market). He took it home and was cleaning up some of his antiques when he heard his wife yelling in the next room.
"Those blasted humans!" The blue woman yelled at the tv, "Treacherous, menacing!"
"What? What did they do?"
"They passed a bill that said that all gargoyles must come and be put in selected places for our 'protection'," she growled.
"So?" Sensing his lack of care, she turned quickly and angrily toward him, ready to hurt him.
MacBeth put his hands on her shoulder to calm her, "Do not worry, the Supreme Court will probably declare it unconstitutional, besides, if they havena caught you for all you've done, what makes you think they'll catch you and make you do this now?"
She growled, "But still, what about other gargoyles in the county, what will they do to them?"
"What other gargoyles? Do you think there are any besides Goliath and clan?"
"I don't want them to force them to do anything either," she swung her claws at him.
"I doubt they will, remember Xanatos and Puck both think there are faes behind all this, don give yeself an ulcer every time they threaten something like this, it's not good on my stomach!" He reached for the remote and turned off the TV, then he began playing with her hair.
Eyes glowing she said, "What have we ever done to them?" She grabbed MacBeth's hand roughly and then threw it away.
"Apparently while we were under a spell we help someone called the..." He resisted her attempts to resist him, pretending that she wasn't hurting him.
"'Archmage', yes I know you told me."
"Well, maybe the faes are angry about that..." MacBeth began to kiss her blue neck.
"What does that have to do with the other gargoyles?" She pulled away, pushing him in the process.
He pulled her back, "you are beautiful when you are angry."
"Uhg, we have to do something!" She began to vent her anger on MacBeth by trying to wrestle to get away from him, which he wouldn't let her do.
"You should become a lawyer." He winced as he took the pain.
Angry that MacBeth wasn't even sympathizing Demona pushed him over with her tail. He got up and attempted to stop her angry hands. He forced her to the wall into a position where she couldn't move anymore, "besides, what are you going to do about it right now?" She growled at him red-eyed. He pulled her into a kiss before she shoved him away. He pulled her with him and threw her to the floor, on which he pinned her. "Sersiously woman! You need to calm down!" He kissed her again, at which point she gave in and started kissing him passionately back.
Days later MacBeth got home before his wife did and sat down to check his voice-mail on his cell phone which he had forgotten that morning. There were two messages, one from Elisa asking for MacBeth's help in a battle against a fae and the second was Elisa calling to say never mind, they took care of it. He called her back to apologize for not being there and apparently the fae had been interested in an office tower and didn't stay long.
When dinnertime rolled around and Demona hadn't come home yet he called her office and left an obscure quote on her voice mail when he got it. Then he called her cell phone, he realized she had forgotten it when it went off in the next room. He started to worry. No one at the office would know when she came or went because she preferred as limited interaction as possible. He tried not to let it bother him, figuring she had a good reason for what she was doing, that she hadn't taken off for some reason. After being married for over a year now, why would she take off now? For no apparent reason?
He laughed, years ago he would have thought himself insane. The only reason he would be worried about Demona being missing is that it meant he had to go through a complicated search to find her in order to end his miserable life. He felt an aching emptiness, like a blackness forming inside of him. It was a horrible sensation, and he longed for Demona's presence but she felt far away, impossibly far. He didn't sleep that night.
The next morning he filled a missing person's report for "Dominique Destine" with the police and he himself remained anonymous incase Elisa Maza or Matt Bluestone were put on the case so it wouldn't lead back to him. After a few unproductive classes, the school administration let MacBeth go home and search for his wife. At the police station, he did see Matt for a bit but no sign of Elisa. He told the police all he knew about her disappearance and they told him that they did search her office and it was a mess, but no clues until they said that the same office tower had a fae incident near it the day before. Upset by this, he started to plot and to worry right in front of the police officers. They tried to calm him down but he just left for home. He started to load up his iron weapons while mumbling his rescue plans to himself.
"But wait, faes, they could be anywhere, how will I find her?" He went to his and Demona's magical talisman room where he spent several hours concocting a spell to find her. After searching and searching with the spells, he yelled at the talismans, "how can this be? She's not anywhere on the planet, she can't be dead..." he said with frightened hesitation, " I'm still here..." He was shaking. The seasoned warrior, the man who had been through everything, was now trembling with anger and fear. Thoughts raced through his mind. He was a ticking-time-bomb. He thrust himself out of the room, and paused as he came to his stairway where his stained-glass window was. He yelled at the window, "Where is she!" and took the nearest, most rare and valuable throwing object and threw it with all his anger at the window and shattered a portion of it. His feet gave out and he fell to his knees.
Then he heard it. It was a soft whisper, female voice, calling his name. His heart leaped, he looked around for her and saw nothing. Then his eyes settled on a shelf where a little porcelain doll paperweight sat that he had picked up last summer...but there was something different about it. There were three of them, and they didn't all have black hair, but one had yellow hair and another gray. Exhausted MacBeth blinked at them confused for a second before looking back down at the floor. "Of course, the magic realm." He told the rug. He closed his eyes and said with a sigh, "Avalon."
"You need help," the voice said after a pause. When MacBeth looked up at the paperweight again, it had returned to normal.