"Cordeila will you wait up" Brooklyn called after her. Only to watch her start to walk a little faster.
"Come on I can fly you to past the ward and then find where we are going to meet Goliath and Elisa" Brooklyn called again. She didn't even pause to listen and kept heading down the driveway.
He leapt and pushing off a tree glided a bit till he caught up to her. Landing in front of her in a crouch before straightening and standing his full height. She tilted her head and then walked around him. Huffing in annoyance he fell in step walking beside her. She wasn't yelling at him. So he figured he would take what he could get. After a few minutes she spoke.
"I am not annoyed with you. Well mostly not annoyed with you. You are not as... awful as I first thought. I am however very angry with Patrick. I should have figured it out sooner. But I am apparently real dumb" Cordelia told him.
"About?" Brooklyn questioned. Cordeila looked over at him and gave him a look. Waving her hand at him.
"You noticed that he keeps having you help or take me places. No matter if I need the help or not. No matter how many times I have argued and asked for someone from my own clan." She told him.
They passed through the ward finally. Cordeila texting to ask specific coordinates of where to meet. Whatever the text said she must know the location. Because she turned off the road and into a path through the woods. The pine needles so thick there they barely made a sound.
"Patrick is doing it on purpose because I do not have a mate or spouse or whatever else you want to call it of my own. And it has been a point of contention for several years." Cordeila explained and broke off. At least she could still turn red from embarrassment.
"What does he care? He doesn't even have his own mate. He's not pressuring you is he?" Brooklyn asked. Somehow the thought of her having a mate made him want to tear into something.
"Very much so. He hasn't been able to find someone to suit himself. He has zero idea that the boys are going to have mates in just a few days, that is if they choose to stay with us and not join their friends clan. And thus our tiny clan has no future children as far as he can tell" She replied. Using air quotes over the word friends.
"So why doesn't he just put the effort in and find a witch to suit him?" Brooklyn wondered.
Cordeila laughed. Not at him but at what he said.
"Because Patrick hasn't met another gargoyle or witch like himself in years and whether he wants to admit it or not he favors his side of the family and the boys very much. And to a degree its biology. We all tend to imprint on our parents. His mother was the most perfect and beautiful gargoyle that I have ever seen. He wants to find someone like her. So just how many drop dead gorgeous female gargoyles have you met recently" she laughed.
Brooklyn snorted at that. If Patrick was holding out for a perfect female Gargoyle then he was going to be waiting for a very long time. If one would even want him. He understood perfectly what she meant by imprinting. He had always imagined himself with another Gargoyle. Even with humans everywhere and being alone and miserable. He understood.
"And thank you by the way for not mentioning the younglings friends. I can't imagine that Patrick is going to be thrilled that each one of them picked someone a whole lot closer in abilities to me than him." Cordeila said. Her expression both annoyed and worried.
"But what does that have to do with him ordering you to take me places with you?" Brooklyn asked.
Cordeila tilted her head to the side and stopped to look at him. Waiting for the concept to dawn on him. Brooklyn's jaw dropped and he took a step back when he figured it out. She rolled her eyes and turned and started walking again.
"Just because you are single and I am single he thinks throwing us together is going to work?" Brooklyn asked aghast and he took a few strides to catch up with her.
"And you are a gargoyle? Yes he is very much hoping that will work. Why now when it hasn't worked the last half dozen times hes thrown males at me I don't know what he thinks is going to be different." Cordeila replied.
"That's disgusting. We never pressure the females like that. It is extremely frowned on" Brooklyn considered heading back and smashing Patrick's head off something a few times. Not entirely knowing where the rage was coming from. But welcoming it a little more than he thought he should.
"How do you think I feel? And I never want a mate or more younglings." She hissed in anger.
"What? Why not" he wondered. He saw how she had treated Alex, Fox and Xanatoses son. She beamed at him every time she saw him. She seemed to love children.
"I saw most of my family murdered and we barely escaped with our lives. Why would I want to spend the next 200 years constantly worrying that all my children could die the same way. It was hard enough getting three to adulthood." Cordeila told him with a sour expression on her face.
"Most of my clan is dead too. But we keep on living." Brooklyn told her.
Cordeila had walked whatever distance she seemed right. Looking around there was a clearing with rocks on the far side. With a gesture she indicated that was where Goliath and Elisa were told to meet them. Instead of going right to that spot she grabbed onto a tree branch and hauled herself up. Climbing up about half way she sat down close to the trunk to watch and wait. Not visible from the ground or sky but giving herself a good vantage point. She was smart Brooklyn had to give her that.
"And I am sorry if it bothers and embarrasses you. I can talk to Patrick about it and get him to leave you out of it. Him and the Harker elders really do need to back the fuck off about it" She said in a dour voice.
"Your extended family pressures you too?" Brooklyn asked in a hiss. Something else that made his hackles rise. He crouched on the tree branches and wrapped his wings around himself.
"Of course. Its only because of what I am exactly." Cordeila laughed. She sat a little bit easier and swung her legs back and forth.
"What does you being..." He waved a claw up and down "have to do with that?" He asked.
"A succubus is capable of having a child as often as a human female. And we live hundreds of years. Which oh fucking hell no to that." She said with an ugly shudder.
Brooklyn nearly fell off out of the tree before regaining his exposure.
"They expect you to..." He couldn't even finish the sentence he was so appalled, he couldn't fathom doing that to a mate. His eyes glowing a bright white.
"That many? No. But a regular houseful? Yes. I get harped on all the time about it." Cordeila said darkly.
"But how on earth could your mate want to put you through that. Its appalling... Its just wrong" He ground out.
"It's not like it even did the species any good" she laughed darkly.
Brooklyn looked at her. He didn't understand what she mean.
"How many of something like me do you think exists? Other than my own family I have never been lucky enough to meet one." She told him.
"Oh. And you would want a mate like yourself?" Brooklyn asked. Put down somehow that he couldn't explain.
"I don't want one because aside from the whole we can die at any moment thing. No male is ever going to want me for me. They are attracted to what I am because of my powers and talents. Not who I am as a person." She said in disgust.
"It obviously worked out somehow for your parents" Brooklyn told her.
"They were...different. And my father made her laugh. I was never expressly told, but I think he was a one night stand from a clan gathering and he followed her home and pested her till she married him. She was like me. But very beautiful and strong and brave." Cordeila laughed at that. Her face pink from embarrassment.
"What the fuck is a clan gathering like that you can find a one night stand. That's not usually...acceptable in our culture" Brooklyn questioned.
"A clan gathering is somewhere between a family reunion, a UN meeting and Woodstock all rolled into one. Our culture is very... lax with those kind of rules. Until a pair goes to a gathering and picks each other as mates. After that its monogamy and nothing else." Cordeila replied.
Watching the wind rustle the leaves below them she wished she had brought another coat with. Checking her phone she texted and asked what time Goliath and Elisa would be here. Frowning she closed the phone in annoyance.
"They are going to be a while if you hadn't guessed. Its cold. If you want to head back please feel free. And tell Patrick to go to hell while your at it" Cordeila said rubbing the sides of her eyes.
Brooklyn snorted at that. He was going to have plenty to say to Patrick about how he treated his second in command and only female in the clan. Hell he was even considering asking if Goliath would allow her to join theirs. Just so she would be left alone. He didn't know if she would ever leave the younglings. But the way she was talking about them they might leave for another clan too.
"Do you really think I'd go back and sit in a warm house and leave you out here alone in the cold?" Brooklyn asked.
"I dunno. I am wearing proper clothing and you are wearing next to nothing so I couldn't blame you at all. Like at all. Especially considering what I have just told you" She smirked.
"Gargoyles don't feel the cold quite like humans. But I have my wings so I am fine" Brooklyn told her.
"Your whole clans wings are weird and flexible. I have no idea how you fly around on them" Cordeila said to him as they watched the clearing in front of them. It was a pretty forest. But nothing was happening and they were getting bored.
"What are you talking about?" He asked in surprise.
"They go around your shoulders like they have no bones. Spaghetti wings. And your tails move different too. Colin and Patrick's wings the joints look different. They are feathered and look more like bird wings... Their moms wings were similar" She answered sadly.
"Every clan we have met looks a little different. She was probably from a different clan than us. And I do not have spaghetti wings. I can fly around and carry you just fine can't I?" Brooklyn huffed in indignation.
"Why did you think I asked if you could carry me that far?" She asked. Really looking like she was trying not to break out into laughter.
"You think you're real funny" He grimaced and rolled his eyes
"I am funny" Cordeila replied grinning. Finally breaking into a shudder like shiver.
Great he thought. She was cold and trying to get him to leave first because she was worried about him. She doesn't seem to worry about herself in any regard. He knew he was going to regret this later. But took his tail and wrapped it around her waist. Pulling her tightly to him and wrapping his wings around the both of them. He was amused to hear her squeak in panic.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Cordeila hissed at him. Trying to lean away from him and it was not working because he had his tail wrapped around her waist still.
"You're cold. I am not. I am being nice" Brooklyn replied looking straight ahead.
"I thought I told you not to touch me and keep your hands to yourself" She spat.
"I have claws not hands and I am keeping them to myself" Brooklyn said smirking.
She squirmed and struggled. Before giving up and just growling at him.
"I can't move your tail without actually hurting you. This is making me uncomfortable. I can't keep physically touching you" she eventually ground out.
"Those fireballs don't do anything to warm you?" Brooklyn asked suddenly.
"No" came her one word answer.
He could feel small waves of lust roll off her. Nothing he couldn't choose to ignore. But still noticeable.
"How come my hormones and yours aren't going nuts right now? He asked.
"I healed last night when we were on the roof. So I can control it a little better. And your gargoyle form is way easier to ignore than your human one" She told him. Her voice a little more even but no less angry.
For some reason his heart sank.
"Because you find humans more attractive?" He asked quietly.
"Because human you is way less intimidating than you as a gargoyle. And when you were human you smelled a lot more like food." She said in annoyance.
"I don't smell like food" Brooklyn said in surprise.
"A gargoyle is a predator. A succubus is a predator. A human would fall under the category of prey to us naturally. And I didn't mean that kind of food." Cordeila told him.
Brooklyn could sort of guess what she meant by food now.
"Tail off" she demanded.
Brooklyn sighed and uncoiled his tail from around her. And then pulled his wings off her and wrapped them around himself again. Annoyed that he immediately saw her shiver as the cold air hit her.
"I am just trying to be nice" Brooklyn said softly.
"There is nice and then there is nice" She replied.
"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked.
"When the hell are Goliath and Elisa suppose to get here?" Cordeila asked, changing the subject.
She pulled out her phone and started texting. Got a reply. Looked annoyed. Then handed it off to Brooklyn. He looked at it and growled a little. Patrick said it might be a few hours and to just wait.
"I am worried that he plans on keeping us out here all night" Cordeila concluded. "Do you have either of their numbers to just text them ourselves?"
"Yeah hold on" Brooklyn said. Borrowing her phone again and texting Elisa not Goliath. Her response was they would be here closer to five in the morning. Because they had some errands to run for everyone before they got here. Brooklyn held it out for Cordeila to see. Her leaning in to see made her hair brush against him and that seemed to set his hormones off. He kept it to himself annoyed with his response to the simplest things.
"So what do we want to do?" Cordeila asked with a yawn. "Its going to be hours till we even needed to be out here. I wouldn't hate walking back and ignoring Patrick just so I could take a nap. I have been up for how many days and nights at this point."
Brooklyn's eyes glowed white for a second. He was looking away and she was still yawning so she didn't notice it.
"Go back, Stay here. Find something else to do. Though we are in the middle of the woods so its not like we have much better to do." Brooklyn replied.
"We could call Patrick and mess with him. That's always fun" She said with a smirk.
"Is prank calls a big thing in your clan?" he said lightly.
"Screwing around with each other, getting drunk and playing pranks are how both my clans have gotten themselves infamous" She laughed. "But seriously what else do you want to do. Or go see. Or talk about. Because if I don't do something I am going to fall asleep right here and fall out of this dam tree."
"We could just ignore him and stay out all night. Let him think whatever he wants. We know how we behave" Brooklyn suggested.
"Our behavior has been atrocious the past few nights. That isn't saying much" She said smirking and closing her eyes from tiredness.
"Do you want to call it even and be friends?" Brooklyn asked turning to face her on the branch.
"I'm not sure of your definition of friends. Last time you met my clans younglings and their friends we walked into a frat house style party and overheard a incubus screwing a mermaid. That definition of friend is not what I believe you're thinking" she teased him.
"Does the top half or the bottom half turn into the fish. Because that is got to be some weird sex either way" Brooklyn Joked. When Cordeila stayed silent for a half second and he worried he pushed the joke too far when she broke out in laughter. And kept going till she cried.
"Sorry... umm inappropriate jokes like that are usually frowned upon with my kind" Brooklyn said awkwardly.
"Witches live for inappropriate jokes. We have to when things suck so badly. Or Mondays. Whatever happens to suck at the moment. But if you can't joke or play pranks what do you do for fun?" She asked.
"Now? Human stuff I guess. Hudson takes a lot of naps and plays with Bronx. The pairs do...whatever it is they do. Occasionally my brothers and I will go for flights for fun when we aren't patrolling." Brooklyn replied.
"Riveting" She teased him. "I guess its going to be strange for you to be awake during the day now. Your going to have to learn how to actually sleep during the day."
"I did not enjoy yesterday in the dam least bit" Brooklyn told her.
"I concur. My day sucked. I had to drive into the city. Get myself chased by hunters. And then surprisingly a few Orfeo. Had to get them to chase me into the freaking ocean to get away from them. And ended up swimming most of the way here. Did learn a new fun fact. It looks like some Orfeo can't touch salt water. So that was fun" she added sarcastically.
"You could have been killed doing that!" Brooklyn snapped.
"Very very unlikely" She said softly. Drawing up a tiny ball of fire and then snapping it out with her fingertips. "I am annoyed I didn't even get a chance to tell the rest of my clan about the salt water thing in person. I ended up texting them."
Brooklyn growled under his breath. The stupid amount of danger she freely put herself in grated on him. Even now she had little regard for herself as she sat on a tree branch. In the forest. Freezing. Just because she didn't want to go back and argue with Patrick. Standing up he crouched then jumped and landed on the other side of her closer to the tree trunk.
"Come here" He said softly.
She didn't and raised an eyebrow at him.
"You might as well take a nap while we're waiting" Brooklyn explained.
"I try and nap on the branch and I am going to fall off into a sticker bush. I will wake up really pissed. And I don't usually just sleep anywhere. Its not warded" Cordeila retorted shaking her head at him.
Brooklyn rolled his eyes and reached forward. Grabbing her and pulling her close before turning them both so their backs faced the tree trunk and sat down. Sitting her between his legs and then wrapping his wings around them both. He could suddenly feel her heart bang in her chest so hard that he could feel it against his own. She stopped breathing for a moment and he could instantly feel the heat of her hands on her forearms wrapped around her.
"Calm down. I'm just being a nice to a friend. And not that kind of friend either. You're cold, tired and need some rest." Brooklyn said soothingly.
"The last time you grabbed me like this you panicked and I nearly died" Cordeila hissed out.
Brooklyn could have rapped his head against the tree. He didn't think about that.
"I promise I will never ever hurt you again" He told her his voice going deeper and more husky.
Cordeila making a rude snort in reply.
"And I promise behave myself like that as well. You could always scorch me a little if I don't behave" He added. His voice still husky.
She didn't reply in the least. He wasn't sure what she was thinking. And he guessed by her not jumping up and trying to light him on fire that she wasn't horrifically angry at him. It took at least ten minuets as far as he could tell for hear heart rate to slow and become steady. And to Brooklyn's satisfaction he thought she might have started drifting off to sleep.