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Souls of the Night

131.

In the Gargoyles' kitchen, where the others sat around the large table, the mood could not have been more depressed. Everyone was there, even Elisa, who had taken this week off - the week in which Nathaniel Sharif might be irretrievably turn to stone.

Goliath had grown increasingly sullen and taciturn over the past two weeks. Not the usual introspective kind. But the kind which was guided by sorrow. Of helplessness. It was the same for everyone. Elisa took another sip of her coffee, breathed deeply, and let her eyes wander over the assembled members of the Manhattan clan - her family.

Angela and Broadway stood at the stove where Broadway was making pancakes. They whispered softly, as if they were in a library and could be called to order by a stern librarian. Broadway had been distracting himself with cooking and baking for days, and as he did so, the dishes were coming out less and less eatable. Yesterday he had mixed up sugar and salt in a cake batter, and a night before he had burned a roast. It was questionable whether the pancakes would be edible today. Though both had their backs turned to them, Elisa saw Angela stroking his sadly bowed head. Her own shoulders shook and perhaps she was crying silent tears.

Brooklyn took a bite of the salty pie in front of him and didn't even flinch, so unfocused and introverted was the usually determined clan leader who had to face the petrification of one clan member and the smoldering madness of another. Katana appeared strong and collectively cool. But for the repeated time in the last ten minutes, she raised her hand to her head, scratching the junction between her forehead and right horn anxiously. This place was already a bit sore because apparently it was her reaction to stress and worry to scratch herself. Every morning the spot bled, every evening it was healed to be chafed again overnight. Even though she sometimes seemed aloof, Katana was full of love. For her clan, for Lexington. And yes - for Nathaniel, too, an affection had grown that was already very close to what it was for Gargoyle's family. The scraping sound of Katana's claws on her horn was interrupted as Nashville reached for her hand. Katana's gaze met that of her son, who, lips pressed tightly together, slowly shook his head. The gargoyle woman nodded in agreement and let Nash pour her some tea so that her hands would have something to hold on to. It was not a Japanese blend but one of the teas Nathaniel had purchased and Katana had taken a liking to.

Tachi also pushed her cup to the two of them as a wordless invitation to pour some for herself. Then she turned her attention back to her tablet. Normally those were forbidden at the table, but no one had prohibited it to her the last nights. And just as Elisa was thinking about whether and to what extent the middle one of the young ones felt burdened with the situation in her clan when she was playing around with technology here at the table, she saw as Tachi lowered her device that the display - probably because the autoamtic mode for turning was not turned on - was upside down. As sad as the whole situation was, Elisa had to smile at that. Tachi was tight-lipped, curt, gesturally poor as Heather was rich in gestures and facial expressions. But the fact that she was now using the device as a shield - without working on it,just to have something in her fingers that she wouldn't ruin with grief, as she probably would one or another workpiece in her sewing room - spoke volumes.

Nathaniel had really managed - although he had been almost separated from the clan for weeks now - or separated himself as it seemed - to win everyone over. The former human Nathaniel Sharif, mentally ill, tormented, fearful, and as little of a gargoyle as anyone could be, had become a member of the clan without realizing it. Everyone had grown fond of him, everyone had tried to solve this problem in one way or another, had tried in the last weeks sometimes with seemingly simple sometimes in more dangerous ways to find a solution. Without having had any success.

There were simply tales for which there was no happy ending.

Which one could not turn, so that at the end everything could be like before again. That's how it had been with her brother's mutation. Although Elisa had been completely traumatized, not to mention Derek and the other mutants, and all the Gargoyles had been despondent with frustration and sadness, life had gone on. It had changed. But it had gone on. For the survivors it always went on somehow. Still, it hurt everyone to see family members suffer. And for Elisa, too, Nathaniel was as much a part of the family as Lexington. But no one, not a single person (aside from Lex) took the situation as badly as Heather. As Elisa's eyes drifted to the youngest at the table, her heart clenched again. Heather had her head on the tabletop. The usually wild, happy child had been a mess for days. Right now she was tapping her fork, and that was about the most active thing she could possibly get up to. Angela came to her with a plate of ready-made pancakes and set it down in front of her without the child reacting.

Angela, smiling mildly but with sadness in her eyes, lifted Heather's head from the table. The child hadn't been eating much for days and her roundish features, which were not just genetic but mainly a testament to her otherwise good appetite, had narrowed. Eye circles also showed after the stone sleeps - obviously a side effect of her meanwhile a dozen times dipping into the Otherworld, which had always remained without answer. In the meantime, an adult was always with her so that she would not go and get salt and candles to try again. Everyone was afraid that the Dead would no longer avoid the child but would think she was one of their own and keep her down.

"Pancakes Heather, you like them so much," Angela said, handing her two on the plate her head had just cleared.

The child looked down at the pancakes... a few moments while her eyes filled with tears, then she began to sob. She pushed the plate away from her gruffly.

"I don't want pancakes! I don't want anything! I just want Nate to stay with us. Wahhh!" She held her hands in front of her eyes and everyone looked at her unhappily. If there had been a way to comfort her, one of them would have. But there was nothing that could have been said to make the situation better. Elisa pulled the Kid onto her lap and did something she had picked up from Lexington long ago. She pressed the child tightly against her, rocked back and forth, and made these strange sounds of grumbling and purring. Of course, she couldn't get them out nearly as well as a gargoyle. But it helped anyway. The child returned her grip - harder than a human could have, which made Elisa's bones crack. Across the table, Nash could be heard sniffling, and Tachi as well as Brooklyn and Elisa looked up in surprise.

"What?" said Nash in a choked voice. "Dry air in here. And the hay fever season is starting again. Can't a man have hay fever?"

"Sure you can," Brooklyn said without a trace of sarcasm or irritation. He handed his son a tissue and he loudly blew his nose. Tachi turned off the tablet she wasn't reading anything on anyway and looked to Goliath.

"So yesterday morning Nathaniel came to you and ordered you out of the room?"

The former clan leader nodded gravely. "He seemed to have been angry about something. But he wasn't steaming or burning either, so I left. After all, it was just before sunrise. There's no way Lexington could have done something rash in that time."

"And since the castle is still standing and the smoke detectors and water sprinklers didn't go off anywhere, the argument couldn't have escalated that much," Angela surmised, wiping her cheeks before settling down at the table next to Elisa.

"This is so unfair!" cried Heather, which was the most emotional she had been able to muster in days. "Why does this have to happen? Why can't we find someone to help? Why can't Uncle Lexi and Uncle Nate just be happy? Now that he can fly and fight. " She burst into tears, claws scratching deep grooves in the tabletop with childish rage.

"What?" asked Goliath and Brooklyn in unison. They looked at each other. Everyone exchanged glances around the table.

"What did you say, Heather?" asked Nashville perplexed over her roar that sounded only remotely like a human child with the inhuman primal screech.

"Wahhha why? Why can't I even reach Ani? This is SO MEAN! Why is everyone leaving us ALONE!"

"What did you mean he can fly? And fight?"

"You're going to be angry!" sobbed Heather, and Elisa handed her her napkin so she could blow her nose.

"No. No we won't be angry at all. You say you saw Nathaniel fly?" poked Broadway, who had approached the table with wide eyes. Everyone was glued to the kid's lips as she nodded and let loose a torrent of words:

"He was all alone and all sad yesterday morning and I was sad too but didn't let on in front of him and then we flew together. And then we stopped naughty men who wanted to hurt a woman but it wasn't a woman at all but somehow she was and then Nate burned a lot and everything was fine and we were happy and Nate was like a real gargoyle except that he burned but he burned with joy. And now Nate isn't here and maybe he's all petrified now and forever because every time he did gargoyle stuff like the flying exercise at the lake or his first patrol he lost hours after that and maybe he's all stone now because yesterday he was all gargoyle. And that is MY fault! Wahhhh"

She snatched the plate in front of Elisa and angrily threw it backwards where it shattered against the wall, causing Fu Dog to jump up indignantly and bark approvingly. After that followed Elisa's empty coffee cup.

"This whole situation is one giant fucked up mess," snarled Tachi jumping up and throwing her plate away as well. Katana was about to say something. But then something splintered next to her. Brooklyn had knocked over his cup.

"Fuck the strikes today," he growled. Broadway's plate was also learning to fly, and even Goliath had already moved his hand to his glass, but paused at the voice from the end of the room.

"What are you guys doing here? Discarding old dishes?" asked Nate, and everyone instantly jerked their heads up and looked toward the door.


.

"What?" I asked innocently but with a big grin. "I didn't miss breakfast today." I freed one arm that had been trapped between me and Lexington. In fact, my friend and lover had been clinging to me like a limpet since I had insisted on leaving my room to tell the clan the good news . At least I had been able to put on my pants (and his since he had refused to let go of my wing). And now he had his arms wrapped around my neck and his legs around my middle and we had to look like a mother carrying her MUCH too large child on her hip. Walking around half the castle with that much extra weight should have been difficult for me. But I had gained muscle in the last few weeks and Lexington had lost weight - so it worked.

Tachi was the first to break the stunned stupor over the gargoyle, who had been petrified for weeks at this time.

She jumped onto the table, pushed aside the last of the dishes that were in her way, and leapt toward us - toward me - in one giant inhuman leap. I spread my arms, caught her, and had a second tick attached to me. She awkwardly pressed a beaky kiss to my cheek that she almost poked my eye out, and made a noise that I think only teenage girls can manage - maybe when they abruptly encounter their favorite podcaster and almost freak out.

"AHHHH!" screamed Heather, still with tears streaming down her face, and tore away from Elisa in such a hurry that she nearly scratched her bloody. This child also threw herself at me. I had endured Tachi's joy, but Heathers really swept me off my feet and the four of us fell down. It hurt - but the kids laughed and I laughed too - probably the most and even Lexington managed a laugh and pressed his face into my hair like he was marking me and was far from done with it.

"How?" began Brooklyn, who had stood up like Katana. Everyone was now standing. Everyone was stunned. But Broadway had his hands over his mouth, looking at Angela, at Goliath, who was grinning so wide it looked almost absurd with his dominant chin.

"I don't believe it!" shouted Nash then, grabbing his head and charging toward the throng of gargoyles. He yanked Heather off me, grabbed Tachi by the collar, and since she wouldn't let go of me, both I and Lex were pulled back to my feet at the same time. The ice-blue man, the bad-boy, the one who nicknamed me and didn't seem to care about me, spread his wings and briefly the world was dark as he squeezed me and the other two with them hard and painfully, making even Tachi and Lex groan, then he took a step back, with a little more color on his cheeks and gestured to cover up his careless show of affection.

"How did you do that? Why aren't you stone?"

I stumbled because Heather was now climbing up me and Katana waved me over and raised her voice so I could understand her over squeals, laughter and questions.

"Sit down, Nate. Come here," she said, and awkwardly I came to the table - for the first time in more than two weeks - and sat down. Katana pinched my cheek like one of my aunts used to do as if she needed to make sure I was there - and at normal temperature. Everyone gathered around me, everyone touched me on the wings and shoulders, Elisa and Goliath tousled my hair as if I were their child. Maybe I was to them, too.

"You're not hot at all," Broadway said as he grabbed Heather the way Katana picked Tachi off me. Then I could breathe again.

"I wasn't on fire just now. Not at all. It's all good," I said, and on the last word my lower lip began to tremble. Then I burst into tears. and wrapped my arms around Lex, who continued to cling to me. "It's all good," I repeated in a choked voice.


Ten minutes later I had caught myself. I had sobbed and cried for some time, which had worried the others again, but I had made it very clear that these were tears of relief and happiness. Only they had suddenly burst out of me because for the first time in a long time I had not lied when I meant that everything was fine. Not having to lie anymore had shaken me up in a good way. In the meantime I had reviewed part of the last night in front of the clan and the other clan members had told about their attempts to help me. How wrong I had been. I had been so unhappy and angry, resigned and sad. And most of all, I had felt alone. But I had never been alone. The clan had stood by me and by Lex, and all of them had done what they could - and probably even more of what they didn't tell me.

Tachi was now back in her seat like the others. Heather was no longer attached to me but was content to wrap herself in my wing. I had wrapped my other wing around Lexington so that I had my arms free to drink my tea and eat the bowl of cereal that Broadway had placed in front of me. I was really hungry.

"And you really glided? Over the battlements?" Angela asked, looking at me with a gaze that children give to the adult in kindergarten who is supposed to read the next story.

I nodded, took my hand off my cup and stroked Heather's head.

"It was amazing. We were so high - now that I think about it, it makes me feel sick all over again. But it was ... I couldn't have done it without Heather directing me. It was an incredible feeling. That freedom." I leaned in and kissed her which she again took as an opportunity to smooch me. When she finally stopped, I was full of wet cocoa kisses from the warm milk Angela had made her so the child could finally get something in her stomach again. It startled me how thin and tired Heather looked. No clan member looked particularly healthy. They had all worked their butts off for me and I knew I would never be able to make up for their efforts. And my friend had suffered the most. I opened my other wing and Lex, hanging on unchanged and getting really painfully heavy for a long time, grunted as I tried to pull him off me.

"Lex- you need to eat something. Let go of me, I'm not going anywhere."

He blinked up at me.

"Who said that? Who says you're not- that your condition won't change again?"

"Right now I'm fine, and now I want you to finally eat. Your grip is hurting me pretty bad by now." At that, he loosened his legs and arms and sank to his feet beside me. He groaned in pain from his long tense posture and I pushed him down to his seat. Immediately I felt his tail wrapped around my ankle under the table. Broadway had already put a bowl of cereal in front of him - since all the pancakes, cakes and other things were currently not edible, as I had heard. Lex was taking the spoon. But I held my hand over his bowl. He looked at me questioningly and at my serious face his eyes grew wide.

"Didn't you forget something?", I asked.

"Uhhh."

"Don't some people deserve apologies?"

He put down his spoon and lowered his gaze.

"Yes. You're right, Nate. I'm sorry I didn't take care of you for so long. Didn't listen to you, didn't let you help. I was just so-."

"I don't mean me!", I said indignantly, straightening up, raising my hands and making a gesture that caught everyone's attention.

For the first time he lifted his head - ears flat against it - and looked around among his brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. He knew what I meant. They all knew it. He heaved a sigh that seemed to consist only of shame and overcoming.

"Nate. It's okay. Lex, hasn't been himself the last few days," Broadway tried to placate and I shook my head.

"That doesn't make it better." I raised my finger, feeling like my own mother about to go on a rant.

"Lexington Wywern, you are going to apologize to everyone in the clan right now. I know what it's like to have differences left unspoken and unaddressed. It eats away at you. And we've all had enough drama in the last few weeks."

"Ahhh," Lex began, rubbing his cheek awkwardly. Again he looked at me and I nodded to the others. There was no way he was getting away from this. I probably had more of my mother than I wanted to admit - but at that moment, it felt like the only right thing to do. He cleared his throat - and probably started with the person who was easiest for him.

"Heather - I'm sorry I wasn't a good elder to you. I didn't have time or nerves for anything or anyone and that wasn't okay. Thank you ... for taking care of Nathaniel yesterday ... obviously."

"It's fine Lexi. All water under the bridge," she said precociously, sipping contentedly at her giant mug of cocoa. Then Lexington's eyes went to Angela.

"Angela - I was - I was just horrible to you. You would have had every right to smack me. And Broadway's foot in my butt, I would have deserved, too."

Angela and Broadway laughed at that. Angela wiped away a tear.

"Oh Lex. It wasn't right for me to suggest that bad things might be fate. That was pretty - well - stupid. If you'd said something like that when Broadway was in that situation, I'd have kicked you halfway across the castle."

Lex stood up and Angela took him in her arms. When they released each other, it was Tachi's turn.

"I'm sorry. For growling at you, for trying to stare you down. That was a dirty move even more so towards someone younger. Those dominance antics are a thousand years old and they weren't okay even back then. If I do something like that again, give me a uppercut that knocks me out - that would be just fine."

Tachi smirked in a xanatosian way, then waved it off. "As Brooklyn has said many times, in the clan we don't hit each other willfully. But you were really bitchy, and I'll keep that in mind about the free punch to the chin."

Lex chuckled uncertainly and seemed genuinely relieved that Tachi didn't hold a grudge against him.

Then he turned his head to Nashville.

"I'm really sorry about the table."

"That you almost knocked my eggs out of their shells?"

"Yeah, that?" growled Lex with red ears. At the thought alone, all the men at the table- and me too- made pinched facial expressions. I was quite uncomfortable, but I was also interested in what Lex was asking quietly:

"I hope it's all right".

Nashville narrowed his eyes and looked at his uncle rather venomously. "Forgive me, Lex, if I don't want to discuss my crushed nuts with you in front of everyone. But let's put it this way - we'll see what becomes of my next breeding season, too, and how much I'll hold you accountable for everything that will or won't happen."

"Breeding season?" said Brooklyn as if he had just realized that his little boy was a full-grown man who was already thinking about "this."

Lexington sighed, nodding, then his expression turned terribly bitter as he turned to his clan leader and clan elder.

"Brooklyn...Goliath," he shrugged and shook his head ruefully, visibly struggling for words. "I hurt you guys. I attacked my clan leader and brother, bit my clan elder and mentor like a rabid dog - there's no excuse for that. I remember someone from Hudson's generation who was banished for something similar."

At those words, I instantly jumped up out of my chair and looked at Brooklyn with wide moist eyes, opened my mouth, and ... I didn't even know what I wanted to say to that - what I had the right to say to that at all. But I couldn't bear that my beloved had to leave his clan because of me (Lex had been so out of character only because of me!). That could not be, that was not acceptable and no matter what it would take, I would fight against this banishment with claws and teeth and the little bit of mind I possessed. And if nothing else worked ... then Lexington would surely always find a place to roost on Mrs. Conner's porch and someone in my apartment who loved him - even if that would not be an adequate substitute for castle and clan in life. Nashville beside me quietly and with strangely reassuring smile gestured me to sit back down, which I did reluctantly with hot ears.

Brooklyn grinned wryly at my wordless outburst and raised a claw at Lex. "I remember the banishment back then, too. And this thing here is very different. There's an exculpation for such behavior - and it's your luck that your situation fits right into that niche."

I sighed in relief but didn't know exactly what Brooklyn meant. What excuse could that be that allowed a clan member to attack and injure his leader and elder and get away with it?

"Me and Katana will think of an appropriate punishment over the next few nights. I would think of brood cave grounding first but a more physical punishment would probably be more appropriate. Maybe ... we'll let Owen decide," Brooklyn said with such devilish, rarely heard, youthful glee in his voice that most of the clan - except me and Lex - began to giggle.

Lex had gone pale, but nodded humbly at his clan leader's generosity and affected by the mischievous laugh his older brother was injecting into everyone else.

Shortly thereafter, he probably came to the end. "Tachi. And Goliath - you have suffered the most under me in the last few days. I was really vicious - just to annoy you. Or to get you to let me alone for a few minutes so I could try my hand at the chain. I still can't believe you had to chain me up but it was necessary. I've been horrible to everyone. Everyone made an effort for us and I was so ungrateful and trampled upon your efforts. I want to be a better brother, a better uncle. But I - I understand for the first time what it's like to be scared for someone you care about. Real mortal fear." He grabbed my arm and I put my hand over his in agreement before he turned back to the others. "That doesn't excuse anything. But - my brain just got swallowed up by my heart."

"Maybe," Katana said softly, " it would be time for Doctor Davis again."

Lexington gasped and made a face for the first time that showed he didn't agree with this measure.

"I do think that if Nathaniel's condition doesn't worsen again, I won't have to-"

"The clan and clan leader will decide what you must and must not do in the near future, Lex. You can't blame us after the last few days," Brooklyn argued, rubbing his arms in a very bold clearly accusatory gesture as if the wounds Lexington had caused were no longer visible but still causing phantom pain. Lexington's tail wrapped almost painfully around my ankle.

"Who's Doctor Davis?", I asked, thinking I had already figured out from the context what kind of doctor he or she was.

"Our clan's own cuckoo-doc," Nashville confirmed with a grin, and at that I burst out laughing reflexively.

"Gargoyles on the couch, really?"

"This is the 21st century. And we and the Labyrinth Clan have already worn out two or three shrinks, believe us," Elisa said smiling and Goliath nodded seriously.

Tachi raised her hand and counted. "The first one quit with burnout back then after he had digested that interracial thing with Goliath and Elisa but then Broadway and Angela wanted to work up that body swap transmigration issue with Coldstone and Coldfire. The second one left when Angela dragged him to Demona because he insisted that this ex-clan member had a lot to work through.

"I was able to discuss my grudge against Demona. But after three sessions with her ,he 'disappeared'," Brooklyn muttered, rolling his eye, showing that maybe a few more sessions were missing for him.

"I still don't think he 'disappeared' by choice", said Nashville

Tachi shrugged her shoulders. "Can you stop putting quotation marks around the word disappeared? Xanatos investigated the matter and said the Doc was now growing potatoes in Kansas and would be very happy with that."

"That sounds worse than pushing up daisies," Broadway said somnely.

"But Doc Davis is really good and has a very thick skin. Lexington hasn't been to see her since he worked up the Pack issue," Angela said, smiling encouragingly.

My frog prince opened his mouth to say something but I put my hand on his fist clenched on the table and looked at him.

"That's a great idea. Lex, you and I, we should go there together," I said, forcing a smile. I really didn't fancy ANOTHER shrink taking me apart - but I suspected Lexington would somehow weasel out of it if I didn't accompany him and pretend to be excited about it.

In fact, he looked at me and smiled, nodding.

"Okay. Good idea," he said.

Out of gratitude and relief, I leaned in and kissed him softly. And it wasn't until I heard the languorous sound Broadway made that I ducked my head and noticed that all the gargoyles were looking at us with grins. Which I noticed for the first time since we sat here that Lexington and I were topless.

Katana cleared her throat loudly, wiped the Japanese demure smirk off her beak, and redirected the topic.

"So-now? Is everything okay now? How do you know your condition has permanently stabilized?"

I smiled gratefully at her. I didn't know how it would be received, what I did now. But the time for big lies was ending. I raised one of my arms above my head, closed my eyes, inhaled, and as I exhaled, magic rushed into my arm with somnambulistic ease and speed, making my hand catch fire like a giant match.

Several clan members jumped to their feet with alarmed sounds. Brooklyn, in one fluid motion, pulled a fire extinguisher from under the table (which must have been placed there sometime in the last few weeks). But I sat very still, looking around the circle and at Lexington who was silently glancing up at the flames with a smirk.

"The fire is still there," I commented, "-but ... it's not fighting anymore. You can sit down again, I have it under control."

Hesitantly, and only after first Goliath and then Brooklyn sat down, did the others. Heather reached out to the pretty flames, and before Elisa could stop her, I made a fist, instantly smothering the flames. Then I lowered my arm, grinning and holding out my hand to Heather.

"Milady, your personal fire demon at your service" I joked, and she giggled and - to adult gasps - placed her hand in my proffered palm.

"Not hot!" she confirmed as she had weeks ago in another situation and I pulled her to me and pressed a breathy kiss on the back of her hand with the most artificial yet sincere affection which made her and I giggle even more. Broadway exhaled in relief.

"What do you mean- it doesn't fight anymore?"

As a renewed display of my new little tricks, I formed my lips into an O and blew a white smoke ring across the table which everyone followed with their gazes.

"I've had-" I began slowly, weighing how short I could keep this story, "-ever since I became a gargoyle, these dreams - every night I've fought with a being made of fire. Probably also with a being of another kind but I'm still not sure about that. And last night - I refused. I didn't run anymore, I didn't try to trick it, I didn't fight it. I just ... welcomed it, welcomed them. Invited them in. And they told me I wouldn't petrify any more."

"How strange," Goliath murmured thoughtfully, looking at his mate, who had her hand just as thoughtfully nestled against her chin line.

"I wonder if it's because of that. Whether something in you has just shifted so ... that you can live. Live as a gargoyle?" she speculated.

"I don't know."

"Or it's the power of love," Heather murmured, picking apart with her hands the next ring of cool smoke I generously blew in her direction. Lexington looked down at her with a mild smile - he said nothing to refute her words. He lifted his gaze and when it found me, it was I who felt myself blush.

Embarrassed, I remembered that we were both naked except for our pants and what we had done to each other yesterday right before sunrise and as if she could read my dirty thoughts, Heather turned her head and grinned with her Predator teeth. I imagined seeing her nose twitch as if she was catching scent. "It was the power of love, we all know it. You smell like Broadway and Angela smell sometimes. Or Brooklyn and Katana. Or Goliath and El-mhhs." Katana reached across the table and put a hand over her mouth.

"Nobody wants to hear THAT, Heather. Nathaniel's going to be uncomfortable enough with this."

"What?"

"Great. Now that she's said it, I smell it too", Nashville said tonelessly. His face took on a red glow and where Tachi was just sipping her tea with a grimy grin, all the adults suddenly seemed to find other things more interesting. That's when I realized what was making everyone squirm and a rasping sound of horror came from my throat followed by bright smoke.

"Oh no. Please don't tell me you can-."

Broadway raised his large hands with red ears as well. ""We can, Nate. No need to burst into flames with shame over it."

"Play it cool, Nathaniel," Lexington muttered, eating a few spoonfuls from his bowl as if he had zero involvement in the situation.

"You'll learn to smell it yourself. It doesn't reek like it does when humans do it- it really doesn't...you just smell...like each other", said Katana and smiled upliftingly at me, which didn't make me feel any better, but instead I breathed deeply and exhaled so that my naked upper body would stop smoking like a fresh dog turd in the winter air.

Nashville participated with devilish pleasure in making me wish even more to be really stone forever.

"Young ones can judge the smells when partners are doing IT even better. The monster will even tell you after showering three times and shedding stone skin twice that you smell like each other. You'll learn to live with that embarrassment."

"Just like we all had to," Elisa said, and I saw that she was also able to blush where Goliath just smirked knowingly (and disconcertingly proudly) and sipped his coffee.

"Like we needed Heather. Lexington's open fly is clue enough on its own," Tachi whispered, displaying an unusually lively spiteful grin despite her matter-of-fact tone. But Lexington - unlike me, not steaming with shame - lifted his head proudly and threw her a smile that brimmed with confidence and lack of shame.

Meanwhile, my teacup splintered under the pressure of my hands and tea sizzled on my skin boiling with embarrassment.


With what the clan has been through in the series, it's a wonder they haven't worn out dozens of shrinks. But since Doctor Davis has been around for a few years, I'm sure she already has a nice vacation home in the Hamptons and a fancy sports car.

THAT'S it for the second book of Souls of the Night (there are a few epilogue scenes to follow.) But I have other prequel stories up my sleeve before I continue with the third book. Nathaniel has to become human again (or not, or does he or doesn't he?) and get even with Jussuf.

Thanks for reading, Q.T.