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Brood of a New Age
77.
The first thing they saw was Goliath, who came to them with his arms crossed but smiling with satisfaction, then Nashville, who had his back to them and was talking to someone smaller than him.
"-By all means, don't be afraid. No one's going to hurt you." Then he turned around and his smiling expression gave way to horror as he saw the members of his clan in the castle courtyard. And they all stared at his friend as if they were idiots and had never seen a girl before! What little color the ice-blue young gargoyle had drained from his beak and face, and with a petrified expression he stepped up to them with the girl by the hand.
She pulled down her hood, which she had surely put on because of the fierce winds when Goliath had carried her up here, and she was - to the horror of Brooklyn, to the amazement of Katana and Luca, to the surprise of Hudson and Lexington and to the delight of Angela, Broadway and Grace - the most lovely, pretty human child they had ever come across. And much younger than any of them had imagined - in the five minutes since they had learned of the unexpected breakfast guest. And this delicate, tanned but doll-like creature in the frilly dress with the barrettes in her flowing hair held Nashville's clawed hand as he led her across the yard. In his other hand he carried a picnic basket and she carried a bouquet of exotic flowers in the crook of her arm.
The boy approached his family with stiff steps that expressed his discomfort at the gawking of his relatives. But he couldn't possibly make a scene now either or he would look like a fool.
Now that she was standing closer, Luca saw something else with his inferior human eyes. This was the child who had sat next to him on his flight to America!
"Graziella!" he blurted out, and the girl's eyes lit up.
"Mister De Santis! You're here! I thought you were visiting relatives!"
"Yes." He rubbed his sweaty, scarf-wrapped neck with a laugh. "It's kind of - something like that," he admitted, sighing delightedly as the child laughed too. Everyone looked at him questioningly and he shrugged.
"What a coincidence. She was sitting next to me when I flew in. This world is full of crazy coincidences," he explained tersely, turning his gaze back to Graziella.
"It's good to see you again. Are you well?" he asked but his burgeoning worries were immediately dispelled as she nodded enthusiastically.
"Everything is wonderful," she said, and everyone saw that she squeezed Nashville's hand and he proudly raised his head because she squeezed his hand.
"Everyone," he said sternly, pushing through his back to make him look taller and older. "This is Graziella. I invited her and she'd like to have breakfast with us. Is that okay?"
"You're asking us that now?" muttered Brooklyn, and no one poked a more glowing hole in the strange girl's forehead than he did - which was a remarkable feat for someone with only one eye.
But the girl, whose gaze from dark brown eyes had flitted over each gargoyle, seemed to have quickly gotten over her shock at the horde of staring monsters.
She lifted a corner of her skirt with the hand Nashville wasn't holding and indicated a childish yet graceful curtsy at which Angela, Broadway and Grace let out an audible and even Luca and Katana a soundless breathy "Ohhh".
"I'm Graziella," she repeated softly, breaking away from Nashville and stepping up to Katana, who smiled at her.
"I brought you a bouquet of flowers. Thank you for your hospitality, Signora Katana."
The child held the colorful bouquet out to her and for a few long seconds no one said anything, probably trying to digest the fact that Nashville had at least told the girl what his mother looked like (as if anyone who could distinguish colors wouldn't have figured that out for themselves). Until Katana couldn't help but hold out her hands and accept the bouquet.
"Thank you so much. It's the first time we've been given flowers by a guest," said the light blue gargoyle woman who, true to her Japanese cool heritage, seemed uncomfortable, if not a little overwhelmed, by the girl's gesture. Angela had less of a problem, took a step forward - took the bouquet full of exotic flowers for which they all had no names because no one knew anything about this subject, from Katana, smelled it and showed her broadest smile without showing any teeth.
"Oh, Graziella. They must have been terribly expensive. Thank you. They're as beautiful as you are. You didn't have to dress up like that for us," she said as if she had heard those very words on TV at some point and as if she was taking this opportunity to echo them.
Graziella, smiling bashfully but happily, narrowed her eyes, thanked her for the compliment, as she must have been taught at some point, and said; "I got them from the conservatory at home. They didn't cost anything but I cut them myself and tied them very carefully."
"I'm sure there's a vase in the kitchen for them" Lexington remarked grinning broadly (and with a lot of fang) and Nashville as well as Brooklyn gave him threatening looks, albeit for very different reasons.
Graziella didn't see this, smiling just as broadly but showing, apart from the gap in which a new tooth was already visible, small white child's teeth between light red delicate cherry lips, which one day would probably invite any boy to kiss them.
HUMAN BOYS! Thought Brooklyn in horror, looking back and forth between his son and the girl. She wasn't even half his age but that was just because of their different maturation speed. And the way Nash looked at the girl! He knew his son wasn't old enough to think about THAT, but by God, what was he thinking inviting a strange child - a strange girl - to the castle? And wait a minute - what about her parents?
"Not that we're not all quite ... delighted by your visit, Graziella. But do your parents know where you are? It's getting very late, and a girl shouldn't be out after dark."
"That was the first thing Nashville said to me, too, when he found me," the child said with a delightfully perky smile that showed there was more than a doll in her. And to which his son just tilted his head dreamily, showing that he was little more than a love-struck dork, and Brooklyn barely audibly grumbled. But the girl probably instinctively reacted correctly. If it had had ears like Nash's, it would have lowered them as he did. But as it was, she wiped the smile off her face, narrowed her eyes under his serious, almost offensively hard gaze, and kneaded her hands guiltily. "My dad usually works long past midnight. No one checks on me when my bedroom door is closed. I'm often even alone at night. No one has seen me leave and I've been careful not to be seen by a police unit. And my mom is dead, so I'm sure she doesn't mind."
Stunned silence. Brooklyn sighed. Much more mellow.
"It's nice that Nashville invited you ... WITHOUT discussing it with me. But I can't have a child here if I have to assume it'll be missed by its family."
"Oh...but I...I brought a cake," she whispered in child logic as if that would change everything. She lifted the cake carrier out of the basket and raised it toward the adults like an offering. At her nod, Nash lifted the lid.
"There's a piece missing," she said softly, as if it were a crime. "I gave it to a friend. Another friend. But there's still enough for everyone."
"Oh Graziella, did you bake this yourself?" asked Nashville reverently, and the two smiled sadly but in a strangely connected way at each other.
The girl blushed in a quite delightful way that had to make anyone's heart flutter.
"Zia Maria helped me," she admitted. "She works for Papa. But I helped quite a bit. My Nonna taught me how to bake cakes. It it's a torta della nonna. With custard filling. It - it's really good, I'm quite sure."
She didn't dare look Brooklyn in the eye as he leaned forward. But Broadway was all the more enthusiastic for it, pushing past him to shield her from his meanest look, which was just plain inappropriate toward a little girl (but fully appropriate for his son's first crush).
"Oh, are those pine nuts on there?" said the turquoise brother, tall though he was and overwhelming in various ways but in such a kind, gentle and enthusiastic way (hardly surprising when it came to food) that Graziella now held the cake out to him.
"Yes! Yes they are! Please, enjoy it."
Showing no horror at the strange gargoyle's touch, he took the cake plate from her, smelling it as Angela had earlier smelled the flowers.
"This one's about to be cut! Come on kids," Broadway said, and Nashville didn't need to be told twice, pulling Graziella along with him, past everyone else, toward the kitchen.
Brooklyn looked to Goliath, who shrugged with a smirk, probably indicating that anything to do with his son was Brooklyn's business though he had given the little intruder a lift. Later and other youngsters would be the responsibility of the whole clan. But Nashville, who had never known parents other than Katana and Brooklyn, was Brooklyn's business. Brooklyn didn't always expect, nor did he always want, Goliath to interfere in his upbringing - but sometimes it would be nice to have someone who spoke a word of power to the boy that was taken seriously alongside his and Katana's.
And so Brooklyn just grumbled and closed in on Broadway whom the kids had already left far behind, grinning as he carried the cake like a godsend.
"You're thinking with your stomach again, Broadway."
"I'm thinking with my heart," he said crisply, and Angela intervened from behind them.
"That one is so sweet and nice. If Nashville's going to bring a little girlfriend it better be her than anyone else."
"She is NOT his little girlfriend. She can't have breakfast with us. Right this second, her parents are already sitting at some police station filling out missing persons reports."
"Her mother is dead. Poor little thing," said Lexington who was walking ahead in his quadrupedal gait but you could hear in his tone how much such a fact was taking him. Before they turned toward the kitchen, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Angela - and inevitably the others behind them - stopped and peered into the kitchen where Nashville had jumped onto the countertop (he knew better than to put his feet on it!) and was probably looking in the cabinets for a vase. Graziella, though she didn't know her way around the cabinets pointed to one vessel or another, discarding this one or that one because it was too big or too small and both kids laughed and discussed.
Brooklyn grumbled about that, and frowned disapprovingly. "Then it's just her father sitting with the police. As soon as they pick the girl up again, she'll tell them she had breakfast with Gargoyles."
"Graziella's not like that. Look at her. She's pretty cool."
Luca nodded. "She's a good kid. She was very well-behaved and helpful on the flight to America. Sixteen hours! For a kid. I'll give her that."
"They are so cute together," whispered Grace, who, like all Italian women, couldn't get enough of children.
"Cute is NOT a criterion! Katana. I know you set this up and your intentions are good but ... it's too dangerous. At least you be the voice of reason," he pleaded and in that second, laughter sounded again to all their ears. Katana closed her beak again, seemed to consider, then touched her mate's cheek.
"Tell me, when was the last time you heard your son laugh like that."
"It was just last - uhh well."
He grabbed his head and ran his claws through his mane. But as hard as he thought, he couldn't remember. "Damn alright!" he hissed.
"Fu might be a little too reserved. But I'll get Bronx out of the rookery- let's see what he thinks of her!" said Hudson, and Brooklyn's face brightened. Nothing was better for scaring people than a pupil-less, loudly growling watchbeast finding strangers in his protectorate near the egg that needed protection.
.
.
Unfortunately, Bronx's head was in Graziella's lap ten minutes later, being showered with cuddles and caresses behind the ears.
Brooklyn stood at the counter while Broadway made the last pancakes and Grace cut the cake. The Second sipped his coffee sullenly and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as the girl giggled because Bronx was licking her face like she was made of ice cream.
"Traitor," he formed with his lips, not sure himself if he meant the watchbeast, Hudson who had come up with the idea, his son, or the rest of the clan, who all seemed to think the child in their midst was fantastic. He finally decided to think of Hudson most, because he just gave him a look and shrugged his shoulders with a grin.
"Even Bronx likes her," Grace opined.
"He likes all kids, he's a watchbeast."
"She let Goliath fly her over like it was nothing special. Do you think Nashville has taken her on flights yet?"
At the thought, Brooklyn felt heartburn rising in him again and grumbled unhappily. Where had his little hatchling gone, who when he took him on flights wrapped his wings around him so tightly he could hardly breathe?
"I think we should let her stay. If she's going to be alone so much at night, she'll be more comfortable and safe here," Luca argued.
Hudson joined them to get sugar for his tea.
"Aye, I'm all for that too, second. That lassie is as lovely as morning dew."
"And the way Nashville looks at her," Broadway murmured.
Brooklyn rolled his eye. "In love he looks at her! That's not okay. It's dangerous."
"He's a kid, Brooklyn. He looks at her adoringly the way a little boy just looks at a little girl. And he doesn't have any other Gargoyle kids around, let alone little females. Don't read anything into that, that won't come into it for many years."
"Many years from now? My God, you're killing me!"
"He needs another child around him."
"He needs that? He's got a whole clan! Two gargoyle beasts to play with, an uncle who would play computer games with him all night, two cool robot relatives, a castle and almost a whole high-rise to roam around in.
"A clan full of adults," Grace corrected him. "At least I had Dante. But he doesn't have a sibling."
"He'll get his sibling next year when Egwardo hatches."
"And then it's still a baby-or a-what do you call it?"
"A hatchling, las."
"That's right, a hatchling. A boy needs children who are about the same age. At his eye level."
Brooklyn looked to the group at the table. Nashville, was just telling Graziella about how he, Goliath, and Bronx had once taken out robbers in the park, and he could barely keep himself up on the bench Katana had ordered him to so he wouldn't jump around Graziella. His son seemed younger and yet more adult at the same time. The child hung on his beak while he added details that made him the sole hero of the story, and Goliath left it at that, smiling good-naturedly.
Then he brought up the subject of Halloween, and when he told her that Goliath had danced on that occasion (something he too, had only heard about in stories), she beamed all over and assured him that she would dance with him next Halloween. It was kind of ... yes, it was cute. But it also showed how desperate his son was to make a good impression. Maybe only secondarily because Graziella was a girl. But rather because he desperately wanted friends.
Brooklyn's gaze slid to his mate who sat at the table, the gorgeous bouquet of flowers on a vase in front of her. She watched the children with a benign smile. And when she turned to him and held out her hand, he came to her just as leniently and sat down. Katana and his hand also remained lovingly intertwined at the table - under the tabletop - and suddenly Brooklyn didn't even know what the big deal was. If it was true that she was alone all night, or at least not checked on, no one would miss her. In an hour they would fly her back to her home - or to the roof of this meeting place. His son looked relaxed again for a long time. Not like the grouchy kid who sometimes brooded introvertedly for nights on end (as he did) or sulked in frustration after a conflict (also as he did). Tonight he was enthusiastic and boyish. As he should be. The way he probably was in real life. Brooklyn had felt more and more like a prison guard than a father in recent months, and he was tired of always having to be the bad guy. He didn't WANT to be a total ass - he was just worried. But he probably didn't have to worry about Graziella. She was so natural with everyone as if she was already part of the clan. What could happen?
Later, everyone was eating and assuring Graziella how fantastic her cake was. Graziella sat as guest of honor at the head of the table where Goliath sat at the other, but Nashville had positioned himself next to her, breaking the usual seating arrangement a bit. Bronx had been relegated to the corner because he hadn't stopped licking the new kid and watchbeast-like marking her as his charge forever. Everyone hung on her lips as she talked between bites about Italy, her Nonna, and the tiny village she came from.
Broadway, in particular, was smitten with Nashville's friend and - although he didn't really have a rookery-keeper mentality like Lexington - had dopily smirked at her request for a towel and tied it around her neck so she wouldn't get her dress dirty. Angela stroked her mate's forearm gently, lost in thought, as they both listened. Perhaps he (and Angela, too) was practicing a new role for the first time, Brooklyn thought. The next breeding season wouldn't be until 2007, egg-laying in 2008, and the hatching of Angela's and his first hatchling in 2018 but practicing with children was probably never wrong.
Whereas Graziella made it easy to like her as perky and outgoing as she seemed. Brooklyn sighed softly. For the first time that evening with relief. Probably Graziella wasn't just doing his son good. Maybe this could work. The others were right - they were just children. Maybe children of a new age. Children as this world needed them so that humans and gargoyles could live in harmony. Maybe he should think less about how to mitigate the threatening aspects of the future that he, Katana and Nash had seen ... and more about how to push the positive facets. Perhaps that would be part of the solution and the appropriate stones in the stream of time.
.
.
"Hi folks," said a voice from the doorway. Elisa, inside the walls even in the summer months not too warmly dressed in her bomber jacket, came in. Her eyes immediately fell on Graziella and she showed a befuddled smile.
"Oh. Hello?"
Graziella slid off her chair and displayed a practiced princess curtsy. "Good evening," she said, then looked up at the beautiful human woman, who was looking at her with her mouth open.
Goliath stood up, overcoming the distance to her, bent to his mate and whispered something in her ear whereupon her look at Graziella and Nashville became first more surprised, and then knowing and a little conspiratorial.
"So that's how it is."
She stepped in front of the girl and Nashville, although Brooklyn was still trying to grab him by the tail, stood next to her and grabbed her hand, raising his wings and sticking out his chest as if Elisa were a bouncer who had now decided that Graziella had to go and he would prevent that from happening.
But Elisa's expression was solemn rather than angry, her words serious but spiced with a tiny hint of amusement that any gargoyle with a good sense of human nuances would register.
"So, young lady, I hear you and Nashville are friends?"
"Yeah?" she said uncertainly, and Nashville nodded.
"Do you want to stay friends?"
"Yes!" came back much louder and more confidently. Graziella looked quite confused but also quite defiant.
"Then-" Elisa said," - you'll have to swear the Pledge of Allegiance of Gargoyle Friends. Have you done that yet?"
"Huh?" blurted Nash but Lexington jumped up from his seat and immediately pounced enthusiastically on Elisa's act. "No! She hasn't yet. She has to do that!"
Elisa kept her cop-poker face - raised her right hand. "Raise your hand and repeat."
Graziella stood bolt upright and raised her small hand. At her and Nashville's back, all the Gargoyles were grinning, even Luca and Grace, who could only guess that there wasn't really a "Gargoyle Friendship Oath" in existence.
Elisa's voice became forceful and highly official.
"I hereby solemnly swear-.
"I hereby solemnly swear-, Graziella voiced just as solemnly because she knew how honorable and important such an oath was.
"-that I will not, not at all, never reveal anything about Gargoyles to other people."
"-that I will not, not at all, and never reveal anything about Gargoyles to other people."
"Nor to my parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, police or government no matter how much I want to."
"Nor to my parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, the police or the government no matter how much I want to."
"No one will ever know that I know gargoyles personally unless the whole clan allows me to say it."
"No one will ever know that I know gargoyles personally unless the whole clan allows me to say it."
"Nor will I ever reveal any other human friend of the clan."
"Nor will I ever reveal any other human friend of the clan."
"When I meet other human friends on the street, I will pretend I don't know them."
"When I meet other human friends on the street, I will pretend I don't know them. "
"We will not speak a word about Gargoyles in public or in front of any other soul so that our shared secret will be kept."
"We will not speak a word about Gargoyles in public or before any other soul so that our shared secret will be kept."
"If I ever break the trust of the clan and the other human friends, I will have to swallow a thousand needles and no gargoyle will ever be my friend again."
Graziella's eyes grew wide at the horrible thought (though it was hard to tell if the needles were the worse thought for her) but her voice remained firm.
"If I ever break the trust of the clan and the other human friends, I will have to swallow a thousand needles, and no gargoyle will ever be my friend again."
Elisa lowered her hand to her chest and made the Scout Cross.
"Cross your heart?"
"Cross your heart!", Graziella confirmed fervently with the same gesture because she didn't know the correct English retort and didn't know that one should retort anything in particular at all. But Elisa answered it.
"And hope to die."
"And hope to die," repeated Graziella, in a breathy way, with tears in her eyes.
"…So - now you know how to handle the secrets around here."
"I would never have betrayed Nashville. I've known he is a gargoyle for days and I haven't even told Maria!" Nashville snickered and raised both hands in front of his beak as if this had been a big joke that only he understood. Elisa let her eyes wander over the gathered gargoyles, smiling. She was not the kind of woman who was really good with children. But she was the oldest of three. She knew that children took such an oath much more seriously than all the speeches of the adults in the world. Because it made them co-conspirators. Adventurers. Her own parents didn't know to this day who was responsible for tipping over her father's old Harley. The adults thought it was raccoons. No matter how much they bickered, no matter how mad they got at each other, neither Elisa nor Derek nor Beth had ever broken the vow. All this amateur acting by Elisa and Graziella's solemn seriousness were so incredibly sweet that Broadway and others had gotten moist eyes. Brooklyn leaned over to Katana and kissed her. She was a little sly sometimes (in an honorable way) but why not when she was so much smarter and more level-headed than he was?
"Now that we can introduce ourselves confidentially and officially. I'm Detective Elisa Nichelle Maza. New York's finest at your service." Elisa extended smiling her hand and Graziella shook it grinning broadly.
"Nice to meet you! I am Graziella Aria Dracon."
All their smiles instantly froze … and then slipped from their faces. It was probably three or four seconds before life stirred in either of them.
"Dracon," Broadway whispered with a blanc face. And not a second later, he sprang to his feet and shouted the word. "DRACON? What's the name your FATHER?"
The human child, who was not even half his size, looked at him aghast and simply obeyed the adult's request. " My-my daddy's name is Tony Dracon," she whispered with wide eyes, looking at Nashville in bewilderment. Who stared at her with an open beak, thinking it was all just a bad joke. Then both kids jerked their heads around as Broadway let out an inhuman roar and sprang toward them.
"Stop! Partner!" said Elisa with iron in her voice and pushed the child behind her. She reflexively clung to the denim covering Elisa's thighs and stumbled backward with the detective as Elisa took a more wide-legged, protective stance, raising both arms to keep the seething gargoyle at bay, who looked like he was about to foam at the mouth. Graziella saw for the first time an angry adult gargoyle whose rage was directed at herself. Fear came up in her again. Fear like she had had on the day of the demonstration and had vomited. But this time it was not just a photo. Not just a child's drawing. Not just the monsters in her head. His eyes had a cold white glow and all reason seemed to have vanished from his head, all previously shown gentleness from his body. And it was precisely this contrast that was the most shocking. Like the wolf, which tore the grandmother's coif off his head to devour Little Red Riding Hood. The turquoise gargoyle with the coarse face was going to tear her apart! She stumbled back, away from him, away from Elisa, looking to Nashville, who was suddenly hanging on his father's arm, Brooklyns eyes not glowing but wanting very angrily to come toward her.
"You stay here, girl!" he shouted, pointing a sharp claw at her.
Brooklyn stumbled because his son was clinging to him and because even Lexington tried to slow him down.
"Stop it, Broadway! Brooklyn- I mean DAD. Stop, there must be some misunderstanding. You're scaring her," Nashville gasped.
"What, what have I done wrong?" cried Graziella in a tearful voice, wishing nothing more than for Grigio to be with her. Or that she would be back in her bed right now.
"Just having the treacherous, manipulative Dracon pack at large is a mistake! Damned mobsters!" Broadway ranted at her, and if Graziella hadn't had Angela show her the toilet to pee earlier, she would have wet herself right then and there. But as it was, she only shivered as if frozen. Goliath, who saw that she was about to flee into the massive belly of the castle but was also busy calming Broadway, tried to speak normally but his naturally deep voice thundered over them all simply because he wanted to be louder than the nagging turquoise.
"You stay there, Graziella! Everyone calm down now. Broadway! Get back!"
Even Bronx and Hudson stood in the way of the heavy gargoyle, both intent on keeping his rage from a small child.
"She's a DRACON! A SPION! In our castle! At my table! She will betray us to the criminals!" roared Broadway, heading toward Elisa and Graziella behind her. although three clan members stood in his way. But in his blind rage he would probably be strong enough to push them all aside.
Angela didn't even know what to do with her mate. His wing had pushed her to the sidelines. But Luca and Grace had jumped up and grabbed the gargoyle by the arms. He shoved Luca away like a rag doll and he fell against the table where cups and plates shattered beneath his torso.
"Broadway! Calm down!" commanded Grace, her eyes glowing red. Instead of responding, he stomped on even with her hanging on his arm. So she changed her approach, let go of the gargoyle weighing more than twice her weight, gestured Goliath to stay back, who looked at her aghast, and threw herself on Broadway's back. She locked her legs and tail around his belly as best she could and took Broadway in the King of Chokes. A Blood Choke, to be exact. Her massive opponent stumbled, gasping for air but nothing got into his lungs like it was intended.
If a rear-naked choke left humans completely at her mercy, gargoyles still had the option to "claw" away their attacker, which Broadway, who was in this kind of grip for the first time and inevitably panicked, did immediately. He sliced her legs and when he reached up, he also scratched her arms, but she did not loosen her grip. On the contrary, she pressed harder, already so hard that she would have broken the neck of a human being. But so this grip worked as it should. Probably he would have held on longer because of being a gargoyle, but it played into Grace's hands that he had exhaled before she got a hold of him. After six seconds Broadway toppled back and onto her.
Nashville, meanwhile, had thrown himself on his father, his wings blocking his view. He stumbled on the leg of the table, and though they both fell to the floor, he kept his arms in a staple grip around his father's neck that didn't threaten him like Grace's on Broadway's but made it impossible for him to act the way he wanted.
Nashville, who because of his own struggle had not noticed that the apparently greatest threat was on the ground, shrieked while his father bucked under him like an unruly horse. "RUN GRAZIELLA! RUN AWAY! Code 153!"
That broke her stupor. And she ran.
Brooklyn yanked up his wings and Nashville was thrown from him into his mother's arms. He rushed after the child, but it was unlikely that he would catch her. The whole drama happened in only fifteen seconds. Angela turned to Broadway, who made no move to follow the child. He lay on the floor with a pale complexion.
"Broadway!" she screamed in horror. Grace had already let go of Angelas mate and Luca pulled her out from under the heavy gargoyle.
"What did you do to him?!" Angela's eyes lit up angrily-and so did Grace's.
"He just fainted! I couldn't let him touch the child. He was-he was completely frantic!"
It was only because Luca and Goliath got in the way of the two females - an equally insane move as getting in the way of two pit bulls ready to fight - that they managed NOT to jump at each other long enough to think again.
Angela's glow disappeared between heavy breaths. Grace's anyway because she would never want to hurt Luca.
Angela's face, contorted with rage, became flustered, then instantly tired. She settled down beside Broadway, put her hand to his fleshy throat, and tried to feel his pulse. But by then he was moaning. The color was coming back to his face, too. He smiled at her as he opened his eyes and she smiled too. Brooklyn returned to the kitchen with hurried steps. Now his claw pointed at Nashville.
"You have a VERY lot of explaining to do! And I hope your explanations are good ones!"
"You didn't get her?" asked Broadway, sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck - not without giving Grace and Luca a grim look.
"How could he? 153 is the panic button for the express elevator," Lexington lectured.
"You gave her the panic code for the elevator?" his mother said as she helped Nashville to her feet. Nash couldn't look her in the eye and turned his head away, pouting.
"Nobody's stopping that one now," Lexington muttered. "I knew I should have suggested to Xanatos to add an anti-panic mode."
"What just happened here?" asked Luca, groaning and rubbing his ribs. Grace pulled up his shirt, stained by leftover food and coffee, to scan her human for injuries. Thanks to good luck, he had no major cuts unlike her whose legs and arms were completely bloody. Still, she growled as she turned to the others, truly infuriated for the first time.
"What is wrong with you?! With you Manhattan gargoyles. Is the drinking water here contaminated? Does the high altitude air go to your head? Have you cracked your skulls on stone walls in your fights once too often? You acted like the monsters everyone thinks we are. Is this how you treat little kids? Your guests? Obviously Luca and I have been lucky so far," she said in an unusually biting manner, showing that even if Dante wasn't her blood relative, he was still her brother.
"No! Grace. Luca. You- the Dracons are one of the top crime syndicates in the city. We've foiled their actions several times and they've tried to kill clan members several times. And they gave Broadway a particularly bad time on several occasions," Goliath explained.
"And what does a LITTLE CHILD have to do with it?"
"She belongs to this kin! Even a young wolf is a wolf. At the latest when she gets older," Broadway muttered but looked strangely rueful right after he spoke the last word.
"Not all children of criminals become criminals," persisted Grace. "Or ... when they do - then they can realize their misdeeds and try to reform," she added, quietly and guilt-ridden, but still seething.
Luca took Grace in his arms, she suddenly couldn't look at anyone and probably most of the clan members blamed it on her and Dante's experiences with that felonious Giuliano. But Luca looked at Broadway and Goliath steadfastly. "It was the same with mister Xanatos. He was a criminal, even spent time in prison-and now he's reformed."
"The Dracons are different. And I had to learn that a friendly face and doe eyes can lead you astray. They are all frauds and power-hungry criminals deeply into the marrow."
Luca stared at Broadway, and though Angela's mate was a head taller and probably a hundred pounds heavier than he, he seemed to cringe under his gaze.
'If you ever have a child yourself, Broadway,' he said coldly. "I mean a hatchling. Then you wouldn't want it to be judged by the bad deeds of its parents. Because then your hatchling would suffer badly. Think about that before you start acting ... like a monster again." Once again, all color had drained from Broadway's face even if he didn't collapse in a faint. He had his head down and his ears couldn't possibly have drooped any more under the human's words. But Luca wasn't done yet. He looked at Goliath and Brooklyn as well, basically giving them all a look.
"You call yourselves protectors. Angels of the night. You are glad to be rid of Dante but never would he have behaved like that towards a child. I recommend anti-aggression therapy. Control yourselves!" He shook the larger gargoyle woman in his arms, feeling how soaked his shirt was from her blood. "Come on Grace, let me patch you up. You'll feel better after we pray. And - and ... I'll throw some prayers into the mix that the little girl finds her way home safely in her shock." Once again his eyes found those of clan members, any trace of friendliness, any effort at sympathy for the sake of international understanding gone from his voice. "No matter what roof this home is under."
"Okay," she whispered leaning in and kissing him on the lips without a care for the others and though Luca would never have taken advantage of her emotional vulnerability he had to resist the urge to pull her close and return the kiss intimately. Instead, he pulled her out of the room.
"...Wow. Well ... this evening was a bummer," Lexington said exhaustedly and Katana sighed similarly exhausted and completely unworthy of a Bushido warrior. How had it all gone so wrong again? Her mission had backfired. All the way. She had wanted to give her fledgling a friend. She had wanted to give both children a safe haven where they could meet regularly and reduce their respective suffering, which would have made Nashville more content and thus more willing to accept certain restrictions. Which would also have improved his relationship with Brooklyn. Which would also have gradually eliminated other tensions in the clan. Now she stood in the middle of a huge shambles. But could she have foreseen this? That this adorable creature her son was so smitten with was the daughter of a crime boss? A million human children in this city and Nashville has found a Dracon. Names had no meaning at all for older Gargoyles who had been raised traditionally. Yet no one had asked for Graziella's full name. Even Katana was undergoing a learning process in this new world and in this new time, which could sometimes be painful (for all involved).
"Bringing a Dracon into the castle," Brooklyn rumbled quietly. "Into the home of the clan! Into our private quarters."
"Dearest. We all didn't know who she was. It was my failing, too. Be merciful to the young one," Katana said, and from the frustration in her voice you could hear that it was not a request but a clear recommendation. At least that's what the others heard. Not, however, her emotional mate, whose voice grew louder again and who glared at his son." Next, we would have shown her the egg - your sibling."
Nashville gasped, his petulant posture and pinched face so similar to Brooklyn's that the two could have been mistaken for clones complete with warped aging and pigmentation disorder.
"She's just a kid! And I didn't know she was a Dracon! She never told me her last name!" exclaimed Nash, letting his wings snap open like his father.
"Even if she had been just a normal human! But no, son, my own blood is dragging criminal spawn into my house and endangering the whole clan!"
"Oh - now I'm YOUR son again! Because I must be infallible like you!"
"Brooklyn-", Goliath tried to interrupt and went wide-eyed when his second just ignored him.
"Don't get sarcastic with me now, Nashville! I was the master at being sarcastic when you were just a ball of yolk."
"She's just a CHILD!" roared Nash, his eyes blazing white, causing everyone else's efforts to intervene in the war of words to come to a screeching halt because no one had ever heard him yell before. He slapped his hands over his chest, "She's a kid! Like me! And here I am all alone in a strange time -"
"As if you-"
"LET ME SPEAK OUT! - All alone among you adults, locked up in a damned castle, where I have to cram and study and swot night after night, and Katana and you make me feel that anytime, ANYTIME the Phoenix Gate will reappear to swallow me up! Even though it's not anymore and the dark creature from it has probably died. And if it's not that, everyone keeps telling me that the Quarrymen will get me. Or that this and that mission isn't for me. Or that I'm supposed to guard a damn castle that has automatic firing systems and two bloodthirsty watchbeasts! I AM NOT A WATCHBEAST! Even if you'd rather I was, I'm not! I've been through more in my first twenty years than most other gargoyles have in their entire lives, and you tell me to settle down. But no one has ever shown me how to do that. And my definition of coming to rest is having friends. Friends who are at least close to my age! And Graziella has been nice to me and she's cool and tough and smart and I don't care if she's a Dracon because she's only been in this strange land for four weeks, in a strange house among strange people who think she's just a little doll and she's not her FATHER just like I'm not YOU!"
Breathing heavily, Nash stopped in his torrent of words. He couldn't remember ever talking so much and so honestly with his father. Not about how he really felt. Because his father was never just his father. Because he was the second of the clan, the leader of their family, THE Timedancer! Because he had always had to fight his own battles to change conditions and improve situations over centuries.
Brooklyn stared at him, stunned. The way everyone was staring at him right now. Brooklyn's shoulders and wings were shaking, and it was hard to tell if it was from anger or shock at Nashville's words. But even though tears burned in his eyes, Nashville stood his ground for the first time and this time he would not be brought to his knees by yelling or lecturing. He would stand tall. Because everything he had said was true and he would stand by it.
But once in a while, perhaps due to his mother's hands on his father's wings, which radiated calm like a nuclear power plant radiates radioactivity, the tense, almost warlike posture fell from Brooklyn's body. There remained only a father disappointed beyond measure.
"Even if you didn't know who the child was. You were too familiar with each other to assume that you only snuck out of the castle two or three times. It must have been for weeks. How could you put yourself and all of us in danger like that?"
Nashville slowly shook his head. "Because I can't stand my life here without friends anymore. Brooklyn. I can't take it anymore." He looked to the others. To Goliath, Elisa, Angela, Broadway, even Bronx, Hudson, and Lex. Everyone, even the dog looked speechless. He wanted to apologize right then and there, that he thought they all weren't enough to satisfy him. But instead he just shrugged his shoulders helplessly. Even an apology wouldn't change the facts.
Brooklyn held a hand over his eyes.
"I'm tired, Nashville," he said in his deep quiet voice that sounded almost like an old man's. "I don't know what else to do with you. I want to protect you but ... can't chain you up after all. Or can I?"
Katana leaned over to her son and stroked his stubborn hair.
"Nash-chan. I know you're having a hard time settling in here. It must seem ... like a step backward to you. But it will get better."
"Yes - and then worse again."
"- And then better," Brooklyn said with a petrified face that warned Nash not to say too much.
"I think ... everyone is using the rest of the night to calm down and do some soul-searching. And tomorrow ... we'll all sit down together and calmly discuss how we can improve the situation for you, Nashville," Goliath said placatively. His usually stoic face showed an undeniable worry line. Not so much because of the human child who was the cause of all this, but because of the discord among his clansmen. Among his family.
"And Graziella?"
"She's the enemy, Nash," Broadway muttered, wincing as Nashville rebuked him.
"She is NOT the enemy! How can you be so grown up and call a LITTLE GIRL the enemy! That's just ... crazy!"
"He expressed himself badly," Angela also tried to smooth the waters while rubbing her dejected mate's shoulder. "It's not herself who's a threat. But her family."
"She barely knows her family. If the Dracons are criminals, then it would be more important ... instead of telling me how bad she is or will be someday, that we get her out of there. She's not like them. She's a good girl."
"Nashville's right," Lexington said seriously, and Brooklyn glared at him. "Lex, that's not-"
"-helpful? Think it is. The Dracons trigger all of us. Some more than others. But it's our job to protect. What if Graziella needs protection from the Dracons? Not physically but ... if we keep her from becoming like the others of her family. She's not a typical Dracon - how could she be at her age and only after a few weeks with them."
"Aye, Lexington brings up true points there, Second," Hudson grumbled, ruffling his beard.
Nash looked gratefully at the elder and his web-wing uncle and would have liked to hug them. Instead, he turned to Elisa.
"Elisa. Please. You're a detective. Protect and serve. There are laws to take kids away from bad parents, aren't there?"
"I'm a criminal investigator. Child neglect or endangerment doesn't fall under my purview. That would be CPS," she said thoughtfully.
"Then send colleagues from that department to Dracon's house."
"He has many houses in the city, Nashville. With the Dracons, it feels like Whack-a-Mole. They show up in one place and when we think that's their safe house of the week the members of the main clan aren't even there. Tony lives in the hotel but with no current charges ... "
Nashville lowered his arms. He wanted to tell Elisa that he knew where Graziella lived. He could tell her where the authorities needed to look. But ... Graziella had said Tony was hardly home. And there was this Maria who cleaned and cooked and Graziella had a home tutor, was clean, well fed. Did it even fall under child endangerment to have a family of criminals? As long as there was even one family member at large? He guessed it probably wouldn't do any good to send CPS to her. He looked around between Elisa and his family members. Most-including Elisa-seemed at a loss. His father had his arms crossed adamantly. His gaze flitted to Goliath - the pre-millennial clan leader.
The latter nodded and stroked his angular chin grimly with his claw.
"I'm afraid we lost track of the girl. Nashville, do you know where she lives?" he asked.
Nashville looked at him, and then shook his head, hoping it appeared sad and lost enough that everyone believed him. He couldn't let the clan (and therefore the police) know where they would find her. Either the human officials would do nothing, or they would take her away and put her somewhere he wouldn't find her. He had to prevent that at all costs. So far the Dracons hadn't done anything to her, so it would certainly stay that way for a while. He didn't raise his head, but he felt his mother's unwavering gaze on him like pinpricks. He broke Makoto. Again. He was a failure. As a son, as a clans member, as a gargoyle. But Graziella was more important to him than all of that put together.
He guessed, by the escalation tonight with his father, he would probably be under stronger control for a long time. Tighter monitoring that would be disguised as caretaking measures by clan members. More walls, less involvement in clan affairs than he already had. Nashville was SO tired of having decisions made over his head. He couldn't even expect to find out what was going to happen to Graziella. Because they would want to protect him.
Again, Nashville had this queasy feeling in his stomach area and this painful pulling in his head that people would probably interpret as a migraine. But he had come to know it as something else. But that couldn't be. It wasn't. Not when it came to Graziella. That would be too terrible. For sure it was really just a reaction to stress. After all, it had been so long since the last seizure that he could barely remember it. He pressed a hand to his temple and took a deep breath.
"Please Gnash," his father was already saying more mildly. But the hands he put on his shoulders left no doubt who was in control and had the last word.
"Don't call me that anymore," he whispered and his father decided to ignore the protest.
"Let's talk about it tomorrow. Tonight we'll get our heads straight and tomorrow we'll discuss further. And Elisa?" He looked to Goliath's partner, "Could you maybe put a colleague from the Child Protective Services on the case? I'm not sure how we're going to get a social worker into a house where he could be shot at any time, though."
"-or run the risk of ending up in the Hudson with concrete shoes on for a negative report," Lexington said, ducking under Hudson's scowl.
"I'm going to let my colleagues pore over the files for now. Graziella Dracon MUST be registered somewhere. And maybe we'll have the hideout of the month for the Italo mobsters."
"When Grace and Luca calm down, maybe they can help. Because they both speak Italian. If they calm down," Angela interjected, anxiously eyeing her partner who was just staring at the floor with a bitter face.
"We should be used to making a bad impression on others by now. But that's usually just the first impression," Brooklyn muttered.
"I guess I just really ..." Broadway didn't finish the sentence but his sadly drooping head and sagging wings spoke for his sense of guilt.
Goliath let out his resolute trademark snort. "Very Well. Maybe Grace and Luca can help. But only if we as a clan need to intervene. Before that, we'll let the humans play their cards."
"I don't know how quickly my colleagues can dig up information on Graziella. Syndicate members are good at covering their tracks or using aliases and forged documents. A child would make Dracon vulnerable the way Sanchez and Choi Yingpei were vulnerable - no one peddles a weakness like that. May take a while to find something."
"The clan will increase patrols in the neighborhood where the children's meeting place is located. Maybe if we spot any, we can track members of the syndicate we know to a building there and can give you some leads," Goliath offered.
Everyone nodded, and because everyone nodded, Nash did too. Which unfortunately drew his father's attention back to him.
"Not you, of course, Nashville."
He looked at his father with a petrified face.
"I've sworn to protect Graziella. I'm going to come with you. It's my duty."
His father narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice in a way that gave everyone else goosebumps. "If you had taken the duties imposed on you more seriously from the beginning, it never would have come to this. I wish I didn't have to do it, but I must reprimand you for it. You will not be involved in this case - you are too emotional for that."
"I'm emotional?!"
"Yes! Even if we knew where she lived we wouldn't go into the lion's den just to check on your fake girlfriend."
"She is NOT a fake girlfriend! Are you punishing me now because I didn't know Graziella was a Dracon?"
"No. I'm punishing you because you snuck out of the castle several times. You get - " He took a deep breath. "You'll get rookery grounding."
"Rookery grounding?" screeched Nash.
"Three days. By then everyone will have calmed down and Elisa will have dug up everything she can on Graziella Dracon and put the CPS on her. You are allowed to take books and a reading light down with you and we'll bring you food and something to drink twice a night. That's more than generous considering you ignored your responsibilities. You knowingly snuck out of the castle several times against Goliath's and my orders, flew alone through Manhattan, which is full of Quarrymen. If they had caught you, you could have died! Or they could have caught you and we would have had to risk all our lives to pull your bacon out of the fire. You put your clan in danger but most of all you put your life at risk in a suicidal way."
"Suicidal? That's not-"
This time Brooklyn interrupted him gruffly.
"You're a child! I know you've been through a lot, and I know you hunger for adventure and freedom. Do you think I was any different when I was younger? But freedom has to be earned with a sense of responsibility. Freedom means danger in some situations. And since you obviously can't assess this danger for yourself and your environment, I'm locking you away so that you can learn to appreciate the freedoms we can give you. Until you reflect on your behavior, you will stay in the rookery. I will notice if you disappear, believe me. Three nights and more if you don't comply."
Nashville looked at Katana. His mother nodded in affirmation even though she didn't look happy. Nashville lowered his head so no one would see his tears and clenched his fists.
"I will NEVER speak a word to you again."
"We'll see how long `never` lasts again. Eventually you'll realize that I'm acting this way because I love you and I'm worried about you. Now go ahead. Unless you want me to clamp you under my arm like a hatchling."
Nashville's face was contorted with anger and despair as he turned away from everyone and walked out of the room with Brooklyn behind him. His father's face - a rigid, serious mask of sovereignty during his speech - showed, once his son was no longer looking at him, more distress and bitterness than anyone in the clan had ever seen on their brother.
And so the members of the clan scattered. Not since Goliath's first day in court when the Wicked Witch of the West side aka Margot Yale had so upset Halcyon Renard and later twisted Goliath's words had the mood been so downcast.
This chapter was really long. Why? Because I'm traveling away for a few days and I couldn't possibly separate it. This whole episode belonged together.
Again, it all went to shit.
Broadway completely off-character! (I'm not satisfied until they've all acted like absolute lunatics at least once that I can gradually send them all to therapy.)
The Italians more estranged.
Brooklyn and Nash more at odds than ever.
Katana's plan backfired despite all her Bushido wisdom and Graziella?
Well. You'll have to wait a few days for that. As well as for the scenes, which individual clan members now experience as an aftershook.
I'll leave you all with a bad feeling now (I know, I'm an ass). But everything will be "fine" in the end. Approximately ... 2023/24.
Thanks for reading, Q.T.