Disoriented by her talk with Luach, Elisa returned to the bunker where Owen waited impatiently for her to begin interrogating Macbeth's henchman. The hope was to squeeze out of him where he was headed to meet the Quarrymen. Matt Bluestone, her partner, waved at her and gave her an uncharacteristically eager smile.
"I'm not in the mood, Partner," she told him coldly, and to Owen, she said, "I don't like any of this. I sure hope we are able to get something good out of this guy, that's going to be worth what this whole fiasco is going to cost us!"
"Cost you?" Macbeth asked anxiously from the corner where he waited by the trap door that led to their prisoner, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, Matt and I shouldn't have any part of this. This isn't the Wild West, Macbeth. In our world people are charged with crimes and when they are arrested they have rights. They are not slaughtered by insane gargoyles and held prisoner by private citizens. The minute we get this guy back to the station, he's going to lawyer up and tell anyone who will listen how he witnessed a murder, was held overnight against his will, was interrogated without counsel, and saw an infamous mass murderer who the police department has assured the public was dead and no longer a threat. I certainly hope you have packed your bags, because as soon as his story gets out, every able-bodied thug that the Quarrymen can round up is going to be banging down your door."
"Mr. Xanatos is prepared to offer you any assistance with security you require," Owen assured Macbeth in his quiet, robotic tone, "But it won't be necessary."
"Well, your boss ought to be more worried about covering his own butt," she rounded on him, "After all, he is the one that was supposed to make Demona disappear. Where are these amazing implants that are supposed to keep her in lock down? She's been running at large for weeks now and what has Xanatos done to get her back? Now we've got a corpse on our hands, and when the Quarrymen get every anti-gargoyle group in the city worked up into a lynch mob, I can assure you, your boss is going to be on the top of their list!"
Owen's eyes narrowed.
"Mr. Xanatos' butt is always covered, Detective," he replied snidely, "As I'm sure you're well aware."
Bluestone chuckled at this remark and Elisa glared at him.
"Do you have severe jet lag, or something?" she demanded, causing him to laugh again, "I don't understand why you came in the first place. There's no point in both of us risking our careers by getting involved in this."
"Mr. Xanatos requested Mr. Bluestone specifically, to handle this delicate situation," Owen explained cryptically, and before she could demand any further clarification, Owen asked him if he was ready. With a oddly uncharacteristic, but confident demeanor, Matt nodded at Owen and said, "Come on, Maza," in an almost gleeful tone.
The interrogation was surprisingly easy. The man was dying to talk. He believed he had uncovered the greatest conspiracy of their times and was confident that the police couldn't help but be convinced by his evidence that gargoyles were a threat to public safety. Elisa went with that angle and managed to get the location he had intended to take his information. A place he knew the Quarrymen often gathered. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell them where Canmore, or Castaway as he called him, was specifically, but he knew he was no longer in the city and was being protected by his men as he evaded both the official authorities and Xanatos' private army.
Despite Xanatos' confidence that her partner was the perfect man for this job, Elisa noticed that Matt said almost nothing during the interview. However, his strange, almost goofy affect he had worn when the interview started quickly melted away as the witness spoke with gruesome detail of what he wanted to see done to the gargoyles, particularly the one who had killed his associate, and any humans that dared to defend or shelter them. This, of course, extended to his former employer, and the most repulsive of traitors to humanity, David Xanatos.
When it became clear that they had gotten all the information that they were going to get, Elisa made eye contact with Matt to signal for them to leave, but then Matt said,
"You look confused."
"Huh?" the man replied in surprise and Elisa also looked at Matt questioningly.
"What were you saying before?" Matt asked, with a wide-eyed, fascinated gaze.
"I was telling you about…about…I'm not sure," the man stuttered, his eyes becoming disoriented, "I don't remember what you said."
"You were telling us about the poachers?" Matt urged.
"The poachers?" Elisa repeated, "What poachers?"
"Yes, ma'am," the man said with a sudden burst of confidence, "The guy who sold the boss this house told us that they get really bad this time of year. The boss doesn't want them on the property, but they sneak in anyway. They camp in the woods, start fires, snoop around, all kinds of problems."
"You saw the smoke from the campfire?" Matt suggested.
"Right, we saw it and we rode down there to try to chase them off."
"How many were there?" Matt asked him.
"Oh there were…three, I think. Yeah, I'd say that's right."
"What happened to your hip?"
The man looked down at his side in surprise, as if he'd just noticed the wound for the first time.
"They must have fired on us! Yeah, they grazed me here on the hip. I think they hit my partner. Did you guys find her out there?"
"Did you lose a lot of blood?"
"I think I must have? I can't seem to remember what happened next."
"Did you fall?"
"I'm not sure…I'm confused…"
The man was beginning to look distraught again and Elisa sat with her mouth gaping open as she watched the entire thing.
"You may be seriously hurt," Matt said sympathetically, "You should go to the hospital."
"Yeah. I guess I should," the man replied hazily.
"We'll get a car for you," Matt assured him.
"I'd certainly appreciate that! Thank you so much, for all you guys have done. I hope you catch the bastards!" the man said gruffly, clearly trying to stifle his strong emotions and a stunned Elisa nodded respectfully, rose from her chair, and climbed the stairs into Macbeth's weaponry in the garage.
"What was that?!" she cried incredulously as Matt climbed proudly out from behind her and gave Owen a high five before strutting his way toward the driveway.
"Can I ride the ATV?" he called enthusiastically.
"No!" Owen ordered.
"Come on! Please? I did a good job!"
"Maybe later," Owen acquiesced, then turning to Elisa, he said, "So, are you going to call for an ambulance? There's a lot of details to clean up before dark."
There were, indeed, a lot of details to clean up and they quickly got to it. The local police had to be called and the henchman taken to the hospital. MacBeth had to be briefed on what to say when he was questioned. The police seemed to be astoundingly unsuspicious of the injured man's story and called more cars in to search the area for evidence of the poachers. Elisa had been worried that they would set up an excavation of the area that would take days, but once they were presented with the body and found the remains of the recent campfire, along with some used ammunition casings that happened to be there in the woods, they seemed completely satisfied. Elisa raised several eyebrows at the consistent lack of thoroughness in their investigation. The local officers seemed to gloss over what she felt was obviously conflicting evidence, but she said nothing and stood to the side as they collected the body. Matt stood beside her, silent and grinning like a Cheshire cat.
It was late in the day when they finally sat down around Macbeth's kitchen table, enjoying cups of coffee and toast and realizing with amazement that they might just have gotten away with the whole coverup.
"The hovercraft will return for us around 1AM," Owen explained, "Mr. Xanatos has asked me to bring the gargoyles home as well."
"They're anxious to return home," Macbeth told him as he rose to pour more coffee, "What of Demona?"
"The plan is for Demona to return to the castle as well."
"So she can break out again and wreak more havoc?" Elisa asked sarcastically.
"Mr. Xanatos has a plan in place to prevent havoc," Owen told her.
"Tell that to the dead body they just carted off."
"Mr. Xanatos did not anticipate that Demona would be abducted. What would you have him do? Leave her in the hands of mercenaries, unable to defend herself?"
"I would expect him to do as he said he would and not let her escape in the first place!" Elisa shouted, slamming her fist on the table.
"Excuse me," came a soft voice from the corner.
"Luach," Macbeth greeted his son, "Where is Demona?"
"Still, she sleeps," he said, with a clear timbre of worry in his voice, "Whenever she wakes, she pushes the button on her control and sleeps another four hours. She did it again, just a moment ago. We had a bit of a dispute, and she doesn't wish to see me."
"Just as well," Macbeth tried to reassure him as he rose to offer him a cup of coffee, "Let her rest until her kin wake up and can be with her." Luach nodded and excused himself and his coffee to the patio, which had grown notably more eccentric with six, life size, stone gargoyles overpowering the ferns, primroses, and lawn chairs.
"Is it just me, or is Macbeth's outdoor décor just a little over the top?" Elisa joked from the doorway, "And who do we have here?"
"Those are Thorn, Blaze, and Linnet," he explained, "They came with me through the Phoenix Gate but they belong with Demona."
"Are they good?" Elisa asked hesitantly, eyeing their frozen forms with some concern.
"They are playful and, at times, a bit troublesome. They are also brave, quick-witted, and fiercely loyal to their leader. I regard them as very good indeed."
They sat in silence for some time, enjoying the sounds of the wind and birdsong, until Elisa had to excuse herself to make more phone calls. Luach went inside as well and when he passed the door to the room where Demona slept, he was alarmed to see the shadow of someone moving inside from under the door. He opened the door quietly and, peeking inside, found Matt Bluestone, kneeling at Demona's side.
His cry of protest hung in this throat as he watched the tall, red-haired stranger gently draw her shoulder closer to him. He held his hand open over her sleeping head, and Luach saw a small pearl of light form within it. The orb shimmered with an array of color as it floated from his hand and dropped softly into her ear. Then the man leant over her and kissed and stroked her hair.
Luach must have gasped in astonishment, for the man's head jerked toward him and his eyes seemed to glow with the same strange light that was in the mysterious orb. Luach froze, but rather than being outraged at having been spied on, the man smiled at him in a friendly way and he motioned for Luach to remain quiet. Luach couldn't speak though, and almost felt as if he was forced to hold his very breath as the detective passed by to exit the room, his eyes returning to the same dull, mortal color they had been before.
Sunset came and the gargoyles awakened, except for Demona, who had slept through her transformation. Goliath and Lexington were overjoyed to see Elisa, who ran to Goliath's arms. Matt, however, surprised Lexington by grabbing him under his arms and swinging him around excitedly.
"Uhhh…Hey Matt," Lexington said awkwardly as he was set down, "Good to see you."
The four new gargoyles were introduced and Thorn and Blaze tactfully took a step back from Matt.
"We cannot wait to see New York!" Linnet told Elisa.
"And I can't wait to see my sister!" Ophelia added.
"Well, we'll be leaving before long," Elisa assured the others. Goliath asked her how the interrogation had gone and she gave him the details, including its somewhat bizarre conclusion. Goliath seemed tentatively relieved, and then he noticed an absence among them.
"Where is Adelpha?" he asked.
"She's sleeping, apparently," Elisa explained, "Macbeth's son told us that she's been engaging her implants all day. He sort of hinted that they had some sort of argument and he thought she was using enforced sleep to avoid him."
Goliath gave a low sigh.
"Let's go see about this then," he said with a slight growl.
Goliath found Demona and Luach still in Macbeth's small study. The room had gone dark with the sunset and the only light was coming from the stained glass reading lap over Luach's chair and a lamp on the exterior of the house that was shining through the glass panels of the conservatory.
"Good evening, Goliath," Luach greeted, rising quickly to his feet, "I was just reading one of my father's books."
"We'll be leaving soon, Luach," Goliath told him, "Perhaps you wish to get something to eat from the kitchen, before we depart?"
Luach thanked him and left the room, glancing curiously at Elisa as he passed. Elisa stood in the doorway as Goliath knelt on the floor beside the daybed, searching for the control panel that would awaken Demona.
"I'd say it was about time for you to rise and join the living," he chided her sleeping form as he found what he was looking for under the quilt. He pressed the correct sequence of buttons, and gently squeezed and shook Demona's shoulder to rouse her. Her eyes opened, but she didn't seem quite fully awake. In her dazed state she caught sight of Goliath leaning over her and she reached her claw toward his face, as if to verify that he was real and truly there before her. He caught her claw in his and then, before he could react, she brought her lips to his and kissed him. Withdrawing for a moment in surprise, she reached to kiss him again, warm and slow. In complete bewilderment, Elisa watched their silhouettes against the backlit window in the darkened corner. His large claw moved to cradle her head as he drew her to him and she joined him on the floor. Elisa realized that he had likely forgotten she was there in what had unexpectedly become a highly passionate moment and she had the sense to softly step backward into the hallway and close the door.
Still shocked and confused by what she had witnessed, Elisa made her way to the patio where the others had gathered around a table of everything and anything Macbeth had remaining in his kitchen. The young gargoyles were eagerly trying every taste of modern food and drink that Owen, Lexington, and Ophelia were able to prepare and bring out to them. Matt watched the antics with the same weird smile he'd worn all day. Elisa sat uncomfortably on a step leading up to the sliding door, half wondering if her partner had taken some sort of drug that was addling his mind, and also wondering if he had any more of it he'd be willing to share with her.
"Was he able to awaken her?" Luach asked hopefully.
"Well, he awakened something," she replied dryly.
"Was she angry?" he pressed her anxiously, misinterpreting her reply.
"For once, she did not look angry."
A while later, Demona emerged through the sliding door, trying to dodge past the group without calling attention to herself. Such was not to be the case.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Matt called after her as she began to creep down the stone ledges.
"I need a walk," she replied coldly.
"Would you like me to come with you, Demona?" Luach asked hopefully, and for a moment, she looked like she truly wanted him to come, but then thought the better of it.
"No, stay," she directed, "See these young ones don't create another epic disaster that we will have to clean up before we leave." Elisa watched as Demona spread her wings and an updraft carried her away over the trees, then she slowly rose and left the group to find a place to sit alone and think.
Below the patio was a small table with two heavy, wooden rocking chairs overlooking the valley. Elisa sat in one of these in order to gather her thoughts, and soon Goliath joined her.
"So? How are things with you these days?" she asked him with a touch of sarcasm.
"How much did you see?" he groaned.
"Enough to be very confused."
"You aren't the only one. She had been dreaming and she hadn't completely awakened," he tried to explain.
"You were wide awake though," she pointed out.
"Yes," Goliath replied, "I was merely…taken by surprise."
A moment passed in silence with both wondering frantically what the other was thinking.
"I'm sorry," Goliath finally said, "You know I don't wish to hurt you.
"I think I'm okay, actually," Elisa told him, surprising even herself, "I am a little shocked, for sure. I certainly never expected to see you like that, especially with her! But Goliath, you mean so much to me. I've never been as close to anyone as I am to you. Not even my mom."
"I know," he replied in dismay, "I feel the same way."
"We had such a perfect friendship, it just made sense for us to want more than friendship," Elisa explained and Goliath nodded.
"When we decided that we were ready to explore a romantic relationship, all we really knew was that we both really wanted it. We didn't know how it was going to work. We didn't know how the physical aspects would work, how our families would accept it, how we would even feel once we started, and…we didn't know that other things would be changing in ways we could never predict."
"Elisa?" he replied softly, grief in his voice and tears forming in his eyes.
"No," she said sternly, "I don't want you to cry. You are everything to me. If you need a mate of your own kind, who can satisfy you, who can give you children…If you need more than what I can give you, whether it comes from her or someone else, I want you to have that happiness. I can't bear to be the thing that keeps you from that happiness. I won't be! I only want you to promise that our friendship won't…"
"Elisa!" he interrupted, embracing her tightly. They held one another, mutually understanding what was left unsaid.