Chapter 16
Dominique sat up, "I guess I'd better tell you the rest," she said reluctantly.
Thirty-five minutes later, "Those three Fey bitches," Kendra swore, "that damned enchantment they cast on you so you would drive those you cared about away," she growled.
The redhead was surprised by the cussing as Kendra hadn't really sworn around her before, but she was warmed by the emotions provoking it. "Now you know why telling my daughter about what's happened won't help me any. It's too soon; she would just think I was trying to deceive her again. I'll just have to hope that eventually she will see that I've changed and come to me on her own."
Kendra nodded unhappily. A few seconds later, her eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to her, "You know that does bring up an interesting point about Thailog, why didn't you drive him away?" she asked.
Dominique stared at her, her mind a complete blank, "I…I don't know, I should have shouldn't I," she realized.
"Maybe you did know on some level that he was lying, that he didn't actually love you," Kendra offered hesitantly.
Dominique sighed, "Perhaps, the fact that I didn't drive him away indicates that I never really loved him either, or the fact that he was a clone meant that I didn't really consider him to be a true gargoyle." She caught sight of the slight frown on Kendra's face; it didn't take much thought to divine a reason for it. "It's a good thing the Weird Sisters didn't think I could ever care about a human or I would have been canceling our sparring sessions after the second one."
The frown was replaced by a smile and Dominique knew she had been right, "Kendra," she waited until she had her lover's complete attention, "Never doubt that I care for you very much, I've told you more about myself and my past already than I've ever told anyone else including Goliath. I always suspected that he wouldn't love me if he knew the real me, and so I hid the things about myself that I wasn't so proud of away from him. I don't think he ever realized, but I knew our mating wasn't as close as it should be almost from the start." She grimaced briefly, "Knowing that the clan will certainly tell you if I don't, makes it more imperative that I tell you about my past, but I'm also telling you because I want you to know all of me." She looked into Kendra's blue eyes, "I never want to feel as if I need to hide parts of myself from you for you to accept me."
"I never want you to," Kendra replied immediately, "and it's not like I don't have my dark side as well. I know we're supposed to see everything as having innate worth, but when I deem something a threat, I will kill it without the slightest bit of remorse. It's one of the reason's I learned martial arts, so that I could avoid being placed into that situation, it helps me back off defining someone as a definite threat."
Dominique was surprised, despite her occasional talk about killing, Kendra just didn't seem like a cold-blooded killer to her. The woman cared too much to kill without remorse. Then her logic kicked in and she realized what Kendra was saying, the jaguar in her took over when it determined there was a threat and jaguars preferred to kill instantly. "I think I understand, it's the jaguar in you isn't it?"
Kendra nodded, "I killed four men that I could have subdued had I know what I know now. I don't know if they intended to just take my wallet or something worse, but I didn't take the time to find out. I was scared that I couldn't defend myself; I transformed and killed them all. Two of them ran once I killed the other two, I tracked them down and killed them anyway."
The redhead could see the regret in Kendra's blue eyes, "You're not remorseless, or you wouldn't regret killing them," she said softly.
"That's the human part, the other part of me doesn't regret it at all," Kendra said and Dominique suddenly understood part of the sorrow she was seeing in her lover's blue eyes was because Kendra didn't wholly regret killing them.
"Then I'll try and help make sure you're not put in that position again," she found herself promising, "Not unless there really is no other choice." Demona was surprised to find that she meant it. The idea of killing humans that were threatening Kendra or she certainly did not bother her, but since it troubled Kendra she was willing to make the attempt to subdue if it didn't endanger either of them.
Kendra looked surprised as well, "Thank you," she responded after only a brief moment of silence, "I know how skilled you are, so I appreciate that." The wind chose that moment to pick up causing Kendra to shiver. She looked up at the sky and could see that the sun was nearly overhead, "We need to make lunch and then why don't we move into the tent. I don't know about you, but these late nights have been taking it out of me. I could use a nap before tonight."
"That sounds good, I'm tired as well," Dominique immediately agreed. These long nights in the spirit realm were draining physically, mentally, and, considering some of the things she had learned, frequently emotionally as well. She certainly wasn't expecting tonight to be easy in any way. She wasn't sure what she and Macbeth would learn, but she was certain that whatever it was the Ancient One had to tell them wouldn't be pleasant.
After a quick lunch they moved the sleeping bags back into the tent, the wind had increased from the occasional gust to more of a steady breeze with the occasional stronger gust and they were both glad to get out of it. The sky was also clouding over and it was starting to look as if it might snow later.
Dominique could hear the wind outside the tent as it caused the rainfly over the tent to rustle, outside it was cold and windy, but in the tent it was quiet and still except for the sound of their breathing. The down-filled sleeping bag was thick around them and warm, and Kendra's body pressed sweetly against her back, thigh and leg, and one of Kendra's arms was wrapped around her waist. She heard her lover draw in a deep breath, "You feel good," Kendra whispered into her hair.
The redhead rested her arm on top of Kendra's and hugged it tighter to her, "So do you," she acknowledged with a happy smile, lying with her lover like this did feel very good. The woman behind her shifted and she felt the brief press of lips against her temple before Kendra settled again. She felt her lover's body relax and the sound of her breathing even out in sleep, but her thoughts kept her awake. So much had happened during the past three days. Certainly she had experienced more intense grief, after the massacre at Wyvern, and Canmore's betrayal of their agreement and the death of her clan at Moray came immediately to mind. She had never however, in her almost thousand years of life, experienced such an intense mixture of emotions in such a short period of time: anger, sorrow, regret, joy, happiness, and at the back of her mind there was the whisper that added love.
Before meeting Kendra and the Irish Elk spirit, learning about what the Weird Sisters had done to her would have probably sent her seeking Macbeth and death. Now however, though the scope of the tasks she had agreed to do were daunting, she had no desire to seek oblivion. Instead, she felt cautiously optimistic and hopeful when she thought about the future; and that in itself was such a radical change for her. The last time she had truly felt optimistic about the future had been when she was allied with Macbeth, and even then it hadn't been this strange giddy, nervous anticipation she felt now.
Yes, there were things that she was not looking forward to; she was not looking forward to the long months of the clan and her daughter's suspicion and distrust of her motives. She was not looking forward to them trying to turn Kendra against her, and she was almost certain they would make the attempt. Of course, she was also certain that they would fail. Kendra had forgiven her for killing humans that one night, she had understood and forgiven her for her part in her clan's massacre by the Vikings, she knew about Paris and Macbeth, Thailog and the clones, and the Assassin, everything else she had done was relatively minor compared to those things.
None of those difficulties, however, decreased in the least bit the anticipation she felt when the thought about returning to New York and getting started on her tasks. Nor did it diminish the pleasure and happiness she felt when she thought about doing things with Kendra. She wanted to do the things she had heard her employees talking about on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings that used to send her to her office seething with hatred. She could now admit to herself that behind that hatred had been large amounts of jealously, resentment and envy. Jealously and resentment that they were able to do those things without fearing for their lives, and envy that they had someone they wanted to do them with when she did not. Now that the stag spirit had given her control over her changes she could do all the things she had wished she could do, she caressed Kendra's arm around her waist, feeling a sweet upwelling of happiness and joy, and now she had someone to do them with as well.
Dominique remembered Kendra's words, that the best way to defeat the Archmage's revenge was for her to be happy and not alone, well why not. She wanted to go out to eat together and then go to the theater or to a play or perhaps, after she learned how, even out dancing. She wanted them to go to the concerts in Central Park in the summer. She wanted to watch Kendra ice skate…she never noticed when she finally fell asleep with a small smile on her lips and her arm firmly over Kendra's.
Her internal clock telling her it was sunset woke Dominique. Kendra was still asleep and barely even stirred when the redhead slipped out of the sleeping bag; she looked down at the black-haired woman fondly and decided not to wake her. There was time yet before they needed to go to the spirit realm, and she needed to fix enough food for them to have dinner and a substantial meal after they were done. She slipped out of her fleece clothing and quickly into her halter-top and loincloth, and then quietly unzipped the tent and crawled out into the small vestibule formed by the outer tent rainfly. Shivering in the cold air, she resealed the tent behind her and quickly unzipped the outer exit.
She paused briefly in surprise to stare at the fresh layer of snow that blanketed the ground, she grimaced at the thought of having to stand in it barefoot, but there was really no other choice, the tent wasn't quite large enough for her to transform inside of it. Hissing at the cold of the snow, she tiptoed out far enough from the tent to transform. Once the transformation was complete Demona caped her wings around herself to further protect herself from the weather, it was still snowing and the occasional gust blew more from the pine needles above. She glanced at the fire, not surprisingly, it was completely out and she decided against getting another started. They would not be sitting out in the open with it snowing while in the spirit realm tonight, they would have to remain in the tent. She carefully pulled off the grey nylon tarp that covered the stove and food and began preparing dinner; it would have to be stew again, that was the easiest thing to reheat later.
She cut up the meat, browned it and pulled out a bag of frozen stew vegetables. A quick assessment of the remaining food in the cooler showed they had enough vegetables and soup stock to make four more large pots of stew; Rachael must have anticipated that it would be their primary meal. She emptied the dried soup stock into the pot along with water, meat and frozen vegetables, brought it to a boil and then reduced the flame underneath it until the soup was simmering. She covered it, now it would be thirty more minutes before dinner was ready. She pulled out some bread and wrapped it in aluminum foil and set it on the propane stove to warm for them to have along with the stew.
What to do for the next half hour? Well she had intended to explore the Ancient One's lesson's further, but between Rachael's news and discussion and then her need to tell Kendra a few things about her past she hadn't had the time. Recalling the lesson, she attuned her vision to see life energy, in an instant the world turned from greens and browns and white patches of snow into brilliant streams of golden light. Demona gasped, turning around and gaping in amazement at what she saw all around her. Life energy, all the trees around the clearing were lit up with it, reaching up toward the darkening sky and down toward the life giving earth.
Movement in the forest caught the gargoyles eye and she stared at the small brilliantly glowing form in confusion before realizing what she was seeing. It was a hare feeding off the bark of one of the pine trees; she let her vision go back to normal and looked again for the hare. Even with her excellent night vision, she could barely detect the animal as it had a white coat that allowed it to blend almost perfectly into the snow surrounding it, the only thing that betrayed it were the small black spots on the tips of its twitching ears. She altered her vision once again and watched the feeding hare for a few minutes before turning her attention back to the forest around her.
Kendra woke immediately noticing the complete darkness of the tent and the fact that she was alone. There wasn't even the glow of the fire to be seen and when she listened she could hear nothing, but a very slight noise that might be a propane stove. Fighting down her unease, she rolled out of the bag and dressed in fleece and the windproof jacket and pants.
Crawling out of the tent, she first noticed the fresh snow on the ground, but it only held her attention for a moment, she was more interested in locating Demona. It wasn't hard to spot her; the only question in Kendra's mind was what in the world was the gargoyle doing? She glanced around the camp. It had been the propane stove that she had heard from the tent, there was a large pot on the lit stove and she could guess that it had stew in it. She looked back at the motionless gargoyle crouched by the base of one of the pine trees that bordered the clearing and frowned in puzzlement. As far as she could tell Demona was intently studying the trunk of the pine tree, the tip of gargoyle's tail flicked up and back down and then was still for a few seconds before repeating the motion again.
Kendra studied the gargoyle for a few more seconds, completely bemused by her behavior before walking quietly over to crouch beside her. She stared at the tree trunk, it was a pine tree trunk rather like all the others around, the bark was reddish-brown, deeply ridged and scaly. Sections of the bark looked like they had flaked off revealing newer reddish bark underneath, and snow clung to it on the side facing the wind. Kendra could see nothing about this particular tree that warranted such intent study. "Demona, what are you doing?" she finally asked, completely baffled by her lover's behavior.
Demona looked up abruptly as if startled by her speaking; the gargoyle stared up at her silently an expression on her face that Kendra found difficult to decipher. Awe, wonder, she decided though she could not figure out why the gargoyle would look at her that way. "Demona?" she asked again, her tone slightly worried.
"Watching life energy," the gargoyle finally answered in a soft tone, she rose and turned to face Kendra reached up and cupped her lover's face. There it was much stronger now that the distance was less, "Our life energies reach out toward one another, when I touch you they even mesh slightly."
Kendra had a sudden sympathy for Demona over the night when she first told about the gargoyle about the fey enchantments on her. It was disconcerting to have someone look inside you and see something that you couldn't see. "What does it look like?" she asked softly, matching Demona's tone.
"Like golden streams of sunlight with motes of deeper gold and forest green," Demona said, she caressed the side of Kendra's face careful of her talons. "When I touch you fainter wisps of energy branch out toward me, and mine toward you," she stepped closer, looking intently at where her hand rested upon her lover's skin. "Fascinating, some of the motes are actually moving back and forth between us," she said, a soft smile lighting her face.
Kendra watched her lover's face, feeling a slight pang of envy over Demona's ability to see what was obviously an amazing sight given the gargoyles awed expression.
"I wish you could see," Demona said, and now Kendra had the impression that the gargoyle was looking at her rather than within her.
Kendra smiled wistfully, "So do I it sounds beautiful."
"It is," Demona assured her.
Kendra thought about the things she had learned from the priestess and the Jaguar spirit, and then about Rachael's estimate that it would take two months of hard studying for Demona to learn just the basics. She grinned, "My talents lie in another direction. I'll leave the life and nature magic and the associated studying to you."
The hand that had been touching Kendra's face dropped back to the gargoyle's side as Demona chuckled softly and gave the black-haired woman a wry look, "You would have to remind me of that part, all I can do with it right now is see it."
"You'll learn," Kendra said confidently, "From what Rachael hinted, I'm sure in a year or so you will be doing things that amaze me."
Demona nodded, "Hopefully," she said in a thoughtful tone. She turned and looked toward the propane stove, "The stew should be done by now, we should eat and go." She looked up at the sky, "It's stopped snowing, but I thought we would remain in the tent tonight?"
"Probably a good idea, it seems like it's colder than last night," Kendra agreed with a glance at the thin slivers of cloudy sky she could she through the pine canopy. She walked over to the stove and carefully lifted the lid of the pot letting the steam escape out the far side, "smells ready to me," she commented.
The two of them returned to the tent to eat their dinner. Afterward Demona went briefly back out to scrub the dishes with fresh snow, store the remaining stew for later, and secure the tarp back around the stove and food. When she returned to the tent, they curled up together inside the sleeping bag once again. This time Demona held Kendra, one wing tucked beneath her and the other wrapped over them. The gargoyle's green eyes half closed in pleasure as she felt Kendra stroke the inside of her wing gently with her fingers. If they weren't expected in the spirit realm tonight, she might entice Kendra to explore some of the differences between their bodies more; she was looking forward to having her lover's gentle fingers caress her wing joints and other sensitive areas like the upper part of her tail. However, they did not have time for it tonight, and the thought of what the stag was going to show Macbeth and she put an immediate damper on her ardor. "As good as that feels, I need to go meet the Ancient One," she reminded Kendra softly.
The fingers stroking the inside of her wing stilled and in the dark she saw Kendra turn her head and look back at her, "Something I should remember?" she heard the interest and amusement in the woman's voice.
"Mmm," Demona smiled, "you haven't really explored my true form yet." The smile faded as she recalled yet again what was on the agenda for this night.
Kendra's said softly, "I'll keep that in mind for later. Let's get going, I can see you're worrying about tonight."
The gargoyle didn't bother denying it; she closed her eyes and began breathing in deep even breaths. She did not need Kendra's assistance tonight; traveling to the spirit realm this third time was as easy as calling up a detailed mental image of her home or office. She looked around as soon as they emerged into the shadowy realm and was grateful to see the Ancient One waiting for her along with the Owl and Jaguar spirits, but without Macbeth. Rachael was not present either, and Demona guessed it was too soon for the Owl's chosen to have news for them.
"Good evening Wise One, Jaguar," she greeted the other two spirits respectfully before turning to her own patron, "Ancient One, I wish to speak with you about Macbeth and how much he will remember of this," she indicated the shadowy realm around them, "And you and I."
Demona heard Kendra's greetings to the waiting spirits behind her as the great stag regarded her intently for a moment, "You do not wish him to remember that you are my chosen," he said perceptively. "Show me your reasons for this request." The wise brown eyes caught her own as they did when the spirit was teaching her, but instead of information passing from the spirit to her there was a sense of waiting. It took her a few seconds to realize what the Ancient One was waiting for, hesitantly she thought back to the conversation with Rachael earlier in the day. It was an odd sensation to feel the information almost pulled from her, but she had to admire the efficiency of it, it took a very short time for the entire conversation to be reviewed in this manner.
"The Wise One's chosen is not aware of the fact that Oberon has commanded that the Fey remain on Avalon. The Weird Sisters are not an immediate danger to you, but he is fickle and they are skilled at evading his rules without actually breaking them," the Ancient One said once the gargoyle was done. "As for your other concerns, I have not studied humanity enough to judge whether or not your fears have merit, however, I am aware that many of the chosen have recently decided to keep their identities hidden because of similar concerns. Therefore I will defer to your judgment in this; I will ensure that Macbeth does not remember anything that will allow him to realize you are my chosen."
"Thank you," Demona replied, "The human's have a saying, it is better to be safe than sorry. It would seem to apply to this situation."
The Irish Elk spirit's ears twitched and Demona wondered yet again if that indicated amusement or some other emotion. "I will return soon with Macbeth," was all the stag said before he turned to leave.
She watched as his majestic form disappeared into the mists and then turned toward Kendra and the other two spirits. The were-jaguar form that Kendra had pulled into herself the previous night was once again standing motionless next to her lover and the two spirits. She moved closer, she hadn't had an opportunity yesterday night to get a good look at the were-jaguar form Kendra was working on.
"Now duplicate this form and let us begin working on the winged version," the Owl spirit said as Demona stepped up next Kendra. The gargoyle whipped her head around to look at the woman beside her in astonishment.
A smile played around her lover's lips, Kendra turned her head enough to look at Demona out of the corner of her eye, "Surprise."
Demona stared at her for a moment longer, feeling her lover's mischievous humor, then turned back to the were-jaguar form and stared at it, trying to imagine it with wings. It wasn't hard, after all the mutates all had them, Kendra would probably end up looking somewhat like the mutate called Talon the gargoyle decided. The Eagle Owl spirit standing on the other side of the figure twitched its black and white barred wings at that moment and the gargoyle realized that Kendra might chose to go with avian like wings rather than gargoyle like wings. "What type of wings are you using?"
"I don't know yet, I haven't chosen between feathered wings or gargoyle like wings," Kendra admitted. "Do you have a preference?"
The slight husky note in Kendra's voice had Demona turning to look into her lover's blue eyes. The warmth in them, and the feelings she was sensing from Kendra, made it quite clear why her lover was asking. Demona's mind went blank as she stared at the motionless were-jaguar figure. Did she have a wing type preference? Satiny smooth feathers, bare warm skin or perhaps even a silky soft covering of fur wrapping around her body and pulling her close to her lover.
"Have I broken you?" Kendra's amused voice brought Demona out of her disjointed thoughts.
The blue gargoyle looked over at her lover, noting the broad smile and mirth filled, yet warmly affectionate, sapphire eyes that matched the emotions she was sensing from the woman. "Of course not," she replied loftily, settling her wings into a cloak like form with her wing claws on her shoulders. "I was just trying to think of what you would look like with avian type wings instead of gargoyle wings," she claimed trying to keep the smile off her own face.
"Mmm," Kendra smirked, "if you say so." She eyed Demona's wings, "Of course, that's a reason to go with gargoyle style wings, I don't think I could arrange avian wings in the different ways I've seen you do with yours."
"That is correct you could not, avian wings are different from gargoyle wings," the Owl spirit commented, "for that matter so are bat wings."
Demona thought about it for a moment, she glanced over at the Eagle Owl's wings for confirmation, "I'd have to agree, the main thing that's different about gargoyle wings versus avian or bat wings is that the humerus is of an equal length to the radius and ulna of the forearm of the wing instead of being shorter. That's what allows us to arrange our wings to look like a cloak with the wing claws holding onto the shoulders or around our shoulders like a cape with the wing claws clasped together in front." she said. "If you make that one change it shouldn't really matter what your wings are covered with, I've met gargoyles with feathered wings and ones with furred wings, though the membrane type wings like mine are much more common."
Kendra turned to stare frowningly at the were-jaguar form, she lifted her hands and placed the fingers on the figures forehead and then drew her hands apart. The form wavered for a second and then duplicated itself and separated, one following Kendra's left hand, the other following her right. Once they were about a foot apart, Kendra removed her hands and then she reached out and drew the left most figure into herself.
The gargoyle didn't comment, though she found it interesting that Kendra was keeping a non-winged version of the were-jaguar form. It also caused her to wonder just how many different forms the black-haired woman could make.
"Could you hold out your wings for me?" Kendra asked Demona. The blue gargoyle obediently extended her wings, knowing that Kendra wanted to get a good look at their structure so she could duplicate it on her were-jaguar form. Kendra moved around to stand in front of Demona, taking in the structure of the gargoyle's wings and the proportion of wing to body mass. She then moved around the gargoyle, reaching out to touch the outermost wing bone as she did so and letting her fingers trail along its edge as she began examining the wing structure closely. She examined the three small wing claws closely and grinned as they briefly gripped her fingers before releasing them. She then moved her attention to the wing's forearm, letting her fingers feel the radius and ulna beneath the skin and flesh. "You realize that you actually have four arms right?" she asked the gargoyle. Demona turned her head and glanced back at the black-haired woman inquiringly. "In birds and bats the front limbs evolved into wings, but you have both arms and wings," Kendra said.
"I hadn't actually thought about it," Demona admitted looking at Kendra's hand on her wing forearm, "but I guess we do don't we."
Kendra nodded, and continued her visual and physical examination of the wing underneath her fingertips, moving onto the humerus.
If they had been alone, Demona would be very tempted to let Kendra continue touching her wings and discover for herself what parts of them were sensitive. However, they were not alone and so she needed to stop Kendra before her hands drew any closer to her wing joint and everyone present got an education in the erogenous zones of gargoyles, "Kendra, remember when I said that I would like for you to explore my wings?"
The hands on her wing hesitated, "Yes…?" Kendra strung out the word in a puzzled tone.
"Now isn't really an appropriate time and your getting rather close to where my wings would be very sensitive to your touch," Demona quietly informed her. Movement from the two spirits with them drew the gargoyle's attention, but when she looked their way both the Owl and Jaguar were staring intently at the were-jaguar figure.
"Oh," Kendra said abruptly and pulled her hands away from Demona's wing feeling both embarrassed and interested as she looked at the joints, which connected the wing to the gargoyle's back. That area was the only place she hadn't touched so she had a fairly good idea where the sensitive area Demona was referring to was located. Kendra cleared her throat and forced her thoughts away from where they had been headed, "Could you move your wings around then so I can see how the joint moves?"
Smirking, the flame-haired gargoyle began moving her wings back and forth as Kendra watched intently. After a full minute of moving her wings slowly back and forth, Demona crossed her arms across her chest and asked, "How much longer do I need to do this?" She stared in amusement at Kendra who had knelt and was now directly underneath the gargoyles wings so she could see how they moved from both the front and back.
Kendra's blue eyes met her amused green one's, and the black-haired woman blushed, "Oh sorry, umm, just one more thing," she said standing back up and stepping around the gargoyle to stand at her back. "If you could bring your wings as far back as possible and hold them please." Kendra stared intently at how the muscles moved as the gargoyle did as she asked and then stepped to the side to see how the muscles in the shoulders looked. "And as far forward," she said stepping around to the back again as Demona swept her wings forward. "Ok I think I've got it," she said absently as she moved over to the were-jaguar form.
A soft clicking sound drew Demona's attention to the Eagle Owl spirit; she was snapping her beak together rapidly. The Jaguar spirit sitting next to her was regarding his chosen with what the gargoyle was ready to swear was amusement in his green eyes. Her attention was pulled from the two spirits to Kendra as the woman touched the back of the figure in front of her and then drew her hands apart, in between them black gargoyle wings formed. Kendra had gone with the same type of wing claws as she had, Demona noticed seeing the three digits.
"A bit wider I think," Demona suggested.
"A hands length more to get the proper amount of wing area for your mass," the Owl spirit suggested at the same time.
Kendra glanced at both of them before turning back to her creation and doing as they suggested.
Demona moved until she was standing directly in front of the now winged were-jaguar form. The wingspan wasn't quite as large as Goliath's, but then the were-jaguar form wasn't as bulky or quite as tall as her ex-mate either. "That looks right," the gargoyle gave her opinion.
"Alright, let's see if I've got the muscle attachments right then," the were-jaguar wing's relaxed from fully extended to a more natural arrangement with the wing arm forming half arcs on either side of the figure's head.
"Demona," the Ancient One's voice summoned the gargoyle from the mists.
The flame-haired gargoyle stared in the direction the voice came from, but could see nothing. She frowned puzzled until realizing that the great stag had probably brought Macbeth with him and didn't want her old ally to see Kendra and the other two spirits. She turned toward her lover, "I need to go."
Kendra nodded, looking off in the direction from which the voice came from, "I should probably stay away for this one, to keep myself out of Macbeth's memories. Give the Ancient One less work to do."
Demona's eyes showed her thanks for Kendra's understanding why she wasn't asking the black-haired woman to come along with them tonight. She stepped around the were-jaguar figure in between her and Kendra and pulled her lover into her arms, "Thank you," Demona said softly as Kendra's arms wrapped around her waist. She pressed her lips against the black-haired woman's in a soft sweet kiss before pulling reluctantly away, "I'll let you know what I find out," she assured her as she turned away and began heading toward where the stag's voice had come from.
A wave of supportive strength and warm caring emotions wrapped around Demona, she paused, turned around, and looked back at the source of the feelings directed at her. Kendra's sapphire blue eyes met hers, a sweet ache filled Demona's chest as she saw the emotions she was feeling mirrored in her lover's eyes. The gargoyle allowed herself a moment to take in the support Kendra was offering her before turning resolutely back to the mists and to where the Ancient One was waiting for her. Demona knew she wasn't going to like what she was going to learn tonight, but it was easier now to face it, even though Kendra wasn't physically with her, she wasn't alone.
Continued...