Chapter 22
Dominique awoke reluctantly; a whispered, "I'll shower and then get breakfast ready for us," and the warm press of lips upon hers informed her what had disturbed her sleep. The redhead smiled and opened her eyes, looked up toward the opening of the tent in time to see Kendra zipping it closed again behind her. It was very bright inside the tent, indicating that the sun had risen some time ago and she wondered just how late they had slept in today.
Of course, they hadn't gotten to sleep until very late indeed, the redhead thought with a smirk as she arched her back and raised her arms above her head in a long luxurious stretch. Once she was done, she relaxed once again her arms above her head in the cool winter air, and the rest of her body cocooned in the warmth of the sleeping bag. For a long moment she simply breathed in and out quietly, enjoying the fact that she was alive on this fine morning. She could hear the wind moving through the pine boughs and the sound of a few birds chirping and singing; she could also hear the sound of a propane heater and water from where Kendra was showering.
A shiver and a tingle ran through Dominique's body as she remembered the night and the hours of lovemaking they had indulged in, by the end of the night Kendra had indeed found every sensitive place upon her body. They had been so exhausted by the time they stopped that Demona had transformed into her human form before falling asleep to make sure that she didn't accidentally trap her lover if she failed to wake up and went into stone sleep. She sighed and tucked her arms, which were getting chilled, back into the sleeping bag debating on whether or not to just go back to sleep until Kendra woke her for breakfast. Her stomach chose that moment to rumble demandingly at her, informing her in no uncertain terms that it had been entirely too long since she had last eaten. She groaned protesting, not really feeling like getting up, but if she wanted breakfast sooner she knew she needed to get up and help Kendra prepare it.
Two hours and some minutes later they had both showered, eaten, cleaned up the dishes from breakfast, stopped by the pine tree to see how its injuries were healing, and were now sitting idly by the fire. Dominique shifted restlessly; she wasn't used to having nothing to occupy her time. They couldn't go gliding there was too much of a chance that a rescue plane might fly over and see them in the air, and the concealment of night would not come for five more hours. She glanced over at Kendra; the black-haired woman was sitting in a patch of sunlight her eyes closed and a peaceful, almost meditative look upon her face. The redhead smirked, at the moment her lover's jaguarness was definitely apparent.
She glanced at the forest around them searching for something to occupy her time. If she only knew more about trees and plants she thought wistfully, looking at the variety of evergreens around her. Not all of the trees were pines, Dominique knew enough about them to identify spruces, junipers and the odd cedar among the trees she could see from where she was sitting. Unfortunately, except for what the Irish Elk had told her about how trees healed, recognizing the different species was about the extent of her knowledge. Being able to see life energy did not magically give her any understanding of what she was seeing, so watching the life energy in the trees was quickly becoming rather frustrating because of her lack of knowledge.
It wasn't that she hadn't picked up a basic understanding of biology, chemistry and physics, because she had, if only so that she understood what her researchers were writing in their weekly progress reports. This type of specific knowledge though, she had never had a need to learn before now. At least that was one useful side effect of the human's need to name and understand things, Dominique thought. Their species had made much progress in understanding how the world around them worked; all she needed was have access to all that knowledge to get a better understanding of what she was seeing. Unfortunately for her current boredom, however, none of it was available to her right now.
With one last annoyed look at the forest for not providing her any distractions, she glanced back over at her lover and thought about their return to New York in three days. She smirked, she would bet on the fact that the clan would be amazed to see them both return. Doubtless they had assumed that she would either kill Kendra or leave her behind to fend for herself, and they couldn't be further from the truth. The smirk disappeared and a regretful look replaced it as she thought about one particular member of the clan whose opinion was more important to her than the rest. Her deception with the Assassin probably meant that the clan was now unanimous in their opinions of her. She gazed at her lover's peaceful face, perhaps when they both returned Angela would be curious enough to keep find out what her mother was doing, see the changes she was making in her life.
Thoughts of the clan brought up thoughts of their and the Detectives inevitable attempt to contact Kendra and what they might tell her about the past. Dominique grimaced ruefully; it was truly pitiful that she was so bored that she would consider a discussion with Kendra about her mistakes with the clan to be an acceptable distraction. She had told Kendra almost everything she thought the clan would bring up in an effort to drive the black-haired woman away from her, but there was one incident she hadn't mentioned that one clan member might bring up. She hated interrupted Kendra's doze, but this lack of anything to do was driving her crazy. She cleared her throat, her lover's sapphire blue eyes opened and focused upon her.
Dominique said, "Since we have nothing to do for the next five hours but fix dinner, I thought now might be a good time to tell you why Brooklyn of all the clan members hates me the most, and is least likely to forgive me for my past actions," she noticed she had Kendra's complete attention. "I don't know that he will bring up how I betrayed the trust that had been between us, but he might." She paused, her thoughts going to the distant past.
"Who is Brooklyn? I've heard the name before, but I don't know which one that is," asked Kendra remembering the one detective mentioning that the gargoyle blamed Demona for everything that went wrong.
The redhead looked over at her, surprised; she hadn't realized that she hadn't described the clan to the black-haired woman. "Have you seen any of them?" she asked hoping that Kendra had, it would make it so much easier.
Kendra responded, "I've seen pictures of them as they left the police station clock tower after my stupid cousins attacked it." She shook her head bringing her thoughts back to Dominique's question, "One picture had a large light lavender male who I suspect is Goliath," she paused as the redhead nodded.
"Goliath is light lavender and the largest of all the males," Dominique confirmed.
"Behind him was a lavender female who I'm sure is your daughter Angela," Kendra continued, barely pausing to acknowledge the redheads confirming nod before continuing, "then were was another picture of a white-haired red colored male with a beak…"
"That's Brooklyn," interrupted Dominique.
The black-haired woman nodded thoughtfully, setting his appearance in her mind, "he was carrying a smaller greenish colored male in his arms," she continued.
Dominique said, "Lexington, and from what I've heard he's adapted very well to this time. He has an unusual gift with understanding modern machinery and likes computers."
"Interesting," said Kendra, thinking of how bizarre the gargoyles must have found modern life after being asleep for nine hundred years, the world was so different now compared to what they had known. She brought her thoughts back to the one remaining picture her cousin Jon had sent her, "The last picture was of two gargoyles, one of which was carrying what looked more like a gargoyle dog than anything else and had no wings."
"Broadway, Hudson and Bronx," said the redhead, "Broadway is aqua colored and overweight, Hudson is the former clan leader and Bronx is a gargbeast. That's the entire clan that's left from Wyvern except for the young gargoyles on Avalon," she said sadly.
She shook herself, forcing her mind off that guilt-ridden thought and onto the original subject of their conversation. "To understand why Brooklyn felt so betrayed by what I did I need to tell you about the relationship he and I had at Castle Wyvern while he was growing from a young hatchling into one of the best warriors of his rookery hatching. Neither he nor I had names then, but I saw in the red beaked young male so much of myself. He had a temper to match mine, he was impetuous and impassioned, and even as young as he was he had the makings of a fine warrior."
"So you decided to mentor him," Kendra guessed.
Dominique nodded, "I taught him how to fight on the ground and in the air. How to dodge the arrows we would often face from the castle's attackers. Whenever he had a question I was the elder he brought it to, when he and the other two young males he was always with practiced I watched and corrected any mistakes. Whenever he did something right it was my approval he looked for first even before Goliath's."
The redhead's lips narrowed in anger at herself as she remembered what she had thrown away, "From the time he left the rookery until the Magus cast his spell on him I was the elder that he sought out the most frequently and I was the one that he trusted the most after Goliath. So when I learned of a spell in the Grimorum Arcanaum that I could use to control Goliath's mind, I knew immediately whom I could use to bring my former mate to me. I knew that Brooklyn would still listen to me despite the fact that I had attacked the clan a few days earlier."
Kendra wanted to ask about the earlier attack, but she didn't want to sidetrack Dominique so she filed the information away for later and simply listened.
"I watched the trio for several nights in a row while they worked on putting together a motorbike in one of Xanatos's garages. Or rather I should say Lexington did, that's how I learned about his gift. It's almost magical how he's able to understand how machines work without any training and only minimal access to manuals." Demona still remembered staring at the trio in astonishment as she watched the young web winged male who she knew had never seen modern machines until a week ago, make a working motorbike from one wrecked one they had found and spare parts.
I followed him as he went on his first motorbike ride, and when he found a motorbike gang and approached them, I waited, suspecting they would attack him as soon as they realized he wasn't another human. When they did I helped him fight them off, it was enough for me to persuade him to listen to me. I took him around the city and pointed out the worst human actions I could find as evidence of why Goliath's dream of humans accepting us was not possible." She gave Kendra an apologetic look.
"It's alright," Kendra reassured her, "New York City has enough crime to jade even the most optimistic optimist. I imagine it wasn't hard for you to shock him, though one would think he had seen humans killing and mistreating each other before. I would think humanity really hasn't changed that much in a thousand years."
"True," Dominique acknowledged, "but he was still reeling from all the changes in the world since he had been turned into stone by the Magus. He had been resentful of the humans at Castle Wyvern and doubtful that they would ever change their ways and come to accept us as Goliath hoped, so I knew it would be easy to persuade him that these new humans weren't any different. I told him there was a spell in the Grimorum I could use to make Goliath listen to me and had him steal the book from Xanatos's collection and bring it to me."
She went on to describe how Brooklyn had brought Goliath to her at the Cloisters, how once the spell had been cast and Goliath was turned into a mindless slave that Brooklyn had fought with her. He managed to take back the Grimorum, but not before Demona ripped the counter spell from the Grimorum and destroyed it. With the book in his possession, Brooklyn controlled Goliath's actions and he had ordered his clan leader back to the Castle. There Elisa Maza had the idea to command Goliath to act as if he were not under the spell's control breaking its hold on him.
"The Weird Sisters strike again," said Kendra noted bitterly after the redhead had stopped speaking. "In one fell swoop you knocked yourself off the pedestal Brooklyn had you upon, abused his trust of you and used him against his clan leader, guaranteeing that he wouldn't trust you or want anything to do with you anytime soon."
Dominique stared at her, she hadn't thought about her actions in light of what she had learned so recently. "I hadn't considered it," she admitted, beginning to feel the stinging pain of yet another loss the three Fey had caused her.
"Oh come on," Kendra protested thinking the look on Dominique's face meant that the redhead didn't believe her, "Brooklyn immediately realized what you had done to Goliath, so unless the other gargoyles are really dense they would have noticed the same thing as soon as they saw him. I don't think your actual objective in doing that was getting control of the clan because you had to have known that it had zero chance of succeeding." Dominique was still looking stunned so Kendra continued, "If however you were driving Brooklyn away from you then it succeeded admirably," she finished softly.
The redhead drew in a shuddering breath and it occurred belatedly to the black-haired woman that what she had seen on Dominique's face hadn't been stunned disbelief but stunned pain. "Oh hell," Kendra cursed herself, "I'm sorry Demona, I should have found a better way to say that I didn't mean to hurt you," she said regretfully. She got up and went over to the lost looking woman, hesitantly placing a hand on the redhead's shoulder.
Dominique looked up at her, waved a dismissive hand, "It's alright I just haven't thought about that night in a long time, and not since I found out about that enchantment. I guess it's just something else that I have to add to the list of injuries those three have caused me over the centuries."
Kendra sat down next to Dominique and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Surely there must have been some bright spots in the last thousand years?" she asked hesitantly hoping that that was indeed the case because she wanted to distract the redhead from dwelling on the incident with Brooklyn.
The redhead looked thoughtful, after three solid days of such revelations she was only too eager to find a distraction from this last one, "Well there was a human in the early 1500's that I called a friend, Michel de Nostradame." When Kendra looked startled she grinned, "Yes, Nostradamus, he had a foreseeing of Xanatos would raising the castle above the clouds and break the enchantment on the clan. That's how I knew to come here and look for Xanatos in 1993."
"You knew Nostradamus," Kendra questioned disbelievingly.
Dominique chuckled enjoying the awed look in Kendra's eyes, "I think I just said that didn't I?" she teased. She began telling the tale of the human who had found her sick with the Black Plague and had nursed her back to health in his own home, and of how that meeting had turned into a friendship that lasted until his death.
Later that night they were gliding back to the camp, Kendra's new claws had performed very well, slicing into the limestone of the cliff with much less effort than the night before. They had practiced taking off from the cliff and then gliding around in a circle to land once again near it before climbing back up and repeating the process. With each landing, Kendra improved her technique until Demona announced herself satisfied, though the look in her eye promised several more training sessions.
"I never thought I'd get tired of eating one type of meat," Demona commented staring down at the pan cooked caribou steak on her plate. "Right now though I'd really like some chicken or fish," she said wistfully, "I've gotten spoiled by modern grocery stores."
Kendra chuckled, "I can't say that I'm tired of it, but I wouldn't turn down some cow or pork about now. Luckily we only have tomorrow to make it through and then the next night we will be at Rachael's." She stifled a yawn, "By the way how long do you think tonight will take?"
Demona shrugged, "I don't know. I'm not certain what all the Ancient One has planned for us to do tonight." Looking at the tired countenance of her lover, she hoped it wouldn't be that late, Kendra wasn't the only one feeling fatigued tonight. "Are you coming to the spirit realm tonight?" she asked.
The black-haired woman nodded, "Just for a little while to see if Rachael or Wayne shows up," she grinned, "otherwise I'll just make sure you stay warm while you're working."
The flame-haired gargoyle smiled in reply, "I just don't want to think of you being bored," her voice trailed off and she looked uncomfortable, reminded of just why Kendra wasn't accompanying her tonight.
"It's alright," Kendra assured her gently, "I understand."
The gargoyle looked at her searchingly, seeing reassurance in her lover's blue eyes she nodded.
Only the Ancient One was waiting for them when they entered the spirit realm, "Ancient One," Demona greeted the great stag. She looked over at her lover, her thoughts racing, she didn't really want to do this alone, but she didn't want Kendra to see how she had acted that night.
"My chosen," he returned her greeting.
"Ancient One," Kendra greeted him as well. "I guess nothing significant has happened that we need to know about," she commented.
"Indeed," commented the great stag calmly, "Will you be accompanying us young jaguar?"
Kendra shook her head, "No not tonight," she answered.
"Wait," Demona blurted.
Confused blue eyes turned her way, "What?" Kendra asked, crease forming between her brows as she frowned.
The gargoyle turned toward the Irish Elk spirit, "Were the weird sisters present when I was killing the humans?" she asked her eyes sliding uneasily away from his great brown ones in her shame.
"They were not chosen," he replied calmly.
Demona breathed in a sigh of relief; she turned to Kendra, "Would you like to go with us?"
The frown on Kendra's face smoothed as she realized why Demona had asked the Ancient One that question, "Of course, maybe together we can make some sense of their actions."
That is something to be desired," commented the Irish Elk in a dry tone that had both of them glancing with questioning looks at the spirit. "These particular Fey delight in obscuring their motives with cryptic utterances at any time," the land around them changed and they were standing inside a room, a large vault door stood wide open along one wall. Goliath stood motionless next to three men tied up inside what looked like money transfer bags and a woman with short dark hair that was kneeling and looking up at the stern looking gargoyle with fear. The spirit continued, "During these events they were more cryptic and obscure than usual."
Kendra looked around at the frozen people in fascination for a moment before she turned back to the spirit, "So your saying trying to figure this out is giving you a headache?" she said with a slight smile.
Great stag turned his head and regarded her for a moment, his ears flipped back and forth once before he responded, "if such a thing were possible for me I would undoubtedly have one."
Demona, who had been paying the familiar looking three girls standing along the wall more attention that the stag spirit and her lover, looked over at this comment and smiled at their bantering. She turned her attention to the window and looked out at the multitude of police cars outside the building, their motionless lights casting a red glare over everything. "A hostage situation?" she asked, returning her attention to the room.
"Correct, chosen," said the Irish Elk.
Suddenly the scene around them came to life, "We will go now. The police can deal with them," announced Goliath turning and leaving the four humans.
Kendra watched the gargoyles with interest, able to identify now the four males as Goliath, Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington. Seeing them in real life, as it were, instead of two-dimensional pictures was much different. She had a better sense of their size and evident strength. It helped her understand why so many people seemed to be afraid of them, she glanced over at the smaller green male, well at least most of them, she corrected herself.
"The cause is everything until her own life is threatened," the dark haired girl in what looked almost like a school uniform came forward and said to Goliath as he passed the three. "Still it's good that you saved her."
"If you forgot what she's forgotten, that every life is precious. Then you'll be no different from her," said the blonde one.
Demona choked, her eyes flashed red in anger as she stared at the three unable to believe that they had the gall to say such things after everything they had done to Macbeth and her. The gargoyle was so angry that she almost missed Goliath's answer. "I'll never be like this terrorist," he said indignantly.
"We were not talking about this terrorist," the white haired one corrected him. Demona scowled at them, though she could not disagree with the title they had just given her considering what she had done later this night.
Goliath turned around to stare at the now cowed looking woman next to the three bound men. The Weird Sisters took the opportunity to disappear so that when he turned back the looked around in vain for them asking where they had went.
The scene froze with the four gargoyles trying to figure out what they had seen and the two human hostages in the room telling them there had never been any children there. Demona even recognized the two humans, Brendan and Margot Yale, she shook her head, the Assistant District Attorney had a definite gift for running into the clan considering how big the city was and how many humans were in it.
"Considering their own actions it's more than slightly ironic to hear such sentiments from these three," noted Kendra dryly. "What are they playing at? They have absolutely no respect for mortal lives so this has some purpose behind it that serves their own selfish interests."
Demona had no idea herself, her memories of the time in between her fight with the clan and Macbeth and the restored memories the stag had given her were chaotic. She remembered what the Weird Sisters had said to her to get her to reveal the new password and her anger at being tricked, then nothing until her memories from the time she was controlled by the three Fey began.
The Ancient one shook his great antlered head, "I am not certain besides the fact that such sentiments caused Goliath to prevent Macbeth from taking his and Demona's life while she was unconscious."
The gargoyle's green eyes widened, she had no idea that Macbeth had come so close to getting his wish that day.
Kendra said thoughtfully, "I don't usually advocate reading the end of the book first, but in this case I think it might help us understand what's going on better."
The scene around them changed as soon as she finished speaking, they were standing beside a large indoor pool in the center of a carefully landscaped garden. A wide walkway was suspended along the sides of the atrium like area; one part of the walkway went through the center of the area, suspended above the large pool in the center. The walls of the building on this level were solid glass with large pylons along the outside to support the weight of this floor. They stood on the center span of the walkway, stairs leading down on either side to the center section that crossed over the pool. The center section was covered with concrete debris, the figures of Demona and Macbeth lying among them.
"Macbeth threw down a grenade that melted the floor," said Demona pointing to the ceiling far above them. "I remember falling through the air, Macbeth was holding onto me preventing me from being able to glide."
Macbeth rose first, he looked down upon the unconscious gargoyle and an expression of rage crossed his face. He picked Demona up in his arms; her wings hung limply, dragging along the ground as he walked over toward one piece of debris that had broken off pipes sticking up from it.
A low threatening growl, drew Demona's attention from the scene to her lover, Kendra was glaring at the scene her blue eyes narrowed. The gargoyle placed one hand on her forearm; the black-haired woman's head swung her way, the blue eyes instantly softened and the growl stopped. "I'm right here, not there," Demona reminded her gently. Kendra nodded once and turned her attention back to the scene below. The gargoyle stared at her strong profile for a second, taking in the straight nose and strong jaw and chin, her lips curved in a small smile, warmed by the protectiveness her lover displayed for her.
Her turned her eyes away from her lover, intending to watch the scene below, but the Ancient One, who was regarding them with keen interest, caught her attention. His gaze was upon her taloned hand resting so comfortably on Kendra's arm and she could almost hear the thoughts in his mind, not your young jaguar indeed.
No!" shouted Goliath drawing her attention firmly to what was happening below them, "Killing her won't solve anything."
Demona blanched to see herself helpless and unconscious in Macbeth's arms her body suspended above the sharp end of a broken pipe. How close her old ally had come, all Macbeth had to do was release her body and they would have both died.
"Death never does," finished Goliath.
Macbeth hesitated at the lavender males words looking uncertain, and then the three Weird Sisters appeared. They were adults now and looked completely modern in their three-inch heels, purple hose, very short skirts and midriff baring jackets. "He's right Macbeth, Duncan was afraid that your father would make you king," said one of them.
Luna continued, "Did your father's death stop you from becoming king?"
Macbeth turned toward them, "No," he answered angrily.
"You wanted revenge for your father. Did Gillecomigan's death settle that score?" asked Selene.
"No," Macbeth answered his tone not angry this time but resigned.
"Did your own death save your son Luach from Canmore," asked the blonde sister.
"No," whispered Macbeth looking defeated.
"Death is never the answer," Goliath said to him his hands raised in supplication, "Life is."
Demona snorted and shook her head, there her former mate was playing the part the sisters gave him perfectly, not that she didn't appreciate still being alive right now instead of dying almost a year ago.
"I'm just so tired," said Macbeth lowering the unconscious Demona to the ground and backing away.
The Weird Sisters gathered around him, "Then sleep Macbeth," they said in unison. A second later Macbeth slumped to the floor unconscious.
Kendra watched silently as the Sisters manipulated Demona into giving Goliath the access code, alone. Her eyes narrowed and a wave of rage and revulsion washed over her as she saw the tears in Demona's eyes as the gargoyle said the access code. She had never hated anyone as she hated these three callous Fey; if they ever came within range of her claws they were dead.
Demona shook her head sadly as she watched herself rage that she had been tricked, that none of what occurred was her fault, it was the humans were responsible for everything. Not that she had been entirely wrong then given what the Magus had done, but a share of the blame for what had happened at Castle Wyvern definitely rested upon her own shoulders.
"You have learned nothing," said Goliath sadly.
The Demona below hissed at him, "Nothing but your lies." She flared her wings, "I will still have my revenge!"
The Weird Sisters, once again appearing as children, restrained the gargoyle who looked amazed that they could hold her. "You are tired," Luna bade her, "sleep." The Demona below wavered, closed her eyes and slumped to the flagstones of the walkway near Macbeth's slumbering body.
"What do we do with them?" Goliath asked scratching the top of his head.
"We have written their stories. They are our responsibility. They are our children," said the Weird Sisters as they took up points around Demona and Macbeth.
Demona snarled, "At least their acknowledging their responsibility for what they did to us, but Macbeth and I are not their children."
The Ancient One let the scene play out as he spoke, "No you are not, nor are you under their control any longer chosen." The scene froze right after the Weird Sisters disappeared, taking Demona and Macbeth with them.
Kendra eyed the spot on the walkway where everything had taken place, there were a few things about what she had seen that were bothering her, "Ok so they set Goliath up to help persuade Macbeth not to kill Demona, that's easy to see. What I don't understand is why go through all that effort? Since they had their hooks into both of them already why didn't they just take Macbeth and Demona whenever they wanted without all this drama?" she waved a hand to indicate everything around them.
"That is a source of puzzlement to me as well young jaguar," admitted the great stag spirit.
Demona looked over at her lover, startled by her words. Kendra was right, why had the three Fey gone through all this effort when they could have taken them at any time. She stared at the walkway spanning the pool thoughtfully, if she were evaluating the moves of a business rival she would be asking herself what the rival had to gain by their actions. "What did they have to gain by doing this?" she asked herself aloud.
"Exactly," responded Kendra, "They must have gotten something out of it."
The three of them stared at one another silently, Demona sighed, "I guess that means none of us has an idea what they had to gain. Maybe if we go back to the beginning and watch their actions something will make sense?"
The stag spirit dipped his head and they were standing upon the street, a siren wailed behind them, but Demona's attention was upon the three Fey who stood watching a bank of televisions inside a store window. "Isn't this exciting Luna it begins again," Phoebe said.
They began walking down the street, "Concentrate sister or it ends here as well," said Selene.
"Phoebe, Selene have patience, we have waited 975 years, we can wait a little longer," commented Luna.
The scene around them froze, Kendra offered, "It begins again, I guess they mean that things are happening again that will lead to them meeting up with the Archmage? He did tell them it would be another 975 years last time they spoke."
Demona nodded, "That would be my guess as well."
"Those were my thoughts as well," said the Irish Elk. In the next moment they stood in the middle of a street, it was nighttime and in the direction they were facing they could see the silhouettes of two gargoyles approaching.
Demona drew in a sharp breath, her heart actually seemed to skip a beat as she turned around in horror and looked upon the shattered human forms. This was not something she had wanted Kendra to see; at least the Demona of this time was already gone.
Her attention drawn by the distressed sound, Kendra looked over at her lover, she hadn't thought it possible for the gargoyle to pale, but Demona's face looked pale right now. She turned following the gargoyle's gaze and saw what had disturbed her so greatly, piles of rubble upon the street and on either sidewalk. No there were some pieces of people still standing she saw that had not been completely destroyed, a set of legs, a woman without any arms. They must have surely died when the spell that made them stone was broken, Kendra thought. She heard two thumps behind her and turned back around; the silhouettes had been Goliath and Brooklyn, the thumps the sound of them landing upon the street.
The two gargoyles stared appalled at what they saw. "It's like the massacre at Castle Wyvern," said Brooklyn quietly.
"Has Demona learned nothing," Goliath said his voice full of anger and sorrow, "every life is precious," he said, repeating the words of the three Weird Sisters while staring down at a pile of rubble that had once been a human. His attention drawn by something in a toy store doorway he walked over and crouched down. Kendra followed; he was looking at three statues that she immediately recognized as the three Weird Sisters still in the form of children. Oddly, they held dolls in their arms.
"Demona, over here," she said getting the gargoyles attention and pointing out what Goliath was staring at.
"One of these could be Elisa," said Brooklyn taking a handful of rubble.
"Never," growled Goliath, turning to look at him. The huge lavender gargoyle rose, anger clear upon his face, "We will put an end to Demona's evil, once and for all," he vowed.
"Yes she must be stopped," Kendra turned to look at the three statues whose eyes were open now showing a strange blue light, "but remember your own words Goliath. Every life is precious; take care not to become what you fight against. Vengeance begets nothing but a vicious cycle of further vengeance."
Kendra turned away from the talking statues to stare at the piles of rubble on the street; there was something important here some connection that her mind wanted to make. She heard the two gargoyles continue down the street, but she ignored them, kneeling down and picking up a piece of rubble and turning it over. It was a nose and mouth, she ran an inquisitive finger over it and then it came to her, the connection she had wanted to make. "It's so easy isn't it," she said meditatively, "no blood, no gore, no pleas, no begging, no tears. The last man I chased down that night in Central Park he fell and tried to scramble away on all fours. He cried out 'no, no, please don't hurt me,' but his pleas didn't mean anything to me, I killed him anyway.
"Kendra," the gargoyles voice sounded torn, and Kendra felt the weight of her hand upon her shoulder.
She continued, her voice remorseless, "When I changed back I was covered in the blood of the four men who had attacked me. I went over to the bushes and threw up until there was nothing left inside me. It was bloody, it smelled, and there was no way I would have reached into what was left of one of them to pick a piece of them up." She rose, turned toward Demona and the great stag with the piece of stone face in her outstretched hand. She looked into Demona's green eyes and held out the piece of stone, her face showing her reluctance the gargoyle eventually accepted it. "If that were a piece of flesh, actual lips and nose ripped bleeding from someone's face would you have taken it from me?" she asked calmly.
The gargoyles green eyes widened in shock, the piece of stone fell from her taloned hand and shattered upon the street.
Kendra nodded, "that's what I thought," she said evenly.
Demona stared at Kendra still shocked by the black-haired woman's question; it took a few moments for her to realize that the blue eyes didn't hold condemnation but compassion and understanding. She stared down at the small pieces of rubble that had been the fragment of face Kendra had handed to her, and then she looked up and down the street at the piles of rubble.
"If they had been flesh, if they had been able to plead for their lives would you have killed them?" Kendra asked her, "You must have flown over these streets nightly, why this night and not another?"
The flame haired gargoyle took in a shaky breath as she looked down the street at what she had done that night, "I don't know," she said quietly, "perhaps not. I was thinking of the massacre at Wyvern, I wanted to do to the humans what the Vikings had done to us."
Kendra looked up and down the street; she turned and began walking toward the rest of the piles of rubble. Behind her she could hear the sounds of Demona's talons on the pavement and the Ancient One's hooves as they followed her. It didn't take long to get to the end of the piles of rubble, there was only about a block of them. Confused Kendra looked down the side street at the untouched statues and then she turned around and looked back at the single block of destruction. She looked over at the gargoyle, a slight frown upon her face, "Why did you stop?"
Of anything she could have asked that was not a question Demona was expecting.
"I mean," Kendra looked back down the street, "You must have been dreaming of something like this for quite awhile. Yet when you had the chance you," she started counting the piles along the street, "you only killed sixteen or so people."
Slowly the gargoyle turned up the street in the direction she had been smashing the humans that night and looked at the frozen forms of the two humans that had jarred her out of her thoughts of vengeance.
Kendra followed the gargoyle's gaze and her eyes fell upon the statues of a mother and teenage daughter, the mother was well dressed in a tailored suit, her long hair caught back in a braid, the daughter had been caught smiling up at her mother, her face innocent and carefree. Looking at the daughter, her long hair caught back in a simple ponytail, Kendra guessed immediately what must have happened, "She reminded you of Angela," she stated with certainty.
Demona nodded, pensively staring at the two stone humans, "I decided to go and make sure Xanatos didn't shut off my transmission instead of smashing any more of the humans."
Kendra glanced at the stone woman and her daughter one last time before turning to the great stag, "Is that the last of the Weird Sister's appearances?" she asked him.
"No," there is one other one, he responded. Their location shifted to the inside of a building, police in the blue uniforms were moving all around them. "Someone tell me please what happened?" the voice drew Kendra's attention she looked over to see a man surrounded by three female police officers. No, the Weird Sisters she realized looking at them closer.
"Don't worry sir, we're here to help," Phoebe said.
Kendra shook her head, "What are they doing here?" she asked.
"This is the 23rd Precinct building, Maza's precinct," Demona realized looking around the room.
"They were keeping tabs on her?" Kendra questioned, sounding puzzled.
There was chaos around them; several people were demanding that the police tell them what had happened during the night. When Kendra turned around to look at the three Fey, they had disappeared. "Was this the last time?" she raised her voice to be heard over the din of noise inside the station.
The Irish Elk dipped his head, "It is," his deep voice cut easily through the noise.
"Then can we go back to the first sighting?" Kendra asked. She breathed a sigh of relief at the quiet when they reappeared in the room with the four terrorists and the three Fey posing as children.
"What are you thinking?" Demona asked, intrigued, stepping up next to the black-haired woman as she stared at the three motionless Fey.
"I'm wondering how they knew to be here. How they knew they would need to make sure Goliath stopped Macbeth from killing you. How they knew you would do something that Goliath would get so angry about that he would be tempted to not stop Macbeth," Kendra responded.
Demona's eyes widened slightly as she met Kendra's gaze, her gaze sharpened and she turned to look at the three Fey with narrowed eyes. "Your right that does imply that they had some knowledge of what I was going to do and that Macbeth was going to play the Hunter this night. They didn't want their toys to kill each other before they had the chance to use them on Avalon," she finished bitterly.
Kendra turned to the Ancient One, "Did they leave Avalon at any other time just prior to this? Or did they have a means like the Archmage used in the pool to watch events here?"
He dipped his great antlered head, "They had the same means, and they did spend much of their time watching the actions of Demona and Macbeth. Though they were not on Avalon at this time as Oberon's decree that all Fey were banished from Avalon until he decided otherwise prevented them from setting foot on that isle. It was only under the guise of assisting the Archmage that they were able to bend that decree for a short time."
The black-haired woman nodded thoughtfully, adding this piece of information to the ones she already had about the Fey. "Do you know if they had anything to do with Macbeth or Demona a few months or so before they showed up here?"
"You are wondering if they had anything to do with manipulating these events?" the Irish Elk spirit asked shrewdly.
"It did occur to me," Kendra admitted. She turned toward Demona, "When did you find out about the spell that you used this night?"
"A few months earlier," the gargoyle answered thoughtfully, "I found out about a spellbook being sold at an estate auction in England and arranged for a buyer to obtain it for me. I wasn't certain the book would be useful, but I've made a habit of obtaining such things over the centuries."
Kendra turned back toward the Ancient One, "did you hear or see them having anything to do with arranging for Demona to find that spellbook?"
The great stag lifted his head, his gaze unfocused as he thought, "Perhaps, they did scry for several spell books just before these events began." Before Demona or Kendra could pounce on that he continued, "However I cannot say for certain that the books they scryed had anything to do with the one my chosen found. I do not recall them discussing anything that would cause me to suspect they were involved in its finding."
Demona snarled softly, "We have more questions than answers, and I can make no sense of their actions with the knowledge we currently have. Kendra's raised an excellent question, why didn't they just take Macbeth and I, their waiting for all of this to play out makes no sense," the gargoyle said turning to the great stag.
Kendra stared at the forms of the three Fey in irritation, Demona was right they didn't have enough knowledge to answer the questions that had been raised by the Weird Sister's actions and statements. "Well there is one thing," she commented amused as she turned toward them, "I now have a headache for the Ancient One since he's unable to have his own."
The Irish Elk snorted and his ears twitched briefly, "That was not the purpose of this night."
Kendra sighed, "Nevertheless that seems to be all we have accomplished."
The scene around them faded into the familiar landscape of the spirit realm, the great stag turned toward Demona, "I do not understand why they did not enchant you and Macbeth earlier," he responded to her earlier statement. "That question had occurred to me previously as well, as had the question of how they knew what was to take place upon that night and how to guard against Macbeth taking both your lives."
"So we accomplished nothing," complained Demona, caping her wings round herself.
The great stag turned to look at her, "I would not agree my chosen. Several things have been accomplished this night. For one you now have knowledge of their actions and events that you did not before." He left unsaid that there might be other things the gargoyle had learned tonight.
Demona met his calm gaze, and thought of Kendra's jarringly blunt statements. Her lover had been right; she would have had a much harder time killing the humans if they had been flesh instead of stone, if they had bled instead of shattered, cried in anguish instead of remaining silent. As it was, her vengeance had proven to be hollower than she had anticipated. The sight of the rubble left by her mace had reminded her of the Wyvern massacre in more than one way, and by the time she had spotted the stone human that reminded her of her daughter she had been fighting to not see the stone remains of her brothers and sisters in each pile she left. That had been one of the reasons for her mocking the humans as she killed them, to remind herself that she was supposed to be enjoying what she was doing, that she had been dreaming of this revenge for centuries. Trying to distract herself from the fact that every pile of rubble only reminded her of every gargoyle she had seen killed this way throughout the centuries. "You are correct Ancient One," she finally replied.
Kendra watched Demona's changing expressions closely, wondering just what was going through the gargoyle's mind. When sadness and regret overshadowed the fine, regal face of her lover and she told the spirit he was correct, Kendra walked over to the gargoyle and gently pulled her into a hug. Demona leaned into Kendra and rested her head against the black-haired woman's.
The Ancient One observed them for a few moments before saying, "tomorrow we will continue our lessons in life and nature magic."
Demona lifted her head, "we are done for tonight?" she asked.
"We are chosen," the Ancient One confirmed.
The gargoyle nodded, relieved, images of piles of rubble haunted her; it had not been an easy night. "Good night then Ancient One." Kendra echoed the sentiment and then they were in the dark tent.
"I'm sorry that I shocked you, I should have probably found a more delicate way make my point," Kendra whispered quietly in the darkness.
"No," replied Demona just as quietly, "I doubt a more gentle way would have made as much of an impression on me. It's probably your gift kicking in and helping you say just what I need to hear," she offered, and the more she thought about it the more likely the idea seemed, "If you're blunt then its only because nothing less would get me to listen."
"Maybe," Kendra responded, her tone doubtful.
They settled down in the sleeping bag, and for once Demona preferred to be held rather than holding, scooting further down so that she could tuck her head underneath Kendra's chin. The gargoyle wasn't certain she could fall asleep; her mind was full of racing thoughts. Kendra began to softly stroke her hair, and Demona was tempted to grumble that she was not some hatchling to be calmed, but she didn't. Right now, the soft stroking on her hair felt too good and soothing to for her to want it to end. She didn't realize how little time it took after that for her breathing to even out in sleep.
Kendra pressed a kiss on the top of the gargoyle's hair and settled down to try and fall asleep herself. Seeing the evidence of what the Magus's power seeking, the Weird Sister's plotting as they sought their vengeance, her own ancestor's murderous actions, and Demona's anger had led to grieved her. Those people hadn't deserved to die anymore than Macbeth and Demona deserved to be targets of the Archmage and Weird Sisters twisted machinations. She had already forgiven the hurting gargoyle in her arms and tonight hadn't changed her feelings on that one bit. If anything, it had solidified her feeling that forgiveness was the right response, but as she had said to Demona before those who died deserved to not be forgotten for they were innocents caught up in the results of the Weird Sisters scheming.
Continued...