Chapter 5
Kendra tried to banish the memories of her dream as she walked into the gym Wednesday night. She tried not to stare speculatively at Demona's tail. Tried not to figure out whether or not what she had dreamed about was even possible, and when she decided that it was she desperately tried to ignore the quick flash of heated arousal the realization brought.
When Demona paused during a break to examine her tail frowningly, Kendra knew she had failed. As soon as they began sparring again, Demona whipped around, her tail sweeping in low and fast and knocked Kendra off her feet. Kendra's breath left in an abrupt exhale as her back slammed into the mat, and it was a second before she could breathe in again.
She looked up meeting the gargoyles irritated glare, "You need to concentrate on your fighting or I'll keep dumping you there," the redhead snapped.
Kendra felt a heated flush spread across her face and dropped her eyes, "Sorry," she apologized.
An annoyed sigh drew her attention back to the gargoyles green eyes, "Get up," Demona ordered, "And focus on sparring." She emphasized the last word harshly.
"Yes ma'am," Kendra responded automatically to the tone then growled under her breath in annoyance. She rolled to her feet and glanced warily at Demona, the gargoyle's scowl had been replaced by a smirk. She sighed; at least the redhead seemed to be over her annoyance.
One hour later Demona exchanged good nights with Kendra and watched the black haired woman leave her office. She wasn't certain why she wasn't more annoyed at the woman. The blushing, furtive glances at her tail had made it only too obvious that Kendra's thoughts were definitely not focused on how Demona might use the appendage as a weapon. At least it had only taken the one hard fall for the human to focus her thoughts where they were supposed to be, sparring.
Friday's sparring session was much easier for Kendra as she had not dreamed of Demona after that one time. When the redheaded gargoyle tried to knock her off her feet using the same attack, Kendra was able to avoid the sweep of the tail and even scored a hit on Demona. The gargoyle even complemented her for spotting the attack and turning it to her advantage.
Monday night Kendra entered the gymnasium, but did not see Demona anywhere. Curious she walked up stairs and called out Demona's name.
The reply came from Demona's office, "In my office. Sorry I didn't cancel our session, I forgot about it."
Kendra paused, noticing the obvious pain in the gargoyles tone, and she stepped tentatively into the office. Demona was standing by the windows, looking out over the city. Kendra walked up beside her and asked softly, "What's wrong?"
Demona snapped, "I didn't ask you to come in here, just leave," despite the words, there was little actual fire in the gargoyle's tone.
Kendra looked at the gargoyles face and realized with astonishment that she had been crying. She questioned sharply, "What's happened, whose hurt you?" Unaware of how protective she suddenly sounded.
Demona glanced at her, surprised out of her misery for a moment at Kendra's tone and her protectively bristling form. She shook her head, "Nothing that you can fight, just some problems in my personal life."
Kendra was surprised by the admission, she offered, "If you want to talk about it, nothing you say will go out of this office. I'm a good listener."
Demona grimaced at the thought; Kendra would not sympathize with her if the human knew the reason for her current difficulty, "Thank you, but no."
Kendra nodded, "I guess I'll be going then, give me a phone call when you're ready to spar again or if you just want to talk." She was moving to leave the office when a helicopter swept around the building. The windows shattered in a spray of glass and instinctively Kendra protected her face with her arms. She felt her head spinning, and barely had time to notice the device spewing out gas into the office before she passed out. When she came to, she was lying in a cage. She looked around; Demona occupied the cage next to hers. They exchanged glances and Kendra asked, "Quarrymen?"
Demona nodded, "Your cousin was none to happy to see you in my company."
Kendra shrugged, "He doesn't dictate the company I keep," she looked at the very small room that held the cages. The walls were made of metal and their edges were riveted to the room's structure. She could feel the floor vibrating and hear a loud droning sound. She frowned, she didn't like the conclusion she was drawing about what they might be inside, "Any idea where we are?"
Demona replied, "In the hold of a plane flying north. He mentioned it as he was frothing about cutting me to pieces and burying them in permafrost to make sure I die this time."
Kendra raised an incredulous eyebrow, "Good grief, isn't that a bit of overkill?"
Demona chuckled at the reply, "Just last week I would have been raging about this, but now I find I really don't care. I was seriously thinking of finding Macbeth and ending this once and for all anyway. I am sorry that you got caught up in this though."
"Macbeth," Kendra repeated uncertainly, "The Macbeth?"
The redheaded gargoyle snorted, "Yes the Macbeth," she answered sardonically. "The sorcery that gives me immortality also gives him immortality, we are bound together and only if we kill each other can we actually die."
Kendra took a few moments to absorb this surprising information, fitting it in with the history she already knew. "Well," she finally responded, "The play isn't over till the fat lady sings; still a lot of time to see what happens."
Demona shook her head at this baseless optimism, leaned back against the bars of her cell and closed her eyes. Kendra took the opportunity to start stretching the kinks out of her muscles. She braced herself against one side of the cage and tried shoving at the bars, try as she might she was unable to bend them. That failing she took a good look at the lock, it didn't take her long to give it up as a lost cause. She didn't know enough about electronics to figure out how to break it.
Finally bored she started yelling for someone to come down and talk to her, as Demona wasn't in a conversational mood. The immortal gargoyle stared at her as if she was crazed; Kendra paused and asked, "You're not in a conversational mood right?" Demona shook her head so Kendra resumed, "I'm bloody bored and she won't talk, so someone come down here and either feed or amuse me!"
Demona murmured, "Points for novelty, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone wanting to be amused when they were a prisoner."
Finally, the hatch to the cargo hold opened and Jon stepped thru it. Kendra cordially greeted him, "Hello Jon, how are you doing. Don't suppose you have some food or anything? I'm starving."
Jon glared at her angrily, "What were you doing with the demon?"
Kendra replied, "At the time of your attack? Leaving."
Jon cocked his head to the side at the answer, "Why were you there?"
Kendra grinned at him, "Martial arts workout, she's quite good as a sparring partner you know," she confided blithely.
Jon shook his head, "I would think you were lying, but I suspect you aren't. Sparring with the Demon sounds just crazy enough for you think it was a challenge. Tell me that you were there to spy on the monster and I'll believe you."
Kendra shook her head, "I can't say that Jon, I was there to find out more about her yes, but mostly because she's a great sparring partner."
Jon asked, "Were you planning on telling me what you found out?"
Kendra shook her head, "Nope."
Jon slumped, "Why did you even ask for information from me then."
Kendra looked at him, "Because I knew you had information about her that I didn't, and I wanted to know what it was."
Jon looked at Kendra curiously, "Why?"
Kendra stared at him, she didn't like tipping her hand like this but she didn't see much of a choice at this point. She replied, "Because she's as intelligent as you or I, yet some of her actions make no rational sense."
Demona glared at Kendra after that comment, but Jon and Kendra ignored her. Jon asked, "What do you mean? She's a demon of course she doesn't make sense."
Kendra shrugged, "That computer file she made, why even bother? It's not as if she couldn't remember the details, they weren't that complicated. I certainly would not have left anything like that lying around explaining in exact detail what I planned to do. And leaving it out where Robyn could easily find it…hell you and I know she called Robyn while she was down there stealing it , revealing that she knew full well where Robyn was, and then she practically told her she only had days to live."
Kendra paused for emphasis, "How much more obvious can you get, she did everything short of drawing a map and making step by step directions to make sure you guys knew where you were supposed to be and when you were supposed to be there. As I said her actions make no rational sense, why go through all that effort, all those centuries of collecting mystical artifacts, only to sabotage yourself in the end?" she asked. Kendra paused thoughtfully, "Unless perhaps you are insane and have an irrational reason," she turned and asked the redheaded gargoyle, "Are you insane?"
Demona studied Kendra intently before replying, "Perhaps, after listening to you I'm starting to wonder, I never really thought about why I made that file."
"No irrational rational reasons?" Kendra asked in a hopeful tone.
The redheaded gargoyle blinked once, "No." Demona hadn't recognized what Kendra was doing at first; she had almost been convinced the gas was still affecting her. Now she could see that Kendra was treating Jon Canmore in the same way she had treated Detective Maza when Demona first overheard them. Kendra's tone was consistently light and blithely unconcerned as if what were being discussed really didn't matter at all to her at all. She was toying with her cousin, and Demona could tell he thought Kendra was just being stupidly flippant. Demona couldn't really see what advantage it gave them except perhaps that Kendra was getting information from Jon that she wouldn't have if she had been more confrontational. The game Kendra was playing with him certainly didn't seem to be getting them any closer to freedom.
"Ah well," Kendra responded as if disappointed, then her expression brightened, "By the way I loved the statistical data at the end, perfect touch," she commented confidingly to the gargoyle.
Demona nodded, amused by the woman's performance despite the seriousness of the situation, "Thank you."
Jon was staring at the two of them with a bewildered expression, he shook his head, "Let me guess you have some big psychological reason why she did that."
Kendra shrugged, "I have no clue why she did that, it's one of the things I was curious about."
Jon stared at her for a long moment, obviously confused, and then he started yelling, "I don't care what you think, she's a demon and I'm going to make sure she's finally dead! She killed my father and laughed at us as she left, and she's the reason Jason is paralyzed! She must die for all the Canmore's she's killed."
Kendra stared at him, when he was finished she asked, "So does that mean I'm not getting any food?"
Jon paused, open mouthed at the non sequitur, "Food? Ah sure I think I have some food bars."
Kendra nodded, "I would appreciate that if you wouldn't mind." Jon stared hard at Kendra's cheerful face and then went back out.
Demona stared at Kendra, "Are you sure you're not related to Broadway?"
Kendra replied, "Who?" she sounded honestly puzzled.
Demona shook her head, "Never mind, and you were asking if I was insane."
Jon stepped through the hatch, tossed Kendra several food bars and some water. He turned without speaking and left, sealing the hatch behind him.
Kendra asked, holding up one of the bars, "You want one?"
Demona straightened, nodding. Kendra checked the covering for tampering both visually and by smell then tossed the gargoyle two of the bars while she began eating the others. "Let me know if you need some water we can toss the container back and forth," she mumbled through a mouthful. They ate the food bars and passed the water back and forth as needed. Kendra noted that Demona seemed to have come out of her funk somewhat even though she was still very quiet.
The hatch opened once again and Jon stepped inside. "I won't be going with you to your final destination; we will be landing soon and transferring you to another plane. Kendra you still have a chance to avoid sharing the Demon's fate, promise me that you will stay quiet about this and I will spare you," he said.
Kendra shook her head sadly, "Sorry Jon, I can't make that promise."
Jon pulled a gun and pointed it at her, "Kendra don't force me to kill you along with the Demon just say that you won't fight me and I'll make sure you get back alive."
Demona shouted, "You fool, take what he's offering and go back to New York! You barely know me. I am a demon, I destroy everything I touch. Please, don't add yourself to the list."
Kendra glanced at her once before turning back to her cousin, "Just put me on the same plane with Demona, Jon." With that she sat down and took a swig of water and proceeded to ignore her cousin who stood there pistol extended. Finally, he cursed, lowered his weapon and stomped out.
Demona hissed angrily, "Why are you doing this?"
Kendra replied evenly, "Because I don't know why you made that recording yet."
Demona stared at her, certain now that between the two of them, it wasn't she that was the insane one. "This is all because you don't understand why I did something!"
Kendra nodded, "It's been driving me crazy with curiosity, I can't stand not understanding and you're the only one who can give me an answer."
"Well it doesn't have to drive you any further your already there," Demona snapped. "Your curiosity is going to get you killed you silly fool."
Kendra smirked at her, "My choice."
Demona snarled at Kendra completely frustrated with her. She slumped down into the corner of the cage and was silent.
Kendra commented softly, "Besides I would have never forgiven myself if I had agreed to what he said and left you with them. I… care about what happens to you."
Demona turned and stared at her for a moment then shook her head and sighed, but said nothing in response. Kendra's desire not to leave her would not change anything except getting the human killed; something the woman seemed stubbornly unwilling to accept.
Finally, the plane landed and the two cages were unloaded. The smaller plane they were being loaded into did not have enough room for two cages so the Quarrymen tranquilized their two captives and put in the same cage. The two were still sedated when a sudden storm forced the plane down an about ninety minutes after takeoff and caused it to crash. Everyone on the plane died instantly.
Demona revived first, groaning and frozen, she looked dazedly at the interior of the wrecked plane. It took her a minute to regain her senses enough to realize that she was lying on top of Kendra; she pulled herself up off the woman and inspected the cage that held them. It had been damaged in the crash; on one side the hinges had been snapped. It only took her a few tries to widen the opening enough to pull herself out and then pull Kendra out as well.
Examining the woman she realized that Kendra was dead, there was no pulse and her body was cool to the touch. Cursing Demona leaned over and listened for a heartbeat, there was none. She held Kendra's body for a moment trying to ignore the sharp pangs of regret she felt over the woman's death. After a minute she slowly released Kendra's body and forced herself to start exploring the plane.
The three Quarrymen in the cockpit were crushed in the wreckage, the front of the plane having borne the brunt of the damage, only the rear of the plane where their cage had been was relatively undamaged. It was bitterly cold and the wind howled around the crashed plane swirling up ice and snow, it would be near impossible for her to fly in this she reluctantly decided, she would have to wait for the storm to end.
She returned to the rear of the plane, her gaze drawn unwillingly drawn to the body there. Foolish human, why hadn't Kendra listened to her when she told the woman to leave, she hadn't wanted this human to die. Movement drew her attention, and she stared unbelievingly. Kendra's hand twitched again, confused Demona knelt by the woman and felt for a pulse. She was certain there hadn't been one earlier, but now there was a pulse. It was weak, but it was definitely there.
Demona frantically began looking for blankets or anything she could use to warm the woman. Ripping through the storage compartments on either side of the hold she finally found a box of survival gear that had several of the silver survival blankets in it. She opened one and laid it on the floor then placed one against the wall. She sat down on the blanket and pulled Kendra into her arms then wrapped the other blankets around the both of them warming Kendra's body with her own. Demona was confused by the evidence that Kendra had the same ability to heal that she did, and elated to find out that Kendra was not actually dead. Slowly the woman warmed up, Demona finally saw her eyelashes flutter and her chest rise as she drew in a deeper breath.
Kendra started coughing and coughed up some blood then leaned back against Demona commenting hoarsely, "Ok dying sucks a lot, I can avoid doing that again." She shivered, and huddled gratefully against the warm body of the gargoyle and asked, "Did you die too?"
Demona replied, "Yes, however I recovered quicker than you did. I think you must have cushioned me so I wasn't as damaged as you." The immortal gargoyle paused, and then added, "I guess this was one of the things you weren't mentioning to me."
Kendra shrugged, "More like it was one of the things I suspected, I've never died before."
Demona said, "I gathered as much from your comment, and your right it does 'suck', each and every time."
Kendra said, "Thanks for warming me up, I don't suppose you found any food with the survival blankets?"
Demona chuckled, relieved, "Yes I found some more food bars." She asked, "Did you eat as much before or is it just something about planes that makes you hungry?"
"I always ate before I came over to spar," Kendra admitted. She added, "I have a high metabolism, it has something to do with my strength and ability to heal. After I eat we can figure out where we are and work on getting out of here." Kendra wrapped one of the blankets around her and went to raid the emergency rations.
While she was eating, she started searching the back of the plane for anything they could use, making a pile of the items she found in the middle of the floor. After a few moments of watching what she was doing, Demona joined her in the search. The hold wasn't very big, so it didn't take the two of them very long to search every corner, when they finished the pile of useful items was distressingly small.
Kendra had found her gym bag and her wallet during the search, as well as of all things Dominique's purse. "They wanted it to look like a theft?" she offered hesitantly as she handed the purse over to Demona.
The gargoyle opened the purse, drew out her wallet and opened it, she growled, "The vermin stole the cash I was carrying. At least they didn't take my IDs or credit cards." She dropped the purse next to the pile, "I'll see what I can find up front," Demona snarled before turning and leaving the hold.
Kendra stared after her for a moment, then grabbing a backpack; she started packing the items they wouldn't need immediately. They had found one complete set of winter survival gear that Kendra thought would fit Dominique. She set them to the side along with the cargo webbing and restraining straps she had found. While the Demona was searching the front of the plane she began working on putting the webbing and straps together to make a harness.
Demona returned holding what looked like folded maps, cash, and three handguns. The gargoyle placed the weapons by the backpack, put the cash in her wallet with a satisfied look, and then unfolded the maps and laid them side by side on the floor. "I found the flight map and a topographical map; between the two hopefully we can figure out where we are. I also found these on the Quarrymen," she indicated the handguns. "They should prove useful; unfortunately I didn't find any extra ammunition for them."
Kendra nodded, the weapons would help, but right now she was more interested in figuring out exactly where they were, and where they needed to go. "Quebec," She muttered in surprise, following the flight path out of New York and all the way to the very tip of the Canadian providence almost to the ocean. She blinked, "I guess he wasn't kidding about the permafrost." She pointed at a small marked town on the map, "This must be where we changed planes."
"Alma," Demona read, the gargoyle shook her head, "I don't know anything about that town. I've been to Canada several times for business, but never in this area."
Kendra glanced at the watch on her wrist, "Its three fifteen am, this is the same night, right? You don't think we lost a day?" Kendra asked staring at the map.
Demona answered, "No, we weren't out for that long." The gargoyle stared at the flight map as well, understanding now why Kendra was asking. "It would take a prop airplane three hours to fly from New York to Alma, and it probably took them an hour or so to get us to an airport from my office. We didn't spar so it would have been around six thirty when we were taken, so we arrived in Alma around ten or eleven perhaps."
"And this plane is smaller than that one was, so it's probably slower as well," Kendra said thoughtfully. "How long do you think we were…dead."
The redhead frowned, "I don't know, I don't know how injured we were. At least an hour I would think, more likely two hours."
Kendra reached into a pocket of the backpack and pulled out a pencil she had found, "So if the plane went down an hour or two after we left," she made two marks on the flight path, "Between here and here?" she questioned.
Demona reluctantly nodded. She watched as Kendra folded the flight map and laid it on top of the topographical map and then made matching marks upon it. Between those two marks was where they thought they were located. It depended however on whether or not the storm that had downed the plane had also pushed them off the marked flight path. "It will take us a week or more to walk to the nearest town," her talon trailed down the map to the nearest marked city. "We will have to travel at night when I can withstand the cold in my true form, and find shelter during the day to keep warm. We were lucky they had that survival gear for you to wear."
Kendra shook her head, "It will be better if we wait a few hours and give the storm time to pass. We can travel during the day, Dominique can wear the winter clothes, hopefully with those and some blankets you will be ok out in the wind." Kendra was working on a complicated looking set of straps and webbing as she spoke.
Demona stared at Kendra, disbelievingly, "And what will you wear? Your leather outfit is quite nice, but not suited to this environment."
Kendra chuckled, "I still have one surprise left and I'm not revealing it till after you switch into your day form." Kendra put down the makeshift harness she had been working on and crawled back into the nest of blankets the gargoyle had made while trying to warm her. She closed her eyes wanting to get some rest before starting the long cold trek. She could feel the gargoyles stare and half expected the redhead to insist that she explain herself, so she was surprised when she felt the blankets around her move. When Demona settled in next to her she finally opened her eyes and looked over at the gargoyle sitting next to her. She knew the redhead wasn't cold, the gargoyle had said she didn't feel the cold earlier.
"It will be easier for you to stay warm," was all Demona offered as an explanation.
Kendra scooted closer to the warm body next to her, "Thanks."
Demona shifted slowly into a more comfortable position so as not to wake the woman who slept so soundly against her. She really didn't know why she hadn't insisted that Kendra stop playing games and tell her exactly why the woman thought they could travel during the day. What was this last secret that Kendra so gleefully kept to herself, and why was she indulging the woman by allowing it? Noticing the Kendra's hair had fallen onto the woman's face she reached over and gently combed it back. In sleep Kendra's expression was softer than Demona had ever seen it; she stared for a moment taking in the dusky skin, the long sweep of eyelashes.
She is beautiful for a human, her mind whispered. After a moment the immortal gargoyle rested her head back against the side of the plane, she might as well try to get some sleep too.
Kendra jerked abruptly awake upon hearing Demona scream in pain as she changed into Dominique. As soon as the change was complete, Kendra handed her the cold weather gear and insisted she put it on before she lost too much body heat. Dominique looked at her curiously and didn't argue with her. Whatever Kendra was keeping secret that she believed would allow them both to escape this frozen wasteland during the day would doubtless be revealed very soon.
Kendra handed Dominique the harness she had made, "Ok this is a harness to hold you on my back, make sure its snug around my chest and waist so you won't slip. You should be able to hang your legs through these loops and hold on here. I still can't figure out how to get a blanket wrapped around you at the same time, but maybe that will become clear once this is on me."
Immediately after finishing these strange directions, Kendra took off her jacket and began to undress, packing her clothes in the backpack as she removed them. Dominique blinked, "What are you doing, it's below freezing," she asked astonished.
Kendra grinned, "Getting my own fur coat." With that strange comment, she cried out in her own pain as her skin darkened and her body size increased, within a minute a huge stocky black cat shook itself and looked at Dominique with sapphire blue eyes.
Dominique whispered, "Kendra?" questioningly, her mind unable for a second or two to accept what she had just seen.
The cat nodded then pawed the harness that Dominique had dropped in her shock.
Dominique recovered quickly, "Well this explains a few things," she murmured as she stared at the huge black cat that was more than half as tall as she was.
No wonder I felt something the first time we met, she thought, somehow I knew this was in my office, she thought. She picked up the webbing and straps that Kendra had put together, it hadn't made sense to her when the woman had been making it, but now it did. She laid the webbing across the cats back and adjusted it so that it hung evenly on either side of her torso, and then began tightened the straps until the harness was snug. "Is this too tight?" she asked. Kendra shook her head. "Pinch or bind?" Again another shake. "Good," Demona murmured focusing now on the problem of how to keep the survival blanket around her while upon her unexpected mount.
She picked up one of the blankets and cut four slits along two of its sides and placed it over the webbing, she would slip her hands and legs thru these. Dominique picked up the backpack and swung it onto her back. Kendra crouched down making it easier for the redhead to get upon her back, once there Dominique adjusted the blanket and grasped the webbing firmly. Feeling the woman settle into place, Kendra trotted out of the plane. The two halted once they were outside, eyes squinting in the bright glare of sun on snow.
There was nothing in sight except the snow and ice covered plain they had crashed upon as far as either could see. Dominique pulled out the compass and pointed south, she shouted over the wind, "That way is south." Kendra dipped her head in acknowledgement and started trotting at a ground-eating lope. Dominique concentrated on pulling the blanket closer around her to block out the wind. She stared at the ground passing rapidly underneath Kendra's paws and began to think that they would actually make it out of this mess. Relaxing into the movement of the cat beneath her she buried her face into the thick black coat and let herself sink into a light sleep.
Continued...