Fate Of The Minotaur (Her Dragon's Bane 5) (2 page)

Still, he stood and looked at her. Not taking his eyes off her. She guessed he was regretting helping her. I mean, how do you explain this to the sheriff?
Yes. Two gargoyles, that’s what attacked me
. No wonder he still held onto one as proof that this whole episode had really happened. Even Sybil had to admit that out of all the things that she had seen in Spellholm, this was the most bizarre.

It was then that the laughter bubbled up inside her. It erupted out of her mouth and grew louder until the whole forest filled with it. It took the rest of her energy from her; she slumped forward, rolling onto the floor while still the laughter rang around her. She was finally succumbing to the madness. For that was what she thought she was, a madwoman who could see the future.

As she closed her eyes, she saw him finally come to life. In that split moment she saw him for real. She looked at him and saw the essence of the creature who had saved her. And it comforted her, because it meant he was different too. He would understand her. And then the world went black.

With the gargoyle still in one hand, he knelt down next to her and touched her pale face. She was beautiful in a way he could not explain. To him, she was the most perfect creature he had ever seen and he wished, not for the last time, that the face he wore was really his and that he could be worthy of such a woman. But he was not. The glamour changed his outward appearance, but inside he was still the hideous creature he had always been.

At least he could use his strength to help her. Putting his arm under her, he lifted her up over his shoulder and carried her back to the house belonging to Charlotte. It was where he was staying since he had agreed to come to Spellholm. He liked it there: it was quiet, not many callers, and Charlotte and Zoah spent many hours away from home helping Serena with her baby and generally keeping busy. For Zoah, that meant hours spent flying above the forest of Spellholm. Fin still had not got over the freedom he had here. No other place in the world was safe for one who had two selves to roam in their animal form. The dragons were a regular sight. They had no fear from outsiders because the spell cast over Spellholm made it near-impossible to them to stay. When they said
outsiders
, they meant those with no magic in them. Thankfully, he was immune to the spell; he must have protection through his witch mother’s blood.

He shifted her weight on his shoulder, liking the warmth of her body next to his. This was the most contact he had ever had with a woman; his bull head was enough to frighten everyone away. And no one would ever think twice about mating with him. So his contact with women had been non-existent, apart from the ones he had eaten in his youth.

Why did he have to think about that? It was no good dwelling on the past. But it was the very thing that made him so unworthy of a woman like this.

He turned his head to look at the other creature he carried. This one was the opposite of the woman. Ugly, cold and cruel. It had been sent to hurt her. And Fin was determined to protect her until he found out why. Beauty and fragility were things to be nurtured and loved, not destroyed.

Ducking under the trees, he took a shortcut to the house. As usual, there was no one home. He knew he couldn’t deal with this alone; her arm needed bandaging, possibly treating with some concoction to stop it becoming infected. The best place was the Dragon Stronghold. So that’s where he headed, with some trepidation. He was not overly welcome there. They didn’t like him. For no other reason, as far as he could garner, than because he was not one of them.

Anyone who was not a dragon was deemed to be of lesser blood. To put it bluntly, they were snobs.

Still, when her blood reached his nostrils, the iron tang told him she needed attention, and he needed answers.

Her arm throbbed. As she tried to regain consciousness, she was aware of many voices around her. Discussing her. She hated when people did that. It always meant trouble. So, for now, she kept her eyes closed and listened.

“What is that thing?” a woman’s voice asked.

“A gargoyle,” came the blunt answer.

“I can see that’s what it looks like, but gargoyles can’t fly.”

“And dragons don’t exist.”

“Point taken.”

“Good,” came a more superior voice. “Now we have the
obvious
, question out of the way. We ought to be asking what it was doing hunting this woman. Which leads to the next question, who is this woman?”

“We can ask her when she wakes.”

“She is awake,” a new female voice said.

Silence. Sybil lay there for a moment longer and then opened her eyes to the room full of strangers before her. Never one to like crowds, the many faces staring at her, made her very uncomfortable. Then her eyes fixed on the creature that had attacked her; it, too, was conscious and was hissing at them through the bars of the cage it had been placed in. She shrunk back from it.

“It can’t hurt you now,” said the man who had rescued her.

“I don’t know what it is. Or why it came after me.” She hated the way it seemed to reach out for her, still hissing like an angry cat.

“That is what we have gathered to find out.” The superior voice spoke. “Tara?”

“What?” asked one of the women. Sybil looked at her more closely, although she hated taking her eyes off the gargoyle. This person called Tara looked familiar; they had run into each other in the local store a week or two ago.

“Come on, we all know you knew Fin would find her.”

“What? You’re blaming me for this?” she asked, sounding offended. One of the other women glared at her. Sybil saw it all, because when you aren’t noticed by anyone, you tend to notice so much more yourself. And Sybil saw everything.

“Tara, stop playing games now and tell us what you know,” the other woman said.

“Listen, I haven’t seen it all, Charlotte. But yes, I knew Fin had to come here. He had work to do.”

“All that time I spent persuading you. And you had already made up your mind?” Charlotte said testily.

“I couldn’t make it too easy, or else you would have got suspicious.”

“Enough!” shouted the superior man.

“Dòmhnall.” Tara turned to him, trying to appease him. “This is important.”

“Then tell us where the gargoyles came from and why they are hunting this woman.”

Sybil looked at Tara, firstly because she wanted to know the answers, but also because it seemed this woman was a seer too. Who also held secrets. It made Sybil feel more normal than she ever had in her entire life. She was not the only one who could see the future; she was not the only freak.

“The gargoyles are from the vampires in Hollowton.”

Sybil felt the room spin.
Vampires
. The vampires were after her. Her blood ran cold and seemed to still in her body. She didn’t know anything about vampires, other than what she knew from movies, and that was made up. But if they were even half as bad as the movie vampires were, she was in trouble.

“Why?” Sybil asked in a voice so quiet it might almost have been a whisper of the wind.

All eyes on her again; she wanted to hide away from their eyes, from their enquiring looks. She had spent so long being a nobody. This was not the way she wanted to become a somebody.

“Tara?” Dòmhnall asked once more.

“They want something you have,” Tara answered.

“Which is?” Dòmhnall pressed, his voice filling with agitation.

Sighing, Tara revealed the secret Sybil had kept to herself all these years. “She sees things.”

“So she is a seer. Like you.”

“No. Not like me,” Tara said shortly.

“Explain.”

“I don’t know. I can’t see what she sees. But a certain vampire wants her because he thinks she can tell him something he really needs the answer to.”

“You mean, like attacking us?”

Tara stood still for a moment and her eyes became misty. She obviously had some control of her gift, whereas Sybil’s gift controlled her. For Sybil, there was nothing quite as disorienting as standing in a queue with your groceries and then finding you had zoned out for five minutes. There were many reasons why she hid away from the world.

“No, this isn’t to do with that. The vampire who wants Sybil wants something else.”

“What?” asked the man who had rescued her.

“I don’t know, Fin. It’s not clear. The vampires are so much harder to read. I’ve been trying, but I think it’s because they aren’t
actually
alive.”

Sybil shuddered at that thought. Did they suck blood: if the gargoyles had caught her and taken her to this vampire, would he have turned her? Her face paled at the thought. She wanted to get out of here, return to her little cottage, and pretend none of this was happening. When she searched the room for her nearest escape route, her eyes met the man who had rescued her, but he quickly turned away. Why was he afraid of her?

“So, what exactly do you see?” Dòmhnall asked, his strong gaze boring into her.

Sybil shrank away. She wasn’t used to being talked to, no, commanded, like this. “Nothing.”

“Don’t lie, child,” he said, coming closer. Her rescuer moved too, he would protect her if he needed to, she could tell by his face. But she didn’t want them fighting over her.

“I just see images. I try to ignore them, hoping they will stop.”

“They won’t stop,” said Tara, more gently this time. “They never stop. You have to find a way of using them to your advantage.”

“There is no advantage,” Sybil said, her eyes misting up as thoughts of past repercussions over her gift came back to her.

“Yes. There is. I can help you,” Tara said, touching her shoulder.

Sybil lowered her gaze. “You don’t know me. Why would you help me?”

“Because this is becoming the home for waifs and strays,” said Dòmhnall sarcastically.

“Behave,” Tara spat at him.

“It’s not a lie. Before you came here, there were five dragons living in peace. Now we have a witch, two mortals and a…” He looked at the man who had rescued her but did not finish his sentence. They didn’t want her to know what he really was, and she would go along with that. For his sake. She did, after all, owe him her life.

“Your life was too dull before,” Tara said, and Sybil wondered how she had the nerve. This Dòmhnall was so intimidating.

“So what are we going to do with this one?” he asked.

Sybil made to stand, wincing at the soreness of her arm, which had been bandaged up. “I can make my own way home. The gargoyles are no danger now.”

“Fin might have saved you this time, but if these things were sent for you, then someone wants you for a reason. That reason is unlikely to just disappear.”

“Zoah is right,” one of the other women said. “Look, I’m Charlotte. Why don’t you come back to our house, at least for the night?”

“No. I want to go home,” she said firmly.

“I don’t think that is such a good idea,” Charlotte said gently. She looked at the witch. “Do you know what is going to happen next?”

“Fin will look after her.”

Silence filled the room; her rescuer blushed and once again looked away. He didn’t want to look after her, he had done enough and she would not force him. “I’ll be fine.”

“No,” Fin said. “I would gladly take you home and keep watch over you.”

Tara smiled, clapped her hands together and said happily, “Right, that’s settled. Fin will take Sybil home and watch over her like a guardian angel.”

Sybil simply stared at Tara. How did she know her name? She decided it didn’t matter; she wanted to get out of here before they all decided that the best thing for her was to be their captive. She didn’t need to be kept safe if that meant her freedom of choice was taken away.

Getting to her feet, albeit a little wobbly, she made her way to what she thought was the door.

Fin immediately was at her side and guided her, without laying a finger on her, to the other side of the hall.

Despite his distance, she could still feel the heat of his body. His presence nearly overwhelmed her; she had never been close to a man like this before. It was one more thing she’d avoided. But it looked as if she would have to find a way to put up with him being so close. She soon found he planned to take his task very seriously.

She almost overwhelmed his senses. From the moment, he had seen her, with those foul beasts trying to attack her; he had known that it was his duty to protect her. As they walked out of the Stronghold, he felt more relaxed: the dragons that lived there were not friendly towards him. They had used him on occasion when they wanted to get rid of someone; his mind balked at those memories. It was how he had originally met Serena. The dragons had brought her to him because they thought he would eat her. But he had seen in Serena the same kindness he could see in Sybil. And he wanted to protect that. She was an innocent in this world, whereas he was the most disgusting, corrupt creature to have walked the Earth. Maybe by protecting her, he might in some ways appease the Gods, or the Spirits, or whoever it was that you met when you died. Or else he knew he would go to the underworld, what humans called hell.

Fin wanted to speak, to say something to break the silence between them. But the more he tried to think of something to say, the more his mind went blank, until he found himself in a blind panic. She would think him rude, or dumb. Yes, she would think he was a fool, an imbecile. So what should he say? He had no idea how to make small talk.

“Thank you for saving me,” she said, making him start. He looked at her, seeing her clear eyes, the colour of the newly sprouting leaves on the trees: so green, so vibrant.

“It was no trouble.”

“I thought you were very brave. Have you dealt with those gargoyle things before?”

He shook his head, a little awkwardly; he still hadn’t got used to the change in his centre of gravity that had come with losing a foot off the front of his head. “No. I didn’t even know what they were.”

“That makes you even braver. They could have killed you.”