Gregor (Stone Society Book 2) (22 page)

“Vincent what? Do you have a last name, or should
we make up one for you? Not that you will need one where you’re going.”

Gabriel knew he had to calm himself. He was
strapped to a table and if his wings decided to come out, it would probably
hurt like hell. “Alexander. Vincent Alexander.”

Gabriel pulled the first name out of the air that
came to mind. Vincent Alexander had been a bully of the worst kind. If anyone
were to deserve this type of treatment, it was him.

“Well, Vincent, let’s see what you’re made of.”

What happened after next was a blur. A painful,
bloody blur. Gabriel had no idea how long he was abused, he just knew it was
long enough to wish he were dead.

No, not dead. I swam. I swam out of the water. But
Rebekah was gone. He took her away. Only Izzy was there, waiting for me.
Vincent
didn’t want to think about the white coats anymore. He didn’t want to sleep
either, because that’s where she was. His sunshine.

He dropped to the floor and, on unsteady arms,
began doing push-ups.

Merrick’s Mustang was packed full of clothes and
weapons. There was little else in the small apartment that belonged to him. He
was fairly certain he was safe hanging around New Atlanta, but he wasn’t making
any headway. Extending the killing field to the next state over would hopefully
flush out Flanagan’s daughter. His calling card to Andrea so far had done no
good. The police had found the body, but another press conference hadn’t been
issued.

Just like Alexander’s place, the rent on his
apartment was paid up for a year. He didn’t mind moving around, but he had
grown fond of the busy area around New Atlanta. The city was teeming with bars
which meant lots of women willing to have a one night stand. Having gone
without sex while in the army had become tedious. Now he was making up for lost
pussy. Merrick had decided to head north to Tennessee. The drive wouldn’t take
long and New Nashville was large enough for him to get lost there.

Traffic was heavier than usual with it being
Halloween. Parents were driving their kids to the fancy neighborhoods to beg for
candy. He pulled into a convenience store parking lot to fuel up. While the gas
was pumping, he went into the store for a carton of cigarettes. After he paid,
a colorful flyer on the door snagged his attention.

Fall
Festival, County Fairgrounds

As he topped off the gas tank, Merrick thought
back to his childhood and the festivals he had attended with his mom. They had
been dirt poor, but she made sure they had enough money for at least a candy
apple and a couple of rides. All of a sudden, nostalgia took over, and he
decided he would check out this year’s festival for old time’s sake. He cranked
the Mustang and headed toward the fairground.

Tessa had driven around all day and was no closer
to finding the answers to the questions stabbing at her brain. If her
subconscious asked her
why
one more time, she was going to go crazy.
Stark-raving mad. Certifiable, put her in Milledgeville, nuts. She wasn’t
one-hundred percent sure the insane asylum still existed. Even better. She
deserved to be locked up alone.

As soon as she left Gregor’s, she made the
mistake of calling her mother while she was driving around. What started off as
a bitch session on her part soon turned into a crying fest. Tessa wasn’t
normally overly emotional, but now that Gregor was in the picture and she had
tasted how good life would be living as his mate, her hormones had kicked into
overdrive. Before they hung up, Elizabeth shocked her by telling her to follow
her heart. Elizabeth thought by telling Xavier that Gregor was her mate, he
would back off with the secrecy. She should have known better. Xavier was being
overly cautious as he always was when it came to Tessa. Her mother reminded her
she was a grown woman and should make her own choices, especially where affairs
of the heart were concerned. Her father would just have to deal with her
decision. Tessa thought back to the tarot reader.
Follow your heart.

If only it were that easy. All her life, Jonas
had drilled into her the importance of secrecy. When she stopped and thought
about it, was he right in having her hide her existence? From Flanagan, yes.
But to keep herself away from her mate when Jonas had forsaken his whole Clan
to be with Caroline? Why was he any better than she?

Tessa pulled into the gas station to refuel. She
walked into the store to see a smiling Peggy. She laid two twenties on the
counter and told her fill-up on four. She hadn’t driven the Camaro in so long
she didn’t know if forty bucks would fill up the tank or not, but it would be
enough to get her where she needed to go. After chatting with the cashier for a
beat, she went back outside. An advertisement for the Fall Festival caught her
eye. She had never been to one of those festivals when she was little. She and
her mom had been holed up in their huge house, hiding out from Flanagan.

She leaned a hip against the back quarter panel
while the gas pumped. A family-themed Halloween function wasn’t exactly how she
wanted to spend her afternoon, but it might be better than going home alone and
moping. The pump clicked off, and she returned the nozzle to its slot. After
resetting the mileage counter, she headed her hotrod toward the festival.

The gravel parking lot was filled with SUV’s and
mini-vans. Tessa found a spot as far away from the other vehicles as possible.
She backed into a spot close to the carnival ride trailers. She beeped the
locks and set the alarm, cringing at the dust that was already settling on the
hood. While she had spent a lot of money customizing her ride, she was very
envious of the hot little number Gregor had stored in his garage. That had to
have set him back a bit.

Tessa paid for an armband and ambled through the
throngs of people already enjoying sugary treats on sticks and carrying stuffed
animals under their arms. The food lines were ten deep. Carnival workers called
out as she passed by, tempting her to try her luck at some silly game. Little
kids were fishing for plastic ducks, older kids were throwing baseballs. The
sounds and lights could cause a lesser woman to have a headache.

A very sad child ran into Tessa’s legs. The tears
must have clouded her vision because she looked up, startled. The little girl’s
mother grabbed her hand and apologized to Tessa. “I’m so sorry. She didn’t win
the duck.” Tessa studied the booth behind the woman where the child had been
playing.

“That duck over there?” Tessa asked the mother. When
she nodded, Tessa told her to hang on. She walked up to the carnival worker and
asked, “What do I have to do to win the duck?”

The teenager looked on the wall at the toy then
told her, “Hit at least ten targets.”

Tessa laid a five down and picked up the toy
looking rifle. “Let’s do this.” The little girl had stepped up beside Tessa, her
eyes wide. Tessa grinned at her. Raising the gun to her shoulder and aiming, shot
after shot hit the target. Without counting, Tessa figured she had hit around
thirty. She put the rifle back where she got it and asked the little girl,
“What color do you want?”

“Purple, please.” The little girl was smiling
from ear to ear.

A fucking purple duck. Tessa told the worker, “The
purple duck it is.”

When the child held the stuffed toy securely in
her arms, she wrapped herself around Tessa’s legs. “Thank you, lady.”

Tessa laughed out loud and ran her hand down the
little girl’s hair. “You’re welcome, little lady.” The mother also thanked her before
she took the little girl’s hand and walked off.

“That was really nice of you,” the teenager
working the booth said to her back.

Tessa looked at him and shrugged. “It was fun.”
She watched the mother and daughter wistfully then convinced her feet to move. Gregor
had said he wanted kids. A houseful.  She figured with the few Gargoyle
offspring who had been born lately, all the males would want kids to carry on
the species. The question was, did he want to be a father? Not just a sperm
donor who relegated the parental responsibilities to the mother or a nanny, but
a real dad who doted on his kids and taught them things like how to throw a
football or how to ride a bike. All the things Tessa’s own father hadn’t had
time for.

Tessa wasn’t one to complain about her childhood.
She had experienced things no other kid would even dream of. Sure, she played dress-up
with her mother and had tea parties with dolls, but more importantly, Tessa had
sat on a stool watching her uncle in the lab. He would teach her and quiz her
about formulas and theories. Tamian had grown up the same way, learning from
Jonas. Between the two of them, they could probably make their own clone.

Seeing a short line at one of the food shacks, Tessa
decided she needed to try at least one treat that would probably cause instant
cavities. The people moved up as the orders were taken, and the man in front of
her turned right into her, spilling some powdered sugar covered waffle thing
all over her. She attempted to wipe the white powder off her shirt. The man
apologized profusely, trying to hand her a napkin. Tessa started to tell him she
was fine and his assistance wasn’t necessary until their eyes met. Some sort of
recognition registered in her brain. The tall, well-built, very handsome
stranger stopped talking. His mouth opened to say something then closed again. “Excuse
me,” he muttered as he abruptly brushed by her shoulder.

Tessa was no longer in the mood for food. What
she longed for was something cold to drink. She doubted the family function
would have a liquor bar. Whether it was female intuition or something more
spiritual, the feeling in her gut told her the man she ran into was bad news.
For her.

 Not wasting any time, Tessa headed toward the
nearest exit. She opened her senses, reaching, searching. Adults arguing,
children laughing, separate it. Dissect it all. There, faintly. “I think I’ve
found her, Sir. At the fairground. Yes, Sir, she looks just like the picture.
Okay, I’ll get her.”

Tessa didn’t wait around for tall, dark, and
dangerous to catch up with her. She hurried through the masses. As soon as she
reached the exit she took off as fast as her booted feet would carry her.
Before she left Gregor’s house earlier, she had changed out of her yoga pants
into jeans and boots. Her shifter hearing alerted her to the sound of feet gaining
on her. She pulled her keys out of her front pocket and thumbed the key fob, hitting
the remote start. She unlocked the car and practically dove into the driver’s
seat. She threw the gearshift into drive and shoved the gas pedal to the
floorboard. The forward momentum closed the door just as she passed her
pursuer.

Fortunately, he was still running behind her.
Unfortunately, his vehicle happened to be within a few feet of him. Tessa
dodged cars and festival goers as best she could without slinging too much
gravel. The cloud of dust behind her blocked her view of the other vehicle.
Dammit! Why couldn’t she be closer to home? Closer to Gregor. When the dust
settled, a black Mustang was visible in her review mirror. Unless the driver
had modified his car, there was no way he would catch her. She took the car out
of automatic and slid the shifter over to manual. The black car was keeping up
with her but just barely. “Shit. SHIT! You’re the son of a bitch who’s been
chasing me,” she said to the image in her mirror.

Several miles down the road, an odd sound
infiltrated Tessa’s senses. She shifted her sight between the curvy road in
front of her and the car in her mirror. She rolled down her window and the
unmistakable sound of a helicopter floated through the air. “Fuck me.” She
could probably outrun the Mustang, but there was no way she could get away from
a helicopter. She needed a bird of her own. She pressed a button on her
steering wheel. When it beeped, she said, “Call Gregor.”

It wasn’t Gregor’s night to patrol, but there was
no way he could return home with Tessa’s scent embedded in every room, every
piece of furniture. He would have to burn the bear rug as well as his bedding.
Fuck, he’d probably have to rip out the carpet and chop up the kitchen table,
too. He and Tessa had made good use of every room in the house with the
exception of the spare bedrooms. They would probably have gotten to those, too,
but eventually she had worn down and fallen asleep.

Her red hair spilling over his chest was a vision
that would forever be burned into his mind. Her sandalwood scent had permeated
his nostrils. The way she moved her body, the smiles she gave him, the groans
she released when they fucked, gods those things had taken purchase in his
soul. Gregor had never made love to any woman in his five hundred years. Until
last night. Until Tessa. He didn’t even know he had it in him to be slow and
gentle. Only once had his mate asked for slow. The other times his heart just
told him he needed it.
They
needed it. Fuck his heart. It had lied. He
opened his senses. The sun would be going down soon, and he would take to the
air, find some Unholy bastards to shred.