Sacrifice (Gryphon Series) (20 page)

One of Alaina’s hands
fluttered to her mouth, the other clutched at Gabe’s arm. “Oh! It’s like the castles back home in Ireland! It’s perfect!”

An elderly gentleman that
resembled
Rich Uncle Pennybags
from the
Monopoly
game crossed the yard toward us with a warm smile fixed on his face.

“Welcome to the Biltmore Mansion. I hope your trip to our great state of North Carolina was a pleasant one
.” He bowed to Alaina and Gabe. “You must be the bride and groom. My name is Fredrick. I will be attending to all your needs while you’re with us. If you would be so kind as to point your bags out to me I will deliver them straight to your suites.”

Alaina raised her shoulders and beamed
in glee. Gabe chuckled at his giddy bride then ushered Fredrick to the undercarriage of the bus that held their belongings.

G
rams and Mom strolled by completely caught up in the history lesson Dr. Allyn, Gram’s boyfriend, was providing about the mansion. Gabe’s football players rough housed in the grass and playfully argued over who would have an NFL contract someday and own a house like this.

Kendall stepped off the bus behind
me. She popped one earbud out of her ear, muttered, “It doesn’t suck,” then retreated back into her own little emo world.

Let them all
marvel at it. I, however, felt the onset of a full force freak out. My gaze zeroed in on Rowan and I bee lined it straight to him. I interrupted his conversation with a bellboy by grabbing the sleeve of his shirt and yanking him around the side of the bus.

“Apologies
, sir,” Rowan nodded to the bellboy. “What she lacks in size and stature she makes up for with immeasurable rudeness and a complete lack of couth.”

I ignored the jab and
kept walking. As soon as we stepped out of view I spun on him. “This place is huge and has to be
unbelievably
expensive. You brainwashed them into renting it to you free of charge, didn’t you?”

He interlocked his fingers behind his head and stretched
up onto his toes. “Of course I didn’t,” he yawned.

“Good.”

“I convinced them to sell it to me for a dollar.” One side of his mouth pulled back in a lazy grin.

“
Rowan
!” I had never actually been stomping mad—until that very moment. “That is
not
okay! It’s stealing and … ”

He dropped his arms and let his shoulders sag under the weight of my nagging
. “Oh, please stop before you bore me to death with your incessant yammering. I’ll give it back after the wedding. But in the meantime,” he hooked his arm around my neck and steered me around the side of the bus, his spicy sweet scent enveloped me as he whispered in my ear, “look at them.”

Gabe and
Alaina attempted a waltz in the mansion’s flower garden. Alaina tried to lead my rhythmically challenged brother through dance steps he clearly wasn’t getting. He accidentally stomped on her foot causing them both to erupt in giggles.

“
Do you really want to deny them this after everything they’ve been through? All of you fight, making sacrifices on a daily basis for the greater good.” Desire darkened his turquoise eyes as he peered down at me. “But don’t you deserve the taste of something … sweet … every now and then?”

My mouth suddenly felt dry and I licked my parched lips.
Heat crept over my body like wandering fingers. I couldn’t tell if Rowan was using his ability or if my hormones were betraying me. Either way, I suddenly felt a little
too
comfortable with our proximity. I ducked out from under his arm and put some distance between us.

“
I don’t need to taste anything,” I mumbled, my cheeks burning bright. “What I need to do is to go get the super freaks off the last bus and help them get settled into their rooms. Oh, and FYI, if they weird out the common-folk be prepared to mind scrub the entire reception.”

I scurried away without
waiting for his answer. Lost in my own disturbing thoughts, and not watching where I was going, I slammed into Gabe halfway down the row of buses. “Whoa, sorry. Hey, where’d your lovely bride run off to?”

He fell in step beside me
without even questioning our destination—a credit to his sentry calling I’m sure. “She was whisked off to an appointment with a dress designer. I was adamantly told I couldn’t come. You, however, have to make an appearance at some point. Not to change the subject, but why are you all sweaty?”

“
I’m not! Shut up!” I snapped then tried to reel in the crazy. “Just trying to make sure everything goes smoothly for your magical day. Did your friend Fredrick happen to mention where the guest rooms are? We need to get the guests lacking in mortality out of sight as quickly as possible. The less time they have to mingle, the better.”

“Left wing, past the library and formal dining hall
.”

I
paused, both eyebrows raised.

“I know, right?
Keni isn’t the only thing around here with wings.”

We arrived at the third bus and
I rapped my knuckles against the door. It hissed open and Sophia stepped out, followed by a tall, supple redhead I’d never seen before.

“Would you look at
this!” Sophia gushed and flipped her hair to get it out from under the strap of her bag. “If I was ever to curse myself to a lifetime of endless monogamy I would want the party celebrating the end of my single life to take place somewhere like this.”

“Uh
… thanks?” Gabe responded and dug her other three bags out from under the bus.

“
If you want to head to the left wing we’ll be there shortly to help you find your rooms.” I flicked my hand in the direction of the house, but was suddenly distracted by the death stare the redhead shot me.

“No worries.
” Sophia shrugged, seemingly oblivious to the unpleasantness of her travel companion. “We’ll happily get lost exploring this place.”

S
ophia linked arms with the angry ginger and led her toward the estate. The girl kept her hateful gaze locked on me as Sophia pulled her away. Out of spite, I refused to break the stare until she did. A split second before she finally looked away a reddish-orange light filled her eyes.

Before I could formulate any guesses on what kind of supernatural being the cranky
redhead might be, the Grand Councilwoman descended the bus stairs. A magical illusion of some sort turned her normal feathered dress to polyester and gave her actual hair pulled back in a severe bun. I bit back a chuckle at the greenish hue that darkened her normally pale complexion.

She pointed at the driver
in accusation. “That is a traumatizing form of travel! All those starts and stops! It’s like daring your passengers not to become ill on the spot! I much prefer flying.” Smoothing down the creases of her dress, she tried to regain a bit of her composure.

I gave her my best toothy grin
. “So glad you could make it, Grand Councilwoman. The wedding just wouldn’t have been the same without you.”

“Well, obviously,” she s
coffed. Sarcasm zoomed right past her pinched face and over her head. She turned to Gabe with a bird-like twitch. “The Council is deeply sorry for the events that led to the relocation of your wedding. As our gift to you we will cloak the event and make it impossible for any demons to pass. We will make an exception for our host, Rowan, but are not pleased to do so. You are welcome.”

Gabe held
up his hands, palms out. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! First, you strip Alaina of her powers just for
being
with me, now you come here to make sure our wedding doesn’t have demonic crashers?”

The Grand Coun
cilwoman stifled a dry heave behind her fist and took a few deep breaths before she replied, “It seems certain members of the Council have deemed your impending nuptials as beneficial to our cause. As a traditionalist, I am not one of them.”

“
Sorry we didn’t get your vote. I’m sure to lose sleep over that.” Gabe’s jaw tensed with aggravation. “So does this mean you’re going to offer Alaina her job back?”

The Coun
cilwoman straightened her spine to allow herself a better angle to peer down her nose at him. “She was sentenced to a punishment that is to be carried out in its entirety. Council rulings are only overturned under dire circumstances, which these are not. Plus, you have a superb guide in Bernard. Now, where is the bathroom? I need to vomit.”

While
Gabe muttered obscenities under his breath I took it upon myself to help her out to the best of my ability. I jabbed a thumb at the sprawling mansion. “It’s somewhere in there. Good luck on your quest.”

She
pressed her lips together and strode in the direction of the entrance with determined strides. Figuring Gabe was sore after that little confrontation, I jerked my chin in his direction. He gave a quick nod in response. In Gabe terms this was the equivalent of a heart-to-heart.

A cane
thumped against the bus stairs behind me. I turned and offered my hand to the small, elderly man shuffling his way down the steep stairs.

“I don’t need that, you nit!” He
grumbled in a voice I knew all too well and swatted my hand away.

“
Bernard
?”

“Well
, don’t sound so surprised. I have magical powers, of course I could conjure myself up a more normal appearance.” His hand dug into his pocket to scoop out some of his treasured berries and pop them in his mouth. I tried not to take it personally that he might have needed those just to talk to me.

Bernard’s s
tature had grown to that of a typical little person. He wore a brown tweed suit instead of his usual bright garden gnome attire. His cane sunk in the lush grass, he followed it down and whistled through his teeth. “Would you look at this? Quite the elaborate place. Right considerate of Rowan, wasn’t it?”

My internal monologue seeped out before I could stop it, “Sure, considerate. Unless there’s something in it for him.”

Two white eyebrows drew in and became one. “What would possibly be in it for him?”

“Come on,
it’s Rowan,” I scoffed. “There’s always an angle with him. Why is everyone so willing to overlook that and trust him all of a sudden?”

“It’s not all of a sudden, Cee.” Gabe stuffed his hands in
the pockets of his khaki shorts and shrugged. “We learned to trust him—not
like
him, but trust him—because of how much time
you’ve
been spending with him. We just followed your lead on this one.”

“I don’t trust him! I was
… ”
Using him
. Guilt caught the words in my throat and made them burn like acidic bile. I was truly an awful person for how I’d been taking advantage of his gift.

“
Whatever you feel about him, you’ve gotta admit this is a huge gesture.” A look of resigned acceptance replaced Gabe’s normal frown at the very mention of Rowan’s name. “People don’t do things like this for another person unless they really care about them. Plus, even if I think he’s a tool, he made my girl all kinds of happy with this place. I guess that makes him kinda okay in my book.”

Bernard folded his hands on top of his cane and leaned against it. “Maybe
it’s
you
that needs to be more open-minded about him, my dear.”

I wanted to scowl and
declare I had no intention of drinking the Rowan
Kool-aid
any time soon. But before the words found their way to my lips my gaze somehow found its way to the tall, tanned pirate who now stood by the entrance of the gorgeous Biltmore. He peered back with a stare so intense it made me wonder if he used his demonic hearing to eavesdrop on the entire conversation. Quickly, I averted my gaze.

I was thankful for the subject change Bernard
provided when he drew the satchel that was flung over his shoulder forward and pulled a rectangular package out of it. “This is for you, Guardian. For the wedding.”

Gabe accepted the gift and tore open its plain brown paper. Inside was a f
ramed photo of our dad looking as handsome as ever in his EMT uniform. The warm and friendly nature of his smile made the gold flecks in his brown eyes sparkle. My brother just stared, and clutched the frame like a long lost treasure.

“I thou
ght you could put it on the altar,” Bernard kept his voice soft, a couple of octaves above a whisper. “So he can be here in some capacity.”

My eyes misted over with tears
as Gabe murmured a gruff, “Thank you.”

Bernard nodded
, clapped a hand on my brother’s arm, and then hobbled off toward the front door.

“What do
ya know,” I mused. “Weddings soften even the most surly of gnomes.”

“Even better than the berries.”
Gabe laughed, his gaze not budging from the picture.