Page 29 of Here Be Dragons

“Similar. I believe most people today call them golems or automatons, but creatures made of inanimate material and given the semblance of life through magic have existed much longer than either word.”

“Let me guess: they’ve existed for as long as there have been tasks people wanted to offload to someone else.”

I snorted. “You are not wrong.”

“Wow. I never knew they were real. But then, I didn’t know dragons were real until today.”

She settled down next to the statue, untucked a pen from behind her ear, and started doodling on the notepad we’d picked up from my office. As she sketched out the details of the faun statue, I called in my pair of golems.

They arrived minutes later and stood by the door, completely still, waiting for my orders.

Carly gasped at the sight of them. “I’ve seen those before! They’re in the museum foyer standing on either side of the archway leading into the main hall. I had no idea. I thought they were just statues.”

“This female is allowed in the museum and is not to be harmed,” I announced firmly.

The two golems looked her up and down, scanning her form and committing it to their very limited memories.

“Oh, hey there,” Mateo’s voice squawked from the PA system. “I was wondering why they were going off route.”

“We had cameras installed in the golems’s eyes, so Mateo has a record of everything they see,” I explained to Carly.

She waved at the cameras. “Hey, Mateo!”

“Hey! You look much better.”

“Thanks. I feel much better.”

“Okay, since it’s just you guys, and no one’s fucking with the golems, I’m going back to my dinner. Bye.”

“Resume your patrol,” I ordered the golems. The two turned, each one going in a different direction down the hall.

“Off topic, but what’s the difference between a golem and a gargoyle?” Carly asked, temporarily distracted from the statue. “I was under the impression that gargoyles were intelligent and had their own thoughts and feelings, like real people.”

“They are, and they do. When I need extra security at museum events, I call in Redrock Protective Services. They are gargoyle brothers who take on bodyguarding jobs. Golems are different. They do not feel pain, have no thoughts of their own, and are not truly alive. They are only animate to carry out their orders.”

“I see. Kind of like robots programmed to do a single job.”

“Exactly. And once the magic is removed, they are no more than clay and rocks. I trust them because they could never turn on me. Mateo also has cameras monitoring everything, and I trust him more than I trust family.”

“Now, is that because your family isn’t trustworthy?” She asked with a raised brow. “You know, being dragons and all. No offense.”

I laughed. “None taken. That is a healthy view on dragons. Most don’t care about anything but themselves. The only family I have remaining is my brother, and sometimes I regret not being there to push him out of the nest before he was hatched.”

Carly pursed her lips. “So, Mateo,” she continued. “He is listed as head of security here, but you say he is more than that?”

I nodded. “I found Mateo shortly after he was kicked out of a group home for orphans. The local shifter gangs had got to him before I did, and at the rate he was going, he would’ve been dead by the end of the year. I gave him a job and a place to live. He lived at the estate for years before moving out on his own. It was Elana’s idea, really. She was bored being stuck in the estate all the time. Seth was all grown up, and she needed someone to mother.”

I’d liked having Mateo at the estate, though I’d never have admitted it. There wasn’t much that impressed the young brawler, but power and strength did, and he looked up to me. I’d asked Elana to keep his room the way it was, in case he needed to stay the night when he came for the occasional dinner visit. Seth still had his own room as well.

Carly looked like she might have been ready to ask about Seth, but didn’t. It would be best for her to get that story from Elana, anyway. It was her story to tell.

“So yes, Mateo is the head of security here, but he is also responsible for the safety of any piece of my hoard that is not safely tucked away inside my cave.” Sometimes, I wondered if he also took my personal safety to heart.

She grinned. “Your cave? As in a cave of wonders? Please don’t tell me you have a Scrooge McDuck-style pile of gold coins.”

I grinned right back. “I just might.”

Chapter 16

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