Page 37 of Guarded By the Gargoyle

“I understand you’re going to sit at your little table in your little room and get my mom on the spirit phone right now or you’re going to be sorry, sweetheart!” Big Nicky snapped. “Very sorry.It looks like somebody already worked you over pretty good.” He nodded at the red marks on my neck. “You don’t want my boys to have to finish the job, do you?”

I put a hand to my bruised throat where Carlo had choked me. Goddess, I never should have come home—I couldn’t go two minutes without being threatened or attacked!

“Kael,” I murmured, hoping my protector could hear me even though I wasn’t shouting. “Where are you? I need you again.”

Big Nicky’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Hey—who you talking to?”

“No one. Just…trying to commune with the spirits,” I said weakly. “I just?—”

At that moment, the red rip in the fabric of reality began again. But this time it was behind me so I didn’t see the beginning of it. I just saw Nicky and his thugs look over my shoulder when the ripping sound began. Their eyes got wider and wider and when Kael stepped out of the jagged red vertical slash, all three of them took a step back.

“What the actualfuck, Boss?” one of the goons breathed.

“Hell if I know,” Nicky muttered. “What is that thing?” he asked, jerking his head at Kael.

“He’s my protector,” I said, frowning. “He also happens to be a gargoyle so I’d be careful if I were you.”

But this turned out to be the wrong thing to say.

“I don’t care what the fuck that thing is, nobody threatens Big Nicky!” the Mob Boss snarled and all three of them drew their guns.

Kael came up behind me, his wings flexing.

“Is there a problem, Mistress?” he rumbled, staring at Big Nicky and his men. “Are these humans bothering you?”

“They want me to try and contact the other side again,” I explained to him. “But last time I did that, I opened a portal into The Pit and a Hell Hound came out and chased me.”

“Was that the freaky three-headed dog we saw?” one of the goons asked.

“Yes, that’s it,” I said, nodding. “We don’t want any more of those running around The French Quarter, right?”

“No.” The guy shook his head emphatically. “That thing was fucked up!”

“Yes, it was!” I agreed. I turned to Big Nicky. “So now can you see why it’s a bad idea for me to try and contact your mother again?” I asked. “Please, all of you just put down your guns andlistento me.”

The Mob boss got a stubborn look on his face.

“I want to talk to my mother!” he complained. “I miss her and I need to talk to her at least once a year.” He pointed his gun at me. “I don’t care about any fucking Hell Hounds or whatever the fuck you call up—I’m going to count to three and if you haven’t started contacting my mom, the two of you are going to beveryfucking sorry.One…two…”

“Oh my Goddess…” My voice went high and tight. “Please—please don’t shoot us!”

“Do not worry, Mistress—their weapons will not harm you.”

Kael pulled me backwards until I felt his broad chest against my back. Then his huge wings—already turning from feathery to bat-like leather—encircled me.

“Three!” I heard Nicky say and then the sound of gunshots nearly deafened me.

I heard the sounds of the bullets hitting Kael’s wings…but none of them pierced the gargoyle’s leathery hide. I was covered from head to toe by his bat wings—I couldn’t see anything and the sound was so loud I had to clap my hands over my ears.

I wondered if the bullets were just bouncing off. They must have been because I heard someone shriek and the gunfire stopped immediately.

“He’s hit! He’s hit!” I heard one of the thugs shouting. “The Boss is hit!”

“The damn bullets ricocheted off that fucker’s wings!” the other one said.

“Kael, let me see!” I exclaimed.

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