Page 7 of Bewitching the Dragon
“And they’ve discovered Rebecca’s existence?”
“Yeah, what do you know about that? Why did she appear human one minute and thensomething elsethe next? And what is she, anyway?”
“You broke the concealment spell?” Rahu could see the shimmer of magic wavering along his skin, like he was contemplating shifting into his gargoyle form. And not the stone statue, either, but the big, bad, scary, leathery winged creature.
“Ididn’t do anything.” Rahu stabbed his finger at his own chest. “Well, except beat up a couple of warlocks who were seriously interested in Becca.”
Argyle canted his head. “You are quite vested in the girl’s wellbeing.”
Rahu fought the flush he could feel creeping up his neck. “I just don’t want her to get hurt, that’s all.”
“You feel the desire to protect her,” Argyle said. It wasn’t a question, rather a statement.
“Wouldn’t anybody?” Rahu responded. “I don’t know what those warlocks’ intentions were, but given the fact that theywerewarlocks, I’m leaning toward not good.”
“I’ve never experienced a warlock doing something in the name of good, this is true,” Argyle said.
Trying to have a conversation with a gargoyle was damned annoying. Rahu wanted answers, and he was pretty sure this guy had them—or at least knew more about the situation than Rahu or Ketu or Antoinette—yet he sure was skirting around the questions.
“So what’s the deal?” Rahu asked. “Why are they targeting Becca?”
“Becca?” Argyle said. “You are familiar enough to call her by her nickname?”
“Dude. Can you quit trying to psychoanalyze whatever relationship I have with her—which is none, for the record—and tell us what the fuck the deal is?”
Ketu raised his eyebrows, but luckily he didn’t say anything. Rahu was exhausted and his ribs ached and his head hurt and his best friend outweighed him by at least fifty or sixty pounds, but if he had made a crack about Becca, Rahu was pretty sure he would have taken a swing at him.
Argyle inclined his head once and confirmed, “Rebecca is a witch.”
“Finally, we’re getting somewhere,” Rahu muttered. “Does she know what she is?”
“No.”
Rahu glanced at his best friend, who shrugged. “How is that possible?” he asked, turning back to the gargoyle.
“It was a decision made when her mother discovered she was with child,” Argyle said.
“Why?”
There was the slightest hesitation and then Argyle said, “To allow her to have as normal a life as possible.”
Rahu narrowed his eyes. “Normal by whose definition?”
“I need to understand how they discovered her tonight. What exactly happened? Leave out no detail.” It was both unsurprising and annoying as hell that the gargoyle did not answer his question and instead asked one of his own.
Rahu give this guy a taste of his own medicine. Except maybe, if Argyle knew exactly what went down, he’d actually provide some real answers.
Blowing out a breath, Rahu said, “I went to this place called the Carousel Bar down on Royal Street.”
“I’m familiar,” Argyle stated.
Rahu gave him a glare. “Becca and her friend Charlotte—who’s definitely human, right?”
Argyle nodded once. How the hell did he knew so much about Becca? Except—“You were the one who carried her away after those Rojo dragons knocked her unconscious and kidnapped Petra and Noah’s baby.”
“Yes.”
Rahu waited for him to expound, and then finally said, “So we’re sitting at the bar and Becca touches my arm and this crazy spark of magic hit me like—”
