Page 25 of Bite of the Gargoyle

“I owe no such favors.”

Balor chuckles as he shakes his head and narrows his eyes at her. “You live upon our land and have never paid us a shilling. That is called a favor, witch.”

She holds her nose in the air. “What of it?”

Balor smiles with teeth. “I’m calling in my chit.”

“Are you, now?” she asks, amused.

“I am,” he affirms. “Bring Suisse back, and I will call us even…”

The sound of his voice is grating, and I can feel my blood start to boil as I wonder why the woman is showing me all this. What do I care if Derith was having an affair with Balor’s wife? What do I care that Balor killed his brother years ago? I don’t give a damn about any of it if it doesn’t help me find Balor and kill Balor. That’s the only thing that’s of any importance to me.

This time, I grab the witch’s hand.

“I’m done watching,” I tell her firmly. “Take me back. Now.”

The witch waves her hands, and the vision of Balor simply disappears. I blink a few times as I take stock of my surroundings and find we’re back where we started, sitting in her kitchen with our hands joined.

“What was all that?” I ask, ripping my hands away from her grasp, annoyed with her because she’s wasting my time.

“That was the story of Derith and Balor D’Orsay,” she says simply. “Well, it’s what you would allow me to show you at any rate.”

“What does that mean?”

The witch shakes her head, perhaps a touch confused. “Your mind rebels against seeing more. Even I could not force it.”

“You could just tell me the rest of the story if it’s so important.”

“Ah, if only it were that simple. But there are rules that I have pushed before (broken, really), and I would be a fool to push them again.”

Still talking in riddles. “What was the point in all this?” I start, glaring at her. “In case you didn’t notice, I was running from someone.”

“Yes, and I offered you shelter, a place to hide.”

I frown at that. “Why did you show me all that?” I insist again.

“Balor asked me to bring his wife back from the dead,” the witch explains, “And, in order to clear my debt with the Lord D’Orsay, I agreed.”

“So what?” I grumble.

The witch smiles. “So life and death are not so easily toyed with; the only way I could have brought Suisse back was as a creature of the dead.”

“Like a vampire?” I begin to see the point she’s trying to make. Or, at least, I think I do.

“Precisely.”

“And… you didn’t bring back Suisse, did you?” I guess. “Instead, you brought Derith back? And turned him into a gargoyle-vampire.”

“I borrowed from the old magic and siphoned the life force of a vampire to create Derith. Gave Balor quite a shock, that did. Then I bound the spell for all eternity into an emerald stone, but once I did…”

“Once you did?” I prod her after her voice grows dim, and she makes no motion to further explain.

She looks at me and smiles. Her teeth, those that are left anyway, are rotten and yellow. “Ach, you want to listen now, do you?”

“Go on.”

“Derith, now a gargoyle-vampire, gave Balor the killing bite of the gargoyle.”

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