CHAPTER 40
~ Doom Drops By ~
Inhaling deeply of the crisp fall air, Callie brings her nice, hot cup of coffee and her phone out onto the deck to enjoy the late October night. The new nanny, a half Troll named Dermita, has already put Clara down for the night, leaving Callie at loose ends while she waits for her mates to return from their latest mission for the Twin Ravens. Settling into the comfy lounger, she glances up at the still full and very strange moon shining overhead. She shudders because the thing had totally creeped her out when she first noticed it the night before.
She had stood in the open back door of the Lightning Ridge farmhouse, examining the new deck, which replaced the back porch her dragon had destroyed. She had been so very excited and really couldn’t wait for her mates to return the following night to see what a great job the carpenters had done. Carpenters whom she hired in their absence, without consulting them. She had chuckled, knowing she just might get a spanking for her troubles. Looking around at the cozy new set up, she had been quite certain it would be worth it.
And then, she had looked up into the night sky … and there it was … a blood red moon. It had been slowly rising from a bank of dark and ominous clouds, like some bad omen in a horror flick. In fact, she had been quite convinced it was glaring malevolently down upon her. And even though she chided herself about putting such stock in things like bad omens and the like, even tonight, she cannot help but hold onto that sense of dread which had washed over her. She snorts and rolls her eyes. “Hell, the men I love are a vampire and a wolf shifter, and I can turn into a ruby red, ten ton dragon, who flies and breathes fire! Are bad omens really that far-fetched?”
Shaking her head, she pushes those thoughts out of her head. Tonight, Callie is determined to enjoy her new deck and her new outdoor furniture, cuz she’s feeling fine in her sexy biker-chick chic finery, which she picked up today with Susie’s help at Harper House. Bad omen and creepy assed moons be damned. She’s going to blissfully wait for her lovers on her new deck with her fresh coffee and fully charged phone.
Nyle and Kazar are due back any minute, in fact. And then the triad will set out for a night of partying and some naughty fun at the MC. The Twin Ravens are hosting a big Halloween celebration tonight in honor of rebuilding the MC, which was nearly destroyed last year on Halloween night. Even thought Callie had not been part of the Immortal world then, she still wants to help her friends celebrate the fact that they triumphed spectacularly after nearly getting their asses handed to them when the goddess Asteria and some freak named BonFreete attacked with a massive force of rogue blood wraiths and mutant ghouls. Luckily for everyone, the former is safely locked away in an UCI prison dimension, and the latter is dead, thanks to Joker.
Callie sips her coffee before picking up her phone from her lap to call her bestie. The very same bestie who is struggling to completely trust in Callie again, along with everyone else associated with the MC. The new dragon queen barely restrains herself from cursing those meddling gods out loud, because one never knows who is listening. But Susie did not need these extra complications in her life. The poor girl had already been dealing with someone or something that made her want to run away to California to start over at a new Doctorate program in LA. Now she knows the people she considers closer than family lied to her, or at the very least, are keeping secrets from her. Secrets which affect her directly. All everyone can do is ride it out and hope for the best. UGH!
Suddenly, Callie’s reflective mood evaporates because she feels as though she is being stalked … by someone who really hates her. She casts a quick glance up at the moon before scoffing at her own stupidity. No matter what her overactive imagination told her last night, the freakin’ moon isn’t glaring down at her. Nope, but someone is. She’s certain of it. Tapping into her beast’s nature, Callie expands her senses and nearly gasps at the foul malevolence and pure loathing roiling out of the shadows in her own backyard. Setting the coffee cup and the mug down on the little side table next to her new lounger with a loud thunk, Callie darts to her feet. “Come on out, Asshole! You can’t hide that much hatred and impotent fury with a few shadows. Come out and show yourself.”
For nearly a full minute, nothing on the property stirs but a few die-hard crickets and mice in the old barn. Suddenly, Ruasciathán, or Red as Callie refers to her head of gargoyle security, swoops in to land with a thud near the ancient native pecan tree some distance from the house. He reaches deep into the dark recesses of heavy shadow to yank a man, kicking and screaming obscenities, up by the scruff of his neck. Taking to the air, like the magnificent man-beast that he is, Red flies over to land gracefully at the edge of Callie’s new deck. “Here he is, your majesty.” Without preamble or concern for the lurker’s wellbeing, Red simply drops the man in an undignified heap.
But the cussing, screaming, ranting male doesn’t remain down for long. When he rises, Callie’s suspicions are confirmed. “Well, lookie here. The mighty god of doom has lowered himself to lurking in the shadows.” She chuckles. “Did you come to admire my new deck? I am rather proud of it. I would invite you up for a cup of coffee, but since I despise you, I guess I won’t.”
“You fucking bitch!”
“I can be,” Callie concedes with a chuckle. “Now tell me, please, what compelled you to trespass upon the home realm of a goddess, and the backyard of a family which has never done you any personal harm?”
“Your very existence is an abomination I intend to extinguish very soon!” Moros screeches.
Before Callie can respond, Nox Fortuna flashes in to stand beside her. “I thought I felt something especially nasty invade my realm. How dare you trespass, you son of a whore? Your uninvited arrival took me away from a very entertaining encounter with a couple of sexy bikers up in Tulsa. I. Am. Not. Pleased.”
“You dare call my mother, the Mighty Nyx, a whore when you just admitted to carousing with your own enforcers?”
Nox snorts and rolls her eyes, making Callie giggle. “You are an ass, Moros. Your mother is not a whore because she had sex with males. Not even those she created with her foul blood magick. No, I call Nyx a whore because she deliberately, repeatedly, whored herself out to pure evil simply to spawn you and your more foul siblings for the soul purpose of spreading misery and pain far and wide. Dallying with evil for personal gain made Nyx the vilest of whores.”
When Moros resumes his screeching and even tries to jump up onto the deck to attack Nox and Callie, Red simply yanks him back by the collar of his wrinkled and dirty designer suit to throw him to ground. The arrogant, self-important god of doom simply huddled there in a sobbing, cussing, and undignified heap while Nox and Callie exchanged confused glances.
“What the hell is this about?” Nyle demands, striding around the corner of the house to see the weird tableau unfolding in his own backyard.
“Our queen received an uninvited visitor,” Red supplies helpfully. “Apparently, he is unhappy with Nox’s opinion of his mother.”
“Kick his ass for him and then kick him off of the property,” Kazar says as he joins Nyle watching the god behave like a spoiled brat who has been denied a toy in Wal-Mart.
“No, I will take him to answer to his own peers,” Nox says with finality. “You may own this property Kazar, but it remains a part of my home realm. I will not allow this insult to stand.” She strides from the deck in all of her imperious, goddess glory to reach down and yank the still screaming male up and give him a shake hard enough to rattle his teeth. “You stupid little fucker, if you had a realm of your own, I’d invade this very night and claim it as my own for this affront. As it is, the best recourse I have at my disposal is to either kill you or shame you in front of those idiot Councilors whose strings you have been pulling for centuries.” Without another word, she flashes the cranky god away… most likely to the very UCI chamber where Callie so recently outshined him before the entire Council.
“Yeah, not killin’ him is gonna come back to bite us on our collective asses,” Callie says darkly. She smiles at her mates and says; “Hello, and welcome home, my loves!”
“Your bloodthirsty side makes my cock hard,” Nyle leers before leaping up onto the deck to wrap his sexy female up in his arms for a panty melting kiss. But the lovers are quickly distracted when Kazar rips into Red for allowing Moros on the property.
“Where the fuck were the gargoyles when that homicidal asshole flashed onto our property?”
Red hangs his head, awaiting judgement, no doubt. “He landed just outside of the wards. Three other guards and I watched him from the sky. He had no chance of getting to our Queen, I can assure you. It was obvious to us that Callie was aware the moment he arrived, so we simply watched until she challenged him to show himself and the fool cowered in the shadows.” Fifteen gargoyles land in the yard, awaiting their punishment for allowing an enemy on the property of their mistress. “I take full responsibility. The rest of the sentries were only following my orders.”
“Kazar,” Callie says gently. Stepping off the porch, she strides over to place a comforting hand on her irate vampire. “I knew the moment Moros arrived. I didn’t recognize his foul energy at first hint, but I knew an enemy was watching me. I am safe, Clara is safe. No worries, my love.”
“This time,” Kazar says sullenly. He wraps his arms around Callie to kiss the top of her head. “Dammit, I wanted to come home after a rough trip and party with my mates. Now I will be checking the perimeter wards and looking over my shoulder all night.”
“Nuh, uh!” Callie grunts immediately. “No way am I missing out on this party! I have a surprise for you two.”
“Sir,” Red speaks quietly. “I assure you, we were and remain ready. No matter where the family of the Ruby Queen dwells, her gargoyles are ready and able to keep them safe.”
Kazar sighs and nods. “I know, Ruasciathán,” Callie smirks because her vampire has never called their head gargoyle Red. Apparently, it is not dignified enough for such a majestic warrior. “I am simply over protective of my female and our child.”
“As any good mate would be,” Red replies with a huge grin on his handsome but stony face.
“Maybe we should move into the castle at Teleióti̱ta?” Kazar says with a glance at his mates. It is obvious to the new dragon queen that her vampire is worried for her safety, but she cannot allow him to overreact this way. Not if she hopes to ever have a life worth living outside of her duty.
“Nope, not gonna happen,” Callie replies vehemently, cocking her hip saucily and crossing her arms in a defiant stance. “I won’t raise our daughter holed up in some creepy castle in a virtually deserted other world realm.” She shakes her head emphatically. “Our little girl will be raised here on weekends and during vacations, and back at our home near Tulsa the rest of the time. It is bad enough I have to lock us all up in that pretentious, over done ivory tower for three days out of the month! I. Will. Not. Live. There.”
Nyle chuckles. “Tell us how you really feel, baby.”
“Sorry,” says Callie with a nervous laugh before she wraps her arms around Kazar’s neck to pull his head down for a kiss. “I love you, and I understand you worry. But I won’t live in fear and I won’t let fear make a prisoner of our children.”
“Children?” Nyle taunts. “Are you trying to tell us something?”
Callie laughs and shakes her head. “Nope. But I will say I do want more, but not for a good while. I want to enjoy Clara for a good long while before we have more babies. Plus, we all know our adventures are just beginning. We have four more queens to awaken, after all, and an entire blood-line of insane and wholly evil Greek deities to contend with.”
“True that,” Nyle says with a nod. “Shall we hit the road?”
“I vote yes,” Callie says with a grin.
Kazar steps back with hands on Callie’s shoulders as he admires her short leather skirt, flouncy silk top in a deep shade of ruby which perfectly matches the majority of her scales in dragon form, and the cropped black leather jacket with her property-of patches on the back. But the vampire seems especially enthralled with her thigh high boots. Black patent leather, with sexy peek-a-boo lacings running up the outside and heels which are constructed of stainless steel and are sharp enough to impale someone. “Damn, my sexy little dragon, maybe we should go inside first…”
“No way!” Callie refutes with a playful giggle. “I want to party. I want to dance and drink as I show off my hot new clothes and sexy males.”
Nyle laughs. “The clothes rate above your males?”
Callie shrugs playfully. “Everyone at TRMC has seen you two.” She winks saucily. “But only me and Susie have seen these fucking amazing boots.” As though to emphasize just how amazing said boots are, Callie gracefully thrusts one foot forward, to pivot on the toe of the very sexy boots, while doing a Vanna White sweep of her hands to show off her fine new footwear. “See? These boots deserve to be admired among a crowd.”
With repeated assurances from the Gargoyle, the triad finally loads up on their motorcycles to ride to Tulsa for a night of drinking, camaraderie, and debauchery. But as they hit the end of their driveway, they find Aragon, a lion shifter and Nox Legion MC Enforcer, sitting on his bike smoking a cigarette. They pull up beside their fellow Immortal Enforcer to ask what gives. The massive male rises from the seat of his old Norton to shake hands with Kazar and Nyle before giving Callie a respectful nod. “Our mistress said your female had an uninvited visitor tonight. I was just waiting here to let you know we will be on guard till you three come back tomorrow, so no worries.” Kazar nods and smile his appreciation. “Queenie is reinforcing the wards, even though Nox said the asshole set down outside of the wards. Waya is out here somewhere in her wolf skin, while Warlord is slinking through the shadows.” The handsome lion smiles winningly at Callie. “Between a Trastámara lion, a centuries old witch, a Cherokee born wolf shifter, a Mongolian blood shade, tons of magickal wards, and a whole fucking battalion of gargoyles guarding this farm, no one is getting near the princess. I promise.”
Callie simply smiles hugely and nods her approval before saying; “Thank you, and please thank your mistress for me.” She doesn’t bother to tell the biker that her daughter can now flash to her mother’s or her fathers’ sides any time she feels threatened. “Happy Halloween.”
With that, they roar off into the night heading for Tulsa and the hottest party in the whole state of Oklahoma.