"Does it say anything about how they transform?" he asked. He assumed gargoyles did it just like any other kind of shifter, with mental effort, but maybe there was something else to it. If he could figure that out, he might be able to turn his arm back to flesh again. "I mean in legend and myth, of course."
He was expecting a blank stare or a question about why he was interested in obscure details of gargoyle legends, but instead she answered like it was a perfectly normal thing to wonder about. "No, it's vague on the details. There might be some information elsewhere in the book, but so much of it is missing." She turned some more pages. "And whatever is in there, we'll never know. Unless ..."
"Unless what?"
"I think I might have found the rest of the book, but there's no way I can get my hands on it. It's definitely not the kind of thing you can do interlibrary loan for."
"Where is it?"
She smiled, a trifle ruefully. "A reclusive billionaire's private library in Italy."
"Okay, you're right, that's not going to be easy to get hold of."
I bet we could break in, his dragon suggested.
Stop it, that's a terrible idea. But he was already considering it. What other choice did he have?
"I've tried contacting him, because I was thinking perhaps he could send me some scans, but apparently some American rando wanting to look at his extremely rare book isn't even worth bothering responding to," Jess said.
Reive felt a surge of protective wrath from his dragon: How dare they ignore her!
Then she ducked her head and laughed. "You must think that I'm silly to be this obsessed with an old book."
"Not at all," he said seriously. "I'm just as interested as you are."
"You are, too." She met his eyes with her steady brown ones. "I've never met anyone who was as curious about it as I am. Even the other librarians think I'm a bit strange with my gargoyle obsession. And there are definitely people who are curious about gargoyles, or have it as one of their interests, but what they want to read are books about the actual history of gargoyles as an artistic motif, or specific gargoyle statues on churches and public buildings, not a collection of legends."
She trailed off, a small crinkle appearing between her brows. Oops, he thought. He hadn't really considered this problem, but then, he wasn't used to taking into account what humans thought about things. He definitely didn't want her thinking too closely about why he was so interested in an obscure old book about gargoyles, because if she asked, he couldn't think of a plausible explanation.
"Well, I definitely came to the right place, then," he said. "I'm lucky you were here. I don't know how much time it would have taken me to find all of this without you."
The thoughtful frown turned into a smile. Excellent, distraction achieved.
"You know, I could translate some of this for you, if you want me to," she said. "It's something I ought to do anyway. With a book this rare, having a translation would a huge boon to historians and researchers, especially if something happens to the original."
"That's a lot of work for you."
She shrugged. "It's fun for me. I don't mind."
"Still, I have to do something to make it up to you." He couldn't afford to pay her, at least not without dipping into the family funds, and that would mean going home, and no.
Dinner! his dragon put in. Meat! Feed her!
His dragon hadn't been this chatty in months. Their connection had been muffled and distant ever since his illness began to progress. But now he could hear his dragon clearly for the first time in a while. And so, swept away in the moment, he found himself saying, "How about I take you to dinner?"
Yes! his dragon said. Do that!
Jess smiled. Her eyes crinkled, and dimples appeared. "I wouldn't mind dinner."
All the practical issues with this plan immediately occurred to him now that it was too late. Yeah, and how am I supposed to take her out to dinner without taking off my glove? As soon as she sees the stone patches on my hand, she's going to ask questions, and she literally researches gargoyles for a hobby. How is she not going to guess?
But his dragon's pleasure filled him with tingling warmth, and Jess beamed, her happiness warming him even more.
"I'm free tonight, if you wanted to talk about the manuscript some more," she said. "We're not a big city, but we do have some good restaurants. We've got good Italian and Mexican, and a great Indian place—"
She broke off as Reive abruptly flinched in pain. It felt like a bolt of fire had gone through his arm. It was all he could do not to double over.
"Reive! What's wrong?"
"Nothing—I—" He struggled to fight it down, aware of his connection to his dragon faltering again. It was impossible to concentrate on anything other than the pain.
Then Jess's hands touched his shoulders, and abruptly he could think again. Relief went through him in a soothing wave. The pain wasn't gone, but it was pushed down, and he managed to straighten up. The connection to his dragon strengthened, and he almost started going into an involuntary shift right there. He had to push Jess back, getting control of himself again.
"What's wrong? Are you sick?"
"No, it's—"
He didn't have time to come up with a convincing lie. There was a sudden crash from outside the storeroom, like something in the library had been knocked over.
"What the heck?" Jess pulled away, and he found himself moving instinctively for a moment to try to stay in contact with her. But even after her hands dropped away, some of the soothing sensation lingered.
Jess went to the door of the storeroom and peered out. There was another crash somewhere in the library, like something had been knocked over.
"There's not supposed to be anyone here," she said. "I locked the doors. Maybe someone hid in the bathroom or something?"
Reive moved up quickly beside her. "You should stay here," he told her. "I'll go look around."
Even after the relief of her touch, his arm still burned like there were biting ants under the skin. He didn't want to be right about what might be out there. But if they had found him, he didn't want this human woman anywhere near them.
"You're ill," she protested.
"I'm feeling much better." It wasn't quite a lie. Even with his arm on fire, he still felt more clearheaded and in touch with his dragon than he had in days.
He pushed open the door of the storeroom and took a quick look out. The lights were dim, turned down when Jess locked up. After the bright lights in the storeroom, it seemed almost dark.
"It better not be those damn teenagers again," Jess growled. "Sometimes kids think it's funny to run up and kick the doors when we're working late in here."
"I don't think it's teenagers." Everything was ominously quiet now. "Stay behind me," he said, and looked cautiously around the shelves.
Although it was dim in the library's low-ceilinged interior, outside it was only late afternoon. Warm golden sunlight slanted between the library shelves, shafting through the windows, hazed with dust.
A shadow moved among the floating dust motes. Big. Hulking.