Raj knew very well that when Kipa and I were “playing games” he wasn’t to bother us. I wasn’t sure how much Raj understood about sex among humanoids—he’d never expressed any urges to find a mate of his own, at least not that I could see. I had no clue when gargoyles entered puberty, but it was actually something I should look into, now that the thought came to mind.
“There’s a Golden Girls marathon on. Raj is going to watch until he falls asleep,” Raj said, opening one eye.
“Okay, that sounds like fun for Raj.”
As Kipa carried me down the hall, Raj immersed himself in the exploits of Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia, and Rose. I leaned against Kipa’s chest, my pain and my desire blending into a mix that only my Wolf God could satisfy.
I was deep asleep, totally satiated and feeling much less angry, when something startled me awake. I sat up. Had I heard a noise? Sensed a movement? Had Raj knocked something over and broken it? Unsure of what was going on, I slipped out of bed and pulled on my robe.
Kipa was breathing deeply, snoring in that stop-start sort of way. I debated waking him, but the wards hadn’t gone off, so it couldn’t be one of the Dragonni, or Pandora. They were set to announce the arrival of any unwanted visitor who tried to break in.
Still, wariness was a good idea and I cautiously opened the bedroom door, peeking out as I flipped on the hall light switch. But no one was there. I peeked in on the ferrets but they were all snuggled up, asleep, so I padded down the hallway, my feet freezing on the hardwood floors. It was cold outside and—as I entered the living room—I saw through the window that it was still snowing heavily.
I glanced around for Raj. He was asleep in his cushioned bed, and I saw that he had flipped on the heating pad. It was low wattage, but it helped Raj whenever he got cold, and he could turn it on and off by himself. Seeing nothing afoot, I peeked in the kitchen.
Nothing out of place.
I decided that it must have been a dream and turned to head back to bed when a sudden noise echoed through the hall and something grabbed me around the throat. I couldn’t see what had hold of me, but whatever it was, it was squeezing my windpipe. I reached up, flailing to try to pry it off of me, but there was nothing for me to grab hold of. At that moment, Raj woke up, leaping out of his bed.
“What’s hurting Raven—no! Bat monster no hurt Raven!” The next thing I knew, his eyes turned red in a way that I had only ever seen one time before. He shot a beam of light, aiming directly at me. The next moment, the chokehold eased up and then, something shifted and I could breathe. Raj relaxed.
At that moment, Kipa came racing down the hall, looking confused and concerned. “What happened? What’s going on?”
I gasped in a shaky breath, rubbing my throat. It felt raw and sore.
“What—your neck is bruised, all the way around it. Are you all right?” Kipa gathered me up and carried me over to the sofa.
“Some monster tried to hurt Raven. Raj stopped the monster.” Raj yawned. “Raj tired now. Very tired.” He was heading over to his bed.
“Raj, come over here a moment, please,” I said, clearing my throat as best I could. “Raven thanks Raj so much—Raj saved Raven’s life.”
Raj leaned against me, looking sleepy and ready to go back to sleep. “Raj loves Raven.”
“Raven loves Raj, too. Can Raj tell Raven what the creature looked like? Raven couldn’t see it.” I was puzzled. I could usually see spirits, and that something got past the wards was troubling.
“Big bat had a long curling tail with a heart-shaped tip on the end. Horns on its head. It was a purple-red color,” Raj said.
“And Raj could see it?”
“Yes, Raj could see it.” He paused, then, looking confused. “Wait—what is Raven talking about? Raj is tired.”
“We’re talking about the monster that Raj saved Raven from,” I said.
He yawned again. “Raj doesn’t remember a monster. Raj needs to sleep,” he mumbled.
“Go ahead, then.” I watched as he walked over to tumble into his bed. Immediately, he started to snore. This had happened the last time too. He had forgotten what had happened—and to this day he had never mentioned the laser-beam eyes, and when I had asked him about them, he denied having any such memory.
I turned to Kipa and lowered my voice. “He won’t remember this tomorrow. This happened once before. He saved the day and hasn’t a clue about it. I’m not that conversant about gargoyle powers, but until now, I thought that might have been a fluke. Now, though…”
“You didn’t see what attacked you?”
“No, and the scary part is that the wards didn’t catch it,” I said. “I must have tuned into it during my sleep because when I woke up, I knew something was off. I didn’t expect anything like that, though, because the wards didn’t go off.”
“They’re set to someone physically breaking into your house. The creature was probably on the astral plane. You need to rework those wards so that they alert us to anything coming in from other planes as well.” Kipa examined my neck. “I don’t think anything is broken, but that’s one hell of a bruise, and it could have crushed your windpipe. If it does look like Raj described, it probably had its tail wrapped around your neck. Don’t you have some sort of grimoire?”
“Yes, actually, I have a copy of Beltan’s Bestiary. Come on, it’s in my office.” As I made certain everything seemed normal, it occurred to me that Curikan might actually demand the book back, and I decided that I’d better make a copy of it before he had the chance. I left the living room light on as we headed into my office. I was tired and sore, but still in the grips of the adrenaline rush, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep yet.
As we began flipping through the pages of the book, I kept thinking about the creature. If this was a random attack—an attack of opportunity—then it would amount to carelessness on my part. But I couldn’t get past the feeling that there was more to it. And that I suddenly had a target on my back from several different corners.
Chapter Ten
By three a.m. we hadn’t found any mention of the creature so I bookmarked our place in the massive compendium and we went back to bed. Or rather, I went to bed. Kipa insisted on sitting up to keep watch over me.
“I’m a god. I don’t need sleep—not much, anyway.” He sat in the armchair near the bed, his sword across his lap, watching me until I asked him to please quit staring so I could get to sleep. After another ten minutes, I finally fell asleep.
Morning came all too early, but I managed to drag myself out of bed by eight. Still exhausted, I took a long shower, then dressed. I was feeling tired and draggy, and my throat felt like it had been rubbed raw. I decided to go with simple and picked a pair of warm black fishnet leggings, then a mid-thigh sweater dress. I belted it and—feeling as if I were somehow dressed like Peter Pan—I headed to the kitchen. There I found Kipa. He was making breakfast, and he glanced up, smiling at me.
“I’m glad you got some sleep, but you still look tired. You want to go back to bed for a while?” he asked, cracking eggs into a bowl.