Gargoyle (Woodland Creek)
Read Gargoyle (Woodland Creek) Online
Authors: Scarlett Dawn,Woodland Creek
Gargoyle
Copyright 2015 Scarlett Dawn
First Edition
All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of these publications may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the Author. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.Editing by
Rogena Mitchell-Jones Manuscript Service
Cover by
J.M Rising Horse Creations
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
To all of the Woodland Creek authors...you rock! We knocked this project out of the park. You're all aces to me.
D
EDICATION
To Jennifer Stevens and Jennifer Munswami,
Thank you so very much.
Your dedication and hard work helped this project turn into a success.
Much love,
S.D.
T
ABLE OF
C
ONTENTS
About the Woodland Creek Series
Preview of the Cold Mark Series
Isaac
A drunken woman grabbed ahold of my cock.
My claws twitched to rip her offensive hand from her arm, but thankfully, my dick was made of stone—no cock snapped off. Her human, delicate fingers gripped hard as she leaned over the edge of the clock tower, staring down at my city, Woodland Creek. I was tempted to move, to break free of my perched façade, and scare the woman enough to fall to her death.
Fucking humans were a nuisance.
Her blonde hair whipped around her face, never giving me a clear view. I rolled my eyes and held still, letting her have her drunken fun. If I was going to kill a human, I enjoyed seeing the fear in their eyes as death stalked them. The night breeze was her saving grace.
My brother, Finn, perched next to me, tilted his hideous stone head in my direction. He lifted an arched brow behind the human’s back. He would have no problem killing her.
The air misted in front of my frozen lips, a huffed negative. I preferred to take care of my own business, even if Finn was overly protective.
“Hello, Woodland Creek!” the human shouted, her words slurring. She lifted the beer she held, waggling it to and fro into the night air. The liquid sloshed over the edges, but she didn’t appear to notice. Her grip tightened on my cock as she leaned farther over the edge. “You are a beautiful town!”
A fine mist formed in front of Finn’s lips, a constant puffing. My brother was laughing his ass off. Though he quickly tilted his head forward, returning to his pose when the human leaned back and released my dick.
She turned her attention to the left, her hair still whipping in her face. Her shoulders stiffened slightly, and she mumbled, “Huh…what’s that?”
I held perfectly still, unable to look.
But I froze even further when she turned and walked a dangerous path on the edge of the tower. I watched her feet stumble over each other as she passed my sister, Mandy, on the other side of me.
“Woo…woo…
shit
!” she screamed as she tumbled over the edge. Her arms fluttered about her, blonde hair flying like a tornado touching down, right before gravity took hold. The beer can and her body disappeared from sight.
My other brother, Mike, grunted softly on the other side of Finn. His tone was utterly humored. “I wish her beer hadn’t fallen with her.”
I sighed heavily, her scream finally cutting off. “That took a while.”
On the other side of Mandy, my mother grumbled, “Ridiculous humans.” Her wings unfurled and then snapped back tight against her frozen pose. “Well, that’s one less to worry about.”
Kennedy
My scream rent the night air…as I fell down.
Down.
Down.
I stared up at the edge of the clock tower, my lungs expanding inside my chest.
I
screamed
again. I was going to die!
The ground would be splattered with…Kennedy.
But with an abrupt breeze, my cry of terror choked off.
The air was soft. It surrounded me. My arms tight against my terror filled chest twitched. I blinked up at the edge of the clock tower.
My body had stopped moving.
I was…suspended…in the air a foot off the roadkill sidewalk.
“I’m dead,” I whispered, my throat constricted in fright.
Shouldn’t death feel peaceful?
A man snorted to my right. “You’re not dead, Kennedy.” A quiet pause. “Though I will be tonight.”
My terror filled gaze snapped in the direction of the voice. There was a man dressed all in black standing in the shadows of the building. I held perfectly still, my body floating on…
nothing
. I said the first thought that came to mind. “Are you an angel? Did your wings catch me?”
He laughed outright, his shadowed head tipping back, only the glint of white teeth showing in the darkness. His laughter…warmed me enough that my body began to uncurl from my panic seized position.
I tilted slightly to the side and chanced putting an arm and a leg on the ground. I fell hard, the
air
holding me up gone. “Umph!” I rubbed at my skinned elbow as I lay on my side, the concrete beneath me chilling my exposed flesh.
He waggled a finger at me, his hilarity cutting off. “Do try not to harm yourself.”
I blinked, glancing around. My mouth bobbed. “I’m not dead.”
“I already said that, Kennedy.”
My attention flicked to him as I slowly picked myself up from the ground. Alcohol and adrenaline weren’t a great mix. My limbs were shaking so badly, my own shadow cast from the moonlight on the side appeared to be wavering in water. My voice was quiet, trembling, my thoughts trying to catch up from my fall from the clock tower. “How do you know my name?”
He waved a hand. “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you listen carefully.”
I blinked. If this man had saved my life…somehow… “I’m listening.”
His eyes suddenly glowed brilliant amber in the darkness.
My entire frame locked down.
If I wanted to run, I couldn’t.
Literally, my body was stuck as I stood.
I couldn’t even twitch my left pinkie.
Once more, trepidation flooded my being.
The man stated smoothly, “My time on this earth is done this eve. But the knowledge I hold cannot go on to another. Not yet.” He walked toward me into the moonlight. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see his face. “When it’s time, you will hand over that knowledge. I have foreseen this. You carry the salvation of this town with the true love of your life. The two of you will beat the night.”
He kneeled down on his right knee and placed a book on the sidewalk in front of my feet. “There is much information held in this book. Names. Shifter types. Abilities. You won’t understand all of it, but you are free to read it.” He reached forward and tapped my left shoe.
My body came alive at the touch, a deep-seated sizzling in my veins. I stared at the man…at the
wizard
. A power radiated around his body in a sea of waves.
If I hadn’t been frozen before, I would have been now, my heart rate skyrocketing.
“What you see is real. What you know is real. Never forget that.” He stood straight from his lowered state, shadows ever swirling around his face. He began an easy stroll down the sidewalk, away from me. “And do not tell others what you see. Not unless you want to be dead.” He paused, his dark head peering back over his shoulders. “And quit drinking. It won’t do your body any good. You need to be vigilant to the truth around you.”