Rocked by Love (Gargoyles Series) (15 page)

Really, though, Kylie was a woman of simple needs. She didn’t care about clothes or cars or keeping up with the Kardashians. She had the taste and appetite of a thirteen-year-old (her mother disdainfully amended that to a thirteen-year-old hoodlum, meaning anyone without a trust fund), didn’t travel much because she always had something fascinating to work on at home, and the only person she had to support was herself.

Still, every time she talked to her accountant or her lawyers, they felt the need to harp about the fact that her story of being not just a successful woman, but a wildly successful
very young
woman in a male-dominated field had earned her enough publicity that she needed to be cautious. If only they knew what she’d gotten into now.

So, installing a security system wasn’t a big deal, and the long-term accumulated nagging meant she had already done all the necessary research and selected both the provider company and the system she wanted long before an actual threat had come on the scene. Her address and the cost of her purchase even assured that the company got her an installation appointment that very week, the day before Wynn and Knox were scheduled to arrive. Kylie just hoped she could learn to use the thing in time to let them in the house without sirens waking the neighbors.

The alarm company crew of four men arrived early on Thursday morning. Well, early for Kylie anyway, who still operated on hacker time. Having to drag her
tokhes
out of bed and be presentable for company by ten did not make her a happy camper. Nor did the way Dag appeared the moment the men arrived and proceeded to hover over her like a badly trained guard dog while the crew went about their work.

“Will you please lighten up?” she demanded as she leaned against the kitchen counter and sipped her soda. At that moment, two of the techs were working in her office, wiring the window alarm and laying the groundwork that would allow her computer system to sync with and control the security as a central hub. They had strict instructions to get everything ready, but
not
to touch her computers or other electronic equipment until she was present and could set up the interface herself. No one touched Kylie’s babies but Kylie.

“No,” Dag growled. “I will not relax until this work is complete and these humans have been escorted off these premises. I am uncomfortable with so many strangers in the house.”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “You realize this was all your idea, right?”

“That makes no difference in my reaction to four strange humans wandering about this space unsecured.”

“Well, admitting you’re irrational is the first step, I hear.”

The low rumble of his growl vibrated through the marble behind her. Kylie ignored it. Frankly, the last five minutes had encompassed more communication than he’d managed with her over the last five days combined. She might just as well have dragged his sorry-assed statue form into the house with her for all the company he’d provided. King David had offered her a better conversational partner.

Kylie looked over when one of the workers peered in from the door to the hall. “Excuse me, ma’am? I need your approval before I drill to install the front door control panel.”

“Right.” Kylie set her soda bottle on the counter behind her and rubbed her condensation-covered hands against her jeans. “Coming.”

Dag followed so close on her heels he might as well have asked for a piggyback ride. Just as she was about to turn on him and potentially take his balls for hackysacks, another worker approached from the office.

“Uh, I’m about to run the wire through to the computers, but someone said something about not messing with the setup already there. Do one of you want to supervise while I do this?”

The worker didn’t bother to hide either his disgruntlement at his work being second-guessed or his boredom with the tedium of his job. Charming fellow. Beside her, Dag growled, crowding her back against the partial stairway wall as if unable to decide which of the jumpsuit-clad menaces from Beanpot Security and Electronics was the most likely to whip a demon out of his back pocket and wave it at her.

Oy,
if she had to roll her eyes at him again, she was going to sprain something.

Patting his chest, she transitioned the reassurance into a quick shove and stepped away from him. “Okay, big guy. You go with the fellow by the scary front door, which I haven’t been allowed within twenty feet of since the weekend, and I’ll go back to the office to make sure Prince Valiant over there doesn’t hurt my babies. If another
drude
materializes out of thin air, I promise to scream real loud and high-pitched so you can come save my delicate female
tokhes
. Okay?”

Not waiting for a response, because when one came, she knew she wouldn’t like it, she nudged the Guardian toward the front door and turned to head back to the office. As soon as Wynn arrived, Kylie was going to either enlist her help to stage a jailbreak, or have the biggest, alcohol-fueled bitchfest ever recorded. No other way could she think of to cope with Grumpy McGrumperson for another solitary minute. She’d lose her mind.

She stepped into the office behind the slightly stocky and visibly scruffy security technician and surveyed the scene. Ignoring the bare patch in the ceiling left the other day by Dag, the company seemed to have done minimal damage to the plaster. A couple of small, neat holes indicated where they had inserted wire and fished it through the walls, but overall, Kylie was pleased at the lack of significant destruction.

Not that the room didn’t look like an electronics bomb had gone off in the middle of it, because it did. Bundles of wires and spools of cables lay piled on the floor, the desk, and most other available surfaces. Tools and equipment spilled out of a large open bag and sat piled near a partially open window, and three boxes of new components lay open in the middle of the floor.

In the midst of it all, Kind David lay in his fur-covered chair with his paws curled under him and his slitted gaze fixed on the scene. He must have decided the job required close royal supervision, because generally he never stuck around when strangers came to the house, especially not several of them at once. Least in sight was one of his favorite games.

“Okay,” Kylie said, resting her hands on her hips and surveying the area around her desk just to make sure no one had gotten overexcited and touched her equipment. “Why don’t you tell me where you’re at and we can go from there?”

When the tech didn’t answer immediately, Kylie looked up to find him standing not by the bundle of cable where she’d last seen him, but less than two feet away from her. He still had the cable in his hands, but now he held a length of it in between his beefy fingers like a garrote, and when her eyes met his, she could see the crazy in them. They looked black and cloudy and entirely glazed over.

He lunged at the same instant that she screamed and threw herself backward to escape imminent strangulation. She heard a loud crash from the hall, a curse from her attacker, and a fierce yowl from King David, but she had no idea which came first. Everything seemed to unravel into chaos and her only thoughts weren’t even real thoughts; she operated purely on instinct, throwing herself on top of the balance ball that had been pushed aside near her desk, rolling off the top, and using her legs to propel it into the crazy technician’s path.

The tech kicked the ball away, the force of impact sending the inflatable sphere of rubber bouncing off half the vertical surfaces in the room. Every time it pinged and ricocheted, Kylie felt the hysterical urge to giggle. It almost made her feel as if she were featured in one of her Coyote namesake’s cartoons. Any time now, someone was going to come out with a “Meep! Meep!” and she was going to lose it.

With the giant ball out of his way, the tech moved faster, cornering her in the space below the other, unopened window and laying his length of cable against her throat. Before he could exert any pressure, though, a golden blur flew into the picture and plastered itself against the man’s head. He screamed and jerked back, and Kylie could see an enraged King David hanging onto the technician’s face with tooth and claw.

The cat had puffed himself up to nearly twice his normal size, and his tail whipped back and forth like a cobra on meth while he proceeded to try and dig his way inside her attacker’s skull. Judging by the blood and screaming, he might even be making some decent progress.

And her lawyer had told her to get a dog.
Pfft
.

Kylie scrambled to her feet, preparing to dart past the fracas into the hall and immediately to Dag’s side, when the mountain figuratively came to Mohammed. Dag appeared in the doorway, skin gray, fangs bared, and humanity nowhere to be seen. Since no other tech accompanied him, either he had already killed them, or seeing him in his natural form had scared the unsuspecting workers to death. In the moment, she didn’t really care which.

She immediately threw herself in his direction, wasting no time in protesting when he all but shoved her behind him. That was exactly where she wanted to be, so he wouldn’t be getting any arguments. Not about this. She even had the foresight to cover her ears when he let out another of his roars, although she did glance up at the ceiling to make sure she had time to dodge any falling plaster. Luckily, this time the ceiling held.

The tech finally managed to pry King David from his face and threw the feline across the room. The cat sailed into the open closet door and thumped hard against something inside. Kylie heard another yowl and cried out in response.
Oy,
but she hoped he wasn’t seriously hurt. As soon as Dag finished kicking this
roseh
’s ass, she was taking a shot of her own and then rushing the King to the vet.

Just hold on a few more minutes
, bubeleh,
and I’ll get you all taken care of. I promise.
She just wished the cat could read her mind.

Dag, it appeared, didn’t need to. On this, at least, they seemed to be of one mind: stomp this
kuppe drek
into next week, then have cookies and milk.

It didn’t quite happen that way, though, because the minute Dag laid a hand on the tech, the guy gave a high-pitched shriek, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he wilted like a debutante in a whorehouse. He collapsed into a heap, held off the floor only by Dag’s claws fisted in the front of his jumpsuit.

Then, of course, Dag let go, and the tech and the floor got much better acquainted.

Kylie stared for a moment, half expecting the guy to jump back to his feet, grin and quip, “Just kidding!” and get right back to the fight. Didn’t happen, though. He stayed unconscious, and Dag continued to look as if he’d just bitten into a knish filled with rancid earthworms.

Cautiously, she eased a few steps forward and peered around the Guardian to the limp figure at his feet. “Uh, not to be a kibitzer, but any idea what just happened here?”

Dag sneered down at the tech and clicked his talons together in a gesture of frustrated violence. “This one is no
nocturnis.
Just a filthy pawn in their games.”

Kylie blinked at that assessment and quirked an eyebrow. “Really? So he tried to kill me just because he doesn’t like to work on Thursdays? That seems a bit of an overreaction.”

“The attack came from the Order, but they used an innocent to make it happen.” His gaze scanned the room and caught sight of the half-open window in the corner. “They must have been watching the house. When he opened the window, they seized the opportunity to cast a spell. They hexed him, bringing his mind under their control and commanding him to kill you. And they nearly succeeded.”

“They can do that?” Even Kylie thought she sounded horrified, but that was nothing compared to how she felt inside. “If they can force any innocent bystander to take a shot at me, I’ll never be able to leave the house again. I won’t be able to trust anyone.”

“You can trust me.” Dag closed the window, then returned to loom over her, his expression solemn, but lacking the deliberate blankness he had shown her for the past week. “I have sworn to protect you. You can trust Knox, as well. As a Guardian, he too would be able to break the hold of the Order on one such as this and end the spell. And if your friend the witch has even half the talent of a trained Warden, you can trust her, too. She will recognize the danger and act accordingly.”

Kylie shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking about you. About them. Of course I can trust them. But what about the other techs? Maybe you were right. Maybe letting them inside was a bad idea.”

And didn’t admitting that chap her ass a little? Kylie hated to think that Dag’s paranoia had been closer to the mark than her own laissez-faire confidence. It would be a long time before she felt comfortable allowing another worker into her house. Maybe she could learn to view those cracks in the plaster as character features.

“No.” She could hear his reluctance to admit it, but he forced the word out nonetheless. “The system is a good addition to ensuring the security of the house and everyone in it, especially with the others coming. If these humans did not come to install it, others would have. It must be done, and none of the others were affected by the hex.”

“How can you be sure?”

He hesitated, and for a moment, Kylie almost thought he looked … sheepish?

“When I heard you scream, I became concerned for your safety, so I gathered the other three and left them bound in the empty room near the kitchen.”

“You tied them up and left them in my dining room? Dag, one of them is going to get free and call the cops on us!”

She hurried out of the room and headed in the direction of the Guardian’s captives only to have him stalk after her, shifting his form on the go.

“I made certain they were unconscious,” he protested. “I am not foolish.”

“Oh, so you knocked them out and left them tied up in my dining room. That’s going to make the police so much happier. Happy to add more charges, you
shlemil.
”

“I do not know the meaning of that word, but your tone indicates it was not complimentary.” He followed her into the dining room, but took her arm before she could rush over and unwrap the still figures from about three thousand feet of plastic-coated wire. “The humans are unharmed and will remember nothing when they regain consciousness. Do you think that in the thousands of years of our existence, Guardians have never had to deal with humans seeing us and jeopardizing our secrecy?”