WingSpan (Taken on the Wing Book 1) (26 page)

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Talon hisses.

“I woke up in Terry’s arms; ambulance, police. Terry went through my things and gave them a list of what they took. I didn’t have a lot of jewelry but it was all gone. Most turned up in pawn shops over the next few days and Terry bought everything he could find rather than wait for the police. There was a ring he gave me I never got back which was sad because it was the only piece that meant a thing.”

Shadow’s fingers feel the weight of Talon’s bracelet and he notices, turning enough to take her hand and kiss it.

“This is as special to me as the ring was. Losing it was terrible.”

She gives him a moment in the hopes he’ll reciprocate with something of his own but other than giving her wrist a gentle squeeze he goes back to brooding.

“About a year ago the bank sent me to Toronto for some office culture thing: airfare, hotels, teambuilding stuff. Some of the girls and I went out for dinner and a couple of drinks. The drinking was bad then so I made some excuse for not going to the hotel with them and had a few more.

“I don’t know if it was the gin or what but before I knew it there was this guy at my table buying. When we left we got about a block away and a couple of guys jumped out of an alley. One had a knife and the other wanted my purse.

“I was starting to think I attracted crooks and took a step away. I’d learned my lesson about fighting and one was armed but the guy exploded. In a second the knife hit the ground. One was on his ass and the other was limping away in tears.

“Thought I found my hero and we went to my hotel room but he was gone before he even got his belt done up. Left me feeling really, really empty. I mean, was it asking too much of men to have a real hero who treasures my heart as much as his own?”

Talon’s head moves and she realizes his attention is on the chamber below as he tracks every moving thing he sees. Uncertain when her attempt to open him up turned into a confession, she finds a way to refocus on him.

“Last summer I hoped I found it in a man. Today I’m certain I found it in a gryphon.”

“See to the child,” he answers as he leans forward, hands on the cusp of the drop off.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Ready?”

“What if I put my wings away and you carry me down?”

Do I have to say it?
Talon watches her toes curl around the ledge. Her heart beats so hard he could hear it with human ears.

“Everyone down there sees the white gryphon,” Talon figures he has to point it out. “I will if you insist but you’ll look bad.”

“No pressure,” Shadow mumbles. The vicious Dame he saw in the den is embarrassingly timid.

“None,” he kisses at the side of her neck. Talon still feels the buzz of hunting the night before and had woken her for more to make up for the cold shoulder that followed. Cloud slipped out shortly after they received word that Torrent abandoned the eyrie, taking Feather and several others with him. His sister was either involved with Torrent or thought the price of defying him was too high given what happened to Swift. Both reasons put knots in his gut. She should be in the upper reaches of the eyrie with the females.

And with Swift.

“Cloud went to prepare your breakfast,” he nudges.

Shadow offered no explanation for her attachment to the girl other than her actions proving it’s maternal and Talon responded without thinking, openly crossing the line from guard to sire when he doesn’t even like Cloud. He never understood what Swift saw in her: rude, disrespectful and awkward to be around.

There are rules for children. For any other gryphon behaviour like hers is earned. Even then her mouth would get her in more trouble for her years than most gryphons start in a lifetime. It’s a bad mix of Tawny’s privilege of age and the uneasy aura of death he’d first sensed in her home eyrie.

He touches Shadow’s waist above her bite and steps behind her.

“Take a step, Shadow. Glide, bank, keep your eyes off the lights so you can see. Push me away when you want to fly on your own.”

Then she falls forward, arms outstretched while her wings remain at her sides.

“Shit.”

Talon jumps, digs his fingers into her hips and takes their weight on his wings. Only a second later Shadow gets her wings out, looking more like a startled infant than a creature taking flight. With his wings held forward to avoid turbulence from hers, he guides them to the right, avoiding the wall ahead so they cross the main chamber.

She’s steady, crossing the room and pulls his hands from her before sticking her arms out again with her fingers splayed.

Left, left, left!
Talon wills her to turn but she doesn’t. Shadow’s wings are bone straight, too tense even for gliding and judging by the tilt of her head she’s looking down, unaware how close she is to taking a header into the stone.

With a burst of speed Talon renews his grip and takes her left into the second half of their figure-eight to the ground.

“What?” she demands, squirming in his arms as her right wing brushes the stone wall. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

They descend, dropping through the turn and as they make their last pass across the room she pushes him away to land on her own. Talon angles his wings to brake and takes his weight on his bent knees but she’s going a little too fast and is top heavy with the unaccustomed weight of her wings. As she cart-wheels her arms, she runs to catch up with her upper half and comes to a staggering stop.

She turns, searching wildly then shows a flash of white teeth as she spots him.

In spite of the nearly botched landing she’s aware of her audience and with a graceful nod pretends her landing was as smooth as his. In the white light her adornment is spectacular, nearly as bright as her wings and she gets on her toes as he approaches.

“Breakfast?”

Talon is too stunned by her lack of flying instincts to comment so he offers her an elbow and leads her into one of the tunnels.

The dining chamber is much less crowded than usual given the absence of females and Talon leaves Shadow where he can see her while he goes to the kitchens. The dining chamber is a cave like the main chamber only much smaller; one tunnel leads to the big main chamber and the other to the eyrie entrance. Its lower ceiling makes it feel brighter.

Cloud is long gone but the girl left Shadow a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and some fruit which Talon collects along with a bowl of venison, hard multigrain bread and apple pieces for himself.

Shadow found them a pair of cushions and she looks eagerly past him for Cloud, he supposes.

“She will be with the females,” Talon kneels.

“Doing what?”

“Preparing Swift,” his voice fails and he glances around hoping nobody heard. The only gryphon who appears to notice is Shadow and he pays too much attention to his food in order to avoid her questioning stare. He knows exactly what she was trying to do the night before with the story of her ex-lovers and as much as he didn’t want to hear it he was glad he didn’t have to talk. Talon is prepared for her questions today.

“Oh.”

She’s momentarily distracted by her appetite, starting with a grape then eating half a sandwich in two bites. “Where?”

“Above.”

Shadow looks up, fingers feeling for a strawberry. Talon decides that the mix of strawberry and venison is one of the more unappetizing combinations he’s encountered.

“The females will prepare her for the afterlife. No male will see her again.”

She frowns, little lines forming between her brows.

“I was hoping to see Cloud before we leave.”

“We’re not leaving,” he chews another piece of nearly raw venison.

“But—”

“Nobody may leave the eyrie until Swift departs.”

It’s getting easier for him to say her name but not by much.

“Torrent did.”

“That was disrespectful,” he grinds out.

His sister should have known better. His sister should be here caring for her best friend.

“I should be there,” Shadow exclaims. The accompanying flare of her wings gets attention from several males who are busy with the youngsters. “Tawny said I’m not an adult until I go and you can’t and I want to be there.”

“No, you’re not an adult,” Talon sighs.

“And I should be when I meet, um, my gryphons.”

“Yes, you should,” he’s relieved she’s eager to attend. “This isn’t your eyrie so you aren’t required. You are however, welcome.”

Shadow’s participation will go a long way to tightening the bond between her eyrie and Arden’s. After the misunderstanding with Torrent and the murder, the Jasper eyrie is vulnerable and will need friends as it recovers.

“You’re a good Dame, Shadow,” he tells her as his venison covered fingers tip her chin up. She smiles proudly then her nostrils flare taking in the smell of meat.

“Oh,” she breathes.

Talon pulls his hand away but she follows and leans over his dish. She’s too close and he warns her with a growl. Shadow’s sharp grunt shuts him up though she’s still very unwelcome so near his meal.

But it isn’t the venison she wants. As she gets nearer she sniffs, tongue in the corner of her mouth so he responds expecting a poorly timed kiss.

Instead she gives him the cheek and touches her lips to the corner of his mouth.

“I’ve been craving something since last night,” she trails off as her tongue comes out and gingerly traces down his jaw. “Wow, wasn’t sure what it was until now.”

She sits, licking her lips and as Talon wipes his mouth he realizes he’s let blood run freely down his chin in his effort to keep his mouth too busy to talk.

“Can I get you some?”

“I’ll try a piece of yours.”

“No,” it comes out a little harshly.

Jesus, Shadow. I’m not your dame.

“I get it,” she sighs, a little offended. “Cloud said only a dame shares her food with her child then I made her try what she made me for dinner.”

“Oh, damn,” Talon curses. So that’s what happened. “I’ll get you some.”

Talon takes his bowl and stomps to the kitchen. Feeding the orphan? That can’t be good. And Cloud accepting is definitely not good. It explains why the two are close since his mate tries to adopt a stray. The only one who may not realize it is Shadow.

Talon fingers a necklace in his pocket and can’t help but wonder if Swift would be alive if he’d given her what she really wanted, a mated bond. Would he have been any happier? Or would he have abandoned a relationship with her anyway, seeing her only when her season drove them both past hate and straight into the hunt? He’d made the necklace for Swift with the magic of the Earth; no stipulations, neither one having to commit to anything for her to accept it but changed his mind. It would have been lost in the dozens she wore already as nothing more than a human trinket.

“Will you do something for me?”

Shadow tries not to be obvious about licking her fingers and nods, satisfied by the meat in a way she never imagined. As she devoured piece after piece Talon talked about her gryphon body’s needs and blood but the talk of blood just made her mouth water more. Even though they bathed and changed after breakfast her sensitive tongue finds hints.