The Devil's Wolf

"There is one more thing we need to do," Ashlynn told the vampires. "If Elior wakes before we return, tell him we will be fine and will be back as quickly as we can."

Rebecca arched an elegant eyebrow and exchanged a look with Jacinta sat on the couch leaning forward so that her cheek rested against Rebecca's thigh. Rebecca stroked her fingers through the blond woman's hair with absent minded affection. "We will not be fine, if we tell our father that his mates have vanished after making such a public example of themselves," she told Ashlynn. "And potentially raising the ire of the entire Other world."

"I am really hoping my appeal does not raise the ire of the Other world but rather their empathy and support, and we will stay away from humans. We just have to make one quick stop," Ashlynn assured her. "We will be fine, really. Cael has his sword."

"Both of them," the devil murmured under his breath with a smirk.

Ashlynn groaned and rolled her eyes. "That will get old real fast, Cael." "Not for me," he preened.

"Alright, going now," she decided, taking him by the crook of his arm and dragging him after her towards the door. The two vampires watched them depart without comment, looking, Ashlynn thought, very much like an editorial spread in a fashion magazine, elegantly draped over the couch in their very modern and expensive apartment, with the light streaming over them through the windows.

"Gently," Cael protested as the door closed behind him and Ashlynn pulled him across the glossy tiles in the tidy entry foyer towards the elevator. She jabbed the elevator call button. "I think you underestimate your improved strength. That is my sword arm. I need it in order to smite your enemies."

"I am sorry honey," she backed him into the corner of the elevator and slid her hands up his chest lifting her lips to him. He leaned down to kiss her and had just gotten heated when the doors pinged open. "Sorry for that too," she said to him cheekily, with a wink.

"Ashlynn," his tone was dark.

"We have stuff to do," she reminded him, catching the door at the sensor so they did not close again. "We will have lots of sex later. Shhh now, we do not want to wake our vampire, he needs his sleep." They tiptoed out of the elevator and into the stairwell to take the last rise of stairs up to the roof.

The wind picked up her hair and billowed out her top as Ashlynn stretched out her wings. "Oh, that feels so good," she said stretching them out fully again for the sheer pleasure of feeling the muscles release and the tendons stretch seeming to the very points of her feathers.

"It is exceedingly uncomfortable to be forever retracting and re-opening them," Cael agreed indulging in his own stretch, reaching his arms out to their full extension in order to stretch his shoulder muscles. "On my realm, we rarely retract them once we open them. It is simply unnatural to do so. There is a reason it hurts. They are part of us and are meant to be used."

Ashlynn approached the lip of the building, looking down uneasily, the building seemed to warp with its length, the line of window impossibly long, and the street so far below them, with the humans gathered at its base like ants. "It is really very high," she muttered.

"You have wings," he pointed out. "You have nothing to fear from height."

"It does not make throwing myself off of a very tall building any easier. My instincts tell me it is a very bad idea," she confessed. "Perhaps should have just walked up here and dived straight off rather than give myself time to think about it." Cael snorted his laughter and with strong and sure wing-strokes walked casually off of the edge and mimed walking through the air with exaggerated movements and a sarcastically marvelling expression on his face. "Come on, pigeon," he teased. "There is nothing to it."

"Hmph," she closed her eyes and stepped off, shrieking as she fell, until her wings caught the air, the resistance of gravity pulling her body against the boney extensions until she engaged her core muscles to support herself. It made sense, she thought, why Cael's stomach muscles were so fabulous, he needed to use them when he flew. She managed to gain height. "This is harder work than I thought," she complained, breathlessly. "I guess it is like building any muscle in your body, if you haven't used it, it takes a while to build strength up."

"You do not have to move your shoulders," he sniggered. "Just relax. Your body knows what to do. If you stop dwelling on it, instinct will take over. I will hold your hand if it makes you feel better."

She accepted his extended hand and let him guide them into the shifting currents of air. "See," he said, watching her face as he eased them from one current to another. "There you go, you are starting to get a feel for it. It should not be so much work. So," he added. "Where are we going?"

"Not far. That building over there," she pointed to it, one of the oldest buildings in the city, an elegant tower bearing all the details of eras past in the stonework around the windows and corners, in the sculpted stone supports for the penthouse balcony, and in the stone balustrades that edged it.

Once, she knew from history lessons as a child, it had been a marvel of modernity, the tallest building in the city, but time and man's aspirations had reached higher and higher in the centuries since and now it was one of the lower buildings in the area, but also one which occupied the most ground space.

There had been efforts to buy the building from its owners, development companies intending to build four or more tall, shiny towers in its place, but the owners had no interest in money. She suspected they, like the vampires, accrued more than

"Ugh," he made a sound in the back of his throat. "Them."

"Oh dear," she shot him a wary look. That did not bode well. "What have you done to the gargoyle triad?"

"Nothing!" He protested. "I just dislike gargoyles. Gargoyles were the failed attempt to create winged slaves in our own image. I find them ugly and graceless."

"Alright, you are going to keep your mouth shut the entire time we are there," she decided. "Look pretty, say nothing, are we clear, Cael? The last thing I need is for you to run off your mouth whilst I am trying to persuade them to shed their glamour."

"What, you do not want me to tell them that they are caricatures carved by a talent-less artist, and have the aerodynamics of an elephant with wings?" He replied, his lips curling in the corner.

"You are trying to provoke me," she told him. "If you persist, I will turn you over my knee when we return to Elior's apartment and spank your glorious behind."

"Promises, promises."

"Or, even better, I will let Elior do it. He would enjoy that." She slid him a sideways look. "You know our vampire would like to do you, don't you?"

"He is my vampire too, of course I know," he replied with dignity. "Oh look," he pointed with a sneer. "The cement blocks are flying."

She could see the gargoyles winging towards their perches along a generous balcony, their wing spread impressive as they angled into the descent and their bodies powerful. She directed her wings to the same angle trying to mimic their smooth athleticism of flight. Her landing was not as neat as Cael's, having to run off a few steps of momentum, but overall, she was pretty proud of her effort.

The gargoyles ignored their arrival, remaining statue still, crouched on their podiums as if on the verge of flight rather than having just landed from it. She moved up to the ornamental stone balustrade, her hand feeling along its smooth surface.

The glass windows behind her were original to the building, the area of glass broken into many smaller squares reflecting the technical abilities of glass blowers of the era, and the glass showing small bubbles of imperfection adding to the overall charm.

The apartment she saw within, however, had been updated, the kitchen very modern and large, the lounge area dominated by a l-shaped couch in dark natural leather, and a solid dining table with eight seats arranged around it. There was artwork on the walls that she imagined, like the windows, was original, and probably bought from the artists themselves long before fame had made their work priceless.

She imagined human curators thought these pieces lost to time, as no one other than the triad had set eyes on them since their creation. She recognised a few of the later pieces from photos in history books. The photos had not captured the vividity of the colours.

She had never had the opportunity to see the gargoyles close up, but she had seen them often winging over the city, and as a child she had been fascinated by them. Cael was wrong, she thought, the gargoyles were not like those used on human buildings, mould poured and carved to the grotesque, but rather were artwork, like that which hung on their walls.

The one closest to her was a massive, winged lion, his lip curled back from snarling fangs, and his mane magnificent in its fullness. For all the lion-like face and mane, his body was man-like, heavily muscled arms with five fingers catching the edge of his pedestal, toes curling over the lip, and a huge, jutting...

She averted her eyes and swallowed back the comment about competitive swords that sprung to her lips, just in time. Cael caught her eye and raised his eyebrows mouthing a word at her. She sent him a glare, cautioning him to silence. He shrugged and returned to his examination of the lion's prominently displayed assets.

She remembered reading that gargoyles formed triads of lovers, before attracting a female, and that they used pheromones, like many Others, but more potently. Virile was the term her mother had very primly used when teaching Ashlynn about the Other world. Ashlynn had another word for it, and she smothered her grin, trying to focus on the matter at hand.

"Sir," she said to the lion politely, instead of the many lewd thoughts that rattled through her brain despite her effort to focus. "We are both aware that I can see through the glamour, and that my companion and I aren't human."