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"That is good news. Then perhaps I will worry less about your safety when we leave the house." Stan nodded, then turned serious. "Actually, I was thinking about last night."
Alethia grinned. "So was I. If I'd known what an amazing lover you'd be, I would have tried harder to seduce you earlier."
He blinked, as if he was surprised. "Not about the sex. About...before that. About being a gargoyle and under a curse which can be broken."
Now it was Alethia's turn to frown. "But you said you didn't care about that. That you didn't mind that we hadn't broken the curse."
"I don't mind, but I'm not the only one who needs to know about it. You see, I'm not the only demon or gargoyle or whatever you summoned that night. My cousins...they came back, too."
More gargoyles? How had Alethia not seen them?
Wait...were gargoyles the reason for all the empty graves at the cemetery? They'd found at least a dozen of them. A dozen gargoyles, flying around the city...they'd cause chaos. If they hadn't already.
"How many?" she asked.
"There were four of us. One protector for each girl."
Each girl? Four protectors, four girls... "You mean the other girls I was with that night?"
Oh hell. This was not good. If a gargoyle had stalked Callie. Or Tacey. Or gotten anywhere near Tacey's daughter, Rory. And Octavia...she wasn't frightening by herself, but she knew people. Scary people. People who trusted her to fix their IT problems and keep their secrets, who owed her a favour.
"What happened to them? Where are they now?" Alethia asked.
Stan looked blank. "We all flew to you to answer the summons. When I spotted you, I claimed you as mine, and told them to get their own mistress. They were still flying around, trying to decide who got who, when I flew you home. I had to remind them that you were mine several times before they finally flew off after the other girls."
"So if the girls drove home, like I told them to, your gargoyle friends probably followed them?" Alethia said slowly.
Stan nodded. "Of course. As I am your protector, they each chose a girl to protect. They would not have left them."
Three poor cursed guys from the past. Stan's cousins. Which made them family. Alethia closed her eyes. "We have to help them."
"It's kind of you to offer, but there's no need. Really. I'm sure they are adequate protectors, and nothing bad will happen to your cousins. They are just as safe as you are."
Stan didn't understand. He didn't know her family. He was a Regency man who thought women needed to be protected, instead of living a life of their own making. And the girls of Bell House were, by definition, the sort who grabbed life by the balls in every way possible, until life gave them what they wanted. Stan had no idea what his poor cousins were likely to be dealing with.
"I'm not worried about my cousins, Stan, I'm concerned about yours. Especially if they've all gone to Bell House..." Oh hell, she should have gone for a visit sooner. They were probably all garden statues outside Bell House right now. With UV lamps on at night to keep the poor blokes at bay. Because if anyone knew how to deal with supernatural creatures, it was Callie. Alethea needed to brush up on her research. Gargoyles, demons...what else? Whatever she had time for, she guessed. "As soon as it's dark, I'll take you to them. Because if your cousins followed Callie and Tacey and Octavia back to Bell House...a gargoyle curse will be the least of their problems, believe me."
Stan's eyes widened. "Are they...witches, like Carline?"
"Well, we're all descended from her, so any of us could have inherited it...but I think Callie's the only one who really qualifies. She can curse you something wicked...and she's the one who worked out how to summon you all, so if anyone's a witch, she might be." A witch who didn't believe in magic. Or good men.
"One woman is truly a danger to three grown men?" Stan didn't want to believe it.
Alethia turned grim. "Callie and her curses are a danger to all men. Especially if they piss her off. And her favourite curses? You can't break them if you're not fluent in Latin or Ancient Greek."
"Then we must rescue them before she kills them," Stan said.
"Or worse," Alethia added under her breath.
