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Octavia shuddered. She hated cockroaches. If the backpackers was having another plague of them, Tacey would need to get Dave, their usual pest control guy, to come and inspect the café, to make sure none of the roaches had taken up residence here.
She blinked. For a moment, she fancied one of the backpackers looked like Tacey's ex, Matt. The one who'd gotten her pregnant with Rory, then tried to kill her. Only this guy was built like a bodybuilder, and Matt had always been kind of lanky. Not to mention the fact that he was in prison for attempted murder. So unless he had a twin brother who worked out, it had to be nothing but a coincidence.
Besides, when he picked up the beer bottle, the cockroach scampered off, not dead at all. Matt would have killed it, like the psychopath he was, instead of letting it go.
"Octavia?"
Too late, she realised Harlow had been talking to her while she'd been daydreaming about a man who didn't deserve a moment of her time, let alone space in her head. Harlow on the other hand...he'd brought her up here and helped her more than she could say. He deserved all of her attention.
"Sorry. Just thinking about my sister and...stuff. What did you say?"
He inclined his head. "I asked about the name of the café. I know that much has changed between your time and mine, but in my time, it would have been terribly impolite to name a place the Shut Up Café. I was wondering why she would choose such a name."
Octavia laughed. "Oh, technically our mum chose the name, not us. Tacey's real name is Tacita. Mum thought she was going to be a boy, and she wanted to call him Tacitus, which in Latin means silent, but she swapped it to Tacita when she was born a girl. Only when you say it aloud, the way Mum said it when she was angry, it sounds more like tacete, which means to be silent, or shut up. It was a standing joke when we were growing up, because if Mum ever said her full name, Tacey went all quiet because she knew it meant she was in trouble for something. Tacey wanted to call the place Tacita's Café, so I pointed out that no one would ever pronounce it right, and Callie laughed and said we should just abandon the Latin and call it the Shut Up Café and be done with it. Sybil said it made her think the food or the drinks must be so good, everyone just shut up to enjoy them, or that the café was a nice, quiet place to bring your laptop to work. Plus, it was still called Tacita's Café, sort of, just a cool play on words that only a Latin scholar would truly understand."
Harlow just shook his head. "My brother Grant would have understood instantly. He learned Latin, though I never did."
"You have a brother? Where is he now?" Even as the words left her lips, Octavia regretted them. Harlow had lived two hundred years ago. His brother was probably long dead.
Harlow grimaced. Yep, she'd put her foot in her mouth, all right. Octavia opened her mouth to apologise for being so insensitive.
"Last time I saw him, he was on the roof of your house with my cousin, Wystan. Guarding the other women in your family."
Octavia's jaw dropped. His brother was still alive? And Wystan...where had she heard that name before? Then it clicked. "You mean Wystan, the monster my niece said is guarding her, is real?"
"Wystan is bound to protect the redhead, who I presume is your sister, Tacey. Perhaps he has extended his protection to her daughter, too. I do not know. I have not spoken to them since we arrived at your home. I've been busy helping you." But he wouldn't meet her eyes. Like he was hiding something...
"So Tacey has someone protecting her? That's such a relief. I mean, we all help her as much as we can, and she's totally kickarse all on her own, being a single mum and a business owner in between keeping all of us in line and Bell House in order, but sometimes I think it'd be nice if she had someone to take care of her, to take the load off her, like a real partner..." Then she caught sight of Harlow's face and trailed off.
She'd never seen his expression look so dark, not even when those bikies attacked him.
"Wystan lost his wife and daughter shortly before we left Scotland to come to the colony. His heart died with them, for he has mourned them every day since. What you suggest is simply not possible, for whatever heart he once had no longer beats, as he is now a gargoyle. Nor can I say how good a protector he will be, seeing as he did not manage to protect his family, who he loved with all his heart. He might be bound to protect your sister and her daughter, but he is not the man he once was. Even after he arrived in the colony, he would fall into terrible bouts of melancholy where he would speak to no one and it was clear his thoughts were miles away. His love for Effie, and then losing her, broke something in his mind. He could never love your sister, or be a husband to her."
Pity smote her hard. Poor Wystan, to lose his whole family. But if what Rory had said was true, then he was already protecting Tacey and Rory, no matter what Harlow said. But...marriage? To a gargoyle? Was that even possible?
"Do other gargoyles do that? Fall in love with humans, and marry them?" Her mind whirled. If they did, that meant they shared a bed. All those rock hard muscles...and what would their kids be like? Could gargoyles even have kids, or did they shoot blanks?
"I do not know of any who have," Harlow said stiffly.
"Yeah, but...how many gargoyles do you know? And how long have you been one?" Octavia pressed.
"I have been a gargoyle for less than a week, as you well know, and I only know of three others – my brother, and my two cousins, who are bound to guard the other girls who were in the graveyard that night."
So the spell had been successful in summoning a protector for Alethia after all? Good, because Octavia still felt a bit bad about helping set up the dating profile that had lured in Alethia's stalker.
"So the only gargoyles you know have been gargoyles for less than a week, and the only women they've been around are my sister, my niece, and my two cousins?" Octavia pressed.
Harlow nodded.
"Well, none of them would marry a guy they'd only known for a few days. Callie might sleep with him, but she's more likely to curse him with something horrible. Which one's protecting Callie?"
Harlow grimaced. "My brother Grant is bound to the witch. I warn you, he will likely try to seduce her, as he charms all women, including the daughter of his tutor, Vicar Jordan. When the vicar found out, he tossed Grant out of his house, which was shortly after Wystan lost his wife, so we all moved into Wystan's cottage with him, and..." He coughed. "If your cousin spends too much time with my brother, her virtue will be in danger. Perhaps you should warn her."
Octavia could only laugh. "Oh, I think it's more likely you should warn him. If he pisses her off, she'll curse his stone dick off, followed by his wings and anything else he's particularly attached to."
The look of disapproval on his face only deepened. "If Grant has been foolish, then he undoubtedly deserves whatever the consequences might be. I will not save him again."
"So you saved him before?" From what she'd seen of Harlow so far, she'd believe it.
