Gargoyle (Woodland Creek)(11)
This was peaceful for them, the wizard safe from any harm.
Even if it wasn’t so peaceful for me. I kept my gaze off Isaac.
Although his company did not, as they took their seats, eyeing me with interest.
As soon as their asses were in their chairs, I quickly glanced at my watch, ogling the dial. “Boy, look at that. I can’t believe it’s already…” Yeah, it didn’t matter. I grabbed my bag on my lap and began to stand, glancing at the wizard. “It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for saving me a seat.”
His chuckle was ever so quiet, his blue eyes twinkling the barest bit in his merriment, seeming to take great joy in what I had said as he gripped the back of my chair and helped to pull it out while I stood, my exit now clear to my friends. “You’re most welcome.”
Though, he lifted a finger. “I’m sorry. Wait just a moment.” He peered to the group around the table and blinked so damn softly. His voice was quiet. “I want you to know this young lady, Miss Kennedy Kirk, is under my protection. Should any of you decide that she should be harmed in the future…” his smile was small, “just don’t.”
My jaw flapped. He knew my name.
Uh, frightening he was.
He wiggled his nose.
I jerked and barely caught myself on the table with one hand. A sensation like tiny snowflakes, falling and melting on my flesh made my shoulders shudder. I ground my teeth against the unwanted chill, my gaze slamming on the wizard. But, just as quickly, I altered my attention, not giving away I knew he had performed magic on me.
My lips thinned, but I quickly straightened, all of their sharpened gazes on me—except the wizard. My gaze landed on no one, just flying over the table, my words soft as I mumbled, “Um…goodbye, everyone.”
Mike made a gurgling sound inside his throat, staring at Caleb with quietly deadly eyes, then he jerked forward, peering around his brother—who I still wasn’t looking at—and hissed at Mrs. Stone, “Aren’t you going to do something?”
Mrs. Stone’s forehead wrinkled her confusion clear. “What?”
Yeah, it was my cue to leave. I quickly jerked to the side, holding my bag close to my chest, beginning to step a foot between my empty chair and Mandy’s. This wasn’t the lunch I had planned.
The most deadly growl stopped me in my tracks as it purred through the air, the hair on my arms standing up as goose bumps of fear raised on my skin, my heart rapidly beating a heavy thrum inside my chest. That growl was a sound meant for death. The silence before an outbreak of bloodshed.
It was The Mayor. His Gargoyle.
No one at the table moved.
Locking my legs that wanted to start trembling, my gaze slowly tilted to the left. To him.
I almost peed my pants. No shame in that when it was definitely the Gargoyle staring from his eyes. The only reason I didn’t, with death staring as such, was because he wasn’t watching me.
Those quietly glowing eyes were solely focused on Caleb. “She knows.”
To which, the—seemingly incredibly vain—wizard merely lifted his fork, pointed it absently at me, then forked another bite of his macaroni, holding Isaac’s gaze while he stated evenly, “She’s not a shifter—or a wizard—as you can clearly tell now with the spell gone since I know that’s what you’re really asking.” He smiled as Isaac’s growl abruptly cut off.
My lips wanted to thin, but I kept my expression as silent as the table, staring at the plate that the wizard was eating from. To run or to stay—and try to diffuse a possibly bad situation—were my only thoughts now.
Mrs. Stone broke the quiet, asking incredulous, “You thought she was a shifter?”
Isaac didn’t move a muscle. I took a glance at him, only to see him staring at his hands on the table. His fingers were spread, relaxed flat on the tabletop. He actually appeared calm…except for the rigid set of his shoulders that were only starting to ease in tension. He wasn’t speaking either, so that was a bad indication.
Mike cleared his throat after glancing once at his brother, then he leaned forward, stating, “She’s been to the shifter office down the street. She dropped off a package there. What did you expect us to think?”
Mrs. Stone stared for a long moment, and then sniffed heavily in my direction, and her shoulders stiffened. “She does smell like flowers.” Her frightening gaze snapped to mine, freezing me further in place. “You were invited into the shifter office?” Her head cocked. “You lied about being a shifter?”
I breathed slowly, unable to look away from her. The ‘shifter’ was out of the bag. There was no point in lying.
I stated, “I was given a package from a wizard to deliver there. No one in particular invited me in, and I didn’t lie. I never said I was a shifter. People just keep thinking I am because I smell like the flower shop I work at.” I paused and then decided to explain further, “And, apparently, there was a spell on me. I actually did try to explain I wasn’t a shifter at the time, but I was rudely cut off.”
Her gaze was unyielding. “You weren’t invited, and yet you went inside?”
“Um…there was no one at the receptionist’s desk, so I went in when two other individuals exited.”
Her dark brows slammed together. “That makes no sense.”
“I’m sorry,” I said slowly though it did sound like a question. I was confused myself. She was overreacting about me going inside the building without an invite. “I did have the package to deliver.”