Gargoyle: Kinswoman

Part 3

Bascun hadn't fallen asleep. He'd closed his eyes, but each time she moved away from her table she could feel them on her. It was unsettling, but oddly comforting too. Robert's staring was always sickening, he'd glower at you until you surrendered without knowing exactly what got him angry this time. Bascun's eyes didn't carry that and she supposed his reasons to keep an eye on her were different, thus she wasn't bothered by it. She heard his wings touching the ground every now and then, making her think of peacock tails instead of two batwings decorating his back.

Leaving right after lunch break through the valley was the only option she could think of. This tended to be the time the place became deserted in the middle of the day. The only ones insane enough to come here were runners or those, who were praying on them. Her logic was, she had the biggest predator following her like a dog so no idiot would try take them down without thinking they'd had wee too much to drink.

Every now and then she glanced at the clock behind him on the wall and waited for the minutes to pass before the town clock banged two. Hers was two minutes off, it turned out. It would have bothered her had she ever used it aside being general reference.

She got up and checked the valley and determined the rainy day had indeed turned it into green desert. The clouds above it had done a good job scaring office folks back to their concrete heavens. Bascun pushed up from where he'd lay and stretched his back and neck muscles. She didn't have to tell him, it was time, they both knew he'd been waiting.

"Isn't this a bit lonely place to go through?" He asked about half an hour later, when I'd sneaked him out from the back, where I knew were no cameras. He had to squeeze his wings against his sides hard to push himself through the tiny door, but as it was the only one that didn't have camera coverage, then it had to do.

"You prefer the city center?"

His jacket crunched lightly when he shrugged. "Wouldn't mind that at all."

She bet he didn't – with his ultra modern look and gadgets worth showing, he'd fit in perfectly in a modern Halloween with other fops. She would mind, she thought. All her decorations included couple of earrings and a nose ring and the closest thing to modernism was her smart phone.

They were about half way through, when he took up his pace and reached her side. "Why are you helping me?"

Wasn't that obvious, she wondered, eyes still searching any possible encounters they could end up with.

"Hey, Veronica!" he called out to her and she realized he'd stopped altogether. She turned around, ready to set him straight, but the way his head was cradled between his shoulders, hands in his pocket, like not sure what to do with them, she couldn't.

"Before I go any further, I want you to look straight at me and tell me, why are you helping me?"

"So I can sell you on online auction after killing you in my hideaway." She said, close to snarling. Couldn't he see there were far safer places for this kind of conversations? He didn't look amused and she wondered how many times he'd actually faced that threat before. Why had she thought he'd know what sarcasm was? "You're my cousin now." She offered another quick explanation and it made her insides squirm with warmth. "If Selene is married to your brother, as you say, then that makes you my cousin."

"Even if that's a pretense?"

"Selene was my cousin, more real than any of mine have ever been, so to you it maybe pretense, but to me it was real and I'd like to hope, it was the same for her. Blood ties have never determine my family." She meant it. She chose, who she shared her life with, no one else. Even if it seemed stubborn to him, she didn't care. "What you should be concentrating on is that I'm helping you."