Gargoyle: Kinswoman

Part 12

She kept walking, desperately needing the small miracle of a hidden corners that wouldn't reveal Bascun just how shaken she was from the kiss. She chuckled as her hand moved to touch the spot beneath her belly, but she pulled it back when she was out of the shed's shadow and saw Isilia, who was standing up by her bench and waving at her with terrified eyes. She kept pointing at her.

"What is it?" She asked already far, confused why'd she be so upset, or why she didn't shout like she sometimes did. The woman had mighty voice. Had she heard them?

A gunshot sound had her freeze on the spot. Her entire body went cold, when she realized it had come from the shed.

She turned and ran back to its direction, but heard voices and pulled against the crooked wall. She peaked around the corner and saw Bascun standing in the half ring of five men dressed in long overcoats and thick-looking hats. He'd got himself pressed against the wall of the tool shed that sat next to the firewood one. They wore gloves and modern, surprisingly human guns, but they clearly weren't humans. One of them had a long green tail flipping out of his jacket and another, when he turned his head a little, had pointy ears that definitely weren't human.

Bascun's hands were up, but she could see he had had no time to pull his gun. Otherwise he looked unharmed.

"Kardek was right, you are alive!" The man on his right said in a curling voice, his gun pointed at his chest. "Didn't expect you to be playing house with the old wench. Time's up though – Kardek expects you to fill your contract now."

Bascun grinned.

"I am pretty sure he wanted me dead."

The two guys in the middle shifted a little and Veronica understood they were the ones, who had tossed Bascun through the gate and on her lap.

"Don't be daft! He wants you back, alive and kicking so he can order you to finish your job!"

She patted her back, hoping for the love of god she hadn't forgotten her own. She didn't carry it usually, but with Bascun's sudden appearance, she'd felt she needed to. Now it was sitting right where she had settled it before – against the backside of her right hip.

She moved the plastic buckle that held it in place and quietly pulled it out, her eyes constantly on the men and saw the pointed ear twitch. He turned.

"Eyes on me!" Bascun barked at the man, when he saw him look away. "Can't you do at least this part of your job right?" He chastized the guy and to prove his point, he swiftly pulled his own gun out so fast it nearly made her gasp. He held it up together with his hands, but his chuckling was clear – he considered them to be the lackeys they were and definitely not up to his class of training.

I took a quiet step closer and raised my gun.

"Shoot!" he mouthed to me.

"Which one?" she mouthed back and he forgot himself for mere second and frowned. He probably thought the woman had to be daft! The guy on his left saw it and turned in time with his boss saying. "Take out the old woman."

Her heart jumped. Second later she heard a bang. And his gun was pointed back on the man on his right. "You touch her and I will kill myself!" As to prove his point, he pointed his own gun at his throat.

She gaped at the gargoyle with the same horrified expressions his attackers were, but she got over it fast, when she realized it had worked. All their attention was unwaveringly on him.

"Don't be stupid, Bascun! No one wants you dead!"

"He will after I finish my job!"

She mentally slapped him for whining like a little kid, but as long as it kept their attention on him, who could complain?

"Which one?" She mouthed again.

"Well, you only need your hands to finish it, don't you? Go ahead then, shoot at your limbs, stupid, see how far that will get you!"

"Yeah, but," he moved the barrel on his head next, "if I shoot here and you won't get me out of the sun fast enough and I turn!"

"Ah, forget it!" The right side man raised his gun at his eye level and aimed at him. "We'll just ask your younger brother. He needs work, right?"

She saw his left hand fingers turn slightly and point on the guy in the far left with the uzi. The man on the right aimed and shot while she was still aiming. The shot cut her concentration short and she shot. The second later the other four laid on the mud floor next to his feet. His hands fell down on his sides and he wavered.

"Are you alright?" He asked, but he didn't move from his spot himself.

"That was really stupid!" She shouted, angry to the core. She knew most of it came from a kill she'd just done, but she couldn't stop it from seeping into her voice.

"They would have killed you!"

"I make the rules, remember? And I would have not have you provoke them like this! It was stupid! What's so funny?"

He was laughing quietly and she really didn't like it.

"Stupid's what's coming next," he pointed at the clouds above and she noticed for the first time that the clouds had thinned and a large hole of them was moving closer to the sun. "I really need to get out of the sun!"

"You'll fall asleep – what's the problem?" She remembered him mentioning it before.

"I fall asleep – I won't wake up." He corrected and fell to his knees before he fainted face first into the mud, leaving her gasping for air.