Masked

VII

"Michael?" Amelia asked, breaking my thoughts.

"Yea?" I asked while looking at her puzzled expression.

"If you and Lacie get married or whatever will you try to change her so she doesn't die?"

Amelia's question hit me hard as I faltered in my flying but managed to stay up.

"I... I," stammered realizing that even though Lacie and I might be together, we never would completely be.

You can't just change humans into gargoyles. It's a long and very painful process. Or at least that's what I was told. No one has ever told us how it was done, probably because we were too scared to ask. Amelia looked at me as I tried to find an answer.

"I don't know how I'm going to do it," I answered helplessly and tried to hide the fact from my mind that we wouldn't be together for eternity.

"Well we can always ask mom and dad. If they don't know, then I'm sure there's other gargoyles around here somewhere who will know." Amelia said trying to make up for the question.

"It's fine Amelia. I hadn't even been thinking of that until you mentioned it. I guess I kinda needed a wake up call."

Amelia beamed, completely forgetting what she had just done a few seconds ago and pushed herself up to where mom was flying.

I'll need to talk to Lacie about this first, before I talk to mom and dad, I muttered to myself.

Hoping this was the right decision to make, I pushed myself faster to catch up to my family and Canada.

"We're here!" Amelia's voice echoed with enthusiasm and I couldn't help but chuckle as we landed in the woods near a cabin that was a few yards away.

Lacie slid off my back and ran to Amelia as they both went inside first to investigate the rooms.

"Can Lacie and I stay in a room together?" Amelia called out through a window.

"As long as it's okay with Michael," Liliana said.

I kept my mouth from dropping and recomposed myself, "whatever Lacie wants to do is fine with me."

"I'll alternate between staying with you and her," she said as Amelia bounced up and down.

"Cooliotasticness!"

"Shall we?" Mark asked as we walked up the steps and entered the building.

My jaw then dropped as I gazed at how huge and luxurious it was inside the cabin. There were four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, office area and even a hot tub!

"Wow, I wonder how much this costs people just to live here?" I asked in amazement.

"I don't know, but we were fortunate that we didn't have to pay much," my dad said and went into the living room.

I walked upstairs and found Amelia and Lacie giggling in a bedroom. They were in a master bed with a huge chest of drawers and a vanity set. They both stopped talking as I walked in.

"I'm sorry, am I interupting some girl talk?" I winked at Lacie.

I saw her blush as Amelia said, "yes you did actually. Now all I'm going to hear about when you leave is how hot Lacie thinks you are."

I laughed at the comment and watched Lacie glare at Amelia while turning a bright pink. Taking a few steps, I kissed Lacie gently before she had time to say anything and Amelia could make gagging noises. Then I left as they continued on with conversations I had no interest in hearing.

 I walked across to the next room and saw my parents were going to use that. It was another master bedroom, same as Lacie's. The only difference was it had a slight green tint to the wall while Lacie and Amelia's was a baby blue. I went into a smaller room and knew it would be mine. It had navy blue walls that reminded me almost of the cave at home, just with a little more color and room.

Laying down on the bed, I stared out the window and saw the stunning view. Vancouver was amazing! The forests just stretched for miles and miles.

Walking back down to where Liliana and Mark were, I looked to see they were surfing on the internet. I admit, even though we didn't use technology that often, my family was pretty good at figuring it out. They were checking out something about random new stories. I took the other computer and browsed for any stories about sightings of gargoyles. Relief washed over me when I saw nothing had been posted.

'For now Michael, just keep an eye on it in case there is one.' I thought and bookmarked the page.

Logging off, I decided to go eavesdrop on the girls again. 'This is going to be one fun vacation,' I thought and walked by their doorway and waited.

"Lacie can we please change the subject to something that's not related to my brother," Amelia said groaning.

Lacie giggled, "sorry Amelia, I'll try not to talk about your brother and how cute he is. Not to mention a good kisser!"

Amelia sighed and I could tell she was rolling her eyes.

"Oops, sorry Amelia."

I chuckled quietly to myself and retreated away quietly to not reveal my cover. I went outside and headed towards the hot tub. It was sort of big, I mean for humans about six could fit in. For gargoyles, two or three if you want a tight squeeze. But normally gargoyles don't like getting wet unless we have too. I would only get in if Lacie wanted me too, I decided and stared at the sky. It was still pretty bright for a sunset, tinted with hues of orange, pink and purple.

I walked back inside and heard my parents talking. Now normally I don't eavesdrop on them but today I did.

"I don't think it's a good idea for Michael to get too attached to Lacie, nor should Amelia," Mark said.

"They're both fond of the girl, and Michael will do what's right for them both," Liliana said trying to stick up for me.

"If he changes her and it goes wrong, she could either leave and tell everyone spoiling our secret, or die from it and it would be all over the news."

"Mark you're being irrational," Liliana said, "just think of how happy Michael is being with Lacie. Not to mention Amelia is, now that their is another girl around."

Michael sighed, "okay I admit, it's great to see all that but we'll need to ask Michael before he asks Lacie anything about changing. Agreed?"

Liliana sighed, "agreed."

**Things are about to get interesting! Any thoughts??**