Chapter 19 #2
“He’s agreeing,” Aurora told me. “Second, he proved how mighty he is by taking on those other shifters. One was a beta. The other has good standing in the community. The gargoyles are—well, who knows. Guardians, at any rate. So that’s good.
He handled them ruthlessly.” She glowed with pride.
“His prowess was called into question, and he answered in exactly the way he has always been known for. Anyone who wondered if he can fight no longer does.”
“Oh.” I took a sip of my champagne. “So, he’s okay, then. I didn’t ruin his image.”
Aljoe huffed.
“Tristan is up.” Niamh pointed that way.
“Oops.” I half stood, catching his eye as he took the field. “Do you need me to ref?”
Tristan put out his hand. “No thank you. Someone less gleeful in battle would be fine.”
Sue stepped in.
I put my hand back on Aljoe’s leg. “All gargoyles are gleeful in battle.”
“No,” Aurora said in a singsong voice, tilting her head.
“I don’t think so. Not like you. As I said, Aljoe showed he was mighty—aggressive, primal, precise, and calculating.
There were no extra movements. No fluff, we’ll say.
He handled the job hard and fast. He took minimal damage even against so many attackers.
And then here you were, dancing around in the middle of the whole thing, directing people like traffic, not at all concerned that you would get attacked. ”
“I didn’t know he was going to attack me until right before he did.” I turned back to watch the burly wolf shifter face down Tristan, who’d shifted to his gargoyle form. This wouldn’t go well for that shifter. Had he not seen the gargoyle-monster in this form before?
“No, not Aljoe,” Aurora said, “the others.”
“The others weren’t going for me. They were just trying to figure their life out.”
“Yeah, see? You didn’t even notice because you didn’t count it as a threat.”
“Right…because it wasn’t.” I crinkled my nose. “That’s not gleeful. I was doing my job.”
Ulric squeezed through two people with a chair.
“Jessie, tell that one there to move.” Niamh pointed at the man standing beside Aurora’s chair.
I glanced up at him, but he was already pushing back to allow Ulric in.
“Sweet spot.” Ulric paused in confusion at my sitting on the ground. “What’s happening?”
“Sit down there, you.” Niamh held out a beer.
“Oh.” Ulric shrugged, unfolded the chair, and took a seat. He grabbed the beer from Niamh. “How’d I get so lucky?”
“Jessie is squatting in the dirt with My Little Pony,” Niamh answered, not having looked away from the fight. Tristan snapped out his wings, but he didn’t take to the air.
“Let’s not…” I showed her my teeth to shut her up.
Aurora held back chuckles. “Yeah, so after not at all caring that you’re in a dangerous situation with a mighty shifter—”
“Oh! Are we talking about that challenge?” Ulric showed me a lopsided grin.
“That was great, Jessie. All the gargoyles are so firmly in your camp, we’ll never have a problem from Gimerel again.
Evan is tickled. He’s ready to return home and say I told you so to the people he fired. Patty has the footage up everywhere.”
The shifter attacked Tristan, lunging for him with snapping jaws. Tristan barely moved. He leaned forward and swatted the wolf away. The furry body slammed into the crowd on the other side of the cones.
“After you got everyone safely away,” Aurora went on, topping off her champagne, “you did not bat an eye that Aljoe had chosen a new target. It’s like you were the challenger all along, given how easily you rolled with it.”
“What was I supposed to do?” I asked.
“Right?” Ulric put out his free hand. “That’s what I said. He’s coming for you. What are you going to do, not engage?”
“She didn’t just engage, she taunted him,” Aurora replied. “She taunted Yazanth Golden Fang with a cage. Do you know how many people have taunted him and lived to tell the tale?”
“That wasn’t a taunt. I was being serious. The first thing I did when I met him was put a magical cage around him. I didn’t think he’d want people to see that.”
Aljoe huffed, and his paw flicked.
Aurora bent over, laughing.
“What?” Ulric asked, chuckling. “What’d he say?”
“My uncle isn’t around, right?” Aurora asked. “He’d be pissed if he saw me laughing about this.”
“Nah, he’s over there with the middling alphas,” Niamh replied, cracking another beer.
“You worried about putting Aljoe into a cage,” Aurora said with renewed laughter, “but you were totally fine riding on his back like you were in some sort of circus?”
“Okay, well…right.” I took a big sip of my drink. “By then, yes, things had gotten away from me a little bit. I think my gargoyle was happy to have a challenge.”
“I think you blame a lot on your gargoyle when it’s you,” Aurora murmured. She made a fair point.
“What I wondered is,” Niamh said, “why did ye just sit on him, happy as ya please, and give him scratches that didn’t do much damage? I’ve seen ye do worse than that. Tristan comes to mind. Remember way back in the day?”
Before he’d become part of the team, yeah.
We’d discovered he had a different color blood when I ripped into him with my claws.
A suspicious color possibly originating from a realm I had only heard about and still wasn’t quite sure existed.
It must, though, for a person to bleed both red and orange.
“Well, since we were already in the fight, I figured I’d pay him back for some of the abuse he’s always giving Aurora.” I shrugged. “And that’s all I would’ve done if I hadn’t gotten surprised by that roll move. I reacted poorly.”
“Poorly?” Aurora widened her eyes. “You nearly killed the guy!”
“Exactly. Mock battles should be superficial. There shouldn’t be real danger in them. That’s a waste of life. I should have more control.”
“Ye’ve been at this for less than two years, girl.” Niamh crossed an ankle over a knee. “Ye’re better than most seasoned mages, so ye are. Ye’re battle-trained; of course ye’re goin’ta react aggressively. We’d be dead a hundred times over by now if ye didn’t learn like that.”
“Right. That’s why I shouldn’t be doing these challenges.”
“Bah.” Niamh waved it away.
Aurora put her hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for thinking of me. And providing us all with a lot of entertainment that my uncle is not going to forgive anytime soon.”
“He doesn’t really have a pot to piss in,” I said darkly.
“No, he does not.” Niamh nodded in solidarity. “What is this wanker up to?” she groused. “We’ve been sitting here for ages, like.”
Tristan was barely moving around the space, hitting and kicking and basically thwarting every single attempt the wolf made to get closer. The entire audience could tell he was getting bored, and we were getting bored with him.
Finally, he let the wolf in, close enough that Tristan could wrestle him. He ripped down the side with his claws. The wolf bayed in pain. He slammed the wolf down and then bit into the back of its neck.
“Careful,” I called. “I’m busy with Aljoe. Don’t hurt him too badly.”
“Ya just can’t stop yerself from giving offense, can ya?” Niamh asked.
“How is that offensive?” Ulric leaned over to look at Niamh. “That wolf is obviously no match for Tristan. Why did he even challenge?”
“The offensive part is asking Tristan to give him mercy,” Aurora murmured.
“Shifters are precious about their egos,” Niamh said loudly.
“And saying that for everyone to hear is not offensive?” I asked.
“Oh, it is.” Niamh put down her empty can before lifting the lid on the cooler. “And true. But I like causing offense. Ye do it without the proper joy in it.”
I rolled my eyes at her as Tristan ripped across the side of the wolf’s throat and slammed it onto the ground again. He stood over the shifter, who now struggled to get up.
“Well, at least he has fight in him.” Ulric chewed his thumbnail. “Can’t fault that.”
“I mean…kinda,” I murmured. “A real man would know they were beaten, stand up, and shake hands. This is a freaking field with cones and a ref. Know the stakes, you know? What’s the point in squirming on the ground?
” I nodded to myself. “Yeah, I saw the offense that time. But seriously, that’s just the truth of it.
These aren’t any better than the raids.”
“At least in the raids, if you’re good enough, you get something out of it.” Ulric leaned back with a sigh and took a sip of his beer. “Can I come for dinner tonight—”
Tristan picked up the wolf by the nape of the neck and launched into the sky.
“Ah, crap,” I said, watching him. “Should I—”
Tristan delicately dropped him at the top of a nearby tree, in a bushy part, so that the wolf got stuck in the branches and leaves. He’d have to shift and climb down, except currently he was hurt. He stayed there as Tristan soared back.
Aurora had a cockeyed smile on her face. “That’s funny. That might be better than riding on Aljoe’s back.”
“Gargoyles have style.” Ulric held up his can to toast. “Jessie, can I have dinner with you guys tonight? The shifters won’t mind, will they? I don’t have anything going on, and I’m too tired to mess with all the aggression that’ll be in the bars.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m sure they’ll be okay with it.”
“Can I come?”
Everyone turned to look at the man who’d stepped back for Ulric.
“Who the hell are ye?” Niamh asked him.
“I’m Rhett, the guy who’s been eavesdropping this whole time.”
Three other shifters lifted their hands without looking over. Apparently they had been, too. At least they hadn’t taken offense and caused a scene.
“Well…it’s kind of for Calvin and his people to grieve and have a safe space,” I said apologetically.
“Aw, that’s nice of you. I didn’t hear you were doing that,” Rhett said. “What about this guy, though?” He pointed at Ulric. “How come he gets to go?”
“He lives there?”
“Oh.” He didn’t show much, but I could tell he was disappointed.