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slither into her mind until she lived the nightmare he lived.
"He moved to the south, and the east, and the west, and each time he drank,
the heat grew more intense until the men were breathing fire and snorting
ash."
He couldn't speak above a whisper when he tried to continue, the hot air
rushing in his ears, hot blood pumping in his veins. His muscles bulged and
his skin thickened. His bones began to reshape.
Nathan didn't care; he was mindless to the pain, caught in the dream, the
memory.
"Romanus called to the beasts of the forest," Nathan croaked. "And they came
to the edge of the circle, enthralled by the light and power. He called the
life from them; he called their souls, and then even as the animals fell dead
in the trees, the men began to writhe. Their bodies stretched and bent. Their
organs shifted. Their teeth broke through their jaws and their fingers merged
into misshapen clubs, and then hooves. Some dropped to all fours and others
fell to their bellies, their spines dissolving as they coiled like snakes."
He choked, swallowed dryly, and gathered his breath to continue. "The men
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took the beasts' souls inside them, in all manner of configurations, species
combined, breeds merged. Then when Romanus drank the last bit of blood from
his cup, the hillside exploded. Fire rained from the sky. The ground opened up
in great crevices that swallowed some of the men. Charred tree trunks crashed,
killing others.
"When it ended, those who were left looked down at themselves, at what they'd
become, and knew they'd been tricked. The bastard Romanus had betrayed them."
Somara altwunia paximi
"What happened to them?" Rachel asked, as breathless as he.
He looked up, coming back to himself a bit, saw her red, watery eyes, and
knew his must look as bad. "The dragon Gargouille appeared on the crest of the
hill about then, angry at being woken by all the noise and shaking, and the
men, overcome with revulsion at what they'd become, what Romanus had made
them, filled with rage, terrified, and ashamed, they stormed the hill and tore
the dragon apart with their teeth and horns and claws while the women and
children of the village watched in horror."
"Le Combat de Rouen," she said. "The tapestry at the museum."
He inclined his head. "Le Combat de Rouen."
"My god."
"Even that wasn't the end of Romanus's treachery. He'd gotten what he
wanted La Gargouille was dead, and the people of Rouen were obligated to honor
their promise and convert to Christianity. But Romanus was too enthralled with
his new pets to give them up. He added to the spell he'd cast, telling them
that they should forever be protectors of the human race, the way they'd
protected the women and children of Rouen from the dragon. He proclaimed that
they would always carry these beasts inside them, slumbering until they were
needed. And that they should go forth and propagate. Produce sons that would
be like them guardians."
Rachel sat silently, taking it all in. At least she hadn't run away.
He took that as a sign he should finish the story. "For many years we were
revered by humans. We kept them safe. Shielded them from the dangers of a dark
time. They brought us their daughters to mate with, so that we could produce
sons it was considered an honor for a virgin to give herself to a Gargoyle,
bear him a son before seeking her marriage to. a human. They even carved our
images into the walls of their buildings as signs that they were protected.
Evil dare not lurk there. But as the centuries went by, they just& forgot.
People evolved, they wrote laws and hired police to protect them. They didn't
need us anymore, and we faded into legend."
He strolled to the window, looked out at the heavy stone walls. "Just
grotesque statues hanging high above their streets. Interesting artifacts of a
time long passed."
She drew in a shuddering breath, pulled her shoulders up, and shook her head
as if to clear it. Seeming just to realize he held her hand in his, she pulled
out of his grasp.
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"We didn't choose what we are, Rachel, none of us, not even the Old Ones, the
original Gargoyles of Rouen. We were cursed. Betrayed." He shrugged. "We've
lived with it the best we know how."
Rachel rose, crossed her arms over her middle as she paced. "You can't really
expect me to believe that."
"It's the truth. You saw it. Youfelt it."
"I also saw us making love in a forest when we were really on a couch in a
vacant house. I felt& " She left the sentence dangling, a flush rising on her
neck. "Who's to say this isn't another of your parlor tricks?"
Nathan's world fell from beneath him. He felt as if he were falling.
Floating. He stared at her for a full second before the sensation passed, then
he threw his head back and laughed, the first full belly laugh he'd enjoyed in
several lifetimes.
Furrows plowed across her forehead. "What's so funny?"
"You." He swiped the back of his hand across his eyes to dry the tears of
laughter. "You're the first human to hear that story in centuries, maybe the
first human ever, and you " Another chuckle rumbled up his gullet. "You don't
believe it."
"That's funny?"
"It's ironic. Do you know the lengths we've gone to in order to keep our
secrets? All this time we could have blabbed to anybody. What difference would
it have made? If you, who actually believe in monsters, don't believe what
I've told you, what do you think are the chances anyone else would?"
She still didn't seem to see the humor in the situation. Her silence dampened
his own amusement. His smile fell flat.
"I didn't say I don't believe you, exactly," she said, "I just& "
"Don't trust me," he finished for her. Her lack of denial confirmed his
suspicion. "Fine. You don't trust me, don't trust what you see in your mind,
maybe you'll trust what you see with your own eyes."
Sighing, he opened the door and motioned her out. She made no move to join
him.
"Where?" she asked.
"I can't prove to you how we came to be. But at least I can show you what we
are now. Who we are. If you have the courage to see."
Chapter Twenty-two
Rachel walked out of her room in stuttering steps, Nathan behind her, guiding
her along with a hand in the small of her back. Her legs were as stiff as tree
trunks. Her feet felt like cement blocks.
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She'd been searching for monsters most of her life, and now that she'd found
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