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about her night after
night, a futile delusion. She was flesh and I was stone. It wasn’t until she
was in danger one night that I was able to transform into human form and reveal
myself to protect her.
    “Don’t forget your hat,” I reminded her, pointing to the
hook it hung on behind her.
    “What would I do without you?” she said.
    “Freeze?” I teased.
    She grabbed her purse and blew me a kiss. As she walked out
the door, my eyes followed every move of her body. Even after all the months
that had passed, I hungered for her with as much intensity as I had in stone
from afar. More so now that I’d had a taste and touch. I still couldn’t believe
she took the oath to be with me forever.
    I was the luckiest being of any shape or form to have ever
lived.
    After she had left, I turned my attention to the next order
of business, changing my brothers. “Mattias, Lucan,” I addressed two particular
stone gargoyles perched in the club, the way I had been for many years. “I’m going
to transform you.” I gave them a warning before I summoned the magic. “We need
to discuss something.”
    I inhaled deeply and exhaled, drawing the ancient power into
my body. At first I barely registered a tingle of its presence. The more it
flowed into me, the stronger it grew. Within moments the magic spread through
my body, flowing in my veins, tingling every nerve.
    Summoning such power could be dangerous if not used
correctly, for a particular purpose. I respected the power derived from the
elements within me and focused on directing the magic to bridge my brothers.
The air shimmered, its energy pulsating between us. First the gargoyle near the
entrance, opposite where my shell remained, animated from the stone. I could
sense his transformation from stone to flesh as much as I could see it before
me. His gray stone took on the color of an olive-skinned human and his stone
wings unfurled into black feathers. He stretched from a hunched posture and
grew as he stood on two legs. The overlarge features of his face minimized to those
of a human male and black hair sprouted from his head, extending past his
shoulders. Mattias was as dark as I was light. The sensation of the magic
leaving my body made me heady.
    As Mattias completed the transformation, I directed my
attention close to the ceiling at the rear of the club. Lucan preferred to
perch high on the wall, watching the patrons from overhead, while Mattias and I
had been positioned at an eye-to-eye level with the humans. Like Mattias, Lucan
shifted from gray stone to flesh. From his position above, Lucan flapped his
wings to slow his descent to the floor.
    “Aye,” Lucan said. “What is it, brother?”
    “Something peculiar happened backstage tonight.”
    “It must be important for you to use your magic to change us,”
Mattias said.
    “I met a man back there.” I motioned to the rear of the
club. “He was watching two women. One of them was Nike. She bit a woman.”
    “She’s not a vampire,” Lucan asked. “Is she?”
    “No,” I responded. “But she is adopting the behavior of one.
And doesn’t seem to be in control of her actions. We need to watch her.”
    “Is she a threat to humans?” Lucan asked.
    “Yes.” I nodded. “I believe so.”
    “What about Michel?” Mattias posed. The former owner of the
club, Michel was in fact a vampire and he had brought us gargoyles to protect
those in the club, including him. “Does he know what’s going on?”
    “I don’t know, but I will tell him what I witnessed.” I
paced before them and rubbed my chin, still bothered by what happened back
there although I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. “Something else happened.”
    “Go on, brother,” Lucan said.
    “A man witnessed the encounter with Nike. I tried to clear
his memory but my magic had no effect on him at all.”
    Matthew said, “He’s especially strong-minded, perhaps?”
    “Yes,” Lucan agreed. “But it was more than that. A
strong-minded individual would