Page 4 of Help Wanted, Vampires Inquire Within
Shifting back to his human form, he slammed into the house and went straight for his kitchen.
“Please let there be coffee,” he chanted. “Please let there be coffee. Please let there be—yes!”
There was just enough in the tin to make a full pot! He poured in the coffee, then filled the reservoir with water and jabbed the on button. He stood there staring at the brewing coffee until his back started ringing.
“Damn it!” he cursed. There was a small flap of skin under a gargoyle’s wing that they could use to carry small items. In this case, he’d tucked his cell phone there before flying off to look for Skyler. He’d forgotten about it and shifted. When his wings pulled into his back, they took the phone with them. It was sitting under the skin over his scapula. He was too tired and annoyed to notice the discomfort.
Crouching down, he shifted and carefully extended his wing out a little bit until he could retrieve the phone. Once he had it, he took his human form and straightened.
Of course, it was his mother calling. He answered the phone because if he didn’t, she would just keep calling.
“Hi, Mom,” he said, putting the phone on speaker and setting it on the counter.
“Mason, I had a dream.”
He almost dropped the coffee mug he’d pulled off the drying rack. “Dream?”
All gargoyles were born male but could mate and have children with almost every other species out there. Mason’s father had a fling with his mother, Elena de la Cruz. The nextmorning, his father left without waking his mother. She never saw him again.
As a powerful bruja, she didn’t care. She had the resources to raise Mason by herself. She’d been longing for a child, so she was overjoyed when she realized she was pregnant. He’d been raised among a large, loving family with a long history of influential and capable women.
The one thing Mason learned young was not to mess with a bruja as strong as his mother. He’d also learned to take her dreams seriously. They were usually predictive.
“Oh,mi hijo,” she said softly. “First, I need to ask, have you found your mate?”
Pain lanced through Mason’s heart. “I did, but we can’t be together.”
Elena sucked in a breath. “You tell me why right now! I’ll fix it for you. Do I need to talk to this person? Are they human? I can make them understand!”
“Madre,” Mason said, biting back his laughter. “She’s a nymph, and she doesn’t know. I can’t tell her.”
“Is her land rejecting you?” Elena asked. “There are spells I can do that will help the land accept you. That’s not an issue.”
“She’s landless,” Mason explained. “And turning thirty soon.”
Elena didn’t hesitate to start suggesting more solutions. “That’s bad, but there are still options. Has she looked at the land in east county? I know desert land is less likely to pick a nymph, but there’s plenty of open land out there. I think Gabby has a map of unclaimed land. It’s a few years old, but it’s a place to start.”
“She’s already tried,” Mason said, feeling pain and fear for Skyler rise in him. Mostly, he kept it locked down because Skyler didn’t need his emotions on top of hers. Talking with his mother made it harder to keep them locked down. “She’s been lookingfor land to claim her for almost ten years. She’s travelled all over the place. San Diego was her last chance.”
A sad, sympathetic sound came from Elena. “No, that can't be true. She’ll die without a land bond!”
“I know, Mom,” Mason said, feeling tears gathering in his eyes. Rubbing roughly over his face, he forced out the next words. “Her only hope is to soul bond with a vampire.”
“Landless nymphs can bond with any vampire, but if you’re not bonded with the same vampire, you lose her forever,” Elena stated slowly, as if working out the implications.
“Exactly,” Mason said, blinking rapidly to clear his eyes. The coffee pot was half full, so Mason pulled out the carafe and filled his cup. He ignored how hot the liquid was and drank most of it. It burned his mouth and throat and tasted bitter as hell.
Good, it matched his mood.
Elena was undaunted by all the bad news. She wasn’t one to give up easily, even when it was so obvious that they were beaten.
“I’ll consult a few people,” Elena said. “I’ll call you back when—”
Something occurred to him, pushing him to interrupt Elena before she could hang up. “Madre, what did you dream about?” Elena’s silence was telling. “Please tell me.”
“I saw you and a young woman with long brown hair. She’d collapsed, and you looked scared. I sensed violence and danger all around you. Blood, bones, and rats.” She paused, then finally said in a faint voice, “There was death, but I can’t be sure who.”
Neither of them spoke. There was never a silence so loud. He didn’t ask her if there was more. Her dreams weren’t road maps to the future; they were jumbled glimpses of a possible outcome. She would’ve told him everything she could remember.
