Page 29 of Dragon's Golden Mate
So this is what makes so much energy flow through the church,Maeve concluded.
I don’t really understand it, but I think so.
The goblin touched a different stone, and the portal disappeared. The same stones that’d been there a few minutes ago returned to their rightful places, and the wind was gone. It was as though nothing had happened.
The hawk flew back up toward the coat room, with the goblin right behind it. The cat was behind Kendrick and Maeve, and it hissed at them until they also moved back upstairs.
I’d say it’s time to go. They had to do as the gargoyles asked, but Maeve wished she could stay and find out more from them.
The guardians stayed with them until they were back outside in their human forms. Kendrick put the landscaping stone in front of the door and leaned against it for a moment. “I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.”
Was he talking about the portal? Or the fact that the two of them had been in each other’s minds as soon as they’d shifted?
Maeve decided not to ask. “No. Me neither.”
11
Kendrick’s handswere tight on the wheel as he drove across town the next day. There was no option of walking this time. Granted, his stamina far surpassed that of most humans, and it wouldn’t be a problem for him physically. He just didn’t have the time to walk that far.
Part of him wished he did, because he still couldn’t get Maeve out of his head. It was even worse now. Her mind had melded to his the moment they were both in their animal forms. He’d wavered so many times on how he felt about her and what he should or shouldn’t do about it, but that fact changed everything. It was no longer about a decision on their parts. Fate had spoken.
Still, that didn’t mean he could do anythingabout it. If they’d been simple humans, Kendrick imagined they’d continue to spend time together. Everyone would speculate and giggle behind their hands, but their families would be amused at two old folks finding love like that. It would be sweet and easy.
That was a nice fantasy, but Kendrick was a dragon. He might live for a millennium or more. And Maeve? However much time she had left on Earth, even if she lived to be quite old, would be a flash in the pan compared to his lifespan. As soon as he committed himself to her, she’d be gone. Why should he put himself through that again? Was a little bit of joy worth the massive amount of pain that would come later?
His mind couldn’t stop wrestling with the problem of Maeve, nor could it ignore the issue of the church. Lucille’s paper pusher had managed to give them a few more days with the demolition review, but that was still no guarantee that the building would remain standing once that time was up. Would the portal entrance just be paved over once the church was torn down? What would happen to the gargoyles? The creatures had attacked Kendrick and Maeve, but they were only doing thejob they were meant for. He felt a certain amount of kinship toward them.
Fortunately, his job today would be a good distraction. When the call had come in for another consulting job, Kendrick had taken it immediately. He needed something else to focus on. As he pulled over to the curb, he could see that this would take a considerable amount of focus, indeed.
He stepped out and admired the three-story brick building, constructed in a toned-down Italianate style. The arched windows sported simple, hooded crowns in alternating light and dark bricks. Larger, paired windows soared up to the centered gable, which showcased the bracketed cornice.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
A couple approached him, holding hands. Kendrick figured they were probably in their mid-sixties or so. The man had a long, lugubrious face. His thick black eyebrows told of the color his silver hair had probably once been. He let go of his wife’s hand to shake Kendrick’s. “Robert Sutton, and this is my wife, Linda.”
He gestured toward the short, curvy woman next to him. She had a pouf of curly hair, dyed a shade of light red. She had brilliantly pink cheeks and a genuine smile, which widened when she took herturn shaking Kendrick’s hand. “We’re so excited to meet you and see what you think of the place.”
“Kendrick Alexander. Pleasure to meet you, as well. What can you tell me about it?”
Robert straightened up a little, apparently more than happy to do so. “It was originally an elementary school. Those got consolidated and updated over the years, and it sat vacant for a while. It’s gone through a few hands, with every owner attempting something different.”
“So a few renovations have already been made,” Kendrick concluded. Everything on the outside seemed fairly original except for a shabby awning that’d been hung over the front double doors.
“A few, but a lot of it is still original. We’ll take you inside.” Robert and Linda led the way up the concrete steps.
Those soaring windows on the front led into a large, open hall with a central staircase. What had once been classroom doors led off either side. Kendrick spied a kitchen through one and a makeshift living room in another.
“Bits and pieces of the plumbing and electrical have been updated over the years,” Robert told him as they ambled down the hall. “I don’t know that any of it will be usable for our purposes, though. Itseems that everyone who owned the building saw that it was a big space and ought to be used for something, but they didn’t know how to change the flow to make it work for something more modern.”
“And what do you have in mind?” They stepped into one of the classrooms, which hadn’t yet been touched. It was empty and swept clean, but Kendrick didn’t see any recent updates.
Robert walked to the center of the space and held out his hands. “Just look at the size of these rooms. They’re huge! One of the previous owners, judging by the rooms at the front of the building, tried to turn each one into a room of a house. One for the kitchen, one for the living room, one for a bedroom. Then you have the problem of all the extra doors, and that gets awkward when you start thinking about bathrooms.”
“The average classroom size in this building is almost a thousand square feet,” Linda added. “That’s bigger than most apartments! We can make each classroom its own apartment, and we’ll use an open concept so the light from the windows reaches most of the space. I’ve drawn up a few plans.” She pulled a piece of graph paper from a folder under her arm and handed it to Kendrick.
He studied the drawing, which had been doneentirely by hand, and then compared it to the space they were standing in. “Hm. You really have made good use of the windows. It looks like each of these classrooms has two doors, so residents would have an emergency exit.”
“The plumbing was one of our biggest concerns,” Robert explained, coming back over and putting his arm around his wife. “There are bathrooms at the end of the hall on each floor, but that’s it. The rooms themselves don’t have any water.”
