In Her Father’s Shadow – By Princess Alexandria

Day 8

Trini sat down on the couch and set her glass on the coffee table, taking a rest from pacing. Demona still wasn't back. It had been a few hours since she ran off, and it didn't matter how tired Trini was, she couldn't sleep without knowing that the gargoyle was safe. Trini leaned forward and rested her head in her hands. What the hell had she been thinking? She should have known better than to bring the nightmares up like that!

She was startled out of her silent angry self-dialogue by the phone. She double-checked, and it was a call from New York. She stared at the phone for a moment before resigning to answer it. "Hello Elisa." She forced herself to sound like nothing was wrong.

"Hey Trini." Elisa's call filled Trini with nervousness. It always did, because she couldn't tell if it was a business call, as in police business, or just a friendly call. "How is packing going?"

"Most of it's done. I'm just working on getting a few more items taken care of." All of her things were already on the way to the castle. It was just her father's things that she needed now. So, not technically lying, she told herself.

"Well, that's good." Elisa's voice got a little crisper, and Trini realized that the small talk was over. Whatever made Elisa want to call was more important, and Trini prayed it wasn't to inform her that she was being arrested for those four murders. "Trini. I called to ask you a question."

"Sure." Trini forced her mind away from Canada, she wasn't going to say anything that might make Elisa suspicious.

"What are you going to do about Brooklyn and Lex? They're still trying to figure out a way to get a date with you. They're starting to ask me about you, about what you like to do for fun. They're bugging Delilah too." Trini's body slumped forward in relief. It wasn't the case, just the gargoyles.

"I was thinking I might need to tell them about my being gay. I don't want to get pestered every night." Trini glanced out the window at the sky, wishing she could see Demona coming back. "Unless you know of some other way to get it to stop?"

Elisa sighed. "No, I don't. It's really bad. It wasn't this bad when Angela came."

"Angela didn't arrive right before a Breeder's moon." Trini leaned back. She was glad that she didn't feel a pang of heartache while talking to Elisa. "My lousy timing strikes again."

"How are you going to tell them? Are you going to mention Fox?" Elisa's voice was tense.

"They don't need to know who I'm with." More softly she added, "Or who I've been with. I'll let them believe I'm single, that way if they don't handle it well, I'm the only one that gets the attitude...." Trini sighed, "I've never had to deal with this before, coming out of the closet."

Elisa's voice became softer, "I know. I thought you could use some warning about they guys. I'm betting that they are going to be asking you out seconds after they see you." There was a pause before Elisa continued, "If you need my help..." Trini smiled softly. This was actually her responsibility. The less Elisa, Fox, and Delilah had to do with it the better. The funny thing is that with the clans' view of Elisa and Fox's being married, it would be Delilah that would most likely be accused of being gay too, and she was the only one she didn't sleep with.

"Could you warn Delilah? If this goes anything like I've seen on TV, they might accuse her of..." Trini trailed off.

"Why?" Elisa's voice was a little harsher, and Trini realized that Elisa thought she might have been with Delilah.

She got a little angry at the lack of trust, but knew where it was coming from. "She's the only unattached female that they see spending time with me. They might assume things."

Elisa's voice sounded calmer after she heard that. "Makes sense. I'll warn her." Trini could tell by Elisa's voice that the phone call was almost over.

"Thank you for watching my back." Trini told her softly. She could see something gliding over the trees.

"It's what friends do." Elisa told her firmly, and Trini realized that she was back to being considered a friend. She didn't lose Elisa completely. The relationship was just changing.

"Thank you. Have a nice night, I'll see you in a week." Trini could make out the form of a female gargoyle coming closer. Demona was coming back. She wanted off the phone now.

"See you then." Elisa hung up.

Trini set the phone down and tried to figure out how to handle this. She still had a few minutes before Demona would be back. She glanced around the living room and realized that looking like she had been waiting up for her might piss her off. They needed to talk, not argue.

By the time Trini heard the sliding glass door open, she had changed into her pajamas and was sitting on the couch drinking her juice and listening to music. She glanced over to Demona and gasped. Demona was covered in mud. It was coating her back and wings, which Trini could see as Demona was walking past her without saying anything on her way to the bathroom. A trail of mud followed the gargoyle through the cabin. "Blue?" Trini moved to stand up.

Demona turned her bright red glowing eyes to Trini, "I fell." She told her flatly. There was obviously more to the story than that, but... Trini let it go for now. She could see that mud was in the gargoyle's hair, on her face... basically everywhere on her body. You don't just fall and get that dirty, she had to have rolled around in it for a while to do this. If Trini weren't so concerned about the gargoyle, this would have been funny.

Once Demona was in the shower, Trini remembered that they hadn’t put any towels in there yet. She hunted through the bags until she found a few towels and washcloths. She also pulled out the shampoo and soap… Demona didn’t have anything with her. Was she just standing under the water rinsing off? That wouldn’t be enough.

Trini was careful to not slip on the mud on the wood floor as she brought the supplies to the bathroom. She knocked quietly. “Blue, I have the soap, towels, and everything else.” She called through the closed door. They would talk about everything after the gargoyle was clean.

“Come in.” Trini could hear Demona call from the shower. That wasn’t really what Trini wanted to do. She was hoping that she could just pass the stuff through the door. She sighed and opened the door. Sometimes… just sometimes she wished that Demona would understand how her lack of modesty affected Trini.

Trini went in to the bathroom, and headed straight for the counter. She set down the towels and then took the rest to the shower stall. This place had a very large shower area with enough shower heads for two people to take a shower at the same time. Trini suspected this was used as a honeymoon site for people, because the place was built for couples. She kept her eyes averted as she spoke. “Here.” She reached into the stall with a hand holding the body wash. Demona took it from her. “I also brought your shampoo.” She held that out until it was taken as well. She was staring intently at the wall while she did this. “Washcloths.”

“Oh, for crying out loud Trini!” Demona sounded a bit irritated. “Look at me! Just look at me!”

Slowly Trini turned to do that. Demona’s hair was flat to her head, and was dripping mud down her body. Her face was rinsed off, and some of her chest. The floor of the shower area, which Trini noticed was more than large enough for Demona to stretch out her wings, was muddy. She stopped herself from looking any more closely.

“A washcloth isn’t going to do the trick, now is it?!” Demona glared at her, taking her anger about getting muddy out on her. Trini swallowed hard, even covered in mud the gargoyle was gorgeous.

“Once you rinse off the mud it could be. I brought them all.” Trini held up her stack of washcloths for inspection. She then set them down and then went to wash her hands, Demona had gotten mud on her when she took the bottles.

Demona spoke so softly that Trini had to strain to hear her. “I feel like I’ll never be clean again.” She sounded so lost, so hurt. Trini knew she wasn’t talking about the mud. She knew that she wasn’t supposed to hear that, but now that she did she couldn’t ignore it. Trini washed her hands again, even though they didn’t need it, just to give her time to think.

Trini pushed away her own modesty and stripped out of her pajamas. She placed them on the counter and walked over to the shower stall. Demona wasn’t shy about nakedness; she wouldn’t think anything of this. The gargoyle was working on rinsing out her hair and didn’t see her. Trini openly studied the task at hand. Demona wouldn’t be able to reach all that mud. She needed help. She didn’t feel guilty about what she was doing, because this was about healing… not about sex.

With a matter of fact voice she addressed Demona, “You want some help. I can’t see you being able to get your back.” She leaned on the wall and waited for an answer. She noticed Demona’s eyes widen a little when she turned and saw Trini nakedly waiting for permission to enter the shower. “I could get the back of your wings much better than you could.” Trini tried to sell the idea again.

“Okay.” Demona turned back to trying to rinse out her hair. Trini let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Demona didn’t take this as an attempt to seduce her. She’d been a little worried.

Trini stepped into the shower and just started to soap up a washcloth as she waited for Demona to finish with shampooing her hair. The area was so large that she wasn’t even getting wet from where she was. When Demona turned her back to the water and glanced over at Trini, Trini put the washcloth over her shoulder… because, well… she didn’t have anywhere else to put it and needed her hands free. She didn’t speak or blush as she moved into the showers range and got behind Demona. She ran her hands over the spread wings gently to remove the mud. Softly she spoke. “I think that we should rinse you off first before we try using soap.” Demona just nodded. Her head was bowed, and Trini could tell that she enjoyed the attention to her wings. Trini moved to the other wing and repeated the procedure. Glancing at Demona’s back she whispered, “You’ll tell me if I do something you don’t want, won’t you Blue?” She stared at the wing joints. She was going to have to rinse those off, and if it was anything like her scars she didn’t want to push the gargoyle too far.

“It’s okay Trini.” Demona spoke softly as she spread her wings further, exposing the wing joints to the water. Trini ran her hands lightly over the area to loosen the mud. She noticed the gentle quivering of Demona’s wings; it looked like the gargoyle couldn’t control that. When she heard a quiet moan of pleasure coming from Demona, Trini had to bite back a moan of her own. She finished up as quickly as possible, and then moved to wash Demona’s arms. She knew that she would have been able to do that herself, but she could tell that the gargoyle was enjoying the pampering, and it was a much more innocent area to work with. Trini needed the break after touching Demona's wing joints. Knowing what kind of pleasure she was causing the gargoyle turned her on a bit too much. She gently took each hand and carefully rinsed off each talon as well. When she looked up into Demona’s face, the gargoyle’s eyes were hooded and there was a small smile of pleasure on her face. She looked so peaceful and beautiful, Trini had to fight the urge to kiss her. This wasn't supposed to be about sex. After she was done with both arms she then moved her hands down Demona’s back.

When she got to the tail, she had to ask. “Umm. Your tail isn’t sensitive yet, is it? You said I was early.” Trini knew that if someone touched the base of her tail, it would be sex… no question about it. Demona had told her that it was because she was going into breeding season early.

“No, not yet. It’s okay.” Demona was just standing still, allowing Trini to run her hands all over her backside. Trini had never seen the gargoyle look so passive. Trini didn’t push for conversation. She was here to make Demona feel good, clean, relaxed, so even though she wanted to know what she was thinking about, she didn’t ask. Trini reached down and circled her hand around the base of Demona’s tail, gently rubbing the mud off. She'd run her hand over the very top of the base a few times before she realized it. It was like her body was taking over, and her mind was struggling to keep up. Demona's arching back a little made her think that it was still a sexual spot, even if the female wasn't in season. She licked her lips and her breathing became a little ragged. Demona wasn't stopping her. Oh God... she just wanted to go with it, to make the gargoyle feel really good. An image of Elisa trying not to cry when she had told her about Fox came to her mind, freezing her hand. She wasn't going to do that to another woman. Her breathing calmed down, and she continued further down the tail with the massage. That memory served to put cold water on her desire. Demona didn't seem to notice how sexual it had become for her, or if she did, she didn't mention it. When Demona lifted her tail a little, Trini took the hint that Demona would like her to do the whole thing. She squatted down and ran both her hands down the tail, pushing off the mud as she went. She massaged the tail firmly, like Fox had done for her. She had never touched another tail. The strength that she could feel in it was surprising. Demona had muscles everywhere. Her legs were getting pretty muddy in her attempts to clean off the gargoyle. She would need a shower after they were done, even though she was getting a bit of one now. Her hair was wet and flat to her head and she often had to move her body a bit to allow the showerheads access to the gargoyle. Once she was done with the tail, she started to run her hands over one of Demona’s powerful legs. She kept her touch professional and as non-intrusive as possible as she ran them over the gargoyles rear. When Demona stiffened up a little, she moved subtly to run her hands down the other leg. Demona started to relax again. With the backside rinsed off, Trini repeated the procedure using the soaped up washcloth. Once the soap was rinsed off, Demona turned around to face her. She was still a bit muddy on her torso, but Trini had gotten everything else. Demona blushed a little, “I can get the front.”

While Demona did that Trini went to the other showerhead and turned it on. She was already naked and wet, she might as well shampoo her hair now. As she was shampooing she forced herself not to think about Demona’s muscular body underneath her hands. She had come too close to really screwing up... again. Trini was beginning to think that her family was partly right. She was a whore. She had almost taken a tender, loving thing and turned it into a chance to take advantage of a vulnerable woman. For Christ sake, Demona was recovering from a rape... what the hell had she been thinking?! And Fox... Fox might be willing to share her with Elisa, but she'd never forgive her for doing anything with Demona.

The other shower shut off. Trini was a little surprised when she heard Demona walk over to her. "I got you muddy." She spoke softly, and then started to trail her hand over Trini's back. "Let me help you." Trini just nodded and moved so that Demona could wash her back. She felt self-conscious about the scars, but if she refused the offer it would ruin the closeness she'd been trying to establish with this shower. Demona ran her hands over Trini's back without cutting her. She had a much better understanding of how fragile Trini's human skin was than Delilah had. Demona had never cut her, and she touched her far more often. When Trini felt the caress go over her scars, she couldn't suppress a moan of desire. "You still have pleasure here?" Demona sounded surprised as she circled her hands around the scars to verify it.

"Yes." Trini strangled out. Oh God... she'd managed to touch Demona so intimately without being bad, and now the gargoyle was tempting her like this. She had expected Demona to stop the caress as soon as she answered. She didn't, she circled her scars one more time before trailing her hands down to Trini's lower back.

"Well, I got the mud off your back. I’m going to go clean up that trail I made through the living room.” Demona told her and then left to do that. Once she was alone in the bathroom Trini turned off the hot water and turned up the cold. She gritted her teeth as she endured it.

After she dried her hair she noticed that her pajamas had fallen onto the floor, and were a little muddy. Great. She glanced around and noticed a robe that hadn’t been there before. She smiled at Demona’s thoughtfulness. It only came to mid thigh, but it was much better than marching across the living room naked to go find something to wear.

When she came out of the bathroom she noticed that the floor was already clean, but still a bit wet. She was careful of where she walked as she moved into the kitchen to get some juice. She’d give Demona a chance to tell her what happened before going to sleep. Demona was standing naked, except for her jewelry, in front of the sink washing her halter-top and loincloth. She had caped her wings around her, covering most of herself well. Trini noticed that she looked more relaxed than she had ever seen her. She forced herself to act like Demona wasn’t naked as she went to pour herself a glass of lemonade. “Do you want some?” She indicated the juice.

“Sure.” Demona set her halter-top on the counter to dry and started on the loincloth. Trini set the glass on the counter beside the sink and leaned against the counter drinking her own. She was just waiting for an explanation. Demona sighed and started to give it to her, “I ran into another gargoyle. There was a misunderstanding… and… well, we fought for a while.” Trini’s eyes widened and she set her glass down. “I didn’t realize that Goliath had visited them. They are watching out for Demona, apparently they were warned.” Demona looked sad at that. Dammit, that clan was making sure that no other clan would accept her! “I explained that my name was Blue. He was very apologetic after that.”

“That worked?!” Trini couldn’t believe the gullibility of that male if he couldn’t recognize that lie. When Demona nodded and smirked Trini shook her head. “They sure don’t breed them for brains around here.”

“Hey! That is your clan.” Demona turned to her, looking insulted for her.

“No, it’s my father’s clan. I don't even know them." Trini was really choosy about who she called clan. In her mind she already had a clan, an odd one, but a clan. Delilah, Demona, Elisa, Fox, and by extension Alexander... and on good days David was included as well. She realized that if the others didn't consider each other clan... it wasn't really a clan, but... feelings over-rode logic in this case. They were the people she cared about, and would do anything to protect. It really hurt that they were often at each other's throats. Demona especially, but Elisa didn't really get along with the others either.

. "Well, you're going to meet them tomorrow night. I got us invited to their home." Demona grinned at her, obviously feeling like the conquering hero. "Since you never call me by my real name, I think we'll be pretty safe with the lie. I also told him we were from Seattle."

"Well, that's almost a truth. Were you tired?" Trini grinned. She felt glad that they didn't need to waste a few days searching. Her father's amulet didn't have extremely exact directions. She'd brought it with her, in case she needed proof of who she was.

Demona grinned at her, "No. But speaking of tired... you need to get some sleep." Trini tensed at this. She was tired, and wanted sleep, but she needed to make something clear.

"Sleep with me." When she saw Demona's guarded look, she pleaded, "Please... I can't sleep if you aren't sleeping with me. Just come to my bed when the sun comes up." She saw that Demona was getting ready to argue the matter, so she put her glass down and walked out of the room. If Demona never said no, she still had a chance to change her mind without loosing face. She really hoped that she changed her mind.

Trini had to settle for sleeping in a t-shirt, and no pants. She had only brought the one pair of pajama bottoms. She was exhausted, and fell asleep shortly after lying down. She left the door to her bedroom wide open in an invitation. Demona stood in the doorway and stared at her for a while, "You're so tired. Why didn't I see it before? You've been tired for days." Demona whispered. "You aren't meant to sleep as little as I do, but you've been lucky to get that much... because of my damned nightmares. I rid you of your own, and now it's mine that bother you."

Trini woke to the muffled scream. She tensed as she waited to find out where Domi was going to sleep. When she heard the other bedroom door close, and lock she got pale. She wasn't coming to bed with her, and she was making sure that Trini couldn't go to her. Why? Why was she doing this?! Trini didn't wait, she jumped out of bed and went to knock on Domi's door. She wasn't going through this again.

What she heard as she raised her hand to knock stopped her cold. It was a moan. She listened harder and heard it again. Domi was masturbating. Trini knew that she should just go back to bed, and give her privacy. She knew that, but she leaned closer to the door to listen. It was fair, wasn’t it? She had heard Trini do this a few days ago. She listened as Domi’s breathing hitched, but she didn’t come. Domi growled out quietly in frustration. “I can’t… dammit, I can’t!” Trini became concerned when she heard Domi start to cry. She stood frozen in the hall, unsure of what to do. She had been invading her friend’s privacy. She wouldn’t have been able to hear any of this from her bed, and Domi would know that. “Oh God Trini, you made me feel whole… but I’m still broken.” Trini took a shuddering breath and knocked. Domi wasn’t broken. Trini was going to have to show her that. What she planned to do wasn’t normal therapy, might not even be considered healthy, but… Fox would just have to understand, if Domi let her help her.

Day 8 Part 2

When Domi opened the door she was composed and a bit angry looking. "What do you want?"

Trini's tail flickered about nervously, and she saw that Domi noticed that. "Let me sleep with you." She asked softly, she wasn't going to force herself on her friend. If this didn't work, she was going to have to think of something else. When she could see an argument forming in Domi's mind, she brought her tail through her legs and lightly caressed Domi's calf with it. "Let me sleep with you." She repeated, her voice a little deeper. The added meaning was clear as she slowly moved her tail higher, to caress Domi's thigh. "I can help you." She added quietly while watching the shocked expression on Domi's face. "Just for today. If you want me, you can have me." She watched as Domi turned her eyes away from her tail to her eyes. "I can be very gentle if you want. I can worship you like the goddess that you are." She lost the fight and blushed, "You don't need to touch me." She was offering her body and her love freely, knowing that it would cost her later.

While she waited for Domi's shock to wear off she continued to caress her calf and thigh with her tail, being careful to not go too high without permission. She used her tail, because it was a reminder that she was gargoyle, and Domi might find her human attributes unattractive. Domi's eyes softened, "Trini, you don't need to do this." Even though she said this, she didn't move away from the caress. Trini could see the indecision in her eyes. She moved her tail up a little higher slowly, giving Domi a chance to protest. She started to lightly caress Domi's sex. Her breath caught in her throat at the desire that coursed through her veins at the first touch of the wetness there. Her breathing was becoming a little ragged before Domi stepped away, causing her to lose contact. "No, Trini I don't want this." Domi was a little breathless. Trini pulled her tail away, and her face became red with embarrassment. She realized how badly she had wanted Domi to say yes after she had a moment where it looked like she might. It wasn't supposed to be about her needs.

"I'm sorry. I..." Trini quietly turned to leave. She'd really gone too far this time. "Please don't hate me." She whispered as she darted across the hall and closed her bedroom door. She had tears of humiliation traveling down her face. The door opened shortly after Trini got into her bed. Domi was standing there in the long t-shirt that she slept in.

"I'll sleep with you tonight." She said quietly and Trini watched with wide eyes as the redhead slid into bed beside her. More quietly, and without looking at Trini she added, "You are a real friend. Thank you for the offer, but... I can't." She was laying on her side facing Trini and looked into her eyes, "I could never hate you for being willing to do that for me." She reached out and caressed Trini's hair. Trini could hear that Domi considered what she had offered a sacrifice, like she wouldn't really want to touch her. It tore at her heart.

She leaned forward and kissed Domi gently on the lips, and moved a little closer to kiss her again with more passion. The desire to push Domi down to the bed and kiss her again, more forcefully was almost too strong to resist. She moaned as she pulled back and whispered, "Oh God... I'm sorry. I... I..." I need! Her mind screamed out. She rolled onto her back, putting a little distance between her and Domi. She winced at the pressure on her tail. She hadn't even been touching it lately, so it really shouldn't be sore. She could see Domi staring at her with a surprised look on her face. "I'm sorry. I wont... you know I wouldn't ever try and force you." She closed her eyes at that stupid comment. She felt really self-conscious about saying that to Domi just a few weeks after her rape. With her eyes closed, she didn't see the redhead pale and stare at her.

"You wouldn't do that to me." She whispered, in a haunted voice. "You would never hurt me like that if you had a choice."

Trini's eyes opened at that. "I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you. You don't need to be afraid of me." She thought back to that one night with Fox, where her desire had been so strong that she was afraid she was capable of a thing like rape. No, she wasn't ever going to get that out of control again. She was so lucky that Fox wanted her, desired her as much as she did. She definitely wasn't ever going to tell Domi about that.

Domi moved closer to her and laid her head down on Trini's shoulder. "I'm not, forget about it." Trini could feel how tense Domi was. She sighed as she realized that she had done some damage to their relationship. "Let's get some sleep, we have a clan to visit tonight." It took her a while to fall asleep; the press of Domi's body against her own was very distracting.

Trini woke up and could feel that Domi had been out of bed for a while. Her side of the bed wasn't warm. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she didn't even remember if she had needed to help Domi with nightmares, but... she wouldn't have slept through her friend's full blown nightmares, so either she helped in her sleep, or Domi didn't have bad dreams. It would be nice if the nightmares were gone, but that was too much to hope for. When she glanced at the clock, her eyes widened. She had seriously slept in. It was almost 2 pm. She listened hard and could hear Domi quietly working on her computer. She had to have been up hours, quietly working so that Trini could sleep.

Trini came out of her bedroom a little sheepishly. She didn't know how Domi would feel about her after that kiss. She'd had time to think about what Trini had done, and she was worried that Domi would feel weird about it.

Domi smirked at her, "Good Afternoon Sleeping Beauty." She stood up and walked over to Trini. Trini stood nervously waiting for the rebuff. Domi reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear lovingly. "Thank you for everything." She whispered to Trini and then pulled her into a gentle hug. Trini was surprised for a moment, but then wrapped her arms around Domi.

When Domi pulled away from her, she was all business again. "We'll meet with your father's clan tonight, a few hours after sunset. They think I'm a normal gargoyle, so... we need to go over some stories. I didn't tell that male much about you, because I didn't know what you wanted to keep from their clan." She smirked at Trini and headed into the kitchen, "I guess we could have a late lunch before we get to work."

After they had been going over their lies for a while, Trini realized that they weren't going to talk about last night again. She also noticed that Domi was more physical with her, touching her hand more often to make a point, brushing her hair out of her way for her, and more distractingly resting her hand on Trini's leg once in a while. It was then that she realized that Domi had snuggled up to her before falling asleep, she had never done that either. Trini usually did that after the woman was asleep. The level of intimacy between the two of them had sky-rocketed, and Trini didn't think Domi completely realized that she was doing it.

It was almost dinnertime when Domi’s phone rang. Trini almost thought it was her own, because Domi hadn’t received any phone calls while she was with her. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Domi answered it. “Hello.” She could hear the voice on the other end. It was Andrea. There was something that she wanted to ask Domi about, how she could hate humans so much but still have a human friend. She nodded to Domi and went into the kitchen to start to cook. She was pretty sure that Domi knew better than to admit that Trini was with her.

Trini had dinner almost ready by the time Domi came into the kitchen. "Smells good." She smiled at Trini.

"How's Andrea?" Trini sat down at the table across from Domi.

"Busy researching for the mural. She'll be leaving on the 13th to work in New Jersey for a few weeks." Trini noticed a slight smile flicker across Domi's face. She did like the artist. It was obvious.

Everything was in the oven now; she could take the time to talk. "Domi, what is your relationship with Andrea?" She'd heard Andrea's side of this when Fox was subtly interrogating her, but she'd never talked with Domi about this.

She could see Domi tense up a bit, "She's just someone to go out to lunch or dinner with once in a while."

"Why her? She's human." Trini really hoped that she wasn't going to say something that made Domi reconsider her friendship with the artist, but she wanted to understand this. If Domi wanted to kill off the entire human race, how could she care about the artist? She had helped Andrea get established as an artist, had run to the hospital to see her when she was injured.

Trini could see Domi getting ready to snap at her, to yell, but something held her back. She watched Domi rein in her temper and actually answer her calmly, honestly. "I first saw Andrea at a sidewalk show she was doing. I wouldn't have stopped, but..." Domi's face softened with the memory, "she had a painting of Angela. The details weren't there... because Andrea hasn't ever really seen a gargoyle up close... but it was obviously my daughter. When I started to talk with her, to find out if she had met Angela I found out that she had a series of paintings of her that she'd left at her apartment. I just wanted to see those paintings. That's why I asked her to lunch. That's why I started to spend time with her. I bought several of those paintings. They are in the upstairs hall of my home." Trini had been in that hall, but hadn't paid any attention to the paintings on the wall.

"Why do you still spend time with her? I didn't see any more paintings of Angela in her studio." Trini pushed gently. What she wanted to say was that Demona had a human friend, how could she be so blind to the fact that they aren't all bad, but that wasn't a way to get through to her. If she tried that tactic, Domi would pull away, and might even end her friendship with Andrea.

"I'm awake twenty hours a day. She's a nice distraction once in a while." Domi answered stiffly, and Trini knew that this conversation was almost at Domi's limit. She decided to make one more point and drop it.

"Too bad that's all you think of her. She seems to look up to you." Trini stood and went to the fridge, "Juice?" At Domi's distracted nod she took out two glasses. She allowed herself a small smile as she poured. You just needed to know how to talk to Domi to get your point across. She could push the fact that Andrea was human and therefore in danger if Domi tried to kill off that race another time.

After dinner Trini really didn't have anything to do. They still had a few hours until sunset. Domi was busy working on something. Trini had no idea what. The gleam in her eye made Trini stay away. She probably didn't want to know what Domi was up to.

Reluctantly she pulled her laptop out of the case and set it up so she could type from her bed. She was going to just try. Maybe it was just writers block. She'd never had that, but it could be. God, she hoped that her writing career wasn't over before it got started.

She'd been really trying to write for almost an hour. She growled loudly in frustration and barely resisted the impulse to violently throw her laptop against the wall. Her notepad flew through the air instead, clanging loudly against the wall and then falling to the floor with her notes scattering in the air. "Fuck!" She roughly packed her laptop back up and grumbled loudly, "I left all my fucking creativity splattered on a barn wall in Canada!" When she turned to put the laptop bag away she was stunned to see that Domi was standing in her doorway, witnessing her temper tantrum. That cooled her anger quickly. She had gotten off easy in Canada; it was Domi that really suffered.

Domi's eyes looked glassy as she spoke quietly. "I'm sorry that you were shot."

Trini set the bag down and sat down gently on the bed, motioning for Domi to come and sit. "It's not your fault. I'm just whining, it probably isn't from that."

Domi sat down at the head of the bed, facing her. Trini was concerned to see that she looked a little pale. "It could be though. Your head injury was pretty bad. I thought you were dead... those humans thought you were dead." Trini could see the horror of the memory in Domi's eyes. She stayed silent, unsure of what to say to that. "They left your body there... they propped you up against a wall and left you there, for me to see while they raped me." Trini's eyes widened at the horror that Domi must have felt. She had no idea that they had used her to hurt Domi. They used her 'death' to torture her. "You were my only real friend in hundreds of years, even though I hadn't known you long I felt connected to you, and you were posed in a mockery of life in the corner as those humans used me." Tears were traveling down Domi's face. Trini's face lost all color as Domi spoke. She knew that Domi needed to talk about this, but hearing it was one of the most painful things she had ever experienced. "I didn't see you get up... I couldn't look any more." Trini moved forward and pulled Domi into a hug. The redhead clung to her tightly. "You pulled the bastard that was using me off and killed him quickly. That's when I knew you were alive. Then you killed the men that were waiting for another turn." Domi's grip on Trini was almost painful, but Trini just stroked her hair and held her tightly. "They had planned to continue the rape until sunset, and then set me on fire. That would have been hours... hours." Domi's voice was cracking, "I was looking forward to the sunset. To the fire." They sat quietly for a moment. "I was raped by six men... and only four died. Two of them are still out there. I'm trying to find them. That's what I'm working on right now." Trini felt like throwing up, she had to swallow several times to prevent it. She had no comforting words to give, what Domi had endured was worse than she could even comprehend. The decision she made wasn't hard at all.

"Can I help?" She asked quietly. She couldn't let Domi face those bastards alone.

Domi pulled back and looked into her eyes. The pain on her face was so hard to look at. "I put a spell on you, one that would keep you from remembering that day. It's what stopped your nightmares." Trini had wondered why the dreams stopped so suddenly. She could see that Domi was afraid that she would be upset with her tampering with her mind like that, but... Trini could understand how she wouldn't want witnesses to her abuse.

"It's okay. I don't mind." She reached out and stroked Domi's cheek. "I trust you." The gratitude that shone out of Domi's eyes was so overpowering.

"I was worried that you wouldn't trust me anymore if you knew. I... I was so sure that you wouldn't." Domi looked at her with wonder, Trini wanted to pull Domi into her lap and hold her, to try and give her comfort, but she didn't. "I only did it to spare you from it. It was horrible."

"I know." Trini said softly.

"I... I need help identifying the men. I stole the list of Quarrymen members from that headquarters that you found me on the roof of." Domi spoke with more control as she mentioned her plan.

Trini felt her heart ache. She wasn't going to be much help. "I only remember seeing two of them. The ones from the train."

Domi took a deep breath. "You saw them all. It's part of the memories I blocked off." Domi stared at her intently, "I can undo that spell... the memories are going to hurt you." Domi muttered more quietly, "badly... but I need my vengeance. I need it."

Trini leaned her chin on Domi's head. "I'll do anything I can. Anything." She knew that it would hurt. She could barely stand to hear about what Domi went through, but to see it... it would be hell. In all honesty she wanted to find these assholes... and the thought of making them suffer before they died didn't bother her at all.

"I'm not ready to undo the spell yet, and its something that needs to be done when we have a few days without any responsibilities." Domi's voice sounded so apologetic, "If I could do this myself I would. I'm sorry to pull you into this. I really thought I could do this myself."

"It's okay." Trini told her quietly.

When Domi went to her bedroom to change and get ready for sunset, Trini rushed to the bathroom and threw up. She'd held it in as long as she could. No wonder Domi's nightmares were so bad. And now... hers were going to be as well. She could tell by Domi's eyes that this was going to undo all the good that the spell she'd cast had done. She was going back to waking up screaming, but she'd do anything to help Domi with this.

Trini had to force their talk out of her mind as she put her amulet on. Her and Demona were going to meet the male where he had tried to attack Demona so that he could lead them to his clan. She needed to be ready to face this group of unknown gargoyles, that might actually be family. Looking at herself in the mirror, she somehow didn't think that they'd be too thrilled. She was going looking as human as she could. Her and Demona had agreed that the less they knew about her abilities the better. They might be a threat. They were going to wait to get a feel for the group before revealing anything.

Demona poked her head in the doorway, "You almost ready?"

Trini sighed, "Yeah... Let's get this over with."

Day 9

Trini was in Demona’s arms as they circled the creek. She was a little upset with herself, because she was noticing how nice it felt to be there. She liked Demona’s strong arms around her. She needed to get over this!

They landed to wait, since they saw no sign of this male Demona had mentioned. “Well, did you want to take another mud bath?” Trini grinned at her as they landed. She could see where the creek bed had been disturbed last night.

Demona grinned evilly at her and started to walk towards that part of the creek with Trini still in her arms. “Oh, but it’s so good for your skin. You should try it.” Trini was suddenly worried that Demona meant to drop her in.

“No… NO please I’ll be good! I promise!” Trini hurriedly tried to talk the gargoyle out of dropping her into the creek. She clung harder to Demona’s neck, so that it wouldn’t be easy to drop her. Demona started to chuckle as she stepped back from the creek. “That was so not nice!” Trini scolded her as Demona let her down.

“Maybe not, but it was funny. You should have seen the look on your face.” Demona laughed as she caped her wings and they moved further away from the creek to wait.

Trini sat down in the grass. They were out in the forest, far away from homes. They could afford to relax out in the open. Demona sat beside her. “So… are we early or is he late?” Trini asked. Part of her was worried that they’d be stood up, but… who would stand Demona up?

Demona looked up at the sky, “I’d say he’s a little late.” Trini could see her studying something in the distance. She stared at it, three silhouettes were gliding their way.

“Does this make you as nervous as it makes me?” Trini kept her eyes on the nearing gargoyles. “He didn’t say anything about bringing friends with him, did he?”

Demona got to her feet, and Trini could tell that she was preparing herself for a fight if need be. Great, she wouldn’t be much help against a gargoyle. Demona put down a hand to help Trini up. “Let me do the talking.” She told Trini before turning away to watch the gargoyles land near the creek bed. Trini openly stared at the three that landed. There were two males and a female. The males both looked to be about her age. One was huge, like Goliath with all the muscles. He had forest green skin and black hair. This one was the one that Demona had described. She fought with that? He was… scary huge. The other male was about human size. He had a sneer on his face when he noticed Trini there. He was red, with maroon wings. His large horns kept his long brown hair out of his eyes. He hadn’t said anything, but Trini had the impression that he did not like her. The slightly older female stepped forward. She was orange, with bright red wings. She had an athletic build kind of like Elisa’s and was a little shorter than Trini. Her horns were small, so they didn’t affect the way her black hair laid on her head. “I’m Alexandria, the second in command. This is Ben and Zack” She indicated that the large one was Ben and the one that already hated Trini was Zack.

“I’m Blue and this is Trinity.” Demona stepped forward to shake hands with Alexandria. Trini just nodded politely at the three. Demona had more experience with this sort of thing, she could play the obedient follower for a little while. She was so grateful to have Demona with her for this. She had no idea how she would have dealt with strange gargoyles without the backup.

“You didn’t tell us your friend was a human.” Zack finally spit out what was bothering him about Trini. “I don’t think we should show a human to our clan. It’s too dangerous.” Before Demona could respond to that barb, Alexandria turned to glare at Zack with red eyes, obviously upset with his rude behavior.

“I’m sorry for Zack’s rude behavior Trinity.” She turned her eyes back to Trini and started to walk up to her. The friendly smile was somewhat reassuring. “Unfortunately, we will need to send for permission to bring you in. Security… I’m sure you understand.”

“Sure.” Trini was surprised at the measures that they were taking against humans. She could tell that Demona wasn’t too pleased with this delay, but she agreed as well. She probably also didn’t like gargoyles referring to Trini as human. She always seemed to try and ignore that part of Trini’s heritage. Alexandria nodded to Ben and he climbed a tree and took off, presumably to get permission. Too bad it wasn’t Zack that went. His glare was irritating.

“So… how about we sit and wait?” Alexandria asked while she was sitting down. Trini glanced at Demona briefly before doing the same. They ended up seated in a circle on the grass. “So, Blue? That’s an unusual name.” Alexandria was once again paying more attention to Demona. Trini was starting to get the feeling that she was definitely considered a weak sidekick here. She held her irritation in and just paid attention to what was being said. You never know when something interesting might come up. Zack had started to pay more attention to Demona as well. Trini didn’t like the leer in his eyes as he thought he was covertly checking out Demona’s cleavage. Demona might dress like she didn’t care who ogled her, but Trini didn’t like the disrespect a stare like that implied.

“It’s not that unusual for my clan. We don’t tend to use human names, just more descriptive names.” Demona lied smoothly.

“Oh… I heard you come from Seattle?” Alexandria pressed for more information. Hopefully they wouldn’t need to go over all of this again once they got to their home. Trini knew that this was small talk to kill time while they waited. “I wasn’t aware that there was another clan so close to us.”

“There isn’t… anymore. I’m the only survivor.” Demona’s voice spoke of loss and loneliness that Trini knew wasn’t a lie, even though the words were. “There was an… accident. It took out our home during the day.”

Both of the other gargoyles looked sympathetic at that. “Oh… we had something like that shortly after the last breeder’s moon. We lost half of our clan to it.” Alexandria spoke softly. Trini’s eyes widened, could her father have died that way? She just felt that he must be dead… the finality of the message he sent made her think that she would never see him.

“Accident… right.” Zack grumbled, getting another sharp look from Alexandria. He ignored it as he glared at Trini, “So why do you travel with a human?”

“She watches over me during the day.” Demona smiled at her fondly. Trini blushed and gave a slight smile back. She didn’t notice the appraising look that Alexandria was giving the two of them.

“Well, that’s good to have some sort of protection.” Alexandria conceded politely, “Especially if you are traveling. Why exactly are you traveling?”

This was a lie that they had played with for a while. They weren’t supposed to know of this clan being here. It had to look like a coincidence that they found them. “Trini had plans to be here this summer long before we started to spend time together. I didn’t want her to have to cancel it.”

The idle conversation went on for another ten minutes before Ben could be seen in the sky. Trini really hoped that they wouldn’t turn her away, because she didn’t want to tell them the truth just yet. Zack’s attitude had her on edge.

They all stood up when Ben landed. He came forward and his voice was rather deep as he spoke. “Erik says to just bring them. He really wants to meet Blue.” So they were willing to risk having a human around to meet a new gargoyle, Trini sighed. She wondered if the Manhattan Clan would have been so dismissive of her if they had thought she was human in the beginning as well.

They were getting ready to climb and take off when Ben stepped closer to Trini. “I can carry you.” He offered while glancing at Demona, obviously doing this to impress the pretty blue gargoyle.

Trini took a step backwards, “No… Blue is the only one I want to fly me.” The males were obviously coughing to cover up their laughter. Alexandria was fighting with a grin.

“Trini… I really need to teach you more about gargoyles.” Demona whispered to her. Trini looked at her with a puzzled expression on her face.

“What I think she means is that you just said that Blue is the only one you want to mate with.” The large gargoyle chuckled. Trini’s face went red, that wasn’t what she’d meant.

Zack hissed at Ben, "Females can't mate with Females." Oh great... he's prejudice against humans and lesbians. He was definitely not a new friend.

“I… I… just meant that I don’t like other people carrying me.” She corrected her error quietly and started to climb the tree, being careful to not look too good at it. Even though humans descended from apes, on a whole, they couldn’t climb trees worth crap. When Demona looked over at her from the other side of the trunk in concern, Trini winked at her. Demona gave her a small smile as she realized that the way Trini was slowly making her way up the tree was being faked.

As they flew, Trini caressed Demona’s arm gently. The contact helped to calm her nerves, and no one could really see what she was doing, since they were following the other three. “So gargoyles mate in the sky?” Trini asked quietly.

“We’ll talk about it some other time, okay?” Demona blushed a little when she answered. Trini didn’t understand the blush until she realized that they were in the sky and she had been caressing her. She just couldn’t seem to keep her hands still.

They landed outside of a cave. “Well, here’s home sweet home.” Zack said, but his voice was full of derision. He didn’t like living here, apparently. Demona set her down, and she reluctantly took a few steps away.

She was a little startled by the hand that touched her shoulder, “You don’t need to be afraid of us Trini. We won’t hurt you.” Alexandria smiled encouragingly at her and indicated that they should go into the cave. Trini was upset with herself for appearing afraid. She wasn’t really afraid of the gargoyles, just the reception she would get once they realized that she was… related? Was she related? She didn’t look anything like the three gargoyles they had just seen. Her father and her had a more of a human skin tone. The others were very colorful. As they walked past several gargoyles, that all stared at her and Demona. She noticed that there weren’t any with human skin tones. She noticed one gargoyle with wings like Lex’s. Many of the gargoyles here had horns. Her father didn’t have those, thank God. That would be hard to hide. The cave was large, with several passages going in different directions. They had torches lighting the way. It was like going back in time, they didn’t have any modern conveniences.

When Alexandria got to a door in the wall of the rock, she grinned mischievously at Demona and her. When she opened it, Trini knew why. This was where all the modern conveniences were. It was a large room, with a large screen TV and stereo on one side, a computer in the corner and a modern kitchen. Off to the side was another door. It was really surprising to see all of that in the cave. Demona took it into stride, or appeared to when Trini glanced at her. God, she was so confident looking, like nothing fazed her. Trini wished she could do that. They followed Alexandria into the room and towards the doorway.

Demona leaned over to Trini and whispered in her ear, “Treat this like a corporate thing. You know how to do the company visits, just do it like that.” She then moved to follow Alexandria more closely, and Trini fell into step behind her like a personal assistant. She could do this. She schooled her expression to give nothing away and walked into a large conference room. The familiar type of surroundings helped her.

A large male with horns that extended a ways from his head was standing to greet Demona. He was a light olive green and had no hair. “Greetings, I am the leader here. You can call me Erik.”

Demona took his hand and shook it firmly, “I am Blue.” Her smile was slightly seductive as she looked at the male gargoyle, and Trini didn’t like that at all. She had to force herself to remember that Demona almost never got to be around gargoyles anymore. She also had to force herself to accept that she really had no say in the matter. Still, she couldn’t deny that she felt jealous. She had to work really hard to keep all of these thoughts from showing on her face.

When Erik turned to her she smiled and said, “I’m Trinity.” She shook his hand as well. At least he acknowledged her.

They all sat down so that they could talk. Trini still didn’t have a good idea of whether she could just come out and tell them what she wanted. Alexandria, Erik, Demona and her were the only ones in the room. “Well, it was really lucky that you were in our area.” Erik grinned at Demona. He started to tell Demona the history of his clan. Trini paid close attention to that. He was focused on the gargoyle, and paid little attention to Trini, but Alexandria was watching her. Trini had no idea she had an audience. This clan had fourteen adult gargoyles, and six hatchlings. That was much larger than the clan at home. They had a shortage of females as well, which Trini figured was why they were being so nice to Demona. They thought she was available, since she told them her clan was gone. He was trying to take Demona away from her. He didn’t even consider her when he was making the sales pitch. He didn’t care what Demona meant to her, the clan just wanted to have another breeder. Trini was suddenly afraid that Demona would try and take them up on the offer. She had been alone for a long time. Oregon was so far away from New York. Demona was being so friendly, seemed so open to the idea.

Trini was startled when Alexandria leaned closer to her, “Come with me.” She whispered in her ear. Trini turned to look at the orange female quizzically for a moment. She didn’t want to leave Demona. Alexandria spoke louder, addressing everyone, “I’m taking Trini on a tour.” Erik just nodded, and seemed glad to get rid of her. Demona gave her a slight nod, to let her know it was okay. She was dismissed, and it hurt. She hoped that no one could see that, she missed her sunglasses. They helped to keep people from reading her emotions.

Alexandria took her through several passages, and pointed out different rooms, but they all looked the same to her. Once they got to a room where they were alone, and Trini didn’t have gargoyles staring at her, Alexandria turned to her with a serious expression on her face. Trini realized then that this wasn’t a tour, it was a way to get her alone. That’s why everything they saw was so boring. “Trinity, I noticed that you don’t want Blue to stay here. I want you to know that gargoyles need a clan, you shouldn’t stand in the way of that.” Her voice was cold and stern. It softened when Trini started tearing up. It wasn’t anything that she hadn’t been telling herself. “Blue is alone. She seems to have latched onto you. She’s treating you like clan, but… she needs gargoyles. A human just can’t understand. I don’t mean to be cold, I can tell you care about her. You need to encourage her to be with her own people. You can’t possibly protect her all day. Would you be able to kill to protect her? Because I can assure you that if you are with her long enough, some human is going to try and kill her.”

“Yes.” Trini said quietly. “I’d kill for her. I wouldn’t even need to think about it.” That seemed to startle Alexandria, because she went quiet and just stared at Trini. Trini realized what they were doing. It was a divide and conquer scenario, they were trying to use her to get to Demona. It had been working. They had her fooled. She’d been so close to agreeing that Demona would be better off with them. “You all sit here talking about clan, but you never even asked… She is my clan. You have all these people here. My clan is very small. You can’t have my clan!” She glared at Alexandria, not noticing the gargoyle’s eyes going wide, not noticing her own vision had gone red. “What makes you think that you can just rip a clan apart like this?! You have no right!” She was shaking with anger.

“Trini.” Demona came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her, “They aren’t going to take me away. You don’t need to worry.” She told her softly as she hugged Trini to her. "You are my clan too. I wouldn't abandon you." She gave a brief glare to Alexandria over Trini's shoulder. Apparently she had managed to hear some of that conversation.

Alexandria finally found her voice. She whispered, “What are you?”

Demona’s eyes widened at the question, and she spun Trini around to look into her face. “Oh… Trini, your eyes.” Demona glanced over her shoulder at Alexandria and then back at her. Trini realized then that she’d allowed herself to get too emotional. She’d blown it. The red of her eyes faded.

"I'm sorry Blue." She whispered to Demona before she turned to face Alexandria. Speaking just a little louder she answered the question. "My father was a gargoyle." She took a step closer to the orange female. "He came from this clan."

Alexandria's eyes grew wide. "Oh God... it can't be." She muttered to herself. "You're Raven's... aren't you?" She stared intently into Trini's eyes. Trini had to think very hard... her mother always called him her father. What was his name?

"I don't know his name. I never got to meet him." She reached into her shirt and pulled out her amulet. "He left me this. I just found it a few days ago. It shows him. Do you want to see?" She noticed that Alexandria's eyes started to dart around nervously.

"No... you need to get out of here. If anyone finds out your Raven's daughter..." She was afraid, Trini could tell. She glanced over to Demona, completely confused about where this went wrong. "We aren't even supposed to say his name." Alexandria gave Trini a sympathetic look. "He was banished. You can't be here."

"But... but he said that I should come. He told me he left things here for me." Trini's voice took a slightly pleading tone. Another group of people that were supposed to be family were rejecting her.

Demona moved closer to her. "What was he banished for?" Her voice was calm and demanding. Trini was so grateful that she was there.

Alexandria looked at Trini, obviously reluctant to answer, "I guess you deserve to know. He was responsible for the accident that killed half of the clan. Erik's mate was killed, he... he hates him. That's why I think you should go."

Trini was completely stunned. She just stared at Alexandria, not wanting to hear that. Her father was responsible for several gargoyle deaths... "How many? How many died?" She asked quietly.

Alexandria answered just as quietly. "Fifteen died that day."

Trini felt Demona place her hand on her shoulder. "It was an accident?" She stared down at the ground, feeling unable to look Alexandria in the face. Her father did this to them. Gargoyles were dying out and he... did this.

"Some gargoyles here think it was on purpose, but I think it was an accident." Alexandria answered. Trini could hear someone coming their way. "Look, I can't talk about this here. I can come by tomorrow and tell you what happened. It's getting late, let me escort the two of you home and I'll come by tomorrow." Trini just nodded. She felt completely deflated. Her mother had said all sorts of horrible things about him, but she had hoped... She just wanted some family that she could be proud of, that she could feel... Dammit, she wasn't going to find that here.

Demona moved to look into her glassy eyes. "Trini, you just need to hold it together a little longer so that no one here sees how upset you are. Can you do that?" Demona didn't look at her with sympathy and her voice was matter of fact. It helped Trini to tough it up and march out of there like nothing was eating at her soul.

They didn’t talk as they glided back to the cabin. Partly because Alexandria would overhear them and partly because Trini just didn’t have the words to express how incredibly disappointed she was. Alexandria left them quickly and went home. She said something about having to help with the hunting.

Trini quietly went into the bathroom and started a shower. She had gotten dirty sitting on the ground and climbing trees. She was hoping it would also relax her enough to sleep, because her mind was just circling over the fact that her father was responsible for those deaths, and that this clan wouldn’t accept her now.

“Trini?” Demona’s voice coming from the entrance to the shower should have startled her, but she had almost expected it. She glanced over to her and could see that Demona looked a little concerned about her. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine.” Trini sighed. “I had just hoped…” hoped that she had a family somewhere. That she belonged somewhere. Better to just let that pain go. She could hear Demona removing her clothing, and it almost made Trini smile. Demona was going to take care of her tonight. “I’m glad I have you.” She whispered just loud enough for the gargoyle to hear.

Demona stepped up behind her, “I’m glad I have you too. Can I get your back?” Trini nodded and bowed her head to accept Demona’s touch. The gargoyle gently caressed her back with soapy hands.

She slowly circled Trini’s scars, making Trini arch back and moan, “Oh God… Blue.” Her breathing became a little labored as Demona continued to circle there. Trini was gritting her teeth and her whole body was shaking. Her legs felt too weak to hold her up.

Demona’s hands traveled to her lower back just moments before Trini thought she might actually collapse. Trini barely managed to not beg… she wanted Demona to keep touching her scars. The gargoyle did the gentle circles she sometimes did when she was trying to relax Trini. After being teased like that, her heart was hammering. “You were worried I’d stay weren’t you?” Demona asked softly, completely ignoring Trini’s extreme reaction to her touch.

“Yes. You seemed to be considering it. I… I would miss you so much.” Trini turned to look at Demona. “How much of that conversation did you hear?” She was curious how long Demona had been listening to her and Alexandria.

“I came in when you said I was your clan.” Demona whispered as she stopped soaping up Trini’s arm. She looked into Trini’s eyes intensely as she pulled Trini into a hug.

Trini went straight to bed from the shower. She remembered to leave her bedroom door wide open, and gave Demona a pleading look. Demona nodded, she would sleep with her again, no arguing about it. An hour later Domi stood in the doorway staring at Trini. She whispered, “Has the clan told you about me, about how they blame me for the destruction of our clan? It was the humans that betrayed us, but… how will you deal with their accusations.”

Just as quietly Trini answered, “I’ll pretend to listen and start thinking of something else, like I always do when they talk about you.” She could see Domi jump when she spoke. She knew that the redhead thought she was asleep.

“I didn’t know you were awake.” Domi sounded pretty upset.

“I always wake up when you change.” Trini held open the covers of the bed. “Come to bed?” Domi got into bed quietly but didn’t cuddle up to her. She realized that she was going to have to talk about this a little to make Domi feel better. “Even if everything that the clan told me about you were true, which I doubt it is, I would still love you.” Domi moved closer to cuddle with her from behind. She then wrapped an arm around Trini and held her. Trini was finally able to fall asleep.

Trini woke up late again. Domi was pouring over her computer, and looked like she had been at it for a while. Trini stood quietly and watched her for a while. She could see the stress that Domi was under by the way she sat. She walked up behind her and started to massage her shoulders. Domi tensed up at first, but then just bowed her head and let Trini rub her shoulders. “Mmmm. Feels nice.”

“You work too hard. I know my healing powers don’t cover stress, and I can feel yours don’t either. Your muscles are rock hard.” Trini smirked, “Of course you are seriously built, but this is different.”

“You think I’m built? What do you mean by that?” Domi’s voice took on a little bit of a purr. She was playing with Trini.

“You’re in amazing shape. Your muscles in either form… impressive, but you are still very feminine looking.” Trini leaned down to whisper seductively in Domi’s ear, “You are a goddess and you know that your sexy, that’s why you were playing with Erik yesterday.”

“You noticed that?” Domi’s voice was getting a little more teasing.

“Of course I did.” Trini admitted, while pulling away from the massage. “Do you want a mate? Do you want to see if there is someone in that clan worth having?” She asked, worried that the answer would be yes. If Domi really wanted a mate and she could find one here, she wasn’t going to stand in her way.

Domi spun around to study Trini’s face. “No. I don’t want to breed. I’m not really set up for motherhood right now.” That wasn’t the question that Trini asked.

“What about a mate?” Trini pushed again. She didn’t know why she was putting herself through this. She couldn’t be a mate to Domi, because she had Fox.

Domi gave her a strange look, like she was trying to figure out what Trini was thinking, “I’m fine.” She then stood up abruptly, “Do you want some lunch? I’m hungry.” Trini could tell that Domi didn’t want to talk about that anymore. She dropped it as they made lunch together.

It was a few hours before sunset when Trini’s phone rang. She didn’t bother getting up from the couch as she answered. Domi glanced over at her once, but then continued to watch TV. “Hello?”

“Trini, how are you doing?” Delilah asked.

“Oh, Delilah, I’m fine. You all should be seeing my boxes soon. Keep those boys out of it will you?” Trini grinned. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Domi stiffened a little when she had said Delilah’s name. Great, another person that just sees a clone when they look at her.

“Sure, no problem.” Delilah’s voice became more serious, “Elisa says that you plan to tell the clan you’re gay?”

“Yeah, I think I better tell them soon, or I’ll be having to avoid those boys all night every night. They didn’t take any of the subtle hints that I wasn’t interested.” Trini sighed. “I am so very not looking forward to this conversation.”

“You think they’ll think I’m gay? Why?” Delilah sounded pretty confused. Elisa must not have explained it very well.

“Didn’t Elisa talk with you?” Trini asked. She wanted to know how Elisa handled this. She could see Domi stiffen up again when she said that name.

“She only said to be prepared for them to accuse me as well… something about being seen with you. I don’t get it. Why would anyone think that I’m gay because I spend time with you?” Delilah asked. She seemed puzzled, not upset, which Trini was thankful for.

“I’ve never had to come out… well, actually I told one person before.” She glanced at Domi, who looked at her with a bit of surprise. She was the only person that Trini had just come out and said it to. The others just figured it out. “But I don’t think this is going to go as well as that did. You are the only single female they see me with. You’ve spent time in my room watching TV with me… they might talk. I just wanted you warned.” Trini’s voice got softer, “If anyone gives you any trouble you tell me. I may not be all that tough, but those bastards won’t know what hit them.”

“You really don’t have to protect me. I can take care of it.” Delilah sounded like she was trying to project a strong image over the phone.

“I never said you couldn’t handle it.” Trini said softly with a lot of affection, “besides this is all going to be because of me. I can’t let people treat you badly because you are my friend.” She paused, “Maybe they won’t be assholes. But I didn’t want you blindsided if they were.”

“They’ve been treating me pretty well so far. I get to go out on patrol almost every night and they invite me to do things once in a while.” Delilah sounded younger when she said this.

“I’m glad they’re being nice to you. Are you happy?” Trini wanted to know if she should push for Delilah to become part of the clan permanently.

“It’s much nicer living here.” Delilah said very softly. Trini could hear that she wanted to stay.

“Do you want to switch clans Delilah?” She asked, noticing that Domi was watching her conversation closely now. Well, nothing she was saying was a secret. “If you do I can work on that. I’d rather you stayed. I don’t like how Talon treats you.” He was nice enough to her, but she couldn’t forgive his behavior towards Delilah.

Delilah asked, “But what if Goliath doesn’t want me to stay?”

“Goliath doesn’t really have a choice. I’ll ask him to be polite… but David and Fox own that castle. I’ll use that if I have to. I can also see if I can get Elisa to back me up on this. He’ll take you if she asks him to. That’s why he wanted me.” Trini was so involved in her planning that she wasn’t even paying attention to Domi anymore. Domi’s eyes widened as she vocalized her plans. “Hudson will help us too. I can make it happen if you want it.”

“I want it.” Trini could hear that Delilah believed in her ability to do this for her. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime honey. Anytime.” Trini smiled.

“I need to get going, I’m on first patrol.” Delilah sounded much more upbeat. Trini was glad she could do that for her.

“Okay, I’ll see you in a few days. Be careful out there. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about the plan… I need to take Goliath by surprise.” Trini hung up and looked over at Domi as she set the phone down. She could see the redhead had questions.

“You’re trying to get Delilah into the clan?” Domi asked after a moment of Trini staring at her waiting for the question.

“Yes. The Labryinth clan aren’t treating her too well.” She didn’t want to go into the fact that it was their impression of Demona that was causing Delilah trouble. That clan was under the impression that Delilah would start to show Demona’s violent tendencies. More softly she added, “She’s my friend and I just couldn’t sit by and do nothing. I talked Goliath into letting her stay with them while I was away.”

Trini watched Domi’s face and could see that she wasn’t pleased with her spending time with Delilah. “What do you have against her?” Trini asked with a bit of an attitude in her voice. She was so tired of having to defend Delilah’s right to exist.

“I had a mate a few years ago, Thailog. He decided that he’d rather make a sex toy than be with me. He tried several times to betray me for my money, but I didn’t see it. I didn’t realize… until he tried to kill Angela that he…” Domi’s eyes looked so sad as she paused to take a breath. “didn’t love me at all, he never had. That’s also the night he introduced me to Delilah, he had used my DNA along with Maza’s to make her.” Domi told her. Trini was shocked. She moved closer to Domi. “He understood about my quest, he even seemed to support it. I let that blind me to his true nature. I was just so glad to not be alone anymore.”

“You aren’t alone now.” Trini said softly.

Domi reached over and started to lightly caress Trini’s tail. “No, I’m not.” She was staring at the coffee table, but Trini could see a small smile on her lips. “You don’t believe in my quest, you tell me that you’ll betray me if I look like I’ll succeed, you are friends with my enemies… and in spite of all of this, I know that you really do care about me.” Domi looked up into Trini’s eyes, “It’s real with you.”

Trini had no idea how to respond to that so she just took Domi’s hand and held it for a little while. It also served to stop the caress to her tail, which had her almost ready to squirm in her seat. Domi kissed her forehead and went back to her computer to work.

Trini sat and pretended to watch TV while she tried to think. Domi had been comparing her to a mate, did that mean she felt like they had that sort of connection? The intimacy they shared, the way they depended on each other for the day-to-day life lately… they were like mates. The only thing missing was the sex, and if Trini was completely honest with herself, it wasn’t entirely missing. Some of the caresses that they shared were very sexual in nature. Trini had Fox, loved Fox… but the thought of being Domi’s mate… made her realize that she was doing it again. She was in love with both of them. Gargoyles were supposed to be monogamous, to find one lover and stick with them. She seemed to be the complete opposite. If she has one lover, she quickly finds another. Her life would be so much easier if she didn’t find it so easy to fall in love with these women.

She also was concerned about Delilah. Did she know what she was made for? To find out that she only existed to be some sick assholes sex toy would be devastating. Did he abuse her? “Did he have Delilah long?” She asked quietly, interrupting Domi’s work.

“No, it takes a few months to make a clone. He probably only had her for a few days.” Trini could feel Domi was watching her. Trini looked up with pain filled eyes. Days… that bastard could have really done some damage in days. “Trini?” Domi was starting to get up from her seat, looking very concerned.

“Is he alive?” Trini’s eyes burned red. If he was alive he wouldn’t be for long.

“No… I killed him.” Domi said softly as she sat down beside her on the couch again. “Trini, I really don’t think he had the time to do that. There was a lot going on that he had to supervise.”

“You’re sure?” Trini turned hopeful eyes to the redhead. Domi pushed Trini’s bangs out of her eyes.

“Yes… I am. He didn’t have time to touch her.” Her voice was soothing.

“Does she know what he wanted from her?” Trini asked quietly.

Domi sighed, “Yes… she knows exactly why he made her. He told me in front of her and the entire clan. Everyone knows why she was made.”

“Oh God… as if her life wasn’t hard enough.” Trini felt tears in her eyes. “No wonder everyone treats her like that.”

Domi pulled her into a hug. “I never thought of it like that. I don’t think anyone has thought of it like that.” She whispered. Her eyes were troubled.

“No… people would have to believe she was a person with feelings to even start considering that. No one treats her like a person, just some sort of sick experiment.” Trini was angry, but it was at everyone, not just Demona. “I can’t imagine how she must feel knowing that everyone thinks she’s just some…” Trini couldn’t finish that sentence. Some whore. She was one of the sweetest people she knew, and everyone thought she was a whore.

“No, I think you can imagine only too well. You are very good at understanding others pain.” Domi told her. It shook Trini out of her thoughts. Domi was talking about her own pain now. She reached over and took her hand.

Demona came out of her bedroom shortly after the sunset. “Well, we just need to wait around here. You don’t need to look so tense, she will probably take a while to get here.” Trini knew she was tense, she could feel her muscles protesting. She had been getting more and more tense as the time to meet with Alexandria came nearer. She needed to hear about her father, but she didn’t want to hear it. Demona walked past the stereo and turned it on. She then turned the TV off. “Do you want to do a little sparring while we wait?” Trini’s eyes widened a little. They hadn’t done that since the train, and Demona had been in her human form then.

“You’ll kick my ass. I can’t take a gargoyle.” Trini looked at Demona like she was a little crazy. The gargoyle was stronger, much stronger. Demona just grinned at her.

“You just don’t have the experience. You could if you knew how. You need practice for that.” Demona started to push the furniture to the sides of the large living room. “Fighting a gargoyle is different. The tail, wings, and talons can all be weapons. You’re going to need to be more alert to what I’m doing. Just watching out for arms and legs won’t do.” Trini stood up and helped Demona move the couch. “You catch on to fighting quickly. I think that with some training you might actually be a pretty decent warrior.” Trini blushed at that compliment. She knew that gargoyles valued their warrior skills.

“I was going to have Fox start training me when I got home.” Trini admitted, “I know that I need to know this stuff.”

Demona grimaced, “Well, Fox can teach you how to fight like a human. How to fight other humans, but… I think maybe you still need to work with me. She couldn’t teach you how to use your tail in a fight, or your talons.” Demona looked at her with hope in her eyes, “Maybe when we get back to New York you should come over once in a while at night so we can spar.”

Trini smiled at her, “Sounds like a good idea.” She was pretty confident that if Fox taught her to fight, she’d be pretty good, but this was something that Demona wanted to share with her, a hobby of sorts that they could do together. Trini knew that Demona was fishing for a way to still be able to spend time with her once they went back to their regular lives. It felt really good to know that Demona wanted her around, that she even was willing to say it directly now. “I’d like to keep my tail in my pants tonight though. We do have company coming over.”

“She already knows your part gargoyle.” Demona studied her quietly, “So why hide it?”

Trini blushed, “I don’t know. I just don’t feel comfortable enough with her. I don’t even really like her.” When Demona tilted her head a little Trini knew she wanted more information. “Not very many people ever see my tail. I just feel…” she paused not sure of how to say it. “It being so sensitive doesn’t really make me want it out where people can touch it, and I’ve spent my whole life hiding my differences. It’s hard to get over.”

“And why don’t you like Alexandria?” Demona asked while studying Trini’s face.

“She tried to take you away from me.” Trini said quietly, “She tried to actually convince me that you don’t belong with me.”

Demona’s eyes got softer, “She thought you were human.”

Trini’s eyes hardened a little, “So? Even if I were human I don’t think she should have just tried to get rid of me like that. And I’ll bet you that they still try and talk you into staying, even though she knows I’m not completely human. She’ll send me away because my dad is some sort of idiot that killed his own clan and they’ll try and keep you. They won’t even care what would happen to me or if I have any other clan. You saw her… they’re going to banish me for what my father did! I never even knew him and I’ll be punished for his actions.” Her voice got quieter, “He just abandoned me and I still have to take this.”

“Oh… Trini. You saw the message he left you. He said he didn’t want to do that. He had some sort of reason for doing that.” Demona pulled her into a hug. “He didn’t want to abandon you, but sometimes parents need to do that to protect their hatchlings.” Trini resisted the urge to remind Demona that she was born, not hatched. She started to wonder at the way that Demona sounded so… experienced in this matter.

Trini sighed as she got to her feet for what felt like the millionth time, because Demona’s tail kept knocking her down. She just couldn’t get used to watching out for it. “Don’t worry, you are actually getting better, I’m trying harder.” Demona told her as she moved back to start again.

“You are just determined to bruise me pretty badly today aren’t you.” Trini smirked. “Good thing I heal like I do or I don’t think I’d be able to sit tomorrow.” Demona gave her a wicked grin and came at her again. Trini dodge a kick and blocked a punch quickly. She and Demona were throwing punches back and forth quickly without any of them connecting. Trini knew that Demona could hit her if she really wanted to, but she was trying to focus on tail techniques. The punches were just a distraction until Trini either dodged a tail swipe or hit the ground again. This time when Trini hit the ground she rolled quickly into Demona’s feet, knocking her down as well. The air was knocked out of her when Demona landed on her. Not the best move she’d ever done. Demona braced herself on her hands and looked down into Trini’s face.

“You okay?” She asked softly, looking so concerned.

“Yeah. That was pretty stupid of me.” Trini grinned weakly. She could feel the press of Demona’s body against her own. She reached up and caressed the gargoyles cheek. She noticed those blue lips, focused on them… “Kiss me.” She whispered, but then froze once she realized what she’d asked. She was surprised when Demona’s eyes softened and she leaned down to gently kiss her lips.

Trini was stunned that Demona had actually done it. The gargoyle pulled back a little and looked into her eyes. “Gargoyles don’t really kiss. I don’t have much practice.” Demona told her softly.

“You do just fine.” Trini told her softly and reached up to caress Demona’s hair, making Demona smile softly.

“What you’re doing right now… that’s the gargoyle version of a kiss.” Demona nuzzled her hand gently.

“You do this to me all the time.” Trini’s eyes widened to realize that they were more intimate than she had thought.

“I know.” Demona smiled at her. Trini’s heart skipped a beat when Demona smiled. Oh God… she loved this gargoyle.

A loud knocking at the glass door startled them both. Trini looked over from her place on the floor underneath Demona to see Alexandria watching them. There was a tinge of red in her eyes. “Shit… this is a compromising position.” Trini mumbled to herself.

Demona got up and then helped Trini up. “Yes, it sure is.” She sighed. “I’ll let her in and put the couch and chairs back. Why don’t you go get us some juice and a snack? This talk should last a while.” Trini nodded, grateful for a moment to get composed. She was blushing bright red. Before either of them moved, Demona stepped forward and caressed her hair gently, ignoring the glare of the visiting gargoyle. Trini smiled softly at her, knowing that Demona did that to ease her nerves.

When Trini came back out with the juice and snacks she could see that Demona was angry and Alexandria was glaring at her. This was a terrific start to the evening. She could just tell that they had argued even though she hadn’t been able to hear it. They must have been whispering the entire time.

Day 10

Trini set the tray down on the coffee table. “Hello.” She smiled at Alexandria. She was going to have to be the peacekeeper. “How was hunting last night?”

“It was fine, we have enough for days.” Alexandria said absently, while looking at Trini like she was some sort of oddity. Trini had no idea if that was because she was a hybrid or if it was because she was gay. Demona cleared her throat, and Alexandria glanced over at her. Trini had the impression that Demona was threatening Alexandria in some way.

“Oh, well good then. Have a seat.” Trini sat on the chair, and Alexandria sat opposite her on the other chair. This left the entire couch to Demona.

“Look. I really shouldn’t even be here, but your father was a friend of mine. I believed him when he said it was an accident. I’ll tell you the story and then get out of here before Erik or the others figure out I’m missing.” Alexandria said quickly. Trini just nodded that it was okay to get started. “Your father hatched at the same time I did. We grew up together. He was always a little different, and we didn’t know why until about six years before our first breeders moon. He came to me and told me that he wasn’t from our clan that his egg had been left with us to care for. His mother was a Fey and she had waited until he was older before coming to tell him this.” Well, Trini could see where he got the tendency to just leave children to be raised by other people. “Shortly after that he met a woman hiking in the woods a few miles from our home. There was a shortage of females… not all the males would have been able to mate.” Alexandria gave a meaningful look to Demona. Trini realized now what their argument was about. Alexandria thought that Demona should breed, and it looked like her and Demona were mates. There was a low growl in the room, and it seemed to startle Alexandria. She stared at Trini. “You’re a little more gargoyle than you look, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I hide it well.” Trini said firmly. “So I assume this hiker was my mother?” Her mother had always liked the outdoors. That was part of the reason they lived out in the country.

“Yes, I think so. She was staying at these cabins for a few months during the off-season. I saw her once, when I came to get Raven. She looked like a nice enough human.” Alexandria said politely.

“Looks can be deceiving.” Demona muttered quietly. Trini glanced over at her, silently asking her to not do that. This wasn’t going to become a talk about the way her mother raised her. They could complain about that all night. Alexandria gave them both a confused stare before continuing.

“Well, she stayed until January before going home to Washington. I never knew why she would leave like that because she seemed to love Raven. Now I guess it was because she was pregnant.” She paused and leaned forward in her chair. “The clan would have had a problem with the idea that Raven actually bred with a human. After they found out he was a half-breed… they treated him badly. They would have really had a problem with his being able to breed with a human at all. It isn’t supposed to be possible.” She was starting to sound like a gossip. “The next summer he left for a while and when he came back… he didn’t tell anyone about where he had been. He seemed unhappy with being here, but the clan needed him. He was the best hunter we had, even though no one would give him the credit for it. Also lone gargoyles don’t do too well.” Summer… he might have actually been at her birth. Trini ignored the glance Alexandria gave Demona again. “When the Breeder’s moon came, he was left as the odd man out. It was hard on him, but then any of the ones left on their own have it tough.” Again the meaningful glance to Demona.

“Leave Blue alone.” Trini said flatly, “She’s mine.” She didn’t like Alexandria’s pressuring her. She hoped that Demona didn’t mind the possessiveness she was showing, but she just wanted to make Alexandria stop.

Alexandria’s eyes light up with red. “You don’t have the right to mate with her. She should be a breeder. Our numbers are too low. It’s her responsibility to breed. You can’t even fly her, can you?” Her tone was nasty. Trini’s face fell. She couldn’t fly anyone… not after what her mother had done to her.

“I told you to not talk about this!” Demona hissed at Alexandria. When she started to get up Trini realized that Demona was considering fighting. She quickly moved beside her and started to stroke her arm.

“It’s not worth fighting over. It’s not worth it.” She murmured quietly. “I don’t care what she says. I just want to get what we came for and get out of here. I don’t care what these gargoyles think of me.”

“I care.” Demona stared into her eyes and then sat back down. Trini nodded that Alexandria could sit back down as well. “Don’t ever insult Trini like that again.” Demona hissed at Alexandria. “Or your clan will be short one more female.” Trini decided to stay seated next to Demona, and ignored the glare Alexandria sent her way as she gently caressed Demona’s tail while the orange gargoyle continued to talk.

“Well, a few months after the eggs were laid it happened. Raven took out a large hunting party. They stayed the day in another cave miles away because the hunt had gone on too long. Raven… he had been flying around regularly near the town and the humans noticed him. They followed him back to the camp. They smashed the clan as they slept. We heard that it was actually a man and his three children that did that. The man was bragging in the town pub the next few nights. Someone took children out to teach them how to kill us. It was so sick.” Trini could hear Demona hiss at that. She glanced over to her and could see that she had something to add to that, but her eyes told her that it would be later. “Raven was in charge of the group, and his carelessness about visiting areas with humans lead to that. The only good thing was that they hadn’t come home that night, or it might have been all of us that died.” Alexandria got quieter, “Since he was the only survivor and he wasn’t popular to begin with… accusations flew. Erik was so grief stricken that he was eager to have someone to punish. Raven was banished. He told me that I could expect a female to come by before the next breeders moon.” She glanced at Demona and then back at Trini, “I didn’t realize that he meant a daughter. When I heard that a female was spotted the other night I made sure to become part of the greeting party. I thought Blue was who he had been talking about.” They all sat in silence for a moment.

“Does anyone know where he is?” Trini asked quietly. This wasn’t his fault. It was horrible luck, which was something she was familiar with.

“No… no one has heard from him since.” Alexandria stared at the wall.

“Do you know what he left for me?” Trini was staring at the orange female.

“No. He never mentioned anything to me. He must have left it with someone else.” Alexandria looked puzzled.

“I need it.” Trini told her firmly. “I can’t leave without it.”

“You can’t stay here!” Alexandria’s voice rose, “It’s bad enough that your Raven’s daughter, you’re also…” She glanced at Demona and didn’t finish that sentence. Trini could see that Demona’s eyes were burning very bright. Her voice got quieter, “No one is going to appreciate your taking up a potential mate. And if they figure out you’re biologically compatible… and realize that two females are out of the running… the males will be pissed!”

Demona spoke with a chilly commanding voice. “We are getting Trini’s belongings. You can tell Erik to expect us tomorrow.” She glared as she leaned closer to Alexandria, “You can start trying to figure out where her stuff is and let us know tomorrow night.”

“I don’t want to get involved in this!” Alexandria hissed as her own eyes started to burn.

“You are already involved, aren’t you?” Demona gave her an evil smirk. “We could always just march in there and let them know how very helpful you’ve been.”

“You Bitch!” Alexandria stood up and marched out he back door. “I’ll tell him.” She growled back at them as she closed the door behind her.

“I’m sorry about how’s she’s treating you.” Trini said softly. It was her fault that they were there. She had begged Demona to come with her. “I hope you don’t mind that I told her you were mine. I just wanted her to leave you alone.”

“No. That doesn’t bother me.” Demona smiled softly. She started to caress Trini’s hair again. “Feel better about your father?”

“Yeah.” Trini smiled back. “That was just bad luck. He wasn’t an idiot.” She remembered the look that Demona had given her. “You know something about that man and his kids don’t you?”

Demona’s face became a bit serious. “I do. I killed that man, but his kids are still alive.”

“How do you know it’s the same people?” Trini was watching Demona intently.

“It’s his style. He was a hunter. He was trying to kill me, like all of his family has been trying to do for hundreds of years.” Demona told her. Trini’s eyes widened.

“Someone’s been hunting you for hundreds of years?” Trini asked weakly. That was horrible. How could she ever sleep knowing that these people were after her?

“Yes.” Demona said angrily, not noticing that Trini was upset. “The bastards have been hounding me for almost a thousand years! They killed my second clan a long time ago. I woke up to see their stone bodies scattered across the ground. The leader of the Quarrymen is one of those children that he brought with him.”

Trini’s eyes burned red. Castaway was using these Quarrymen to hurt Demona. He was after her personally. She forced herself to calm down. There was nothing she could do about that right now. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Demona’s waist in a hug.

Alexandria had left pretty early in the evening. They still had a few hours before Trini would need to go to sleep. Trini was a little nervous that they would start to talk about their relationship. There were so many complications that she didn’t want to bring up right now. “How about that game of tag?” Demona smiled at her mischievously.

“Sure. No wings right?” Trini grinned back at her.

Trini’s face was a study in concentration. She didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of Demona with this. The gargoyle had to be used to relying on her wings. Trini was going to use that as much as she could. It was a game of tag so she was going to have to chase as well as be chased. Okay… Demona had enough of a head start. Trini leapt up into the nearest tree and ran across a strong branch to leapt into another nearby tree. She could see Demona a few trees in front of her. She grinned wickedly and quickly climbed up as high as she could in the tree she was in. She ran across a branch barely strong enough to hold her and leapt with all of her strength. She managed to make the leap to a tree further away as she tried to cut Demona off. She could see that the gargoyle wasn’t doing too badly in jumping trees, but… she wasn’t really any better at it than Trini. She could see Demona scanning the trees trying to find her. She grinned. She was wearing all dark colors, while the gargoyles white clothes stood out a little bit. She remained still when Demona’s eyes scanned the tree she was in. It looked like it worked; Demona continued to search the other trees. Trini carefully made another jump closer to the gargoyle. She was moving more stealthily as she got within two trees of Demona. Demona continued to move trees, and Trini just stood still and watched her make a jump. She was keeping her wings in, so she wasn’t cheating. Trini checked out the trees in the area and had a pretty good idea of the path she was planning to take. She jumped a few trees quietly to try and head her off.

Trini sat back on the branch with her back against the trunk and waited. She grinned when she saw Demona sailing through the air towards her tree. As soon as she was sure that Demona had a good grip on the branch she spoke. “Tag. Your it.” She smiled at the surprised look on the gargoyles face. She reached out a hand to help her get better balance on the branch.

Demona smiled at her, “Not too bad. I was expecting you to chase me, not wait in ambush.”

Trini gave her a seductive smile, “Oh… but I’m much better at being patient.”

“Well let’s see how well you run.” Demona looked so adorable, Trini wanted to kiss her again. Instead she stood up and started to work on her three tree lead. Trini took her time with her first three jumps and then moved quickly. She could hear that Demona was really working quickly to catch up. That gargoyle was a bit competitive. Trini grinned at that bit of insight. Trini couldn’t resist the urge to really show off for the gargoyle. She knew that Demona was watching her jumps. Trini quickly scaled the tree she was on and made a very long leap. She crossed twenty feet and grabbed onto the branch and used it to swing herself up onto the tree next to it. She did a few more leaps before she realized that she no longer could tell where Demona was. She ended up slowing down so that she could scan the trees she planned to leap into so that Demona didn’t use the same trick that she’d used on her. Because she was paying so much attention to where she was going she didn’t see the gargoyle sitting in the tree behind her. Demona grinned at her back wickedly and moved closer. “Tag.” She whispered. Trini spun around in shock. She hadn’t expected that. Trini’s heart was pounding when she lost her balance. Demona had to reach out quickly to keep Trini from falling off the branch. “You need to be more careful. I shouldn’t have startled you this badly.” Demona scolded her. Trini nodded and blushed. She was glad when Demona’s playfulness returned. “Race you back to the cabin.”

Trini was following Demona rather closely through the trees when she heard it, someone calling for help by the river. “Shit.” She muttered loudly and started off in the new direction. She wished that she could have just asked Demona for a lift and glided there, but she didn’t want to waste time arguing about saving humans.

“Trini?! What are you doing?” Demona’s voice called out to here, probably as soon as she realized that Trini had changed directions.

“Someone needs help!” She called back without taking her eyes off of the next tree she needed to jump to. She could hear the person becoming more desperate in their pleas for help. At this hour she and Demona might actually be the only people awake in the area. She started to move faster and more carelessly in her rush to get to the river.

“Dammit Trini, be careful!” Demona yelled at her after she almost fell out of a tree. She could hear that Demona was following her, and when she made another leap she was caught mid-air. “Don’t risk your life for these humans!” Demona yelled at her.

Trini turned her head and stared at her, “I can’t risk my life, remember?” she said a little harshly. When Demona started to turn away from the river, Trini hissed, “If you aren’t going to help me let me down!” Demona stared into her hardened face for a moment and then turned back to glide over the river. They could see a child on the riverbank and two children were in the river desperately clinging to a log as the water rushed past them. The child on the riverbank was a few years older than the other two. He looked to be about ten or eleven. His face was frantic with worry as he called out for help again. The two kids in the river were a boy and a girl about eight years old. “Shit… two of them.” Trini murmured to herself. She didn’t see a lot of stones she could hop to in the river to get to them. Demona circled over the river while Trini tried to think. “Blue… would you be willing to help me?” Trini asked, worried about what she would hear. When she could see the gargoyle about to angrily protest she added, “They’re just kids. We can’t just let kids die like this!”

“You’ll do this with or without my help, won’t you?” Demona said a little coldly. Trini nodded. “What do you want me to do?” The gargoyle sighed.

“Do you think you could snatch a kid out of the water and take them to shore?” Trini was watching the kids intently, hoping that they would be able to hold onto the log a bit longer.

“Yes, that’s easy.” Demona told her, “but when they start to yell and squirm I’ll drop them.”

Trini took a deep breath. “Drop me in and I’ll get to them and explain the plan. That way maybe the kids won’t squirm… and I can make sure the second one doesn’t go downstream.” She could see that the kids were helping each other stay on. Instead of getting a reply, she found herself suddenly falling. Once she hit the water she quickly moved to the log to the amazed looking children. Demona wasn’t too happy with her right now.

“Hi… me and my friend are here to help.” She told them quickly as she grabbed onto the log. “Now… my friend is going to be able to pull you out of the water and take you to shore, but she needs you to be very still. No matter how scared you are you need to be very still, can you do that?” The little girl nodded.

“We can.” The little boy told her, obviously trying to look very brave. Trini moved to help both children hold onto the log.

Trini decided one more instruction was important. “You need to be very nice to my friend. She looks different, and if you hurt her feelings she’ll be very mad. Do you understand?” she whispered. She didn’t think that Demona would be able to hear that. Both children nodded to that. “Good. Now, I think we’ll have you go first. She’s going to grab you and take you for a little ride to the shore, you don’t need to be afraid, she’s very good at this.” She addressed the little girl, who looked a bit more tired than the boy. “I’ll lift you up and she’ll grab you. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” The little girl nodded as well.

“Okay Blue.” Trini yelled out and then turned her back to the log and used both hands to lift the girl into the air. Demona swooped in and grabbed the little girl under her arms and lifted her out of the water. The girl yelled in surprise, but Trini could tell she was doing her absolute best to not squirm. She still squirmed a little, but Demona was able to deal with it and she glided low to the ground and let the girl go quickly. The girl stumbled a little but was able to stay on her feet. Trini turned to look at the little boy who had watched this with his mouth hanging open. She grinned, “Do you think you can land better than your sister did?” She was hoping that sibling rivalry would keep him from being afraid. When his eyes sharpened and he nodded, she knew it worked. “Ready?” She asked the boy.

“Yes.” He looked nervous. Trini grabbed him and lifted him up. Demona grabbed him and gave him the same ride his sister got. He actually laughed. He liked the flight; Trini released the breath she’d been holding once the boy landed on the shore. She could see Demona circling around for her so she pulled herself up on the log to wait. Demona grabbed her and started heading towards the cabin without saying anything. Trini could feel how tense the gargoyle’s body was, she must be pretty upset about having to save humans.

“I could use a shower and I really want to get out of these wet clothes.” Trini said quietly, just to break up the silence. The breeze as they glided was beginning to make her cold.

“Okay.” Demona’s voice hardened, “Try not to rush into any more problems like that. I don’t want to help you like that again!” Trini just nodded to prevent an argument, but she wasn’t going to start ignoring people when they needed help. Demona would just have to learn to accept that about her. She was pretty impressed that Demona had actually helped her with it at all.

Trini was getting ready to get into bed when Demona came into the bedroom. “Can I borrow your car tomorrow? I have a few errands to run in town. I’ll be gone for hours.”

“Sure. You can just take my keys out of my purse.” Trini had no idea what type of errands she might have, but she didn’t ask. She walked up to Demona and caressed her cheek before leaning forward and kissing her. She pulled back and looked into the gargoyles eyes. “Thank you for helping me. I know you don’t like to do that sort of thing, it means a lot to me that you did it anyhow.” She whispered. She wanted to ask Demona to sleep with her… to hold her, but it was still night so the gargoyle wouldn’t be going to bed yet. “You will sleep with me tonight?”

Demona smiled at her, “You don’t need to ask that anymore. I’ll be in here for the rest of the trip.”

Trini woke up in the morning when she heard the front door close. She laid in bed and listened to her car start and pull out of the driveway. It felt strange to be alone in the cabin. It had been days since she’d been alone. She should feel desperate for some privacy by now, but she didn’t. She went back to sleep for a few more hours before getting up.

She got a phone call at eleven, right after she’d finished breakfast. “Hello?”

“Hello Lover.” Fox’s husky voice came over the phone. “How is the move going?” Trini felt a pang of guilt when she heard Fox’s voice. She was going to have to tell her what was going on with her and Demona, but something like that should be done in person.

“Most of my stuff has already been sent.” Trini decided some more of the truth would be a good idea. “I found a magic amulet in my mother’s things. It was from my father.”

“What?!” Fox’s voice rose in surprise. “What did it do?” Trini could hear concern in Fox’s voice.

“It had an image of him and a map to his clan. He came from the Oregon clan. He wanted me to go there and pick something up, so that’s where I am.” Trini sighed, “He neglected to mention he’d been banished.”

“So you found the clan?” Fox’s voice was more focused. Trini sat down on the couch.

“Yes, I found them. One of the females told me about my father’s banishment. She’s going to try and help me find whatever he left for me. Whatever it is it came from my grandmother… who apparently was the Fey in the family.” Trini left out that Alexandria was doing this against her will because Demona was threatening her. “I guess that makes me a quarter Fey.” She added absently.

“Damn… I guess I really should have come with you. Are you alright?” Fox sounded a little stunned.

“Yes… I was pretty disappointed that he’d been banished. The other gargoyles don’t know I’m related to him yet. They think I’m human. Alexandria thinks its better that way, he isn’t very popular around here.” Trini’s stared out the window at the trees.

“Are you in danger?” Fox sounded like she was ready to come get her right now if she was. Oh, now that would be awkward… Trini could just imagine the look on Fox’s face if she stormed into the cabin and found Demona there.

“No, I’ll probably be banished… this clan sure knows how to hold onto a grudge and spread it around.” Trini shook her head, “The way Alexandria tells the story, it really isn’t even his fault. He was a scapegoat.”

“What happened that they felt the need to banish him?” Fox was sounding a little more relaxed, now that she didn’t think Trini was in immediate danger.

“Half the clan died when he was in charge of the hunting party. Some gargoyle hunter found the group and killed them during the day. He was the only survivor.” Trini sighed, “Some of these gargoyles seem to think he did it on purpose. It’s so stupid!”

“Do you want me to come to Oregon?” Fox asked, and Trini had to pause and pretend to consider it. Hell no! She didn’t want Fox here it would be a disaster!

“No, I’m doing fine and will probably be heading back to Seattle soon. I’m going to the clan tonight to see if I can find whatever grandma thought I should have.” That sounded reasonable to Trini. As soon as they got the item she wanted to get the hell away from this clan, and get Demona away from them. “No need to ruin your anniversary for this.” Trini’s voice softened, “You are having fun, right?” If she was having fun Trini wouldn’t feel the need to feel quite as guilty.

“Yes, we are having fun. I miss you though.” Fox’s voice was soft and loving, “I love you. I can’t wait to see you again.”

Trini smiled softly, “I love you too.” She felt the urge to admit that she wasn’t alone… but knew that right now wasn’t the best time for that. She would have to wait until she got home to come clean. She wasn’t going to lie to Fox about this. She hadn’t had sex with Demona, she clung to that one thing. She hadn’t actually cheated.

Fox’s voice became more business like. “Things in Canada are calming down. It’s probably going to be an unsolved case. I have all the original records being sent home. No one will ever see those.” Trini’s heart began to beat faster. She could guess what some of those records might show.

“Fox.” She cursed her voice for sounding so upset. “Have you seen all the records?”

“No, not yet.” Fox’s voice sounded a little confused to Trini.

“Please don’t look at them.” Trini pleaded.

“What? Why?” Fox sounded pretty concerned. Trini was betting that since Fox didn’t rush after her and didn’t sound overly upset her friends weren’t ruining her anniversary either.

“I don’t want you to know what I’m capable of.” That was true, but she also didn’t want Fox to find out that the men had all recently had sex. That probably shows up in a coroner report. It did on TV.

“You don’t need to be worried about me. I’ve seen some pretty bad things in my time.” Fox was sounding a little tougher.

“Please… just don’t look.” Trini was desperately begging now. “Just burn them and don’t look.”

Fox’s voice was a little hesitant, “Are your memories coming back?” They weren’t but Demona was filling in the blanks.

“Some. Some of it is coming back.” She whispered into the phone.

“We need to keep the records until we are sure that the cops are dropping the case. I need to know what I need to cover up.” Fox told her gently. Trini paled.

With a defeated slump Trini asked, “Can you just put off looking at them until I get back?” Fox was going to be getting home two days before Trini.

“Why are you… never mind. I’ll wait.” Fox conceded. The rest of the conversation was a blur to Trini. She was worried about how she was going to tell Domi that Fox was most likely about to find out she’d been raped. Fox wouldn’t believe it had been Trini, she’d taken her virginity after the abduction. That was very good evidence that it hadn’t been her. Domi was going to be very upset. After she hung up she sat and listened to the stereo for a while, trying to think of a way to break this news. An hour later she saw her car pull up and she was no closer to finding a good way to say this. Should she even bring it up now? No, if she didn’t tell Domi right away she’d be even more upset.

Domi came inside carrying some groceries. “I did some shopping while I was out.” She carried the bags into the kitchen and Trini stared after her. Reluctantly she followed her to help put away the groceries and to talk.

“Domi.” Trini sighed, “If I had bad news that we couldn’t do anything about would you want to hear it now or after we get done with dealing with this clan?”

Domi stopped putting away the groceries and moved to sit at the table with her, staring intently into her eyes. “What is it?” She ordered.

“Fox called me. She’s having all the records from the investigation sent to her home. She’s planning on going through them to plan her cover up.” Trini felt bad as she watched Domi pale a little. “She hasn’t seen them all yet. I asked her to at least wait until I came home.” She looked at the redhead’s slowly reddening face. “I’m sorry.”

“You think she’ll see something, don’t you?!” Domi’s voice was raising.

“She has complete coroner reports. I killed them shortly after…” Trini’s voice got quieter, “they raped you. I don’t know if that will show up in the report. It might.”

Domi’s eyes were full of rage. “Fuck!” She screamed and Trini could see she really felt the need to break things. They didn’t have anything worth breaking.

“She is nice, she wouldn’t use this against you or anything. She’s not heartless.” Trini rushed to try and comfort Domi.

“I didn’t want anyone to know!” Domi screamed at her. “You’re fucking girlfriend had to get involved in this, I never should have allowed it!” Domi stood up and Trini leapt up so quickly her chair fell over. “I should just kill her, that would keep her quiet.” She hissed. Trini’s eyes grew wide.

“Don’t ever talk like that.” Her heart was pounding. “Don’t ever say that!” She had to force herself to remember that Domi was upset. She resisted the urge to hit her for even suggesting such a thing. “I love you both, please don’t talk like that.” She said quietly in a pained voice. She had no idea what she would do if those two were to go after each other. It would rip her apart.

Domi glared at her and stormed out of the kitchen and into her bedroom. She slammed the door and Trini could hear things breaking. With shaking hands she finished putting the groceries away and waited for the crashing in the other room to stop.

It took a long time for Domi to get tired of breaking things. After it had been quiet for a few moments Trini quietly pushed open the door and went it. The furniture in the room was in pieces and the walls were beat up. Domi was sitting on the bed staring at the empty wall. She looked so lost. Trini went to her and sat beside her without saying anything. When she didn’t get a response she stood up and picked Domi up to carry her to Trini’s bedroom, away from the disaster that she’d made of her own bedroom. “What do you think you’re doing?” Domi hissed at her. Trini pulled the redhead closer to her body.

“I’m taking you to my room. This place is a mess.” She said quietly. She carried Domi into her room and gently set her down on her bed. When Domi quickly sat up, she moved behind her and started to massage her shoulders, knowing that they would be very tense. It stopped Domi from getting completely up. “I love you.” Trini whispered to her. “I love you so much.”

Domi seemed to slump down a bit. “God Trini… everything is such a mess. I just…” She turned to face Trini, “I won’t kill her, I was really tempted… but I won’t.” She caressed Trini’s hair gently. “If she died, you might be forced to move to Avalon. I don’t want to lose you. You are so precious to me.” She leaned forward slowly, “So very precious.” She whispered to Trini. Trini’s heart was beating quickly as Domi touched her lips to her own in a gentle kiss that became more searching and needy.

They still had a few hours before sunset. Trini could see that Domi was tense and impatient. “Do you think you can teach me to use my tail in fighting?” She asked as she started to push the furniture out of the way again. She had already closed the blinds. She figured sparring would take Domi’s mind off of what was bothering her for a little while. Besides it would be fairer for her to do this while Domi was human… she had been truly embarrassed last night at her inability to do anything against Demona.

Domi raised her eyebrows, “Sure… if you want to. You’ll need to change.” Trini finished with putting the furniture out of harms way and started to unbutton her pants.

“I don’t have any shorts or anything with me.” She blushed. “I’ll need to do this in my underwear.” Domi’s smirk made her blush harder, but she continued to lower her pants. She kept her shoes on, and her shirt, of course. After uncoiling her tail it almost reached the ground. She knew that Demona’s would drag on the ground… so it might not be full grown yet.

“Okay. I’m assuming you haven’t used it before for anything since it is always wrapped around your leg like that.” Domi sort of asked and Trini started to blush again. She used it for sex. Should she even mention that?

“Well… actually.” She stammered and then looked away embarrassed.

Domi grinned wickedly, “For fighting, not sex. I know you can use it for sex.”

“Well, then no. I’ve never been out with my tail exposed.” Trini got into a fighting stance when she saw Domi do it.

Domi showed her a few moves to wipe someone off of their feet. She even had the courtesy to fall a few times, Trini grinned because she wasn’t fooled. Domi let her do that just to make her feel better about all the falls she took last night. After Trini felt like she had the basics Domi started to fight back harder. Trini worked hard at blocking and trying to knock her down. “You can use it like a whip too.” Domi told her as she used her leg to knock Trini off her feet.

“That would hurt.” Trini complained as she quickly got back up.

“I’ll heal.” Domi grinned at her.

“No, I mean that would hurt me.” She gave the redhead a lopsided smirk. Domi straightened up and looked at her quizzically.

“Trini. Would you mind if I looked at it?” Trini straightened up, because sparring seemed to be over.

“Why?” Trini was a little nervous about that. With looking came touching.

“Remember I wanted to check out your reproductive systems? I mentioned it…” Domi looked at her a little guiltily, “when I had you captured. The tail is part of that system.” Well, that made sense, since it was so incredibly sensitive. It was more sensitive now than it had been last month. Domi gave her a seductive smirk, “It won’t hurt at all.”

Trini was a little concerned about how her tail was getting so sensitive, but she didn’t want to submit to any sort of… “Can you just look at my tail? Nothing else, just that?”

Domi looked hesitant, “Why are you letting me do this?” She obviously expected an argument.

“My tail has been sore for a few days. Laying on it or sitting on it is uncomfortable.” Trini admitted quietly. From the look on Domi’s face maybe she should have admitted that sooner. Domi looked a little concerned and more than a little surprised.

“Already? It’s already sore?” She muttered quietly. More loudly she ordered, “Get into the bedroom and lie down, I definitely need to take a look at it now.”

Trini waited in the bedroom for Domi. She was lying on her stomach feeling a little nervous. Domi had seen her naked, had touched her… but she was going to be staring at her. She felt a little self-conscious. She jumped a little when Domi suddenly entered the bedroom. The redhead had a no nonsense expression on her face as she sat beside Trini on the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were having trouble with your tail?”

“I didn’t think it was that big a deal.” Trini shrugged a little as she shifted her head so that she could see Domi. She was staring at the base of Trini’s tail, either that or her butt. She started to blush, but the attention felt so good. Her breathing became a little ragged. She suddenly remembered Fox telling her that she liked to be watched… it was so true.

“Let me guess… It’s the base of your tail that bothers you.” Domi said a little sarcastically as she rested a hand on the back of Trini’s thigh.

“Yes.” Trini answered quietly. She was beginning to hope that Domi would need to touch her tail to look at it.

Domi sighed, “Well, I’ll need you to get up on your knees so I can get a better look at it. Keep her head down while you’re at it, it will make this easier.” Trini balked at that. That pose was much too lewd. Domi reached down and grabbed a hold of her hips, obviously intending to try and lift her if she didn’t comply. Trini moved into position, but blushed an intense red. Domi pushing on her legs to spread them further apart didn’t really help her to relax either. Domi moved to sit between her legs. “I’m going to lift your tail up pretty high so I can see under it. Just give me control of your tail.” Domi said right before she started to lift. Trini could feel her placing her hands just out of the range of her base and she was glad, because if she touched Trini right there now Trini would seriously embarrass herself. As it was she was afraid that Domi could see that she was turned on. When Domi lifted her tail high it felt a little tight. She could feel Domi leaning down to look more closely and she tried to keep it in, but she moaned. She could feel Domi stiffen up at that noise and she felt a new wave of embarrassment. She was a freak to get off on something like that. Just having an attractive woman stare at her shouldn’t cause her to feel like this. She tried to clamp down on her arousal… Domi wasn’t ready and she really didn’t want to push her. Not to mention that she didn’t want to cheat on Fox, she wanted to get Fox’s permission first. Trini almost laughed at the absurdity of that thought. Fox had certainly changed her ideas about relationships. She managed to control herself when Domi continued to raise her tail. She could almost feel Domi’s eyes staring at the bottom of the base of her tail. “Damn… I had no idea you were this far along. You’re going to go into season soon. You’ll do it long before the Breeder’s moon.”

“How can you tell?” Trini was wishing that she could see what Domi was looking at that gave her that impression. She just looked at her tail and knew?

“Here, give me your hand.” Domi sat up straighter. “You need to feel this.” Since Domi had her keeping her head down she had an arm to spare. She reached back and allowed Domi to guide her to what she was trying to show her. She pressed Trini’s fingers to the base of her tail. “Do you feel that slightly swollen area?” Trini’s breath caught in her throat when her fingers contacted that area.

“Yes.” She strangled out. She blushed when she could hear Domi chuckling.

“Feels pretty good?” Domi said very softly. More loudly she added, “That’s your pheromone duct. You have one on each side. Normally they aren’t swollen except for during the six weeks or so before the Breeder’s moon, when a gargoyle is trying to attract her mate. You’ll probably start releasing pheromones soon. It looks just about ready.” Domi gently patted her butt in a non-verbal message that she could lay back down. Trini released her tail and turned onto her side to stare at Domi.

“What’s that mean?” Suddenly she was pretty concerned. This sounded pretty serious to her.

Domi crawled up onto the bed to sit beside her, facing her. “Normally this sort of thing is covered long before a female reaches this age. I haven’t had to give the talk in a very long time.” Domi grinned at her, “But some things never change. Let me give you some of the basics.” Trini sat up as well so that she was more comfortable as they talked. “First of all your body is going through some changes.” She smirked at Trini, like that wasn’t painfully obvious. Trini just shook her head. “Your tail will be more sensitive to touch. You already noticed that. The base will be sore once in a while as your ducts become full. It should be a few days or a week or so before your ducts are ready to release your pheromones.” Trini’s face became a bit panicked. She didn’t want everyone chasing after her! Domi noticed this and her voice became more serious, “How the pheromones work… this is going to be really tricky for you. Normally when we are dealing with full gargoyles the female that already has a mate chosen will give off a scent that only that chosen mate will pick up. If she has no chosen mate a general pheromone is released and all males respond to that. I’ve never seen a lesbian gargoyle, at least not during breeding season. I’m not sure what will happen. I’ve never seen the pheromones work on humans or fey… so I don’t know what will happen with Fox. Also… there is no delicate way to say this… gargoyles are monogamous, and you obviously aren’t. You are mates with Fox aren’t you?” Trini nodded quietly. “You want to be mates with me?” Domi asked in such a business like way it threw Trini. This wasn’t the way she’d prefer to admit that, but when she didn’t answer right away Domi gave her a stern look. She nodded and blushed. Domi nodded back at her slightly. “That’s what I thought.” Domi shook her head in confusion, “I just don’t know what your pheromones are going to do. We’ll need to monitor this… and I’d like to get some samples when you finally are secreting them.” Trini just nodded that it would be okay. She was really wishing that they had covered stuff like this in sex ed when she was in high school. It would have been much more helpful to her than the detailed information about the human female reproductive system.

“I don’t want to be with a male and I don’t want to breed.” She said in a subdued voice. She was terrified that she would be forced to breed. Alexandria seemed to think that all females should do that. What if the Manhattan clan felt that way? “If Goliath and them are like this clan… or if my pheromones are just general ones that call everyone…” Trini’s eyes were a little glassy, “can I live with you until it’s over?” Fox would definitely agree to that if she understood. She wouldn’t want Trini forced to breed with one of those males.

Domi looked at her sharply for a moment before nodding. “If they are then yes. I’ll protect you from them.” Trini gave her a weak smile. She knew she could count on Domi.

Trini sighed. They were almost ready to go to the Oregon clan. She really wasn’t too fond of them. In their own way they were just as bad as her stepfamily. She was in the bathroom working on taping back her ears. She hadn’t had to do that in days, and her hair above her ears had grown back a bit too much. She was carefully shaving a small patch off when Demona came in to get her. “What are you doing?” Demona sounded pretty puzzled.

“I need to tape my ears back, so I’m shaving a patch of my hair off.” Trini sighed as she nicked herself when she answered. Head wounds always bleed. She grabbed a washcloth and held it to the cut. “Dammit… it’s going to take a while now.” She muttered. She had cut herself pretty good, so it was stinging.

“Sit down, let me see it.” Demona scooted Trini to the toilet and set the lid down so Trini could sit. When Demona took the washcloth away and was looking at the cut Trini had a flash of another bathroom, of another time she had been caring for her. “It seems to be healing up already.” Demona muttered.

Trini was sitting level with Demona’s stomach. She reached out to the place that a bellybutton should be and caressed the spot. “Why don’t you have a bellybutton?”

Demona smiled down at her, looking so much like an Angel. “I was hatched. Only live birth creatures have bellybuttons.” She got a wry expression, “Maybe we could play doctor some other time… we need to get going.”

Trini needed a few more minutes to heal up. She looked at the loincloth Demona wore, she caressed her exposed hip, “You don’t have anything on under that do you?” She lightly touched the material, “Doesn’t that get cold?”

Demona sighed, “No, gargoyles don’t feel the cold like humans do.” Trini just nodded like she’d expected that. Now that she realized how different gargoyles were in more than just appearance she wanted to know more. The shock of finding out that her body was getting ready for a breeding season had her intensely interested in gargoyle biology, much more so than she was before. Demona leaned down to look into her eyes, “I know you have questions… probably lots of them right now. I promise we can talk about all of this later.” Demona grinned seductively, “I’ll even model for you if you want… but right now I think we need to get moving.”

Trini nodded and when Demona stepped back she got back up to look in the mirror, “I don’t want to put tape over a cut. I was just waiting until it healed a bit.” She wiped off the blood and could see that she had healed up. She carefully taped back her ear and fluffed her hair over it. “The tail is huge compared to this, but it’s my Fey ears that are harder to hide.” She shook her head to make sure the hair continued to cover before turning to Demona. “I guess I’m ready.” She felt like she was going into a losing battle.

“Trini, we just need to fake this a little longer. We’ll get whatever was left for you and move on. I’m not staying here, no matter what they say, or what I may say tonight. Keep that in mind, I won’t always be telling the truth to them. I don’t want you getting upset like last time.” Demona grinned at her, “I know this is a little odd coming from me, but you need to control your temper tonight. It would be too suspicious if you wore your sunglasses, you can’t let your eyes burn.”

“I’ll do my best.” Trini was going to spend a lot of time trying to think of calming thoughts, because she knew that even a saint would have a problem with the way these gargoyles treated her.

They got to the cave about an hour after the sunset. Alexandria was sitting on a rock outside the cave looking bored as she waited for them. Demona landed and put her down gently. “You can do this, I know you can.” She told Trini softly, “Just stay in character and you’ll be fine. I know you can act.” Again Trini wondered where Demona got that impression.

“I tried, I really did, but I just have no idea who he would have trusted with that.” Alexandria looked pretty weary, “He trusted me more than anyone else. None of the others would have agreed to help him.” Demona growled and took a menacing step forward.

“Well, you better start coming up with some ideas tonight.” She hissed at the orange female, but when Erik came out to greet her she schooled her face into a more friendly expression. Trini stood back and tried to blend into the background. The less attention she got here the better, she knew she resembled her father.

“Blue, I was hoping that you would be coming back!” Erik spoke loudly as he approached them. Trini turned to look out over the beautiful forest and took a deep breath to prepare herself for what Demona would probably turn into endless flirting with the male. She could understand how that sort of tactic might work, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch. Her back was turned to everyone when the digital camera went off quietly. Alexandria nodded to some medium size purple male of Alexandria’s age and he took his camera and went inside.

After calmly watching Demona and Erik flirt as they walked into the only modern room in the caves, Trini felt like she actually was a part of the background. All the gargoyles stopped whatever they were doing to turn and stare at their leader and the pretty blue gargoyle. Well, all of them except for a computer junkie in the corner. The purple male was working intensely and ignored everyone else. He was a real purple, not that girly lavender that Goliath was. Of course, Trini hid a grin as she studied the pink male watching Demona carefully, lavender wasn’t the worst color a male could be. Demona gave her an apologetic look when her and Erik went into the meeting room without her. She was going to be left out here to visit with the clan. Great. Now that they didn’t have Demona to look at anymore, several eyes turned to her.

She smiled and knew it looked fake, “Hello, I’m Trinity.” She said loud enough for them all to hear. When she saw Zack stand up from the couch and walk over to her, she felt her heart start to beat faster.

“Yes.” Zack turned to the clan, “Trinity here thinks a human can be a gargoyles clan.” He looked at her with derision. Trini suddenly felt like she used to when Carol tormented her in grade school. It was going to get worse, she could see it in his eyes. She took a calming breath and kept repeating to herself that she couldn’t allow anyone to make her angry. When he opened his mouth with what he obviously thought was a great insult another voice entered the room.

“Trinity, would you come with me?” Alexandria called into the room, effectively silencing Zack’s verbal attack. The orange gargoyle’s eyes burned red at the male. Trini quickly moved to follow her. She noticed Alexandria glance at the computer male, and she looked over her shoulder to see him shaking his head no. It gave Trini an odd feeling that something was going on. She wished Demona wasn’t off talking with Erik. Alexandria addressed her more quietly when she got near, “I want to talk with you alone.” Trini studied the female and decided that she was probably safer with her than left in this room.

“Okay, lead the way.” Trini followed Alexandria through the passageways. She stopped suddenly when she saw the hatchlings. They all looked about five. One little light green male was flapping his wings like she used to do. She just stared. Alexandria had to walk back and see what had stopped her. Trini said softly, “I’ve never seen little ones.” She turned to Alexandria, “Can they glide?” She felt an irresistible urge to take one outside and watch him glide.

Alexandria looked at her like she was a little crazy, “No… they are still too little. They will be able to glide in a few more years.” Trini realized that she wouldn’t have been able to glide when she had her wings, because she had been littler than these six hatchlings. It made her a little more sad that she didn’t really have a chance all those times that she tried. “Do you want little ones?” Alexandria sounded a bit surprised. The question shocked Trini out of her daydreams.

“No… No I definitely don’t.” She added more quietly, “I was just remembering being little…” Seeing the young ones made her a little less cautious, “I used to do that.” She pointed at the light green male flapping at the toys, trying to make them fall over. She stiffened up after she heard herself say that. What was wrong with her?! She couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut when that was all that was required of her tonight.

Trini could feel Alexandria’s eyes on her. She probably sounded pretty crazy, since she obviously didn’t have any wings. She felt Alexandria touch her back. “What are you doing?” She asked as she quickly turned around. She had gotten Trini right on the scars, and it didn’t feel good to have this female touch her like that.

“I was just checking for an illusion. You don’t have any wings.” Alexandria said a little coldly, “So don’t act like it to just fit in.”

Trini’s eyes burned for a moment before she was able to calm herself. She closed her eyes and took a few breaths to make sure that they wouldn’t start to burn again. At least it was only Alexandria that saw that. When she opened them again, her eyes were a little steely, her anger was clear, but not in an inhuman way. She glanced around and saw that no one was around. “Raven left me to be raised by that woman you so politely referred to as nice enough looking. She wasn’t… I lost my wings when I was about their age. She wanted me to be human, and seemed to think ripping my wings off was all it would take.” She clenched her teeth and marched out of the cave. It took a while before she could hear Alexandria hurrying to follow her. The gargoyle must have been too stunned to move. She should have just let that barb go… she shouldn’t have said anything. She was so tired of that female putting her down because she couldn’t glide… but she just should have left it alone. She sat on the edge of the ledge outside of the cave and stared at the stars.

“Trinity?” Alexandria said softly from the cave door. “I had no idea.” Trini didn’t turn around to look at her, “I’m sorry.” They were alone out there, since all the others probably were hanging out in the TV room waiting to catch a glimpse of the blue gargoyle. Trini patted the ledge next to her in an invitation. Alexandria may be a bitch, but she knew her father. That was the closest to family she had right now. No where near close enough, but it was all she had. Alexandria took the offered seat and they both sat in silence for a while.

Trini started to speak quietly, “I came here because he told me to. I had hoped to feel some sort of connection with the gargoyles here, because I sure don’t feel that with the humans that claim to be my family. That isn’t going to happen. I just want what my grandmother gave to him for me. I don’t have a family of my own… all I have are the things that they left me. Please… Help me. I’ll leave and you’ll never have to see me again once I have whatever it is.” Tears crawled down Trini’s face, but her voice remained almost emotionless.

“He used to play in the tunnels a lot, and made different hiding places for his toys when he was little. I started to check the places that I remembered, but I never knew of them all.” Alexandria sighed, “I wish he had given you directions of some sort.” That made Trini think. She still had the amulet on… and he had given her a map to the clan. Maybe it would be able to do more than that.

“Alexandria.” A male voice interrupted them. Trini turned to see the purple male standing there. He was holding a piece of paper. “I think you need to see this.” Alexandria politely nodded to her and stood up to go see the male. She started to read the paper and her eyes started to burn brighter and brighter as time went by. She didn’t like whatever it said. She handed the paper back to him. “Take it to Erik right now. I’ll take care of things out here.”

When Alexandria looked at her Trini noticed that the eyes still burned. “Come, we have an announcement to make.” Her voice was cold again. She had been warmer before she read whatever it was. Trini’s eyes widened in concern, something was going on and she knew that she wasn’t going to like it. She quietly followed Alexandria into the cave, watching carefully so that she would be able to find her way back out again.

It seemed that every adult gargoyle was in the TV room when they got back to it. That was about fourteen of them. Demona was laughing with one of the males, while Trini could see Erik tensing up in the corner over the paper. She tried to catch Demona’s eye to warn her that something was wrong. When that didn’t work she started to walk into the room, but was stopped by Alexandria’s hand on her shoulder. “How well do you know her?” Alexandria whispered to her. Her eyes burned into Trini and suddenly Trini realized that they knew… they knew she was Demona.

“She’s my friend and I love her. She was willing to help me come here after I begged her to.” Trini said quietly, “I asked for her help and she gave it to me. She came to Oregon for me.” She took a deep breath, “Please don’t do this. We’ve been through hell lately… just don’t do this.” She watched as Erik whispered to a few of the gargoyles near him. They stiffened up instantly and tried not to glance in Demona’s direction. “It’s my fault we’re hear. My fault.” Fourteen gargoyles to one… she wasn’t much help against a gargoyle and Demona wasn’t anywhere near the exit. She was boxed in happily talking with a group of gargoyles around her. Did she even notice what was going on?