Page 19 of Dragon’s Golden Mate (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #2)

“Ah, there you are.” Beck stepped into the dining room and let out a low whistle as he took in the numerous papers scattered across the table’s surface.

He had a can of soda in his hand, but there was no room to set it down.

“I was just going to ask if you had any plans for the night, but it looks like you do.”

“Just work.” Kendrick reviewed the blueprints for the old school that the Suttons had shown him.

The couple had already obtained them from the city and given him a copy, which had saved Kendrick from having to coerce any government officials to dig through files.

He compared the original floor plan to the proposed one, looking for anything that might keep the Suttons from getting a permit.

“And quite a bit of it.” Beck craned his head around to look. “This is the school. Does that mean you’re all done with the church?”

“Not even close.” Kendrick pushed a blueprint aside. He’d pulled up some plans of other old buildings that’d been converted, intending to use them for inspiration. Linda Sutton had a good eye for laying out rooms, but there were a few areas he felt could’ve been used better.

“I’m frozen,” Kendrick admitted. “I know something has to be done. I can’t get the authorities involved, because no one will believe me if I talk about gargoyles that’ve come to life and a magic portal in the basement.”

“I suppose someone will find out anyway if they tear the place down,” Beck theorized. “It could be quite the scandal. Of course, like many supernatural things we know to be true, the papers will chalk it up as a hoax.”

Kendrick nodded. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that, too, but there’s just no way forward.”

Beck tipped his head slightly to the side. “You’re not usually one to admit defeat.”

“I’m not admitting defeat,” Kendrick replied quickly. “I’m just…” He trailed off, unsure of how to finish.

“Giving up? Setting it aside? Putting it away for a rainy day? Ignoring it and hoping it goes away?” Beck offered.

“You can be a rude little shit, do you know that?” Kendrick retorted.

Beck sniffed, pretending to be offended. “I can’t believe you’d talk to your Alpha that way!”

“Only if he deserves it.” He paused as he thought about that. “And I suppose I deserve to be questioned on whether or not I’m giving up. I’ve been sitting on the problem, lying to myself and saying I’m thinking about it, but where has that gotten me?”

“Pretty much nowhere.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Kendrick growled. “You don’t have to point it out.”

“I know, but it’s fun anyway.” Beck grinned and cracked open the soda can. “Do you think the issue of the cathedral would be easier to handle if Maeve weren’t involved?”

Kendrick’s initial reaction was to argue, to tell Beck that his problems with the building had nothing to do with Maeve, but he knew it was a lie.

Maeve’s involvement meant the stakes were that much higher.

He could put himself and his reputation on the line without even needing to think about it, but he couldn’t do that to someone else.

Especially not someone who was probably more than a friend.

“Undoubtedly,” he relented, “but I can’t change it. I asked for her help, and she’s been happy to give it. In fact, I don’t think I would’ve gotten as far as I have if it weren’t for her.”

“There you have it, then.” Beck pulled out a chair and sat down.

“It’s not as simple as that, and you know it,” Kendrick reminded him. “Just because a woman is good for you, just because she’s smart and beautiful and all the things you want in a mate, doesn’t mean you can just be together. There are always at least a few obstacles in the way.”

“Like I said,” Beck replied, holding his soda in the air, “you’re not one to admit defeat easily.”

Kendrick glowered at his nephew, but he was exceptionally proud. If he hadn’t done anything else right in this world, at least he knew he’d helped raise the Alpha of the Alexander clan to be a good man. “So what do you suggest I do, since you know so much?”

A deep buzzing vibrated through the table. Kendrick was confused for a moment, but he soon figured out what was happening. “Help me find my phone. It’s around here somewhere.” Kendrick put his hand down on top of the papers, hoping to find the one that hid his device.

“Ah, here we go.” Beck retrieved the phone from under a stack of house plans. He looked at the screen and smiled. “I guess the first thing you can do is answer the phone.”

Kendrick took a look for himself, but Maeve’s name on the screen didn’t make him smile.

It made him a little uneasy. He liked her, and he knew that at least on some level she felt the same way about him.

There were things to work through in any relationship, but his determination to be anything other than coupled-up was warring with him.

“Maybe I won’t.” Kendrick turned his phone face down on the table.

“Suit yourself, but the only one you’re punishing is you.” Beck stood up.

He was definitely punishing his dragon, judging by the way the beast thrashed and churned inside of him as the phone continued to buzz against the table.

His dragon pulled heat to the surface of his skin, reminding him of the way it’d felt to hold Maeve in his arms and kiss her.

It clawed and scraped and threatened to come twisting out of his human form, whether he liked it or not. Maeve—his mate—was calling for him.

He wasn’t one to admit defeat, as Beck had said, and he was right. Kendrick couldn’t let anything stop him from doing what needed to be done, whatever the hell that was. He pushed the button. “Hello?”

“Kendrick.” Maeve’s voice was breathless through the line. “You’re never going to believe what I just saw.”

“What is it?” He leaned forward on the edge of his seat, every muscle in his body poised to take action. Something had happened, and he hadn’t been there for it. Now his dragon was even more agitated than before.

“I can’t explain it all right in the moment, but Cassandra Deegan is a banshee.”

“A banshee?” he repeated.

Beck had his back turned, preparing to leave the dining room and let Kendrick talk, but now he’d turned around. “A banshee?”

“If that’s not what she is, then she’s something similar.

” Maeve spoke quickly, as though she had to get it all out before she forgot.

“I saw her. She had some sort of concert going with the name of her business all over it. The band was playing, but she was putting her own cries into the music. The whole audience was reacting to it. They were in such sync that they looked like trained dancers.”

“I don’t understand,” Kendrick admitted. “Why would she do that? Banshees call out when someone is about to die, according to the old tales. They’re spiritual messengers, not backup singers.” He’d heard plenty of stories, but Kendrick had never given them any real weight.

“I can’t explain it, either,” Maeve admitted. “I just know what I saw, and I don’t think she’s doing it because she’s hoping to make a record deal. She’s doing something to the people at that concert. My instincts tell me that it can’t be good.”

He trusted her on that, especially because his own instincts had been telling him something very similar ever since he’d started working with Cassandra. Something about the woman just wasn’t right. “Where is this happening?”

She told him where she’d found the concert.

“That’s not far from the cathedral. Let’s meet there. I think we should bring some backup.” Kendrick’s gaze lifted to Beck, who gave him a single nod before leaving the room, letting him know he’d be there for him.

“I can do that,” Maeve affirmed.

Kendrick stood, all thoughts of the old school building completely forgotten. “Maeve?”

“Yes?”

“I know you don’t want to hear me say this, but—”

“Don’t do anything until you get there?” she filled in for him. “It might be dangerous?”

One corner of his mouth curled up. He might be the dragon, but she was the fiery one.

“Right. Exactly.” More words queued up on his tongue, wanting to tell her that he cared about her, that he wouldn’t be able to handle it if anything happened to her, but he held them back. More urgent matters were at hand.

She laughed. “Danger hasn’t exactly stopped me yet, but don’t worry. This time, I have a feeling we’ll need more than just the two of us.”

Beck came back into the room as Kendrick was hanging up. “Chelsea will stay here with Corbin. Griffin, Ewan, Lilith, and I are ready to go.”

“Then we’d better.”

A short time later, Kendrick and his clan got to the church just as Maeve arrived with Lucille, Kristy, Tina, and Amanda in tow. No longer concerned about whether or not anyone saw them hanging around near the building, they met at the front in the shadow of the steeple.

“This is amazing,” Griffin said as they approached. He swiveled his head one direction and then another, almost tripping over Ewan in the process. “You said a lot of ley lines connected here, but damn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many all in one spot.”

“If we’re lucky, we’ll get a chance to come back and talk about that more,” Kendrick told him. “Right now, we’ve got to deal with Cassandra.”

“The concert is just a few blocks from here,” Maeve told him. “I’ve noticed that I can hear Cassandra’s wails when I’m in my wolf, but not as a human.”

Kendrick listened, easily picking up on the steady cadence of the distant music but nothing else. “Interesting.”

“We could go backstage and confront her,” Beck suggested, “but we’d have to do it in human form. It’d be too risky to do anything else with a guaranteed audience.”

Lucille nodded. “Is there some way we can lure her away from the concert? Something that would guarantee she’d come running?”

“Possibly, but—ow! Damn!” Kendrick rubbed the top of his head where something hard and solid had just impacted it. The chunk of stone tumbled to the ground at his feet and made him look up.

The gargoyle with the dog’s face and the feathered wings stared down at him, its tongue once again hanging over the parapet. It disappeared for a moment and then came back, this time with another piece of stone in its mouth.

“Okay, okay!” Kendrick put his hands up. “If you want my attention, you’ve got it. You don’t have to give me a concussion.”

“Holy shit,” Lilith whispered, clapping her hands quietly in front of her. “That is the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen!”

“Cute?” Kristy questioned. “I think it’s kind of ugly.”

Lilith shrugged. “I like it.”

“Cute or not, I think it wants us to come inside.” Kendrick had continued to watch the gargoyle, who kept pacing away from the edge of the wall and then back again. To him, it looked like a dog that was trying to get him to come along with it.

“Some of us could split off and go take care of Cassandra,” Ewan suggested.

“No.” Kendrick didn’t know how or why, but his gut feeling told him that the church and Cassandra were ultimately tied together. “We’ll take a moment to see what he wants, and we’ll go from there. If that’s all right with you,” he added, directing the last comment toward Maeve.

She had her head tipped back and was also watching the gargoyle. “I think we have to. They seemed to know we were on their side the last time we were here, so at least we should be safe.”

Kendrick led the way to the back door. They easily gained access, but something was off from the moment he stepped inside. He hurried down the hall and flung open the door to the sanctuary. Vivid, shifting light was shimmering up through the floorboards.

“The portal,” Maeve breathed. “It must be open right now. But why?”

The hawk swooped down from the gallery, making several members of their party duck. Even Kendrick stepped back, but he noticed it was continually divebombing the same space between two of the pews. He stepped forward, and his heart sank.

Chunks of stone were scattered on the seat of the pew and on the floor. He recognized the odd little toes, the tip of a batwing, a sad eye. “It was the goblin, the one who knew how to open the portal.”

Lilith kneeled backward in the pew in front of the scene and peered over. “The poor thing! Did Cassandra do that?”

The cat-like gargoyle bounced up out of the darkness, balancing on the back of another nearby pew. It let out a long, sad cry that echoed against the ceiling and the walls.

“It’s likely. They didn’t like Cassandra. That much was clear from what they told us. We’re just not sure why.”

Just then, the front doors of the church slammed open. The old, heavy wood shuddered on its hinges as it hit the side of the building. Cassandra strode confidently up the aisle. “It’s not really that hard to figure out, is it?”

Kendrick rounded on her. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I should ask you, since you’re on my property,” she retorted with a smile.

“Girls, what are you doing here?” Maeve asked.

Several younger adults came in on Cassandra’s heels.

Kendrick recognized Colette and Nia from The Crystal Cauldron.

He thought he’d seen the others, as well, but it was clear that the witches recognized them as they arrayed themselves behind Cassandra.

Three young men he didn’t know had joined them as well. None of them said anything.

“Oh, Kendrick. As soon as I met you, I knew you’d be a problem,” Cassandra said, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “As you can see from the state of that gargoyle, I don’t let anyone stand in my way.”

He studied the cold, calculating looks in the group of people Cassandra had brought in with her.

The bright, sassy attitude in Colette was replaced by indifference or even anger.

Nia, with her arm around the waist of a guy with curly hair down to his chin, practically snarled as she observed her coven sisters.

“What did you do to them?” he demanded.

Cassandra scowled. “They’re under my control now.”