Page 16

ASH

I sat beside Dolion in his stone form on the rooftop of an abandoned gothic church built sometime around the early thirteen hundreds situated deep in a French forest that had long forgotten its own name and was at peace.

The twisted gargoyle’s face warded off evil things and the sun set over the edge of the trees as night set in.

Not that it mattered. My own heat kept us warm.

I hadn’t had an incident since the night in the graveyard, and now I had a new line of crypts to discover.

The names on some had worn off with time, but on others the dates and family names were still visible.

And inside the church, Dolion had kept the lists of everyone buried within the grounds.

The taphophile in me was pleased with that treasure.

I limited myself to a single name and a single story each day, learning all who were buried in our new home.

Sebastian and Tifa remained in New Orleans.

It turned out that a vampire made an excellent bartender.

Who knew that the nocturnal hunter had such hidden talents.

He listened, he grumped and no one questioned his ability to deal with the security side of the job.

Tifa sat at the bar, wrapped in her shawls, never far from where Sebastian worked.

We remained in New Orleans until we were sure she was as comfortable as possible and him too and then…

We left. Found our own place and future for once. Because Dolion did what he promised and he took me home.

I stroked his stone form, telling him all about Gregory—I had located five Gregories thus far in our graveyard—of today’s story, and everything I'd been able to discern from the monks who once tended the church below us.

Like many religious institutions, it had been known by several names.

Fortunately, the documents had stayed with the building, and so I was able to piece the histories of the place together.

Soon, my gargoyle would awake. A good thing too, as though I napped and read and discovered during the day, my nights were full of a different sort of discovery.

A new life grew within me.

For the first time in six thousand years I had more than one reason to exist.

My belly rounded with the creature Dolion placed within me.

We knew little about my own creation, my own family, or his.

All we did know was that this child would be loved.

This child would know everything we did.

All of our history and those who came before us.

The histories and mistakes we made, the love that was sacrificed so we could find each other.

Soon, my gargoyle would wake and remind me why we loved, and who the man was that I had fallen for. An impossible stone man who helped me find peace and accept the magic inside me. Who helped create the beautiful miracle of new life inside me.

A seed of stone with a heart of pure flame.