Free Gryphon and His Thief by Karen Michelle Nutt Page B

We
can't call the cops, assuming that's who you were about to
call."
    He didn't bother denying the fact. "What now?
Are you going to shoot me?" he asked.
    She waved the gun at the other room. "I want
to show you something."
    He lifted a brow, but didn't argue. The woman
held a gun on him so options were at a minimum.
    "Sit," she demanded once they were back at
his desk. He did and chanced a look at her. She surprised him by
placing the gun down on the desktop. "I don't want to hurt you,
Darrien," she told him and he wished she wouldn't use his first
name with her easy-on-the-ears voice. It distracted him and he
needed to stay focused if he wanted to get out of this alive.
"Believe me, I don't," she added for good measure. She must have
sensed he didn't believe her.
    "But you will if I don't cooperate," he
said.
    "No." She actually seemed insulted that he
would suggest such a notion. "I need your help." She let out a
frustrated sigh. "I really wish you weren't the one here right now.
I need him." She pointed to the Gryphon.
    "The statue talks to you?"
    "Yes… I mean no." She moved so fast to sit
down on the desktop, it startled him, and he pushed back in his
chair with his feet, the wheels sliding him along until her boot
caught the edge of the chair and she rolled him back in front of
her. She did all this without pausing as she prattled on about her
conversation with the Gryphon, or rather his other self. If he were
inclined to believe her story.
    "You can shift to your human side also when
you're united with your Gryphon self, you see?"
    No, he didn't see. "Let's for a moment
believe what you've told me is all true, and you are indeed the
sane one here…"
    She opened her mouth to no doubt complain,
but he held up his hand to halt her words.
    "Let me finish, if you will. How do you
propose I help you when…he," he waved toward the statue and all its
finery, "could not?"
    "You keep forgetting. You are the
Gryphon."
    "Right-o."
    "You said the items in the museum are all
cataloged. Find the Gryphon in that book of yours. You weren't
lying about the contents were you?"
    No, he hadn't lied, but she didn't wait for
his response. She pushed the book toward him and waited for him to
comply with her request.
    He had a hunch if he just dismissed her and
insisted she leave the premises, he'd have a real fight on his
hands. The gun lay as a reminder of the fact, giving him no other
choice. She claimed she wouldn't hurt him, but really, did he want
to take the chance? Not really. He'd have to play along for
now.
    With a sigh, he leaned forward in his seat
and scanned the contents, looking for the entry regarding the
Gryphon. A few minutes later, he came across it in living color.
There was a sketch of the beast, not a photo so the item had been
with the collection for a long time. He read the description of the
curse handwritten beneath it. "Cursed to guard treasures," he read
out loud. "Never one with itself," he said with less confidence. What did that mean? Not one with himself. "Darkness is for
the beast as light is for the human soul." He stared at the
passage. Calli might have told him a similar story, but it didn't
mean it actually referred to him. He was about to tell her so, but
then she shoved her mobile phone in front of him. A video played
and it took him a second more to register what he viewed.
    He shook his head in disbelief, but how could
he deny what she'd caught on film? He bloody well shifted into the
Gryphon then something resembling a ghostlike being… "This cannot
be real," he said, but his gut told him what he viewed was indeed
all too real. He played it again. Then
again…and yet again. All the blood seemed to rush to his head and
the room tilted. "I don't feel so…well," he said. A silvery light
blurred his vision right before everything went black.

Chapter Eleven
    "Darrien!" Calli cried as she jumped off the
desk and tried to stop him from toppling from the chair. He may be
Nerdy Darrien, but it didn't