A Dragon, a Gargoyle, and a Faery Catch a Secret Santa, page 1
Copyright © 2023 by Lisa Barry and Nicole DragonBeck All rights reserved.
FIRST EDITION.
A Dragon, a Gargoyle, and a Faery Catch a Secret Santa, a Dragon and Gargoyle story, is a fictional work. The characters, places and events portrayed in this book are from the imagination of the author or are used fictitiously. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for the author or any third party websites or publications or their content.
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Book Cover designed by Nicole DragonBeck
Witching Hour Publishing, Inc.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-943121-83-0
Contents
1. Chapter 1 - Aiden
2. Chapter 2 - Loch
3. Chapter 3 - Aiden
4. Chapter 4 - The Faery
5. Chapter 5 - Loch
6. Chapter 6 - Aiden
7. Chapter 7 - Loch
8. Chapter 8 - Aiden
9. Chapter 9 - Loch
10. Chapter 10 - Aiden
11. Chapter 11 - Claudine
12. Chapter 12 - Loch
Chapter 1 - Aiden
A Christmas Mystery
Tuesday, 19 December 2023, 4:15 PM (KPOC Headquarters - Dublin)
The Estates crew of the Keepers of the Peace and Order of Chroniclers had outdone themselves with this year’s Christmas decorations. At the Headquarters, the spitting image of the Dublin Castle tucked away in a corner of Phoenix Park, warded from Outside intrusion, lights and wreaths decked every hall, and giant trees filled with candles and silver bells and dusted with very real snow kept frozen by an aevum tenere spell lined the main halls.
The sounds of jolly jingle-bell music filtered pleasantly through the doorway, calming detective Aiden Moss as he once again attempted to put into words a near-miss catastrophe that was mostly due to his partner. The dragon rubbed his aching eyelids. That last part was unfair. It was mostly due to Torloch’s quick thinking and complete irreverence of anything resembling a rulebook, which did come in handy sometimes.
The dragon shifted his long, lean frame in the leather Wingback Chair - not standard KPOC issue, but there had to be some perks for someone who had been on the job as long as he had been - and considered the best way to describe the giant hole in the middle of O'Connell Street and the unusual method of keeping the pedestrians and tourists unaware of what was actually going on.
A soft knock at the door drew his attention up, and the dragon’s day was suddenly made a whole lot better by the sight of Claudine Ní Mocháin, wearing a very appropriate holiday-themed outfit of candy striped leggings and a green sweater dress that brought out the highlights in her dark hair. She smiled at him and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’m sorry to bother you Detective, but do you have a moment, or am I interrupting?”
“Not at all!” Aiden exclaimed a little too excitedly, and he sat back in his chair attempting to look more composed than he felt. “I was just wrapping up the last details of the case, nothing important.”
“When the feck is paperwork ever not important to you?” a familiar voice issued from outside the door. “Who are you and what have you done with Ai- oh! Claudine!”
Torloch Doyle beamed, his hands full of two heaping plates of Christmas goodies and a bottle of apple cider tucked into his arm. “Don’t mind me. Everything now makes sense. Carry on.”
The gargoyle was wearing his idea of festive garb - black pants, black shirt, black shoes, and a black cap. He went over to the desk and deposited his small snack, then turned back to the room.
“Good afternoon, Detective Doyle,” the green witch said.
“You do know my name is Loch, right? The gargoyle said with a smile. “The same as the last time we spoke, and the time before that. And the time before that. In fact, it’s been my name forever.”
“I know that,” the witch said, returning his easy smile with one of her own. “It’s just professional workplace courtesy, that’s all.”
“You remind me of someone, I think you’d really hit it off, if only I could think of his name,” the gargoyle feigned thinking hard, and Aiden shook his head at him, giving him a strong warning look.
“I’ll think of it,” Torloch said, winking at the witch. “You look lovely, by the way. Very festive.”
“Thank you, Loch,” the witch said, and gave a little curtsy, her cheeks going a charming pink. “You don’t seem to be a fan of the holiday.”
She gestured at the very different halves of the office. One side was decorated with lights over the bookshelf and filing cabinet, with tinsel over the the computer monitor, and a small tree beside the desk. The other half looked like a funeral parlor in comparison, the only slight hint of Christmas being the small penguin statue in a Santa hat on the desk.
“Oh, I am,” Torloch said with a smile, and gestured at his mound of treats. “I’m just a bigger fan of edible decorations.”
“Are you…are you actually going to eat all of that?” the witch asked, looking at the towering plates with some doubt.
“I was planning to, unless you wanted to share,” Torloch offered.
“You’re a gentleman, but not right now, thank you,” Claudine said, and looked nervous.
“So, what’s up?” the gargoyle asked, only half paying attention as he shoved a mince pie in his face, rapidly followed by a gingerbread man, one bite demolishing his head and torso, the second his legs, and then some Christmas-themed fudge.
Aiden glared at him, and he almost choked on the fudge. “Oh, shite. Was this a private conversation?”
“No!” Aiden shouted, while Claudine just shook her head.
“Oh,” the gargoyle said, and looked disappointed, to which Aiden rolled his eyes.
“Is this a bad time?” the witch asked, looking between them with an uncertain expression on her face.
“If this is a bad time, there will be no good time, ever,” Aiden said, grinding his teeth. “What can we help you with?”
“Well, it’s not a big thing. Well, it could be a big thing, but we don’t know. My sister Siobhan has a little mystery that she needs help with. Well, she doesn’t think she needs help with it, but I do, because this is the third time she’s complained to me about it.”
“A Christmas mystery,” Torloch said, his brown eyes lighting up. “Just what we need.”
He sounded far too happy about work this close to a holiday - his definition of holiday was “a perfect excuse for a pint and extra craic” - and the dragon considered giving him a taste of his own medicine with a well-timed “Who are you and what have you done with Torloch? On second thought, Aiden did not want to have that conversation with him in present company, so he held his tongue.
Claudine looked like she was waiting for something, so both detectives leaned forward, encouraging her to continue. Torloch kept motoring his way through the large plate of holiday treats, and Aiden tried not to get distracted by the tiny snowflakes and silver glitter dusting the witch’s cheeks.
“They’ve had a beautiful tree put up in the entrance foyer at the office, and every year they have a company-wide Secret Santa. But someone is stealing gifts from under the tree,” Claudine said. “Siobhan wasn’t sure at first, but she counted yesterday and confirmed that there were another two missing at the end of the day.”
“Did the security cameras catch anything?” Torloch started, but Aiden held up a hand.
“Claudine, this sounds like an internal matter, or something you should bring to the Reports division of the KPOC.”
“We’ll take the case,” the gargoyle said, nodding as he munched another mince pie.
“There may not be a case,” Aiden tried to interject, but his partner just shrugged, and dusted the crumbs off his fingers, wiping them clean on a napkin while looking thoughtful.
“Couldn’t hurt to look into it,” he said, giving the dragon a stern look.
Aidan opened his mouth, but the gargoyle had already taken Claudine’s arm and gently ushered her out of the office.
“We’ll check it out,” he repeated. “Where did you say your sister worked?” he asked.
The green witch smiled at him. “I didn’t, but she works at Raven & Spritestar, Inc., in the Quality Assurance department,” she said.
Torloch whistled. “Not too shabby.”
Aiden was familiar with the business - several of his family members had accounts with the finance firm.
“Should I call ahead and let her know you’re coming down?”
“Best not to,” the gargoyle advised. “Don’t want to tip our thief off, if at all possible.”
“Okay, thank you detectives,” the witch said. “I really appreciate it.”
“Anything for our favorite green witch,” Torloch said with a wink, then firmly closed the door, and turned to face Aiden. “Don
’t give me that look,” he said. “We are taking this case.”
“On what grounds?” the dragon challenged, crossing his arms.
“We are going to take the case because we can, but mostly because your wan brought it to us.”
“She’s not my wan,” Aiden declared, and blew a fountain of smoke out to distract from his ears turning red.
“Whatever you say,” Torloch grinned. “Are you ready?”
Aiden sighed. “Not really. But I don’t have a choice do I?”
“Don’t look so put out,” the gargoyle said. “It makes you look older and much less fun.”
“Older than what? Because five centuries doesn’t exactly make me a spring chicken.”
“No, more like a bag of soup bones, aged twelve centuries or so,” Torloch put his nose up and pretended a scholarly air. “And by the sharp bitter aftertaste, at least nine and a half of those were spent suffering greatly.”
“Probably because you were with me for that time, doing your best to annoy me to an early grave,” Aiden muttered. “Besides, dragons don’t live that long.”
Torloch didn’t even bother replying to the very weak retort with more than an amused look that said he knew he’d won that volley. “Are you coming or not?”
A part of the dragon wanted to say no, on principle. But a much, much larger part of Aiden wanted to help the Green witch in whatever way he could, so he grabbed his jacket and tried very hard not to slap the large and very delighted smile off his partner’s face as he walked past him out the office door.
Chapter 2 - Loch
Off to Visit Raven & Spritestar, Inc.
Tuesday, 19 December 2023, 4:28 PM (on the road)
Finding an excuse to leave the office was one of Loch’s favorite parts of the job, and even better when it served a dual purpose. As they drove down the road out of Phoenix Park, past a small herd of spotted deer, Loch had a thought.
“We’ll need a decoy invitation,” he said. “As we’re showing up unannounced to invade their privacy.”
The dragon still did not look convinced, but the gargoyle knew him well enough to know if Claudine asked him to stick sharp pins in his eyes as a personal favor, he would strongly consider doing it.
“What did you have in mind?”
Loch smiled. “I have an idea.”
He went only slightly out of their way to stop in front of the florist shop, Crown of Blooms. The green and pink striped awning over the wide window was now decorated with icicle lights, and the flower arrangements displayed on the tiered shelves through the glass were sitting in piles of pine needles and tinsel.
He set the engine idling, and turned to the dragon.
“Give me a quick moment while I pop in here?” he asked cheerfully.
“What do you need a bouquet for?” Aiden asked, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Never know when you might need some flower power,” the gargoyle said as he stepped out of the car.
He could feel the dragon’s irritation follow him into the store, but Loch knew Aiden would come around to a more sensible outlook, as he always did, under the gargoyle's steady and genius guidance.
Inside, it smelled like pine and cinnamon and other wonderful holiday scents. Martha, the goblin who ran the store, glared at him from where she was arranging red and green tinsel on a table across the large open room. Loch gave her his best winning smile, but it only seemed to make her more grumpy. He wasn’t deterred in the least, sure that he could thaw the icy exterior. Eventually.
“Detective Doyle,” she sniffed a greeting at him. “I wasn’t expecting a visit from the Grinch. Come to disrupt business again?”
“Happy Christmas to you as well, love,” Loch said. “I’ve actually come on a personal matter. Is Amaya in?”
“No thanks to you, yes she is,” the goblin replied, and turned away, clearly indicating her part in this meeting was done.
The gargoyle opened his mouth, thinking he might try to explain to her, for the fourth time, exactly what had happened, and that it wasn't entirely his fault that Amaya had taken some time away from work, but he closed it. He wasn’t that confident of his charm. He went into the back room, where the brownie in question was working her magic with the plants and flowers, which came together in wonderful arrangements embodying the spirit of the holiday.
“Oy, Amaya! How’re you getting on?”
She looked up from her current project, and beamed at him. “Hello, Loch! How are you?”
“I’m just dandy! Do you have a spare bouquet ready to go for a-” he glanced around, to make sure Martha wasn’t eavesdropping, “-fake delivery? I need to snoop around a bit, but I don’t want to set off any alarms, if you catch my drift.”
Amaya gave him a look, exasperation and fondness mingling on her face, looking even more adorable with the smudge of dirt on her nose, and the sprig of holly tucked behind her ear. This wasn’t the first time he’d swung by for a decoy since she had returned to work at the Crown of Blooms after her hiatus.
“I might just have something for you. I just wrapped up a couple of pieces, to practice a new technique I’m experimenting with.”
He raised his brows. “Experimenting?”
The brownie laughed. “Just with new leaf combinations.”
“Alright,” he smiled.
She dusted the rich dirt from her gloved hands, and went to the bench on the other side of the room. The brownie regarded the arrangements at the end of the table, and selected one in a sparkling blue basket. Poinsettia and white orchids dotted a sea of dark green ivy which surrounded a single pine branch, wrapped in gold ribbon and topped with a gold bell that chimed as she held it up for his selection.
“What about this one?” Amaya asked.
“Most excellent!” Loch smiled at her. “It looks lovely and I approve of the new technique, whatever it is. Can you bill the KPOC, Attention Aiden Moss?”
“Of course,” she winked and Loch chuckled.
Amaya knew Aiden wouldn’t like it, but she would side with Loch, of course. She liked the gargoyle better, for good reasons.
“Tell Aiden I said hi!” she called after him, as the gargoyle scooped the arrangement off the counter on the way to the door, and he nodded.
He swept back through the main shop, giving Martha a cheery wave on his way out. Loch handed the bouquet through the window to his partner who sighed, but looked resigned and remained silent. The gargoyle thought he might expect the bill already, and he chuckled.
“How’s Amaya?” Aiden asked as Loch piled into the driver’s seat.
“Chipper and covered in dirt, as always. She says hi,” Loch said, and the dragon nodded in contentment.
Decoy in hand, took off to visit Raven & Spritestar, Inc. The finance firm was located at number 13th, which seemed like it should be significant. Even though it was only a few days before Christmas, Raven & Spritestar, Inc. was busy, people busting in and out of the wide glass doors at the entrance, milling around the reception and disappearing into the lift.
A faery with pink hair sauntered through the door, held open by a gnome with a yellow sunflower in her hair and snowmen on her ugly Christmas jumper. A giant in a bowler hat and fluffy red scarf escorted an ogeress in a mink coat through the reception area, a briefcase and a gift bag in one hand. A young leprechaun girl with bright red hair waited in the lobby, a backpack over one shoulder, and an apple in hand. In the well-appointed waiting area, a human sat on the brown leather sofa, sipping a latte and reading a newspaper, and in the corner, three witches in matching purple robes and a warlock with a silver orb in his gnarled staff discussed something while gesturing animatedly.
Aiden nudged Loch. “Isn’t that Warren’s niece?”
Loch looked over at the petite, red-headed leprechaun in jeans and the snowman jumper the dragon was pointing at. She was taking dainty bits of her apple, leaning against a marble column. He had seen her only a couple of times, at family events at the KPOC but the family resemblance was unmistakable.
