Read Trouble with Gargoyles: an Urban Fantasy (Moonlight Dragon Book 3) for Free Online

my bed tried to nibble on me and all the money in the register kept catching fire, well…I guess I didn't want to worry you guys. None of it was dangerous, just annoying. Until now."
    "You're not going back in there until we determine what's causing it," Vale said sternly.
    "I'm not arguing with you there."
    We'd gathered on the sidewalk outside of my shop because everyone was nervous about being crushed and fried a second time. A part of me felt gratified that they now shared the anxiety that I'd been living with for weeks. But that was selfish and I quickly banished it. I could have asked for help but I hadn't. That was on me.
    "I should have guessed something was wrong when you wouldn't invite me over," Vale murmured, just between the two of us.
    I rolled my eyes, though inside I was relieved that he was able to joke about this. "Because you're so irresistible that it doesn't make sense otherwise, is that it?"
    He smirked. "You said it, not me."
    "The truth is that it's just really annoying. I can't relax in there." And it's leading me to harbor some seriously unsexy doubts about myself. Who cared about how I looked in a bikini when I had to worry about whether I'd turn into a fire-breathing monster?
    "Well, no kidding, Anne!" Melanie butted in. "I can't believe you spent even one night in there."
    I hooked my thumbs in my bra straps and drawled, "We Moodys are hardy folk."
    "Except your uncle didn't have to deal with that." Vale pointed at Moonlight. "Everything that's happening now is new. And yet you've done nothing that could have revived a dormant curse."
    "I like that you believe I'm well-behaved," I quipped.
    "I know that you don't like to use your sorcery unless you're threatened," he said quietly.
    My throat grew tight and I couldn't look at him. It was important to me that Vale saw me as strong and competent. It wasn't that he'd shown hints that he would leave me if I wasn't those things, but those were traits that I demanded of myself.
    My own death wasn't my greatest fear. Not really. If I could be this wonderful, powerful woman then I believed that if Vale or Melanie or any of my other friends moved away or worse, were killed, then I would be able to handle their loss without pain. In the end, that was what drove us all, wasn't it? Fear of suffering, fear of being afraid. In my case, I feared being abandoned, of being the last person left standing. I thought that maybe if I were this super dragon warrior of the desert, then that fear wouldn't touch me.
    But the fear is definitely touching me, because I'm no dragon warrior.
    I wasn't sure if Vale was aware of how I felt, but I had a hunch that he did. He watched me all the time. It was immensely flattering, if a little unnerving when I was trying to keep a secret. Still, I'd take an observant boyfriend over one who struggled to notice when I got my hair cut.
    "If your magick didn't trigger this curse," he went on, "then this is being caused by something else.  I wouldn't be surprised if there's physical evidence here to explain what's going on."
    That caught my attention. Why hadn't I considered the possibility that the source of all the craziness in Moonlight was something I could identify and stop?
    "Let's call my cousin Rodrigo!" Melanie said excitedly. "He's an underground cursebreaker."
    "Underground?" Vale repeated with an arched brow.
    Melanie giggled at his expression. "That means he does it for other people," she said in a stage whisper. "Shhh!"
    I hoped she wasn't implying that Rodrigo lifted curses for non-magickal beings but I wasn't about to ask and force her to spill even more secrets. She tended to be loud when she revealed things she shouldn't.
    "Well, give him a call and get him here yesterday!" I exclaimed.
    Melanie pulled out her phone.
     
    ~~~~~
     
    Rodrigo was the same height as Melanie, but he hadn't dyed his hair blue. Any question I had about whether he was also a monkey shapeshifter vanished when he immediately scrambled up onto