Caleigh Winters is down on her luck. She gets fired and
evicted in the same day. Just when she thinks all is lost, she wnders into a
dive bar, owned by twin brothers and finds more then she bargained for and that
maybe being fired and evicted in the same day wasn’t so bad after all.
She finds work as a hostess where her job is to keep certain
people out of the bar. It sounds easy, but on her first night there she fails
at her job and one of those people tries to attack her boss, who kills him. He
vanishes into thin air.
Caleigh
discovers a mark on her arm whenever Adam, one of the bar owners touches her. She finds out that her bosses are actually
gargoyles whose job it is to protect the city from evil. In a fight
between the brother’s enemies, she gets kidnapped to hell, and finds that not
everything is as it appears to be. She finds that her father is an upper level
demon and is an enemy of Adam and must choose between the man she loves or her
father.
She discovers that she has powers that she did not know she
had inherited both from her father and mother. Caleigh must not only learn how
to tap into those powers, but learn how to use them to save Adam from his curse
of being a gargoyle and help get his friend who is stuck in gargoyle form back
to being human again.
Oh crap. This couldn’t be happening to me. My day had gone from bad to worse. Earlier today I had been fired because I had the misfortune of walking in on my boss in a delicate position with someone who was not his wife. I didn’t think this was grounds to be fired for, but he thought I would tell her what I had seen and came up a handful of examples of how I had messed up recently and had me escorted out of the bookstore I had worked at since I had graduated from college faster than I could blink. I had been looking forward to coming home and drowning my sorrows in some butter pecan ice cream and eating my weight in chocolate when I discovered that I had no home to go to.
My roommate Michael had thrown all of my stuff in
the hallway with a note that said. “Sorry, C., Eve told me it was either her or
you. She won.” Eve was my roommate’s girlfriend and was convinced that my
roommate Michael was cheating on her with me.
He wasn’t of course, but couldn’t convince her of that. We had become
roommates by chance because of ad that I answered in the paper, and he was
perfect until he started dating her. I still couldn't believe he had left me
just a note on my stuff. I tried my key
to see if it worked, and it didn't I pounded on the door, hoping that Michael
would let me in. He didn’t answer the door, but the landlord who lived across
the hall opened his door and wanted to know what was going on. I showed him the
note. He showed me the lease, and told me because my name wasn’t on it there wasn't anything I could do. I wanted to sit down and cry, but I didn’t. I left
and started walking aimlessly.
I had just
turned twenty four three weeks ago and thought that my life would have turned
out better than this. I was almost broke with nowhere to go, and to top it off
it had started snowing. I tried to push my shoulder length straight brown hair out of my eyes and
failed. It was time to find someplace where I could get dry. I went into the first place I saw, a little
hole in the wall bar that looked like it was something out of a really bad B
movie. I sat down at a corner booth with my meager belongings.
I was in the middle of a woe is me pity party and
debating on if I had enough money to splurge on a hot toddy when the bartender
came over and tapped me on the shoulder and said: “You can’t sit here. It’s the
owners table and he’ll be pissed if he comes in and finds you at it.” I just couldn't take any more bad news and took it out on the poor guy: “I don’t see a
sign that says reserved on it, now do I? If he’s not here now, then what does
it matter if I sit here or not? If you don’t want people to sit anywhere they
want then you really should have a hostess and not let them seat
themselves.” The bartender replied: “Our
hostess just quit. It doesn’t matter if the owner is here or not you still
can’t sit at the damn table. Are you trying to get me fired?”
I had stopped
listening when he said that the hostess had been fired and was trying to find a
way to get myself hired for the job when the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen
came up to their table and snapped: “Lane, what have I told you about letting
people sit at my table? I told you the next time you did it there wouldn’t be a
next time.” I answered before Lane could: “It’s my fault. He was trying to get
me to leave and I explained to him that when you let people seat themselves they can sit anywhere they want. There was no
reserved sign on the table, so I sat down. He was just telling me how the
hostess quit, and while that’s tragic I have the perfect solu-“ “Enough! “ He
bellowed. Lane, what’s this nonsense about Tiffany quitting?” Lane paused and
said “Tiffany said that Ryan messed with her for the last time and she couldn’t
take it anymore and left.” “I am so going to kill my brother the next time I
see him. That’s the third hostess we’ve lost because of him. Put a help wanted
sign outside.”
“So I’m not
fired then?” Lane asked, which I thought was brave of him. I would have just let the matter drop, which
I guess is how I’m in my current mess. The owner gave him a glare and said: “If
you can find a new hostess by the end of the night, then you aren’t fired-oh
and make sure you get this waif out of my booth. She’s ruining the upholstery
on it” He stormed off and walked so fast it was almost as if he had supers speed.
Surely that was my exhausted mind just playing tricks on me.
“So that was the mysterious owner that you were so
afraid of when I sat down.” I said “I can see now why you didn’t want me
sitting here and I’m sorry I almost got you fired. As luck would have it
though, I can save you.” “Save me?” Lane smirked. “Save me how? By getting me
almost fired again?” “No, I said, I can be the hostess…although why does a
place a like this need a hostess?” I
could hear Lane’s silent sigh as he explained: “It’s to keep out the people who
the owners have problems with. You’d be surprised with how many people they
have problems with, especially since they aren’t here that much. They are
always off on some business trip looking for new beer, which is crazy because
this isn’t exactly the kind of place people go to for new beer. The regulars
just want whatever is cheapest. Have you ever been a hostess before?” This time it was my turn to sigh. “No, I
haven’t been a hostess before, but how hard could it be, right? It’s a small
place, so I’m sure I can’t mess it up. I’m a hard worker, and really need the
money. I just got fired because..well it’s a long story, but I swear it wasn’t
my fault.”
