Guests & Gryphons E-BOOK

Meet Attie Nichols. A middle-aged spinster and accountant, her life has never been easy. Now she's ready for change, but how much can she cope with?
 

Midlife Undercover. Regular citizen by day, and monster hunter by night.

I was in a cemetery, burying my estranged parents. They'd had a tragic car accident that resulted in their deaths. I only heard about it through the lawyer who wanted to tell me that I had inherited what was left of their 401ks. The rehab of the cottages had drained more money than expected, so naturally I drove to the funeral to pay my respects and sign all the paperwork.

While at the funeral, I learned of the death of the one woman who had been kind to me. She was my parents neighbor, and my honorary grandmother. When my parents were cold to me, Suri always had a door open for me.

Devastated, I went to look at Suri's plot, which was to my surprise a magnificent tomb with a plaque, topped with a bronze gryphon. Everyone was long gone. Night was falling. And I should've been eager to leave, but this place, close to Suri, felt more like home than any place I could think of. ...except maybe my bed with Gunner in it.

At this point, after having a few monster kills under my belt, I thought nothing could surprise me. Then the gryphon spoke. He'd been waiting to get me alone. I stepped back and pulled a couple of daggers from my pockets. He laughed. Now...I was a little scared.

Luckily, he cleared things up rather quickly. "Your parents would be so proud of you," he murmured.

I rolled my eyes. "They'd never been proud of me in life, why would they start in death?"

"Not those...people," he snarled. "Your real parents. The ones who sent you here for your safety."

If the plan was to keep me safe, they'd mostly succeeded. After all, I was still alive, mostly thanks to Suri. I found out that they'd sent her too. She'd protected me in ways I'd never imagined, kept me safe in ways I'd never suspected, and even seen to my financial security. I should've known that the adoptive parents hadn't paid for my college.

"And the 401k?" I asked.

The gryphon nodded. "That was Suri too."

The gryphon stepped down and opened the tomb. I had planned to back away, not wanting to see Suri's corpse, but she was as beautiful in death as she had been in life. More than that, there was an entire room inside filled with weapons, knowledge, and gold.

I had a choice to make. Would I return to a foreign realm for a fresh start with a family I'd never known, or would I remain here with the family I'd made and the home I'd built?

No matter what conclusion I reached, someone would be hurt. I could accept a lot of things. That I was from another world? I didn't even blink. That I now had money? Cool. Whatever. It was just another tool. That I deserved to be loved? I struggled with that...both from these mystery parents and from Gunner. That I was free to live the life I wanted? I'd just have to figure out what that was first...or die trying.