Page 1 of The Gargoyle's Gift
Chapter 1
Lovette
“Absolutely not! Just what exactly do you think you’re doing?” I turned up the wicks on all the oil lamps on my way into the building, making the intruder flinch away from the sudden light. “You, again. Why on earth are you stumbling about in my infirmary in the middle of the night, Gaius Caledon?”
To his credit, the hulking man startled at my words, but he didn't so much as pause as he rummaged around in my supplies cabinet. “Healer,” was all he offered in greeting. Several rolls of gauze and a pile of bandages littered the floor when he finally stood.
“What are you after in there?” I shooed him with my arms. “You’re making a mess of things, just go sit down.”
I’d been dreaming of the special lemon-and-lavender meringue pie my mother always used to make for my birthday. Of sitting in a glade, face turned up into the sunshine. Then the bell went off in my room, alerting me that someone required medical attention, ripping me from my peaceful slumber before I got to have even a single dream taste. I nearly tripped coming down the stairs because of my robe, and now I was surroundedby the stench of old ale and blood. Adrenaline and frustration had my skin flushed hot.
“I don’t need your help,” he slurred, staggering hard against one of the beds. The iron leg screeched as it dragged against the stone floor.
“Of course you don’t. Sit.” One gentle shove on his shoulder was enough for him to sit hard on the thin mattress.
Gaius was still in his full stone form, long dark hair knotted and wild around his face, greenish-gray skin cool and solid to the touch. His wings were tucked irritably behind him, but one clearly hung lower than the other, injured,again.
“You don’t get to order me around,” he grumbled, trying and failing to point a finger at me as I snatched the needle and thread he’d pilfered from his hand. Even sitting, he was nearly as tall as I was in my human skin. A logical person would have been afraid of him, especially so incensed as he was, but I was simply irritated. That seemed to be my natural state around him.
“In here I do. Besides, you’re the one who rang for help, you obstinate creature.” My hand went to my hip. In my hurry to respond to the bell, I’d neglected to put on leggings, so I was standing in just my favorite oversized tunic and lightweight robe. After giving me a lingering once-over from head to toe, he frowned intensely and let out a wobbly breath.
“Not on purpose,” he grumbled. “Tripped coming through the door.”
I sighed, pulling the edges of my robe together and cinching the belt tighter. “Whether you meant to or not, you woke me up. So here I am. Let me do my job.”
He stretched his leg out with a grimace, the one that had been severed not all that long ago. Thanks to some healing elixir and his ability to stone sleep, it had fully reattached, but it was not the same as it had been. The blade that had removed it and one of his forearms had some kind of curse imbedded inthe steel, so the limbs it cleaved through had blackened rapidly, becoming deadened and stiff. Blood was flowing again, the skin color returned to normal, but it was clear they bothered him often.
“What have you gotten yourself into this time?” My tone softened slightly as I looked at the new gash in the membrane of his wing and several deep scratches over his shoulder and chest.
“None of your business.” The man was clearly tired, his haggard expression troubled and sad as he sagged into himself.
Gaius had always been a bit surly, especially with those of us related to my father. Their ages-old tension over a long-ago battle and the lives lost there lingered over the rest of us as much as it did them. The last few weeks, however, he’d been more intensely miserable than ever. Having limbs removed and getting fired from one’s post by the stone kin council would do that to someone, I supposed.
I maneuvered him on the cot, having him lie on one side, so I could get the best access to his wing. “Come on then, you made it my business when you rang that bell.”
“It was an?—”
“Accident, sure. I heard you the first time. You’re here, in any case. You know as well as I do that it’ll be much nicer work if I do it, and you’re rather choosy about your wings as I recall.”
He mumbled something under his breath as I started making small, careful stitches through the leathery skin. He’d relaxed under my hand, despite all his complaining. His breathing was slowed and his eyes drooped closed by the time I was halfway through. Once his wing was mended, I asked him to sit up.
“Let me look at your shoulder.”
“It’s fine. Stone sleep will fix it.”
I glared down at him, his chin sagging against his chest, body swaying gently from alcohol or exhaustion… or both.
“Gaius.” The exasperation in my tone made his eyes open. He blinked slowly, then sighed as he swung his legs off the side of the bed and leaned his elbows against his knees. I stiffened when the top of his head brushed against the underside of my breasts as he steadied himself. Stepping into him, I gently prodded at the edges of the nasty gashes in his skin as his forehead pressed into my diaphragm. That’s why I was suddenly short of breath, I told myself. Plenty of patients had used my body to help prop themselves up. That’s all he was doing.
“If you don’t like the work I do, you could always stop getting yourself so torn up you need repairs. Seems an easy fix. Putting all your faith into stone sleep is risky with some of these nasty-looking wounds.” I stepped back so I could grab some supplies, his body nearly collapsing on itself without my support. When I returned, I positioned his head to rest on my stomach, tensing as his arms wound around my thighs for better balance.
“This is going to sting,” I warned, splashing some distilled alcohol over the deep, ragged claw marks.
“Burns!” He swore, breath hot through the thin fabric covering my skin, fingers grabbing at my robe.
“I did warn you.” He only grunted in response as I patted the wounds with clean cloth, blotting away the mess. “Where do you keep flying off to that you come back needing to be sewn up, anyway?”
He muttered something incomprehensible moments before dropping into ragged snoring, his weight against me firm, his grasp on my clothing finally loosening.
