Page 30 of Hearts of Stone

When my eyes flicked open I saw I was on a bed, a big one. No, make that massive. Like, you’d need custom made-sheets to fit it, massive, and not only that. My fingers rubbed at the sheets because I knew a high thread count when I felt it, but while I hadn’t expected to feel heavy cotton slipping through my fingers, I really hadn’t anticipated this. My fingers poked through a long slash in the bedclothes and as I wiggled them in the hole, I wondered several things.

Where was I? How the hell had I gotten here? And what the hell left holes in my bedding? But as if summoned, memories of my dream from the other night swum up from the depths of my subconscious. Massive grey men with long manes of silvery hair. Black eyes with no whites. Oh, and wings? Did I remember that part right? Wings, fangs, claws.

Gargoyles.

I sat up straight in bed and saw that I was naked. Weird, didn’t remember doing that. Actually the last thing I remembered— My thought process was derailed by my phone buzzing again. It was sitting on a very elegant white bedside table, plugged in and charging, underneath a lamp. None of that belonged in Trevor’s apartment. I looked around me, saw the room, the massive wardrobes, the mirrors on the ceiling, and… If I blinked I saw more than one figure sitting on the bed. Shadowy, cast gold by the lamplight, they moved, one dragging me forward to straddle him as the other watched, then his wings snapping out…. I shook my head, dragging my focus back to the bed, frowning as I took in the long rents in the sheets. The persistent buzzing of the phone didn’t allow for any more meandering thoughts. I grabbed it and then hitanswer call.

“Jade?” The husky male voice was vaguely familiar so for a second I just stared at the phone. “Sorry to wake you, love, but…” I heard a terse sigh down the phone line. “Your friend, Daniel, was it?”

“Daniel?” I was up and out of bed and that made me aware of a whole lot of other things. My body ached, not in a painful way, but something else entirely. It was that low down ache of a body well used and I— “What’s wrong with Daniel? Is he OK?”

“Well… Can you come down to the front gate for me?”

“I’ll be right there.”

I ran over to the very big wardrobe and pulled out clothes willy-nilly, each item exactly my size. I pulled on the plushestpair of track pants I’d ever felt and a jumper and then threw the bedroom door open.

OK, the super grand house was still here, so either I was still delusional or…? I shoved that idea to one side, racing down the steps and out the front door.

The dew was cool and damp on my feet and the morning sun bathed rose bush after perfect rose bush in its golden glow, but I was only focussed on one thing. Harry, that was who’d rung me, was standing at the gates, but he wasn’t alone. He held someone in his arms.

Daniel.

My bestie lolled there like a broken doll and that had me increasing my pace.

“What happened!” I rushed towards them, hands out to pat across Daniel’s face, his arms, his chest. “What the hell happened—?’

“I found him like this, slumped against the gates,” Harry replied. “As soon as I realised who it was, I rang you.”

“We need to take him to the hospital!”

“No hospital…” Daniel flipped a limp hand at me, shifting in Harry’s grip, but not for long. He tried to get free, but quickly realised he didn’t have the strength, collapsing back against Harry’s chest.

“If you don’t want a hospital, the Whiteley family doctor might be your best bet,” Harry told me. “Bloke’s on retainer and looks after the family and the staff. Might be quicker than a hospital.”

“Yes, that,” I replied.

Which is how we came to be sitting in the back of that fancy car James had picked us up in, Harry behind the wheel as he wove through traffic like a madman.

“You’reDaniel’s next of kin?”

Doctor Foster was an older man sporting a thick head of white hair, his glasses perched on the end of his nose as he stared at the two of us. Harry and I had sat in the man’s waiting room as he examined Danny.

“Yes,” I said, jumping to my feet. He had a mum and dad, brothers too, but they’d never been especially supportive of him once he’d come out.

“Then…” The doctor’s brows creased slightly. “Then I’ve got some unfortunate news to share with you.”

I sucked a breath in, stepping forward, ready to hear about whatever the hell had messed Daniel up, but the door to the doctor’s examination room was flung open. Daniel came staggering out, obviously intending to barrel into the room, but he went white as he was forced to grip the doorway to stay upright.

“Mate, if you need a hand—” Harry said, moving forward.

“No, you’ve done quite enough.” Daniel said that through gritted teeth, but I moved as I saw his arms quiver with the effort.

“Daniel—”

“I’m fine,” my bestie told me, not convincing anyone.

“If you’re gonna try and bullshit me, you might want to get better at acting like it,” I told him gently.

---