Page 44 of Hearts of Stone

People kept telling me that this was my house, that everything here was mine. I might be sharing it with some really annoying roommates, and I looked back at Daniel as I thought that, or some really strange ones, and my focus shifted back to the gargoyles, but still, this was to be my home, so I needed to start treating it like that.

“So, I might—” I started to say.

“Well, if you’re finished—”

Graven and I stopped and looked at each other, then smiled as we waited for the other to finish speaking.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve taken flesh,” he informed me. “Our wings are tight and we need to take to the air to work out some kinks.” Daniel, who perennially had the maturity of a twelve-year-old, snorted at the word ‘kinks’, then went back to stacking the dishwasher.

“Of course,” I said. “Though I’m not sure how this works. Do you need permission or something?”

“What we need is you.” Seneca said, bluntly, as he leaned forward. The other gargoyles shot him a look that said they thought that maybe, just maybe, he was being a little too frank, but he ignored them. “Come flying with us.”

Flying?

Flying!

Seneca held out his hand for me to take and everything inside me clamoured, because of how much I wanted to accept his offer. He was so big that his hand was massive and that in itself was enough to draw me closer, because that was what I wanted. To experience the uniquely feminine pleasure of feeling small, fragile, precious, while held tight in a man’s grip. Trevor was my height. No, just slightly shorter, and that had always made me feel like some kind of lumbering giant beside him. Did Seneca realise what he was offering? He couldn’t know. They were gargoyles, not beasts with psychic powers. But I couldn’t help but wonder about whether they had some kind of psychic radar, because I’d had fantasies about just this sort of thing more times than I could count.

The reason why I loved the Beast inBeauty and the Beast,and the massive creatures inGargoyles, was because the idea of being swept up into the arms of some massively muscled creature was deeply appealing. That sense of being thrown onto the Beast’s back to ride him as he strode across the palace gardens or clinging to Goliath’s back as he swooped across the city. To feel like I was being held, being protected, that’s whatI wanted and the thought of it happening in real life made my heart beat faster and faster, my eyelids fluttering as I considered their offer. But then I brought my butterfly heart back down to earth before I’d even lifted off, as pragmatism hit hard.

There was food to be put away and Danny hadn’t taken his medication…and how would it even work, anyway, going flying with them? Would I plaster my body against one of theirs? And then what wouldthatmean? Last night, I’d had sex with one of them; got naked with two of them. Were we going to just pretend that hadn’t happened? I needed to work out what the hell I was getting myself into before I went anywhere.

“Ahh, I—”

Before I could stammer out an excuse, Daniel swept past me and cleared the table with a flourish, like a magician doing the reverse of the old trick of removing the tablecloth but leaving everything else on the table. He deftly closed up all of the containers that still had food in them and put them in the fridge, before rounding the table again to collect the empty containers and put them in the sink to be washed. As I stared at him in amazement he then popped his pills and swallowed them.

“Go.” His eyes held mine. “This is what you’ve always wanted.” He nodded to the gargoyles. “Now’s your chance. Take it.”

“Mistress?”

Seneca was still standing there, his hand held out to me, invitation plain in his eyes, but as I looked back at him, I saw an element of vulnerability in his expression. I would never have expected to see that in one so powerful, and yet I couldn’t deny that it was there. Because no matter how big and strong he was, he was still putting himself out there, ready to be rejected, and it was that which helped me to make the right decision. There was still that feeling of touching a sun-warmed pebble as I slid my hand into his, but no stone would have been able to graspmy hand tight and pull me after him in the way that he did. Out of the kitchen, away from the house. The other two gargoyles followed us out and when we reached the vast expanse of lawn, gleaming pale grey in the faint light of the stars, we all came to a stop to take in the vista before us.

“I always miss the stars when we go into hibernation,” Seneca said, still holding my hand as he stared up at the sky, but when he looked back down at me, his eyes twinkled. “They’re almost as beautiful as you.”

“Uhh…” I made a strangled sound in the back of my throat, taking a step backwards, but Seneca’s grip just tightened.

“Our mistress is uncomfortable when we express our admiration for her,” Carrick said, with a smile, coming to stand before us. “Now that she knows we are real.”

“Enough banter.” Graven’s tone was firm, then his voice took on a note of yearning as he continued. “If we are to fly, we must do so now, rather than waste the whole night chattering.” His focus shifted back to me. “We also need your permission, Mistress.”

“To fly?” I frowned as my gaze roamed over their wings, already unfurling more than I had seen before. That seemed cruel, to make such creatures have to ask permission to do something that was an innate part of themselves.

“Not to simply fly. But, yes, if we are to flybeyondthe estate’s borders.” Graven stared steadily at me, then nodded. “Gargoyles are pledged to protect the house we are bound to. We belong to the stones themselves that the house is built from, but…”

“If you give your permission, we can fly further, go beyond these lands, to somewhere…” Carrick smiled, “magical.”

Magical? Yeah, I wanted that a whole lot, and I squeezed Seneca’s hand with excitement.

“OK, so how do we—? Ohh!!”

Seneca picked me up with as little effort as one might a cat, holding me in his arms with ease. He smiled down at my shocked expression, some of the intensity in his expression lightening as, for just a moment, it felt like the whole world held its breath. The cool stillness of the night grew quieter. All of the faint night-time noises dropped away, and even the wind seemed to still as Seneca pulled me close until I was cradled against his chest. I put a hand out tentatively, feeling the hard muscles there. He bent his head and his lips twitched, as though he was about to smile, when a ragged scream cut through the air.

“What was that?” I asked, twisting around in the direction of the sound.

“Nothing of note,” Graven said. “This is an old house, a strange one, and sometimes you will hear odd noises.”

“But we will protect you at all times,” Seneca said, his expression becoming serious once more. “With our very lives.”

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