Page 70 of Hearts of Stone

And just like that, the air whooshed out of me. I couldn’t pull myself to meet with the ladies that lunched in this town right now, but later… Yeah, that was enough to let me slowly unwind muscles that had become clenched tight, so that when Daniel set that bloody cup of chamomile tea in front of me, I sipped at it.

“Thanks,” I told him, looking up over the rim of my cup, the hot porcelain connecting me back to my body, to the aches and pains that would only be eased by sleep. Tears pricked at my eyes and I didn’t know why. I’d kicked arse out at the gate, but now…? I forced myself to smile, because no one in here deserved to deal with weepy Jade. “I’d appreciate that.”

“But we focus on getting a security team together today,” Harry insisted.

Sip. I heard them talk, but not the words. Sip. Their gruff, masculine voices washed over me as I listened to my heart rate starting to slow down. Another sip of tea, the weird herby taste rolling around on my tongue. Daniel moved around the kitchen, then appeared by my side, taking the cup from my hands and setting it on the sink before turning to the others.

“Jade’s been up all night, partying with gargoyles,” he told them, “and now she needs her beauty sleep. You guys have got this, right? Capable men are sexy men.”

Both Harry and Mellors stopped talking right then, glancing at each other before flushing bright red and then nodding.

“Sleep well,” Harry told me. “We’ve got this. We’ll keep you safe until the gargoyles rise, don’t you worry.”

Trusting the confident certainty that both of them possessed helped me head up the stairs under Daniel’s care, my feet dragging through the thick carpet as I walked down the hall to my room. But when his hand went to the door handle, I remembered suddenly why I hadn’t wanted him to come inside.

“C’mon, let’s get you to bed.”

“No, Daniel. Stop….!”

He frowned slightly as he pushed the door open, but that smoothed away when he saw the state of my bed. His mouth fell open as he stared at Seneca’s stony form.

“Oh my fucking god…” he hissed, eyes widening.

“Daniel, you—”

“Damn, girl, no wonder you look ridden hard and put away wet, because…” He peered closer to Seneca’s dick and that had me bristling.

“Daniel, you need to—”

“You took that?” He glanced across at me, pointing at Seneca. “All of that? Because that requires the highest of—”

“Daniel!”

He jerked his hand down at my sharp tone, blinking, a pinkish stain starting to glow in his cheeks, but he shut his mouth and kept it shut.

“Look, Danny, gargoyles are vulnerable in this state. They can’t permit or give consent for anything. Seneca—”

“Seneca?” He looked up into the gargoyle’s face. “This is Seneca. I figured Graven would be the first one you’d bang.”

“Um…. no, and Seneca wasn’t the first,” I stammered out. “I mean I was his first, but—”

Daniel made a strangled sound, his eyes bulging, his face going bright red until finally he exhaled a great gust of air.

“OK, enough. You are completely trashed. You’ve got the look of those poor kids they put on the child sponsorship ads on TV,” he said, waving a finger around. “And I’m trying really hard to respect that, but…” His jaw muscles flexed and he nodded. “This is to be discussed later, when you wake up, in detail, over tequila and you have to take a shot for every single one of those…” He waved his hand around vaguely in the direction of Seneca’s cock. “…that you took, because, damn, girl! Though, should you sleep in here?” He eyed the bed critically. “I mean there’s still plenty of room on the bed, but usually I like them to fuck right off out the door when they start getting all sleepy, so—”

“No, I’ll sleep here.” I finally let myself look at Seneca, hating how he looked exactly like himself, and yet at the same time was rigid, unyielding stone. “This is my bed and…” I let out a sigh, “he’s my gargoyle. It doesn’t feel right to bail on him.”

That was somehow easier to admit while Seneca ‘slept’. I didn’t have to look into those fathomless dark eyes and admit that I was starting to feel something for him and the others. Danny just nodded, moving closer to wrap an arm around my neck and place a quick kiss on my forehead, his lips there and gone again.

“Then sleep, bitch, until your stone boys rise again. We’ve got things sorted until then.”

I thought I’d struggle to sleep. Once I stripped my power suit armour off and collapsed down under the covers, I found myself rolling towards Seneca, his stony weight creating quite the depression in the mattress. But even as I felt his cold stone through the covers, my eyelids felt heavier and heavier until I couldn’t keep them open. And after a while, the side of his leg, where I was pressed against it, started to warm slightly, as if Iwas the sun beating down upon him. I nestled in closer to all that unyielding stone and just let go.

I’d had this dream before, I realised. I was inside Z Ward again, though there was no Daniel, no tour guide this time. Instead flames flickered against the impervious walls, their crackles punctuated by screams that seemed to be torn from the depths of someone’s soul. I told myself that was what I was going to investigate, but as I walked past one writhing person, then another, I knew that was a lie.

I knew my way, despite having only been here for the ghost tour. My feet moved slowly, surely, past the cells where people sobbed, screamed or just cried softly. I never actually saw them, just heard the echoes of their pain, a terrible chorus that marked my progress, right up until I reached my destination.

This was the room where the massive gargoyle had been housed, I remembered. The grid on the roof allowed the moonlight to stream in and its cool light bathed the figures that stood just beneath its bars.

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