Stone Solitude

by A C Warneke

  Shit, it was Sunday; the library was closed and he wasn’t going to stalk her across campus or track her down in her dorm room. Glancing down at the Wayfarer demon, seeing the expectant expression in his watery eyes, Roman heaved a sigh. Maybe he could find a bar that wouldn’t mind serving a cloaked gargoyle and a smarmy demon, just so long as they didn’t have goat’s blood.

  Chapter 5

  Leaning against the brick building with his arms crossed over his broad chest, Roman watched Daisy as she crossed the quad, her head buried in her bag. It was after dark, she wasn’t paying attention to anything around her and she was surrounded by monsters intent on devouring her. Obviously she needed someone to watch over her. Hell, he was surprised she wasn’t aware of him since he was watching her with savagely brutal intensity.

  Gods, she was pretty. He wanted to gather her up in his arms and steal her away from this world. He wanted to hide her in his lair and worship her body. And when he had his fill he would take her before the bitch and offer the exchange or whatever it was that would gain him his freedom.

  If he ever had his fill. That thought was enough to fill him with utter dread.

  Silently, ignoring his stirring cock, he stalked across the grounds. Once he reached her, he bit out, “You’ve stopped coming to the library.”

  She jumped at his sudden appearance, his harsh words, but she kept walking, obviously knowing he’d follow. A slight smile curved her lips as she glanced up at him as if it hadn’t been over a week since they had last seen one another. “I finished up my paper and since you were no longer there, I saw no reason to go back.”

  “What if I had gone back there because I had no other way of finding you?”

  “Well, I’ve taken to creeping about in dark places in the hopes of finding you,” she said in a teasing tone so he wasn’t sure whether or not she was serious. Casting a flirtatious glance at him, she added, “Tonight, I felt your eyes on me from the moment the sun went down and I’ve been waiting for you to step out of the shadows so I could find you.”

  He was taken aback by her honesty and willingness to expose her vulnerability. If he was a different sort of person, he could use that sweetness to his advantage. With a grimace, he realized he was going to use that sweetness to get what he wanted, his freedom. His family.

  Clearing his throat, he murmured, “You gave no indication that you knew I was there.”

  “I wasn’t sure you wanted me to find you,” she countered, her eyes dipping to his waist before looking back up. Tilting her head, she probed the dark recesses of his cloak, as if she could see him if she just looked hard enough. Her tongue darted out and color stained her cheeks as she asked, “When you didn’t return to the library I thought you were offended by my behavior. I mean, you’re not exactly human and I don’t know how things work in the gargoyle world, whether I came on too strong or maybe I didn’t do it right or….”

  He wanted to shut her up with a kiss, to take that wonderful sound into his mouth and feast on her forever. Instead, he had to satisfy himself with pressing his finger against her soft lips, lips that trembled beneath his touch. “You were perfect. I stayed away because I feared I might have frightened you.”

  “I want to see you.” The words were warm against his fingers and he would have done anything she asked of him except that.

  Forcing his fingers off her lips, his hand away from her face, his arm to his side, he shook his head, “No.”

  Tilting her head to the side, she asked softly, “Are you truly so ugly?”

  “Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “A veritable beast to your beauty.”

  Her lips quirked upwards in an almost smile but she didn’t smile. “But Beauty fell in love with the beast even when he behaved as a beast. So far, you have been nothing short of wonderful.”

  “Do you love me so soon then?” he teased, his heart quickening in his chest.

  Her brows pulled together as she considered his absurd question, a question he had no right to ask. After a moment, her tongue darted out and smoothed over her lower lip, making it glisten in the light of the street lamp. “There is something between us, Roman, but I don’t know if I’d call it love, at least not yet. Lust, definitely, maybe love. I mean, I’d like to love the man I have sex with and I plan on having sex with you so….”

  Her words trailed off as her cheeks darkened to deeper gray, making her look desirable and innocent all at once. Of course, his cock twitched beneath the material of his cloak and the stupid kilt he had taken to wearing for modesty’s sake, for Daisy’s sake. Foolishly, he reached out and cupped her cheek, “What would it take to make you fall in love with me?”

  This time, she allowed the smile to light her face and he had to remind himself to breathe. Pressing her cheek against his rough hand, she shrugged her slender shoulders and said, “Spend time with me, my family. Get to know me and let me get to know you.”

  Swallowing thickly, he tried to find his voice that seemed to be buried in the depths of his chest. “I don’t know if I’d be welcomed into your family considering the things I want to do to you.”

  Her laughter filled the night air and his heart seized in his chest. “My family are wolves, Roman. They understand animal magnetism and lust. Besides, my mom wants to meet you.”

  His brows drew together and when he spoke, his words unintentionally came out as a feral growl, “You told her about me?”

  He felt her flinch at the harshness of his voice but she surprised him by not cowering. With a slight shrug of her shoulders, she gave him a sheepish smile, “I didn’t mean to tell her but she’s a wolf and she smelled the change in me. Apparently, I’ve imprinted on you.”

  His breath left his body in a rush and he had to remember how to breathe and use words. But then she said, “So it hardly matters whether or not I love you since I’m already yours.”

  He wasn’t what she deserved and yet the fates gave her to him anyway. She was too unspoiled, too pure, and it wasn’t going to end well for her. Second and third thoughts plagued him as he stared into her guileless, silver eyes, her words slaying him where he stood. Grabbing her shoulders, he forced her to listen to him. “Daisy, I live in a condemned building. The only food I eat is food my aggravating companion brings me, food no one else could ever imagine eating. I stole my clothes from a homeless man to cover my nudity. I hide in the shadows at night and I’m useless beneath the sun. I’m without friends and family and fortune. I have nothing.”

  Compassion filled her beautiful eyes and in that moment, he hated her, hated her privileged life, hated her for not being forgotten by everyone she loved. Grinding his teeth together in frustration, he gave her a shake, careful despite his rage because her slender body was a rag doll in his stone hands. “You should run away from me as fast and as far as you can.”

  “I can’t,” she whispered, her gaze steady as she stared into the void of his cloak trying to see his face. “You can stay at our place on the outskirts of town, Roman. We have everything a pack needs and you are more than welcome to join us.”

  “I’m not a wolf.”

  “No, but you’re my mate.” Her tongue darted out and moistened her lower lip as once again her cheeks darkened. Lowering her lashes, her voice softer with the hint of wonder, she repeated, “You’re my mate.”

  His stone heart thumped erratically in his chest. Who was this girl? Slowly releasing his grip on her, he took a step away from her, afraid of her tenacity and fervor and goodness. To her, he was her mate and it was as simple as that. Love would come or it wouldn’t and it never even occurred to her that he was using her.

  Fucking fates! Giving him everything he could ever desire in a girl and he had to trade her for his freedom! He had to get away from her before her reckless innocence undid him completely and he gave up everything for her. Standing in the glow of the street lamp, she watched him with those beguiling eyes of hers, forcing him to take another step away from her and then another step.

  She didn�
�t relent, keeping pace with him step for step, reaching out to him and grabbing the front of his cloak. “I want to see your face.”

  Wrapping his hands around her delicate wrists, he shook his head no in a slow, deliberate movement. It was too soon and if she ran he wasn’t sure he would be able to chase after her, not after she had sliced him open and spilled his soul at her feet. “No.”

  “Roman.” He could see the frustration in her eyes, the set of her mouth. Her arms twisted in his grip but he wasn’t going to let go. If he let go, she’d grab the material of his cloak and jerk it off his head, exposing his monstrous face. She was strong but she was no match for a gargoyle, no match for him, and after a protracted moment, she ceased struggling. Her nostrils flared as she took a deep breath and said, “I don’t care what you look like, Roman.”

  He smiled at the foolishness of her words so earnestly spoken, knowing she hadn’t a clue. Perversely, he wanted to throw off his cloak and show her the horror of his face. He wanted her to run from him while she still had the chance to save herself. Releasing her hands before he could think about what he was doing, he took a step into the light and tore the material from his head. The light illuminated him in all of his grotesque magnificence.

  Curling his hands into fists, he watched as her eyes, her expressive eyes, widened in horror and she slapped a hand over her gaping mouth. Stoically, he stood there as she stared at him, her eyes scanning his face, possibly looking for a trace of humanity. Cruelly, he smiled, his thick lips spreading apart and emphasizing his mouth full of sharp, protruding teeth, more teeth than any human mouth could ever hold. His garish smile made her take a step back until she was the one in the shadows and he almost laughed at the spitefulness of the fucking fates.

  In a mocking voice, he sneered, “It appears Beauty is not quite so enamored of her Beast.”

  Daisy’s mind was filled with deafening white noise as she stared at Roman’s face, the twisted features that resembled a man’s only in one’s worst nightmares. His head was horribly misshapen, with ridges along the top of his skull and brow bone. His nose was smashed against his face over a mouth that was too wide, too garish, as if he once had a long snout and it was flattened onto his face. His ears were elongated and protruded from the sides of his head and they had pointy tips. But it was his eyes that gave her the greatest fright. He didn’t have any. Instead, two gray spheres sat where his eyes should have been, two gray spheres that seemed to see her and watch her with eerie nothingness.

  He held himself stiffly beneath the harsh light, as if daring her to say something, say anything, but she had forgotten how to speak. His eyes were so alien and they made her feel so very small and insignificant, as if they had seen so much and she had seen so little. She was a creepy, crawly thing beneath that majestic stone gaze in that grotesquely carved face and in that moment she didn’t know who she was.

  “Beauty is not quite so enamored of her Beast,” he sneered, the pain in his voice slashing through her thoughts, condemning her for being normal, for not being able to instantly see the man beneath the monster, the man she thought she could love.

  Sucking in a tremulous breath, she lowered her hand from her mouth, not remembering when she had covered it. It was embarrassing that she was shaking and she couldn’t stop shaking just as she couldn’t tear her gaze from Roman’s ruined face. His eyes….

  Before she found her voice, he stepped out of the light and was pulling the material over his head once again. Pride radiated off him in waves, pride she understood. Swallowing her fear, she reached out and put her hand on his chest. “Don’t go.”

  Everything slowed to a halt, his body, his heartbeat, and he stared at her, his face once more in the shadows of his hood. He remained silent as he just stood there, waiting for her to speak but she didn’t know what to say. With a forced smile and tears filling her eyes, she murmured, “You’re quite hideous, aren’t you?”

  The silence was deafening and time stretched out into infinity before his chest heaved and a rusty laugh rumbled past his lips. The next thing she knew, her cheek was pressed against his chest as he wrapped her in his arms and pulled her against his hard body. “You never do or say what I expect.”

  Her heart was racing as she tried to jump start her brain but the image of Roman filled her head. It had been such a shock to her system, she was certain it was going to take a few days to recover her wits completely. It was going to take just as long to come to terms with his… uniqueness. There were creatures that were so ugly they were almost cute; unfortunately, Roman was not amongst them. For one thing, he was too masculine to ever be something so paltry as ‘cute.’ For another, he really was hideous looking.

  But, god, it felt good being in his arms, pressed against his warm, stone chest and as long as she didn’t see his face she could almost pretend everything was the same. Almost hesitantly, she slid her arms around his waist and returned his impromptu hug, closing her eyes as the scent of him filled her head and started erasing her doubts. Slowly, she slid her right hand up his spine until she felt the place where his wing met his body. She wanted to see them but after the shock of seeing his face, perhaps it was better to wait a while longer. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t touch them.

  The wing beneath her palm was smooth and warm as she swept her hand along the curved edge. It trembled beneath her touch and she wondered how sensitive his wings were compared to the rest of his body. Were they as deliciously responsive as his erection had been? The wing expanded past her reach, and she couldn’t feel the bottom of it, unless she wanted to squat down and press her face into his groin.

  It bothered her how much the idea appealed to her.

  Ignoring her instinct to fall to her knees, to maybe nuzzle his cock, she reversed the direction she was stroking and moved upwards over the skin that spanned the wing’s spines. It wasn’t rubbery like bat wings but hard like stone, like the rest of his hard body. Softly, determined not to think about his face, she asked, “Can you fly?”

  She felt his smile as he murmured, “Yes.”

  “How?” The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it but she didn’t see how such a thing was possible. His wings were made out of granite or marble so how could he possibly be able to fly?

  “Do you want to see?” he asked in a low, sexy grumble so at odds with his face.

  His face….

  His eyes.

  Her heart just about leapt out of her chest in delayed terror. Prying her arms away from his hard body, she took a step backwards, out of his hold. Forcing her lips upwards into some semblance of a smile, she shook her head, “I’m pretty comfortable on the ground but thank you for asking.”

  “So polite,” he murmured, reaching out and brushing his finger along her jaw. Without meaning to, she flinched and she sensed his hurt a moment before he stiffened and dropped his hand. Acting as if she hadn’t just flinched from his touch, he asked in an almost normal voice, “Are you afraid of flying in general or afraid of flying with me?”

  A nervous laugh slipped out as she ran her hand through her hair, over the front of her t-shirt before clutching her bag in a death grip to hide her nerves. “Um, a little bit of both?” Helplessly, she looked at him, wishing she could see his face, grateful that she couldn’t, and suddenly everything hit her all at once. At a loss, she swallowed thickly and said, “You’re made of rock, Roman. I don’t see how you can possibly fly. I have to go.”

  “Daisy.” Her name came out as a husky growl, reminding her once again that he was her mate and he was a beast. He didn’t stop her as she turned around and fled, returning to her car rather than her dorm room. As her blood rushed through her veins, making her flushed and light headed, she opened the car door and threw her bag into the backseat before sliding behind the wheel. She had to take a moment to let the shaking in her hands subside enough to start the car and then she took another moment to determine whether or not she was in any shape to drive.

  She wanted to scream an
d she wasn’t even sure why. Yes, Roman had a scary face but he was a good man, a lonely man. He had nothing and she kept pushing and pushing until he gave her everything and she had freaked out. Pushing the scream down, she lifted her head and looked at the place where they had been standing only to find that he was no longer there and in that moment she was disgusted with herself.

  Pushing the car into gear, she drove home with extra caution, knowing her mind wasn’t in the right place to be operating any kind of vehicle. What if she had pushed him away for good? How would she know one way or the other since she didn’t have the first idea where he lived? Once the shock wore off, she was certain she’d want to see him again but how was she going to find him? If her wolf cooperated she could use the bitch to track him down.

  That was probably not the way to convince her wolf to bond with her. Besides, who’s to say her wolf wanted a gargoyle for a mate? She doubted Roman could even become a wolf since he was stone and teeth, neither human nor wolf, could bite into stone. Even if she could bite him she had no idea what wolf venom would do to a gargoyle, if he would even survive without the massive doses of antibiotics that helped her mom and both of her uncles make the transition. Would antibiotics even work on a gargoyle?

  Of course, it hardly mattered because her wolf was latent and might never bond, no matter if she smelled her mom’s pregnancy before they told her. That could have been a fluke or maybe her wolf was just taunting her with what she would never have, that connection with her family as a wolf. She had moved into the dorms because she couldn’t shift and that fact had been driven home when her twelve-year-old sister shifted on her birthday and everyone celebrated. All Daisy could do was smile and tell Roxie how proud she was for her, which she was. But then a few days later, Roxie and her wolf bonded fully and Daisy was left reeling with the fact that she might never shift.

  Her sister was twelve years old and already bonded with her wolf.