by Susan Hayes
“You are incredible. Absolutely perfect,” she spoke again, the words coming from somewhere to his left.
When her hand touched his outstretched wing, the simple contact sent a shock wave coursing through him. Dear God, how long had it been since he’d felt the touch of a woman? His entire focus was on her hand as she ran her fingers along the edge of his wing, following the sculpted line of stone to where it met his back.
“The photos they took didn’t do you justice,” she mused as she continued her exploration, running her hands over every part of him.
It wasn’t long before Stone was ready to scream with frustration and longing. Every gentle touch of her hands made him yearn to be free of his magical prison. Every word she spoke made him more certain that this was the woman he’d been dreaming of. But how had he dreamed of someone he’d never met and how in Hell was he going to be able to let her know that he was more than a well-crafted statue?
When the woman finally moved into view, he knew instantly that it was her. She had the same brilliant green eyes and dark chestnut hair. Even her lovely smile was the same. There were a few small differences—a smudge of dust on her cheek that he’d never dreamed of, and her hair wasn’t loose but tied back into an unruly ponytail. The details didn’t matter, though. His nameless dream woman was real. He had to believe that meant there was hope for him yet.
She continued her hands-on inspection, her every touch equal parts torture and pleasure. After so long it was a joy to have contact with anyone at all, but he wanted more, so much more.
“There’s not a scratch on you. No moss, no weathering, no stress fractures. I can’t even find a single chip anywhere. I had them bring you in here because I thought I’d need to do some restoration, but there’s nothing to restore.” She rose from her crouch and looked at him with amazement. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were enchanted to resist damage.”
Her casual mention of magic sent Stone’s thoughts whirling. What did she know of magic? In this day and age, most people thought it didn’t exist.
Before he could even begin to make sense of the strangeness of it someone else entered the barn.
“I’m back, ma’am. I got the paperwork you need to sign. Once you’ve accepted delivery, I’ll be on my way. Is that what was in that crate? Damn, he’s as ugly as he is heavy.” A tall, lanky man walked over to the woman and handed her an electronic device. He had to be the delivery driver who had managed to hit every pothole and rut in the road between New York and wherever the hell Stone was now.
“He’s not ugly. At least, not to me. He’s a work of art,” she said as she took the device and signed her name in a small screen.
“Whatever you say, ma’am. My job’s just to deliver stuff, not stand in judgment.” He tipped his baseball cap to her as he took back his device and then vanished from Stone’s view again.
“Have a safe journey home,” the woman called out.
The sound of a door shutting told Stone they were alone again. As soon as the driver was gone, the woman bounced on her toes several times and beamed at Stone.
“You’re all mine, now,” she said.
With those words, Stone was free.
It was a brutal and sudden transition. One moment he was nothing but consciousness trapped in rock, and the next he was himself once more. He threw back his head to take in a lungful of air even before he’d truly grasped what had happened.
I’m free.
He rose to his feet, his wings and arms outstretched as he bellowed in triumph and joy. God, it felt good to stand again.
“Oh my God!” the woman yelled and took several stumbling steps backward.
Damn it. He’d scared her.
“I will not harm you,” he said, still too dazed by his sudden transformation to manage anything more reassuring.
She didn’t look convinced. In fact, she looked downright angry. Not the reaction he expected, but it was better than abject terror.
“What are you and what did you do with my statue?”
“I am the statue. I mean. I was. See? Horns, wings. It’s me.”
“Like hell you are. Statues don’t just come to life, and last time I checked, there were no such things as gargoyles. We’d have heard of them by now if there were.” She took another step backward.
Realizing he wasn’t getting anywhere, Stone opted to try something new. “My name is Stone, and I’m not going to hurt you. Hell, I think you’re my new owner, which means I couldn’t harm you even if I wanted to.” He reached out a hand to her. “Will you, at least, tell me your name?”
“Adina,” she said, eyeing his clawed hand with distrust.
“You have no idea how happy I am to meet you, Adina. I’ve been trapped since my last master died.”
“I swear, if this is Hal’s idea of a joke, I’m going to stuff him into his own forge.”
He felt a stab of jealousy at the mention of another man. “Who’s Hal? And no, this isn’t a joke.”
“He’s my brother and…damn it, no! I’m not doing this. I talk to my sculptures, but they’re not supposed to talk back!” She took another step away from him and caught her heel on a chunk of discarded marble. She fell back with a cry, arms flailing in a desperate attempt to regain her balance.
Stone rushed toward her, but even his speed wasn’t enough to reach her before she hit the floor with a thud that made his stomach twist. She didn’t move when he crouched down beside her, and when he touched her face, all she managed was a flutter of her lashes and a faint moan.
As first meetings went, this was going to go down in history as one of his worst.
“I used to be better at this,” he muttered to himself as he eased her into his arms and cradled her warm weight against his chest. A quick glance around what he now recognized as an artist’s studio revealed a couch tucked away in a softly lit corner. Perfect. Adina could rest comfortably while he got his bearings. By the time she opened her eyes again, he needed to be thinking clearly and back in human form...if he could take that form again. He had no idea how the magic that bound him worked anymore. With the Drummond family dead, their rules should no longer bind him. If he could appear human, it should make the second round of introductions go at a little smoother.
At least, he hoped so.
Chapter Two
Adina’s head ached and she had a vague sense of unease. Nothing definitive, simply a feeling that something was off. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at the hayloft over her studio. Not a good sign considering she couldn’t remember lying down for a nap. In fact, she couldn’t recall lying down at all. She started backtracking to the last thing she could remember. She’d been working on a commission piece and heard a truck outside. It was a delivery. Her statue had finally arrived. She’d signed for it and—Holy shit!
She jerked upright and groaned as pain splintered through her head. Something had startled her and she’d managed to trip and fall over, thus proving once again that she was destined to play the role of comic sidekick, even in her own life.
“You should stay still. It will help with the headache.”
The last fragments of her memory snapped into place. The statue. It had moved. And talked. She turned her head slowly, her heart pounding against her ribs. The wood from the crate was still there, but the statue was gone. Either she was going insane, or she was in trouble. Neither option made her feel any better about what she had to do next.
“Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” she murmured to herself as she started looking around the studio for the source of the voice.
“You didn’t hit your head hard enough to be hallucinating. You were woozy for a few minutes.”
That voice again. Deep, with a hint of gravel and an accent she couldn’t place. British or maybe Scottish, she couldn’t tell. She finally spotted him standing a few feet behind her, and her heart started beating in triple time. She had to be imagining things. That was the only way to explain why there was a jaw-droppingly gorgeous man currently wa
tching over her with a look of concern on his handsome face. It was a face she’d seen before, but only in her dreams.
“Who? What?” she stammered as she tried to ask several questions at once.
“My name is Stone. I’m sorry I scared you before. The transformation isn’t usually that sudden,” he said.
Transformation. Hell’s bells. He was still trying to claim he was the statue she’d purchased. The one that was currently missing. Oh yeah, she was definitely losing her mind. Either that or he’d already lost his. “You’re trying to tell me that you were the statue but now you’re human? You can just, transform? Poof?”
He smiled at her, his granite-grey eyes showing no hint of malice. She’d dreamed of that smile and those eyes so often she felt as if she knew him already, which was making this situation even weirder than it already was.
“I don’t poof. But yes, I can transform. At least, I could until my last master died. Since then, I’ve been trapped. I’m not sure why I’m free, now, but I’m grateful to you for releasing me.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she protested. Once again she looked from the empty spot where the statue had been to the tall, dark-haired man conversing with her and wondered what the hell she’d gotten herself into.
“You did something. I suspect it happened when you took ownership of me. I—I was created to be a guardian. My duty is to protect my master, or in this case, my mistress. You.”
“I’m not your master. I mean, I bought the statue, but that doesn’t mean I own you. You’re a living being! That would be wrong.”
“Wrong or not, it’s true. I’m certain of it. There’s a way I can prove it to you, but it would mean my shifting back to my other form. Are you ready for that?” he asked.
Adina thought about that for a second, then shook her head. “No. But you might as well do it anyway. It’s the fastest way to prove your story. If you don’t poof, I’ll know you’re lying.”
He lifted one black brow at her. “Indeed. Though, as I pointed out before, I do not ‘poof’. I’m a warrior, not a bloody fairy.”
“We’ve not actually discussed what the hell you are, yet. I’ve never heard of anything like you.”
“For lack of a better term, gargoyle works,” he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be. You’d think that living here I’d be used to strange and unusual things, but apparently not.” She sat up a little straighter and gingerly touched the goose-egg sized bump on the back of her head. At least, the headache was starting to fade.
“You can explain that statement to me in a moment. To be honest, I have no clue where I am.”
“You’re in—shit!“ her sentence morphed into a yelp of surprise as she watched Stone transform. It wasn’t so much a shapeshift as it was a complete change. One second he was a man, the next he was something else. Something huge, winged, and made of what looked like granite, but wasn’t.
“Convinced?” Stone asked. His voice was deeper now, but the accent was the same.
“Uh huh.” Adina rose from the couch on unsteady legs and walked over to the massive creature standing in her studio. “May I touch you?”
There was no missing the flash of heat that flared in his eyes at her question. “You may touch me as much as you wish.”
Adina felt her cheeks heat as she reached out and brushed her fingers over Stone’s forearm. It felt like granite beneath her fingertips but there was an underlying warmth that she’d never sensed in any rock she’d ever worked with before. “Which is your true form?”
“All of them. I prefer to be human, though. And after being trapped as a statue for months on end, I have no desire to return to that form anytime soon.”
“I imagine not. You were aware all the time you were trapped?” The thought of him suffering that way chilled her blood.
“When I wasn’t adrift in dreams, yes. I was aware. It was hellish. Not knowing if I would ever be free again. Wondering if this was all there would be until I slipped into permanent madness. The dreams were the only things that kept me sane.”
“I can’t imagine what that was like for you. What I can tell you is that you’ve wound up in the one place on the planet where you might be able to find a way to make sure that never happens again.”
“And where is that?” he asked.
“A place called Magic. Magic, New Mexico. I guess you could think of it as a sanctuary of sorts. A safe place for, well, beings like us.”
Stone frowned, an expression that made him seem even more intimidating. “What do you mean, like us?”
“I mean magic users. Vampires. Werewolves. Ghosts. Trolls. Dwarves, and a host of other things that go bump in the night. Everyone here is something other than your ordinary human being. Well, almost everyone. We’re one big, strange, chaotic family.”
“I had no idea such a place existed.” Stone blinked and shook his head. “Truly?”
There was such yearning in his voice that Adina’s heart ached for him. “Truly. You’re home, Stone. Or you could be if you decide to stay.”
“I have no other choice. Where you go, I go. If this is your home, then it shall be mine, as well.” He lifted his free hand and pointed to a spot over his heart.
Adina looked closely and then gasped as she saw what he was pointing to. Her first name was carved into his body in an elegant script. Horror filled her as she brushed her fingers over each letter in turn. “Does it hurt?”
He glanced down at her hand on his chest and then covered it with his own. “No. Though you are the first master I’ve ever had, who thought to ask me that. Interesting. It’s only your first name. That’s new.”
“Your masters sound like a bunch of jerks. How long did you serve them?” she asked.
“I was first conjured into existence during what you would call the Middle Ages. I don’t know the precise date. Suffice it to say I have served the Drummond family for centuries.”
“Centuries. So the paperwork I have on you is accurate. To a point, anyway. Would you like to read it? I researched where you came from, your family, your history. God, I have so many questions I’m not sure where to start.”
“Perhaps we should start by getting you back to your house so you can rest. I don’t believe you have a concussion, but I know your head hurts.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You’re not. I’m bound to you, remember? I wouldn’t be much of a guardian if I didn’t know when the one I am sworn to protect was in pain.”
She rolled her eyes and tugged her hand out from beneath his. “And that cinches it. We’re getting unbound as soon as possible. I do not need another overprotective man in my life. That position is filled twice over.”
“I assume one of those men is your brother. Who is the other one?” Stone asked.
“My dad. Have you ever met a dwarven father before? What they lack in stature they make up for in stubbornness and a tendency to think of their daughters as treasures to be guarded at all costs. In my case, I got the added bonus of having both a father and a brother who forge sharp, pointy weapons for a living. And then my mother wonders why I don’t date!”
“You’re a dwarf?”
“Half dwarf. My mother’s human, but she’s a seer. Depending on her mood she’ll either claim to be descended from the Oracle at Delphi or Cassandra of Troy.” Adina grinned up at the bewildered beast staring at her in shock. “Welcome to Magic.”
Stone looked down at the short, curvy woman who now ruled his life and tried to come to terms with all she’d told him. It was hard to believe what she said, but how else could he explain how easily she’d accepted the reality of who and what he was? Not even his own masters had always believed so quickly.
“I think I need a drink,” he muttered.
“That sounds like a brilliant idea. And I guess that answers my question about whether you eat or drink,” she said.
“I can, and I do, but I do not need it to survive. I used to enjoy eat
ing, though. It’s been a century or more since I’ve had that pleasure.”
She gawked at him. “A century? In that case, you’re coming with me right now and we’re going to have a drink and something to eat. I’ll try to answer your questions and you can try to answer mine.”
“After you rest. Or at the very least take something for your discomfort,” he reminded her.
“Okay, I’ll take some ibuprofen when we get to the house.” She paused and eyed him thoughtfully. “Not that you’re going to fit in my house like that. Maybe you better switch to human form before we go.”
“It would be my pleasure. It’s been a long time since I’ve been permitted to use that form.”
“Geeze. Your masters were something else. No eating, no drinking, no passing for human. Not caring how you were feeling or if you were in pain.” Adina took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re free to do whatever you want. Eat, drink, use whatever form you like. If there are any other orders you need me to undo, let me know.”
Stone opened his mouth to say something but words failed him. There was no way to express his gratitude for all she’d done. In the short time he’d known her, she’d treated him with more decency and compassion than he’d known in years. Instead of speaking he brushed his knuckles over her cheek, being careful to keep his talons away from her delicate skin. When she turned her head to nuzzle against his touch, it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms and hold her the way he had in his dreams.
He stroked her cheek once more and then shifted to his human form. When it was done, he found Adina looking at him intently with her head cocked to one side.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“I’m wondering where you stash your clothes when you’re rocking the gargoyle look. And where did you get the modern outfit? I thought you said you hadn’t been in this form for ages.”
He glanced down at the black jeans and simple white T-shirt he was wearing. “Honestly, I’ve no idea how it works, I only know that it does. If I concentrate I can alter the outfit I appear in, but if I don’t the magic provides me with something suitable.”
