Stone Destiny (Stone Passion #3)

by Warneke, A. C.

  STONE DESTINY

  Copyright©2013 Andrea Warneke

  All Rights Reserved

  Dedication

  Stone Destiny exists because of the readers who wanted Armand's story. This book is for you, with my love and gratitude.

  *~*~*

  To my children who are growing up way too fast and to my husband: I love you!!

  *~*~*

  To the members of the U.S. Military:

  Thank you for all that you do.

  Acknowledgement

  Armand has not always been easy… okay, he's never been easy, and I want to thank everyone for their support while waiting for Stone Destiny.

  *~*~*

  I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who read Stone Destiny in its unfinished state, from the Gargoyle Virgins to the Gargoyle Lovers. Thank you for letting me see the story through your eyes.

  Table of Contents

  Stone Passions Trilogy

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Author Information

  Stone Passions Trilogy

  The Stone Passions Trilogy begins with Vaughn and Melanie in Stone Lover: Melanie has always been a little different, able to see things that others cannot. She falls in love with Vaughn, a man who becomes a Gargoyle when she sun rises.

  Rhys and Jenna's story is Stone Romance: Melanie's sister Jenna has experienced great sorrow in her life. Rhys is the gargoyle who brings love, laughter, and passion back into her life.

  Stone Destiny is Armand's story. It has been fifteen years since the events of Stone Lover and Stone Romance. The veil between the two worlds has fallen and Armand Nosuntres no longer knows his purpose: he is a Guardian with nothing left to guard. As he struggles with his new reality he is unaware that his destiny lies with the woman who loves him unconditionally, who has always loved him: Ferris Jacobs.

  A human raised in the world of magic, Ferris has never really fit in. Her best friend is an imp, her playmates are pixies, and she's in love with a stubborn gargoyle who is having a difficult time seeing her as a grown woman. But she has a plan and before she is through Armand isn't going to know what hit him.

  In an attempt to protect the vibrant Ferris from her own folly, Armand makes a decision that dramatically changes everything, sending Ferris on a journey that she never expected but one that she ultimately had to take.

  As passions explode and lovers are torn apart, Armand and Ferris have to find their way back to one another before fate spins out of control and destroy everything in its path.

  Stone Destiny is the thrilling conclusion to the Stone Passions trilogy.

  Prologue

  A Destiny Realized

  With a heavy sigh, Ferris Jacobs made her way through the elegant lobby, waving half-heartedly at Nod the lavender-haired sprite as she passed. Slinking into the elevator, she pressed the button for the fourteenth floor of the castle hidden in plain sight in the middle of Saint Paul. She wanted to escape her so-called real life for a while because it had been another day of Hell in high school and she wasn’t sure how she was going to survive one and a half more years of it. She would have thought that her classmates would have grown up by now, maybe matured some. Unfortunately, she wasn’t so lucky and her classmates remained immature and cruel.

  Her life beyond the walls of the castle sucked. She hated being the girl that everyone avoided. Well, everyone that was human. The creatures of the supernatural world adored her, just as she adored them. Yet it was because of her ability to see things that weren’t supposed to be there that alienated her peers. It wasn’t her fault the rest of the hairless apes couldn’t see beneath the veil so why did they have to torture her because of it? Even after she learned not to speak of it they continued taunting her, calling her Freaky Ferris for as long as she could remember.

  The more they tormented her, the deeper she sank into the lives of her paranormal friends, from the imps that teased her and got her into trouble to the pixies that entertained her with ribald stories probably not suitable for young ears. Of course, her favorite supernatural beings were the gargoyles that lived in the castle in the middle of the city. From the time she was five or six they had been a part of her life, ever since her Aunt Melanie had fallen in love with the gargoyle Vaughn and her mother had fallen in love with Vaughn’s gargoyle brother Rhys.

  Ferris had grown up surrounded by magic, by mythological creatures and fantastical castles that the rest of the world couldn’t even fathom. Hell, her best friend was an imp named Ajreis, whose wide mouth full of sharp teeth, grayish skin and large, pointy ears had never frightened her, even as a small child. He made her feel safe while storms raged outside, he made her laugh when the kids at school had pretended she didn’t exist, he comforted her when she hid her tears from her mother because she never wanted her mom to worry. He guarded her with his life.

  But he couldn’t protect her from the verbal slings and arrows of her classmates. He could only comfort her after the fact, promising deadly retribution until she laughed, promising painful vengeance until she worried he might be serious and begged him to take no action. Unfortunately, he was currently spending some time with his imp brethren who were giving him a hard time for having a human friend. It left Ferris alone to face the wolves at school for the rest of the school year. Her aunt, her mother and their mates had gone to Greece for a supernatural festival, taking the three gargoyles that had returned home with Rhys and Jenna nearly ten years before.

  Vaughn and Rhys’s older brother Armand remained behind so the castle would not have to remain unguarded. Ferris knew that he was looking forward to some peace and quiet, especially after dealing with the boisterous trio of young gargoyles. There was also Vaughn and Aunt Melanie’s nine year old son, a golden-haired angel who had a small case of hero worship for the stern Armand. Young Alex had gone with his parents in order to meet his gargoyle relatives and his paternal grandmother, who happened to be Medusa.

  What was even crazier was that the gargoyles’ father was the sun god Apollo, whom Ferris had only heard stories about since he had decided to hang out in Mount Olympus for the past ten years. Still, Ferris would have loved to have gone on the trip to Greece. She would have given her left arm to meet the mythical beauty, the Greek gargoyles and the other mythological creatures. But she had school and was forced to remain behind.

  Yet another reason why school sucked.

  The elevator lurched to a stop and the doors opened onto the fourteenth floor, the home of the gargoyles, the lair of the Guardians. Already she could feel the calming effects of being surrounded by magic. She could breathe freely once more. Her lips started to curve upwards when she paused, the sound of music was wafting through the air. It was haunting and so damned beautiful that the rest of the world ceased to exist.

  Easing her backpack to the ground, she quietly made her way through the elaborate suite of rooms, her home when her mom was in town, until she reached the conservatory at the back of the building. Armand was sitting at the piano, his long, elegant fingers moving effortlessly over the keys, producing music that was almost too beautif
ul to bear and Ferris felt the tears welling in her eyes. His eyes were closed as he played, lost in the music.

  Silently, she made her way to the loveseat that faced the piano and sat down, enthralled by the sight of Armand at the piano. He was easily the most stunning man she had ever known, either in real life or the movies. With the looks of a fallen angel, he was simply breathtaking. His hair was blacker than black, short and thick, and he had the most amazing jade green eyes she had ever seen, harsh in their aloof beauty. His hewn jaw was softened only slightly by a set of lips that were sensuous and cruel. His body was carved of marble, with muscles that were sleek and hard over a frame that was tall and strong. He was over five hundred years old but he looked to be in his early twenties, maybe twenty-four or five.

  When he smiled, he had the most heart-stopping smile, made all the more so by its rarity.

  Over the years they had developed an odd relationship, a friendship of sorts, one that she thrust upon him from the time she was a child and followed him around talking his ear off. Eventually, almost reluctantly, he came around and started talking back. Despite the age difference there was a bond between them that she cherished above all else and she enjoyed the rare times that they were able to relax and be themselves and just talk. She could tell him things that she couldn’t tell her mother and he would understand, offering a shoulder to lean on when everything at school was crumbling to dust.

  She never wanted to burden her mom with her trials because she didn’t want Jenna to ever think she had made the wrong choice by choosing to be with a gargoyle. In Ferris’s eyes, having her mom fall in love with a gargoyle had been the best thing that ever happened to either of them. She could tolerate the ignorant teasing of her classmates because the world that existed beneath the veil was worth paying any price to be a part of. Besides, outside of school she was extremely happy and Armand was a large reason why.

  He showed her a side of him that she knew he didn’t let anyone else see, probably not even his brothers. She doubted he was even aware of it since his words and tone could sometimes be caustic. That was simply Armand, trying to keep everyone at a distance but unable to not comfort a soul that was crying out in pain. From the very beginning she had seen beneath the surface to the heart of the man, with all of his coldness and frozen glares he was warm, passionate. Lonely.

  He was… perfect.

  As he finished playing and the last note hung in the air, he bent his head forward and took a deep breath. Without opening his eyes, he murmured, “Ferris, what are you doing here? Don’t you usually stay with your grandparents when your mother and aunt are away?”

  She should have known that he was aware of her presence, he probably knew the exact moment she had entered the building. As a Guardian he didn’t miss anything. With a sigh, she sank deeper into her seat and admitted, “I couldn’t go there today so I drove around until the sun went down and came here. I didn't think you'd be home."

  He looked at her, his green eyes piercing her from across the short distance. His jaw clenched as he saw… everything, “What happened?”

  In spite of her misery, she had to smile. Only Armand would look so ready to do violence while trying to comfort. Shaking her head, she waved her hand through the air, “It’s nothing, Armand.”

  Heaving a sigh, he pushed himself up from the piano bench and crossed the room to where she sat, his large body fluid with natural grace. For some strange reason, her heart kicked her ribs as he stood over her and glared down at her with his hands on his lean hips, “What happened, Ferris?”

  “It’s nothing,” she repeated, feeling her heart pick up even more speed as she looked up at the gorgeous brute. Suddenly, butterflies began to flutter in her belly and she pressed a hand against her stomach, trying to sooth the treasonous insects. She had no idea why she would react to Armand in such a way. He was… Armand.

  With a huff, he sat down on the couch next to her, refusing to accept her words. Looking into his serious green eyes, she suddenly didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t want him to know how she had been humiliated and she didn’t want him to look at her as if she were weak or pathetic. But his gaze compelled her to speak even as she desperately tried to hold her tongue. “Well, there’s this guy….”

  A knowing smile curved his decadent lips and her heart did that stupid rib-kick thing again. “Ah, this is someone you like?”

  “God, no,” she denied vehemently, the thought of Mitch filling her with disgust. A shudder wracked her body, and she grimaced, softly repeating the words, “God, no.”

  He became deathly still and when she looked at him it was like looking into the face of God: terrifying and mesmerizing. “Did he hurt you? I will kill him.”

  She stared at him for a moment before his words sunk in and she realized what he was thinking. Holding her hands up she waved them in the air, shaking her head violently to dissuade him of those thoughts, “No! It was only a little humiliation. He didn’t touch me.”

  The wrath eased from him but only slightly. He still looked ready to do violence on her behalf and her heart threatened to break right through her ribs and go crashing into him. Pressing her hand against the unruly organ, she shook her head again, “He’s a senior and the captain of the football team and for the past couple of weeks he has been… flirting with me.”

  “And you did not want this?” he asked, arching his perfect eyebrow.

  “No,” she said softly, not wanting to admit that she had never liked Mitch but that it had been nice to have someone look at her as if she weren’t a freak, as if she were human. Lowering her lashes, she confessed, “But I didn’t discourage him, either. And today he told the entire class that I had slept with him but I didn’t. I’ve never even seen him outside of school and he isn’t someone I would ever have sex with. But everyone believed him because he's captain of the football team and I'm me.”

  “Oh, Ferris,” he murmured, pulling her into his arms and hugging her against his hard chest. His midnight masculine scent filled her nostrils and she wanted to burrow deeper into his embrace. Clutching his shirt in her fingers, she squeezed her eyes shut as he stroked those long, elegant fingers of his through her hair, comforting her.

  In that moment, between one painful heartbeat and the next, she realized she had fallen in love with the man that she had adored for most of her life. And until that moment she hadn’t even realized that she had fallen in love with him. That was an incredibly stupid move on her part and one she was going to ignore until it went away.

  “Why can’t they just leave me alone?” she asked, choking on her tears. Her heart was furiously pumping away in her chest and she wanted to rip it out and stomp on it. The stupid thing was so inconvenient. How dare it try to tell her she was in love with the man holding her? She was sixteen and he was… he was Armand. She wanted to wallow in her misery, not discover how incredibly foolish she was for doing something so stupid as to fall in love with a gargoyle.

  With Armand.

  “You’re a beautiful girl,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head with tender lips. “And you present a challenge to those Neanderthals because you straddle the line between the two worlds and they can’t touch you. You don’t belong in their world.”

  “I don’t belong in your world, either,” she said softly, the butterflies swarming every crevice in her belly until she thought she was going to be sick. How could she have fallen in love with him? She was going to have to bury her feelings very deep inside of her. She couldn’t risk losing him because of a silly girlhood infatuation.

  Pushing against his solid chest, she sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes, laughing in mortification, “God, I’m a mess. I don’t know why I let that buffoon bother me.”

  He leaned back in the couch, spreading his arms out across the top, his pose arrogant and imposing. But he smiled at her with rueful kindness, “You’re only human.”

  “Ha ha,” she muttered, his words striking a blow to her idiot heart. She looked at him and
the truth slammed into her with the force of a three ton wall. How could she not love him?

  Armand looked at her with concern, “What’s wrong now?”

  “N…nothing,” she stammered, feeling the heat flooding her cheeks as she realized she had to get out of there. With her fragile emotions raging and her newly discovered love, she was bound to do something incredibly stupid and then Armand would never talk to her again. Forcing a smile to her frozen face, she shook her head, “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “You just got an odd expression all of a sudden,” he continued, oblivious to her life altering, earth shattering realization. Concern colored his green eyes as he looked at her, studying her as if he could determine what she was hiding from him.

  Widening her eyes and brightening her smile, she repeated, “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Are you sure?” he persisted, narrowing his eyes, not letting it go. Stubborn gargoyle.

  “Positive,” she lied. Of course something was wrong! Everything was topsy-turvy and her whole world had just been flipped over. Abruptly standing up and hitting her shin against the coffee table, she ignored the sharp pain and muttered, “I have to go.”

  Armand looked at her as if she were nuts but she didn’t care. She’d rather he thought she was insane than discover she was in love with him. Her heart raced madly in her chest as she tried to gather her scattered wits and make her legs move towards the exit. But her shin really hurt and she still didn’t want to go back to her grandparents’ house. But what choice did she have?

  “I'm going to send a few pixies to keep an eye on you,” he said, startling her out of her rampaging thoughts.

  She blinked at him, not quite sure what he was talking about for a moment, “Why?”

  “To make sure no one tries anything that would make me have to hunt them down and kill them,” he said solemnly, his green eyes lit with dark humor and she smiled at his words. Standing up, he chucked her playfully on the chin with his knuckle, “There’s my girl. I hate seeing you cry.”