Stone Guardian(32)

The orcs responded moments too late to the sound of an approaching car, lifting their heads as the car rammed into them. She rolled over them, sickening thumps and crunches that had her stomach begging to lose its contents. She clenched her teeth against the urge to vomit.

One hand appeared from underneath and landed on her hood, and the face and shoulders of one orc came into view.

Ahead was a thick line of trees. Pressing down on the accelerator, her body went tight, bracing for the expected impact as she headed straight for them.

She closed her eyes before they hit.

The car dipped down and the airbag deployed, pressed into her face so she couldn’t breathe, her nose flattened and her chest punched concave. The wait for it to deflate was eternity, but she pushed at it, speeding up the process the best she could.

She turned the key, and thank gods the car started again. She put the car in reverse and made her way back to Terak.

There were no more orcs alive. Terak had more wounds than before, with blood streaming over a good portion of his body. He was erect but kept stumbling, falling to his knees.

She parked the car and rushed to his side. His right side seemed the least injured, so she took his right arm and propped herself under it to help him move toward the car. “Your wing,” she said, though it wasn’t as if he needed her to point out the obvious. There was no way he could fly.

What were they going to do? He wasn’t allowed within city limits. If they were caught driving in the city the authorities would take him into custody. Her too, but what would happen to her wasn’t the worry. If he was jailed the other gargoyles would attack to free him, stomping on the possibility of a peaceful coexistence.

It had Disaster of Epic Proportions stamped all over it.

Maybe it was time to call dad. Dad would be furious, but he would help Terak escape considering the gargoyle had saved her life. Of course, then she would have to tell him what was going on, and her father would lock her up before she finished telling about that first night.

But she couldn’t see an alternative. Terak needed medical attention and she couldn’t risk a fight between human and gargoyles. She owed Terak that and much more.

“Terak, I’m going to call my father. I think he’ll help us. At the very least we need to get you to a hospital.”

“No hospital,” said the gargoyle, sweat beading his forehead. “No father.”

“I’m not a nurse. You’re wounded and in no shape to fly or fight, and if a gargoyle is seen within city limits, they’ll take you into custody.”

“No father,” he repeated, his breaths rapid, his voice reedy. He was going to pass out soon. She could convince him after she had him in the car, and she needed to get him there before he passed out. There would be no way she could handle his weight by herself.

As she got him settled into the passenger side there was a buzzing underneath her hand, a vibration so small she didn’t bother to look as it was occurring, focusing instead on the belt buckle. She turned to Terak…

… And startled back, hitting her head on the inside of the car, the pain bringing tears to her eyes.

Larissa’s eyes slid shut as her hands grasped the newly formed bump. Maybe she had seen wrong, but her eyes opened, and no, she hadn’t been seeing things.

Instead of a gargoyle sitting in her passenger seat, now there was a human male – bare-chested and bloody, with black hair and stone grey eyes.

“Say nothing,” he said.

Then he fainted.





Chapter Eleven





Human.

Human.

Human.

The words beat through her head at the same rhythm as her heart, which was currently doing double-time since she was carting two hundred and fifty pounds of a gargoyle-turned-human through her bedroom door.

The bed lay before her, smooth sheets and fluffed up pillows, and it might as well have been a mile away. “Terak?” she asked, but a pained groan was his only response. He was fading out of consciousness fast, and there was no way she could pick him up if he crashed to the floor.

No way around it.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she muttered as she hefted his arm away from her and all but knocked him to the bed.

He upgraded from a groan to a yelp as his battered body collided hard with the mattress. “I’m so sorry,” she said again and again, the words on repeat as the maneuvering began to get him fully situated.

Finally he was settled and the growly sounds diminished to only a few every minute. Larissa pushed her hair back from her face with both hands. A rising tide of panic was cresting through her body, starting low in her stomach and rising up her chest.

No. That nonsense needed to stop. Panic was not allowed until after she got her gargoyle back.