10. Granite

CHAPTER 10

Granite

I lean back and tuck my arms behind my head to avoid reaching out to touch her. She looks so beautiful sitting there with that mutinous glare on her pretty face.

I sigh and keep my eyes trained on her, needing to see her every thought. It's always clear on her face. She can't hide a thing from me.

Unlike… "Her name was Menen. She was a very powerful witch. She moved into the area and claimed to everyone that she talked to that her coven had thrown her out due to some kind of jealous power play from some of the other witches. I felt sorry for her. I have always believed that that kind of thing is wrong. I suppose it comes from my parents being killed."

She gasps and my visions fogs for just a moment. "You didn't tell me that either. What happened to them?"

"Mostly gargoyles are very family-oriented. We have to be around other gargoyles to be happy."

"So what happened to them?"she says, her voice soft, sympathetic.

"My father's brother was a bit of a loser, a drifter. He tended to be happier alone. So that's why nobody really noticed that he was in love with my mom."

My shoulders shrink into themselves as I find myself back in the specters of the past. "He showed up that last night and he'd obviously been drinking. It takes a lot to get a gargoyle drunk but I think he'd been working on it for awhile. He started shouting that he loved my mother and she told him to go home and sober up. He yelled that she was his home. He waves his hands and that's when we noticed that he had some kind of ring in his hand. Like he intended to ask her to marry him. But she was already married."

I run my hands through my hair and sigh. "My dad came up to him and tried to calm him down. I was scared and hiding. And then he just lost it. He pulled something from his pocket and it turned out that it was a pistol."

Angela jumps and hisses, "No."

I nod my head. "It's hard to kill a gargoyle but if you've got a weapon that's been imbued with enough magic it's not really that hard. So he'd gone to a witch to soak his gun in magic." I wince. "It worked. At the first shot my dad fell to the ground and groaned, blood coming from a shot straight to the heart. My mother screamed and leapt at him and he was so startled that the gun went off again and struck her right in the temple. She fell across my father, her hands wrapping around his."

"Oh my god, no." Her soft whisper wakes me from my stupor. Tears pour down her cheeks, so pale that her light freckles stick out like painted dots.

Her hand touches mine lightly and I wrap my fingers around hers. "They both died there…together. That gives me some comfort. Some small comfort," I mutter under my breath.

"So what happened to your uncle?"

"He lost even more of his mind and after two months, he shot himself with the same damn gun. He'd run away to avoid the justice that he should have gotten. But he couldn't outrun his own guilt."

I clear the tears out of my own throat. "So you can see how I hated the injustice of what happened. I was an easy target for Menen. I'm not sure that she didn't know my history and use it to her own advantage." I shudder as I think of her dark eyes and inky black hair. She was like night and evil personified.

"How did you know about her?" I ask suddenly, unease trickling down my spine.

She shrugs but I can see that she's still tense. "I had a dream. She said you're hers. And you'll never get away from her. And then she said not even the bite you gave me changed that." Her head jerks up and her green gaze sharpens. "What happened here tonight?"

I can't believe that Menen managed to reach out to her. "She's been dead for one hundred years. She got into a fight with a wolf shifter, the luna of the pack. She was a very beloved member of the pack and when Menen killed her the pack went wild and killed her. Tore her apart. There's no way she's still alive. I saw what they did to her."

Shock and disgust paints Angela's face. "Oh my god," she whispers. "Are you sure that she couldn't still be around in some form."

I shake my head but unease trickles in my veins like icy shards. "I-I don't think so."

"So what did she mean when she said I couldn't save you?"

I groan and shove my fingers through my hair, standing to pace around the room, naked. "She cursed me, dammit. Gargoyles have a certain amount of time where they're stone. We need that time to recharge, strengthen. But instead of being what strengthens me, it became my prison. She trapped me in that stone for three hundred sixty four days a year."

Angela gasps.

"For all of the year but Halloween I am trapped in stone. On Halloween I am given twenty-four merciful hours to search for my mate, my one true love." My eyes meet hers and her slim hand lifts to her mouth. "That love, if I won her true love, would release me from the damn curse and I would finally be free to live my life."

"What does that bite mean?" She whispers and I flinch.

"Shifters and some other magical creatures bite their mate when they finally get together."

"When they have sex," she says bluntly, anger coloring her voice.

I nod my head but keep my eyes locked on her. "It leaves a mark that all shifters and magical creatures can see but humans can't. It binds us together."

"You did that without my permission," she growls, standing, naked, and pacing the room. My cock stiffens and I mentally force that fucker down. Now is not the time. "Surely there must be some rule for that!"

I clear my throat nervously. "I didn't mean to do that. I lost my head. The taste of you drove me crazy."

Her brow lifts and she glares at me icily. "So it's my fault in some way that you locked us together. What happens now? I haven't fallen in love with you…"

I flinch at her harsh words. But I can't blame her.

"I assume that I'll change back to stone at sunrise. And unfortunately you may suffer some small discomfort when you're away from me."

She chokes on a growl and turns away, punching the wall and then shaking her hand out. "So I get to feel the loss when you're gone even though I didn't ask for it. I have to be punished for your misdeeds." Her eyes turn back to me, sharp and pained. "Is that fair, Granite?"

Her words burn all the way to my soul. I did something so unfair to her that it's worse than what Menen did to me. She was wholly innocent. I understood that Menen was thinking things that she didn't have any right to feel. I knew what was happening even as I tried to convince her that it wasn't right.

I took all of Angela's choices away from her. She'll never be able to look at another male now. And since she doesn't love me…yet, she can't feel anything for another male. She's not free.

And I did this awful thing to her. I'm worse than Menen.

I roar and drop to my knees, the ache spreading through my soul, my skin hardening, my fists raising up to the ceiling and my eyes locked on Angela even as I harden to stone.

"Mate," I whisper as my lips harden and my last breath puffs out. The last thing I see is her shocked green gaze and the tears glistening on her dark lashes.