“You were saying?”He directed a smirk my way.Once he effortlessly set the glass aside, he extended a hand to me.
“Uh…” I stared at the large blue palm.
Before I could make up my mind, the bat-man took the distance separating us with a stride.Next thing I knew, I was scooped up in his arms like a bride on her wedding day.
“Come, female,” he said as he carried me to the open window.“You hesitated too long.A gargoyle king can only be this patient.”
And then, we were airborne.
– 5 –
Fine Print
Icouldn’t help it.I screamed.
“Calm down.You are safe.”
Safe?I would have cackled, but I was too busy shrieking as I held on for dear life.I might face deadly creatures without losing my cool, but it wasn’t every day that I flew across the sky with nothing but thin air beneath me.We were already so high that the fifteen-story office building was shrinking by the second.Also, we kept rising faster and faster, propelled by those massive wings–or should I say,gargoylewings?
“Little human, have mercy.”
Right.I had to pull myself back together before I damaged the pointed ears of the only one keeping me alive at the moment.I squeezed my eyes shut and hid my face in the crook of his neck, handsstill gripping his brawny shoulders.This was simply a glass elevator ride in the tallest skyscraper ever.Yep, scary but safe.
And kind of comfortable.Now that I wasn’t looking down, I had to admit that my ride was not bad.The gargoyle’s strong arms held me securely against his chest.His skin ran hot, so I was warm despite the biting air at this height.His wings flapped fast enough to shelter me from the wind’s powerful bursts.Comfy.
I tentatively released his shoulders from my death grip and rested my hands against his wide chest.Warmth seeped through my fingers right away.Ah, much better.
A deep, primal grunt vibrated through my palms.“Do not test my patience.”
I cringed and snatched my hands away.“Sorry!I didn’t mean to anger you.”
An amused laugh tore from him, surprising me.“You have no idea what you are doing to me, do you?I have not picked up a female from the ground in many years, so I have forgotten you are not familiar with a gargoyle’s erogenous zones.”
“What!”
I tried to put as much distance between our bodies as possible under the circumstances.As in, I pulled my head back by an inch or two.The rest of me stayed plastered against him.
More laughter.“Do not worry: I will educate you.It was not your delicate fingers on my chest that inflamed me.It was your nose right where a female would take in my scent to determine whether I am worthy of her attention.A longer sniff equals full approval, and then the claiming can begin.”
Had my feet been on the ground, my knees would have buckled.Not only had I accidentally given a gargoyle a come-on, but I had also been sniffed by him back at the conference hall.That had been a long sniff over the side of my neck.
The gargoyle found me worthy.Of aclaiming.And he’d said he would get what he desired from me once we got to safety.Whathad I gotten myself into?
“Where are you taking me?”A look around revealed we were engulfed by cloudy whiteness.
“My palace, of course.”
“Of course.”Silly me, still thinking of him as a stone sentry on a medieval cathedral having come to life.Hadn’t I learned that no creature in the apocalypses was as depicted in movies?This gargoyle was a king with a palace.Wasn’t I lucky.“Why are we going there?”
“Because it is safe,” he replied with a shrug, as if the answer were obvious.“And it will continue to be so as long as my brethren and I draw breath.You will like it.Humans are always fascinated by the view of the night sky when they first arrive.”
“You’ve taken many women there?”I barely hid the quiver in my voice.To think I had chosen against venturing out during the bombings to avoid joining the aliens’ breeding program… Sure, this gargoyle didn’t have two heads, seven tentacles, and a scaly blob for a body.He was physically appealing, but still.
Oblivious to my incoming panic, he explained.“I have taken my fair share of humans over the years, though my brethren have been more active in that department than I will ever be.In the last three years, I have been limiting myself to rare claimings of the unmated females living on my homecloud.No females from the ground.”
It took me some time to process his words.“So humans were abducted for years before the apocalypses?”
“Abducted?” His lips curled in a sneer and his nostrils flared.“Are you implying a gargoyle would take someone against their will, like the Gods-cursed extraterrestrials do?You are comparing me tothem?”
