Page 17 of The Stone Initiation
“Some gargoyles are traditional in their views. They believe in the cause. Believe that humanity is worth saving.” He frowned across at Sharniza. “Some don’t even want to be here.”
Wait a second. “You’re saying it’s compulsory?”
“Honor and duty are always compulsory,” Touron said, fist to his chest. “But yes. It kinda is.”
“You’re very…relaxedfor a gargoyle.”
Shadows formed in the depths of his forest-green eyes. “Yeah, I need to work on that.”
The air crackled and popped, and another bus appeared a few meters away.
This was insane. “How do they know where to materialize?”
“It’s a warp zone,” Touron said. “This whole area.” He made a circle with his hands.
There was so much to learn. “So now what?”
“We wait,” Sharniza said joining us again.
“Not for long though?”
A shadow fell over the world as the sun finally set. Touron made a strange rumbling sound and Sharniza’s hazel eyes flashed green.
“Now we’re talking,” her voice dropped an octave.
She stepped away from us, her body morphing and changing, growing a foot until she was looming over me, her gray stone-like form dwarfing mine. Around me, the other gargoyles were doing the same, shifting and changing until I was surrounded by hulking winged gray creatures with tails, wings, talons, and feet built for gripping ledges.
There were two other females aside from Sharniza and me. They stood together, their stony, muscular frames encased in leggings and crop tops that left their eight packs on show. Sharniza’s and Touron’s clothes were also intact. They’d stretched to accommodate their new frames.
Touron grinned down at me, fangs glinting. “Cool huh?” He flexed a bicep, and his T-shirt strained but didn’t rip. “Lastonflex material. Best invention yet.”
Gargoyles weren’t made of stone, but their bodies could shift to become stone if need be. Their skin was hard as nails, and tough to pierce either way though.
Wings snapped at the air as the gargoyles stretched their formidable appendages, and an empty pit of loss opened inside me. A feeling of incompleteness. A longing for something more.
Sundown affected me too, giving me heightened senses, speed, and strength but none of that equaled what it did for a full blood gargoyle.
“They’re here!” Someone bellowed.
All eyes were on the sky and the two figures flying toward us. Each Gargoyle’s wingspan had to be at least twelve feet, and their speed probably a hundred miles an hour, and shit, they were descending. Silver lines glinted on their black uniforms.
The colors of the elites.
The colors of Romi’s team.
CHAPTER8
The elites landed with a thud that shook the earth and sent soil and pebbles flying. They were massive, with arms and legs like tree trunks, thick necks and hands that could snap a person like a twig.
It made sense that they’d belong to the five-strong gargoyle shifter team that Romi had been a part of. Had Romi looked this huge when in gargoyle form? Had he had a tail like these two? Didallgargoyles have tails?
A quick glance at the potential cadets confirmed that every gargoyle here certainly did. But not all the tails were the same. Some were smooth and thick with bulbous ends made for smashing. Some were barbed with arrowhead ends. Others simply swished back and forth reminding me of an elephant trunk. Touron’s tail was smooth and thick with an arrow tip and Sharniza’s was serrated. They both looked lethal and dangerous and standing between them, it was hard to not feel like a piece of limp lettuce.
My pulse thrummed hard in my throat as the elite strode toward us.
These males had known my brother.
Romi hadn’t spoken about his work or his team in detail, but he’d mentioned them in passing and I’d latched on to the information, greedy for any nugget about his life when he was away from me.
