Page 22 of Taken for Granite
“Sorry.” Juniper climbed into the bed. “Listen, I’ve reached my maximum bandwidth for the day. I need to sleep, but I think there’s enough room in the bed for both of us.”
“I will remain here,” he said, not moving from the chair.
“You look like hell, man. Sleep in the bed.”
“I am not a man, and I have slept on a concrete floor for years. One night in a chair will not harm me,” he said in a cool tone.
Right. Touchy gargoyle, easily offended. “Was it me calling you a man?”
“I am not British, and I amnota man.”
So it was her calling him a man. “What are you then? I mean, how do you want me to refer to you?”
“I am a Khargal, from the planet Duras.” He delivered the information with a regal weight.
“Not England,” Juniper said, unable to smirk at the grumpy gargoyle—er, Khargal.
“I believe you said you intended to sleep, not chit-chat all night.”
She switched off the light, still smirking at her roommate’s grumpiness.
* * *
tas
The female left at first light, announcing that she had “a few things to sort out” and then had the nerve to command him to stay.
Tas only took orders from his captain, and he didn’t even do that anymore as the captain died a thousand years ago.
Presumptuous human.
He calmed himself and tried to slip into the shallowest level ofduramna, the stone form that mimicked sleep and would allow his body to heal some of the damage. His skin would harden into stone and he would resemble, on some level, a statue, but he would retain some level of consciousness. The deepest levels ofduramnawere closer to hibernation and it grew increasingly difficult to wake from that state. Tas had once spent a century like that, hibernating atop a cathedral in London. He would need to achieve that level to completely heal, but at the moment all he wanted was a little rest.
He opened a window, letting the pheromone-free air lull him into a meditative state. He imagined his skin growing harder, fossilizing, becoming inflexible and dense. He had not needed such a trick since he was a fledgling but even with the tricks,duramnaremained elusive. His mind refused to rest and continued to turn over the question that she might be a Syndicate agent.
Juniper, if that was her real name.
She had no capacity for fiction. Her reactions to him, to the slaughter they discovered, to Rhododendron’s call, had been too visceral. Too real. She could not fake the nervous flutter of her heart when he growled at her or the gasp of surprise when he revealed himself unless she was a superb actress.
He would not put it past the Syndicate to send a skilled actress his way, ready to lead him down a primrose path. Like the gin derived from her namesake, he was drunk on the scent of her. How gladly he would follow.
How could the Syndicate guarantee Juniper would have that effect on him? They had tried for years—decades—to entice him to mate. He refused on principle because he was not livestock to be bred, but refusal was easy when his mating gland did not respond to the females. The Syndicate remained unaware of the ins-and-outs of Khargal mating.
Was it just coincidence that their agent triggered this reaction in him? How extraordinarily foolish he would be to give over to his physical demands and give this vital information away to the enemy.
Unless she was innocent.
He believed she was, but he had no basis for that belief.
Too many coincidences stacked against her. The crate was poorly constructed and was moved from the dockyards in a vehicle driven by a single, unarmed female, depositing him at an isolated location, the perfect place for an injured Khargal to hide and wait. A tearful female appeals to his sense of honor with a story about an abducted youngling. The discovery of the bodies. Rhododendron’s threatening call.
All these coincidences pointed to a trap. Rhododendron wanted Tas to escape and then to willfully surrender himself. Why? Simple cruelty. Because she could pull his strings like a marionette and she wanted him to know that.
Reason said not to trust Juniper.
Experience warned him against it.
His gut wanted to believe her.
