Page 6 of Taken for Granite
A figure moved into the light, so massive that Juniper couldn’t believe it ever fit into that wooden crate.
Its skin was a dark gray, almost like granite, that did not seem to absorb the light. Her eyes slid off of him, as if the light bent around him. His ears were slightly elongated. Spikes sat on its head like a crown, the two in the back taller than ones in front. It took her an embarrassingly long moment to realize the spikey crown was horns. The creature had horns. Something moved behind him, sinuous and winding.
A tail. Her mind took a moment to process that the creature had a tail.
It snatched the bottle of water and ripped off the cap. As he guzzled the contents, wings stretched out behind him, filling the back of the van with the pure menace of his physical presence.
Her eyes took all of him in and realized at once that the creature was ahimand he had a very large, angry-looking hard-on. Half obscured by shadows but pointing directly at her, his cock was dark gray at the base and a vivid pink at the head.
Juniper took another step back.
He launched himself out of the van, knocking her to the ground before she had time to scream. Bits of stone dug into her back.
His weight had her pinned. She struggled to ignore the erection pressing into her stomach. She didn’t move. Barely breathed. She didn’t want to feel it—or for him to get any ideas.
Oh god. A gargoyle with an erection sat on top of her. If she weren’t terrified, she’d be squealing with delight about living out one of her earliest fantasies. The aloof hero of that gargoyle cartoon gave her younger selffeelings, all right? It was a crush. It was normal.
This was normal.
Dull gray eyes with a purple sheen stared down at her. She felt as if he was inspecting her but not seeing her. The gargoyle leaned in, sniffing her hair and giving a shake of his head, his top lip curled back as if in disgust.
Her breath hitched at the sight of his sharp, very pointy fangs. Panic flooded her mind. Why had she opened that van door? The gargoyle would eat her. Consume her. Tear her apart.
His hand covered her throat. Rather than squeeze, the thumb brushed her skin. Her hips twitched, unable to stop herself.
His body moved stiffly, as if touching her revolted him, sure, but that wouldn’t stop him from having a quick snack. She needed to give him something else to snack on.
She wiggled her right hand, still clutching the candy bar. “You like chocolate?”
His head tilted. Hope surged in her chest. Maybe gargoyles did like chocolate.
He snatched the candy bar, claws raking the back of her hand, leaving burning welts, and roared in her face, breath hot and wild.
With a push of his massive legs, he leaped away.
3
Juniper
Agargoyle.
A fucking gargoyle.
Juniper pulled herself into the cabin of the van and sat in stunned silence. A gargoyle—she still couldn’t wrap her mind around that—jumped out of the back of the company van and tackled her.
Her hand drifted down to her stomach, finding the fabric damp but she couldn’t think about that right now.
What would she tell Mickey? The gargoyle was gone. She broke the rules. She stopped and she looked in the back.
Maybe the gargoyle broke free and then came through the back? She twisted in the seat. The barrier that separated the cabin from the cargo was only thin plywood painted black. It did nothing except prevent the driver from seeing the cargo.
She pushed at the plywood and it rattled, loosely held in place with screws. Maybe she could knock a hole in with a sledgehammer but not with her bare hands.
Could she just park the van in the back of the diner and sneak away? Risky. She looked a mess with her scraped hands and tousled hair.
Shit. Her hand hurt. The gargoyle’s claws had caught her good and etched four lines into the back of her hand. The welts now beaded with blood. She dug into her purse for a pack of tissues and dabbed at the skin, assessing the damage. Thankfully, the gouges were shallow and wouldn’t need stitches. What if it got infected from gargoyle bacteria? What if getting scratched from a gargoyle was like getting bitten by a werewolf?
Because these were average, everyday things that people worried about. More importantly, was this a worker’s comp claim?
