Chapter 10
Ten
Cairn
Georgie kissed me.
For one stunned heartbeat, I did nothing. Her lips pressed against mine, warm and soft, carrying the faint taste of chocolate and blood. Her fingers tightened at the back of my neck when I failed to respond.
The first time Georgie had looked at me, she had seen a statue. An interesting piece of stone shaped by a skilled craftsman. Now she was holding me as if she had forgotten I had ever been anything other than alive.
As if she wanted me.
And thanks to her, I was alive. No longer turning to stone. Gharrgoil once more.
“Georgie,” I breathed, because her name was the only word left in my mind.
“If you ask whether I’m sure, I might change my mind.”
I slid one hand into her hair and kissed her. She was so soft. Her hair, her skin, her entire body. After so long without touching another being, I was drowning in her.
Her cheek burned beneath my palm. I felt the frantic beat of her pulse under my thumb, far faster than it had been while I drank from her wrist. The knowledge that I had caused it sent a shudder through me.
I had spent centuries without sensation. Now there was too much of it. Her breath against my face. Her body leaning into mine. The small sound she made when I tilted her head and deepened the kiss.
Her lips parted, and the last of my restraint crumbled.
I tasted her slowly at first, wary of my fangs. Georgie showed no such caution. Her tongue met mine, and her nails scraped over my scalp as she pulled me closer.
A growl tore from my chest.
She shivered against me.
That nearly ended me. I wanted to push her down and take her right here, right now. Turn her into my mate once and for all.
Her thighs pressed against my hips, surrounding me with heat. My wings snapped open behind us, knocking a cushion onto the floor.
Georgie’s hands moved over my shoulders and down my chest. She explored every ridge of muscle and stone as if she needed to convince herself I was real. Wherever she touched, my skin seemed to awaken for the first time.
I had believed drinking her blood had brought me back to life.
I had been wrong.
This was what living felt like.
My fangs grazed her lower lip. I pulled back immediately, fighting for control.
Georgie followed, her eyes dark and her cheeks flushed. “Why did you stop?”
“I could hurt you.”
“You could,” she agreed. “But you didn’t.”
“There is still blood in your mouth.”
“There’s blood in yours too.”
The scent filled every breath. Hunger stirred inside me again, changed now into something hotter and far less innocent.
“Tell me if I hurt you,” I said.
“You’ll know.”
“How?”
She glanced at the cushion on the floor. “I’ll hit you with that.”
“That threat might be more convincing if you had not dropped your weapon.”
She kissed me again before I could say anything else.
We merged into a mess of passionate breaths, whispers, touches. I drank it all in. Committed it to memory. And with every gentle swipe of her tongue, some of the bad memories were pushed away. She was healing me and she didn't even know the effect she was having on me.
When we finally broke apart, her cheeks were flushed and her breathing came in short, ragged bursts. A few small bloodstains surrounded her lips.
“Wow,” she gasped. “Do all gharrgoils kiss like that?”
I laughed. “I couldn't say. I've never kissed another male gharrgoil before. But I promise you that this was only a taste of what I can offer you.”
Her gaze flicked to my lap before she could control herself. I suppressed a satisfied smile. She wanted me. I felt it, could smell her arousal.
“I don't usually move this fast,” she admitted. “A peck on the cheek after the first date, at most. Not... this.”
I did not want to imagine her meeting other males. I had not even considered that she might have a partner already. Humans didn't mate for life. They tried, but it wasn't the same. But she wouldn't have kissed me like this if she had a mate already. She wouldn't. Right?
“Georgie,” I began slowly. “I have to ask. Is there another male in your life already? Or a female? Or a-”
“Stop. No. There isn't. Not anymore. And I've been far too busy for dating recently. It's just me and the fish.”
“The fish?”
“I have two carp in the pond behind the house. It used to be more, but they were taken by seagulls. Siegfried and Isolde. After the Wagner opera. But I suppose you don't know about any of that.”
I stroked her hair again. “No. I don't know.
But I would like you to teach me. I have been watching humans for longer than I would like to recall, but they never stopped to explain what they were doing.
Many things didn't make sense. And sometimes, I would fall asleep and not wake for several rotations. By then, things had changed. New people had moved into the castle. Technology had evolved. And then, after a long time, the tourists started coming.”
Georgie laughed. “The way you just said that makes me think you're not a fan of tourists.”
“They never stayed. They come, they take pictures, they leave.
Many never even looked up. I'd hear fragments of their conversations, but I didn't have any context.
Before, when people lived in the castle, I'd get to know them.
I'd know who they were gossiping about. It was less boring than what the tourists would talk about.”
“You must have witnessed much from up there. Kings and queens. Battles. And wasn't the castle a garrison at some point?”
“For many rotations. The soldiers were fun to watch. They were so feeble with their little weapons. None of them could fly. They did not practice gouging others with their horns and fangs. But I liked the uniforms. Especially the colourful skirts.”
“Kilts.”
“I know. I was joking.”
Georgie laughed. “Sometimes it is hard to tell.”
She snuggled into my chest. “I'm getting tired. And hungry. What do gharrgoils eat? Please don't tell me you eat rocks.”
“Diamonds,” I said deadpan.
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
I laughed. “No. Just because I turned to stone doesn't mean I eat it. We eat meat, plants, processed nutrients. I would describe my favourite dishes to you, but they wouldn't make sense since you don't know any of the ingredients.”
One day, I would love to cook for you in my roost back home on Spiris.
I didn't say it out loud. I was scared she might recoil when I spoke of the future - our future.
She'd said she was used to taking it slow.
I had to respect that, even though my cock was hard underneath my battle wrap and my fangs hurt with the need to bite her again.
“I could cook for you, but the fridge is pretty empty. I'd planned to go shopping after work. How about a takeaway?”
“Takeaway? What are we taking away?”
“Calories.” She laughed. “It's what we call when we buy a meal to either take home or have it delivered to our door.
It's usually unhealthy food, but delicious.
We don't have a lot of choice here in the village, and I don't have my car to pick up something from further afield.
You've got the choice between Chinese and Indian.”
“Which one is your favourite?”
“The Indian place makes an amazing saag paneer. And their peshwari naan is to die for.”
“Then I shall be excited to try this food, even though the words mean nothing to me.”
One Earth hour later, we were sitting at the table with about a hundred different tubs, boxes and plates. Georgie had wanted to introduce me to all her favourite foods at once. It was adorable.
The different scents tickled my nose and made my stomach growl.
The only food I had eaten since waking had been a biscuit at the dating agency's office.
And the hot chocolate - that had been so thick and rich that it should count as food rather than a drink.
But before that, my last meal had been on board my ship.
Sten had cooked - a word used loosely as he'd simply instructed the food processor - and we'd sat together, laughing, telling stories, preparing for the mission ahead.
It had been such an ordinary meal. If I'd known that it was to be the last time I’d be around a table with my best friends, I would have...
No. I didn't think I would have changed anything. And there had been no way of knowing that the ship was about to crash.
“You've gone very quiet,” Georgie said softly. “What's wrong?”
She was so perceptive. I considered deflecting, but I would have to tell her about my friends eventually.
“I was just thinking of the last meal I had before I crashed onto your planet.
We were on a diplomatic mission to deliver a message in person to the planetary government of Cyprien-9.
We'd been at war with them for half a generation, but peace was finally in sight. To show our commitment to the peace process, our leaders sent us with a gift. It was supposed to be a simple mission. Fly there, deliver our cargo, take back anything they wanted to give us in return, and get paid handsomely.”
“What happened?”
“My memory is somewhat foggy. There was an issue with the board computer.
I'd disabled the autopilot to run an update, but then everything went wrong.
We were on a collision course with a planet I'd never even heard of.
The door wouldn't open, so we couldn't leave the bridge, couldn't get the protective suits we needed to survive in hostile environments. I managed to get us all to the escape pods, but...”
Georgie put her hand on mine without saying anything. I appreciated her quiet attention as I fumbled for words.
“Sten and Hallr were ejected from the ship, but Sten was injured.
He was barely conscious. Hallr was bleeding, but it didn't seem to be too bad. I was the last one to leave. I was in charge of the ship. I should have prevented this. I should have looked after my crew, my friends. Instead, I killed them.”
A bitter taste filled my mouth. I balled my hands into fists. I wanted to throw something, shout, fly off into the night. But my mate was here and I owed it to her to be the best gharrgoil I could be.
“What happened to them, your friends?”
“I assume they were killed. I never let myself think of their fate. Not in all the rotations I sat on that wall. It was too painful. They were either dead or trapped in their own bodies like myself. I'm not sure what would be worse.”
“But you survived. And now you're awake. Is there any chance that they might still be out there, hidden in plain sight as statues or grotesques?”
I wrapped my tail around my leg to keep it from bashing the floor.
“What are the chances? It was a small miracle that the human found me and put me onto the castle wall.
If he had left me where I'd crashed, I may have been destroyed by locals or simply fallen over, becoming one with the mud, cursed to forever stare into darkness, unable to die, unable to live. I would not wish that fate on my worst enemy.”
“It sounds horrible,” she whispered. “I don't think I quite understood how awful it must have been to be frozen in place for so long. I can't even imagine it. Hundreds of years. Even just sitting in place for a day would be boring. You did it for...”
“Too long.” I sighed deeply. “I don't want to ever be put in that position again. If I get petrified one more time... I don't know what I would do. Anything but endure it again.”
“I will make sure that won't happen. You'll stay close to me.
We'll figure out just how far away you can be from me. And if you need my blood again...” She licked her lips.
“It actually felt really good. It's strange to think of it now, and I probably shouldn't crave to repeat that experience, but I do.”
Oh how I yearned to taste her sweet blood again.
But I wouldn't, not unless I absolutely had to.
It was wrong. I couldn't exploit her like this.
I had burst into her life, had disrupted her work, was going to sleep in her dwelling and eat her food.
I wasn't going to take more from her, especially not her blood.
Georgie squeezed my hand again. “If you want...
This may be a silly idea - it might be hopeless, as you said - but I could search the records for other statues made from the same stone as you.
The Guardian was always seen as special because he was not built from the same sandstone as the rest of Stirling Castle.
Through my work, I have access to the databases that list all historic monuments in Scotland. It's worth a try, right?”
I wasn't sure what to say. I didn't want to raise my hopes only to have them shattered again.
“Even if you were to find them,” I said eventually, “How would we wake them?
I needed your touch. My mate's touch. The chances of that happening were too small to even begin to calculate. With all the planets in the universe, I happened to crash-land on the one that my mate was going to be born on hundreds of rotations later. What are the chances of the same thing happening for Sten and Hallr?”
“You know more about this mates business than me.
But could it be that we're mates-” She swallowed hard, as if it had been difficult to use that word.
“Because you were on Earth? Surely whoever decides who is mate to whom wouldn't just choose someone you never had a chance to encounter throughout your life.
That wouldn't make sense. Nobody would ever find their partners.”
My head was spinning. Maybe she was right. Maybe Hallr and Sten were still out there. And maybe we could find their mates to wake them.
“We shall call the dating agency tomorrow morning,” I announced. “But now, we shall eat.”