Still, she really needed to finish unpacking and making it habitable; she couldn’t very well live out of boxes and eat ramen for every meal. There was just enough space for her bed, a small café table in the tiny kitchen, and a wall-mounted television. She was able to hook up her MP3 to some small speakers in order to play her music. She even had a few of her favorite books on the small nightstand; there was, a loveseat at the foot of her bed and she was absurdly content.
As she considered her small studio apartment, she had to smile: from its teeny-tiny kitchen to the miniscule bathroom with its little skylight and surprisingly large claw-foot tub, to the gorgeous French doors that led to the barely-there balcony while letting in the early morning sun, and the wardrobe that would hold as many clothes as she could stuff into it, the entire place was perfect. While she could definitely afford a bigger apartment, nothing could compare to the architecture of the building, the second selling point after the magnificent gargoyle on the roof.
It was like something from her imagination, with the intricate carvings of mythical creatures and enchanted forests adorning the cream-colored walls to the arched windows and gothic turrets giving it the feel of a fantastical medieval castle. It always amazed her that such an incredible work of art existed in the middle of city, so close to one of her parents’ candy stores; it amazed her even more that no one was even aware of the uniquely gorgeous building.
But the sun was setting and she had work to do. Besides, tomorrow was New Year’s Eve and she had a ton of things to get done before she went out with her friends to welcome in the New Year.
It was going to be a good year.
With one last look at her gargoyle, she slipped back inside, barely paying attention to the sumptuous apartment she had to pass through in order to get back to her room. It was perhaps a little odd that the door to her room on the fourteenth floor was the only one with a number on it but she didn’t dwell on the matter too much; she was living in the coolest building in St. Paul, probably the entire Midwest. She was okay being the odd girl out on the top floor; it was a role with which she was intimately familiar.
* * * * *
The last rays of the sun sank beneath the horizon, the winter sky darkening from purplish-pink to black. As the leonine gargoyle lowered his arms, they became flesh and blood; his wings receded and finally disappeared altogether. His elongated fangs shrank into straight, white teeth; his cat-like features melted and his human face emerged. The curl of his body straightened into that of a sleekly muscled man, no longer a hulking, stone beast.
He flexed his muscles and looked at his brothers, whose own human forms were stretching as well, comfortable in their nudity. The three of them shared similar facial structures, tall statures, and physically powerful builds. Broad shoulders, narrow waists, carved faces, carved bodies; after all, the three brothers were the stuff of myths and legends: gargoyles that protected the humans and the supernatural, keeping the two worlds separate even as they straddled the boundaries of both.
Rhys was laughing, his dark brown eyes sparkling, his light reddish-brown hair unbound and flowing to the small of his back. Black-haired Armand wore an ominous expression as his green eyes narrowed on golden-haired Vaughn. Vaughn clenched his jaw as his nostrils flared. “What?”
“The girl is a problem,” Armand said in his softest, deadliest voice; the tone that signified his fury. Pressing his lips into a thin line, he ground out, “She resisted the compulsion to leave and had she stayed another moment longer she would have seen us change. That is not acceptable, Vaughn.”
“I don’t know where she came from,” Vaughn shook his head in bemusement, still feeling her slender hands caressing his body; the pleasure she gave him. Reaching down, he stroked his cock, the hardened flesh still vibrating with the release she brought his stone body. It had been indescribable, nearly unbearable; he hadn’t known his stone body could feel so much pleasure.
“You nearly gave us away,” Armand continued, his voice lowering even more as he continued to glare at Vaughn. His eyes dropped to Vaughn’s midsection and he made a sound of disgust before returning his gaze back to Vaughn’s face.
Vaughn grunted his disbelief, “I’d like to see you try to resist a gorgeous girl handling your cock, especially during the day.”
Rhys laughed, his white teeth flashing in the city lights. “I wouldn’t mind in the least; it looked delightful. Geez, Vaughn, share the fucking wealth.”
A low growl emanated from the back of Armand’s throat and his green eyes flashed in warning.
“I didn’t invite her up here,” Vaughn protested, even though the feel of the brunette’s hands was burned into his flesh and her sweet, intoxicating scent still lingered in his nostrils. She didn’t seem to be suffering from any side effects of being so close to the magic that surrounded the building, that surrounded him. If she weren’t living in the building, he would have considered exploring the possibilities that existed with her but it was too dangerous to let her stay.
Unless, of course, she were under his protection. But it would be foolish to offer it to the stranger; he knew next to nothing about her.
He knew that she had somehow moved in the evening before. He had been guarding the skies, enjoying some solitude while his brothers patrolled the streets below. Some sounds filtered up to the roof from the supposedly empty apartment. Curious, he had investigated and was surprised to discover a human moving in.
It would have been better had he intervened at the time, discouraged her from moving in, but then he accidentally saw her through the sky light in her bathroom. She had been taking a bath and his breath had caught in his throat; she was exquisite. Her perfect breasts would fit in the palms of his hands; her slender waist curved into very feminine hips and her rich, chocolate brown hair flowed to the middle of her back. It was the same color as the hair between her slender thighs.
She had an innocence about her; she looked like the proverbial girl next door and not at all like the occasional human he fucked; women who wanted hot, sweaty sex and didn’t expect anything more than a night of mutual pleasure, who didn’t care that he would disappear before the sun came up. Hell, they didn’t care if they never saw him again.
Beneath the girl’s wholesomeness lurked a siren who seemed to defy the magic protecting their building; their living stone forms. He heard the bewilderment in her voice when she whispered in her smoky voice,
“Your expression.”
What had she seen when she brought him to his knees?
Melanie; her name was Melanie.
“We cannot have her kind sniffing around,” Armand ground out, interrupting his contemplations. “She is… too aware.”
“I’d like to know how she managed to rent a room here,” Rhys said, laughter in his voice. He never took anything seriously; Vaughn figured it was to make up for the fact that Armand took everything too seriously. “Especially one that is for a pixie, not a human.”
Vaughn shook his head, a slight smile on his face at the thought of the girl in such a tiny room; a room that had once been a closet before it was converted in a hurry when the small creature needed a place to stay. Humans – normal humans – avoided the castle, too uncomfortable with the amount of magic that the building emitted; it made them ill and the longer they stayed the worse they felt. What was wrong with this girl?
“She seems to be… drawn to you, Vaughn,” Armand scowled, a darkly pensive look on his chiseled face. Without giving Vaughn a chance to confirm or deny that statement, he glared, “Deal with it.”
“I will,” he replied through clenched teeth, the tendons of his neck straining as he struggled to control his irrational desire to punch his brother in his perfect face. In theory, he agreed whole-heartedly with Armand but in truth, he wanted the girl. It was illogical and dangerous and undeniable.
“Before anything happens, Vaughn,” Armand stated unnecessarily. “You know how dangerous our world can be for ill-prepared humans; she’s a child and she lacks all training. And then there are the imps.”
“Fucking imps,” Rhys breathed beneath his breath.
Vaughn’s nostrils flared but he held his tongue; his brother wasn’t saying anything that he didn’t already know. The girl was a problem that had to be dealt with immediately, no matter how badly he wanted to discover if she tasted as sweet as she smelled. “I said I would take care of her.”
Armand’s eyebrow shot up and his eyes narrowed to two dangerous slits, “Be sure that you do.”
With that, the black-haired, taciturn man walked through the door that led to the penthouse suite the three of them shared. The entire top floor was their home; they were a gargoyle triad and preferred to remain in close proximity to each other. The penthouse gave them enough space to keep them from killing one another but remain close. It shouldn’t be possible that a human was living on that floor with them. Why didn’t they convert the small room back to its original state after the little pixie left?
How was he going to get rid of her?
Rhys’s laughter filled the early night, echoing his own doubts. “Are you going to be able to get rid of her?”
“How difficult is it to take care of a single girl with too much imagination?” Vaughn asked, feeling the need to see her, knowing that it would be very unwise to do so. “I’ll give her tonight and then take care of it tomorrow.”
Rhys’s brows drew together, “Don’t you think it would be better to get rid of her tonight? At least, that would be what I am assuming Armand wants.”
With a rueful smile, Vaughn shrugged and semi-joked, “She seems so delighted to be here; I hate to take that away from her.”
Rhys laughed out right, clapping his brother on the back, “You’re hoping for another hand job tomorrow afternoon, aren’t you?” At Vaughn’s half smile, Rhys added, “But what if she chooses to share her favors with me or, God forbid, Armand? I think he would strangle her where she stood if she dared to touch him in his gargoyle form.”
“No doubt you’re right.” With a negligent shrug of his shoulders, he added, “And then I would have to retaliate and then you would throw yourself into it and it would turn into a brawl. The poor girl would be stuck in the middle of three stone beasts smashing their fists into each other’s faces. She’d be scarred for life.”
Rhys chuckled along with him, “So you have no intention of sharing?”
“I have no intention of partaking.” Vaughn let out a sigh as he looked down and saw the girl’s winter clothes sprawled haphazardly all over the ground. Squatting down, he began gathering up the colorful, mismatched clothing before he looked up and met his brother’s eyes, “She’s too dangerous. There is something about her and I think, given enough time, I would consider giving up my nights for her.”
“Don’t let Armand ever hear you say any such thing,” Rhys warned, his brown eyes sparkling even as his words were weighted with meaning. “He’d invoke the elders to keep you from doing something so foolish.”
“I know.” With the pile of clothes gathered in his arms, he followed Rhys back into their apartment suite, knowing what he had to do and not wanting to do it, despite Armand’s unnecessary warnings. With a slight frown, he looked at the hidden door that led to the roof, “How do you think she got up there?”
Rhys shook his head, his hair shifting with the motion, “I have no idea; are you thinking imps?”
Vaughn was shaking his head before Rhys even finished asking the question, “No; if it were imps, she would have been tied up, gagged and deposited in front of Armand. No, she found her own way up and perhaps we should be more concerned with who is divulging our secrets to humans.”
“I’ll look into that while you take care of the girl.” Rhys chuckled, “There’s no point getting Armand’s panties all in a knot because one of the nymphs is playing a joke on us.”
“All right.” Leaving Rhys at his room, Vaughn continued on past his own room, the living room, the kitchen, until he got to the front hall. Shifting the clothes, he opened the door into the large entry, which led to the elevators and the girl’s closet. Er, room.
