“Ultra-stinking. I knew it.” She sighed.

“Doona worry, Kat, I’ll pay you back for anything you need to buy for me.” And it was clear it bothered him that he was depending on her like this.

“It won’t be a big deal,” she assured him. “I have a small little nest egg and I do medical transcription to keep solvent.” She paused, fidgeting a little. “It’s something I can do it at home at any time. With technology I just send things over encrypted emails and voilà! Paycheck without sun exposure.” She quieted and said, “You know, I don’t hate my life. I don’t want you to think that I do.”

“I dinna think that. But I do think you miss your work wi’ patients. You’ve too much of a knack for it.”

“Sometimes I do. But not all that much. Like I said, I’m happy. I don’t miss getting yelled at or puked on, that’s for sure.”

“I canna imagine why.”

She laughed at that. Then another moment of silence ticked by. “Did you try to kill your forger?”

He sighed. “No, lass. Though I wish I could sometimes, I canna do so. Circumstances have put the bastard right within my reach but have also made it so I canna have satisfaction. He’s a powerful man and my Pharaoh needs him tae help fight an even more powerful evil. I doona want tae get into it because the less you know the better you’ll feel.”

“Ignorance is bliss? I don’t know if I agree to that. I think I’d rather know. Hey, what do you make of the ghost-girl Bella?”

“I doona know, lass. As far as I could see you were writing tae yourself.”

“How strange. So am I like psychic or some—hey!” She smacked his hand when he made a grab for her breasts. Or rather the pendant between her breasts. “Oh. Sorry,” she said, realizing she’d judged the worst of him.

“ ’Tis the pendant,” he said sharply. “I’ll bet it has something tae do wi’ it!”

“Hey, how come you could touch it now and nothing happened?”

He thought on it a second. “Because I wasna trying tae take it off you?”

“Let’s not try and find out, shall we?”

“No. Let’s no’ ” He fingered the cold metal slowly. “How do we know the spirit is no’ malevolent?”

“Oh please,” Kat scoffed. “She drew a little heart in the snow. She’s as malevolent as cotton candy.”

“Even cotton candy can cause something rotten. A cavity. A bad bellyache. There’s two sides tae every coin.”

“Well, she didn’t feel bad. But I’ll be careful, okay?”

“Telling the spirit where we’ll be next is no’ being careful,” he pointed out.

“I suppose not. But I just have a feeling about this.” She looked at him. “Just like I have a feeling you’re not bad either. I was a little scared at first, but … something just told me not to be afraid of you.”

“Oh aye, was that before or after I tried tae strangle you in your own bed?”

“Both,” she said with a stubborn lift of her chin. “I know you’re not responsible for that. You were hurt and you were having a nightmare. It was a stupid thing to do. And I could tell you some stories about violence from otherwise perfectly mundane people. People I knew to be harmless coming in injured and behaving like demons had caught hold of them. Injury does funny things to a body. Even more so, I imagine, when that body has been so long without its succor. Are you going to tell me how long you have before permanent being?”

“I promise, I doona know. There’s been times when only two days have passed and I feel in danger of it. And then times when a week has passed and I’ll only just be starting to get symptoms.”

“What are the symptoms? Besides turning to stone involuntarily. I got that much.”

“Madness,” he said grimly. “Nightmares. One leads into the other. Weakness. I start tae get run down. I’m stronger in stone skin, strongest in Gargoyle form. The more I stay flesh the more energy I burn. That’s why I keep eating so much. Speaking of which, I’m powerfully hungry. And no, you canna go get food. We’ve a li’le over half an hour yet.” He paused a beat. “There’s one other thing. We start tae … Gargoyles are part beast. As we weaken the beast comes out more and more. And the beast is usually … in heat. We become voraciously sexual. Gargoyles are lusty to begin wi’, but …”

He trailed off because there was nothing left to say. The implication was clear.

“I admit, I had noticed that,” she said, a warm flush creeping over her face in spite of the chill in the room. She wriggled one hand out of the blanket cocoon and touched it against his face. “Is that why you feel feverish? I thought it was an infection.”

“Aye. But make no mistake,” he said, burrowing his face gently into her hair, “I’d want you as powerfully even in my sane mind.”

How had he known that was exactly what she’d been thinking? That she had felt a sinking feeling in her gut thinking that his desire for her was nothing but a matter of Gargoyle madness and circumstance. When had it become so important to her to know that he wanted her? And why was it that the simple act of feeling his face and breath against her neck gave her a thrill of pleasure equal to the moments he had cradled her breast in his hand.

“If no’ for you, my pretty Kat lass, I wouldna’ be sane right now. The wound would have been a constant drain on my energy. The stone skin constantly trying to take me over … and likely succeeding. And while it might have helped heal the wound, as you see, it risks permanent being.”

“You’re fighting it constantly, aren’t you?”

He hesitated in his answer, but that in itself was an answer. He remained silent and she bit her lip. She was incredibly worried for him. Afraid they wouldn’t get him to his touchstone in time.

“What if you turn to a statue on the plane or somewhere in public? Won’t people find out about you?”

“No. We feel it coming on soon enough that we find a hidden place for it. Then if someone happens upon us they think they’ve found a mysteriously appearing stone statue. We doona look human at all. I fear it will frighten you when you see it. And as for the plane, it’s controlled and flown by Bodywalkers or humans who know what we are. It willna matter then.”