Gargoyle (Woodland Creek)(29)

“Just grab it!” I shouted.

He popped up and stood straight, lifting the strap of my red bag over his head to crisscross it over his body. I was back over his shoulder in a mere blink. Isaac hauled ass from my room again and threw the front door open to my apartment. Shifters were out in the hallway on their hands and knees shouting in pain. His feet stopped moving as he scanned the individuals. “That’s interesting.”

“You’re more powerful than they are. You know it,” I panted. I pounded on his back. “Get going!”

“Still interesting, though. You’re handling it much better than they are, too.”

I choked, sucking in oxygen. “It feels like my flesh in on fire. Go!”

“This is going to be a hell of a mess to explain to the press,” he growled under his breath. His Gargoyle snarled quietly. He looked left and right. “We just need to get outside.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled, my lids fluttering open and shut. “I may pass out soon.”

The Mayor hurdled over people on the floor, my stomach rising and falling to slam down on his shoulder. “I can fly us out of here.”

“Head for the stairs. The elevator is bound to be taken up right now,” I ordered. “We’ll have to go to the street. The only access to the roof in this building is a fire escape on the back end, and we don’t have time for that.” I grabbed my head…and screamed. The pain fluxed, my skin literally beginning to redden like a sunburn.

Isaac literally shoved the wailing shifters to the side, even stepping on them in the stairwell as they raced down the flights of stairs. When he bustled out of the front of my building. The streets were in pure pandemonium. Shifters raced down the streets, screaming, all fleeing the black fog that was only three blocks away now. My eyes widened at the sight as we were jostled from side-to-side in the stampede of people.

Isaac started tossing people left and right, fighting to get to the middle of the street. “Just hold on to me, Little One. I’ll get us out of here.”

I shrieked as we suddenly rose into the air at a sickening pace, the warm body under me suddenly silver and hard as stone. I watched with enormous eyes as his clothing fell to the street littered with shifters below us. My body rejected the motion, but I moved my arms and grabbed onto the strap of my red bag for fear of losing it. But it slowly dawned on me that Isaac had positioned it perfectly so that his wings could still carry us away without being hindered by the strap.

The black fog was only a block away. I was on the back of a Gargoyle. And I wanted it. My life had drastically changed. I hissed, “Fucking fly!”

I grunted as the Gargoyle dipped, air fluttering my hair against my cheeks, and then all of the oxygen rushed from my lungs as he flew hard. His wings beat the air forcefully, my body pressed down against his stone-hard frame with the force.

“We’ll be all right. Just don’t slip off me.” Isaac’s voice was rough—deeper and scarier than I had ever heard before. His solid arms tightened around my legs. “Got it?”

I wasn’t going anywhere, even if he thought I was. Though this was the ride from hell, like a nightmare roller coaster. With every flap of the Gargoyle’s wings, we would fly up...then down. My body lifting the barest bit off his solid frame before I would bash back down onto his flexing shoulder. And there was no cushion, each flap of his wings making my stomach smash into his body, knocking my breath out of me. And the rushing wind against us didn’t block the sounds of chaos and pain beneath us.

Higher…we flew higher.

I blinked as we turned, the sun seen only the barest bit before, now becoming more bright.

“We don’t have time for your curiosity,” I bellowed at the top of my lungs. “You need to f*cking fly.”

He grunted, his voice garbled, rough timbered. “Are you still in pain?”

I paused. I wiggled my shoulders and glanced at my arms, now normal colored. “Um…no.”

“Then we have time.” Another grunt. “We’re far enough away from the magic now.”

“What about your family? Are you sure they’re fine?” My eyes widened as the Gargoyle turned again. The ride truly became a nightmare. His wings flapped in hard thrusts, the ups and downs horrific, and the air inside me crushed out of my body for longer periods of time. And then…there were the Gargoyle roars. Constant. Almost a warning of sorts. I was pretty sure I saw silver vapors at one point, but it was too hard to tell with the wind now drying my eyes out completely.

Our descent, when it came, wasn’t as dreadful as I thought it was going to be. It was a smooth glide, instead of a nosedive. The sun disappeared when we glided through trees; nothing else was seen but leaves for a few moments, then the dawning sun was muted through the overhanging limbs.

I grunted, a short shriek actually passing my lips when my body jarred as we landed.

Okay, not so smooth.

Isaac’s arms were wrapped around me protectively as he laid me on the softest grass, ducking his Gargoyle head down when I continued to hold onto the strap of my bag. It slipped over his left wing and his head, the red bag thumping down beside me. I lay sucking oxygen on the gentle ground, staring up at him as he shifted back into human form. Then he was standing over me, in all his muscled, naked glory.

I started sucking in large gulps of air for a whole different reason.