Stone Destiny (Stone Passion #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

2
     
    Assessing the Situation
     

     
    Wearing a robe, Armand stood in the doorway watching Ferris as she sorted through her brushes and got her supplies in order. She was oblivious to his presence and he took the opportunity to just study her. Without being aware of it she had turned into a beautiful woman, with rich, coffee colored hair and luminescent skin, with exotic, clear turquoise eyes and full, blush stained lips. She had grown into her gangly body at some point, developing some very nice curves.
    He knew he shouldn’t be noticing such things about her but he was still a man and Ferris was a very attractive female. He wondered why she didn’t have a horde of men trailing after her. But of course, he knew part of the reason – she had been labeled a freak in her childhood. It infuriated him that anyone could look at Ferris and not realize how amazing she was, how funny she could be, how bitingly intelligent. Humans were so petty.
    When he had first met her she was an almost-six-year-old moppet who talked and talked and talked. She would climb onto his lap while he was in his gargoyle form and tell him the minute details of her day, jumping from one topic to another in a disjointed narrative. When the sun fell and he became man once more, she would follow him around the house, continuing her stories as if she was aware that the man and the gargoyle were one and the same. Perhaps she did know, even then. She had been a child and a miniature replica of Melanie, whose abrupt appearance in their lives had changed everything.
    He was still debating whether or not it was for the better.
    For months the young Ferris had chattered endlessly and no matter how diligently he ignored her, how many times he glowered at her, she just continued chattering. And then one day, he talked back and her eyes lit up, making her charming smile even sweeter. Upon pain of death he would never admit that the little girl had stolen his heart so he only smiled and conversed freely with her when the others weren’t around.
    It wasn’t until she hit eighth grade that she exclusively sought him out and that had more to do with avoiding her mother than a desire to be with him. He knew that she loved her mom very much. It was the reason she hid from Jenna when she got home from school – she didn’t want her mom to see how miserable she was and she needed that time to get her rampaging emotions under control. He discovered he would say the most absurd things just to make her smile because Ferris was the type of girl who should always be smiling.
    The two of them enjoyed a rather peculiar friendship.
    He had always enjoyed watching her. She had an aura that surrounded her that was brighter than the sun and just as warm. When he was with her he almost felt like a real person, not this creature encased in ice that he had become. If she hadn’t been around to bring warmth to his frozen soul he surely would have self-destructed years ago.
    Watching her now he felt as if he could breathe for the first time in years, ever since the veil was lifted and he no longer had to protect humans from the truth of the reality around them. Without being able to bury himself in the role of Guardian he no longer knew who he was and it was becoming increasingly difficult to pretend he knew what the hell he was doing. As the world around him rampaged widely out of control, Ferris remained his haven within the storm.
    She glanced up and saw him there, her brilliant smile curving her lips and her eyes lighting up as they met his. Stepping out from behind her easel, she walked towards him, holding her hands out to him. The shorts she wore emphasized her long, slender legs and the tank top clung to her curves like a second skin and he had to remind himself that she was Ferris, his sweet, little Ferris. “Armand, I wasn’t sure if you were going to come.”
    “I promised,” he said, taking her delicate hands in his and bringing them up to his lips. Kissing her