"Yes, I love you," Jennifer said.
Demona paused in the doorway, and then slowly came back into the room. "That changes things," she said.
Jennifer knew that Demona was powerful enough to stop her from doing anything she didn't want, but still she searched Demona's face for consent as she reached up and unclasped the necklace from around Demona's neck.
She tasted Iron and Seawater in her mouth, and felt the reality of the room bend and warp around her. She could have sworn for the blink of an eye her feet stood upon the ceiling but she couldn't have looked away from Demona's amber eyes to check. Suddenly it wasn't a woman before her, but the blue skinned creatures she'd seen that evening.
A drop of red blood formed in Demona's nostril and Jenny felt her inhale sharply.
"It hurts?" Jenny asked. Demona looked away and appeared to be trying to deflect away from the question. "Please tell me the truth," she pressed.
"It's agony. But only for the blink of an eye."
"Then why do it?"
"So I can live in peace. I had the curse of humanity put inside this jewel, and the pain is the price I pay for freedom. Anonymity. Peace."
"Oh Demona." Jenny reached out and cradled her cheek."I'm so sorry." Demona covered Jenny's hand with her claws. Her hands were hard, her nails like smooth stone against the woman's skin.
"I was angry for such a long time, Jennifer. I hated humans. I thought I was the last of the gargoyles. But I found out I wasn't. We were alive all over the world. I have a daughter too."
"You do?"
"Her name is Angela. She's good and kind, but I didn't know how to be a good mother and we don't speak. I decided one day to stop fighting and hide. I'm immortal, but I was never good. I came to try and help you and Matilda because I wanted to try and do something good."
Jennifer took Demona's great clawed hands and held them inside her small ones.
"What if you didn't have to hide? From me and Matilda at least? What if you put the jewel away and lived as yourself with us?"
Demona studied the woman standing before her. Her shiny brown hair and cream sweater. She looked so innocent and untouched, but no.
That wasn't true.
Jennifer had survived abuse at the hands of her cruel aunt, and yet she was open and loving and kind. Jennifer might show her how to be kind after so many years of being cruel. Sixty or seventy years would pass in the blink of an eye to Demona who'd already passed over a thousand, and then Jennifer Honey would die, and Demona would remember her for another thousand years.
This calculation ran through Demona's head as quickly and the transformation from human to gargoyle. It was the same amount of time it took her to realize that Jenny had fallen in love with her. She forced her natural pessimism down before it could object and said 'lets try.'
Jennifer kissed her, and Demona picked her up and wrapped her in her wings.
-/-
Jennifer knocked on Matilda's door. The girl opened it, her eyes wide. Jenny cleared her throat.
"Matilda, Demona and I have made up. She's going to keep living with us if you don't mind. But she's not human. She's a gargoyle. Would you like to come down and see her?"
Matilda had seen her fair share of the fantastical already, and she took about two minutes to accept Demona's blue winged form. She did have a lot of questions.
"What does it feel like to turn into stone"
(like sleeping)
"What other magical creatures live in the world?"
(almost all of the ones you've heard of)
"Can you fly?"
(No, only glide)
They put Matilda to bed an hour later than usual and then lay on the top of Jennifer's Duvet with the woman inside Demona's wing and her head on her bicep, she fell asleep. Jennifer picked her up and placed her under the covers.
-/-
Jennifer woke. Alone.
"Demona? Are you there?"
"Yes I'm here."
"Come and kiss me."
She felt the gargoyle come into the room, and her lips, just as soft as a humans meet hers. She pulled Demona under the duvet and felt the lips kiss her neck, her wrists, the swell of her breasts, her lower belly and thighs. She felt Demona's hesitancy as the sharpness of her fangs and claws scrape but not break her skin, the suggestion of pain and the anticipation of pleasure was excruciating.
"You won't hurt me. You feel amazing,"
"Let me be careful, love." Demona said, and kept kissing her feather softly. Jennifer moaned in frustration, wanting her lover to press her skin. The hunger built in her and she tried to sate it by running her hands from the human to the inhuman. The hardness of her lover's arms, delicate paper of her wings, her sharp collarbones, soft breasts, tiny horns. Demona set her nerves on fire as she kissed her and kissed her and kissed her.
Finally Demona pressed her mouth into heat between her legs. Jennifer tangled her hands in her lover's hair, feeling Demonas pointed ears, her sharp teeth gently being dragged across the skin of her sex, as she came up for air, before buring her face once more and pushing Jennifer over the edge. When she came it felt a heavy stone being dropped in a still pond and the ripples coursed out through her body.
When she'd caught her breath she tasted Demona as well, and felt her lover's tail wrap around her waist as she stifled deep moans.
"I love you too, Jennifer honey."
They exhausted each other and once again, Jennifer lay inside Demona's wing with her head on the gargoyle's bicep and fell asleep.
She woke just before dawn and was surprised to find Demona hadn't moved.
"You stayed with me?"
"I was about to get up. The sun is coming, I will change soon."
"Where would you like to be for the day?"
"Outside."
"I'll come and watch the dawn with you," Jenny said.
They took the duvet out to the garden and stood and watched the sky turn from black to a watery blue. Demona could even watch the first rays of the sun turn the top of the house orange before she turned to Jenny and said, "see you tonight, lover."
And that is how they spend their mornings, every day. Even now.
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