Page 18 of Gaming with the Gargoyle in Hallow's Cove

It really shouldn’t, and now I have potentially doomed our baby to our same fate, should Gwen die early. Fuck, even thinking about that makes me want to growl and attack something. I’m going to have to make sure my little thief is very careful and very healthy.

“So how come it did?”

I close my eyes, shaking my head. “I don’t know. I mean… part of it is proximity, just being around the person a lot. Breathing their scent, being close to them. I… guess I am around Gwen a lot. But a lot of it is sex and we’ve only ever had sex twice!”

Biting his lip Brooks shakes his head. “I don’t know man… have you jerked off while thinking about her? Maybe that plays into it?”

Blood rushes from my face because… yeah. I have. I basically always think about Gwen when I masturbate.

“Fuck.”

“Aha!” he says, smiling wide. “See Gabe, when you open up to me, we get results! Remember this next time, asshole.” With his arms behind his head, he sits back again. “Now, you said you think you’re bonded. What happened to make you think that and how will you know for sure?”

“I uh… penetrated her uterus.”

“You what? Like in some kinky hentai shit? How?”

“It’s just a thing we do. My mom wasn’t super clear on it…”

“You don’t know? Come on, move your ass, we are finding out.” He stands and walks out of the kitchen, knowing I will follow. I tip-toe down the hall, because I know Sydney and the baby are sleeping.

“What are we doing?” I whisper.

“Syd has the internet in her office.”

I’ll never get over how people here talk about the internet or cell phones. I mean, I talked the same way when I first left for school, but it’s always “the internet” or “on the line.”

I’ve been in Sydney’s office a few times, mostly when she’s got a new print up that Brooks wants to show me, but it is pretty funny to see him take off his cowboy hat and set it down on her immaculate desk. He pecks at the keyboard, and frankly, it’s painful to watch. My ears are assailed by the sound of robots dying—or perhaps fucking—as it connects.

“Dial up? You have dial up?”

“Um, yeah? Is there another option?”

“Satellite?”

“Eh, we don’t need it.” He types in a search and it takes way too fucking long. By the time we get answers the sun will be up and then we will know for sure.

“Okay, let's see here… Gargoyle porn, How to Land a Gargoyle, Can you have sex with a Gargoyle in Stone Form… Aha, here we go: Gargoyle Penile Changes During Bonding.”

After clicking, the page takes another million years to load, until finally it rolls down the page. I lean in, scanning the tiny text. It’s honestly kind of embarrassing how little I know about this, but it never seemed relevant before.

Mated Gargoyle males have increased fertility changes via in-utero insemination. When a bond has fully matured, the male’s penile tissues develop a secondary tube, called a cannula, that extrudes from the central shaft, extending the urethra so that it may penetrate the cervix and deposit sperm directly into the female uterus. If they have a male partner, it depends on the species of their partner. In the cases of male/male gargoyle relationships, one male usually grows a uterus over time and the other grows a cannula…

“Whoa.” Brooks says.

“Yeah.”

“You’re gonna be better at making babies than me!”

“Guess so.” It aligns with what I felt, but now I am so sure I’m fucked.

“Do you wanna test the sunlight thing?”

It is one potential perk of all this… and it wouldn’t be the first time I got stuck at Brooks’s during the day if it goes wrong. He usually loads me onto a tractor with a forklift and brings me home if it does.

“That’s probably not a bad idea… Damn, what am I going to tell Gwen?”

Brooks stops short on his way out of the office and I bump into him. “Damn. What are you going to tell Gwen? Because she thinks it’s just for the baby?”