by Jamie Hawke
“No need for assumptions,” Kordelia said, and then pushed her half-eaten sandwich away. Apparently, she wasn’t as into my ‘cooking’ as I was. The other two had devoured theirs. “We need to be sure of what happened. Go back and see…”
All eyes went to me.
“I’m not sure I can go back,” I admitted. “Or if it would be smart. It was getting pretty crazy in there.”
“We know,” Ebrill said. “We were turned to stone.”
“But we need to know what the enemy is up to,” Kordelia chimed in. “And this might be the best way.”
“Or be pointless.” I turned to Steph, hoping she would take my side on it, but she pursed her lips, looking to the window.
“Night will be over soon,” Steph pointed out. “We might want to take the opportunity while we have these two here to help guard, and to break you from your sleep, if needed.”
“Shit.” I held up the Liahona, frowning. “We’re sure we even want to open it?”
The stares from Ebrill and Kordelia were answer enough. I sighed, nodded, and followed them back to the bedroom.
“I just woke up,” I pointed out.
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Ebrill stepped up to my side, lowered me to the bed and then whispered, “Gorffwys.”
Only, nothing happened.
“Huh,” Steph said, scratching her arm. “Maybe he’s growing strong against it?”
“Might be my transmutation,” I admitted. “Haven’t exactly learned to master it, and before I knew it was magic, this kind of thing would happen. More with sickness and stuff, but I could see how a sleep spell might be something my subconscious pushes back against.”
“Well, shit.” Steph eyed Kordelia, who shrugged and leaned against the wall, hands on her temples.
Ebrill joined her old friend. The two spoke in lowered voices.
As they did so, Steph approached, eyeing me mischievously and licking her lips. “Not all of it was me, but… I remember a certain way that helped you sleep.”
“Yeah?” I asked, not catching on at first. When she sat next to me, pushed me back, and undid my belt, it all came back to me.
“Maybe this will help.” Steph licked her lips again, then reached down and pulled out my cock. Her hand stroked it, her eyes focused as if this were our first time and she was studying it, hoping to never forget it.
“It is, you know,” she said. “Our first time, more or less.”
“Are you reading my thoughts?” I asked.
She chuckled, eyes moving to mine as she continued her caress. “No, just guessing what you’re thinking. For me, having been under a curse before, this is kind of my first time.”
“You don’t remember any of that part of it?” Ebrill asked.
Steph blushed, as if having forgotten they were with us. Her hand went lower, caressing my balls as she leaned against me, head on my chest. “Somehow, there are… bits and pieces. Almost like I remember the sensation, the emotions, but like I was reading about them. I want,” she looked up at me again, “to experience it all.”
“And them?” I asked, eyes going to Ebrill, who eyed me, then Steph, waiting.
“You’re… with her, now?” Steph asked.
“I don’t… know. Ebrill?”
“As much as we want to be,” Ebrill answered. “And that doesn’t have to be exclusive.”
“Oh?” Steph eyed me, then Ebrill, and nodded. “Me neither, I guess.”
“Yeah?” Ebrill looked over at Kordelia, who was eyeing me uncertainly.
“I’m not ready for this,” Kordelia said, standing up and going to the door.
“Kor,” Ebrill said, going after her.
“Have fun,” Kordelia said, turning and holding up her hands. “I don’t want to get in the way of that, but… I just woke up to find the world completely changed. I can’t—not yet.”
She left, but Ebrill turned back to us. At first the look in her eyes was distant, but when they found me again, it was hungry.
Not yet. Those words stuck with me, my cock throbbing at the thought that she would one day join us. That was saying something, because I was already rock-hard from Steph’s touch and the sight of Ebrill still in the room.
The gargoyle bit her lip and took a step closer. She undid her armor, exposing her lavender breasts with their purple nipples. Another step, and she paused, watching Steph kneel before me, take my cock and run her tongue around the tip. I closed my eyes for a moment, relishing the pleasure, and when I opened them again, Ebrill was nude, bare below, and kneeling at Steph’s side.
“Allow me,” Ebrill said, kissing my hip and then moving in to the base so that both had their tongues running along my cock, eyes on each other.
Steph pushed my cock to Ebrill, watching as the latter took it fully in her mouth. My eyes flitted back and forth between Ebrill working my cock and Steph undressing, removing her top first to let her petite breasts free, then shimmying out of her skirt and pulling off her boots.
“You don’t have to,” I said, pushing myself up, unable to believe this was happening. After seeing the darker side of her, I never thought I’d see her beautiful nude body again, let alone have the chance to touch it. To kiss her breasts and grab her ass as she rode me.
She smiled wide and straddled me, angling her hips to run her wet pussy along my cock. “When you’ve been through what I have, watching a cursed version of yourself… well, you know… it’s like watching someone else eat the perfect slice of tuxedo cake. Try and stop me.”
My laugh turned into a moan as she slid her pussy down around my cock and started working her hips. Her perfect, petite body wasn’t new to me, but it was a sight that would never fail to fully arouse me. Small breasts shaking with each thrust, dark nipples that almost didn’t seem to fit the paleness of her skin, and more ass than someone her size deserved. That ass slapped against my thighs as she leaned back, letting my cock hit her spot, and then she rolled over so that I was riding her as Ebrill watched.
I closed my eyes, getting into it and trying not to think about the fact that I was being watched. Suddenly, there were lips on mine and hands running through my hair, along my chest, down around to my ass. Ebrill was there, joining in, while Steph lost herself in the bliss and threw her head back, moaning, shaking, and then laughing. There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation as she scooted out and pushed me toward Ebrill, and my ex—no longer my ex?—propped herself up on her side, watching us and gently caressing herself as Ebrill and I started to caress each other.
My hands found Ebrill’s voluptuous breasts and then I sucked on them. She lifted me with her insane strength, so that I almost felt a bit out of place as she threw me to the bed and leaped onto me. It was wild, and as she flipped us over and pulled me on top of her and thrust my cock into her pussy, I got into her rough ways. I enjoyed it as she then flipped us over again and started riding me with more ferocity than I had ever experienced in bed.
Seeing as she hadn’t been laid in many, many years, I supposed it made sense. Steph started moaning again and I saw she was fingering her clit while watching, and damn, that turned me on. I took control then, turning so that both Ebrill and I were sitting. I grabbed her ass with one hand, breast with the other, and loved the sensation of her warm, wet pussy gliding up and down on my cock.
A creaking sounded from the doorway, and I noticed a figure standing there, the door mostly shut, as if she didn’t want us to know she was watching. I threw Ebrill back, imagining Kordelia there, caressing herself as she watched my shaft sliding in and out, my balls bouncing. The fact that a soft moan came from that direction a moment later made me even more into it, and before I could move into another position, I buried my face into Ebrill’s breasts, hearing moans from all sides, and then pulled out just in time so that my cum shot over the gargoyle’s stomach.
She laughed, rubbing it in, and then licked one of her fingers with the cum on it. “Delicious.”
I chuckled nervously, hands still running
up and down her thighs as I stared into her eyes. When I looked toward the doorway, Kordelia was gone.
Steph kissed my neck in response, watching as Ebrill reached to caress me.
“I’m glad the sleep spell didn’t work,” I admitted as I reclined, spent.
Ebrill laughed, hand stroking me even though I was pumped dry. “No, I don’t think so.”
“No, definitely… not.” Finally, cock throbbing and smile spread across my face, I fell back, asleep with a protective hand on the Liahona in my pile of clothes beside me on the bed.
The dream travel wasn’t like the other times. Pulling, twisting… light swirling. Pain ripped at my soul, unlike anything I had ever felt, and then I was free of it, but floating in darkness that cleared in places as a heavy fog would to give brief glimpses of one’s surroundings.
“You don’t belong here,” a female voice said, and for a moment there was another form moving with me in the darkness.
The darkness gave me a glimpse of what I knew was the heart of the mountain, submerged in the water that surrounded the land that was Avalon. The forces of darkness were confined to sections of magical mist. The others moved about in confusion. Their world had been torn apart, pushed aside from its normal place to another plane of existence, a world of magic separate from our world, where magic no longer had a place.
And I had played a part in it!
“That’s exactly right,” the voice said, returning to my side, circling me and laughing. “You, Jericho, brought down the walls of this world. Is that backwards?”
“Who the fuck are you?” I spat out, not in the mood for these games. “We did what was needed. We won.”
“Ah, but at what cost?”
While I didn’t want to admit it, this figure had a point. I hated to see this land of magic cast off as it was, and everything I was beginning to understand that it represented. And as she materialized further, her words rang even more true. Maybe that was the hypnotism of her beauty, this striking woman with her green eyes, red hair that flowed about her as if in a bath, and glimpses of nude flesh amid shifting darkness.
“Who are you?” I said, my voice almost slurring.
“I go by many names, none of which you need to bother yourself with. But come to my side, join me… and I’ll tell you one. A name you’ll enjoy, a name you can call out as I make you shout with pleasure.”
She came closer, body almost in full view, hand out to touch my face. But I pulled back, shifting and turning away from her.
“They will lead you astray,” her voice said, distant now, fading. “Mark my words. You want me at your side. You need my power.”
“All I have, all I need… I’ll figure it out without you.”
A jolt shot through me and I was pulled back from that place, leaving it all behind.
Ebrill was there, watching me. Steph was up against the wall with her arms around herself, while Kordelia stared out the window.
“It was bad,” Ebrill said, holding a cloth to wipe my forehead.
“I sensed her,” Steph added, a shiver running through her body. “The woman with the flowing red hair.”
“You’ve…” I pushed myself up, still shook from the pain and confusion of the dream. “You’ve met her? Before?”
Steph shook her head. “Only her power.”
It made sense to me, then. The curse—I would have been under its influence, had I given in. More power, maybe, but no freedom.
Kordelia turned back to me, then nodded. “It’s almost sunrise.”
Ebrill eyed the window and helped me up. “No more attacks, at least for now.”
“Fatiha might come during the day,” I pointed out.
“She might, but it wouldn’t do much good.” Steph shrugged. “Wouldn’t be able to do much against us. Her side’s power relies on darkness and shadows. She’ll come at night, I’d wager.”
“There you go.” Kordelia went to the window, flared her wings, and said, “Be sure to get some rest, but be ready in case she tries something. You never know.”
“Understood,” I replied, and offered a smile to Ebrill, then felt Steph wrap an arm around my waist. She nuzzled me as the other two froze. We watched the sunrise, Ebrill and Kordelia now stone nearby. Out of curiosity, I reached out to mentally check on the shisa. The creature was still there, patrolling the grounds. I had been curious how that worked, but apparently the guardian didn’t work like the gargoyles. That made sense, I supposed, since it was brought to life with my powers and the powers of the house, not some gargoyle curse.
My eyes moved to the way the orange light highlighted the curves of the gargoyles’ statues. The shadows made me wish they were alive so I could caress them again, hold them to me. I reminded myself that they would be back at night, but that seemed so far away. Funny how this time, they had each struck a pose before the morning light transformed them so that they had a fierce, sexual look of danger to them. I couldn’t help but let my eyes roam over their curves, now stone, before turning back to see Steph watching me. She raised an eyebrow.
“You and this one…” She walked over to Ebrill, running a finger along the stone of the gargoyle’s arm. “It’s serious?”
I laughed. “We barely know each other. But… it’s complicated.”
“Like how we’re complicated?”
“We are, aren’t we?”
She turned back to me, hand resting on Ebrill’s shoulder, the other moving along her wing, seductively. “I was trying to find myself, back then. Looking for ways to expand my magic. I wish I could say it was to bring my mother back from the dead or something, but she’s alive and well with my dad in the Peugeot Sound. For me, it was as simple as wanting power in the form of magic. I joined secret societies, a coven… all of that to find out I needed more. A journey to a land you never want to see earned me those wraith knights, and the fire was the result of a month in Turkmenistan. But this… everything I heard from anyone who knew anything about the Liahona pointed to more power than anyone could possibly comprehend.”
“We’ve all done things,” I said, not sure if I should be consoling her or what, but trying anyway.
“Before this,” Steph turned, eyes focused on mine. “I crossed lines, maybe, but always for the right reasons. Or, so I told myself. When I got the power I sought, I told myself I’d stand up for the little people, use my new power to, I don’t know, cure cancer or something.”
“Thought you said it wasn’t for anything like that.”
“Not directly, but… yeah, in part. Can you really imagine having that power and not doing some good with it?”
“Of course, I would do good,” I replied. “But then again, I’m not doing this for power.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” She scoffed, arms crossed. “There was a time, right when the curse hit me, and I was still more in control, when I would have hurt people.”
“And now?”
“No more crossing lines. It’s wrong, of course, but more than that—I set myself up to be susceptible.”
“To their curse?”
She nodded. “Never again, Jericho. Never.”
I took her in my arms. “You’re with us now.”
“I wanted power, and I got it.” She scoffed, pushing me away, but accepted my embrace when I wouldn’t let her. “At a price.”
With a laugh, I gestured around. “Hey, we talked about how it would be if you could come out here to D.C. with me. Here we are, living the dream.”
She allowed a smile, but then her eyes flashed red and she looked at the door. “They took that from me. Now… I want to see them fall more than ever before.”
“Let’s do it, then.” I held her hand and guided her out of the room. “We’ve let them lead the attack long enough. Now it’s our turn.”
.
93
During the day, while the enemy was weak and our gargoyles were asleep, Steph and I set out to locate the hideout. Only the shisa would be at the house to guard it, but I hoped my
power would allow a connection so that I would be notified if there was trouble. I rented a car and drove out to Virginia with Steph, although traffic in the Belt was a bitch. At the moment, we were driving among tall houses with pillars, chandeliers, and all that fancy stuff I’d never been exposed to when growing up.
“You remember it being around here, right?” I asked, hating the humidity of the D.C. summer.
She nodded. “It’s like there’s a voice calling me back. A voice in here,” she held a hand to her chest, “and it’s… cold.”
“The voice?” I thought about it. “That checks out.”
Her hand reached out and found mine, although her eyes were focused on our surroundings. If she couldn’t locate the enemy’s headquarters, this journey would have been for nothing, but we had to try.
“I have to ask,” I said as we came to a stoplight, waiting. No cars there, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
“What?”
“The dunes…”
She laughed and bit her lip.
“So, you remember that?” I frowned, confused. “But…”
“Like the other times, not clearly. Not like it was me. When you say, ‘the dunes,’ I get these images like I watched a porn about two people going at it in a sandy, horrible situation.” She laughed. “Hey, I’m not sad to not remember all of that—sand shouldn’t be involved in certain activities.”
“Those were your exact words when we were done!”
“Really?” She motioned for me to go, as the light was green. “I’m thinking… it’s like it was still me, kinda like a zombie, you know? Basic instincts were still with me.”
“You got me that snow globe from the lodge where we met…”
“Listen, Jericho…” She ran a hand through her long, now-white hair. “None of this is easy for me, but yeah, that’s something I would’ve done. It’s also something a fake version of me would’ve done, or cursed version, to try and earn your favor, right? So, I don’t know what to say, because I don’t know if it was a latent version of me making some of those choices, or someone else for me.”
