by Jamie Hawke
“She wanted us to have the tree,” Steph said, voice full of awe. “Giving us our power, in exchange for hers.”
It made sense, in a twisted way. If she believed she could work to get the Nine Ladies back, to have the power to take us down even if we had access to Avalon, her move could work. Let us have our power, in exchange for hers.
Or maybe she was so twisted that she didn’t care what happened to the world, as long as she got hers.
Her dark eyes rose to mine, her cackling laughter echoing all around as she held up a hand, eyeing me as if about to cast a spell.
My hands rose, too, suddenly shaking at the amount of power I felt in them. So much power, ready to be cast upon her. Those dark eyes moved to my hands, her laughter and even her smile fading.
“Not today, then,” she said, and then waved her hands in a circle around herself so that the shadows swept up in a spiral that engulfed her, and then she was gone.
Teleported, I supposed.
A moment later, a flash of light appeared through the roof and then stone and earth crashed down, followed by a solid figure that landed with a thud, wings tucked back behind her head, ready for a fight. I instantly recognized her as Aerona.
She stood, looking exhausted but ready for a fight.
No words. The three gargoyles embraced, holding each other for a long beat, and then they charged back the way we came.
“That’s… Aerona?” Steph asked.
“Yup.”
“Not very talkative, I guess.” Steph frowned. “Like, where’s the ‘it’s been so long, how’re you doing?’ or any of that? Doesn’t even need a battle briefing. Shows up and just charges out?”
“I think maybe she shares a mental connection with one or both of the other two? I’m not sure, but—”
Shisa let out a whimper, interrupting us.
“How about instead of talking, you two hurry your asses!” Kordelia shouted back. “We have to get out of here by sunrise!”
Damn, she was right. And judging by the flashing red and blue I saw through the hole Aerona made when she arrived, there was a situation above that would be better avoided. So, we ran, Shisa taking the lead while my mind attempted to come to grips with the idea that my aunt was actually gone, and that our team hadn’t only grown by one more, but that we were going to keep growing.
We had a team to find, Fatiha and the Nine—or some of the Nine, anyway—to hunt down, and an army of evil to stop.
I couldn’t wait.
98
Where else could we have gone, other than the mansion? It needed fixing up, sure, and safeguards to ensure that whatever evil Fatiha had done was counteracted, but we had the magic of Avalon. We had my team, which now included Aerona, and I better understood Shisa now.
According to Ebrill’s guess, we still had about an hour until sunrise. I set about redecorating the house in terms of my transmutation abilities, while the ladies put up every sort of defensive ward they could think of. I searched deep, connecting to the house and surrounding grounds, ensuring no passages or other secrets were left by Fatiha, looking for anything that could be used against us. Several passages led out from under the house, but I closed those off until a time when we might be able to use them to our advantage. As I finished, I briefly checked into the news on Steph’s phone—the only one among us, and only source in the house. Apparently, Virginia had suffered minor earthquakes that had resulted in fires. How strange, to know the truth when everyone else was being lied to.
All in all, the defenses didn’t take long, and soon I went to find the others, discovering that they had taken over the master bedroom. My aunt had kept it sparse but pristine.
Aerona and Kordelia were talking with Steph, filling Aerona in on everything they could, while Shisa sat at the window, always on guard. Seeing Aerona in the light of the house and in her gargoyle form, I was struck by the difference between her and the other two. While Ebrill and Kordelia had both been a sort of blue and purple shade, Aerona’s skin was almost gold, eyes light blue in a way that reminded me of a pendant my mother used to wear. This gargoyle was every bit as beautiful as the other two, and Steph. Even with her frame slightly smaller than the other two, and with horns that curved around instead of flowing back, she had an aura about her that spoke of power. Knowing who she had been in the past, the aura made complete sense.
“Wards in place?” I asked.
Kordelia nodded. “We washed up, too. You might want to, when Ebrill’s done.”
I glanced down and saw what she meant. Our fighting and underground travels had left me filthy.
“What’s next?” I asked. “I mean, can I do something while you all are… stone?”
“We,” Steph corrected me. “Can we do something?”
“Right.”
Kordelia scrunched her nose in thought and turned to Aerona.
“I have a lead,” Aerona said. “It has to do with Avalon and, well, I’m trying to put the pieces together still, but think we’ll have something to go off. Tomorrow night, we’ll begin.”
“And if the enemy attacks during the day?” Steph asked. “Or even tomorrow night?”
“Let them try,” I replied, puffing out my chest. “We’ll be fucking ready for them.”
“So, it’s true?” Aerona asked. “You’re the one, now?”
“The one?”
“You know. The wielder of the Liahona. Our clan’s leader, in a sense.”
I considered this, at first about to be humble, to deny it. But you know what? Fuck it, I loved the idea of being the leader of this group, so I nodded. “That’s right.”
Kordelia grinned, apparently liking this confident side of me.
“Well, then,” Aerona said, eyeing me up and down. “I look forward to fighting under your command.”
“She looks forward to doing a lot more than fighting under you,” Kordelia said with a chuckle.
Aerona eyed her, allowed a laugh, then turned back to me, very matter-of-factly. “She’s not wrong. But… not yet. I’d like to see this city of ours, this land of the future where magic is thought to be myth.” As she went to the doorway, she nodded to Steph. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“You, too.”
As soon as she was gone, Ebrill emerged from the bathroom, completely nude. Her hair was wet and hanging over her shoulders, a droplet of water falling between her perfect breasts. She stood in the doorway and beckoned me in. “We don’t have much time before sunrise, and… I’d like to take full advantage of it. Hurry, now. Rinse.”
“Excuse me?” I turned from her to Steph, who was already grinning and pulling off her shirt.
“You heard the woman,” Steph said. “Get your ass naked and in the water.”
Staring at her perky little breasts and then back to Ebrill with her muscular frame and curves, I felt myself stiffening downstairs and knew that, as exhausted as I was, there was no way I was too exhausted for this.
“I’ll let you three get to it,” Kordelia said, heading for the door with a humored glance at my exposed bulge.
“Join us,” Steph said.
Kordelia paused and assessed her, then Ebrill. “I’m… not ready, yet.”
“Well, when you are, you know where to find us.” Steph blew her a kiss, giggled, and then took my hand to lead me into the bathroom. There, she started undressing me by pulling up my shirt and kissing me in the process. Other hands found my belt and I turned my head to see Ebrill, who kissed me, too. She then lowered and kissed my back as she pulled my pants off, then the boxer briefs, so that I stood there, naked.
I stepped into the water, very aware of them both watching.
“Lean back, on this side,” Steph motioned.
It was a large, whirlpool-style bath. When I was relaxing against the side toward them as instructed, they started cleaning me, hands in the water and making sure to get every inch of me. Every inch.
Steph pulled me out as Ebrill sat on the edge of the tub, taking me and allowing m
e to kiss her lips, then her neck as my hands massaged her breasts. One hand ran along her side, grabbed her ass, and then worked its way over to find her wet pussy. Her wings flapped as my fingers found their way into her opening, a reaction I wasn’t used to, but then she was kissing me fervently as her hand stroked my erect cock.
Steph stepped up behind us, hands between my legs to fondle my balls. She ran one hand along my ass, even moving her fingers to tickle my hole. I wasn’t sure about that, as it felt good but too ticklish, so I laughed but moved her hand aside. She pulled me into a kiss as Ebrill knelt and ran her tongue along the base of my cock.
My hand went to her head, the other caressing Steph. Before I knew it, as Ebrill started bobbing up and down on my cock, my fingers were caressing horn. Her long, hard horns. A strange thought, but the action caused her to moan and get even more into it, bobbing up and down while stroking and moaning.
Finally, she couldn’t take it and pushed me away and into Steph, who leaned back against the tub, grabbed my cock and lifted one leg to make room for it. I slid in, feeling Ebrill now at my ass. Not her hand, but her face, buried in there, tongue tickling my ass. Only, this time it didn’t tickle, but felt damn good. She did this for a moment as I gently moved with Steph, then sat up and fingered herself while watching as my thrusts increased with passion-fueled intensity.
If there had been any doubt on Kordelia’s or Aerona’s parts about what we were doing, there wasn’t now. Steph was pounding her fist against the side of the tub, moaning and occasionally yelping, while Ebrill licked her lips, breathing heavily.
Then Steph pushed me back so that I slid out. She motioned to the bed and we moved over, Ebrill following. Steph pushed me back, climbed on, and slid onto my cock. It couldn’t have been more than three or four thrusts before she collapsed on me, body tense as her orgasm took hold.
“Fuck me, Jay!” she shouted, then let out a lower, more sensual, “fuckkk… me.”
She was done, moving aside and lying there like she was about to pass out while Ebrill rolled me over on top of her. Wings spread and head up so that her horns wouldn’t puncture the pillow, it wasn’t the most natural of positions, but she seemed fine so I slid in, happy to oblige.
“Show me how a leader fucks,” she said. “I want the full power of Avalon rocking my world.”
I blinked, taken back by that, and she laughed.
“Oh, just fuck me already,” she added, pulling me in and thrusting her hips with the motion. My cock fully in her, all of my muscles clenched at once, then slowly let loose as I started moving, the two of us like one. I felt her around the entirety of my shaft, enjoyed the sensation of my balls against her warm legs, and grabbed her under the shoulders to get leverage.
Soon, she was gripping me, claws in my shoulders in a painful, yet oddly pleasurable, way. Moaning, clenching, smiling.
As Ebrill climaxed, a creak sounded from the door. It was open. Kordelia watched, biting her lip. Steph motioned her in, and, to my surprise, the large gargoyle entered. She approached, hand running along her exposed stomach, up to the curve of the armor that covered her breasts, and then up to the side of her neck, where it lingered as she leaned in to my ear.
I lay there, not sure what to expect as Ebrill’s tight pussy tensed around my cock, her heavy breathing telling me she was still experiencing the pleasure of her climax.
Kordelia’s lips almost touched my ear as she whispered into it, “I’m about to get so hard right now.”
“What?” I said, turning to her in confusion.
Her eyes showed her desire to laugh as she pointed past me to the window. “Hard as stone.”
Sure enough, sunrise would be there any second. Already the sky was light blue, a hint of yellow at the edges.
“Shit,” I said, quickly sliding my cock out of Ebrill and moving off her. One last moan from her, and then she was stone—frozen until the next night, lying there with legs spread in the act of an orgasmic aftershock.
It almost made me laugh, but more so, was hot as fuck.
Steph eyed me, shrugged, and beckoned me over. “I want you to finish in my mouth.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
She led me back into the bathroom, knelt at the side of the tub, and cupped water with her hand. Using this water, she briefly washed my cock, then used her wet hands to massage my balls as she took me in her mouth, moving her head up and down. Soon, her hands were working me, too, and when I came in her mouth, all of the fighting and darkness and negative bullshit was washed away. All that mattered in that moment was the look of adoration in her eyes, the sexy way she took my cock from her mouth and flicked her tongue along the tip, and the tingling sensation through my body as she ran the fingers of her other hand up along my abs.
“I missed you,” she said. “Even if I didn’t really know you—or the real me didn’t—I missed you.”
I laughed, pulled her up and gently kissed her. “It’s good to have the real you here, with me.”
“And not because I just swallowed your cum?”
“No, although that’s a nice bit of icing on the cake.”
She laughed, kissed me again, and then led me back to the bed. We paused there, looking at Ebrill’s nude, stone form. I nodded to the next room over, and then noticed Shisa eyeing us.
“You got this?” I asked.
Shisa nodded and turned back to the window.
This time, I led Steph. Soon, we were in bed in the guest room, her curled up in my arms, both of us drifting off to sleep. We had adventures ahead of us, more power than I could’ve ever imagined, and my cock was throbbing with blissful memories of what we had just done.
I was in heaven.
THE END
BOOK 5: Of Witches and Gargoyles
99
You start to miss the simple things when life turns upside down and you find yourself with a harem of gargoyles and a witch. Okay, maybe you don’t miss those things so much, but you realize that ideal of who you thought you were had vanished.
That was my situation as Steph and I stared through the window of the used textbook store, our hands wrapped in each other’s with fingers intertwined.
“My nose would’ve been buried in those books like twenty hours a day,” I said, shaking my head at the idea. One was an economics book about the world being flat, another something to do with world powers. My aunt had advised me to keep up the charade, to go to school and make something of myself, but that didn’t seem realistic until we could be sure we had made the world safe. Oh, and since she wasn’t really my aunt, I didn’t have to listen to her.
“Hmm, would you rather have that, or…?” She glanced down, and I caught on.
“My nose buried in your pubes any day.”
She hit me with a laugh, glancing at an older woman in a pants suit who passed by. “Don’t be gross.”
“Right.” I ran a hand through my hair then pulled her close, taking a bit of her white hair in my hand, feeling how silky smooth it was between my fingers. We had come out for groceries, now that we didn’t have Fatiha to take care of the house. Since Steph’s recent witch attire would make her stand out a bit, especially in D.C., she had magicked it back to a cute, light blue sweater and black mini-skirt. I loved it, and was almost overwhelmed, considering the fact that I had recently gone from thinking I had to leave her across the country while moving here to go to school, to seeing her as a murderous witch, to breaking her curse and having her back in my life alongside a new gargoyle lover. It had been a lot to process, and even more so now that I had a moment to breathe.
“You’re making me blush,” she said. It must have been the way I was looking at her.
“That so?” I grinned, adjusting the strap of the Trader Joe’s bag on my shoulder, which was getting slightly heavy. I lifted her hand and kissed it, then noticed the streaks of red and orange in the sky, via the reflection in the window. “Shit, we gotta get back.”
She nodded and we turned, hailing a taxi. It was
easier getting around that way since we could sneak away from my aunt’s mansion and find a car, instead of driving ourselves and being a large target.
We drove past a cell store and I glanced back at it, longingly, my hand fidgeting with the Liahona in my jacket pocket. All the magic in the world, and I didn’t have a cell.
“There are other ways to communicate,” Steph whispered as she leaned against me, earning a glance back from the driver. We ignored him.
“I know,” I replied, assuming she meant magic. “But there’s more to it. Checking in on my parents, my boys back home.”
“Oh.” She stiffened slightly, then laughed. “I totally forgot about all of them.”
“Even…” I ran my hand over hers, very aware of it on my leg. “I mean, even Krista?”
Steph let out a long sigh. “Planted.”
“No shit?”
“Not one of them, though. Just, someone who was ‘adjusted’ slightly, to admit me into her circle so I’d seem normal.”
“Fuck.”
“You think even if we got new phones they’d be able to trace ‘em?” Steph asked.
I considered this. “More likely than not. We could figure it out. When we have a down moment, maybe give it a try?”
She nodded.
Another glance back from the driver, and I remembered to watch what we discussed in the car.
Steph, seeing this, squeezed my leg and said, “We don’t need them. We have each other now, and Ebrill. The others.”
“And my parents are out touring America,” I added, wondering when I would hear from them next. Email would be their most likely way of checking in, as they had never exactly been the type to hop on the phone for a conversation.
Given my current situation, I was perfectly fine with that.
“There you go.” She leaned back, watching D.C. fly by.
I was glad for the air conditioning in this cab. Even in the evening, the humidity sucked royally. We paused at a red light and a guy walked past, the back of his shirt completely drenched in sweat.
