The Lily Harper 8 Book Boxed Set

by HP Mallory

  And I sucked him. I sucked him as Tallis moved above me and pushing my legs wide, he entered me and I arched upward.

  I don’t understand! I heard my own thoughts.

  This is how it must be, my voice responded. These men are your past and they are your future.

  I mewled and rocked my hips until lights danced behind my eyelids. And still I sucked Asterion as Tallis pushed himself inside me.

  I moaned loudly as Tallis bent my legs towards my chest and pushed me over the edge again and again and again until I could hardly move.

  And then he pulled out of me and faced Asterion.

  “You must enter her,” he said.

  And I wanted Asterion. So badly.

  Tallis backed away and watched as Asterion pulled himself from my mouth. Then he edged his hips between my legs and entered me all the way.

  I threw my head back and moaned.

  My focus narrowed to the pair of beautiful eyes that stared down at me.

  A dam broke within me, and Asterion growled as he worshiped me.

  “Together we can bring her magic back,” Tallis whispered.

  ###

  TALLIS

  I watched as Lily soared through the air after the Minotaur hit her beneath the chin. When she landed, she was unconscious.

  When the bull-man realized what he had done, it was too late. I held him in the grips of one of me spells, and he dropped to his knees before me. I wanted him to beg me for mercy, to ask humbly that I not take his feeble life with me bare hands. Before I could strike, a great force knocked me back.

  I did not know where the force had come from. I had to shake off the surprise and pushed myself up from the wall of ice. And when I faced the others, I saw that Besom was now awake and she was looking at me in horror.

  It was then that I realized she had pushed me away from the Minotaur. But she hadn’t done so with her hands.

  Besom looked down at herself in fear, focusing on her hands as she held them out before her. I went to her.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Ye hit me with a strong force, lass, that’s what happened,” I chuckled.

  “I’m so sorry, Tallis.”

  “Nae! Dinnae be sorry, Besom. I’m proud o’ ye.” I swept her up into me arms, and she held me tight.

  “I saw something when I was unconscious,” she whispered.

  “A vision?” I asked.

  “Yes, I think so.” She inhaled deeply. “You were in it,” she started and took another big breath. “And so was Asterion.”

  I felt me heart drop. “And?”

  “And I was Sorcha,” she finished.

  At the mention of Sorcha’s name, me stomach fell. “Sorcha?” I repeated.

  “I believe she’s me and I’m her, Tallis,” she whispered. “Annice told me that was the case and I meant to tell you, but I… I couldn’t. I just was… worried about how you’d react.”

  I pulled away and stared into her eyes. I did not understand what was happening.

  “Besom,” I started. “Ye’re nae makin’ any sense, love.”

  “Yes, I’m making all the sense in the world,” she answered and I wondered if the man-bull had hit her too hard—hard enough to scramble her brain. But, then scrambling her brain wouldn’t explain how she even knew of Sorcha.

  “Remember when I told you the women of my bloodline inherit souls from our ancestors to guide us, that these souls are reborn inside our bodies?” she demanded as a sinking feeling formed inside me gut.

  “Aye.”

  “Sorcha was part of my bloodline,” she explained.

  The shock of Lily’s words left me speechless. I couldn’t comprehend what she was telling me, and part of me didn’t want to. Me Lily and Sorcha were one and the same? Sorcha’s soul had been reborn inside Besom?

  Is that what explained the strange connection the two of us had always had? From the moment I met Lily in the Dark Wood? Was that the reason we’d been able to meet in the land of dreams while Lily played prisoner to Persephone? Was it the reason she’d known of Fergus Castle without my ever telling her?

  The answer was obvious, but still I could not face it.

  “I’m finally starting to feel whole…” She let her words trail off. Her expression changed, and she shook her head slowly. She pressed a hand to her chest and glanced at Asterion.

  “What were we doin’ in yer dream?” I asked as I stared down at her.

  She swallowed hard. “We were… having sex. The three of us.” She breathed in deeply. “I believe that’s the way I’m supposed to unlock my magic because it’s not just my magic. It’s also Sorcha’s.”

  “Then Sorcha knew the Minotaur?” I asked, wondering how it could be so.

  “I… assume so,” she answered. “There’s only one way to find out. I need to talk to Asterion.”

  I could not understand what exactly was happening. Truth be told, I was still shocked by the realization that Sorcha was Lily and vice versa.

  “Ah need some time to think, Besom. I need time to process what ye’ve just told me.”

  ###

  LILY

  I wanted to scream.

  As if all of this wasn’t hard enough to deal with! The onslaught of emotions that warred inside me felt like a crowd of people all trying to talk at once, all of them growing louder to drown the rest out. I tried to sort through the mess and failed to find my own emotions in the hailstorm of everyone else’s.

  I was exhausted and I could feel the pain of my physical body warring with that of my emotions. I needed to rest.

  I wasn’t even full aware of what I was doing as I dragged myself into the temple. But once there, I sprawled out on the floor and laid still as I stared at the sky through the columns that held up what was once a stone ceiling. If not for the strange sky illusion outside the temple, there would have been no way of telling whether it was day or night. The fountain of amethyst fire flowed constantly, flickering against the walls and marble pillars.

  ###

  There were no dreams that night.

  Just an endless expansion of darkness laid out before me as an unnatural chill filled me with trepidation. And I awakened to the sound of Asterion practicing his abilities at the center of the temple. I envied his control and the fluid grace of his movements as I made my way towards him. He glanced over at me, and a slow smile curled his lips.

  “Lily, you are very beautiful,” he sighed, taking a few steps in my direction. I was taken aback by his words.

  I knew his words were genuine, that he truly believed I was beautiful. I just didn’t know why. Asterion had resumed his human form and his skin glistened with sweat, his long hair draped down his back in an elegant braid.

  He shook his head and graced me with a blinding smile. “You don’t know what you look like, do you? You didn’t feel the change happening while you slept?”

  “What change?”

  He walked me over to a small room behind the fountain where a pond of water filled a cement basin. There were cherubic angel statues all around it, most of them crumbling with age. I stared into the pool of water and as soon as I saw my reflection, I gasped.

  My features were soft, not striking as they once were. My breasts were fuller, hips wider, and my hair had dulled to a darker shade of red. Gone was the flowing, silken locks of my hair. In their place were ringlet curls that touched the center of my back. Pale, alabaster skin and wide set eyes stared back at me.

  “Before I died... I felt unworthy. I felt like my outward appearance didn’t reflect the person I was on the inside. Then Afterlife Enterprises allowed me to have the body I’d always wanted. And I still wasn’t happy. Since then, I’ve seen myself with many different faces,” I explained. “This is the closest I’ve ever come to feeling like myself.”

  “What do you think started it?”

  “I’m not sure, but it might have something to do with accepting myself,” I replied honestly. “Asterion, there’s something I need to talk to
you about.” I stepped away from the mirror of the pool sheepishly and walked with Asterion back to the heart of the temple.

  “Okay.”

  “Did you ever… know someone named Sorcha Fergus?”

  It was there in his eyes—the way they widened slightly and then in the way he swallowed. “I haven’t heard that name in a very long time,” he said in a soft voice.

  “Then you did know her?”

  He nodded. “She was the first woman… the first woman I ever loved. The first woman I ever bedded.”

  I inhaled deeply. “I think I’ve figured out the connection between us.”

  He looked at me and frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Asterion, I’m Sorcha.”

  He frowned more deeply. “I don’t follow.”

  So I explained to him about my bloodline and about everything Annice had told me. And pretty soon understanding dawned on his face. “And I had a vision the other night, Asterion,” I continued. “And in the vision, I was Sorcha and I was… having sex with both you and Tallis.”

  His eyes widened again. “Then Tallis and Sorcha…” he started.

  “Became lovers,” I filled in for him. “I believe it happened long after you and she had parted ways.” I swallowed. “But I think that explains the connection I have with you and the connection I have with Tallis.”

  “And the dream?” he asked. “Or the vision?”

  “In the vision, I understood that the only way I was going to unleash my abilities was to have you and Tallis within me at the same time,” I answered honestly, not sure how he was going to take it.

  “And have you talked to Tallis about this?”

  “I have.”

  “And?”

  “And he said he needed time to think about it,” I answered. “So now I’m telling you.”

  “And I don’t need time to think about it,” he said quickly, his jaw tight.

  “Okay.”

  “I want you and I’ve wanted you from the moment I met you, Lily,” he said as he took a step closer to me. “There are times when this desire for you makes me feel like I’ll lose my mind if I can’t claim you. And now I understand it’s partly driven by Sorcha, but there’s more to it than that. I want you for you. And if I’m able to be given the chance to feel you from inside, I will take it however it’s offered to me.”

  The light of the amethyst flames flickered across his features. “That’s not the only vision I had lately,” I said as my thoughts turned to another subject altogether.

  His eyes widened. “What did you see?”

  I sat down on the edge of the fountain and hugged my knees to my chest. “I saw you and you were unconscious at Uriel’s feet. It didn’t make much sense to me.”

  “We need to find Uriel,” Asterion said as he sighed.

  I nodded. “There was something else. In the vision I had of The Forsaken, when Uriel and The Forsaken came face to face, it was confusing to watch. There was so much hatred coming off Uriel, but there was love in The Forsaken’s eyes even as he said he wanted to feed off Uriel’s soul.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why rebel against the Kingdom if The Forsaken loved his brothers and sisters? Why not just try to appeal to them?”

  “Maybe he didn’t want to rebel against his siblings, but he felt he had no choice? He was condemned for feeling, for being exactly what he was created to be. And instead of bowing and being obedient, he forged his own path.”

  “You sympathize with him?”

  “No. If the other legends are true, then he doesn’t deserve sympathy. All of us are supposed to seek redemption for our mistakes, but he chose to go down the path of darkness. Just because our actions seem justified in the moment, doesn’t make them right.”

  FOURTEEN

  TALLIS

  I stepped into the temple and saw Lily sitting on the fountain.

  She looked different—more along the lines of the woman she had described before she suffered the accident that claimed her life. But I saw no ugliness as she often described herself. No longer was her figure slender and lithe, but soft thighs, wide hips, and lush breasts added more curves to her strong body. Her stomach was flat, but not etched with muscle as it had been before. The swell of her rump accentuated her nipped-in waist and petite shoulders.

  She was beautiful. But there was fear in her eyes when she saw me.

  “Besom.”

  “Tallis,” she whispered. She pushed a copper curl behind her ear with a bright flush on her cheeks. She stood up and walked towards me. The usual swagger to her stride was tampered down quite a bit. There was concern in her expression.

  “Ye dinnae have to be worried, Lily. Ah find ye beautiful…just as I always have.”

  She shook her head. “But... I’m not. Not the way I was before.”

  “Ye moost oonderstand, me idea o’ beauty comes nae from the modern world, boot the age o’ the Druids... an’ I nary set me eyes oopon a flower more lovely than you.” Me hand lifted to touch her pale face, but she turned away. Instead, I ran me fingers along her neck before I kissed her shoulder. Besom melted in the way I knew she would. “Ye said words are nae what ye need, so I’m goin’ to show ye instead.”

  Her breath caught, and I reached down to grip her round bottom. She squeaked, but I pulled her against me body and wrapped those sensuous legs around me hips. Besom cried out as I walked her to the wall until her back pressed against the hard surface. Lily arched. Her eyes snapped with a fire that killed the doubts that had been there before. She reached for me kiss before I could claim her mouth, and I swallowed down the moan that escaped her lips.

  She reached through the folds of me kilt and stroked me aching cock until I couldn’t see or feel anything beyond where our bodies were connected. She released me and shoved against me chest until I stumbled back, finding meself against the marble column behind us. I squatted low, and Lily kicked her trousers aside. Me eyes feasted on the pale flesh of her thighs, and I couldn’t look elsewhere.

  She rushed me then.

  Her kiss was fierce, crushing and desperate and filled with love. She nipped me lower lip before swiping her tongue into me mouth. I buried me hands in her hair and pulled so that I could sink me teeth into her throat as she straddled me. I growled against her skin as her wee hands led me velvet-steel cock between her folds. Her hips rolled, and I felt the trickle of her juices run down our legs before she impaled herself on me length.

  “Tallis,” she whimpered.

  I bucked me hips, and sheathed meself deeper into her womb.

  She gripped me shoulders for purchase, and I was forced to grab onto her arse again. We found our balance, and the snug, flexing muscles of her wet channel tore a whimper from the back of me throat. Lily tossed her head back, and I counted the red that marred her skin where me mouth had sucked and kissed and nibbled. The primal urge to mark her as me own unfurled deep inside me. “Besom, Ah cannae hold back.”

  “Then don’t,” she said before brushing her lips against the curve of me ear. “Let go, Tallis. Show me how much you want me.”

  I retreated from me beloved’s warmth, ignoring the whimper of protest from her kiss-swollen lips. Lily shivered as I forced her chest against the column and slowly fed the length of me erection back into her. I pushed as deep as her body would allow me and loved her with slow, measured thrusts until I felt her knees buckle. Lily held her breath through the waves of pleasure.

  “’Tis nary a greater love than this, Lily.”

  Her head turned, and I looked into the face of the first woman who had ever claimed me heart as her own. It was Sorcha... and Lily. They were one and the same, and I felt the truth of this new understanding even when I wanted nothing else but to run away from the pain that tightened in me chest.

  I bent over her petite frame and tasted her lips one last time before the tension coiled and released. Her breathless gasps were drowned in the guttural roar that left me winded.

  “I can’t move my legs,” she g
iggled. Her face still held reflections of Sorcha, but the love in me heart was for Lily.

  “You bit me.” Thin, elegant fingers touched the bite on her neck. “Did you become a vampire when I wasn’t looking?”

  “Nae, I jist needed to see me mark on you, Besom.”

  The smile on her face was brilliant.

  ###

  LILY

  The Forsaken stood over Uriel with his hand stretched out before him. He reached through the bars and touched his brother’s trembling figure. The cries of pain that poured from the quaking angel were absorbed by the darkness surrounding the cage.

  Uriel wrapped his pale fingers around The Forsaken’s wrist. The dark being chuckled with a flash of fangs. “You want me to let you go, to show mercy, when all you have done is abandon me to my suffering?”

  “If you kill me, this won’t end,” Uriel warned. “Your fall was punishment for your treachery against our maker. It was She who allowed you to rule this realm. She showed you a mercy, one that can be taken from you. And upon my death, the others will rain down a heavenly fury upon this world that will make the wars of the past seem meager.”

  The Forsaken withdrew his hand and sneered down upon Uriel. “I was the first of my kind, an angel with free will. I created a race of my own, and now my demons outnumber your army of angels one to a thousand. Let a war come.”

  “So, you do not know…” Uriel collapsed against the ice-cold bars of his cage and sucked in a harsh breath as pain rippled through his entire being. The Forsaken’s power touched the rawest parts of his soul and battered them into submission. He felt his wings twitch and grimaced when his broken bones protested the movements. Scorch marks, burns, cuts, and pus-oozing lesions marred his golden feathers.