Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alone in the meadow, Lillian paced around the bejeweled enslavement tools, still hardily uncertain of her plan, but not knowing what other choice she had. She already despised their jeweled beauty, that overdone gaudiness which failed to hide their sinister purpose.
And, Gregory, when he came back to himself, would he understand and forgive her?
She feared he might not. But still she’d see her decision through—a few billion lives were in the balance. She wouldn’t sit by and do nothing, not if there was even the slimmest chance she could use the collars to shape a more positive outcome.
God, she hated gambling.
A sudden shift in the air currents and a tingling of magic against her skin caught her attention. She pushed away all her unhappy thoughts and prepared for what was likely inbound.
Unlike the first two times she’d seen the magical portals earlier today, there was no slow gathering of power or swirling mists. From this side, the threshold just appeared fully formed in the air. A second later Gregory hurtled through it.
His gaze locked on hers, and then it swept away a moment later to scan their surroundings. He sniffed the air, circling around the meadow’s perimeter as he searched for signs of danger or other traps.
Gregory continued to circle, drawing closer with each pass until he was only ten feet away. He continued to sniff, emitting small huffs of anxiety or anger. The scents of other gargoyles and the much more distant scent of Riven would be as easy for him to read as it was for her.
Lillian held her position next to the wardstone collars for a couple seconds longer, then decided it would look more natural if she went to him. With a gruff rumble as greeting, she dropped to all fours and made her way over to him, her wings and tail held in a natural, relaxed position.
With a slight flaring of his wings, Gregory studied her with a determined look in his eye. Gone was the loving, and playful, if overly happy, gargoyle from earlier. In his place was one of Gregory’s darker aspects—The Gargoyle Protector. Her Hunting Darkness.
His eyes narrowed and the powerful muscles in his thighs bunched.
Ah, and it seemed she was today’s prey.
Lillian leaped clear as Gregory landed in the place she’d been mere seconds ago. She circled him, her head tilted to the side, ears canted forward, tail flicking in challenge, her entire body saying come play if you can keep up. Another mad dash and a leap and she was crashing into the side of him, her momentum managing to shift him off his balance enough, he had to side step. While he was collecting himself, or more likely just stunned by her behaviour, she darted away, using her gargoyle speed to bolt out of range of any retaliation.
A glance over her shoulder showed she need not have worried. Gregory was sitting on his haunches, his wings tucked loosely against his back and his tail flicking slowly, his expression bemused. While he was still dumbfounded by her actions, she inched closer to where she’d left the collars in the grass.
“Gregory, I need you to look at these for me and determine if they are safe.”
He still hadn’t said one word to her, but Lillian saw a spark of intelligence in his gaze, buried underneath the many layers of the siren’s enchantment. Now, if she could only reach that one small part.
Gregory tilted his head, sniffed and closed the distance between them until only a couple feet separated them. His gaze strayed to the collars for a moment and then slid back to land solidly on Lillian.
Sidling up next to him, she gave his shoulder a playful nip. Gregory’s lightning fast response caught her by surprise and she found herself on her back, her wings trapped under her and the heavier bulk of a male in his prime, pinning her to the ground.
Gregory watched her with something other than the earlier vacant look. No, the heat there was far from vacant. However, heated look and returning intelligence were not the same thing. But a little heat might make him more biddable and willing to listen to her. She really did need him to study the collars.
He sniffed at her, and then ran the underside of his jaw along her shoulder, up her neck, and over her muzzle. He did the same strange routine on the other side. Poking around a bit with his muzzle, he found another spot, the inside of her lower forearm, and shimmied his muzzle along there as well.
Ah, he was scent marking.
“You smell the other gargoyles. They were my father and brother, nothing for you to get jealous over. They mean me no harm. At the moment, they are dealing with the Riven to give me the time I need to free you from Tethys.”
A non-conversational grunt was her only answer. He worked his way lower, rubbing all along her side, hitting each and every rib, and then over her flat belly before moving back up the other side, the same path in reverse.
She waited until he was back up by her collar bone again, then started placing gentle nips and kisses along his shoulders and throat. Gregory froze in place. Only his tail continued to sway, the movement somewhat jerking. Then he began to purr.
Scent marking was one thing. What she was embarking on now was altogether something else, and far more dangerous. But Lillian saw no other way forward.
“The siren is trying to claim you from me.”
Gregory stopped his rumbling purr and narrowed his eyes at her.
“It’s true. She wants your power, to use you like everyone else wants to use you. I won’t let either Tethys or the Lady of Battles have you.” She brought her hands up and clamped them around his forearms, her fingers digging into his biceps. “You’re mine, and no one else’s.”
His rumbling purr started up again and he dipped his muzzle down to kiss her shoulder, then the hollow of her throat. She nearly started purring herself. Who would have thought that little dip between neck and shoulders could be such an erogenous zone? She lowered her muzzle to her chest, forcing Gregory to move from his designated target long enough so she could regain the ability to think.
His scent had intensified, swamping her senses with his pheromones. Somehow his tail had found hers where it was trapped under her body and he’d planted one knee between her thighs. Her jaws parted hoping for more air without the drugging influence of his pheromones, but it only made it worse, she could taste his essence. Each lungful of air drew it deeper into her body. She did purr then, surprising herself.
Another species characteristic and not just a Gregory quark.
That little bit of information seemed to stimulate her brain enough to get it functioning. Her plan had somehow derailed, rather more quickly than she wanted to admit, and it was her failing not Gregory’s.
Touching him, she could feel what he was feeling. His deep love for her was still there, but what he was feeling at this exact moment was more physical than emotional. And that fact was a nice icy bucket of water on her own lust. Suddenly, what she was doing felt very, very wrong, too much like taking advantage of an emotionally vulnerable person while they were intoxicated out of their mind.
The last tendril of lust wilted, and Lillian dug her heels in and tried to push out from underneath Gregory’s greater weight. His arms tightened around her and his purring changed into a growl. Her heart tripped into a pounding rhythm at the sound.
Yet because he was also pressed against her, she could touch his mind and it opened to hers, his thoughts completely unguarded for the first time.
And so many things became clear she wanted to cry. Not in fear. Even when he growled, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. It was the siren’s command to capture Lillian and bring her back getting mixed up with Gregory’s more physical instincts. When she stopped struggling, he immediately relaxed and returned to grooming her. The scent marking, licking, and gentle nips were all part of gargoyle courtship.
Needing to know more about Gregory, she pushed her own body’s reactions to the back of her mind, ignoring them as much as possible to better focus on what her other half needed. There was something, just at the very edge of his thoughts, something buried that he didn’t want to face himself, a dar
k secret he wanted to remain hidden.
She knew Gregory was packing a lot of blame and guilt about everything that had gone wrong in this lifetime, but the magnitude of that guilt became clear when his thoughts flowed over hers. He felt responsible. He was the protector and it was his duty to protect his Sorceress from all dangers. But he’d failed so many times recently. And now even his body betrayed him, craving an unwholesome relationship. He was unworthy of her.
“Oh, Gregory,” she kissed his jaw, then rubbed her muzzle against his. “You are worthy. You are the most brave, noble, and kind person I know. No matter what you crave, I am your other half, and I exist to fill that need.”
She opened her heart and mind, offering up all she was to him.
And he took what she offered, absorbing her love and acceptance into his soul. Slowly his emotional turmoil abated, and his purring increased in volume. The delicious vibrations traveled over her skin, even her breastbone reverberated gently to the rhythm of his deep croon.
Now was the moment. It had to be now or she’d lose her nerve.
“Beloved,” she called softly, pushing away her doubts and reservations for what she was about to do, “I want you to belong only to me.”
“I have ever been yours,” he growled softly against her ear, his voice raw with emotion. “No one else’s, not even those few times when I gave my seed to another to beget a child so we might have the raising of it.”
Hating herself a little bit more she said, “That once was true, but it’s not entirely accurate anymore, is it?”
Gregory whined softly, his ears flicking and then flattening to his mane as if they wanted to vanish, to hide. He buried his muzzle in her hair and pressed harder against her.
“The siren holds some influence over you.” She ran her fingers through his mane, soothing, caressing and then tugging gently when he wouldn’t face her or her words. “You can’t hide the truth from me.”
“Her magic infiltrated my defenses while I was weak. She said she’d make you whole, make us one. Once she had you, she promised that she’d convince you to possess me, hold me so closely to your heart and soul that it would be like we were one again. I would be complete.” Gregory shuddered in her arms. “I so very much wanted it to be true, even as another part knew it to be wrong. I tried to fight it in the beginning. But she didn’t want to harm you, she wanted to make you whole.”
“Easy.” Lillian caressed him, whispering soothing words. “I know. She promised me the same thing.”
As he poured his heart out to her, she held out hope he was returning to himself, that he might be able to break the siren’s hold without the collars.
“Tethys’s spell grows stronger by the hour as she takes strength from the other Fae. I can feel her tendrils tightening around my heart and mind.”
Now that didn’t sound good.
“If she had only tried to order me to do something to harm you, my magic would have tagged her as a threat and destroyed her while she was still weak enough. But she knows what we are, what we mean to each other and had the wisdom to order me to protect you.”
Lillian tightened her hold on Gregory. “It’s okay. I have a plan to free you from her influence. I have two magical artifacts I want you to look at. I’m told they will protect the wearers from outside magic—I just don’t know if I can trust the source. I’m rather hoping you might know better by looking at them. Because if they are safe to use and we can managed to activate them, we will be immune to Tethys’s magic and able to neutralize the threat. Gran told me a siren’s enchantments die with her.”
“That is true.”
“While my plan will free you from the siren, there is something I will be asking for in turn. And I fear it will be a heavy price.”
He braced himself on one arm, so his upper body lifted away. His gaze sought hers, and twin pools of shining dark anguish looked down upon her. “Anything. I would pay anything to solely belong to you again.”
“The price is high. Give yourself to me and I will take your freedom and claim you as mine and mine alone. I must own you heart and soul….though I hope it will only need to be for a little while.”
Gregory shuddered above her as he gasped into her mane, “All those things have been yours for a hundred millennia, all you ever had to do was claim them. Take them now, I offer them freely.”
Her heart pounding with dread and shame, she took up a collar from where it rested in the grass. It was the one intended for her own neck, she saw, its workmanship of a more delicate nature. Fear sparked through her mind, but she forced her hands to snap the collar around her own neck. It was heavier than she’d expected, and cold, so cold. Only slowly did it began to warm to her body.
The second collar remained on the ground, untouched.
She ran her fingers over the unmistakable shape of the collar around her own throat. This was wrong. She knew it was, and yet what choice did she have?
If Tethys remained in control of Gregory, it would only be a matter of time before Lillian became a slave as well. Were that to happen, there would be no one left to save the millions of innocent humans from the siren’s vengeance.
She took up the other collar. It was heavy and still her hands shook uncontrollably. With agonizing slowness, she inched the collar closer to Gregory. He merely watched her in silence.
He trusted her, she realized in a moment of absolute self-loathing.
No matter how many ways she tried to justify it, she’d still be betraying Gregory by enslaving him, and it didn’t matter if the collar was a better choice than the siren, Lillian still couldn’t bring herself to collar Gregory.
“I can’t,” she said as sobs choked her.
“Yes, you can. For me,” Gregory said, almost pleading.
“No,” she repeated, her voice growing stronger. “I won’t. I will not make you my slave.”
With a desperate decision, she attempted to whip the offensive magical device as far from her as she could, but Gregory caught her wrist, preventing her. As she watched helpless to stop him, he gently pried the collar from her clutched fingers. He turned it over in his hands, and she felt him call magic as he studied it with a sense more acute than sight. He sniffed it, huffing softly to himself as he continued his study. Then as she watched frozen in horror and denial, he placed it around his own neck.
Golden light, bright enough to force her to blink and shield her eyes, twisted among the jewels imbedded in the collar. Her own grew warm around her neck in answer to the magic triggered in his. The heat intensified, warming the metal and her skin. She reached up, intent on prying loose the one around Gregory’s neck, but two powerful hands locked around her wrists, preventing her.
Magic boiled up from deep within his spirit, she felt it wash over her body. Then with a snap, it severed the ties that had bound Gregory to the siren. Waves of magic continued to roll out across the meadow, making the grasses sway violently.
She was still gasping in shock at the force of the magic swirling through her when Gregory shifted enough to free himself from his loincloth and then tore hers away as well.
“Yours,” he rumbled, “I am yours now and forever.”
Oh dear, no. “We’re forbidden!”
“My beloved,” he said. With those words he pressed between her thighs, jerked forward and slid home in one thrust. He tossed his head back and groaned, his wings jerking open and flapping once, twice, and then a third time before folding down around them both. Magic continued to flare wildly for a moment, rippling over them both and then the light vanished, taking the weight of the collars with it.
Lillian gasped and jerked at the first flush of pain at Gregory’s sudden invasion, but within moments, her traitorous body was adapting, welcoming him home. He bowed his head down to bury his muzzle in her hair as he continued to move against her with his powerful strokes. Soon, he drove any thoughts of the collars and what they’d done out of her mind.
He gentled after a few strokes, murmuring words of love
to her in an unending stream, sometimes aloud and other times only in her mind. It was so clear, just there for her to see, that no matter how forbidden it was, he needed her, needed this moment more than the next breath.
Belatedly, Lillian wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She told him of her love with everything that she was. “My heart, I’m here. Take what you need. I offer it freely, and I promise we will get through the coming days together.” Shifting slightly, she wrapped her legs around his hips, crossing her ankles under his tail for better leverage.
Her actions drove him right to the edge and on over.
“Lillian,” he roared and arched his back. After a few short, urgent strokes a great spasm shook his wings as his entire body quaked with his release. He slumped against her, and just panted while he tried to catch his breath.
Gradually the waves of magic emanating from Gregory’s body grew smaller and smaller until the power was a shimmering, knee high mist swirling around the meadow grasses.
Exhaustion stole over her body and she allowed her head to slump back onto the ground, but she continued to gently stroke his back and wings in a soothing manner. Her eyelids drooped. Even though she hadn’t found her own release, her body felt heavy and sated, rather like she had shared Gregory’s and now she was drifting at the edge of sleep.
She may have indeed slept then, for when her senses sharpened once more, everything came rushing back in horrible detail. In contrast, Gregory was still a warm, heavy weight draped across her body, his wings cocooning them from the chill of night and his scent soothing to her.
But they’d just done the one thing that they weren’t supposed to.
The Big Rule.
Shattered to little tiny bits.
It was all her fault. She should never have let the collars within a thousand kilometers of him. No matter that she’d thought her parents were acting in good faith or that Gregory had looked them over, it was she who had accepted the gift and presented it to her poor beloved.
She’d gambled and lost.
Her mistake was still there, glowing ever so slightly in the moonlight. This mistake didn’t look like it could be easily fixed. Encircling his neck, where the collar had been but a short time before, was a gold tattoo-like brand. It twisted in elegant whorls all the way around his throat. When she ran a finger over it, the skin felt slightly raised, but otherwise unharmed. She fingered her neck and felt the same raised pattern circling it. With a heavy heart, she turned her gaze back to Gregory.
The Avatars Series: Books 1-3 Page 46