Authors: Jennifer Cole
“It is such a shame for me to have to destroy you, my child, considering you are of my flesh and blood,” Xavier said. “But I cannot take the chance that you and the farm boy will consummate your love and break the curse.”
Chapter 7
“All right,” Zander said as he walked out onto the terrace. “I believe my Elena has had sufficient time to cool down.”
“Then you’ve finally come to your senses, old man?” Kenyon asked, eyeing a piece of broken pottery between two of his fingers.
Mabon circled and landed in the middle of the terrace. “Ah, it’s about time.”
“I second that,” Magnus agreed.
“Fine, fine.” Zander chuckled. “Go ahead, have your laughs at my expense. I do not know if she will even have me, knowing I can never love her physically the way she deserves.”
“There are many, many ways to make physical love, old man. I have little doubt the Lady Elena will have no trouble showing you several of them.”
“
Zander! Zander!
”
The six gargoyles exchanged glances.
“
Elena?
” Zander projected.
“
Zander! Please hear me! Please...
”
“Elena!” Zander roared aloud.
“Sense her, Zander,” Henrik ordered.
“Launch!” Magnus hollered, and all six beasts became airborne.
“What are you picking up?” Kenyon asked.
“On foot, she is twenty minutes away. I think. She is projecting confusion, and I cannot pick up an exact location. Damn it!” Zander growled. “Wait! I am sensing East– Oh the gods! She is not alone. Xavier is with her, he has his hand on her.”
I am coming, my love. We are coming for you!
“She is fighting. East, fly East! Hurry!” A moment later Zander roared. “Elena has stopped projecting!
Hurry
!”
“We’ll find her.” Adan’s voice sounded reassuring, but Zander would not be content until Elena was safe, again in his arms.
Their physical differences no longer mattered to Zander. All that mattered was finding Elena and telling her, showing her how much he loved her. He would love her for the rest of their days, if she would allow him. Together they would find a way to make their love work.
Within moments, they had covered the ground Elena would have on foot. The closer they got, the more Zander could smell her scent carried in the air. Mixed with her natural, alluring fragrance, he also scented anger, nervousness, and a touch of terror. The latter three were a combination of Elena and King Xavier. It would appear his little woman was giving the vicious king a run for his money. A sense of pride filled Zander as he pictured her fighting with the king, as she had the first night they met.
The spitfire could hold her own, Zander was confident of that. However, when Elena suddenly stopped projecting to him, Zander was beside himself with regret and worry. He never should have allowed her to walk out the door of the suite.
What was I thinking?
He chastised himself. Zander held himself completely responsible for the position Elena was now in. It was his fault she had stormed off into the night alone.
Zander was pleased she’d forced him to face his feelings. It had been a long time in the making. Elena was correct when she’d stated Aceline had not loved him as she had claimed. It had taken Zander many years to come to that realization. Now that he had, he put the past where it belonged. It was dead and buried, and he would never dredge it up again.
The life he’d lost in seventeen-ninety-two was no more.
Elena was his future. No matter what the gods had in store for him, he would live out his days with his Elena by his side. Though immortal, Zander decided at that moment, when her life ended, so would his. He didn’t yet know how, but he would not live for eternity without his Elena.
“There!” Adan said. “I’d recognize the devil himself, even from this height.”
With a forceful flap of his powerful wings, Zander dove for the earth.
Over his left shoulder, the king carried an unconscious Elena. Across a field of tall waving grass, Xavier ran toward a large barn standing alone. Despite the speed of the gargoyles’ flight, the king entered the barn, slamming the heavy door closed behind him, before they reached the ground.
A mighty roar split though the night air as Zander made his decent. The flap of five more pairs of wings cutting through the air had Zander grinning. The king had no idea what he was in for now that he had taken their Elena. She was loved in a different way by each of them. Zander knew each beast would lay down his life to save her.
The sky began to brighten as dawn approached. Why had they not realized the time? They were coming too late.
Damn the gods!
Zander shouted in his mind.
“
We will save her, Zander,
” Magnus projected.
“
I pray we are in time,
” Zander snarled. “
I will not live without her.
”
“
You will not have to,
” Henrik offered in assurance.
As they neared the barn door, another roar filled the air.
“
I will go through first,
” Zander growled. “
Be prepared, we do not know what is behind that door.
”
“
The king must die,
” Kenyon said.
Zander flipped himself over at the last second and burst through the closed wooden door feet first. Shards of wood splintered around the barn. Landing in a crouched position, Zander scanned the open area as the rest of his clan settled on either side of him.
“Oh the gods,” Adan said.
On a makeshift altar set up at the far end of the barn, he spied Elena bound naked. As far as Zander could determine, she remained unconscious.
King Xavier stood on the other side of her vulnerable body. High above his head, held in his hands, was a large dagger.
“Today you will watch your beloved die, farm boy,” the king sneered. His eyes glowed red as he held Zander’s gaze.
In an instant, the king drove the dagger down toward Elena’s exposed chest.
Zander held his breath. Inside he died. Once again, the king would inflict the most heinous cruelty upon him, and kill his beautiful Elena before his eyes.
Before it pierced her pale flesh and sliced through her heart, the dagger came to an abrupt halt an inch above her body.
King Xavier raised it and forced it down a second time. Again the dagger failed to penetrate Elena’s chest.
The king lowered his glowing eyes for a fraction of a second, but it was all the time Zander needed. He launched himself across the barn, over Elena’s unconscious body, slamming into the king’s chest.
A struggle ensued, and the two wrestled each other to the floor. The sound of flesh striking flesh filled the air as they exchanged a barrage of punches.
The king began to chant, and an eerie fog, similar to the mist that had swirled around him the morning he was turned, began to rise in the barn.
Zander slammed his rock hard forehead against the king’s mouth, rendering him silent. The king, surprised by the gargoyle’s speed and agility, dropped the dagger. Before it struck the ground, Zander snatched it out of the air and with a single smooth thrust, drove it into King Xavier’s chest.
The king’s mouth gaped open in a silent cry.
As the king struggled for breath, Zander gave the hilt another shove, until he buried the blade completely in his chest. When the king’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, Zander pushed himself off the body, and turned toward the altar.
“Behead him, and burn the body,” Zander ordered sharply, without looking at his friends. “Elena! Elena, my love,” he pleaded. Bending over her exposed, vulnerable body, he used a nail on the end of his finger to tear through the leather bindings encircling her wrists. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, leaving them there for several heartbeats.
Henrik, Mabon, Adan, Kenyon and Magnus gathered around the altar. Adan knelt at Elena’s feet and removed the bindings from around her ankles.
“Elena,” Zander whispered, and felt a tear trickle down his cheek. Over and over, he chanted her name and pressed his wet cheek to hers.
“The day is breaking,” Magnus said.
Several tense moments passed as the six beasts stared down helplessly at the woman they had all come to love.
“It is almost daybreak, my love.” More tears flowed freely from Zander’s eyes. “We are out of time! Hear me, my love, I will return for you at nightfall. When you wake, stay here and I will come for you.”
Zander raised his head to look through the shattered door, and saw the crest of the sun peek over the horizon, knowing his time with her was about to come to an end–until nightfall.
“I love you, my precious Elena. You are my world, my heart, my true princess. Please, my love, wake for me, before I am plunged into a day of stone not knowing you are all right.” Pressing his lips to hers once again, Zander willed all his energy into his love. “Oh, how I love you,” he whispered again.
“And I you, my love,” he heard her say in a barely audible whisper.
“Elena?” A whimper of hope slipped past his lips.
“Kiss me, Zander,” she said softly, her voice hoarse. “With all of your heart and soul. Kiss me and the curse will be broken.”
With effort, Elena forced her eyes to open, and met his gaze. He knew she could see his confusion on his face. In disbelief, he stared down at her. She’d come back to him.
“Kiss me, now. Time is running out, Zander. You must kiss me now, please.”
Without hesitation, he took her in his arms and captured her mouth hungrily. The slide of his tongue alongside hers had his cock rock hard and begging to enter her, to mark Elena as his. To claim her.
Though he had not felt the sensations and emotions in many centuries, a familiarity struck him. Pulling his mouth away from Elena’s, a tingling started in the balls of his feet, slowly working its way up his calves, his thighs, up the length of his spine, to the tips of his fingers.
“Zander?” Elena asked. “Are you...” Her words were cut off as his body began to shake.
Elena reached for him and held his face between her hands, her eyes holding his.
“It’s all right. This is supposed to happen. I promise, my love,” she said with an assuring smile.
* * * *
A fine, sweet mist rose from the floor of the barn, swirling around Zander, completely shielding him from Elena’s view. Her hands still cupped his face, and under her fingertips, she felt the texture of his skin change.
Taking her eyes off the cloud before her for just a second, Elena glanced over at the opening of the barn and saw dawn upon them. The sun shone bright as it rose on the horizon. When she returned her gaze to Zander, the most spectacular green eyes she’d ever seen stared back at her. His chiseled features had her heart thumping in her chest. Zander, the man, was exceptionally beautiful.
The points of his ears were gone. The cool gray pigmentation of his skin was now a healthy pale peachy color. His pink lips were full and inviting, and as her eyes roamed lower down his body, she realized he was stark naked. And his cock was still huge.
“Damn, you’re still big,” she mumbled, thinking he still wasn’t going to fit inside her.
Zander’s gaze dropped to his groin, and he grimaced. “Are you kidding me?” he gasped as he viewed the semi-erect, thick length lying heavy against his thigh. “There’s almost nothing left.”
“Men and the size of their tools.” Elena shook her head and grinned. “Make love to me, Zander,” she said. “Now. It’s how we break the curse.”
With a low sensual growl, Zander scooped Elena in his arms and raced for the opening to the outdoors. “With pleasure, my love.”
“Zander!” Elena squealed.
“If this is the only opportunity I have to make love with you, I want to do it in the outdoors, while the sun rises around us.”
“Zander, will you please get to it.” The urgency in Adan’s voice brought Elena and Zander’s attention to him. A croak of surprise uttered from each of them.
The other five beasts now stood before them in human form. The men were handsome, muscular, and incredibly large.
All over.
“You are all corporeal again,” she murmured. “But how?”