Magic of Three

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Magic of Three

ISBN 9781419911125

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Magic of Three Copyright © 2007 Jenna Castille

Edited by Ann Leveille.

Photography and cover art by Les Byerley.

Electronic book Publication June 2007

This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Content Advisory:

                                                  S – ENSUOUS

                                                  E – ROTIC

                                                  X – TREME

Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This story has been rated S-ensuous.

S-
ensuous
love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

E-
rotic
love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable—in other words, almost anything goes, sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both sexual language and descriptiveness in these works of literature.

X-
treme
titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Stories designated with the letter X tend to contain difficult or controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

Chapter One

Smoke and incense infused the air with a drugging scent, sandalwood the overpowering essence. But it did little to dampen the smell of a thousand sexual encounters that permeated the sacred chamber.

Three shadows performed an ancient dance on the walls. Twisting and twining with moans and grunts their music, slapping of flesh their tempo. The room teemed with magic, pulsed with the pleasure of its creators. A pillar of pure, clean light flowed out from the three people sharing their bodies in the middle of the temple.

A stone altar sat in the center, its edges etched with the sparkling gold symbols of a language long forgotten. Lise lay nude and moaning on the stone, its rough texture rubbing against her skin and adding another layer to her sensual surrender. Her long, flowing silver hair draped over the sides, gliding across the symbols with each thrust of the man between her thighs. She tossed her sweat-soaked head, raking her nails down Timon’s hard, gleaming chest as she fought against the rising waves of desire.

Her nails marked his flesh with reddened lines. Timon jerked his head back, freeing his long golden-blond hair from its scarlet leather thong. He growled. His face contorted, harsh and nearly pain-filled, as he dug his fingers into her hips. The rhythm and force of his thrusts increased as he pounded his engorged cock into her, trying through sheer speed to make them one being.

Julius stood at her head, soothing his cool hands across her heated breasts as his deep, masculine voice chanted in the lilting, ancient tongue. When the desires crashing through her body grew too much to contain Lise reached back and grabbed his bulging forearms for support. He leaned forward, letting his onyx flow of hair fall around her face like a curtain, cutting off the outside world. He kissed her cheeks, eyes and temples. Soft, tender, caring touches. Still he chanted between each caress. His presence, his very smell, soothed her.

She stopped working to restrain her desires, the lust building, towering above her. She simply opened wide her heart and let fate run its torrential course.

As her climax grew, so did the Pillar. The beam of bright amber light emanating from their joined bodies pierced the darkness. Blinding in intensity, it rivaled the violent emotions surging inside Lise.

Finally the monotonous chanting came to an end. Julius strode around the altar to take his place behind Timon, bracing a firm hand on his twitching and heaving shoulder. Lise didn’t see Julius as he moved between her legs but she felt Timon inside her thrust forward with a harsh cry of rapture and agony. His rhythm faltered and then gained strength as Julius took control of the plunge. Each time the dark-haired man rammed forward into her lover, Timon shoved hard into her.

Three made one. Three hearts beating with the same deep emotions. Lust and love binding together the three powers—Visionary, Empath and Catalyst.

The Pillar grew even brighter.

Lise arched, overwhelmed. Her head dug into the stone. Her sleek thighs and slender calves wrapped around her two lovers, pulling them into her body. Into her soul.

They came together in a massive burst of energy, their powers feeding the pulsing Pillar.

For a moment there was peace. Silence. With a triad of groans the three parted, the men staggering to take their places at each side. They stood guard above their Third as she regained herself, for it was she who controlled and guided the Pillar. Her love and power would send it forth and close the gate to hell.

Salvation skimmed within their reach.

Lise lay curled and panting on the altar while the two men stared at each other across her body. The tenderness in that simple meeting of the eyes tore at her tender heart. Neither man ever looked at her with that depth of emotion filling his gaze.

Julius leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on Timon’s lips. A kiss of caring and commitment as well as passion.

A kiss brimming with love, a gentleness she couldn’t remember either man showing her, especially Julius.

Lise let out a keening wail as something precious inside her shattered under the weight of jealousy. She scrambled back off the stone, scraping skin. The two men looked down at her in amazement as tears trailed down her soft cheeks. Timon, who’d but moments before heaved into her body, reached out with one hand.

She slapped it away. “A lie. All a lie,” she gasped between jagged sobs. The bitter taste of betrayal lay like ashes on her tongue.

Confusion and pain etched in both faces as she cried out.

“I’m a vessel to you, nothing more.” The woman gasped in heart-rending pain as she scrambled to her feet, backing away from the men, the altar, everything. “Your love has no room for me.”

Before either man could prevent her flight, she escaped the Temple of Light. The Pillar thrashed and trembled. Its brilliance grew brighter and brighter, to an intensity beyond human measure, before shattering in a million glittering sparks. The fading embers fell around the two who remained.

The bedrock of Atlantis heaved beneath their feet, sending the two men stumbling to their knees. Fissures began forming, shooting out from an ominous black void forming dead center above the altar of the Temple of Light.

The pulsing black tear in reality grew wider with each passing second. Frigid wind whipped around the chamber, freezing every drop of liquid it touched as it doused every candle, lantern and torch. Only the stars and the moon still shone through the open windows, dimly lighting the once brilliant chamber.

But the black void was not empty. No. Figures moved, serpentine, in its depths, surging forward. Growls and cackles came first. The thunderous sound of a thousand hoofed and horned feet. Then dark figures peeled away from the void, forcing their way into the mortal realm.

Timon dragged Julius to his feet, forcing him toward the single doorway, their only escape. Only there would be no escape. Not for any Atlantean. Not that night. In an instant, Julius’ second sight flared, showing rivers of blood streaming down smooth marble streets. The screams of women and children competing with the growls and snarls of animal pleasure coming from their attackers.

The world as he knew it had been lost the moment their Third fled from them.

Julius saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, a streak of steely blue. He felt a thump against his abdomen, not pain exactly, not yet. Just a hard, breath-stealing thrust. But the look of utter horror in Timon’s eyes slapped him out of the shock.

Harsh, raspy laugher filled the air, the evil glee freezing marrow. As Julius fell to his knees he looked up at Timon. His love.

A seven-foot demon, light gleaming off his ice-blue flesh, rose behind him. Timon never had a chance to see his death approaching, eyes locked on Julius. But Julius saw. The last sight to burn behind his own dying eyes was that of Timon falling lifeless to the ground.