gargoyles

The five statutes loomed above the crowd, still and timeless. The last light of the setting sun cast an eerie glow around them. When she fixed her gaze on Mason's stone form, her heart thumped. She scanned every inch of his silhouette, wondering about the spark of life within the stone that would animate him into flesh. A warm-blooded male with a heated touch and sensuous lips that made her melt.

In decades past, the three clans of the island - tree witches, gargoyles, and wolves, had cloaked their land with many layers of protection. Their combined magic had created such a powerful force it had remained undetected by human technology. When a feud erupted between the witches and gargoyles twenty-five years ago it led to a division of land. Without reinforcements from the clans' combined magic, the protection seeped away.

Make no mistake, little human. You are under my protection now, and I protect what is mine.

This woman was consuming him, bit by bit. She was becoming the reason and the reward of his existence, and if he did not shield himself, everything he did not have to give would belong to her.

Well, here were the ugly facts. She had no mad-ninja-skillz to rely on and her family didn__ know where she was. She didn__ know where she was. The only way she was leaving was if this creature allowed it.

Are you ready to go home, Catherine?_ he asked. __t__ warm inside the house. I kept a fire going for you.__ continued looking at him, unsure how to respond. __hanks,_ I managed to say and then glanced in the direction of his house__ur house. __ell, you are my wife. And I know you don__ like the cold.____ his wife, I thought to myself. He had said the words as if that simple fact made it necessary to be both thoughtful and kind. As if having gained a wife or husband meant having also gained her or his concerns, and hence the need to consider the person__ needs, wants, and preferences as strongly as one__ own. It struck me as a perfect description of what marriage ought to be. An agreeable notion that had not entered into my petty way of viewing matrimony. I would have assumed it to be above Thaddeus_ egotistical mindset as well.__atherine?_ he said again, watching me regard him with a quizzical expression. __re you ready to go home?__ nodded, which made him smile.

During the show, she studied him on stage. The way he strummed the guitar, the movement of muscles in his arms and torso, the sway of the tartan fabric with his movements. Her cheeks heated when she thought about running her fingers over his torso and under his kilt. Oh, the things he could do to her with that body.

She tore her eyes from his abs and gave in to the temptation to look further down. Over his kilt her eyes wandered and stopped, speculating on the promising bulge beneath the blue tartan. "Hope you like what you see...

I should tell you something about what happens after I play.""What's that?"He pulled her back into his arms. "I get excited...

Stop him, stop this, she commanded herself. Reason floated away; she wanted him. If he walked away now, she might disintegrate into a pile of frustration as fragile as the leaves crumbling under foot. His lips touched hers, shooting electric shock waves rippling to her toes. Then he claimed her with a torrid kiss. Passion welled up from her core, overpowering all thought except her desires.

The freak show was about to begin.Spotlights flooded the musicians powered by solar panels near a massive amplifier. The guitarist continued playing and the others joined in, playing a raucous crossover between hard rock and heavy metal. The one with long blond hair grabbed hold of the microphone and belted out a shattering cry that sounded like a call to battle. The crowd went pin drop silent to listen and then cheered in unison as the band played on. The front man sang piercing growls and low croons about the Knights in Stone, the protectors of the ancient forests, battling against the evil tree witches... Kayla's coven.

She pushed his massive chest, which was as effective as if she pushed granite. "What are you made of, bloody stone?" He chuckled, eyes full of mirth. "Sometimes.

She stretched beneath him, bare and aching, held captive by an entirely new form of magic, one she'd thought existed only in books and movies.

I was made to rule the darkness.

Kresh kept silent beside me as Baron rehearsed his deadly plan. I listened with my eyes aimed at the horizon, witnessing the night consume a final red vein of daylight. It struck me that nightfall always drowned the sunset. Never did the sun resurface from where it sank, nor would it ever.

Only in porn did people appear to need sex as badly as she needed it right that minute.

She could sense the desire pouring off the man in front of her, and to be wanted so obviously, so fiercely, went to her head like moonshine. He made her feel like a goddess.Provided goddesses got this horny.

Still shuddering, he collapsed atop her on a long, strangled groan. It sounded as if someone had just wrung out his soul.Ella knew precisely how he felt.