The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9)

by Lisa Blackwood

  It wasn’t until the second day when she’d returned without a helmet and wearing somewhat less gear, that he’d realized his mistake. That error bothered him more than a little. He prided himself on always knowing everything about his surroundings, documenting every little detail for future use and to prevent surprises. He hated surprises. Nothing good ever came from them.

  Though he soothed himself with the knowledge mistaking her gender had been an honest mistake.

  In her bulky uniform, the flat-chested female with short-cropped reddish-brown hair looked manly enough at a glance. Her hawkish nose and prominent brow didn’t aid her cause. In truth, she projected an aura of brute strength and assurance. There was very little delicacy or refinement to any part of her body.

  In short, while not the ugliest female he’d ever seen, she certainly was no succubus.

  He caught her gaze and glowered. She only gave his naked chest a once over and smirked.

  “You’re a nice looking one. Bet I could bounce a quarter off that ass. And those abs... Shame you’re also an evil little prick.”

  Her words added another layer of insult to his situation. Back in the Battle Goddess’s kingdom, no one had dared speak to him in such a way, but this female talked down to him as if he was some lowborn warrior she could summon to her sleeping roll.

  “Step inside.” Gryton flashed her a smile that displayed his fangs as he gestured toward the locking mechanism on his cage door. “Get a closer look. Perhaps that can help you decide.”

  “Not born yesterday, Hot Stuff.” Her honest laughter possessed a rich, deep tone, and her merriment transformed her features. He realized she had attractive eyes full of mirth and a smile so genuine that it almost called forth an answering one in him. That only infuriated him more.

  Scowling at her, he reminded himself that while he may have defected from the Battle Goddess’s army because of his mother, that in no way made him an ally to the humans. Certainly not this human. She was nothing to him, unworthy of his notice. Unless she continued to annoy him. In which case, he’d see what he could do to ensure she didn’t live long enough to become a thorn in his side.

  He dismissed her.

  “Aw. Someone is butthurt over—”

  Suddenly, the human soldier snapped her mouth closed and came to attention.

  He realized he could hear footsteps approaching. He turned his back on the female and crossed his arms over his chest while he waited for the newcomers to arrive. By the sound of the softly clicking talons, he imagined one of them was his father.

  Nothing good ever came from facing the male half of the Avatars.

  Chapter 2

  Gryton

  HE DIDN’T HAVE LONG to wait for the Avatars. His sire and dam soon arrived with a unit of soldiers at their heels. Predictably, the male half of the Avatars was in the lead, not trusting Gryton even collared and caged as he was.

  He grinned at his father. Gryton wouldn’t trust himself either. His father was wise enough to realize that.

  “Ah, what a delight. My sire and dam have come for a visit.” He cast a glance over his shoulder toward the female soldier, directing his words at her. “Or, in my father’s case, to glower while my mother visits me.”

  The soldier didn’t respond. In fact, she stood so still and straight she resembled a statue. Ah, how sad. No distractions from that direction. With a sigh, he turned his full attention back to his parents.

  They likely planned to speak of the same things they had for the last four days. Since the first day he’d come to this realm under armed escort, they had visited him once a day to update him on his situation, telling him what they’d been doing to smooth over their alliance with the humans.

  And, as much as he hated to admit it, he looked forward to these few short times with his mother even if they merely spoke of unimportant things concerning the humans.

  Lillian, when she’d only been a dryad-gargoyle hybrid, hadn’t trusted him. But she was now the Sorceress as she was meant to be and could look inside, straight to his soul it seemed, and see all that had happened to him. She knew the reasons he’d become what he was. And, as miraculous as it seemed to him, she still loved him despite his alliance with their greatest enemy.

  A year ago, Gryton wouldn’t have thought he’d have fallen so far, but now he admitted he basked in the Sorceress’s love for him. Yes, he eagerly awaited each visit, weakness though it was.

  Then there was his father.

  That was another complicated relationship he hadn’t yet figured out how to navigate.

  Usually, Gregory looked at him like a problem he very much wished didn’t exist. Yet on the few occasions when the older male had been examining Gryton’s power, the male half of the Avatars had allowed him to peer into that ancient mind.

  To Gryton’s great surprise, he’d sensed his father’s awe. And if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a little pride mixed in with the other less-than-pleasant emotions Gregory experienced when he looked upon his son.

  Oh, his sire felt shame, disquiet, and more than a little concern in having betrayed his vows and his honor by producing a son with his Sorceress. Yet there was more than that. Gryton’s very survival, his mastery over his chaotic elemental magic, had impressed his father. And that Gryton had flourished in the Battle Goddess’s kingdom and exerted control over the rest of the dark army? That had impressed his father more than a little.

  Knowing how Gregory viewed him made it harder for Gryton to maintain a proper amount of hatred for his father.

  Of course, neither of them would show even a hint of their growing regard for the other. They were still more enemies than allies. It was just how it had to be.

  That would only change if they freed him from this cage and allowed him a chance to find a place at their side. If not as an equal, then at least as an honored apprentice.

  “We have convinced the human authorities that you will be a far better asset than an enemy.” The Sorceress said, studying him in a way that suddenly had him feeling defensive. “We’ve made it clear to them we won’t harm our son or allow harm to come to you. We even laid out the dangers if they tried to kill you. Not that they have the power. But we made it very clear that if you somehow die here on Earth, you’ll be reborn as a sun.”

  “That went over well,” Gregory said dryly.

  His mother gave her other half a hard stare before she returned her gaze to Gryton. “No one wants to see that happen, and we were able to bargain with the humans. This deal will allow all sides of Light’s alliance to work together. Part of the bargain is that after we’ve won the war with the Lady of Battles, we will take you back to the Magic Realm with us and you will never return to Earth.”

  Gladly. How soon can we leave? Gryton thought with a touch of rare humor.

  “But while we live here, you will cooperate with the humans and allow their scientists to study you.”

  And just that quickly, his earlier humor was snuffed out. He’d hoped to have minimal dealings with the non-magic wielders of this world. But this wouldn’t be the first time things hadn’t gone his way. If he had to, he’d learn to ignore the humans and go about his duties as required. Control was something he’d learned at an early age.

  “You aren’t free to roam.” His mother’s expression turned guarded.

  Gryton stood a little straighter.

  When she cleared her throat as a distraction, he knew he wouldn’t like the rest. “You won’t go anywhere alone. You will obey your keeper’s commands without question.”

  “Keepers?” Gryton questioned with an arched brow. Though, he’d expected as much. He’d killed several humans the first time he’d come to the Mortal Realm. The humans wouldn’t have forgiven or forgotten.

  As for punishments, there were far worse things than ‘keepers’ trailing him around.

  Perhaps this wouldn’t be as bad as he’d expected. He might even earn back his freedom sooner than he’d thought.

  “Keeper. Single. There will just
be the one,” Gregory clarified and then glanced between Lillian and Gryton, his lips curling back with gargoyle humor. “You tell him the rest. He likes you better.”

  “Not for long,” his mother muttered half under her breath.

  Tension grew between Gryton’s shoulder blades the longer his mother took to continue.

  “The humans demanded a way to control you. We’d expected as much. But there was the problem of finding a human in their military with enough innate magic to allow them to control the command bracelet and then train them on how to use it.”

  “I wish you well in your search,” Gryton said with a hint of a smirk in his tone that he couldn’t hide. “Humans are weak-willed creatures. You might as well be handing a djinn over to an ape—the outcome will be just as destructive.”

  “He is a prejudiced, condescending little narcissist. But he doesn’t hide what he thinks, at least,” Gregory interjected, humor finding its way into his tone.

  Hmmm...

  There seemed a touch more humor than the situation warranted. Narrowing his eyes, Gryton studied his sire.

  “Something else has presented itself, hasn’t it?” he mused aloud, his mind whirling as he tried to leap to a conclusion but came up with nothing.

  “Yes.” Lillian paused as her eyes slid toward the female soldier still standing like a statue. “The Divine Ones have another plan for you, it seems.”

  Gregory nodded in agreement and offered a rare bit of free information. “That is why we were late visiting you on that first day. We were called away to investigate why six of our check-point detection spells went dark within the humans’ base of operations.” Gregory paused and made a face as if speaking the human words left a bad taste in his mouth. “We suspected an attack, but what we discovered was an even greater surprise.”

  Again, his parents glanced over at the female soldier.

  There was something off with the woman. He’d suspected it from the start. She barely looked old enough to be a soldier, even by human standards. His sire’s words just confirmed his earlier suspicions.

  “If you will leave us for a moment?” Gregory tilted his muzzle toward the female in question.

  “Major Resnick said two minutes. That’s all the alone time you get.” With those biting words, the human left through the room’s one door.

  Moments later Gregory stepped in closer. Instinctively Gryton tensed.

  “Easy. I’m just going to remove your collar and allow you to witness what she truly is.”

  Gryton was flabbergasted for the first time in his life. They were freeing him with no assurances of his good behavior? That made no sense whatsoever. Had they summoned a djinn from the Spirit Realm and were now turning him over to the creature?

  Again, he felt himself tensing, ready for an attack. If it wasn’t a djinn, then his father had some other trick planned.

  But as Gryton stood there with his hands fisted, his spine straight, and what he hoped was an expression of uncaring on his face, Gregory simply reached out with a small thread of magic and released the spell encircling Gryton’s neck.

  Freed, his fiery power returned, and he nearly breathed a sigh of relief at having its warmth flooding back through his body. He didn’t care if it was chaotic and hard to control. It was a part of him. With its absence, he’d felt fundamentally less.

  Lillian turned and whispered to one soldier, and the male marched out of the room. A moment later he returned, the female soldier a step behind. As she came closer, Gryton’s power calmed without his will acting upon it.

  What was this?

  He stepped away from his sire and dam and stared at the soldier. But no matter how hard he tried to read her, there was nothing. She was blank. A void. Air registered upon his senses to a higher degree than she did.

  How was such a thing possible?

  No spell, no matter how skilled the creator or how intricate the weaving, could hide itself this well, not from him.

  Oh, if she’d been skilled in magic and was standing off in another room, he might not have noticed whatever spell she used to hide her true self. But she was standing three paces away, and he felt nothing coming from her. Nothing at all. And yet she was clearly weaving some great spell to trap his power like this.

  “Go on,” Gregory urged the soldier. “Touch him. Show him what the Divine Ones have sent us.”

  Chapter 3

  Gryton

  “I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING about your Divine Ones, but I admit I’m curious what this is.” The soldier stepped closer, and then reached out with one hand, pointing to the glyph on his chest. “I thought you were supposed to be unable to call on your magic, but I noticed your glowing tattoo pulsing like it was in standby mode.”

  Gryton glanced down at the glyph. It normally pulsed with power in time to his breathing, not unlike someone blowing air across the embers of a fire. But now it was dull, only a glimmer of light flared up when he dragged in a surprised breath.

  He took a step back, recognizing danger even if he did not understand what it was.

  Then suddenly something clicked in his mind. “She feeds on magic.”

  “No, actually,” his gargoyle sire countered. “She gets no tangible benefit from magic, so isn’t truly feeding on it. At least not in the way you think.”

  “Do I look like a vampire to you?” The soldier tilted her head. “Come to think of it, he’s the one with the fangs.”

  Gregory snorted at the female’s words and then continued his conversation with Gryton. “She merely absorbs and then releases your magic, but not just yours. She does it with all magic. Even ours.”

  Suddenly the blank void, the nothingness made sense.

  “You’re a Null,” his voice held a hint of disbelief and maybe a bit of awe.

  He’d never met a Null, but he’d heard stories. The Battle Goddess had mentioned having crossed a Null once in her existence. She’d said the Divine Ones created them to rescue djinns summoned from the Spirit Realm against their will, or to kill them if they went insane from their captivity.

  Only a Null, an Avatar, or, Gryton supposed, one such as himself could withstand a raging djinn’s power long enough to get close and free it from its master. Or, alternatively, kill it and release its soul to return to the Spirit Realm where it would slowly grow in strength over hundreds of thousands of years.

  Thankfully, under normal circumstances, a djinn could return to the Spirit Realm on their own given time. But there were a few creatures in the universe capable of corrupting them. Actual pure-blood demons were one. But the Avatars and other djinns were swift to hunt down and eradicate that kind of evil when it tried to escape the void and infiltrate any of the three realms.

  But there was a lesser creature that served the beasts of the void. He knew one personally—a blood witch.

  He’d not thought Taryin was irrational enough to summon a djinn, or that the Battle Goddess was so far gone that she’d order the witch to do so, but if there was a Null walking this planet, then the Divine Ones had either sent the god-killer for him or a djinn.

  “Have the Divine Ones finally caught up with me, then? Is the god-killer here for me?”

  “Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking,” Lillian said, her gaze open and honest. “I’m certain you’d already be dead if that were our creators’ plan. While Private Erika Emerson has no memory of her purpose, if she were sent to kill you, her soul would have awakened to carry out her purpose upon first meeting you.”

  Gryton’s brow arched. “So, you just left her here while I was caged and collared to see what would happen? How very reassuring, Mother.”

  “I thought the plan had merit,” Gregory admitted with a chuckle. “However, my Sorceress was greatly displeased by my comment and made me stay and monitor you while she dealt with the human military. Once we were assured the Null wasn’t sent to destroy you, it confirmed her real purpose.”

  Gryton glowered at his parents. “And have you determined what the Null’s purpose is?
”

  “Likely multi-faceted,” Lillian said. “But after studying how she interacts with the various magic users, Gregory and me included, I’ve determined that her ability is most attuned to you. While we all feel the drain of magic when we are near her, it’s how she reacts to your power that is the most telling.”

  “Y’all, for the record, I’m not actively doing shit.”

  Lillian laughed. “I know. It’s as natural to you as breathing. You likely aren’t even aware you’re doing it. However, I can see what’s happening and can say with certainty the Divine Ones sent you to either control Gryton or to aid him in controlling his chaotic magic.”

  Gryton snorted. “Then she is here to enslave me. I don’t need a god-killer’s aid in mastering my magic.”

  Though he knew his words were lies. It had always been a battle to control his power. And dwelling in the Mortal Realm only made it harder. It was possible the Divine Ones knew he’d be forced to spend a great deal of time on this forsaken little world in the Mortal Realm and had sent their pet to ensure he didn’t destroy the entire planet in a ball of fire and fury.

  The Divine Ones wouldn’t have been moved out of concern for him. No, they’d sent their Null to contain him. It was a displeasing notion, but he could still work with this new development.

  While magic would be useless against a Null, he had other skills. He glanced at the human, giving her another inspection. With a little effort, he should be able to beguile the human and win her to his side. It would be a nuisance, but to have a pet Null could come in very handy.

  “God-killer?” the soldier said with a snort as if she couldn’t hold her silence any longer. “Bit melodramatic, isn’t it?”

  “Perhaps,” he agreed, giving her a hint of a smile he hoped showed a touch of friendliness.