Lillian nodded serenely and then began calling on power again. The second spell was much subtler than the one that had dug in and carved out a bit of Gryton’s soul. The sorceress painted a glowing symbol in the air above Erika’s exposed midriff.
Gregory came forward then, the fiery slice of Gryton’s soul suspended between his talons. With great care, he placed it on the spell the sorceress had woven. A bright flash momentarily blinded Erika.
When she could see again, the shimmering spell and molten soul fragment had merged.
“Excellent,” Lillian murmured to herself and then met Erika’s gaze. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The sorceress looked doubtful but merely nodded. “Very well.”
Slowly the spell lowered until its chill touched her skin. She shivered involuntarily at the contact.
“Once you absorb this spell, it will draw the sliver of my son’s soul along with it. Then the bit of Gryton’s soul will seek yours out and merge. It is smart enough to know it is too small to survive on its own, but it will wish to live.”
Sounds like a parasite, Erika muttered in her own mind.
“Shall I continue?” Lillian asked.
Erika just waved a hand to indicate the spell and the fiery bit of soul. “Carry on as you were.”
“You are brave,” the big gargoyle said.
“Or foolish. My family never agrees on anything, but they all thought I was a damned fool for joining up. Though that might have been because I told them after it was already done. If I’d given them a little more warning, they probably would have warmed to the idea.”
Erika eyed the soul fragment and wondered if she hadn’t just jumped without looking again. Oh well. Too late to back out now. She motioned for the Avatars to continue.
They did, the gargoyle stepping forward to lock her in place with bands of power like he had with Gryton. “To keep you from moving if you panic.”
“I never panic.” Her jaw clenched as she willed that to be true this time.
Surprisingly, there was little to cause panic. A faint tickle. A chilled tingle. A slight heaviness in her chest. Then it was over.
“That’s it?”
“You were expecting more?”
“Err. Yes. But I will not complain.”
The big gargoyle chuckled. “That’s good because Gryton is likely to complain enough for you both once he recovers. If he gets too annoying, just let me know. I’ll happily aid you with his reconditioning.”
LOATHSOME GARGOYLES and their twisted sense of humor. Gryton had been about to spit something equally sharp-edged at his sire, but his mother leaned over him. “Ignore him. He loves the challenge of seeing if he can get a rise out of you.”
Gryton snorted. The only rising he wanted to do was to get off this table and limp back to his cage and huddle there until he’d recovered. The pain he could deal with.
This...
This was a violation.
“Did you need help getting up?” His mother asked.
“No.” He sat up and swung his legs over the table. Unfortunately, that put the Null directly in his line of sight.
They’d both been moving slowly and cautiously to make sure that everything worked until the moment their eyes locked on the other. A silent challenge resonated between them. They both hopped down. Gryton strode back to his cage; the Null marched to her earlier position by the wall where the light and shadows met.
Behind him, he sensed his mother following.
“You both may want to sit and rest—”
“I’m fine,” two voices snapped in near synchronicity.
“You think you are now,” Gregory added ominously.
Lillian continued to trail Gryton, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his sire had moved to the Null’s side. The gargoyle just stood there staring until the Null grew tired of it.
“What? Did I grow horns or something?” Her words came out somewhat slurred. She reached up with a clumsy hand, feeling to be sure she hadn’t suddenly grown a set. Gryton almost laughed at her drunken behavior until he understood.
“No horns,” the gargoyle replied. “I’m just waiting for you to lose consciousness.”
She scoffed at the big male. “I don’t faint. Never fainted in my life. You will have a long...” She paused, her eyes suddenly going unfocused. “Oh...”
She slumped forward a moment later.
A bark of laughter escaped Gryton as she dropped where she stood. Only his gargoyle sire’s swift reflexes prevented the human from cracking her head.
“Hold your laughter for later,” Lillian said in a tone that wasn’t a suggestion. “She’s just overcome with the sudden stress on her body from absorbing so much magic. Living on Earth as she has, she hasn’t had to deal with the magic the three of us naturally give off. Plus, giving her a piece of your soul is another added stress. She now has a direct line to feed on you. You’re the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“A camel?” He was unfamiliar with the word.
His mother nodded and then touched his mind. Her power carried with it an image of the beast. A large and lumpy and ungainly creature. Ugly beyond measure. And if he wasn’t misunderstanding, the beast’s disposition was as unpleasant as its appearance.
Gryton gave his mother a beautiful smile.
“What did I say?” Her brows scrunched unhappily.
“A camel. You describe the human accurately. I shall be certain to put that to good use.”
“Don’t you dare. That’s not what I meant at all. It’s just a saying.” She went into a detailed explanation that he ignored, distracted by a new sensation. Well, not new. He’d felt it the first time the Null had approached him and poked him in the chest.
A chill shivered its way down his spine. Another followed fast on its heels. Shortly, his strength steadily drained away, and his knees grew weak. Bloody blight! She was feeding off him without even being conscious.
Cursing the Null to the Void, he took a wobbling step inside his cage and locked his knees. When he wasn’t sure that would keep him upright, he leaned against the nearest wall as if he was equal parts bored and confident. Though he was feeling anything but.
Worry gnawed at him. How much power did the Null need to devour before he lost consciousness? He despised being helpless. If he were going to collapse into a boneless heap, he’d prefer to do it when his mother wasn’t there to see it.
“Ah. You’re starting to feel it.” His mother reached out and placed a hand over part of the glyph marking his chest. “Better lie down before you fall down.”
Gryton just flashed his teeth at her. “I’m fine. A little weakness will not knock me flat.”
A frown marred her features, and then she planted her fists on her hips. “Fine. Be stubborn. You get that from your father.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Gregory, my love, bring the human here. Gryton will need her once she drains him dry.”
As Gryton watched his sire obey the Sorceress, he finally unbent enough to ask, “What are you talking about?”
“Young Nulls, new to their gift, will continue to feed until they glut themselves on power, only then will their bodies release it back into the surrounding environment. Normally, we would just separate you, but now that she has a piece of your soul, she’ll feed upon you, regardless. Or at least until she learns to master her new abilities.”
Gryton made a hissing sound of denial, but his mother just ignored him.
“To restore your strength, you’ll need her close so you can begin feeding off the energy she’ll release once she’s maxed out her gift’s ability to absorb.”
Narrowing his eyes, he glanced over her shoulder to watch his sire carrying the unconscious human toward his cell.
“No!” Gryton stumbled forward and then slammed his cage door shut. “You can keep the camel. I’d rather starve.”
The gargoyle merely stood outside the cage and gave him a toothy grin. “I can wait.”
Gryton returned his sire’s look with a glower, but the longer he stood there defiantly, the weaker he grew. Soon he was shaking with cold, and he had to grit his teeth to stop them from chattering.
With a muttered curse about the loathsomeness of gargoyles, he collapsed to his knees and bowed his head in a useless attempt to keep his vision from greying out.
One of the last things he heard was the cage door opening. Shortly he was dragged over to his sleeping pallet. A moment later, a warm body was being placed next to him. He managed to roll over and spear his father with one last hate-filled look.
The big idiot merely laughed. “I’ll be back to check on you later.”
Don’t be in any hurry on my account, Gryton thought as he glowered at the male.
He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, barely aware of his surroundings, but slowly the seemingly endless sensation of having his magic sucked away eased and then stopped altogether.
After a brief pause where nothing sinister happened, a warm and mellow power began flowing across his body and soul. It was the purest, most divinely pleasant substance he’d ever tasted. He instinctively wanted to curl around the source, but his body was still unresponsive to his commands.
Slowly it dawned upon him that his mother had been correct. The Null was already releasing some energy. When he blinked open his eyes, he could see ethereal tendrils of magic rising from her body like heat from the sands of a desert.
In time his strength returned enough to move a little. He reached out to grab some part of her so he could absorb the magic faster. His arm was still numb, his control minimal, but he flopped his hand around her neck.
After a time, warmth returned to his hand, and he curled his fingers around her throat. Briefly, the idea of strangling her flitted through his head. That would certainly ruin his sire and dam’s plans.
But if he killed the Null now, the delightful power would stop flowing into his body.
He couldn’t bring himself to do it.
With a sigh of defeat, he allowed himself just to rest and drink the power she cast off. It was peaceful.
Or at least until his senses expanded enough to realize his sire was still in the room.
“You’re still here?” The surly tone he’d been hoping for fell flat and the words came out in a broken and slurred tone.
“You thought I’d leave while the Null was vulnerable?” The gargoyle snorted with disdain.
“Vulnerable? The Null?” Gryton grimaced. “You’re demented.”
Gregory chuckled. “Apparently. Otherwise, you wouldn’t exist.”
Beside him, the Null moaned and jerked, coming to wakefulness.
“Since I know you won’t actually harm the Null, I’ll leave you both to finish recovering,” Gregory said with an accompanying little huff. “Your mother is likely growing weary of holding off the team of scientists wanting to run tests on you and your Null.”
“She’s not my Null,” Gryton hissed as he removed his hand from around her throat, but the outer door clicked softly, his father already gone.
Beside him, a second groan issued from the Null.
“What damn fool ran me down with a tank?”
There was more grunting and groaning. A moment later he received a sharp elbow in his side, then the Null was propping herself up. She looked around the cage, saw him sprawled out next to her, and then looked heavenward. “God, help me. How did I end up here?”
“I assure you this wasn’t the work of the Divine Father.”
She glowered at him and tried to sit up, only to collapse back down next to him a moment later.
“Never mind. Floor’s good.”
He almost laughed at her tone but held it back.
She turned her head toward him and then blinked several times as if having trouble focusing her vision. He could understand the feeling.
Presently his eyes were trying to convince him there were two Nulls in the cage.
She was blessedly silent for a time after that.
It didn’t last, and she turned to face him again. Her eyes lowered to gaze at his chest. He saw the question before she’d even put it into words. She was that easy to read. He stared up at the cage’s ceiling hoping she’d forget her question and just fall asleep.
“You never told me what the mark on your chest means.”
So much for that wish.
With a sigh, he turned from staring at the ceiling to spear her with a scornful look. “It’s a visual representation of my true name.”
“Gryton isn’t your real name?”
“No. But you’ve already gotten all you will ever get from me. You don’t get my true name.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “I’ll let that one slide. No one’s at their best after surgery. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Maybe we should start over?”
After spearing her with a second glower, Gryton turned on his side, facing the wall of his cage. While he might be unable to escape her, that didn’t mean he had to acknowledge she existed.
Strangely it helped to ignore her. He didn’t feel as vulnerable when he wasn’t looking at her, his rage and hatred cocooning him in a protective shell.
“Fine. Carry on being a jackass.”
“I shall.”
“Great. We’ll get along wonderfully. Mutually assured misery.” She muttered a few other things under her breath before she fell silent again. After a length of time, he sensed she’d lost the battle against sleep.
He rolled back over and glowered at her a moment before he wrapped one arm around her. At least now he could feed in peace.
Chapter 7
Gregory
“ARE YOU SURE HE’S MINE?” Gregory waited in the hall, peering through the partially open door into the chamber where Gryton was imprisoned. After Lillian had finished with Major Resnick and his superiors, she’d wanted to see for herself what he’d relayed to her about their son.
Lillian smacked his arm. “Of course Gryton is ours! All he needs is a little...” She stumbled to a halt before trying again. “Hmmm, that is... I am confident that he will learn to adjust. He’s just—”
“A prick?”
Lillian kept her face straight for ten seconds, and then she doubled over with laughter. “Goddess, he’s such a little diva. I never would have guessed it of the Battle Goddess’s most feared warrior.”
“Don’t call him that in the Null’s hearing. There will be no hope of peace between them.”
She wiped at the tears rolling down her face. “Goddess. Never tell him I said that. Gaining his trust has been so hard. And I do care for him. He is ours. Our son isn’t evil, not truly. He’ll come around in time.”
Gregory cocked an ear. “If he and the Null don’t kill each other first.”
“They won’t.” Lillian said the two words with a confidence Gregory didn’t feel.
“Still. It might be wise to station more guards.”
Lillian looked down the hall, her gaze lingering upon each soldier briefly. “There are already plenty of guards. Besides, I know he won’t hurt her.”
“How can you be so certain of that?”
“Because the Divine Ones placed her in his path.”
A skeptical snort escape Gregory.
Lillian shrugged. “We took away all his weapons.”
“He still has his fangs.”
His Sorceress’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of surprise.
“I’m joking. Gryton won’t rip the Null’s throat out. He likes his own hide too well and is wise enough to know if he hurts her or any of our allies, I will punish him unlike anything he’s experienced in his life.” Gregory paused when his mate arched a brow at him. “I’d think up a creative but non-lethal punishment, one where he’d be wishing for death.”
Lillian snorted and rolled her eyes. “We’ll check on him and his Null again soon. However, I have other plans this morning, since Resnick said we’d have the next three hours to ourselves.”
Free time? Gregor
y’s wings twitched at the news. Great Father! It had been more days than he could recall since the last time he’d taken flight.
“How have you managed such a miracle? Surely that is something even beyond the Divine Ones’ control.”
His Sorceress gave him a mischievous smile. “I may have alluded the spell binding Gryton to the Null would weaken us much more than it really would. I pleaded exhaustion.”
“My brilliant Sorceress, always planning for all scenarios.”
She gave him another mischievous grin. This one lit her eyes with mirth. “Actually. What I want to do next does have something to do with planning for the future. I want to visit my hamadryad.”
His heart did that happy little lurch it did every time he was reminded of the miracle that grew within the heart of her tree. Duty had them running in so many directions at once, they hadn’t been given the time he’d have liked to spend with his unborn daughter.
At the thought of his daughter, he glanced down at his left hand, gazing upon the simple gold band that encircled one of his fingers. He used his thumb to spin Lillian’s gift in a slow circle as he smiled. Marriage was never something he would have thought to propose to his other half, since they were already bound far more tightly than any ceremony could achieve. And, yet, he grinned, pleased by his Lady’s gesture. Soon he would set aside time alone to make her his own gift to pledge his troth.
Once they were outside, he called upon his shadow magic to hide their presence and then dropped to all fours. Lillian approached and gave his shoulder an affectionate thump before mounting. Then he was running toward the glade, his Sorceress on his back. All was right in his world.
Chapter 8
Lillian
CHUCKLING AT HER MATE’S baffled look, Lillian merely cut into a large bale of potting mix. Earlier she’d arranged fifteen pots on a bench near her hamadryad tree. As she worked, she was very much aware of Gregory’s confusion. She had the distinct impression he thought they would be doing something more physical than gardening.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 161