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

by Lisa Blackwood

  Her little brother sniffed Gregory over and gave a little whine, but he didn’t say anything aloud. However, his eyes asked a great pleading question.

  “Gregory,” she asked, not really wanting to give him something else to worry or feel guilty over, but both she and Shadowlight needed to know. “Can our father heal from what Gryton did to him?”

  “Gryton is more formidable than I had.... expected. But Darkness is old and powerful, too. All gargoyles have a choice when they are mortally injured. Return to the Lord of the Underworld in spirit form and then be reborn or sleep the stone sleep. I am sorry. Either way will take him out of your lives for many years. He is stone, so he chose to stay with his family. Even if he cannot be a flesh and blood father to either of you, he is here in spirit. Your father loves you both very much.”

  “I was not sure if he did love me because of what the Battle Goddess made me into,” Shadowlight confessed. “Thank you for telling me this.”

  Anna came forward and patted Shadowlight awkwardly on one shoulder but remained silent.

  “He loves you both more than his own life,” Gregory answered.

  Lillian continued to sit and guard her beloved long after Shadowlight, followed by the ever-watchful Anna, had returned to his pacing between River and Darkness.

  Gran arrived at some point in the company of yet more soldiers. Lillian recognized Major Resnick. If there were more brass with him, she didn’t recognize them.

  Resnick and Gran worked to keep the peace and coordinate the two different factions. By some miracle, and maybe it was divine intervention, the fae and the humans held to the earlier alliance. It may have helped that the hamadryad was healing both human and fae survivors, showing no preference between the two.

  Lillian was far too tired to care. She rested her muzzle on her forearms and closed her eyes. She didn’t sleep deeply though, still not trusting the uneasy peace, and her ears tracked every sound in the glade.

  Chapter 42

  SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Lillian had awakened in dryad form after having fallen asleep even after telling herself she wouldn’t. She never knew if it was a dream, or simply the act of sleep itself which triggered her to shift from gargoyle back to dryad form. That was a question to ask Gregory another time.

  Gran had told her the scientists were practically tripping over each other to get her reverse shift on tape.

  Lillian frowned at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

  Yeah, she was sure there was going to be scientists and military and complex politics in her future. Luckily, Gran was dealing with that mess for the moment.

  For the rest of this night, all she had to face was a long, hot bubble bath, where she planned to soak away the day’s worries along with the aches of her abused body. Her hand strayed to her belly, still marveling at the life which grew there.

  Gregory had checked her over as soon as he was healed and back on his feet and proclaimed their child was still a strong life force within her.

  The relief which had washed over her had left her weak-kneed and ridiculously happy. That mellow warmth had stayed with her all the way back to the house and up the stairs. It had even survived watching Gregory strip and step into the shower where the powerful showerheads washed away the layers of dried blood and loam to show her the raised ridges of pale scar tissue crisscrossing his body.

  Her beautiful gargoyle looked like someone had cut him up and sewn him back together.

  “They’ll fade again in a few days,” Gregory said as he stepped out of the shower.

  “Do they still hurt?”

  Of course they did, she scolded herself. How could they not?

  Gregory shrugged. “They still ache a little. The warmth of the shower helped.”

  He turned to the vanity and hunted through the drawers for a comb to tame the wild mess of his mane.

  Her eyes slid sideways to her bubble bath and then back to Gregory. The heat of the water would do him good. It was a big Jacuzzi-type tub. She went over and sat on one of the steps leading up to it, and then eyed Gregory’s large form again.

  “Come here.” She patted the step next to her.

  “There are certainly more comfortable places to sit,” he said with an accompanying flick of his tail.

  “How comfortable is it to rest on your wings? Do you think you could fit?” she gestured at the tub again. “The heat would do you good.”

  He looked like he was going to shake his head, so she decided to sweeten the deal. “I’ll groom your mane for you while you soak.”

  Gregory huffed softly and then walked over to the tub. He discarded the towels he’d already wrapped around his hips and stepped into the water without a word. Lillian turned her head to the side so he wouldn’t see her grin.

  When he relaxed back into the water, she scooted behind his head, and equipped with a comb, began work on his mane. She’d only taken three sweeps at the task when Gregory reached behind him and stroked her leg where it was draped over the side into the water.

  Wordlessly, he reached for the other leg and then arranged them both, so they draped over his shoulders and then allowed the heels to rest against his pectorals. She sighed when he started to rub them in a skillful massage.

  “Foot massage in payment for untangling this mess,” Lillian tapped the comb playfully against one of his horns. “Sounds about right to me.”

  He rumbled out a wordless agreement as he worked.

  As much as she enjoyed the foot rub and grooming his mane, only a part of Lillian’s attention was on the tasks at hand. When she closed her eyes, what played over and over on the backs of her lids was seeing Gregory about to be torn apart by a magic that was his birthright. He’d been going to sacrifice himself to save the rest of them.

  It was noble and brave, but she didn’t want him to die for her.

  She wanted him to live to raise their child.

  She wanted him as her mate, wanted them to live a long and happy lifetime together.

  And she’d come far too close to losing him.

  Lillian leaned down and pressed a kiss to first one horn and then the other. Gregory paused in his massage and tilted his face back to study her. Then decided, she pulled her feet from his grasp and turned sideways so she could stand and come around the side.

  He was still looking up at her questioningly, though he had to know what she was thinking. Untying her robe, she shrugged it off her shoulders. Underneath she was naked. Gregory inhaled, his lips parting to better take in her scent.

  Leaning forward, she braced her hands against his shoulders and placed kisses along the side of his face and neck. He rumbled and returned the favor, wrapping his hands around her hips to help her balance.

  There was a ripple in the suds, and then his tail emerged from the depths and slid along her right leg from ankle to hip and back again before it coiled around the calf to anchor her in place. Not that she felt the least bit like running away. Gregory rumbled again and dragged her closer until she was in danger of losing her balance and falling into the tub with him.

  “Hmmm, love, that would likely be painful for all parties.”

  The way his brow furrowed was almost comical. “Strange little dryad, I have no plans to let you come to harm anytime soon.”

  He hoisted her down into the tub with him. Lillian squealed, but it quickly changed to a surprised gasp as Gregory settled her in his lap. She tried to keep some of her weight supported in her arms so she wouldn’t knee him too badly somewhere sensitive. “I hadn’t intended for this to...I mean I know you’re dead tired. I don’t expect you to...”

  Gregory laughed, shaking her entire body. “Nor had I intended anything more than playfulness. In truth, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to...perform as required. However, I very much like the direction this is taking. Let’s see if we can make this work.”

  He kissed her again, shifting her closer. The position wedged her knees to either side of his hips, and it left little up to the imagination, and she leaned f
orward to kiss him in return. When he finally cupped her breasts, she sighed out his name and allowed herself to relax against him. Even if neither of them was at their best, it could only be good between them.

  He slowly rocked against her, the solid heat of him hotter than the bathwater. “I can’t guarantee stamina, but I’m more than willing to brave an attempt,” he rumbled in her ear.

  “I love you,” she said in between kisses and nips as she caressed him.

  Gregory rumbled his own deep-throated words of love, and then there was no more talking for a long time, only soft kisses, groans, and laughter. And lots of splashing.

  Chapter 43

  A HEAVY-HANDED KNOCKING roused Lillian enough to lift her head off Gregory’s well-muscled chest. Whoever was on the other side of the door better have a damn good reason.

  “If the Lord of the Underworld and the Lady of Battles are not, at this very moment, fighting to the death on the front lawn,” Gregory growled at the door. “I’m going to eat someone.”

  There was a stretch of silence, and then shuffling outside the door. Lillian heard Gran’s voice scolding someone. “Get out of my way.”

  “Sure,” Jason whispered back. “Better you than me. Gregory didn’t sound too happy about being disturbed.”

  The door handle wiggled, but the door didn’t open. Lillian had wised up and started locking it. Gregory had laughed at her last night.

  She arched a brow at him. “See? Told you. Not even twenty-four hours of peace. My bet is the scientists want us to pee in a cup.”

  “Humans are strange.”

  “And gargoyles aren’t?”

  The knocking came again. Harder. Gran this time.

  “Get out here, or you two are going to miss all the action. The hamadryad is up to something.”

  Gregory lunged out of bed so fast it bounced. Lillian jumped to her feet as well.

  He was already tying on his beaded loincloth. Lillian was just a step behind him when she pulled on the first thing that came to hand—a sundress.

  What had Gran sounding so flustered? More importantly, what was her hamadryad up to now? Had she returned Gryton?

  She raced after Gregory as they made their way downstairs and out the back door. He dropped to all fours and soon outdistanced Lillian. In dryad form, she couldn’t keep up with him, and he was so focused on his destination, he was ignoring the warning flares from the tattoos.

  Well, hell. Even breaking into a sprint, Lillian barely kept the tip of his tail in sight. She raced after him, calling his name, but he ignored her. By the time she cleared the maze and crossed the distance to her tree, Gregory was already there. He reared up to stand on two legs, his wings mantled out behind him in shocked surprise.

  Lillian joined him, wishing she’d thought to grab a sword or some other weapon.

  Inching out around his wings, she peered at her tree, not sure what she was expecting to see. But the gaping, bloody crevasse in the hamadryad’s trunk wasn’t it. The greater surprise was the slim line of a leg emerging from the trunk. It was pale, and blood covered, but human-looking. The rest of the body followed suit, extracting itself—no herself, for the body was female—from the hamadryad’s embrace.

  Lillian might as well have been a statue. All she could do was stand and stare at the woman, too shocked to do anything else.

  The woman held up a hand and studied her arm, wiggling the fingers and then glanced down at the rest of her nude, blood-smeared body. She compressed her lips at the sight of the blood, or maybe it was the nudity part. Lillian had no idea, but with a wave of one hand, the bloody residue of her birth disappeared.

  Now the stranger was merely naked. It didn’t seem to bother her overly much as she took a couple of wobbling steps from the base of the tree. Lillian noted how the stranger grasped one of the branches, using it to steady her first few steps. Her newborn-like lack of coordination didn’t look like it was going to stop her from achieving her goal, which to Lillian’s unsettling realization was Gregory.

  The destination shouldn’t have been a surprise. Lillian had always been drawn to Gregory’s presence even when he’d been a stone statue in Gran’s garden. So, it made perfect sense this stranger would be equally drawn to him.

  Lillian’s own throat had closed off to the point where swallowing past the lump in her throat was nearly as impossible as unclenching her locked jaw. All she could do was watch in a kind of dreadful fascination as the stranger made it halfway to Gregory.

  He merely watched her approach, outwardly calm, but his tail flicked with excitement and his wings tremored with each beat of his great heart. If he’d been a dog, he would have been thumping his tail and wiggling with happiness at first sight of his beloved owner.

  Lillian’s heart dropped to her toes, and she broke out in a clammy sweat, seeing more than her happy future with Gregory evaporate as her clone held out her hand and gestured him forward.

  So, the hamadryad had found a solution to the problem of the tattoos.

  Gregory had said she would. Yet, Lillian didn’t think even he had guessed the tree would do this. The fae standing around seemed equally shocked.

  “Durnathyne, my Hunting Shadow, my other half, I have missed you,” the clone said in Lillian’s own voice.

  “My Sorceress,” Gregory answered, emotion thickening his voice as he swooped into a deep old-world bow.

  The other fae took their cue from Gregory and bowed to the Sorceress.

  When Gregory straightened, he gave a little shudder and then dropped to all fours and bounded over to Lillian’s twin.

  “Beloved,” he said as he gathered her to him, sheltering her in his vast wings. “Forgive me, had I known, I would have been here sooner.”

  “There is nothing to forgive.”

  The Sorceress turned her gaze to Lillian, a hint of pity showed in her eyes.

  Lillian didn’t bow, and she damn sure wasn’t going to let this one see her tears. Instead, she returned her replacement’s pitying regard with her own steely gaze, and said, “Welcome to the Mortal Realm, Sorceress. It takes some getting used to, I’m told.”

  And so too would this, Lillian thought.

  But she’d survived everything else fate and the Divine Ones had thrown at her, she’d damn well survive this also.

  Lillian, Gregory, Shadowlight and Corporal Anna Mackenzie’s adventures will continue in

  Sorceress at War.

  SORCERESS AT WAR

  By Lisa Blackwood

  A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale

  Book 4

  SORCERESS AT WAR

  Back Cover

  War is coming. The Lady of Battles will have it no other way.

  Lillian and Gregory fear the demigoddess is already moving her pawns and dark knights into place, preparing for the first strike. Earth must be ready, but first Lillian needs to ensure that the uneasy alliance between the Fae and the human military does not fail. Every ally is needed if earth is to have any hope of surviving the coming war.

  As fate draws friends and enemies closer together, one new player has appeared unexpectedly—Lillian’s new doppelganger. She isn’t certain if it’s pure, old-fashioned jealousy or something more sinister that has her watching the newly cloned Sorceress with distrust, but the fact remains that her doppelganger’s allegiance remains mysterious.

  For the good of the alliance, Lillian needs to find out if this new Sorceress is on their side, playing for the Battle Goddess, or if she has an agenda of her own—one that no one can predict.

  Prologue

  BEHIND HER, THE HAMADRYAD’S bark creaked softly as it slid back into place, closing the fissure from which she’d just emerged. As she took in her new surroundings, she flexed her toes in the soft grass of the Mortal Realm.

  The small glade she found herself in was quiet. The only noise was the soft rustle of her hamadryad’s needles as the tree shifted her branches out of the way. Yet, she was far from alone.

  Other Fae and mortals looked on, silen
t and full of tension.

  Were they too shocked to speak?

  Well, she supposed, it wasn’t every day that they witnessed a dryad being born into the world.

  She dismissed the other onlookers. Even had they shouted and yelled, or otherwise acted aggressively toward her, she still wouldn’t have paid them much mind, considering them relatively harmless in the rich fabric of the universe.

  Her attention focused on her gargoyle protector.

  He was all that mattered. The one constant in her existence. Presently, he was standing next to her firstborn body, that of a young dryad. Her beloved protector’s expression was understandably startled.

  She’d surprised him.

  A rarity in their long existence together.

  Typically, they thought as one mind. He knew what she was thinking long before she acted. But this plan was one she’d only put in to motion a day ago.

  Yesterday, when she still thought with the slow, steady determination of a hamadryad tree, it had not occurred to her to give her other half some warning. But then again, perhaps it was for the best. After all, if even the other half of her soul hadn’t guessed her plan, then it made it all the more likely that their enemies would not be expecting this either.

  As she took her first faltering steps, relearning how to move her new body, memories unfolded in her mind. Oh, yes, she’d had a name. Her beloved gargoyle had called her Daryna in her last life.

  She stumbled over a bit of uneven ground and nearly fell. Weakness coursed through her body until she felt as feeble as a newborn foal. That wasn’t a surprise. She’d just been born. Unfortunately, there was more to it than that. The dire situation in the Mortal Realm had required her to act, but the only way to do so was to clone her dryad’s body to house the soul and power of an Avatar. She’d been forced to grow this body to maturity far too swiftly.