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

by Lisa Blackwood

  Even with what his sire and dam had just revealed, he still couldn’t see the Null as anything other than the talkative mortal who enjoyed picking away at his mental armor or crawling around inside his head looking for interesting tidbits.

  He just couldn’t see her as older and wiser than him.

  “Being picked for the role of a Null is a great honor,” Lillian continued. “The Divine Ones only ever pick an ancient soul they’ve known for a very long time. They never trust that kind of power to a less tested spirit.”

  “Well, guess I couldn’t have asked for a more interesting destiny.” The Null turned her gaze back to him. “Buck up. Maybe this lifetime will be a grand adventure. Think of all the fun we’ll have. A girl and her dragon.”

  “Mortal, I am not your dragon. And once we engage with the Battle Goddess’s army, there will be more ‘fun’ than you know what to do with. I mentored the captains and oversaw the training of all those under their command. Fighting them will not be fun. It will be a ‘world of pain’ that you’ll be facing.”

  “World of pain?” She smirked. “Now who has been poking around in other peoples’ heads?”

  He grinned, his lips stretching wide to show his fangs. “I admit guilt in this instance.”

  The Null was watching him with renewed interest. “I still like the Divine Ones and their ‘girl and dragon’ idea.”

  “I. Am. Not. Your. Dragon.”

  “We’ll see.” Her smirk was back in place. “By the way, if you’re a dragon, like your parents say, why don’t you ever shift to dragon form?”

  Her grin faltered suddenly, and he knew she’d seen the stricken look that had flashed across his features before he could regain control. He stared her down, not wanting to talk about it.

  She glanced around and then lowered her voice. “I’m sorry if my thoughtless words upset you. It’s none of my business why you don’t shapeshift.”

  Had the Null just apologized to him? He couldn’t have been more surprised if his gargoyle father had told him he loved him.

  But then he surprised himself more by reaching out for their soul-link and telling her something he’d never told another soul. “I don’t dare shift. My dragon is too powerful. Too chaotic. If I ever shifted to my natural form, I would lose everything I’ve fought so hard to gain. My hard-won control. Mastery over myself. Everything I am would be gone.”

  She reached out to him and rested her hands on his shoulders, her gaze as serious as he’d ever seen it. “Then I’ll do everything in my power as a Null to make sure the dragon never gets the upper hand.”

  His lips parted, a ‘thank you’ on the tip of his tongue, but he closed his mouth before the new weakness had him uttering the words.

  “You’re welcome anyway, you prickly bastard.” Then she grinned and thumped his back. “Oh, look. I think your dad wants to try kicking your ass in the practice ring again.”

  Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the Null wasn’t wrong. Gregory was approaching with a huge gargoyle grin and a wooden practice sword.

  Chapter 36

  Vaspara

  “THIS IS MADNESS,” BERVICTA hissed as they carefully picked their way through one of the forests of this world in the Mortal Realm. Vaspara couldn’t disagree with her harpy friend. It was more like a suicide mission than madness, but she didn’t correct her companion.

  “No matter the outcome, it will be a win as far as the Battle Goddess is concerned.” Vaspara skirted a large tree trunk and surveyed the land again. They had only run into one patrol of human soldiers. They’d kept clear because they weren’t sure what the humans of this world were capable of, but they remembered Gryton’s tales from his time here.

  If the humans could do him harm, Bervicta and Vaspara didn’t want to risk getting discovered yet. They’d be fighting humans soon enough, anyway.

  “How so?” Bervicta asked. “You’re much more likely to die than kill Gryton. Hence my ‘this plan is madness’ argument. A suicide mission at least has a hope of success before death. I don’t know what the Battle Goddess was thinking.”

  Vaspara snorted wryly.

  “I’m not insulting your skills. But Gryton is a force of nature and has somehow aligned himself with the Avatars.”

  “He could talk the skin off a wolf,” Vaspara agreed, but after a moment her smile slowly died. “The Battle Goddess’s plan is actually rather brilliant. If I assassinate Gryton with the djinn’s spell, his death throes will consume this planet. If I fail, I’ll die. Yet my death won’t be by Taryin or the Battle Goddess’s hand. I’ll have died as many other captains before have died, perishing in an attempt to increase our goddess’s glory. They will revere my name.” Bitterness bled across her words. “Sorac will never know the truth.”

  “Glory.” The harpy scoffed. “A slave to Taryin and the djinn more like.”

  “No one else knows that.”

  “Besides me. Which is likely why I’m here. If I die ‘gloriously’ all the better.”

  Vaspara sobered further. “I’m sorry you got pulled into this death’s mission.”

  “Ah well, I’ve lived a long time. Better to die a clean death at the hands of our enemies than be devoured by the blood witch.” The harpy unfurled her wings and gave them a little shake as she stretched. “And just what is Gryton, exactly, that he’ll transform into a bleeding sun at his death! You think he was sired by one of the ancient demons from the void? But he can’t be that. The Avatars would have killed him already if he was one of them. While the Avatars mostly ignore minor demons like incubi and succubi, they never turn a blind eye to soul eaters.”

  “Gryton wasn’t sired by a demon from the void. It’s worse than that. Or better. Depends what side of the fight you’re on.”

  “How do you know?”

  “The djinn told Sorac and me.” Vaspara scanned the land around them as she walked. When she was sure no patrols were within sight, she answered the harpy’s question. “Gryton is the son of the Avatars.”

  “What?! Another demigod like the Twins?”

  “No. Not like the twins. He wasn’t born of Divine will. The Avatars slipped up and broke their big vow. Though I think Gryton is powerful enough to still be called a demigod.”

  The harpy was silent for a long time. After a while, she shook her head. “I’m speechless.”

  “Sorac and I were as well when we first learned about Gryton’s parentage.”

  “Don’t suppose we’ll live long enough to see him and ask how he hid that for all these years.”

  “No, not likely.” Vaspara’s throat tightened. It wasn’t the thought of death that made her want to cry. She’d known she’d die in battle one day. But she’d always envisioned that death would occur with Sorac beside her.

  But then they’d escaped with his clutch, and she’d allowed herself to hope for something more, to admit her love for the big drake and even embrace his love.

  Now she was walking toward death without Sorac. She’d never see him or their draklings again. Worse was knowing the pain he’d experience when he’d learned the Battle Goddess had created a portal spell and spirited her off to this mortal world on a suicide mission.

  She’d never have the chance to tell him goodbye, and that she didn’t regret loving him.

  “Patrol ahead,” Bervicta warned, drawing Vaspara out of her despair.

  Vaspara nodded and then vowed to get her head in the battle to come.

  Soon the number of human patrols increased, making Vaspara and Bervicta work harder to keep themselves hidden.

  Eventually, they arrived at a tree-covered rise overlooking a town. More forest encircled the town, surrounding it on three sides. There were many of the strange, perfectly smooth roads leading in and out. Horseless carriages moved up and down them in both directions.

  “We should stay clear of the roads,” the harpy suggested. “Too much traffic. We might not hear the patrols until too late.”

  “Agreed.” Together they made their way deeper
into enemy territory, led by the assassin spell the djinn had implanted in Vaspara. It allowed her to sense Gryton’s location. Though sometimes he seemed to just drop out of existence altogether, only to return a few hours later like he’d just reappeared.

  “It’s strange. He keeps vanishing, but I’m not sensing any kind of portal spell that would suggest he’s gone back to the Magic Realm. Then, a while later, he reappears. That’s the third time it has happened.”

  “No one has enough magic to waste building that many portal spells. It must be something else about this world. There’s a lot of death metal deep below our feet, and it’s even built into their dwellings. Perhaps they’ve imprisoned Gryton in some kind of cage made from that iron.”

  Vaspara shrugged. It was a more plausible explanation than Gryton popping into the Magic Realm randomly. “I still don’t like it.”

  “I like nothing about this mission. Too bad no one asked me.”

  Vaspara glanced sideways and smiled at the other woman. “You are a good friend, thank you.”

  “Friend? I don’t have friends. Friendship is a luxury no captain can afford. Falling in love has softened more than just your heart if you ask me.”

  Vaspara snorted again but just shook her head and continued through the forest until they came to the edge of the town.

  “You should stay here. It will be easy to see from here if I succeed. And if I fail, you’ll still be far enough away from all the action to escape back to the Magic Realm and report my failure.”

  “Yeah. Because that will be good for my continued longevity.”

  Vaspara clapped her hands to her friend’s shoulders. “But you’ll survive a little longer, maybe blame Taryin for not being able to control her pet djinn well enough to force him to build a reliable assassin spell.”

  “Worth a try.”

  “And... and perhaps if you see Sorac again, you can tell him I met a quick, clean death at the hands of Gryton or the Avatars.”

  “Of course.”

  “And tell him I love him.”

  The harpy snorted. “He already knows that. Has known it far longer than you, I’d bet. But I’ll tell him for you.”

  “Thank you.” Vaspara sniffed and firmed her spine. “Don’t stick around once you know if I succeeded or failed. If I succeed, you might have a chance to escape depending on how long the Avatars can contain Gryton. Perhaps you’ll even make it back through the portal spell before he destroys this world. Goodbye, Bervicta.”

  “See you in the next life, Old Friend.” Bervicta’s words were so soft Vaspara barely heard them, but she did, and they somehow gladdened her heart.

  Chapter 37

  Erika

  TENSION LAY THICK IN the air. Or perhaps that was just late-season humidity, Erika mused. Neither one was particularly welcome, but she couldn’t do much about either. The Avatars were making final preparations for their journey back to the Magic Realm to face a demigod and determine if he was friend or foe. Hence the tension in the military camp.

  Erika was still foggy on some details but got the gist. The Avatars had been very naughty, and Gryton was the forbidden fruit of the union. Now the death god was after Gryton because of orders from the Divine Ones.

  Hmmm. Nothing like walking into a trap. But it had to be done. They needed to know where the demigod and the Avatars stood. As for Thayn, Anna, and Obsidian, they seemed fine. But then again, she’d known them only a few days. Not exactly enough time to really get to know a person’s true motives.

  “Are you recovered enough from yesterday for another lesson in swordplay, Null?”

  She stepped into the ring and saluted him with her wooden sword. “I’m always ready for anything, Hot Stuff.”

  While she didn’t know the motives of the others. Gryton was another matter. His motivation was only too clear: survive at any cost.

  While his headspace was the stuff of nightmares and he’d taken part in horrific things, he hadn’t had a lot of choice in his... career path. He’d had to align himself with the Lady of Battles or die. And his will to survive was too strong to surrender himself to Lord Death.

  If she was honest with herself, she felt pity for Gryton. Most of his actions were not those of an evil man. He didn’t glory in death and pain and destruction. And while ambition drove him, it was more to prove he was the master of himself. No little feat considering what he’d started out as.

  And then there were the other memories, those where he’d mentored and sheltered those under him, even taking punishments onto himself. Many times, he’d acted as a buffer between an insane demigoddess’s rage and those he commanded. In no way could that have been an easy life.

  In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized what a lonely life he’d led. From the moment of his birth, he’d been an outcast, an abomination, hunted by all, loved by none.

  He had no friends, no trusted ally he could unburden his soul to. There had been a few captains who likely would have made good friends and companions if he’d ever allowed anyone into his heart. But he viewed such emotions as a threat to his defenses, a weakness to be hunted and eradicated.

  Anna and Obsidian called him Tin Man. That was more accurate than they might realize.

  “If you only had a heart, Tin Man.”

  “What are you yammering on about?” Gryton growled.

  “I said, if you only had a heart, Tin Man, I’d put this sword through it.”

  “And I’d burn that practice sword to ash long before you found my heart.” Humor flashed in his eyes. “Besides, you’d first have to actually be able to land a strike, Null.”

  She flipped him the bird with her left hand, while her right thrust the point of her wooden sword toward his belly. He’d relinquished his scaled armor this morning and was wearing army fatigues, willingly of all things. It gave her something other than impenetrable armor to hit.

  Which was easier said than done. The jackass was lighter on his feet than a dancer or martial artist. Yesterday he’d just been playing with her, allowing her to block a few of his strikes. Today he’d already walloped her at least five times.

  “I’ll be black and blue by the time you’re bored with this whoopin’ session,” she accused.

  “No, you won’t. You’re a Null. Your body is absorbing most of the energy of my strikes before it can damage your flesh, just like it would with magic.”

  “Bullshit. The strikes still hurt.”

  “I said most of the energy. Not all.” He grinned and caught her across the shoulder with the flat of his sword this time. “The pain is good. It will motivate you to move faster. And the reflexes you hone here today might save your life in the future.”

  “You just enjoy beating on me.”

  “I won’t deny that.”

  He suddenly flashed his fangs at her, which was never a good sign. “Now let’s start.”

  “Start? What the heck was the last ten minutes?”

  “Warm-up.”

  He then showed her the difference. Erika only kept her feet because she ran away from more than one of his attacks.

  “The point of the practice ring is that you’re supposed to stay within a defined space until you’re good enough to take your skills out into the real world where other obstacles and adversaries are waiting to trip you up and dispatch your sorry hide.”

  Erika grunted in surprise as she backed into one of the standing stones that circled the hamadryad, proving his point most eloquently. The tip of his wooden sword pressed against her throat.

  Cursing, she glared at him and then spat out, “You waited to time that just right, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  She met his next two strikes and then darted away, jogging backward across the long grass to get away from him and give her arm a rest. Crossing swords with him was like dueling with a plane’s propeller, his blade whirling fast enough to seem like three.

  “You need to pay more attention to your surroundings,” he offered helpfully just as
she backed into one of the maze’s green walls.

  She rolled out of the way a moment before Gryton’s wooden sword slashed deep into the green walls. When he extracted it, a portion of the greenery fell to the ground.

  “Shit! Were you trying to take my head with that last one?”

  “No, this is just a little bit of—” Gryton bit off his last word as his gaze darted to something behind her.

  She almost fell for it too. “Oh. Not this time, Hot Stuff.”

  Bringing her sword up, she leaped forward. Gryton moved faster, shoving her behind him even as his scaled armor flowed across his body, covering every bit of his exposed skin. A moment later the wooden sword he’d held burned to ash and two swords made of fire appeared in his hands.

  He and his new opponent—an adversary Erika hadn’t seen coming—came together in a rush of sparks and flame.

  Erika scrambled to her feet and looked for a real weapon, but everything was over on the table by the practice ring. The rest of Gryton’s detail rushed forward, guns raised, but Gryton and the newcomer—a blonde female—moved too fast, twisting and lunging and circling each other, magic rising from the ground to partially obscure them, never giving the soldiers a clean shot at the blonde intruder.

  “Get down!” Erika bellowed at Gryton even as she sprinted for her gun. But it was clear he couldn’t stop moving long enough to allow any of the unit to get a shot off.

  Erika once again found herself in Gryton’s mind and suddenly had a better understanding of what was happening. The newcomer was one of the Battle Goddess’s captains. She’d once been one of the few he’d counted as an ally.

  While she was no longer his ally, Gryton had already spotted one reason why. Seeing through his eyes, Erika witnessed the coiling, leech-like magic crawling across the woman’s body. The way the magic shifted and moved it was almost like...

  “Like she’s being controlled?” Gryton’s voice was suddenly in her head. “Because she is. That is blood magic.”