Lisa Blackwood [Blackwood - Gargoyle Awakening (Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset Book 1)

Gargoyle Awakening

Gargoyle & Sorceress Tales

Books 1 - 3

Lisa Blackwood

Table of Contents

Sorceress Awakening (Stones Kiss) 2011 by Lisa Smeaton

Sorceress Rising (Stones Song) 2014 by Lisa Smeaton

Sorceress Hunting (Stones Divide) 2015 by Lisa Smeaton

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and characters are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any print or electronic form without the author's permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Edition 1

BLURB

A modern sorceress and her medieval gargoyle protector battle evil and their own forbidden love in this action-packed contemporary fantasy series.

SORCERESS AWAKENING:

When Lillian finds herself facing off against other mythological impossibilities, help comes from an unlikely sourcethe stone gargoyle who has been sleeping in her garden for the last twelve years. In a heartbeat, her ordinary life becomes far more complicated, and if her overprotective, shape-shifting guardian is to be believed, theres an evil demi-goddess just waiting for the chance to enslave them both.

SORCERESS RISING:

Ignorance nearly killed Lillian once.

That time, shed known nothing of magic until Gregory, her Gargoyle Protector, awoke from his stone sleep and saved her from demons escaped from the Magic Realm. They defeated the demonic Riven at great personal cost, one that forced them both to hibernate for months while they mended.

Healed, Lillian wakes to a world greatly changed.

SORCERESS HUNTING:

Some victories feel more like defeat.

Lillian and Gregory may have defeated the demonic Riven, but human authorities are now aware that something equally as intelligent but far more deadly shares their world. To the Avatars dismay, this is not just a guns in the woods, boots on the ground kind of hunt. Scientists are spearheading this pursuit, and Lillian and Gregory are their intended targets.

If that wasnt complication enough, Lillians little brother, Shadowlight, saves the life of a female soldier and now he must hide his pet human from the other fae for her own safety.

Corporal Anna Makenzie is no pet, but shell be the first to admit, she feels fiercely protective toward the lonely young gargoyle, and if anyone messes with the kid, shell go full metal bitch all over their ass.

Sorceress Awakening

Chapter 1

L illian smoothed the oiled rag down the length of her grandmothers broadsword and frowned at the newly polished blade.

Hes stone. Just a damned statue, she muttered to the empty kitchen. Stone, nothing more.

The microwaves clock glowed pale green in the dim light. Not really wanting to know the exact time, she avoided focusing on the digits and returned to sweeping the rag across the blade in a rhythmic motion. I dont

Need him?

That was a lie, though, wasnt it?

Tension built behind her eyes and little flashes sparked in her vision, promising one hell of a headache in the making. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. It didnt help.

The scent of rich, warm coffee reached her a few seconds before the sound of gurgling announced the coffeemaker was finished. Lillian welcomed the distraction. After a few more swipes of the rag, she set the sword aside.

Polishing her grandmothers entire sword collection had seemed like a suitable task when shed jerked awake from a nightmare at some ungodly hour before dawn and couldnt get back to sleep. Usually, nightmares and insomnia didnt plague her, but there was something newa restlessness that reared its head every night just as the stars faded and the first pink tinted the sky with a hint of dawn.

Only one thing calmed the restlessnesssitting with him , her stone gargoyle.

All the signs pointed to the same problem. The inability to sleep, polishing her grandmothers sword collection in the middle of the night, wanting to spend hour after hour with a stone statue under the shadow of her favorite tree, a growing dependence on coffee Yep, shed lost her mind.

The solitude registered heavier now that her hands werent busy. Mechanically, she wandered over to the coffee pot and filled the largest mug she could find.

She was just putting the cream back when she noticed one of her grandmothers dog-eared romances sitting on top of the fridge, half-hidden under a pile of junk mail.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she eyed the romance. It was one of those hormones-take-notice, blush-inducing covers, complete with drops of water cascading down the heros picture-perfect chest. Gran always claimed a little escapism never hurt anyone. With a grin, Lillian tucked the paperback under her arm. As an afterthought, she scooped up her cell phone on her way to the back door.

Outside, the aircrisp with a hint of last nights foggreeted her nose. Gravel crunched under her shoes as she walked the twisting garden path. A cedar maze with twelve-foot-tall walls stretched out before her.

A few feet ahead, a tan-and-brown blur streaked across the gravel path. As she followed the resident chipmunk deeper into the living corridors, her earlier worries fell away.

Reaching the mazes middle, she came to a small clearing ringed by upright, waist-high stones. At its center, a juvenile redwood grew strong and proud, dwarfing its surroundings. Ten feet from the trees trunk, a stone statue lurked, partially concealed by dense shadows.

He crouched over his stone perch with a knee resting on the pedestal and his wings mantled around him like a cloak. While his one hand rested on his raised knee, his other arm gripped his side in a rather odd position for a sculpture.

It saddened her a little, for there was a narrowness about his squinted eyes and a crease in his brow that hinted at pain. Interestingly, he didnt look beaten. His shoulders were broad, head proud, legs corded with muscle, strength and majesty in his every line.

Hello, old friend. She looked up into his face, with its burly muzzle and curving fangs. His muzzle merged flawlessly into wide cheekbones. Large eyes were hooded by a broad forehead. Crowning his head were two massive horns that curved back and up like an African waterbucks. A thick mane of hair flowed in a stony river midway down his back.

The gargoyle was one of her first childhood memories. At the age of eight, after a near-drowning accident stole her memories, shed been drawn to the stone statue as if he was pivotal to her survival.

Lillian had always assumed her strange need to be near him was a result of her childhood trauma.

She brushed a few spider webs and tree needles from his pedestal. Then, like shed done since childhood, she climbed up the stand to settle upon the gargoyles knee. While he was a little cold and hard, he still made a good chair. She opened the book and leaned back against his arm.

Lillian jerked awake to the sound of her book crunching against the gravel. Her heel slipped off the edge of the pedestal, and with a desperate grab at a stone arm, she avoided joining her book on the ground.

Insomnia going to break my neck my own damn fault.

She grumbled while she climbed down and hunched over to pick up her book. Straightening, she realized shed slept half the morning away.

I suppose I should get back to work, she told the stone gargoyle with a pat to his knee. Goodbye, my old friend.

Shed only just exited her sanctuary when she skidded to a halt. A stranger dressed in a gray business suit strolled along the garden path to her left. Hands clasped behind his back, he studied the perennials on either side of him.