Unlike the bridesmaids, who were shoved in a closet with a sheet for a door, the brides at Vicki’s Bridal got an entire room to themselves to shimmy into their gowns. I rapped softly on the six-panel door.
Alaina’s voice filtered through softly, “Come in.”
I grasped the polished brass handle and pushed open the door. Like a delicate swan, she turned her head in my direction. Her auburn waves were pinned back in an elegant twist to reveal the bare porcelain skin of her neck and shoulders. The beaded strapless bodice molded to her. At her hips the dress belled out in ruffle after ruffle of chiffon and taffeta. The traditional white dress got a splash of color from the fuchsia sash tied around her waist. On the side of it were three full, pink flowers.
Despite how stunning she looked, her forehead creased with concern. “What do you think? Will Gabe like it?”
I crossed to her and fastened the top two buttons she had missed. “How could he not? You look like a princess. His princess.”
She peered back at her reflection and exhaled through pursed lips. Her hands smoothed the cascading waves of her skirt. “It’s not at all like what the women wore on their wedding day during my time.”
I got a pit in my stomach that Kendall may have forced her fashion sense. “But you like it, right?”
She nodded, but doubt swirled in her eyes. “I do. I really do. It’s a gorgeous dress and fitting for this point in time. What I always envisioned myself getting married in wouldn’t have.”
I gave her shoulders a quick squeeze. “As long as you’re sure you’re happy with it. But honestly, you could walk down the aisle in Gabe’s football jersey and he’d still think you were the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.”
“Actually, I think he’d prefer the jersey,” Alaina giggled. The tension she’d been holding in her shoulders relaxed a little. “Would you please help me with my veil? For the life of me I can’t figure out how to get it to stay on.”
“Not sure I’m the right person for that job. Any fashion related issues are strictly Kendall territory. But I’ll give it my best shot.” I bent down and extracted the veil from its box on the floor. The thin tiara was a collage of tasteful crystal and pearl flowers with long sheer lace that trailed from the back. Just as I stood to fluff out the fabric, a loud, dragging, scratch shook the wall behind me. The hair on the back of my neck tried to stand on end but a flower the size of a dinner plate weighed it down.
My head whipped in Alaina’s direction. “Did you hear that?”
“Maybe it was a mouse?”
The noise came again, this time more pronounced and deliberate. It began at the top of the wall by the mirror and drew down to the floor with enough force to knock bits of plaster free.
“That’s no mouse.” I grabbed Alaina by the shoulders and shoved her toward the door. “Get my mom and Grams out of here now, and tell Keni I’m gonna need her.”
The ominous dragging began again. A chunk of drywall gave way and something black and shiny jutted through, and then quickly disappeared back into the wall.
Alaina squealed and slapped both hands over her mouth. “How do I get your mother out of here without alarming her?”
I kept my tone calm and assertive. “Alaina, you’re the bride. What you say goes. If you go out there and tell them you forgot your special wedding bra and can’t possibly get an accurate fitting without it, they’ll jump to get it for you. Now pull it together and go!”
She gathered up her billowing skirt and bolted down the hall.
I heard the awed gasps of my mother and Grams when Alaina made her entrance. Then two beats later the doorbell at the front of the store chimed. Alaina had accomplished her objective.
The noisemaker apparently gained a partner—or three. The foreboding drag now emanated from four different spots on the wall.
Kendall sauntered into the room, shut the door behind her, and with a roll of her shoulders released her wings. “See? Told ya this dress would look fab with them.”
“Not really the time, Keni.” I jerked my head at the crumbling wall.
“What is it?”
“No idea.”
As suddenly as the noise began, it stopped. Movement of any kind ceased. We had fought enough demons to know that nothing good ever follows a silence like this. Kendall arched her wings up high behind her. I brought my arms up and balled my hands into fists, just as the wall in front of us exploded with enough force to shake the ground under our feet. Kendall pivoted and shielded us both from the shower of plaster chunks that assaulted the room. A spider so big its back grazed the ceiling emerged from the blown out wall covered in a white haze of drywall dust.
“No! No way! I wasn’t crazy about the dragon, but I draw the line at spiders! There has to be a no arachnids clause somewhere in our calling!”
“Oh, there’s claws all right,” I added, only half listening to her. The long, black legs of the creature stretched out toward us. We pressed our backs up against the wall behind us and began to inch our way to the door. “But I’m more concerned about the mandibles. Look at the size of those things!”
Kendall reached the door first. Her hand circled my wrist. In a blur of wind and speed she flew us out of the dressing room and down the hall where we collided with Alaina. The three of us rolled to the ground in a mass of satin, tulle, and feathers.
“Why are you still here?!” I shrieked and tried to kick myself free from Alaina’s train.
“I wanted to make sure you were oka-aahhhhh!” Alaina’s words morphed into a scream when the spider came into view. Its legs clicked across the wall as it skittered sideways straight toward us.
“Is everything okay? I heard screams.” Vicki, the plump, southern bell storeowner rounded the corner, took one look at the spider and passed out cold.
“Fan-friggin-tastic! Alaina, get her out of here!” Finally free of the mass of fabric, I jumped up and looked around for a weapon. “Where’s a giant rolled up newspaper when you need one?”
Alaina scrambled to her feet, hooked Vicki under her arms, and dragged her through the door that led to the front of the store. The spider eased its way off the wall and onto the floor. Its claws pinched and snapped at the air. Goo dripped from mandibles that chomped hungrily.
Beside me Keni gulped. “Please tell me you have a plan.”
“That depends.” Fear raised the decibel of my voice to a squeak. If that thing lunged there was a good chance I was gonna let loose a girlie scream that went completely against the superhero image. “Do you consider running a plan? ‘Cause that’s all I’ve got.”
“Absolutely!”
We both spun on our heels and sprinted for the showroom. The spider gave chase. I grabbed a rack of prom dresses and knocked it to the ground to slow down the monstrous insect. The spider hissed and easily stepped over the brightly colored pile of sequins and ruffles.
Something whizzed by my head. A zebra print pump slammed into one of the spider’s six eyes and the creature reared back in pain.
“Good thinking, Keni!” I shouted and joined her at the shoe display.
I palmed a sequined stiletto with an exceptionally pointy heel and launched it as hard as I could. It embedded in the spider’s head. The creature stumbled to the side and smashed into the glass display case of tiaras and jewelry. Glass shattered. Expensive jewelry crunched under its pedipalp.
Unfortunately, the blows injured it but neither incapacitated nor killed. The spider raised one back leg and knocked the stuck shoe free. Then it charged. Eight legs clicked across the wood floor in rapid-fire succession toward me. I whipped any object within reach at it. Shoes. Purses. Veils. Hangers. Dresses. Crinoline. Kendall joined in and together we made it rain formal wear on the giant insect. None of it slowed the big bug down at all, but it sure looked pretty.
From behind me came the hiss of metal being unsheathed. I risked a glance over my shoulder and found myself staring into a pair of brown eyes caked heavily with goth make-up. A curtain of ink b
lack hair framed her ghostly white complexion. I didn’t have to look down to know she’d be clad in skank wear.
“Kat,” I spat at Alec’s little toy. He’d taken a normal college girl and demonfied her into a plaything for himself. Between her and the spider this didn’t bode well.
Her black painted lips curled up in a snide grin. “Conduit.”
The spider picked that moment to lunge. Its pincher slashed Kendall’s upper arm, tearing open her flesh. As she shrieked in pain, I grabbed her good arm and yanked her behind me. Kat shoving me out of the way and meeting the bug head on interrupted any further heroics I had planned. She swung the metal barb that extended from her wrist and hacked off one of the spider’s pinchers. Black blood sprayed across the room. The angry arachnid reared up and swiped its remaining claw at Kat’s bare midsection. (Seriously, who wears a tube top to a demon fight?)
Kendall closed her wing around her arm and a soft glow radiated off of her as she healed the vicious looking wound. Now that I knew she was safe, I turned to throw myself into the mix, but only made it two steps before a strong, bear-sized hand closed around my upper arm.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a deep voice rumbled. “Kat gets cranky if she doesn’t get to fight solo.” I gaped up at the easily seven-foot tall, building of a man. His skin was black as night, his smile blindingly white.
Keni’s pink and purple shadowed eyes widened. “Hey, aren’t you Trent Cummings, the NFL player that went missing like a month ago? Dude you are, like, all over E!.”
“That’s who I used to be.” Trent rounded his neck and arched his back. Metal spikes shot out of his spine and down the backs of his arms. “I got a new life now.”
I still wanted in on the fight despite the presumed dead football player’s warning. This was my calling dang it! I didn’t need the Goth Skank Queen’s help! I spun back just as Kat latched on to the remaining pincher and used it to swing herself on to the spider’s back. She straddled it like a horse and buried her barb deep into its head. The spider’s legs splayed out to the sides as its massive body crumpled to the ground and dissolved into black ooze. All the sparkly, frilly accessories and dresses on the ground got doused with a layer of dead demonic spider sludge.
Kat landed gracefully on her feet and retracted her barb. She looked me up and down with blatant contempt. “Alec sends his love. He says he’ll be seeing you soon. Oh, and nice neck flower.” She snorted a mocking laugh then disappeared in a cloud of smoke before I could make a witty reply.
How rude was that?
“That’s my cue,” Trent murmured in his deep tremor and copied Kat’s exit strategy.
Kendall and I stood in silence and surveyed the destroyed bridal shop. Black slime dripped from every surface and streaked down the walls. All the beautiful formal wear Vicki displayed in her showroom was a total loss. My guilt got the best of me and I tried to rectify the situation a little by righting one of the display racks. It bumped the wall and caused a giant glop of spider sludge to drip from the ceiling and plop down right on my head. Black ooze slowly seeped through my hair and trickled down my face.
Kendall dry heaved beside me. “Oh that’s beyond nasty! I’m gonna puke just looking at you!”
The life of a superhero. Glamorous, no?
CHAPTER Seventeen
Silk webbing tied my hands to my sides. My attempts to wiggle them loose only bound me tighter. A shadow fell over me. Dreading what I would see I was slow to lift my head. Coarse, wiry hair surrounded six solid black eyes. The spider’s mandibles twitched in anticipation. I opened my mouth to scream, but it sprayed webbing that gagged me to silence. Tears of terror streamed down my face as the gigantic insect lowered its head …
“Celeste? Get up.” Keni shook me awake.
I tried to sit up, but something had my limbs knitted in tight. Fearing it was spider webbing, I kicked and flailed for all I was worth. “What the heck?! Get it off! It’s on me!”
Finally, I freed myself from the reality of a constricting bed sheet by falling off the bed in a heap of covers. I sat there panting, trying to steady my blood pressure.
Kendall peered down at me, her dramatically made up eyes widened in surprised confusion. “Smooth there, Chosen One.”
“Bad dream,” I murmured then wadded up my comforter and tossed it back on my bed.
One side of Keni’s hot pink glossed mouth pulled back in a wry smirk. “Well, it’s over now and you need to get dressed. We’ve got big plans. Put this on.” She threw a black article of clothing at me that smacked me in the face before falling into my lap.
I stumbled to my feet and stretched up on my toes with arms arched up over my head as I tried to release sleep’s heavy hold on me. Maybe it was the awful dreams about being eaten alive but I didn’t feel rested in the least. Not that I could admit to that. Today was Spa Day and any lack of enthusiasm on my part would not be well received. As obsessive as Kendall had been about planning this, if I didn’t strap on my best fake smile she might have me voted out of the family.
I pulled off my jammie top and exchanged it for the one my sister insisted I wear. I slid it over my head then found myself lost in rows of strappy black fabric. With my arms still in the air and a mess of material clinging to me, I struggled to find arm or head holes. The correlations between this and the spider web dream that was still fresh in my mind had me teetering on the edge of a hissy fit.
“Kendall!” My voice came out high and frantic. “What the crap is wrong with this shirt? Fix it or I’m gonna rip it to shreds to get it off!”
Keni heaved an annoyed sigh at the burden she suffered of having a fashion illiterate sister. She turned me toward the full-length mirror on the back of our closet door. With a pull here and a tug there the shirt fell right into place. Okay, “shirt” seems a somewhat liberal description for what now covered my torso. Suspended from each of my shoulders was a thick strap of black fabric. From those straps hung a mesh of thinner straps that covered my arms, chest, and stomach. The material covered what needed covering, but a whole lot of skin still showed through. A fact I was not at all comfortable with.
“Uh, Keni? Exactly what kind of spa is this?”
“It’s midnight, Cee. We’re not going to the spa. I’ve got other plans for us.” Kendall’s eyes glittered mischievously beneath a thick layer of eyeliner.
My forehead creased when I finally noticed what my sister was wearing; a one-sleeved black tank top covered in sequins, short pink mini-skirt, fishnet stockings, and knee high black boots. Her hair had been twisted, pinned, and sprayed to stick up off her head in a purposefully messy ‘do. A pink scarf was knotted around her upper arm.
“And these plans involve dressing like we’re in a Ke$ha video?”
She crossed to my dresser, yanked out a pair of jeans, and threw them at me. “The spa day just sounded, like, totally dull. So I canceled it. Instead we’re gonna have some real fun.”
“It sounded dull?” I kicked off the guys boxers I’d wore to bed and wiggled into my jeans. “You planned it! You’ve been rambling on about it since Gabe put that stupid rock on Alaina’s finger!”
She raised her eyebrows and gave me that “chill out, you freak” look all teenage girls perfect. “So I changed my mind. It happens. Get over it. Geesh.”
If this was some lingering after effect from her break-up with Keith, I sincerely hoped she got over it quick. I could only bite my tongue for so long before I’d run out of nice. For now, I decided to let her ‘tude slide—especially since I wasn’t crazy about a spa day anyway. I zipped up my jeans and shook the legs straight. “So what are we doing instead?”
She hooked her arm around mine and steered me over to our desk. Placing her hands on my shoulders, she shoved me down in the chair. The sight of her tackle box full of makeup and hair accessories opened and at the ready scared me almost as much as my nightmare.
“Oh, you’ll see … ” she smirked.
“I’m just s
aying, if my eyelids are heavy from the glitter there may in fact be too much glitter.” My hair had been parted down the middle and pulled up in two pigtail knots. Add that to the mountain of makeup Kendall had slapped on me and the result was me looking like a clown hooker. I sincerely hoped whatever plans Keni made didn’t involve other visually capable human beings. I held fast to the handrail and struggled to maneuver the stairs in heels a good three inches higher than my comfort zone.
Kendall shoved past me and nearly sent me tumbling. “There’s no such thing as too much glitter, now hurry up.”
I cursed under my breath and shuffled my way to the bottom of the stairs. Across the foyer I teetered my way to the coat rack. In spite of the warm night, I wanted the cover my hoodie offered before I stepped foot out of the house.
“Oh, you don’t need that!” Grams proclaimed as she bee lined it from the kitchen to the living room with a tray in her hands. She had donned her short, black party dress and leopard print pumps for our mystery occasion. I suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. Curiosity led me to the living room.
“Uh … where’s all the furniture?” I gaped.
Everything had been emptied out of the room except for the coffee table that was pushed up against the back wall where Grams now set her tray. In the place of the rest of Grams’ modern décor sat five folding chairs. Alaina waited in one, her legs crossed at the ankle and hands folded demurely in her lap.
Judging by her blush pink dress with its conservative neckline and pretty embroidered flowers she hadn’t received the skank wear memo. “Gabe and the football team moved it all into the den at Grams request, right before they headed out to that owl themed restaurant.”
“Owl themed?”
Her auburn locks danced when she nodded. “Yes, they have owls on all their signs and the waitress’ shirts. While I’ve never been inside I assume men like the wilderness type atmosphere offered.”
“Yeah, that’s what the draw of that place is,” I lied and snagged Keni from her task of running an extension cord from a side outlet to the center of the room. “The furniture is gone, there are red lights in the ceiling fixtures, and Grams just pulled a stack of singles out of her bra. Kendall, please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did.”
Sacrifice (The Gryphon Series Book 3) Page 10
