We pulled up short right outside the girls’ locker room.
“Annnnd, there’s the reflux.” Eddie belched into his closed fist. The pallor of his skin morphed before my eyes from chalky white to Kermie green.
A solid kick delivered to the dead center of the door made it fling open and grant us wide access. We followed the familiar ruckus of a skirmish past three identical rows of pale yellow lockers.
Eddie rounded the corner first and sucked in a ragged breath. “She’s magnificent,” he gasped as he stumbled back in awestruck wonder.
I ducked around behind him to get a better view. Kendall’s beautiful face crinkled in an angry scowl. Behind the fortress of her ivory wings, six uniform clad cheerleaders clustered together crying. At Keni’s feet, two three-foot tall mole beasts chattered their bucked teeth hungrily. The pointed snout of one wiggled. It sniffed the air then gave an appreciative hiss that made its wiry little whiskers dance. That was all the notice it gave before darting in with its black marble eyes fixated on Keni’s shin. The cheerleaders shrieked and shielded their eyes as Keni lobbed the creature back with a forceful wallop of one wing.
Mid-motion, her head jerked our way. “Hey, Cee?”
The mole one bounced off the wall and skittered right back. Meanwhile, its cohort dove at Keni’s wing and chomped down hard enough to crack its front incisor.
“Yes, Kendall?” I asked and calmly folded my hands in front of me.
“Remember when you said school might be a bad idea?” Three violent shakes and she still couldn’t free herself of the wing-nipper.
I pressed my lips together and mocked contemplation. “I seem to recall that conversation.”
“I’ll take that ‘I told you so’ now.”
I craned my neck to watch Mole One sneak past her and get kicked back by the long leg of a black-haired cheerleader. “With the way that little dude is nipping at your wing, I don’t think I need to say anything at all. He’s making my point … and slobbering all over you. So, do you want me to jump in or is this a learning moment for you?”
Keni caught the little sneak by the scruff of its neck and frisbeed him across the room. “I learned a valuable lesson and feel I’ve grown as a person. Now, please kill these things!”
“Why, Kendall, I would love to.” I beamed then leapt into the air to intercept the rebounding mole with a low-kick delivered with deadly accuracy to the center of its barrel chest. Bone crunched and black ooze splattered over my leg.
“See?” I landed on the balls of my feet and tried to shake the sludgy remains of mole off my shoe. “That wasn’t so hard now was it? Gross, but not hard.”
The second mole’s furry head snapped up. Its beady eyes darted here, there and everywhere in search of its friend. Finding itself alone, its hackles rose. The toddler-sized monster released Keni’s wing and backed away with its apprehensive stare locked on me.
“I don’t think I caught it the first time.” Keni grinned and flicked her bangs from her eyes. “Maybe you could show me again?”
The mole spun around and scampered out a clearly marked back exit fast enough for me to deduce mole’s have a firm grasp of the English language … and may be able to read.
“I suppose we should stop it before it terrorizes anyone else.” I sighed before taking off in hot pursuit, with Keni and Eddie close behind.
We hit the door mere seconds after the creature, but already it was lost. Swallowed whole by the violent bedlam that surrounded us.
Keni’s jaw dropped open. Panic swirled in her eyes as her gaze locked with mine. “Uh … too late.”
Chapter 18
Words, with their meager concepts, could not describe the spectacle of violence erupting on the football field before us. The little mole dudes had not come alone. They’d brought accomplices of the ominously gargantuan kind. The giants were identical to their smaller counterparts, but nearly ten times their size. It was those enormous beasts that tunneled up from the earth with a pint-sized friend on both shoulders. They then stood stoically by as their tiny counterparts dove to attack the nearest human. Gabe and his entire football team fought off the pointy-nosed creatures as they gnashed their teeth and swiped viciously with dirt packed claws.
Gabe’s body swelled and expanded yet he fought off his full feline transformation—probably for the sake of his team. In my opinion elongated ears, a fuzzy muzzle, and bone crushing incisors on their coach seemed the more disturbing option. But what do I know?
“Keep your helmets and pads on!” he roared in a deep growling tremor. “They can’t bite through them!”
There had to be around a hundred mini-moles scurrying between Gabe’s team and us. So far, they hadn’t noticed our arrival. “We need to get over them to help the team.” I spun around and peered up at the school, trying to find some way in to the eye of chaos.
Eddie pulled up his sleeves to reveal the ports where bone-like daggers shot from his wrists. “I can clear you a path, but as soon as they see you, you’ll be swarmed.”
“If only I had some sort of impenetrable shield that could repel them …” I tapped my chin with my pointer finger and stared pointedly at Keni.
She shoved one hand on her hip and tsked, “Seriously, Cee? I’ve now been reduced to battering ram?”
“Don’t think of it like that.” I slapped a hand on her shoulder and gave a little squeeze. “Think of it as leading the charge. Just tuck your wings around you and run like heck! I’ll be right behind you.”
Pink glossed lips disappeared into a white line of annoyance. “And if the whole troop of rabid weasels jumps on me? Then what? We aren’t all the She-hulk, ya know.”
“Well, that’s the part where I’d pick you up and you would become a battering ram, but we’re gonna hope that doesn’t happen.”
Keni folded her arms and hitched up one perfectly arched brow. “If this Chosen One thing doesn’t work out you should really think about becoming a motivational speaker.”
“We can stand here and hash this out, or we can go help those boys. Time’s a wasting, Keni.”
“Fine!” she groaned in exasperation and readied her wings, curling the ivory appendages around herself. “Blaze me a trail, Ed.”
His mohawk bounced with his brief nod. “Stay low to the ground, I’m gonna shoot over you.”
I lost count after the twentieth dart rocketed from Eddie’s thin wrist. Enough mini-moles fell for us to make a run for it. I held tight to Keni’s hand as we charged forward, both of us in a low crouch. Over Keni’s left wing I could see Gabe. A mini-mole latched onto his shoulder. He snarled and sunk his claws into the mole’s neck to spike it to the ground.
“We’re almost there!” I screamed to Keni over the ear splitting sounds of raging bedlam.
“They’re thinning out up ahead!” Keni yanked my hand to pull me closer. “I don’t like that! Where are they going?”
“Maybe today’s the day the bad guys give up and go home?” Sure, the words sounded like empty wishful thinking even to my ears, but it was a nice thought.
“Celeste!” Eddie’s panicked scream rose above the uproar.
My head snapped around. A dozen mini-moles surrounded him, edging their way forward, twitching in their eagerness to attack. “Eddie! Shoot!”
Time moved in slow motion. Eddie’s arm rose. The point of a dart slid from his skin. One brazen mole picked that moment to lunge. Eddie jerked away from the bite and released his dart … directly at me.
“Ah, crap.” No way could I get completely out of striking distance in time; not in this jam packed crowd. All I could do was spin around, shield my head with my hands, and brace for impact.
He appeared out of nowhere, enveloping me in a familiar cocoon of safety. Strong arms held me tight as I inhaled the fragrant mix of soap and fresh air. “Caleb?”
His only response came in the form of an anguished scream as the dart sank into his back.
“No!” Whipping around, I caught his head before it could hit the
ground. “You’re human! I could’ve taken that hit! It would’ve hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t kill me! Why would you do that?”
Blood seeped between his lips and stained them the crimson shade of death. “Told ya I’d die tah protect ya.”
“Yeah, well I never agreed to that!” I protested and brushed the hair from his face. Keni crouched down beside me, glowing with her healing luminescence. I shoved two fingers in my mouth and whistled for Eddie. After a fire storm of flying darts and fallen moles he made it to us. “Get Caleb into the locker room! Barricade the door behind you and heal him!”
“What are you going to do?” Keni’s blue eyes darted side to side as a group of moles—or a labour if you like the fancy term—closed in.
Curling my hands into fists tight enough for my nails to pierce my palms, I rose to my feet.
“I’m gonna play Whack-a-Mole.” My intention was to grab the first waist-high mole dude that ran at me and use it as a javelin to take out a bunch of its friends. But before I could select my furry weapon, flames gushed past, singeing off a strip of arm hair. The fatal blaze exterminated every mole that stood between Caleb and the door.
Terin’s wings steamed and sizzled as she retracted them to land. “Get him out of here.”
Keni and Eddie needed no further invitation. Each draped one of Cal’s arms around their neck and shuffled him toward safety. Raven hair curtained his face as his slack head bobbed with each of his escorts’ hurried steps. I longed to follow them, to stay steadfast by his side, but I couldn’t. I had a job to do. Loathing the anguish of my calling, I turned back toward the violent melee.
Visible flames danced just beneath the surface of Terin’s skin as she raised one ginger eyebrow quizzically. “If you’re done with your Orpheus and Eurydice love drama perhaps we could go save the townspeople?”
My mouth twisted up in a half-hearted smirk. “Topical humor should be reserved for those that didn’t attend the wake when the dinosaurs died. Now, think you can make yourself useful and torch the rest of these guys like that?”
She shook her head, her hair dancing over her slender shoulders like living flame. “My flames aren’t evil beast exclusive and there are too many kids in the way. The only way I can ensure their safety is to get up close and personal with the demons and make direct contact.”
“Then we do this the old fashion way.” Shoulder to scalding hot shoulder, we sprinted into battle.
Terin reduced any demons that dared ventured too close to ash with a simple touch. Their charred remains blew through the air and coated us both in a dusty film. An enraged scream tore from my throat as pulled all my strength into my core and unleashed it with every swing and kick. Many fell by our hands, but not nearly enough to consider the situation contained.
“’Bout time yooooou got heeerrrrre,” Gabe rumbled as I broke through the horde and stumbled to his feet, dripping with all that was left of the demons that got in my way—goo. His pointed ears flattened to his head as his lips curled back from his fangs. “Therrrre’s too mannnnny. They jusssssst keep coming.”
“What’s the deal with the big dudes? Do they ever move?” I caught the arm of a mini-mole and swung it around like a shot put to take out four more charging my way.
A scream snapped our heads around. Six mini-moles held a flailing football player pinned to the ground as one of the giant dudes took a menacing step forward.
“Yooou knnnowwww yoooou madddde thissss happen, right?” Gabe’s muzzle twitched his annoyance.
The ground trembled under the stomps of the snarling, spitting rodent-man. Tears streamed down the teen’s face as he screamed out pleas for his life. The beast’s furry thighs bulged as it bent its knees and sprang into the air. When it reached peak height, it jackknifed and hurdled back down whiskered-nose first. With its front claws ready to burrow, it snagged the frightened football players arm with its back feet and sank into the lush green turf.
“Stevenson!” Gabe lost his hold on his humanity. His massive frame exploded in a bone-crushing, hair-sprouting extravaganza that brought forth his inner feline.
Together, we dashed to the teen’s aid. I forcefully shoved my way through the brigade of moles, leaving them to be dealt with by the hungry lion behind me. Stevenson’s lower half disappeared into the earth, his hands frantically clawing at the dirt.
I threw myself forward, skidding across the grass on my belly as I reached for him. “Take my hand!”
Panicked hazel eyes locked with mine. “You’re too small! I’ll pull you in!”
“That’s adorably chivalrous.” I gritted my teeth and latched onto his wrist. “Now take my friggin’ hand!”
Reluctant, but out of options, he grabbed on. I planted my feet and pulled with all my might until Stevenson shot out the hole in a shower of dirt and rock.
“Get out of here! Run!” I turned the visibly shaken teen and shoved him toward the perimeter of the field.
From within the mound, the giant mole reappeared. The leathery pads of its front paws clamped around my ankle in a tight vise-grip. I hit the ground face first, the air rushing from my lungs in a huuff. The world rushed past in a blur of green terrain as I grappled for anything to grab hold of before being dragged down to the Land of the Morlocks.
“Be a dear and give that nasty thing a kick, would you Mo Chroi?” murmured a seductive—and all too familiar—voice as black smoked snaked around my wrist.
I couldn’t fight off the grin that split my face as Rowan materialized in front of me with his hands clasped tight around my forearms. “Never thought I’d be so glad to see your smug face.”
“My face …” the tendons of Rowan’s neck bulged as he pulled back against the giant moles force, “… brings endless … joy … to all … those … that gaze upon it.”
My leg scraped against the earth as I brought one knee up, and then slammed my heel down on the mole’s paw. With a yelp it loosened its hold, allowing Rowan to jerk me free. Our forceful momentum caused Rowan to tumble to the ground with me on top of him.
“If you wanted me on my back, Mo Chroi ...” Amusement crinkled the corners of his eyes.
My face squinched in distaste. “Sense the mood of the situation before leering.”
Another shriek whipped both our heads. A second player vanished into the ground before anyone could even attempt to help him. Pushing off Rowan’s solid chest, I launched myself to my feet, hell bent on preventing any more from going out the same way. I spun in a circle, trying to determine where I was most needed in this chaos. Not ten feet from me the earth exploded in a mushroom cloud of dirt and rock. A clawed hand dug into the Achilles tendon of the kid I recognized as Gainesboro High’s quarterback. He barely had a chance to scream before he was yanked down, leaving a trail of blood-stained grass in his wake. I held nothing back as I sprinted for him. His body jerked, whipping his head back at an unnatural angle … then he was gone. I fell to the ground and scrambled to the edge of the mound, intent on prying him from the clutches of his captor. Instead I found … nothing. No trace of man or beast.
“We’re gonna lose more that same way if we don’t do something fast, lass!” Rowan’s scream snapped me from my stunned reverie.
Between thrashing bodies I caught a flash of red at the south end of the field as I rose to my feet. “Gabe! What’s that?”
“Equipmmmmmment sssssssstorage,” my lion rumbled then sank his teeth into a mole that made the mistake of lunging for his face. Black wetness dripped from Gabe’s twitching muzzle as he reduced the beast to ooze.
“It have a back exit?” Rowan’s hands linked with mine. He flung me around, adding a helpful boost to my high-kick that knocked a towering mole-man tumbling back into the hole it had emerged from.
Gabe’s tawny mane shook as he jerked his head in confirmation. “Alaaaaaina in theeeerrrrrre. Ssssssaaaave herrrrr.”
“I’m hoping I’ll save us all,” I muttered, mostly to myself.
I searched the field for any handy Glee Cl
ubbers. Overhead the twins circled in lizard form and unleashed a bloody fury on new moles that tunneled from the ground.
I waved my arms over my head until I caught their attention. “Get Red and get to the barn. Now!”
A roll of their necks switched their direction. They soared off, emitting a high-pitched call that echoed through the night.
Rowan’s back slammed into mine as he stumbled out of slashing distance of a mole claw. “What are you cookin’ up in that pretty little head of yours?”
“I need you to make me irresistible to them. All of them.”
“Are you out of your head?” He caught a charging mini-mole in a reverse head-lock and snapped its neck. “There’s too many. I’m not gonna help you kill yourself. ”
I spun around to send a mole flying with a potent back kick, locking eyes with Rowan in the process. “Row, I need you to trust me. Give me a five second head start and do it!”
Doubt and fear swirled in the depths of his eyes, but reluctantly he nodded. I took a second to mouth the words ‘thank you’ before tearing off. I pumped my arms, but fought to maintain a human speed. Past my lion sentry. Past Terin and Red’s sporadic blazing land mines. Past the exhausted football players fighting for their lives. I wanted to help them all and this was the only way I could think of to do it. Mentally, I counted Rowan’s instructed lag time.
One Mississippi.
Two Mississippi.
Three Mississippi.
Four Mississippi.
Five.
I risked a glance back. The effects took hold before my eyes. Every last mole-beast gazed after me with visible need twitching their slobbery muzzles. They moved slow at first, their speed quickly building as they rushed after me with the combined force of a shore bound tsunami.
“Not your best idea, Garrett!” I screamed at myself as I sprinted for the barn.
Alaina peeked out the sliding barn door as the thundering footfalls closed in.
Ascension (The Gryphon Series) Page 13
