The Conduit (The Gryphon Series Book 1)

by Stacey Rourke

  “Wow.” Gabe’s eyes widened in mock awe. “You must really feel like crap right now.”

  “Yes. Yes I do. Can we go now, please?” As much as I wished he would leave this alone, I knew he wouldn’t.

  “Sure.” A smile played at the corners of his lips as he motioned for me to lead the way. We made it all of fifteen paces before he started in. “I mean, you just made an angel cry. I can’t say for sure that you’ll go to Hell for that kind of thing, but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Shut up, Gabe. And she’s not really an angel.”

  “Keep telling yourself that. I’m sure you’ll find it very reassuring while you’re burning in the eternal Hell fires, right next to the puppy kickers.”

  I muttered a few expletives under my breath but kept walking.

  Gabe matched me stride for stride. “I gotta ask, Cee, is it out of your system now? Or do you need to track down good ole Saint Nick and kick him in the crotch?”

  “Leave her alone, Gabe,” Kendall said as she trailed us. “She’s got a lot on her mind right now!”

  “Thank you, Kendall.”

  “Yeah. She’s busy trying to find the Easter Bunny, so she can rip his fuzzy, little tail off.”

  I glared over my shoulder at her. “Et tu, Brute’?”

  Their tittering laughter echoed through the forest.

  I thought I had gained a good distance on them when Gabe jumped in front of me. With his back to me, he kept his gaze locked to the north of us.

  “What now? Oh, ha, ha, ha. Is the Gryphon coming to settle the score for me making his BFF cry?” I tried to push past him, but he blocked the way with one enormous arm.

  A hand locked onto my shoulder and pulled me back. I turned. Kendall silently motioned me to come to her. A low, rumbling growl escaped from my brother’s chest. All the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “We’re not alone.” Gabe’s voice came out a deep, disturbing rumble.

  “The panther?” Kendall asked, her tone surprisingly calm.

  Another menacing growl confirmed it.

  “We’ve got to go! We aren’t ready yet for him to report us to Barnabus!” I grabbed Gabe’s arm and tried to yank him toward the parking lot.

  Gabe’s head snapped around. To my astonishment, yellow slit cat eyes bore down on me. “Do you think you can outrun a panther?” he snarled.

  I’m kind of worried about outrunning you right now.

  Instinct made me release his arm. Despite my trembling voice, I tried to reason with him. “Gabe, you’re getting ready to change. That’s pretty obvious. If he sees that, he’s gonna know. I am asking you, please, calm down and come with us. Now!”

  The tall weeds beside us rustled. We were out of time. Gabe growled. His lip curled up to reveal sharp fangs emerging from his top and bottom jaw. Whatever was in the grass halted.

  “Kendall, take Celeste and go,” he rumbled.

  I started to object. To demand that he come too. Then I caught sight of his skin. It rippled as if something crawled beneath it. Stretching. Churning. Preparing. As revolting as it was, I couldn’t look away. Gabe hit a crouch just as the black panther slunk out from the reeds. As soon as it saw Gabe, its ears went flat to its head. It snarled and showed its teeth.

  A mighty “king of the jungle” roar tore out of Gabe and shook the ground we stood on. The panther flinched. Its feline eyes widened. Its ears perked. No mere human could make that noise. Gabe just gave us away. With a roll of his neck, the panther turned his yellow eyes to Kendall and me. Did you know panthers can smile? They can. It’s terrifying.

  Gabe entered the next, more gruesome, part of his transformation. Beneath his seemingly elastic skin, his skeletal system began to shift. With sickening snaps and pops, his bones dislocated, then reconnected in their new formation. Hair sprouted up on him, everywhere. As awful as it was, my masochistic eyes refused to look away.

  Gabe’s head swiveled to Kendall and me, as the bones in his face separated and locked outward to form a wide muzzle. “Rrrrrun, dammit!” he yelled in a barely human tremor.

  That was it. It was time to go. I grabbed Keni’s arm and scrambled down the path. Roars, lashes, and snarls quickened our pace as the two cats collided in battle. True to form, I tripped and went face first into the dirt. Air whooshed behind me as Kendall freed her wings. She hooked me under the arms, and we went airborne. Careening at top speed, we made it back to the parking lot in no time. A distressed yelp resounded from the direction of the ferocious felines. There was no way to know if it was our lion or the Seeker in trouble.

  Kendall retracted her wings, and we continued on foot. My whole body quaked as I fumbled to get my keys out of my pocket. I succeeded in the difficult mission of unlocking the doors, and we dove inside, slamming the locks down behind us.

  I started the truck—then waited.

  “We’re not leaving without Gabe. But this way we can take off as soon as he gets here,” I said to reassure myself as much, if not more than, my sister.

  She looked at me with tears filling her eyes, her hand still gripping the door handle. “Did you hear that cry? What if Gabe can’t make it out?”

  That was an option I couldn’t consider. “He’ll make it.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Seconds ticked by. We didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Just stared at the entrance to the path. There was no sign of movement. Panic churned my stomach. I couldn’t leave without my brother. If I had to go look for him, that’s what I would do. My hand trembled as I reached over and unlocked my door. The sound of its release whipped Kendall’s head around.

  “What are you doing?!”

  “He may need help. I’m going to go find him. Stay here and lock the doors. If anything bad happens, you just go. Got it?”

  “I can fly and you can’t. There’s no way you’re leaving me here. If anything you should stay behind.” She unlocked her door to further punctuate her point.

  “Fine. We’ll both go.”

  I stifled my own fears and opened the door. When a gigantic jungle cat didn’t leap out at me and rip my head off, I hastily climbed out. On the other side of the truck, Keni did the same. Afraid to make too much noise, we quietly clicked the doors shut behind us. I dragged my feet forward and met my sister on the passenger side of the truck.

  We had taken no more than five steps toward the path, walking shoulder to shoulder, when a loud thud behind us made the ground shudder under our feet. Keni and I clung to each other as we spun around. There, taking up the entire bed of my S-10, stood an enormous lion, licking its chops hungrily. I heard a whimper that I was fairly certain came from me. The mighty beast’s muzzle twitched, and a low rumble leaked out.

  “That’s Gabe, right?” Kendall whispered with urgency.

  “Uh-huh.”

  In one fluid motion, the enormous cat leapt to the ground. Kendall and I squealed and clung to each other. He stalked around us, every step punctuated by a snarl. Not wanting to have our backs to him, we shuffled in a circle right along with him.

  “If that’s Gabe, what the heck is his problem?”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that his ‘problem’ is that he just turned into a friggin’ lion!” I cried.

  Gabe lurched forward and swiped at us with his massive paw. The threat of his bone shredding claws sent Keni and I screaming and scurrying up onto the hood of my truck. He paced back and forth in front of us, occasionally darting in for another swipe.

  “Alaina said he wouldn’t have any problems!”

  “She said he would have to learn to control his lion instincts!” I corrected as I pulled my legs up under me. Gabe lashed out again. “Aahh! And apparently that’s the issue right now!”

  “Gabe?” Kendall tried to sound calm despite her shaky voice. “You need to, like, fight this, okay? You’re stronger than this. So just overcome the lion, or whatever!”

  He bellowed out a thunderous roar and slammed his
shoulder against the side of the truck. The collision nearly dumped us to the ground.

  “If you dented my truck, you’re paying to fix it, Fluffy!” Gabe’s argument to the contrary was to viciously swipe at my arm. His claws came so close I could feel air whoosh over my bare skin. I felt it was a valid point.

  “What are you doing?” Kendall hissed. “Don’t yell at him!”

  “Got it!” I squeaked.

  “Can’t you throw an ‘I don’t want to eat my sisters’ emotion at him!?”

  “That’s a human emotion! He’s a lion! I don’t think that’s going to help us right now!” I squirmed up my windshield and onto the roof, which dented in under my weight. “Dammit! My truck!”

  “Would you please just try? Instead of waiting here for him to kill us?” she begged.

  “Fine. It couldn’t hurt.” Gabe lunged at the truck again. His jaws snapped itches from my foot. “But that could,” I whimpered.

  Kendall scooted up next to me and cocooned us both in her wings. Cautiously, I reached out for Gabe’s emotions. I was prepared for hunger, bloodlust, or some other form of gruesomeness. What I found was amusement. I cocked my head, and narrowed my eyes at the humongous cat. If he really wanted to, he could’ve jumped up here and made dinner out of us. But he hadn’t. There was a very good reason for that.

  In a huff, I climbed down off my truck. “Gabe Allen Garrett, you suck!”

  “What are you doing?!” Kendall huddled under her wings and shielded her eyes from what she assumed would be a tragic bloodbath.

  “He’s messing with us, Kendall.”

  With the jig up, Gabe sat down on his haunches. His eyes crinkled as his mouth fell open in a menacing, jagged-toothed grin.

  Kendall peeked over her wing and made the international sound of annoyed teenagers everywhere. “Tsk-uhh.”

  “So where’s the Seeker, Mufasa?” I asked with my hands on my hips.

  Gabe turned his nose up and snorted scornfully in the direction of his altercation. Thinking he had bought us some time, I approached the newly formed Gabe-lion. His appearance was staggering. Even seated, he was taller than me. His head was bigger than a beach ball. The dark, chocolate-colored mane that haloed it was the same color as Gabe’s hair. Somehow that eased my nerves. It showed a visible connection between my brother and the carnivorous cat.

  “What does it feel like Gabe? Is it scary?” Kendall asked as she climbed off the truck.

  Gabe sprang to his feet and used his entire body to emit a potent, “ROOOWWWWRRR!”

  “I think that means he likes it,” I laughed.

  Suddenly, the lion’s head whipped to the tree line. He growled as he slunk over to my truck. He looked at me and slammed his paw against the door.

  “Easy!” I snapped. I walked over and opened the door for him. “I’m not kidding, Gabe. You mess up my truck and you will fix it.”

  He crinkled his muzzle and snarled.

  I snarled back.

  He sniffed at my pathetic attempt to be intimidating and then dipped his head down to the floorboard where his duffle bag sat.

  “What’s that?” Kendall asked.

  He pivoted and held the bag toward me so I could unzip it. “He brought other clothes,” I answered for him. “I take it yours didn’t survive the transformation?”

  His shook his head then trotted off into the woods with the bag held in his teeth.

  “Wish I would have thought of that,” Kendall said wistfully. “I really liked that shirt.”

  I gave her my best sympathetic face, forced as it was. “I know you did, sis. I know.”

  A moment later, human Gabe jogged out of the trees, his face a stern mask. “We gotta go. I thought I chased the panther away, but I can smell him moving this way. If we don’t want him to follow us home, we need to get some distance now.”

  Kendall’s nose crinkled. “Smell him? Gross.”

  “Be grossed out later. Right now, be mobile.”

  We piled into the truck and sped off toward home. I glanced in the rearview mirror as I steered us out of the parking lot. A chill ran down my spine. From within the shadowed foliage, a pair of yellow cat eyes stared back at me.

  CHAPTER 20

  My tires screeched as I whipped into Grams’ driveway. The sun hung low in the sky. Before the truck came to a complete stop, Gabe flew out the door.

  “I’ll check around back,” he called as he raced around the side of the house.

  Kendall and I jumped out, then scanned the street to make sure we weren’t followed. If a battle was going to take place, we didn’t want it to happen here. Here there were innocent bystanders, like our much adored Grams, that could get hurt. Regret gnawed at me. We shouldn’t have doubted ourselves. We should’ve stayed in the mountains and squared off with the Seeker. Our hesitation may have endangered lives.

  Gabe rounded the house in an easy jog. “There’s nothing back there. I can’t sense him anywhere nearby. I think we’re okay for now.”

  “Sense him?” I asked. “Is that another cat thing?”

  He wiped the sweat from his forehead. I guessed it was from the muggy night and not the exertion from the run because he wasn’t even winded. “It’s like a prickly feeling at the back of my neck, telling me there’s another predator around. Plus I can hear and smell him miles away. The panther won’t be able to sneak up on us now that I’ve changed.”

  “As long as he comes in panther form.” I pulled my hair up off my damp neck.

  “What?”

  “He can shape shift, remember? The lion will detect the panther but not a human.”

  Gabe thought on that so hard it looked physically painful for him. “We need to find him before he finds us. First thing tomorrow I’m gonna go up into the mountains and try to draw him to me. Then, I’ll take care of this once and for all.”

  “Once and for all?” Kendall cringed.

  “Yes, Kendall. I will kill him,” he stated firmly. “Because if I don’t, an entire army is going to show up on our doorstep wanting Celeste’s head on a platter. I personally would like to avoid that, wouldn’t you?”

  Keni emphasized her agreement with a series of vigorous nods.

  “I’m also a fan of avoiding the whole head on a platter thing,” I offered. “Especially with it being my head in question.”

  “As for tonight,” Gabe’s eyes were shaded by his heavy brow as he peered at the house. “We’ll take turns as look-out. That way we can each get some sleep. When I go tomorrow, you two sit tight here. Keep each other and Grams safe. I’ll handle the panther. Should be a piece of cake. The guy can’t be too tough if he got darted in the butt.”

  His cavalier attitude would’ve been more believable if we didn’t have axes of death and mayhem dangling over our heads. But there was no point in arguing. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Good. I’ll take first shift. Keni, you get second. You’ll be last, Cee.”

  Big shocker, I got the last shift—sunrise. The least likely time for an attack. My own insignificance in the face of adversity ground into me like a dull knife. However, at that moment emotional pain wasn’t exclusive to me. Across the street, Keith dragged garbage cans out of his parents’ garage and down the driveway. Kendall’s turquoise eyes brightened, and her cheeks flushed to a rosy hue.

  “Keith!” She took a couple of eager steps toward him.

  Her crush glanced up, then quickly lowered his gaze and stared at the ground for the duration of his task.

  “Keith?”

  He disappeared back inside without acknowledging her at all.

  Kendall’s chin quivered. I wrapped my arm around her and stroked her hair the way I’d seen Mom do a thousand times.

  Leave it to Gabe—a.k.a. Mr. Insensitive—to take the tough love approach. “Get your head in the game, Keni. After we save the world, you can worry about that mushy stuff.”

  She blinked back tears and managed a nod. My heart broke for her.

  “Let’s call it a night, guys.�
� I jerked my head in the direction of the house. I didn’t have to tap into her emotions to know Keni needed a little girl talk.

  Halfway up Grams’ meticulously landscaped walkway, I halted. Despite the heat, I got an unmistakable chill. We were being watched. I rubbed at the goose bumps that had popped up on my arms and glanced around into the impending darkness. I saw nothing but couldn’t shake that foreboding feeling.

  CHAPTER 21

  Kendall and I stoically watched as Gabe prepared for his trip into the mountains. I had to purposely avoid the thought that he might not come back in one piece, or at all.

  In an uncharacteristic display of affection, he kissed both Keni and me on the forehead. “Stay here, and stay together. I’ll check in as soon as I can.”

  Part of me wished he could leave in lion form. Seeing a vicious beast skulk off to face danger would’ve been easier than watching my big brother leave. One saving grace in all this was the golden eagle that circled the skies over Gabe’s head. Alaina would watch his back. I let out a slow breath as gratitude filled me.

  Putting on airs of normalcy for Grams wouldn’t be a problem. She took herself out of the equation—and scarred us for life—when she came out of her bedroom in a leopard print bikini on her way to the community pool. Apparently they hired a new lifeguard and Grams had yet to determine if he was “eye candy” or not. It seemed Gabe wasn’t the only one on the prowl today.

  With her out of the way, Kendall and I were free to worry ourselves into a tizzy. We straightened up the entire house in an attempt to distract ourselves. It didn’t work. Suffering the maddening wait prompted me to take preventative measures. I sat on the porch, closed my eyes, and tried to channel Gabe. If I could feel his emotions, I would know he was okay. I just needed to concentrate.

  “Whatcha doin’?” Keni asked as she plopped down in the rocking chair beside me.

  “Trying to get a read on Gabe.”