Caleb pounded his fists into the back and sides of the shadowed figure, with all the strength the mortal limitations he imposed upon himself would allow. The entity didn’t so much as pause. Shoulders swelling like a dog raising its hackles, it leaned over the flailing girl. From where I stood, I could see the outline of its jaw stretching out wide in a maw no human could achieve. Her choked cries reached a fevered plateau, legs kicking in desperation of freedom.
Tipping my head, I dove into the beast’s mind, immediately slamming into an impenetrable fortress of darkness. Pain, with the force of a railroad spike being drove into my frontal lobe, knocked me to my knees. An anguished scream tore from my throat. Blinking to clear my blurring vision, I glanced up to see the girl’s body spastically convulsing. In a flurry of snorts and slobbery chomps, the hound drew an ethereal mist from his victim’s gaping mouth that I could only assume to be her soul.
“We have tah do something! Help me!” Caleb screamed to be heard over the torrential gusts that kicked up, mirroring his frantic emotions.
Rising on unsteady legs, I toed the gray area that comes with having a villainous history and hung back. A hero would have joined Cal and pounded on the beast until their fists were bloody in hopes of saving the girl. Maybe it was my loose morals talking, but I saw that for the pointless waste it was. My alternative took me into the mind of the fading blonde. There I applied pressure to her waning consciousness.
“Go to sleep. That’s a girl. You deserve a little siesta,” I coached.
One final whimper escaped her before she relented, her limbs sagging limp in her spiral into the comforts of the welcoming oblivion. With the sleeping lass out of the way, I settled into the driver’s seat of her controls. Using her hands, I grabbed the beast by the shoulders and smashed her knee hard into its groin. It stumbled back a half-step, allowing me to shuffle her forward to collapse in Caleb’s waiting arms.
“Jenna? Can you hear me, lass?” Brushing the hair back from her face, uncharacteristic fear wavered through Cal’s tone. It reminded me of how truly alone I was in this fight. Unless, of course, my former mate picked that particular moment to regain his memory and morph into the raging Titon I fought beside countless times. That would be a swell development. Unfortunately, judging by the sheen of nervous sweat dotting his forehead and upper lip, this would not be the case.
Bulging muscles, which lined the hound’s back, visibly prickled beneath stretched cotton fabric.
“The pirate …” it rasped, an ominous chortle quaking its brawny shoulders. “I hadn’t planned on us meeting quite yet.”
“If it’s a meet and greet you’re after, let’s send the riffraff home and get to it.” Rocking back on my heels, I hooked my thumbs in my front pockets and assumed a wide-legged stance.
“Take them,” the beast snarled as if describing discarded candy wrappers. “They were merely a distraction until I got your attention.”
“Get her out of here,” I calmly ordered Caleb, my gaze never wavering from the broad back of the beast.
Gathering Jenna in his arms, uncertainty carved deep lines of worry into Cal’s brow.
“Go!” I barked, my tone an iron clad stamp of resolve.
“I’ll be back, brotha,” Caleb promised, and hurried off with Jenna’s head bobbing against the crook of his arm.
“Did you like my gift?” the Hellhound rumbled. With its hood raised I could gather no clues about its identity other than its formidable size—which was an attribute that described more than half of the Demonic-American community. Still, something about its stature and mannerisms struck a note of familiarity. “I wrapped her just for you.”
“I admit to being a bit thick-headed at times,” I said with a cocky smirk I truly wasn’t feeling, “but even I was able to pick up on that less than subtle gesture, yes.”
“She begged for mercy and cried out each time I tasted her,” that menacing vibrato crooned. “With a hand to her throat, I soothed her by relaying how crucial she was in delivering my message.”
Turning my façade of indifference up a notch, I ran one hand over the back of my neck and peered up from under my brow. “And what message would that be?”
Slowly and deliberately, the barge-like frame turned my way.
Topaz eyes locked with mine, crinkling in amusement at the shock that registered on my face.
And it did.
I needed no reflective surface to know my complexion had drained to the ashen hue of white caps on harsh waves.
My vision tunneled.
The beating of my heart drowned out all other sound.
“A warning … to stay away from my sister,” Gabe snarled, his lips curling from his teeth to reveal jagged canine incisors.
Gone was the noble lion sentry. The meat suit stalking the width of the alley before me seemed more monster than man. Salvia dripped from his fangs. His swollen brow puckered into deep slashes between his eyes, plunging out into a narrow wolf-snout.
“The fun is just beginning, and I have good games for all,” Gabe growled, his shoulders rolling with predatory intent. “I’ll be seeing you real soon.”
Leaping into the air with inhuman grace, he bounded back and forth from one building to the other. Repelling higher and higher, he crested the pub’s rooftop and vanished into the night.
Chapter 8
“I warned you never to return!” Malise’s jaws snapped inches from my face.
With both arms mashed to her chest, I struggled against her. My motivation? Preventing row after row of her razor sharp teeth from shredding my flesh to the bone.
Solidifying in her grotto, I interrupted combat training between her and her guard. Still, her face splitting into a wide, carnivorous maw hell-bent on devouring me seemed a bit of an over-reaction.
“Valid point.” Back pressed against the rocky cavern wall, I did my best to pretend I didn’t see bits of whale flesh lodged between her teeth, or the accosting smell accompanying it.
In their relaxed form, mermaids were the most beguiling creatures ever to grace the earth. Rile them up, and they were the stuff of watery nightmares.
“As a counterpoint,” forcing the words through my teeth, I pushed away from her with all my might, “have you ever considered a Do Not Disturb sign as opposed to devouring your unwanted guests? I mean, you have no idea where I’ve been. How do you know I’ll even sit well?”
Gums rolling back with a shark-like quality, she retracted her jagged teeth into folds of flesh along her jawline until only their human-looking counterparts remained.
“Why would you risk coming back here?” She glowered, her pert nose curling in a snarl. “And make the answer convincing, lest I get peckish.”
“I need more information on Hellhounds,” I stated, straightening my fish-scented shirt.
Expelling an aggravated sigh, she reluctantly released me. Spinning away, her shoulders sagged.
“There’s nothing more to say.” Scooping up the sword that clanged to the ground when she attacked me, Malise turned it one way then the other to inspect it for damage. “Find the beast, and kill it before it spreads and forms a pack. It’s really a matter of simple mathematics. One Hellhound is easier to manage than an enraged mass of them.”
With a nod to her beefy guard, they resumed their land-bound exercises. Metal clapped together with each lobbed strike.
“What if I can’t … kill it?” I stammered, my own unease making me painfully aware of the stifling humidity in that stuffy space. “There has to be some other way to stop it.”
Malise paused mid-lunge. Head tilted, her eyes narrowed to leery slits. “This isn’t a beast you can tame and keep as a pet. It is a plague with fangs. Why then—with all the dastardly things you’ve done, and all the people you’ve killed and betrayed—are you even hesitating?”
My tongue dragged over my top teeth, hating the vile taste of the words before they even formed. “He’s her brother.”
Head falling forward, a curtain of flaxen waves v
eiled Malise’s face as she rested the tip of her blade against the stone floor and chuckled softly. “Ah, yes. The proverbial ‘she’ that can be found at the root of almost any problem, or idea. And for her happiness you wish to spare her kin?”
Knowing that to be the short and simple version of a much longer conundrum, I bobbed my head side to side in a vague, non-committal fashion. “In a matter of speaking. What, then, can be done? You must know of alternatives.”
“Leave us,” the mer-queen commanded to her subject over her narrow shoulder.
Listening to the drumming chorus of water that dripped from a crack in the wall, we waited for the merman to leap head-first into the hot spring. His tail slapped the water, dotting my boots with droplets.
Only then did she peer my way once more, her intensity fixed and unwavering. Hand slipping from her hilt, she dropped the sword. Metal connected with the ground in an echoing clang that bounced off each wall. Wetting her succulent lips, Malise prowled my way. Closing the distance between us with an alluring sashay, the shells of her bra caught and snagged the fabric of my shirt. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to stand firm—but not erect. Ahem. Backing away, or acknowledging her charms with so much as a lifted brow would be perceived a display of weakness I couldn’t allow.
Her gaze traced the curve of my mouth as if hypnotized by the memory of it.
“You can wriggle into the minds of others, make them feel what you feel and think what you think. You draw things out of them they didn’t know themselves capable of.” The warmth of her breath tickled over my cheek, her bottom lip teasing against mine. The whole event would’ve been far more enticing if I wasn’t in love with another woman, and if the figure before me hadn’t tried to eat me alive mere moments ago. “Utilize that talent. Coax the darkness from the brother and into another vessel you can kill, or control.”
Grinding my teeth, I mulled over the options at my disposal—a college full of them, in fact. The notion was compelling, despite its one enormous flaw. “I can’t get into his mind. I tried. It’s like he has a force field of evil protecting him. No, I can do better than that. A malicious cocoon? Malevolent shell? I can’t think of a good metaphor while your breasts are touching me.”
Tracing her fingers down my arm with a chuckle that screamed of sin, she caused an outbreak of goose bumps wherever her chilled flesh touched mine. “You don’t go in. You lure him out with the promise of a swap so tempting he couldn’t possibly refuse it. You’re a clever boy, Rowan. I have no doubt you can wrangle such a prize. Even so, I have to ask, how do you think this lady of yours will react when she learns you sacrificed one innocent life for another? Will your act of chivalry tarnish you in her eyes forever?”
Breathing in the sudden epiphany of what needed to be done, I exhaled my vile truth through pursed lip.
“For once,” I rasped, “I think it’s exactly what she would expect from me.”
Celeste flung the door open with her shoes on and bag already slung over her shoulder. “’Kay, bye! Going to the flimaninarty!”
The three remaining Garrett women barely glanced up from their TV, phone, or pregnancy book distractions. The pajama clad trio dismissed her with incoherent mumblings and half-hearted waves.
“Flimaninarty?” I asked.
Pulling the door shut behind her, Celeste leaned her back against it. “They had a fifty-four minute—and, yes, I timed it—discussion on why Matt Damon’s character in The Martian would be the perfect man. Something about two years on a planet alone making him an attentive listener. Around the twenty minute marker, I began plotting this social experiment to prove they are the worst listeners on the planet. Flimaninarty is my ironic victory.”
“We will have to celebrate accordingly.” Catching the strings of her Rhodes College hoodie, I drew her in for a quick taste of her lips. “First, where’s your brother?”
“I was hoping we could do this without him.”
Reluctantly pulling back, my stare pleaded for the answer.
Mouth curling to the side, her chestnut eyes rolled skyward. “Alaina was feeling nauseous. He went to get her some ginger tea and pregnancy pops. Follow up question, why does your shirt smell like a tackle box?”
“I went fishing for answers.” Lacing my fingers into the hair at the base of her scalp, I gave a gentle tug.
Body molding to mine, her lips parted in an open invitation. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I did, the first time I saw you smile.” Crushing my mouth to hers, I lost myself in salty-sweet bliss.
Curling into me, she moaned her appreciation. My wandering fingers traveled from her shoulder blades to the subtle curve of her hips. Lips never parting, our hammering hearts beat a steady chorus of mutual urgency.
Breath coming in ragged pants, I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my forehead to hers. “I thought just being with you would be enough,” trapping a lock of her hair between two fingers, I twirled the silky strands from my knuckles to fingertips, “but I need to know it’s real.”
Catching my hand in both of hers, Celeste took a step back. A blend of confusion and concern puckered her brow. “What are you talking about? Of course it is.” A quiver of betraying nerves sullied her laugh.
Begrudging the distance between us, I linked my fingers with hers. “Everything I’ve done in my life; the trials I faced, the strumpets I’ve fancied …”
“Not loving this story so far.”
Raising her hand, I dotted a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “It’s all made me who I am today: a broken, shell of a man loving you the only way he knows how.”
Her expression a question mark, she searched my face for answers. “Did you steal one of Kendall’s Nicholas Sparks books? Because I don’t speak chick lit. I’m going to have to get her out here to translate this into sardonic quips.”
I huffed with laughter despite the situation. “I need you to know … ugh! I don’t even know what the hell I need you to know!”
Lips curling in a downward C, Celeste let her shoulders rise and fall. “In that case, we’re on the same page here.”
Grumbling my frustration, I stepped forward and cradled her face between my palms. The flecks of gold swirling in her molasses eyes beckoned me home with the clarity of the Northern Star. “I want you to know that your happiness is the most important thing to me. Any obstacles that threaten to destroy that, I will remove in any manner necessary … because I love you.”
“I thought love was too overused a word for your taste?”
“Sometimes it’s the only one that works.”
Our lips found each other with a passion that left us both breathless. Far too soon, with the sharpened claws of anguish ripping my heart to shreds, I expelled myself from the haven of her embrace.
“Flimaninarty will have to wait, with my promise that we will define it in the sauciest way possible the very next time we’re together.” After breathing the words into her, I turned on my heel and strode away from the woman I loved.
“Rowan!” she called after me.
I paused, tipping my chin her way without looking back.
“Mo chroi, I’ve heard that somewhere before. What is it?”
“It’s you, Celeste, my heart.”
Chapter 9
One rap on the cracked and faded door of Caleb’s loft, and he threw it open as if he’d been waiting just inside. While he gaped in shock that I tracked him down—hello, I can delve into the minds of others, not really a challenge there—I got straight to the point. “The blonde lass, is she okay?”
Caleb glanced protectively over his shoulder. “Aye, she’s restin’ now. Poor thing will have questions when she wakes that I can’t answ’r.”
“That sounds like Future Caleb’s problem. Right now, I’m gonna need Present Caleb to come with me.” Grabbing him by the collar of his crisp black T-shirt, I yanked him out the door. In a churning cloud I whisked us both back to the alley of the attack.
“Blimey! What the blazes w
as that?” Cal asked, his pallor morphing to the same green hue of his eyes. Hands on his knees, he tried to breathe through the off-putting vertigo that accompanies teleportation.
“Oh, where are we, wha’s happenin’?” I quipped in my worst, and most leprechaun-esque impression of him. Loose gravel crunching under my boots, I shoved my hands in the pockets of my coat to fight off the nip of night. “Even in an alternate reality, you’re still frightfully predictable.”
Caleb spun at the sound of my voice, his gaze locking on the spot in the alley where the hound attempted to feast on his date. “How did we get here? Who are you? And, most importantly, what the bloody hell was that thing?” he demanded, the magnitude of his snit making him oblivious to my snark. “That was like nothin’ I’ve e’er seen before!”
Eyebrows raised, I held up one finger to correct him. “That’s not entirely true. You’ve seen that, and far worse, you just don’t remember.”
Caleb jabbed one hand at the space the Hellhound had occupied, as if a trace of it still lingered there. “That is not the kind of thing you forget!”
“Oh, yes!” Pantomiming glee, I clapped my hands in front of me. “Let’s waste time by playing Memory! Wait … there’s a killer beast on the loose, isn’t there? Drat. We’ll have to stop that first, then we can braid each other’s hair and catch up. How’s that sound?”
Caleb’s mouth twisted in annoyance. “Like you really enjoy the sound of ya’r own voice. Has anyone e’er finished a conversation with you and not wanted to punch ya in the throat by the end?”
“My nana.” I nodded, then cocked my head as I reconsidered. “Wait … that’s not true. Nana had a wicked right hook.”
Shaking his head in annoyance, a lock of raven hair fell across Caleb’s forehead. “As fun as your little quips are—for you, I mean, society told me to tell you ya’r a pain in the arse—I want to know how we stop that thing.”
“You’re willing to help?” I ventured, holding my breath in anticipation of his answer.
Descent (Gryphon Series Book 5) Page 8
