“Absolutely. What do ya need from me?” Boy scout that he was, Caleb easily slid into the role of the hero … as I hoped he would.
“What do I need from you?” Biting the inside of my cheek, I pivoted on my heel and paced the width of the alley. “Well, these matters always come down to a girl. Don’t they, mate?”
“The brunette from the pub?”
“Aye. Her name is Celeste, and what I need from you now,” halting directly in front of him, I clapped one hand onto his broad shoulder, “is for you to remember her.”
Focusing my attentions, I dove into Caleb’s mind. Immediately, I bumped into the wall constructed there. Since many of you probably haven’t had the good fortune of roaming through another person’s mind, allow me to paint a picture of the landscape of that amazing realm. Every memory, every scar, every moment of true bliss creates another woven thread in the intricate tapestry of each individual thinker. It’s a glorious collection of flaws. Anticipating that and finding the perfect, unblemished blockade protecting Caleb’s brain from the truth, made it that much more foreign and off-putting.
Exploring its surface, I measured it for imperfections. Finding a nick there and a bulge here, I located one protruding memory … and pushed. Teeth clenched, body trembling with the strain, my cognizance struck with all the force I could muster, and the wall came tumbling down.
It only took a beat.
Clarity sharpened Caleb’s gaze, his features morphing with a dangerous edge.
“You rotten bastard,” he growled through his teeth.
Balling his hands into flaming fists, he snapped my head back with a fierce uppercut. Skin crackled, the cartilage of my nose crunched. Still, I had it coming.
“You had your memories this entire time!” he bellowed, his face morphing from red to purple. “And you used them to manipulate her! She’s not ya’r toy, Rowan! She’s a person, one you used fer ya’r own pleasures!”
Running my tongue over my teeth, I spat out the blood-tinged saliva that filled my mouth with a coppery rush. “And if you had the opportunity, you would’ve done the exact same thing. You would’ve moved mountains to make her fall for that fine Irish façade all over again. You’re just pissy I beat you to it.”
“Did you sleep with her?” he demanded. Every tendon of his neck bulging, he took a threatening step toward me. “Did you actually take it that far?”
“Come now, how is knowing that calling her My Queen makes her long for a slap on the ass going to help this matter?” Feigning shock, I covered my mouth with one hand. “Oops … I’ve said too much.”
“I will kill you for this, Rowan. Consider that my vow tah you.” Fire blazed in his eyes, promising. He meant every word.
Staring passed him, my body stiffened.
“For the moment, you may need to take a number and get in line,” I pointed out, jerking my chin down the alleyway. “We’ve got company.”
Caleb followed my gaze. His body tensed, just as mine had, to see Gabe’s ominous frame filling the back entrance to the narrow aisle. Puffing his cheeks, Cal exhaled through puckered lips. “When my memories came back, they brought with them the gruesome knowledge of these beasts an’ what they can do. I really hope you have a plan.”
Glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, I threw one hand in the air. “Where would be the fun in that?”
“They both come to defend her honor,” the Gabe-hound boomed from the far side of the alley. Chest rising and falling in heaving pants, saliva dripped from his fangs. “How livid she would be to learn of that.”
Caleb’s arms pulled from his sides, poised for battle.
I took a slightly different approach, my hands meeting in front of me in a cavalier snap/clap. With a playful gait that could have easily transitioned into a skip, I approached the beast with blood red eyes and a less than cheery disposition.
“I suppose you have gotten to know her during all this time posing as her loving brother,” I commented in a conversational manner. “Tell me, why bother? Why not just devour all their souls while they slept?”
Gabe’s head cocked, his inner hound perking one curious ear. “The one who calls me babe is with child. There is no soul sweeter than that of an innocent newborn.”
“You hear that, Cal?” I called over my shoulder. “He’s playing the doting husband so he can eat the baby. That’s dedication to a goal, right there. A truly admirable tenacity.”
“I can name four words ya used wrong in that statement alone,” Caleb muttered, slowly creeping up behind me.
He was following. Good.
“Is any of the meathead brother left in there?” Crouching down, then rising up on tiptoe, I made great show out of examining every lumpy, bumpy ridge of Gabe’s face and torso.
Recoiling at my intimate proximity, foam bubbled in the corners of the beast’s mouth. “He’s here, but not strong enough to resist my influence. Few are.”
“Of course they can’t,” I erupted. Slapping my hand on his bulging bicep, I gave it a friendly squeeze that made his torso reverberate in a vicious growl. “Look at you! You’re a heaving beast! If only you had a more worthy receptacle, imagine what you could do …”
“Rowan, what are you doing?” Caleb whispered, speaking directly to my better judgment.
The Hellhound’s shoulders puffed in offense. “What is wrong with my receptacle? It kills with ease and agility!”
“As it should! It’s a lovely … package,” I agreed, cringing at my own less than stellar word choice. “But, you know, it’s human. It’s only capable of so much. Had you picked a demon, you’d have their fun little talents to play with.”
“My receptacle has been chosen,” the hound snorted, shaking the thought off with a canine toss of his head. “It cannot be undone.”
Keeping one hand planted on him, I tossed the other one out in a wide gesture. “Of course it can, mate! With the right help, and—here’s your fun prize with purchase—there just so happens to be two chaps infected with demon blood right in front of you. Handsome human packaging with none of that bothersome weakness or mortality!”
Caleb halted where he stood, icy awareness sagging his shoulders and dilating his pupils to ink-black pits. “You filthy basta’d. This is why you wanted me here, tah sacrifice me to yar mongrel.”
“Shhh! Don’t ruin the ending,” I taunted, one finger pressed to my lips. “You’ll kill the suspense of it.”
The Gabe-hound eyed Caleb as if he were a shiny new sports car he couldn’t wait to slide behind the wheel of—in a mostly hetero way.
“What powers does he have?” he asked, dragging his lolling tongue over his teeth.
“Rowan, no,” Caleb warned, attempting a step in retreat. “You don’t have to do this.”
Head listing to the side, I applied my gift and halted him where he stood. “He possesses the blood of a Titan, meaning he can control the four elements. Produce fire from the palms of his hands, tremble the earth, create a wind storm, and … uh … something pertaining to water. Anywho, a far more entertaining prospect than a human sack of deteriorating flesh.”
“I came here to kill you, Rowan Wade,” the hound stated in more fact than threat. “That’s been my goal since the Countess branded this receptacle and called me forth. Fortunately for you, if you can make such a transition possible, I would consider sparing you.”
“Blimey, Rowan! You can’t trust a Hellhound! Release me an’ we can fight this thing togetha!”
“I have mind control abilities,” I batted the words away with a flick of my wrist, belittling their value. “A bothersome trait, really. However, in this instance it’s quite useful. I can lure your essence out of one form and guide it right into the other.”
The hound’s hackles rose, his expansive back arching in outrage. “And how do I know you won’t attempt to vanquish me when I leave this form?”
Fighting to keep my expression neutral, I offered him a tight-lipped smile. “Well, mate, not that you aren’t charming
company, but if I knew how to vanquish you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“If you try to betray me, I will yank your spinal cord out your mouth and shove it up your ass,” the Gabe-hound warned, shifting his weight anxiously from one foot to the other.
“I met a girl in Singapore that could do a similar trick. It involved a far different bone though.” Peering up at him, I offered him my most beguiling smile. “So, what do you say? Do we have an accord?”
The beast didn’t verbally relent, but snorted his agreement.
That was what I wanted, what I planned for. Even so, the victory came washing in on a tide of melancholy.
“This may sting a bit,” I warned the hound, centering myself to the task at hand.
“Row, why are you doing this?” Caleb, the little cartoon cricket of my conscious, asked with disappointment slathering each word.
“Every day that I was with her, holding her in my arms, I fell a little more in love. And every day I became more and more aware that it was never real. Why?” I pondered, rambling on before he could answer. “Because, I wasn’t with the real Celeste. All I had to hold on to was the shadow of her left behind from the Gryphon’s spell.”
“And ya’r plan is to … what? Remove the competition from the equation so I don’t louse things up for ya?” Caleb spat in disgust.
Pausing, I offered him a sad smile, then cerebrally reached for the hound’s essence. This time, it reached back, welcoming me to the roaring bedlam and cravings for gore within. Coaxing, urging, and persuading his will with every trick I possessed, I lured it from its heaving form.
“Celeste needs a man that is worthy of her,” with beads of sweat sprouting across my forehead, I uttered the declaration to Caleb as much as myself. “Someone who would make any needed sacrifice without batting an eye.”
“You know her,” Caleb countered, pushing against my influence for use of leaden limbs. “Sacrificin’ anotha fer yar own needs will only turn her against you!”
Wrangling the twisting darkness, it lashed out at me with unseen slashes. Its hunger for change quickly whipping into a frenzy.
“Celeste will understand … in time.” Forcing the words through my locked jaws, sweat streamed down my back and soaked my shirt. Slapping a hand on Gabe’s shoulder, I pulled back with all my might, extracting the last remnants of his demonic infection. Wind kicked up in a cyclone around me, my hair whipping my cheeks raw. “I’m doing this for her!”
Gabe slumped to his knees, head falling back like a loose PEZ dispenser. A geyser of crimson fog gushed from his lips, vacating its spent vessel.
“She won’t see it that way, brotha,” Caleb shouted, his chest puffed with a warrior’s bravado. “You do this and you will lose her fore’er.”
Toppling sideways, Gabe crashed to the ground, his chest rising and falling in shallow pants. In his place hovered a blood red mass of rolling and writhing energy. Lost in its hypnotic pull, I noticed tiny bolts of lightning zagging and planking from one cloud-like tuft to another.
“Rowan, don’t do this!” Caleb desperately thrashed for freedom.
“I am sorry. You need to know that. If I could think of any other way …” Tearing my stare from the mesmerizing inevitable, I looked to my true first mate for what I feared would be the last time. “Someone that knows the true atrocities of this world needs to be here to protect her. To keep her away from all of it, so she can squeeze out every bit of happiness she has earned. That someone is you, Caleb.”
In a blink, confusion snuffed out the inferno of rage sweltering in Caleb’s emerald glare. “Me? Row, are ya daft?”
Throwing my arms out wide, I opened myself to that foul shadow.
“Keep her safe, Cal. Take care of her!” I screamed to be heard over the crackles of swarming electricity. It snaked and coiled around me, eager to stake its claim. “Find Terin! Unleash the Phoenix!”
“Row, stop! We can find another way! Don’t do this!” Cal begged, stumbling forward a step as my influence wavered.
Malice cocooned me, building and brewing into a stifling fortress. Lifting my chin, I rose on tiptoe to deliver one final message before it consumed me. “Whatever happens, Cal … Keep her away from me!”
The hound’s life-force seeped through my pores, invaded every orifice. I found myself sinking into the tarry blackness, dragged down to the depths of lunacy and locked away there.
I wouldn’t know until the next time I peered into a mirror, at a face I didn’t recognize, of the physical changes that accompanied the hijacking. The dull pallor of ash that coated my golden strands. My complexion, formerly sun-kissed to a warm tan, drained to flawless porcelain. I refocused on the world, not with my usual charming sapphire gaze, but with a maniacal stare of rubies encircled by onyx.
At the muffled sound of something scrapping across the ground, I twisted my head to see Gabe struggling to his knees.
Hands falling to his sides, the eldest Garrett peered up at me with a blend of terror and pity. “Rowan, what have you done?”
A veil seemed to separate me from the world, its opaque cloak detaching me from the urgency of the living.
“He upgraded,” a raspy growl reverberated my chest, yet I hadn’t spoken a word.
The Hellhound had control.
In my foggy state I tried to remember why I cared.
“Rowan!” Body moving without my consent, I spun in Caleb’s direction. My head tilted in interest. “I know ya’r still in there! Fight it, brotha! Ya’r one of the strongest blokes I know! Take control!”
The hound’s chuckle dripped with malicious intent. “That had been his plan. He thought he could suppress me, keep me locked away like a mongrel pup. And for what? To be the noble hero to a worthless meat-sack?”
“He’s doing it for me, and I won’t let him!” Rising on visibly unsteady legs, Gabe pulled himself to up to full height. “Take me. I’ll willingly turn myself over, if you spare the pirate.”
“Well,” the hound scoffed, pacing a slow, predatory circle around Gabe, “didn’t I find myself in the den of champions. Each so willing to throw themselves on the proverbial sword. That being the case, I have to ask why you think I would ever disregard this shell for yours? This one is positively dripping with power.”
Gabe’s barrel chest puffed with pride. “Because I remember who I am now …”
Locked deep within my own body, I shook my head and pounded my fists, screaming for him to stop. My cries went unheard.
“… and I know what I can do.”
“Noooo!” Caleb’s hand shot out, as if to halt the unavoidable.
A gesture too little, too late.
Falling on all fours, Gabe’s form shifted in a gruesome display of cracks and pops. Hair sprouted. Fangs elongated. Claws curled into the earth. In the end, the majestic lion emerged. Tossing his mane, he threw his head back and unleashed a mighty roar into the Tennessee night sky.
His own otherworldly elements awakened, Caleb called fire to him once again. Flames engulfed the length of his arms in orange and yellow tendrils, licking from his flesh. “Gabe, get behind me! Now!”
The lion didn’t run or cower. Instead, he laid down in a submissive offering before the Hellhound, before … me.
I could feel the hound’s giddy delight, taste his brewing bloodlust, and I struggled against it with all I had.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” the hound clucked, running my hand over my chin. “Isn’t this a fascinating development? The Guardian to the Gryphon’s Conduit, which can only mean somewhere in your little circle of friends awaits the fated Chosen One. That is utterly delicious.”
My treacherous hand lashed out in a blur of speed, connecting with the base of the lion’s skull. The potent strike drove him to the ground, severing his spine in a gruesome crunch of bone. His massive head fell to the side at an unnatural angle; feline eyes fixed and dilated.
As I watched in horror, the lion sentry morphed back into the Gabe’s lifeless body.
&nbs
p; The Garrett clan’s first fallen soldier.
Fighting against my prison, I scrambled and scrapped to regain control.
“What’s the matter, pirate?” the hound shouted, his gruff vibrato echoing down the alley. “Sad to see your last heroic effort rendered utterly pointless? What did you think would happen when you deceived me? You promised me the Titan!” Spinning on Caleb, I felt my lip curl from my teeth in a threatening snarl. “If I can’t have him, I’ll just have to turn him! It’s time I begin building my pack.”
Caleb’s fiery arms rose defensively, his glare screaming for vengeance.
For a moment, I punched my way through—forcing back the curtain on a fleeting instant of clarity.
“Caleb, I’ve got him! Run!”
“Gabe!” he hollered, gaze flicking to the heaped form.
The hound clawed and scratched for the surface, desperate to drag me back down.
“It’s too late, he’s gone! I can’t hold him, Cal! Go! Keep her safe!”
Caleb’s flames extinguished. Wearing a mask of admiration, he clapped one hand over his heart. “I will find a way to save you, brotha. I promise you that.”
As my hold slipped, tossing me back down the rabbit-hole of despair, Caleb vanished in a puff of black.
Instead of giving chase, the hound threw his head back in a wicked cackle.
“Let them all run and hide,” he growled. “I will find them … find her. Then, dear Rowan, I will make great sport of playing with your beloved. Her screams for mercy will be the last thing you hear as you watch your own hands wring the life from her body.”
To be continued …
The Gryphon Series Resurrection
continues with
Inferno
Fall of 2016!
About the Author
RONE Award Winner for Best YA Paranormal Work of 2012 for Embrace, a Gryphon Series Novel
Young Adult and Teen Reader voted Author of the Year 2012
Turning Pages Magazine Winner for Best YA book of 2013 & Best Teen Book of 2013
Descent (Gryphon Series Book 5) Page 9
