My heart lurched in my chest. More than I ever wanted anything in my life, I longed for her to turn the intensity of her gaze my way, if only for a second. Just one more time. There was so much I wanted to say, so many poetic words scripted on my soul. With one glance I was convinced she would see it all.
Circumstance forced a chasm of distance between us. How I yearned to steal a few moments back at the beginning, when I could bring color to Celeste’s cheeks simply by brushing her hair behind her ear. Whatever it took, when this was over and the darkness rescinded to the shadows once more, I would get us back to that magical place.
Pausing her creation, Celeste’s lead-smudged hand plucked her phone off the mattress beside her. Clicking it to life, she frowned down at the device. Bothered by Rowan’s silence, perhaps? Or Gabe’s?
I wasn’t the only one who picked up on the budding artist’s shift in mood. Blonde hair bobbed into the window frame, momentarily blocking my view as Kendall plopped on the bed beside her sister. Clutching her stuffed zebra in front of her, the youngest Garrett adopted a silly mug and made her plush friend dance in front of Celeste’s face. Laughing, Celeste playfully swatted it away.
Their Grams sat on Terin’s bed, painting her nails a shade of pink so bright I guessed it to be visible from space. When I scanned the room further, the chilly hand of reality tiptoed down each of my vertebrates. Alaina, Gabe’s clueless widow, swiveled side to side in the desk chair; the fabric of her shirt stretched taut over her swollen belly. Crochet needles clicked away, creating sunshine yellow baby booties with each methodic sway. Her face radiated with maternal peace. In my head, I could hear her humming a sweet and soothing lullaby.
Guilt seized my throat in a strangle hold and squeezed tight. “She needs to know the truth. To have time to mourn before—”
“She devours that bucket of chicken?” Terin interrupted, referencing the white and red bucket tucked under Alaina’s arm that the very pregnant ex-Spirit Guide paused to graze on with ravenous bites. “Yes, I completely agree she should be warned about the sodium content. Can we say cankles?”
“Don’t make light of this!” I snapped, the branch creaking beneath my weight as I shifted.
“Or you’ll take us both down in a shower of splinters and kindling? Noted.”
Head whipping in her direction, my top lip curled from my teeth. “They sit there simmering in their own ignorance! They deserve to know the truth!”
Taking her chances on trusting her own balance, Terin raised both hands palms out. “Take a look at yourself, Caleb. This is why knocking on the door would have been a bad idea.”
Glancing down at my arms, I watched black venom seep through my veins, bulging them to the surface like fat leaches. I could feel the sickening cracks and pops of my features widening with my demonic change. It had been too long since I felt that malicious rush … that pull to chaos. Rolling my neck, I fought for control. With my hands glued to my sides, I ground my teeth to the point of pain. It took every ounce of willpower I had to suppress the beast within that roared its desire to seize Terin by the hair and shake her like a rag doll until the truth fell from her lips.
“Gabe died for all of them,” I hissed the words through clenched teeth, nostrils flaring with rage. My hand shot out of its own accord, seizing her by the throat. “His sacrifice can’t be for nothing.”
“It’s not,” Terin stated with deadly calm resolve. Glowering my way with fiery intensity, her body temperature rose to scorching beneath my grip. “I have been assured that each and every one of the Garretts are exactly where they need to be.”
“And where is that?”
“I don’t know!” Flames flared over her cheekbones, igniting her skin to the red flash of day break. “I wasn’t privy to that information. But I do know that they have a plan in place, and that if you don’t take your hand off me right now, I will go super-volcano and take you with me.”
The branch began to groan and sag beneath us, her heat comprising its strength.
“Swear tah me she isn’t in danger!” I demanded.
“I can’t do that. I guess you’re going to have to trust the powers that be,” the steaming Phoenix gasped beneath my grasp. “Take a look at her, Caleb. Does she look like she’s in danger to you?”
Seething, I forced my stare back to the window. Celeste lounged on the bed, munching on a drumstick she stole from Alaina. A smile playing across her lips, she said something to Kendall that made the youngest Garrett pounce on her. Yanking the hood of Celeste’s sweatshirt up, Kendall tugged the drawstrings out as far as they would go. Only her mouth and nose visible, Celeste laughed along with the rest of the family and tore another hunk of chicken off the bone.
Sails falling slack from my gusts of fury, I wavered. Even I heard the lack of conviction in my tone. “She needs to know. She needs …”
“You?” Terin softly injected rational thought into my vein of absurdity. Grasping my hand, she uncurled my death grip on her trachea. “Are you sure it isn’t the other way around?”
Sucking in a shocked breath, I eyed my own hand as if it had betrayed me. Shoving off the branch, I fell to the ground, landing in a crouch.
Terin plummeted down beside me, colliding with the earth in a jarring thump that left her rattled.
“If anything happens to her because of this, I will kill you.” Growling the words at the pavement, I granted her only a sideways glance.
The night breeze coaxed her ripened red flame to a soft blushing pink. “If she is put in harm’s way, I will storm the gates of the Spirit Plane alongside you.”
One brow lifted in question.
Soothing her oversized cardigan into place over her leggings, Terin’s shoulders twitched in a noncommittal shrug. “Yes, the star-student is having rebellious thoughts. I blame binge watching Gilmore Girls on me forming a deeply rooted need for female solidarity.”
“Whate’er the cause, if it works in the favor of our gal, I support it.” Pivoting to face her, I clapped my hands before me in preparation of my offering of apology. “A million apologies for that bit of manhandling. My demon hasn’t surged in months. It seems he’s been hittin’ the gym and buildin’ strength in his downtime.”
“Please,” she scoffed. “I’m a Conduit, that was like a warm hug. Although, if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t mind you shaking off the veiny, scary look for something a bit more aesthetically pleasing.”
“What?” Glancing down at my hands, I found them still to be swollen, enlarged mitts pulsing with tarry demon blood. “Huh … that usually goes away on its own. Always in fact.”
After twisting her hair into a knot on her head, she held it in place with the hair tie on her wrist. “Well, if it carries on for four hours or more, you should consult your physician.”
“I’m serious.” Shaking my hands like I was flinging off water, I tried to escape the demonic hold that refused to budge. “This has only happened once before, when …”
I trailed off, unable to form the words.
“When what?” Terin asked, pivoting my way on the ball of her foot. A rogue thought crinkled her nose in disgust. “Wait … you’re not transforming into something ickier are you? Because I once fought a Ramoriac demon and their colon drains out their sweat glands. That shit still haunts me—no pun intended.”
“This happened once before,” I turned in one direction and then other, glancing up and down the street as if anticipating hordes of violent demons to storm the campus, “in a time of war.”
“They brutalize your face in times of distress? That seems unfair … whoa! Okay, time for the boundaries talk!” Her argument shifted direction when I did. Grabbing her by the waist, I pulled her to me. Black wisps already roiled around us in a dizzying array.
“There are demons in trouble. Hordes of them. I can feel them. I can track them.”
“With some sort of demonic group messaging, you’re going to whisk us into the center of the scrimmage? I’m not sure that’s the best—”<
br />
I didn’t let her finish.
Moving us both as a rolling storm cloud, I sought out the thunder.
Chapter Two
Solidifying outside a strip of shops and businesses, I released Terin who stumbled back with her hands on her knees.
The wind lashing her hair around her face, which was tinged green with motion sickness, her gaze traveled the length of the street. “If there is some big demonic throw down going on here, they are keeping it surprisingly low key.”
“It’s ov’r,” I grumbled through my teeth. Finally losing ground, my inner demon retracted its hold. “All I can feel is the stillness of death.”
“Traditionally, not a good sign.” As she pushed herself off her knees, the low heels of her russet boots clicked against the pavement. Crouching down at the edge of the sidewalk, she peered into the storm drain. “Where did this happen? Underground? Demons like the dark and dank, right?”
“Ya’r profilin’, and doin’ a poor job of it.” With a lift of my chin, I gestured to the coffee shop across the street. The sign on the door, written in newsprint font, read The Daily Grind. A wave of déjà vu whisked me back to the first time Celeste and I met, in a shop similar to that. It couldn’t be a coincidence. It felt more like a deliberate step to take me back to the beginning. “Whatev’r happened, it was in there.”
Sheer curtains hung over wide windows, allowing light in to the tiny café while denying outsiders like us a glimpse of what had transpired within.
“Aw,” Terin tsked, head listing to the side, “that’s my favorite coffee shop. They make great scones.”
“The bodies aren’t even cold yet, Terin. Perhaps we can discuss pastries later?” Steeling my spine, I marched to the door with a determined gait.
Lips pursed, Terin jogged to catch up. “When you say it like that, it sounds cold and callous. I’ll have you know I was part of the freshmen initiation committee.”
Mid-stride, I shot her a dubious glare.
Dragging her tongue over her lower lip, she hung her head. “Me and a couple other girls liked to be the first to take them to all the local bars. They were like sweet, little drunk babies.”
“And ya haven’t been nominated for a humanitarian award? Tha’s the real travesty here.” Hand curling around the doorknob, a bell chimed to announce our arrival.
Mangled bodies and the coppery stench of blood welcomed us to a grisly funhouse of someone’s maniacal fantasy. Black blood painted the walls in violent slashes. Carcasses draped over tables and slumped back in chairs. Severed limbs were strewn across the floor.
Acidic bile scorched up the back of my throat, my hands instinctively curling into fists at my sides. This was one fight I was far too late for.
Shielding her eyes behind my arm, Terin’s hand fluttered to her mouth to stifle a heave. “Are they ...”
“There are no humans here,” I rasped, sniffing the air. “Every body that fell, every drop of blood spilled belonged to a demon.” Emotion muffled my voice to a barely audible whisper. “This was no battle. It was a massacre.”
“How can you tell?”
Carefully stepping over the strewn bodies, I ventured farther into the carnage. “Look at their wounds. These weren’t caused by weapons. Those are claw marks.” I pointed from the torn torso of a lad that looked as though he stepped off the cover of Abercrombie and Fitch only to meet his untimely death, to mauled throat of his curvaceous blonde date. “And someone took great pleasure in rippin’ her throat out with their teeth.”
“Not someone,” a weak voice croaked, “your boy, Rowan.”
Forcing my way through the rubble of ravaged flesh, with gore squishing under my boots, I followed the slightest shift of movement. Terin placed her feet in the exact spots mine vacated, matching me step for step. The trail ended at a boulder-sized shifter. His lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling, unblinking. Still, something beneath him wriggled and squirmed.
“I can’t look.” Terin cringed, yet didn’t—or couldn’t—avert her gaze. “Is it one of those horse-hair worms? I watched a clip about those. They take over their host and feed off them while they are alive and animated. But the second their host dies, they crawl out of their butt in search of fresh digs. Is that what it is? Demonic butt worm?”
Squatting down, I lifted one limp, tree trunk sized arm. Beneath it, a feminine hand with chipped black polish pawed at the air in search of freedom. “Instead of trapped victim, yar mind went straight tah butt worms. I blame social media. Help me move this monstrous bloke, aye?”
Terin crouched down. Her elbow brushing mine, she shimmied her hands beneath his girth. “On the count of hernia, we push.” Putting her back into it, she strained against his mass. “Hernia!”
Adding my strength to hers, I helped her roll him with both of our faces reddening from the task. “What did this lad shift into?” I mused between gasps. “A rhino?”
One final heave and he slumped onto his side.
A whip thin frame lay crumpled beneath him, and board-straight black hair fanned out around her ashen face, both coated with thick slicks of blood. Heavily made up eyes fluttered open a crack, struggling beneath iron weighted lids.
Placing one hand tenderly between her shoulder blades, I eased Kat—a member of the self-dubbed Misfits of Mayhem—to sitting. Three vicious claw marks sliced across the alabaster skin of her neck, decorating her shirt with tarry gore.
Unweaving the infinity scarf looped around her neck, Terin pressed the fabric to the wounds with a firm but gentle hand. “What happened? Can you remember?”
Kat’s mascara smeared eyes rolled back in her head, only snapping back into focus when she winced with the next jolt of pain. “I saw every swipe … heard every scream. Rowan lured us all here, said he wanted to talk about the Conduit. We all swore allegiance to Celeste. We would have gone to the edge of the world for her. Rowan knew that and used it against us. He was the last to arrive … waited for us all to get here before he came in and locked the door behind him.” Blood seeped between her teeth, bubbling over her paling lips. “He never said a word—just attacked.”
“Lean her forward, gently,” Terin demanded. When I obliged, she scooted herself behind Kat to prop her up straighter. “We need to get the bleeding to stop, or we’re going to lose her.”
“Terin?” I cautiously attempted to interject the full scope of what seemed inevitable.
If the ginger Phoenix heard me, she didn’t pause or let on. Easing Kat back against her chest, she cradled the paling demon’s head between her palms and guided it to her shoulder. “Sitting her up will slow the bleeding, hopefully long enough for her supernatural healing to kick in. Rowan did a hell of a number on all of them. If this is a Hellhound getting warmed up, I would hate to see his main event.”
“Rowan,” his name slipped from Kat’s blue-kissed lips in a moan, her skin tainted by the gray pallor of death. “I always … had … a … thing … for him.” Eyes falling shut, her chest rose and fell one final time.
Eternity’s ethereal silence followed.
Defeat sagging her posture, Terin laid her patient to rest on the ground and pulled her leg out from behind her. Offering her help up, I took her blood-stained hand and hoisted her to her feet.
“This makes no sense.” Terin chewed on her lower lip, mentally cataloging the scene, her gaze unable to settle anywhere for longer than a second. “Why would Rowan call them here just to kill them? It can’t be as simple as hunger and bloodlust, can it?”
Crouching down, I rocked onto the balls of my feet to cross Kat’s arms over her chest. “If that’s the case, animals are sloppy. That could work in our fav’r.”
“Maaaaasssssssttttter.”
The noise snaked by so fluently, I thought it to be nothing more than air hissing through the duct work. Terin, however, twitched her head with bird-like interest.
“What was that?”
“I said animals are—”
“Not that.” Stepping closer, Terin h
alted me with one raised hand. “Listen.”
The growl of the damned resonated off the walls around us. “Maaaaster.”
Pushing off the floor, I sprang to my feet. “That, I heard.”
As if cued by my alarm, the room writhed to life around us. The walls shook with the menacing vibrato of a chorus of growls rising up in an amplified crescendo. Hunched, mutilated corpses heaved themselves upright. Those whose ravaged limbs couldn’t hold their weight dragged themselves closer, their palms slapping against the blood-smeared epoxy floor—vacant slabs of meat, drawn to the only beating hearts in the room. The mountain of a man we rolled over rose onto one knee and matched me in height. From there he swelled, my eyes drifting up, up, up to take in all the towering behemoth.
Sucking air through my teeth, I wagged a taunting finger in his direction. “I’m stickin’ with the shape shiftin’ rhino idea. Look at the under bite. That thick lower lip is either where his horn emerges, or a sign of bad dental work.”
Red eyes glowing from his sockets like a flashing warning sign, his head tipped to glower in my direction.
Steam wafted from Terin’s skin, the temperature of the room rising with her agitation. “That’s your battle plan then? Poke the bear?”
Matching hungry, red eyes blinked into focus all around us; each of the newly risen abominations adorned with that same ghoulish stare. Their growls shook the shop windows in their frames. Slow and steady they stalked in a tight formation around us, cutting us off from any possible exit. Kat was the last to rise, the behemoth sidestepping to allow her access to their hunting circle. Her tongue teased over the tip of the canine incisors that sprouted from her gums.
“I don’t think the bear cares much what we do at this point, it’s just lookin’ fer a spot to sink its teeth. Back to back, then?” Arms raised defensively, I took a small step back and pivoted on the ball of my foot to align us in a better position to keep an eye on all angles of potential attacks.
Inferno (The Gryphon Series Book 6) Page 2