***
Sprawled out in our bedroom, Keni and I filled Gabe in on what he missed. More accurately, I tried to fill him in while Keni gushed over what it felt like to fly.
“…the wind was in my face. I could see, like, the entire mountain range. It was amazing.”
“No you couldn’t,” I snipped. “Alaina didn’t let you go above the tree tops.”
“Well, you wouldn’t know, being down on the ground and all, but from where I was, I could totally see everything.” She rolled onto her back on her bed and made Mr. Hoofington “fly” over her head.
“Did the Seeker make an appearance at all?” Gabe asked while giving me a “does she have a mute button” look.
“If he was anywhere around, I totally would have seen him. Did I mention I could see everything up there?”
“It came up,” I snapped and squeezed the pillow in my lap a little tighter. “He didn’t show. Hopefully, it wasn’t because he was busy feasting on express-line customers.”
Gabe threw himself on my bed. The bed springs screamed as his enormous frame landed. “I doubt there was any bloodshed. Small town like this, we would’ve heard about it the second it happened.”
I feared he would break the frame and swatted him off my bed. He groaned, but settled onto the floor. “True. Plus, Kendall just became a big neon sign pointing him to us. He won’t waste his time in town much longer.”
A knock on the door, then Grams poked her head in. “Gang’s all here, huh? What are we talking about?”
“The panther in town,” I answered truthfully. “Did you hear anything about what happened today?”
Fired up for a good bit of gossiping, Grams threw open the door with gusto. “Yes! It was really somethin’! They had that critter cornered up there on the roof. Animal rescue shot it with three different tranquilizer darts before it finally went down. Or at least they thought they hit the panther…” She paused for dramatic effect. “But when they got up on the roof—no panther. There was a man up there that somehow got caught in the crossfire. No one knows who he is or what he was doing there. All they know is he was in the worst possible place at the worst possible time and got himself darted in the rump for it. They carted him off to the hospital in Nashville. Hopefully when he wakes up, they’ll get some answers. Poor fella. Scared by a panther and then shot in the butt. That’s a bad day, right there.”
If all evil creatures are this incompetent, this saving the world thing might not be too tough.
“Wow…just wow.” Gabe marveled.
“Excitement like that is even better than my stories!” Grams gushed and waved her freshly polished fuchsia nails in the air. “Anywho, I came up here to let ya’ll know I’m off to Casino Night at the Bingo Hall. Gonna try my hand at Blackjack. Grams needs a new pair of shoes! Ha! You kids have a good night.”
She planted bright red lipstick marks on each of our foreheads before she disappeared down the stairs. We waited until we heard the front door click shut behind her before we resumed our “other” identities.
“Am I the only one that expected more from the Dark Army than some spaz that gets darted by the local law enforcement?” I asked.
“Maybe he’s new to being evil,” my sister shrugged, then struck yet another Superman pose and giggled to herself.
“This may’ve bought us some time though. If he was unconscious, he probably missed Kendall’s powers being activated.” I ran my finger along the ridges of the Gryphon statuette on my nightstand and wished he could answer our questions directly.
“That’s good. That gives us more time to prepare.” Gabe seemed lost in his own thoughts as he stared out the door. “But what if they come here? What do we do about Grams?”
We all fell silent. The idea of Grams being harmed was unfathomable.
“She’s never left alone,” I declared.
Kendall and Gabe nodded in agreement. If the Dark Army wanted to come for us, let them come. But hands off the Grams.
The Conduit Page 20