CHAPTER 22
My bare feet slapped against the blistering blacktop made each step more excruciating than the last. My lungs ached and I had a stitch in my side, yet I ran on. I had to.
As I sprinted into town, I opened up my direct line to Gabe. I shoved my panicked, urgent feelings out to him. Please, please let him get here in time. I pleaded to the heavens.
My foot found a pothole on Gore Avenue, and my ankle wrenched to the side. I caught myself with my hands as I fell. My ankle throbbed and my palms were bloody. I righted myself as quickly as I could and hobbled on.
The library came into view, spurring me to limp-run even faster. My eyes scoured the yellow building for a glimpse of her. No movement, no people, nothing. They couldn’t be inside, the library closed at five.
Evil, malignant beings don’t really care about closing times or locked doors, my inner voice corrected. If he wanted in, he got in.
I yanked and shook the doors with all my might. They were padlocked with a thick, steel chain and determined not to budge. I cupped my hands around my eyes and looked inside. I saw nothing but books. If he took her somewhere else, I had no way to find her.
Or do I?
My chest tightened. Opening myself up to that, knowing there was nothing I could do to help her, would be agony. But I had to find her. I braced myself for the worst and reached out for her.
Like a cold, hard fist ramming into my chest and squeezing my heart, her feelings came to me. She was terrified, fully believing that she was about to die. Tears sprang to my eyes and streaked down my cheeks.
Try to concentrate. Where is she? I closed my eyes and focused.
My head snapped back as her location revealed itself to me. They were three stories up on the roof, and the door in front of me was locked. I darted around the building, desperately searching for another way in. Finding a back door, I grasped the handle and shook. Nothing. No time to lose, I kept moving. I continued around the building, trying every door and window for some way to gain entry. I wound up back where I started from with nothing to show for my efforts.
I glanced around frantically hoping to see Gabe or a three story ladder. Neither of those things magically appeared. There was nothing I could do to help her. I would be willing to trade my life for hers if I could just get to her. But I couldn’t. I reached out for Gabe, feeling a strong, steady confidence from him. He felt certain he would make it in time. A blood-curdling scream from above argued otherwise.
“Kendall!” I shrieked. “Gabe’s coming! Just hold on!” I doubted she heard me, but I had to try.
Her scream became a choked gurgle—then silence. I hunched forward, my fingernails digging into my face. I had to do something. In seconds, it would be too late.
“In a manner of speaking, he can read your mind.” My psyche provided Alaina’s words when I needed them most. The Gryphon knew what I was thinking! Boy, did I have an earful for him.
I know you can hear me, so listen up. You picked me to help you and to risk my life against all odds. But if Kendall dies, the deal is broken. I don’t care what my ancestors vowed to you, I make my own destiny. I will not lift a finger for you if you don’t help me keep my family safe. Do you hear me? Do you understand? If she dies, it’s YOUR fault and I AM OUT!
I don’t know what it looked like when it happened. There were no witnesses that could later regale me with tales of my transformation. I do know what it felt like. If a rogue storm cloud had invaded the clear night sky and threw one bolt of lightning straight at me, the feeling would’ve been comparable. An intense, jarring energy jolted through my system. Every muscle in my body went rigid with the surge. My head flew back. My arms and legs locked straight out. I trembled and quaked; my stomach rolled at the intensity of it. Then I fell to the ground in a heap.
I stayed slumped on the ground, deliberating over whether I was dead or not. It seemed dead would hurt, and I had no pain. As a matter of fact, I never felt more alive. Sitting up, I gazed down at my hands and forearms. I turned them over and back again. They looked exactly the same. There was no outward sign of change. Yet, everything was different. The power was there, just below the surface. I could feel it.
I rose from the ground on legs that were no longer clumsy or unsure. They pulsed with strength and unimaginable capacity. I peered up at the ledge of the rooftop and bounced on the balls of my feet. That was all it took. I rocketed through the air. The wind whistled past my ears. The library rushed past in a blur. Three stories, no waiting. I landed gracefully on the edge of the roof.
I tarnished my spectacular entrance by letting slip a flabbergasted, “Whoa! Did you see that?! That was awesome!”
I glanced around for someone to second my emotion. The grisly scene before me shocked me back to the matters at hand. Kendall was on her knees, her back pressed up against to the clock tower, her hands tied behind her. In that position she couldn’t deploy her wings and shield herself, a fact I was certain the Seeker had exploited. Her attacker was in human form. His spiky black hair the same shade as the pelt of the panther. His skin the grey pallor of death. He glared at me with frightening, solid black eyes. His hand was weaved into Kendall’s long blond hair, yanking her head to the side to expose her bloodied neck. Cutting into her flesh was a glossy, ebony claw that curled out from his index finger. Blood dotted the front of her violet dress, but she was alive.
“Good.” He sneered. “The other sister has arrived. Now we can figure out which is the Conduit and which gets to die.”
Logic told me I was no match for him. My body seemed to know otherwise. It eagerly anticipated the fight. Seeing Kendall’s terrified expression, I flicked a hint of the power I felt coursing through me at her. Her eyes widened, and a slow smile spread across her face. She peered up at her attacker.
“You know,” she whispered. “I think you may be in trouble.”
An enraged snarl ripped out of the Seeker. He released his hold on my sister and stalked toward me. “I don’t care who or what you are. You are a puny, insignificant being, and I would like to taste your blood. ” He spat the words at me as he morphed into the panther.
“Here kitty, kitty,” I taunted and beckoned him with the curl of my finger.
The panther charged across the roof, his teeth bared. I inwardly trembled but stood my ground. About five yards away, he pounced. He flew through the air at me claws first. To my own astonishment, I acted on instinct and sprang into the air. My mind reeled as I corkscrewed around to deliver a round-house kick straight out of Fight Club. My foot connected with his jaw in a bone-crushing collision.
The wicked panther let out a yelp of pain as he skittered backward across the roof. I landed softly, and rushed at him. With wide, anxious eyes, he watched me come. His gigantic claws struggled to get traction on the cement roof as he retreated. To gain ground, he morphed into human form. His jaw hung at a cockeyed angle; my kick apparently unhinged one side. Gross.
I put on the brakes as he approached the edge of the roof. He had nowhere to go. “You and I both know it’s over,” I stated. “Why don’t you step away from the edge and we’ll have a nice little chat about your demon buddies?”
His face sagged in a sickening grin. “I know who you are. Believe me when I say there is nothing but pain coming for you.” With that, he did a reverse swan dive off the side of the building. I ran to the edge and watched in disbelief as he did a free fall toward the pavement. His arms and legs flailed until the moment when he exploded into a cloud of black smoke. It dissipated rapidly and left no trace of the black-eyed man.
I rushed to untie Kendall. She stared up at me in amazement.
“You ok?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine, just surface wounds. I can heal myself as soon as I get my wings out. But, Cee, that was amazing! He killed himself just to get away from you. You’re, like, a badass! How the heck did you do that?!”
“I have no idea! But it was cool!” I gushed. “Did you see the kicky, twirly thing I did? I don’t know what that was
, but it was friggin’ sweet!”
“Yeah it was! There was only one problem.”
“What?”
“Here kitty, kitty?” She raised one mocking eyebrow. “Really?”
“That was lame, I know. I’ll work on my snappy one-liners for next time.”
Her hands now free, Kendall rubbed her red, chaffed wrists. “That seems to be all you need to work on! It was a good thing the Gryphon picked today to soup you up. I was convinced I was a goner.”
“I know,” I grumbled. “I didn’t think I was going to get here in time.”
“But you did!” A wiggle of her shoulders and her wings appeared.
“Which was great because he didn’t seem to care if he accidentally killed the chosen one or not. He just wanted the info. Barnabus must be coming down hard on these guys. The gloves are off.”
“That means they’ll send a replacement quickly.” I looked her over and evaluated her injuries. Her neck wound was only skin deep. But her shoulder was sliced to the bone. “We’ve got to get your arm looked at Keni. It’s bad.”
“Not necessary,” she grinned. “Watch this.”
Her wings drew in around her, forming a tight, down cocoon. The feathers began to glow with a soft luminescence. After a moment, it subsided and Keni retracted her wings. Her injuries were gone. Not even a scar remained.
“Impressive.”
“Not too shabby, huh? My dress on the other hand is DOA.”
“Our calling has been detrimental to your wardrobe.”
“Right?”
The sound of heavy footfalls landing on the rooftop behind us cut off our conversation. I didn’t kill the Seeker! He’s back! I whirled around and delivered an effective right hook without pausing to look.
My fist connected with its target as Kendall cried out, “Celeste! Stop!”
It was too late. I coldcocked my brother right in the eye.
“Oh, crap! Sorry Gabe!” I was going to have to leave a message. Gabe temporarily checked out.
He let out a shocked “ooof” then did a clumsy side-step. His eye instantly swelled shut. He would’ve hit the ground, but his sprawled legs locked up to prevent it. He hung his head and waited for the fog to clear. After a moment, he began slowly shaking his head. Blinking hard with his good eye, he peeked up at Kendall and me.
“Guess what, Gabe?” Kendall chirped weakly. “Celeste got her powers. Yeay! How’s your head?”
He let out a feeble grumble. I knocked a gigantic lion for a loop. If that doesn’t stroke the ego, I don’t know what does. I tried to look concerned while I internally gloated. “We should get you home and ice that eye. It’s turning a lovely shade of purple. Do you think you can make it down from here?”
Gabe took a tentative step forward. His leg buckled under his weight. We rushed forward to help him back up.
“There’s no way he can make it down,” Kendall fretted.
“Can you fly him down?”
She shook her head. “No way. I’m like a quarter of his size. I couldn’t lift him by myself. Unless…” She looked my way with a speculative eye.
“Unless what?” I didn’t like where this was going.
“You get an arm, I get an arm, and we jump.”
I had been super strong for all of ten minutes. I had been afraid of heights a whole lot longer. “Isn’t there a way into the building from up here? We could just break in and take the stairs. Easy squeezy.”
Kendall rolled her eyes at me. “You would rather commit a crime by breaking and entering instead of just jumping down? You jumped up here you big wimp, you can jump back down. No big deal. And, if you do get hurt, I can heal you.”
“Thank you, that’s very reassuring,” I muttered wryly. I turned to my stunned and befuddled brother. “Can you change back, Gabe? Make this a little easier on us?”
The lion half-heartedly raised his head, then let it drop again. I guess that answered my question.
“No biggie,” an annoyingly up-beat Kendall shrugged. “We can just lift him up on his back legs. We’ll drape his front paws around our necks.”
That seemed like a monumentally bad idea. “Look at the size of him, Keni. No way can we keep hold of him while we jump.”
“Sure we can, now that you have the super strength.”
“Already you’re taking advantage of my powers? If I’m doing all the heavy lifting, what the heck are you going to do?”
She put her hands on her hips. “I will make sure we have a smooth landing instead of crashing to the ground, if that’s all right with you.”
“Fine,” I scoffed. “Let’s just get this over with.”
We finagled Gabe up onto his hind legs, draped his gigantic paws around our necks, and shuffled to the edge of the roof. I peered down over the ledge and got a nasty case of vertigo.
“Nope. Can’t do it,” I declared.
“Yes, you can,” Kendall said. “Just don’t look down. On the count of three, we’re going to jump. Ready?”
“No, I changed my mind.”
“One…”
“Please don’t make me do this.”
“Two…”
“I’m going to die.”
“No, you’re not. Three!”
I took the mother of all deep breaths, squeezed my eyes shut, and jumped. My hair whipped off my neck and lashed at my face as we plummeted toward the ground. To my shock and amazement, we landed without incident in the alley behind the library. My body reacted to the jump like I had done nothing more than hop off a curb.
No sooner had our feet touched the ground then a menacing hiss jerked our heads to the right. A pair of wild, luminescent green eyes peered at us from the shadows as it growled out its warning. My heart leapt into my throat with enough force that I almost choked on it. Another Seeker! I fumbled to free myself from Gabe’s heavy arm when what turned out to be a stray cat charged past us. It sent a garbage can clattering to the ground in its panicked rush to get away from the lion that just fell from the sky.
Kendall’s pink glossed lips split into a wide grin, “See? No biggie.”
Easy for her to say…she wasn’t the one having heart palpitations. Between the terrifying free fall and the “mysterious wild creature,” I had a sudden need to go hide under my bed in the fetal position. “Let’s get home,” I gasped as I expelled the breath I’d been holding. “Immediately.”
The Conduit Page 25