CHAPTER 28
Gabe fell asleep while I drove. We were on our way to face an army of demonic forces the likes of which we—or quite possibly anyone—had never seen. Yet there he was, slumped in his seat, snoring like a chainsaw. He probably ate himself into a junk food induced coma. He still clutched the two liter in his hand and chip crumbs decorated the front of his shirt. Sure it was a long, monotonous drive. But it seemed the simple fact that we might die would keep him awake. Dozing behind the wheel wasn’t a problem for me at all. The closer we got to Memphis, the tighter I gripped the steering wheel.
We pulled into the college parking lot in the wee hours of the morning. Sunrise was only a few hours away. Night still held a stronghold. The darkness combined with the fact that a malicious man waited here to kill me made the nice, scenic campus an ominous and foreboding place. My mind conjured up scenes from every scary movie I had ever watched. Any minute now the dark, foreshadowing music would start up and the killer would jump out at me.
The added security of having Gabe awake suddenly became crucial. I smacked at his arm. “We’re here. Wake up.”
“Hmmm.” He groaned and stretched. His voice heavy with sleep, he failed miserably at sounding awake and alert. “All right, let’s get this party started. How do we find Kendall to get the scoop?”
“Uh…I don’t know. We don’t want to risk calling any attention to her or us. We need to be subtle.”
“Like what? Doing bird calls?” Gabe scoffed.
“That way would be a heck of a lot more discreet than calling her cell. She never turns her Glee ringtone to silent. I think it goes against her entire belief system.”
“Hey, do you have a flashlight?”
“No. Why?”
“We could have shown it into the sky like the Bat Signal.”
“Maybe next time. For now I say we go with bird calls.”
My brother fought back a grin. “We’re not the best at this are we?”
“Not even close.”
“Think we’ll get better with time?”
“For the sake of the world, I really hope so,” I admitted.
“Okay,” Gabe relented. “I can do an owl or a pigeon. Which is it?”
“It’s night time. Go with owl.”
“Owl it is.”
Gabe reached for the door knob but stopped short when a dark, shadowy figure landed on the hood of my truck. We both froze as the small truck shook from the impact. My breath caught, and my heart temporarily forgot how to beat.
Was the fight going to start so soon? Without any lead in or preparation? I was nowhere near ready! Shouldn’t I have stretched or something first? Plus, there was the added vulnerability of being trapped in an enclosed space. Barnabus could tear our heads off before we stepped out of the truck! That is if head rippage offage was one of his abilities—there was so much I still didn’t know!
Next to me, Gabe snarled as his teeth lengthened. His skin began to churn. His bones snapped and set as he began his transformation.
“Don’t change in my truck!” I screamed at him. “You’ll tear the whole thing apart!” Wrong thing to be worried about right then, I know. Especially when the figure began to stoop toward my windshield. In a few short seconds we would be looking into the face of evil.
Or not.
Kendall mashed her face up against the glass and gave herself a pig nose. “Hey, guys!” She grinned. “What took you so long?”
Gabe growled at her but stopped his transformation.
“I’ll hold her down you bite her head,” I suggested to Gabe, only half kidding. Climbing out of the truck, I poured my annoyance on thick. “You better have some useful info for us.”
“That I do. And I have to say I, like, totally loved my little covert op. Made me feel very secret-agenty!”
“So what did you learn, Double-O Dense?” Gabe asked as his fangs retracted.
“There was a man with long red hair, uber old-fashioned clothes, and a cape heading into the theater.”
“Someone wearing a cape heading into the theater? Are you sure he wasn’t an actor in costume? He could have just been going to rehearsal,” I suggested.
“Well, he could have been. If they’re having rehearsals at two AM and are going to use the unconscious person he had flung over his shoulder as a prop.”
“Now there’s a hostage?” Gabe pulled his shirt off and threw it in the truck.
Kendall nodded solemnly.
“This just keeps getting better.”
“Any sign of the army?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen or heard them. I assume the long-haired, freaky guy was Barnabus. For all I know the army could have already been in the theater waiting for him. I can’t say for sure that he’s alone,” Kendall admitted.
We really didn’t have much to go on here. “Did he demonstrate any of his powers?”
Her blonde spikes didn’t budge as she shook her head. “Nothing other than strength. The…person he was carrying is a good-sized guy and he tossed him around like it was nothing.”
I couldn’t help but notice her hesitation. She purposely held something back. “What aren’t you telling us, Kendall?”
She quickly flicked her gaze away from me, adjusted her shirt, and avoided make eye contact. “Nothing.”
“Wow, you are just the worst liar ever,” Gabe stated. “And you’re a theater buff?”
“Spill it, Keni. Now.”
Hesitantly, she brought her head up and sighed deeply. “Keep in mind, I’m not one hundred percent positive about this. The guy had his head down and was all limp and stuff so I couldn’t tell for sure.”
“Couldn’t…tell…what?” I asked. I felt the muscles in my jaws tense.
“The hostage. Celeste, I think it’s Alec.”
I should’ve been surprised. I wasn’t. Of course he would end up in the middle of this he made the fatal mistake of trying to get close to me. Barnabus was systematically attacking the people I cared about. I needed to end this or resign myself to wearing a sandwich board for the rest of my life that reads:
Get Close to Me
and Get Knocked Out by
a Cranky 300 Year Old Demon!
Determination dripped off of me as I declared, “We have to get him out. What’s the best way in?”
“There’s a door around back. If it is anything like the theaters back home, it will lead backstage. That’ll give us the element of surprise,” Kendall reported.
“Good. Let’s go,” I said.
We averted our eyes as Gabe ducked behind the truck to strip down the rest of the way and morph into the impressive, tawny lion. Kendall expanded her wings and took on her own majestic splendor. I glanced down at my t-shirt and cut-off sweatpants. Suddenly, I felt very underdressed. If the idea of myself in a superhero costume didn’t give me the willies, I may’ve considered it. No skin-hugging spandex for me. I would make my peace with my grubby clothes.
Our odd trio—the lion, the angel and…me—came together. Cloaked by darkness, we made our way across the sleeping campus with determined strides and steeled nerves. For the most part.
The Conduit Page 31