Ascension (The Gryphon Series) (15 page)

Chapter
18

Words, with their meager concepts, could not describe the spectacle of violence erupting on the football field before us.  The little mole dudes had not come alone. They’d brought accomplices of the ominously gargantuan kind. The giants were identical to their smaller counterparts, but nearly ten times their size. It was those enormous beasts that tunneled up from the earth with a pint-sized friend on both shoulders. They then stood stoically by as their tiny counterparts dove to attack the nearest human. Gabe and his entire football team fought off the pointy-nosed creatures as they gnashed their teeth and swiped viciously with dirt packed claws.

Gabe
’s body swelled and expanded yet he fought off his full feline transformation—probably for the sake of his team. In my opinion elongated ears, a fuzzy muzzle, and bone crushing incisors on their coach seemed the more disturbing option. But what do I know?

“K
eep your helmets and pads on!” he roared in a deep growling tremor. “They can’t bite through them!”

There had to be around
a hundred mini-moles scurrying between Gabe’s team and us. So far, they hadn’t noticed our arrival. “We need to get over them to help the team.” I spun around and peered up at the school, trying to find some way in to the eye of chaos.

Eddie pulled up his sleeves to reveal the ports where bone-like daggers shot from his wrists. “I can clear you a path, but as soon as they see you
, you’ll be swarmed.”

“If only I had some sort of impenetrable shield that could repel them …” I tapped my chin
with my pointer finger and stared pointedly at Keni.

She shoved one hand on her hip and
tsk
ed, “Seriously, Cee? I’ve now been reduced to battering ram?”

“Don’t think of it like that.” I slapped a hand on her shoulder and gave a little squeeze. “Think of it as leading the charge. Just tuck your wings around you and run like heck!
I’ll be right behind you.”

Pink glossed lips disappeared into a white line of annoyance. “And if the whole troop of rabid weasels jumps on me? Then what? We aren’t
all
the She-hulk, ya know.”

“Well, that’s the part where I’d pick you up and you
would
become a battering ram, but we’re gonna hope that doesn’t happen.” 

Keni folded her arms and
hitched up one perfectly arched brow. “If this Chosen One thing doesn’t work out you should really think about becoming a motivational speaker.”

“We can stand here and hash this out, or we can go help those boys.
Time’s a wasting, Keni.”

“Fine!” s
he groaned in exasperation and readied her wings, curling the ivory appendages around herself. “Blaze me a trail, Ed.”

His
mohawk bounced with his brief nod. “Stay low to the ground, I’m gonna shoot over you.”

I lost count after the twentieth dart rocketed from Eddie’s thin wrist. Enough mini-moles
fell for us to make a run for it. I held tight to Keni’s hand as we charged forward, both of us in a low crouch. Over Keni’s left wing I could see Gabe. A mini-mole latched onto his shoulder. He snarled and sunk his claws into the mole’s neck to spike it to the ground.

“We’re almost there!” I screamed to Keni over the ear splitting sounds of raging
bedlam.

“They’re
thinning out up ahead!” Keni yanked my hand to pull me closer. “I don’t like that! Where are they going?”

“Maybe today’s the day the bad guys give up and go home?” Sure, the words sounded like empty wishful thinking even to my ears, but it was a nice thought.

“
Celeste
!” Eddie’s panicked scream rose above the uproar.

My head snapped around
. A dozen mini-moles surrounded him, edging their way forward, twitching in their eagerness to attack. “
Eddie! Shoot
!” 

Time moved in
slow motion. Eddie’s arm rose. The point of a dart slid from his skin. One brazen mole picked that moment to lunge. Eddie jerked away from the bite and released his dart … directly at me.

“Ah, crap.” No way could I get completely out of striking distance in time
; not in this jam packed crowd. All I could do was spin around, shield my head with my hands, and brace for impact.

He appeared out of nowhere
, enveloping me in a familiar cocoon of safety. Strong arms held me tight as I inhaled the fragrant mix of soap and fresh air. “
Caleb?
”

His only response came in the form of a
n anguished scream as the dart sank into his back.

“
No
!” Whipping around, I caught his head before it could hit the ground. “You’re human! I could’ve taken that hit! It would’ve hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t kill me!
Why would you do that
?”

Blood seeped between his lips and stained them the crimson shade of death. “Told
ya I’d die tah protect ya.”

“Yeah, well
I never agreed to that!” I protested and brushed the hair from his face. Keni crouched down beside me, glowing with her healing luminescence. I shoved two fingers in my mouth and whistled for Eddie. After a fire storm of flying darts and fallen moles he made it to us. “Get Caleb into the locker room! Barricade the door behind you and
heal him
!”

“What are you going to do?”
Keni’s blue eyes darted side to side as a group of moles—or a labour if you like the fancy term—closed in.

Curling my hands into fists tight enough for my nails to pierce my palms, I rose to my feet.  

“I’m gonna play Whack-a-Mole.” My intention was to grab the first waist-high mole dude that ran at me and use it as a javelin to take out a bunch of its friends. But before I could select my furry weapon, flames gushed past, singeing off a strip of arm hair. The fatal blaze exterminated every mole that stood between Caleb and the door.

Terin
’s wings steamed and sizzled as she retracted them to land. “Get him out of here.”

Keni and Edd
ie needed no further invitation. Each draped one of Cal’s arms around their neck and shuffled him toward safety. Raven hair curtained his face as his slack head bobbed with each of his escorts’ hurried steps. I longed to follow them, to stay steadfast by his side, but I couldn’t. I had a job to do. Loathing the anguish of my calling, I turned back toward the violent melee.  

Visible f
lames danced just beneath the surface of Terin’s skin as she raised one ginger eyebrow quizzically. “If you’re done with your Orpheus and Eurydice love drama perhaps we could go save the townspeople?”

My mouth twisted up in a half-hearted smirk.
“Topical humor should be reserved for those that didn’t attend the wake when the dinosaurs died. Now, think you can make yourself useful and torch the rest of these guys like that?”

She shook her head, her hair dancing over her slender shoulders like living flame. “My flames aren’t evil beast exclusive and there are too many kids in the way. The only way I can ensure their safety is to get up close and personal with the demons and make direct contact.”

“Then we do this the old fashion way.”
Shoulder to scalding hot shoulder, we sprinted into battle.

Terin
reduced any demons that dared ventured too close to ash with a simple touch. Their charred remains blew through the air and coated us both in a dusty film. An enraged scream tore from my throat as pulled all my strength into my core and unleashed it with every swing and kick. Many fell by our hands, but not nearly enough to consider the situation contained.

“’Bout time
yooooou got heeerrrrre,” Gabe rumbled as I broke through the horde and stumbled to his feet, dripping with all that was left of the demons that got in my way—goo. His pointed ears flattened to his head as his lips curled back from his fangs. “Therrrre’s too mannnnny. They jusssssst keep coming.”

“What’s the deal with the big dudes? Do they ever move?” I caught the arm of a mini-mole and swung it around like a shot put to take out four more charging my way.

A scream snapped our heads around. Six mini-moles held a
flailing football player pinned to the ground as one of the giant dudes took a menacing step forward.

“
Yooou knnnowwww yoooou madddde thissss happen, right?” Gabe’s muzzle twitched his annoyance.

The ground trembled
under the stomps of the snarling, spitting rodent-man. Tears streamed down the teen’s face as he screamed out pleas for his life. The beast’s furry thighs bulged as it bent its knees and sprang into the air. When it reached peak height, it jackknifed and hurdled back down whiskered-nose first. With its front claws ready to burrow, it snagged the frightened football players arm with its back feet and sank into the lush green turf.

“
Stevenson
!” Gabe lost his hold on his humanity. His massive frame exploded in a bone-crushing, hair-sprouting extravaganza that brought forth his inner feline.

Together, we
dashed to the teen’s aid. I forcefully shoved my way through the brigade of moles, leaving them to be dealt with by the hungry lion behind me. Stevenson’s lower half disappeared into the earth, his hands frantically clawing at the dirt.

I threw myself forward, skidding
across the grass on my belly as I reached for him. “Take my hand!”

Panicked hazel eyes locked with mine.
“You’re too small! I’ll pull you in!”

“That’s adorably chivalrous.” I grit
ted my teeth and latched onto his wrist. “
Now take my friggin’ hand
!”

Reluctant, but out of options, he grabbed on. I planted my feet and pulled with all my might until Stevenson shot out the hole
in a shower of dirt and rock.

“Get out of here!
Run
!” I turned the visibly shaken teen and shoved him toward the perimeter of the field.

From within the mound
, the giant mole reappeared. The leathery pads of its front paws clamped around my ankle in a tight vise-grip. I hit the ground face first, the air rushing from my lungs in a
huuff
. The world rushed past in a blur of green terrain as I grappled for anything to grab hold of before being dragged down to the Land of the Morlocks.

“Be a dear and give that nasty thing a kick, would you
Mo Chroi
?” murmured a seductive—and all too familiar—voice as black smoked snaked around my wrist.

I couldn’t fight off
the grin that split my face as Rowan materialized in front of me with his hands clasped tight around my forearms. “Never thought I’d be so glad to see your smug face.”

“My face …” t
he tendons of Rowan’s neck bulged as he pulled back against the giant moles force, “… brings endless … joy … to all … those … that gaze upon it.”

My
leg scraped against the earth as I brought one knee up, and then slammed my heel down on the mole’s paw. With a yelp it loosened its hold, allowing Rowan to jerk me free. Our forceful momentum caused Rowan to tumble to the ground with me on top of him.

“
If you wanted me on my back,
Mo Chroi
...” Amusement crinkled the corners of his eyes.

M
y face squinched in distaste. “Sense the mood of the situation before leering.”

Another
shriek whipped both our heads. A second player vanished into the ground before anyone could even attempt to help him. Pushing off Rowan’s solid chest, I launched myself to my feet, hell bent on preventing any more from going out the same way. I spun in a circle, trying to determine where I was most needed in this chaos. Not ten feet from me the earth exploded in a mushroom cloud of dirt and rock. A clawed hand dug into the Achilles tendon of the kid I recognized as Gainesboro High’s quarterback. He barely had a chance to scream before he was yanked down, leaving a trail of blood-stained grass in his wake. I held nothing back as I sprinted for him. His body jerked, whipping his head back at an unnatural angle … then he was gone. I fell to the ground and scrambled to the edge of the mound, intent on prying him from the clutches of his captor. Instead I found …
nothing
. No trace of man or beast.