Embrace (The Gryphon Series) (11 page)

             
“What kind of rumors?”  I interrupted.

             
“Rumors that the Countess isn’t in the Underworld.” Boil Face filled in.

             
I shot a glance to Kendall, then Gabe.  Kendall’s trepidation reflected my own.  Gabe looked hungry for demon.  “If she’s not in the Underworld, where is she?”

             
Eddie shook his head.  “No idea.”  

Again,
Gabe growled.  The Glee Clubbers cringed and huddled together. 

“
He doesn’t think we should trust you.”  I explained. Nothing wrong with a little good cop/bad lion.

             
The lone twin pushed off of Boil Face to stand on his own.  His sorrow-filled stare bore into Gabe.  “She took away our freedom and killed my brother.  If you trust nothing else about us, trust that we want her dead.”

             
Gabe snuffed and looked away.  I didn’t know if he was buying what the Glee Club had to say, but he at least seemed to respect the pain the twin was in.

“
How do we figure out what she’s up to?” I asked.

As the twin’s posture sagged once more,
Boil Face stepped forward to catch him.  “
You
don’t.” He declared.  “You have to keep living your lives like nothing is going on.  Let us figure out what her diabolical plan is.”

I shook my head
. My hands curled into battle ready fists.  “No.  She’s already killed one of you.  What you’re suggesting could make every single one of you all kinds of dead.”

The twin
gave a humorless laugh.  “She already thinks we’re incompetent.  As long as we make it
look
like we’re still trying to kill you she’ll stay off our backs.  Us giving up before is what…angered her.”    His head fell at the agonizing memory. 

“You guys are going to have to stage it that you’re after me.  Can you do that convincingly without
doing anything stupid like
actually
killing me?”

“Sure.”  Eddie nodded.  “
Staging stuff like that is kinda our specialty.  Plus, we’re way too scared of you and your lion to try anything that would inflict actual harm.”

“Good.”

“No, it’s not good!”  Kendall argued.  She strode toward the Glee Club, hands firmly on her hips, wings bobbing behind her.  “This is, like, uber-dangerous.  You guys get that, right?” 

The
last light of day glistened off of Keni’s silky wings, making her glow radiantly.  An audible sigh of appreciation escaped every one of the geeky demons. 

“We
know, and we would love to do this for you.”  Eddie declared wistfully.  The implications of that sentence registered a second too late.  He stammered to tagged on, “I mean
all
of you.  We would love to help
all
of you.” 

My sister graced
them with her famous wide-eyed, toothy grin.  “If you’re
sure
, then thank you.  It means a lot that you would risk everything just to help us.” 

Every one of them
ogled her with moon-eyes.  It seemed the Kendall Garrett Fan Club just acquired some fresh, new recruits. 

“No problem.”  They all dreamily
chorused.

Gabe and I
did synchronized eye-rolls. 

“So
,” I interrupted, before things got too nauseating.  “The plan is for us to pretend all is right in the world, and basically be bait, while you guys snoop around for info on what’s going on?”

             
They all nodded without taking their eyes off Kendall.

“Consider us the Rebel Alliance.”  Eddie snort laughed.
When he caught my quizzical expression, he clarified.  “It’s a
Star Wars
joke. ‘Cause your lion is wearing Millennium Falcon boxer shorts.” 

“My lion’s wearing what?”
All eyes turned to my brother.  Even Gabe glanced over his shoulder.  Our big, intimidating predatory cat still had on his underwear.

             
Gabe huffed, and changed back to human.  The Glee Club members grimaced, cringed and gagged at the sensory extravagance that is my brother’s morphing process. 

“Changed in a hurry.” 
Gabe nonchalantly explained.

             
“Just so you know,” Eddie replied with a wavering voice.  “A lion in underpants doesn’t evoke quite the same amount of fear into the hearts of your enemies.  Don’t get me wrong, you’re still scary as all get out.  But it does take away your edge a bit.”

             
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”  Gabe said tightly, and folded his arms across his massive chest.

             
“Hey, are you the only bad guys out tonight?”  Kendall interjected.  “’Cause I’m missing
America’s Next Top Model
.”

             
“Far as we know, we’re it.”  Shrugged Boil Face, as he gazed at my sister with stars in his eyes.

             
“Awesome!  I’m outtee!”  Kendall bubbled.  She retracted her wings, spun on her heel and started down the mountain.  In her wake she left a crestfallen Glee Club.

             
Gabe followed her lead.  “Me too.  I’m beat.  Going home to crash.”

             
Red hiccup-laughed.  “The lion’s tired.”

             
“What’s funny about that
demon
?” Gabe scowled. His chest shook with a low growl. 

Kendall and
I went on high alert.  Keni stopped walking and waited for a signal from me to intervene.  I stepped closer to Gabe, anticipating having to pull a cranky lion off a harmless demon that would most likely wet himself at the sight of Gabe’s exposed fangs. 

             
The Glee Club diffused the situation by harmonizing their answer.
“Ah-wee-ma-way, ah-wee-ma-way, ah-wee-ma-way…”

             
Gabe swore under his breath and stomped off.  Kendall and I giggled at his misery.

“You have to admit they’re good!”  I yelled after him.

              The Glee Club sang him off.  “
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.  Weeeeeee-eeeee-wee-amum-awayy.”

CHAPTER 14

According to Kendall, my part of our charade of normalcy was keeping my date. 
I thought, circumstances being what they were, that I should cancel.  But Kendall insisted I ‘take one for the team’ and go out with the hot Irishmen.  Oh, the hardships I endure for my calling.

Caleb was
kicking a rock off the porch with the toe of his black boot when I opened the door for him.  In a pair of faded jeans and a fitted navy T-shirt he made casual look
good
.  The black leather jacket he wore had two thin white stripes that ran from the shoulders to the cuffs.  His jet black hair was brushed back, yet a few renegade strands had already snuck forward.  Sunlight reflected off his silky locks, casting deep shades of blue and purple.  A slow smile spread across his face as he peered up at me from under his lashes. 

“Hi
, there.” I squeaked.  My grin was so wide it made my cheeks hurt.

“Hi
, ya’rself.”  He answered with a slight lift of his chin.  After a respectable glance up and down, he added, “Ya look lovely.  Purple’s a wonderful color on ya.” 

“Thank you.
  My sister dressed me.”  I blurted and internally grimaced at my need to over-share. 

“She did a bang
-up job, din’t she?”  He chuckled, then shifted to retrieve the backpack slung over his shoulder.  He unzipped it, reached inside and pulled out a package crudely wrapped with pink flowery paper.  “I brought ya a little gift.”

“
You didn’t have to do that.”  I took the package and motioned for him to come in.

“I know I din’t have t
o.”  He stated as he stepped into the foyer. 

Holy-moly
, he smells fantastic.

“I wanted t
o.”

I
f I was going to blush like this every time he said something nice, there was a good chance my head would explode before the end of the night.  To distract myself, I set my gift on Gram’s “purse catchin’ table” and tore it open. 

My eyebrows drew in and my smile faltered.  “You…uh… got us matching jackets?”  They didn’t match
exactly
.  Mine had pink strips.  Still, it was the weirdest first date gift
ever
.  “That’s…um…I mean, thanks.”

“Th
ar’s a reason for it, I swear.  Ya’ll see.”  His eyes twinkled at whatever hidden meaning lay behind his words.

I held up the jacket and shrugged.  “
I’ll take your incredibly cryptic word for it and just say thank you.”

He gave me an alluring half-grin that made my belly flip-flop. 
“Ya’re welcome.” 

“Ooh, cute jacket!”  Kendall gushed,
as she sauntered up behind me.  Grams accompanied her.  Upon seeing Caleb, their welcoming grins became looks of slackjawed astonishment. 

“Whoa momma…”  Grams muttered
under her breath.

“
Ya must be Celeste’s gramma and sis.  Nice tah meet ya.  I’m Caleb.”  With a smile worthy of a toothpaste commercial, he extended his hand first to Grams, then to Kendall.  They both blushed and giggled like school girls when he took their hands.

“So, Caleb.”  Grams drew one shoulder in and brought her hand up to fiddle with the neckline of her muumuu.  “Tell me a little bit about yourself.
  Where are you from exactly?  Your accent is…
fascinating
.”

“Okay, we need to go.”  I grabbed the sleeve of Caleb’s jacket and tugged him toward the door, then scowled at Grams and mouthed, “
Stop flirting with my date.”

Her look and gesture of response clearly said “I can’t help it!  Look at him!”

I nodded.  She had a point. 

The screen door squealed as
Caleb opened it.  “It was very nice to meet ya both.”  Grams and Keni tittered in response.  Then, he offered his arm to me.  “Shall we?”

My hand slide across the smooth leather of his jacket as I hooked my arm through his.  “We shall.”

No sooner had the screen door swung shut behind us than Grams hollered, “Holy crow, Kendall! Did you
see
that guy?!” 

Caleb had to have heard that,
I glanced at him to gauge his reaction.  Fighting back the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth, he winked at me.  I stifled a purr.

My
threatening purr died instantaneously when we reached the driveway and Caleb tossed me a helmet.  I pressed my lips firmly together, and tried not to freak out.  Before me was a symphony of stainless steel and shiny black metal. 

“What is that?”  I croaked. 

Caleb came around behind me to slide my new jacket up my arms.  I now realized it was a
motorcycle
jacket.  In my hands I held a
motorcycle
helmet.  Caleb was wearing
motorcycle
boots.  Highly unlikely that he had a Buick parked at the curb. 

Crap.

He turned me toward him to zip me up.  “Tha’s an Exile Bulldozer with a one-twenty-one Harley Davidson engine.  Beauty, aye?”

“Yeah, sure.”  I
tried to sound nonchalant.

He
sauntered over to the bike, threw one of his long legs over it, and pulled on his helmet.

My attempt at nonchalance disappeared as I considered getting on that motorcycle in my dress.
“Where’s its roof?  Or doors?  Or steel-enforced roll-cage to protect my skull from splattering across the pavement?”

He flipped his visor
down. The visor didn’t hide the amusement in his voice.  “Tha’s what the helmet’s for, lovey.  Ya know, most gals find motorcycles sexy.”

Most girls
don’t have to worry about an evil army taking over the world if they crack their head on the pavement. 
I mused. 
That tends to take the sexy out of it. 

“Guess I have a stronger aversion to road
-rash than other girls.”  I muttered and reluctantly crammed on the cherry red helmet.  

I swung my leg over the bike
. At least I had opted for leggings under my baby-doll dress.  Caleb reached his arm back to steady me.  Unsure of where or how I was supposed to—ahem—grab him, I rested my hands on the sides of his waist. 

“Ya’r gonna have tah hold on tighter than that.” 
Caleb murmured over his shoulder.