Sacrifice (Gryphon Series) (16 page)

I
whipped my head around so fast I swayed on my feet ... or maybe that was from the stupid sky-high heels Kendall had crammed on my feet. “He’s killing her?!”

“And yet you’re still standing her
e talking to me,” Bernard pointed out, then pulled a handful of berries from his satchel and popped them into his mouth.

I
kicked off my shoes and ran into the living room just as Grams linked her arms around my mother’s waist and heaved her to the side. The hold of the demon’s glare instantly broke and Mom went limp. Grams eased her to the floor as gently as possible. The demonic stripper emitted a snake-like hiss and tried to fix his gaze on another target—Kendall. She shook her wings free, spun around, and expanded them wide to protect all of us from his stare.

“Whenever you’re ready to step in here
,
Conduit
, by all means go ahead,” Kendall snipped. Sure, she had a point, since I was standing there doing nothing. But still—
rude
.

I had the makings of an idea—inklings really—and that was about it
. “On the count of three, duck.” The way my voice rose at the end made it sound like more of a question than a statement. Which it kind of was.

Kendall
jerked her head in a brief nod.

“One.”

Now would be a good time to figure out what you’re gonna do,
I thought to myself.

“Two.”

Seriously, I got nothin’ here.

“Three!” Kendall ducked down and I leapt through the air. In a tuck position I managed two complete rotations before
I landed hard right on my butt behind the demon. I scrambled to my feet as he spun on me.

Grams
waved her hands over her head and screamed, “Don’t look him in the eye and for Pete’s sake don’t trash the house!”

I heeded
her warning—that lady can be downright scary if you don’t—and decided to take the fight outside. I put my shoulder down and ran at him like I’d watched Gabe do on the football field more times than I could count. He expelled a breathless
huunnh
when my shoulder connected with his gut. I clung to him and tried to whisk him out of the house in a blur of superhuman speed. Tried. It would’ve gone smoother had I not plowed us into two different walls before I shouted at Alaina, “Open the friggin’ door already!”

I deposited
Stripper Demon in the driveway, then put some much needed distance between us to allow myself a second to regroup. With my hands on my knees I tried to breathe through the wave of nausea brought on by the laced
Jell-O
and super speed combo. The demon stripper needed no such break. His lips curled back in a malicious grin as he took a menacing step in my direction. It didn’t seem to bother him in the least that he was still in his undies.

I held up one finger
. “Hold on a sec. We’ll do this, I’m just gonna need a minute first.”

His
yellow snake eyes blinked to the solid black of a Seeker. “Oh no.” A forked tongue darted from his mouth. “We’re going to do thisssssss right now. I’m gonna sssssssuck the life out of you and I’m going to enjoy it. Assss the Chosen One I bet your essssssence will be
delicioussssss
.”

“
I get that you’ve got your demonic reputation to think of.” His stride was more slither than walk as he inched my way. “But from one civilized person to another, I’m asking you to give me a minute here.”

“A minute
isssss all you have left.” With a snake-like roll of his neck, he tried to catch my gaze.

My inability to focus suddenly felt like an asset as he failed to capture my gaze.
“As menacing as a deadly staring contest is, I’m asking you to reconsider. Just take a brief pause. Then we’ll engage in an epic battle that generations to come will marvel at. What do you say?”

“I
ssssssay it’ssssss time to die, girl.”

“Have it your way.
” I shrugged and raised my palm toward the neighbor’s John Deer riding mower. I lifted it off the ground with a telekinetic boost, guided it through the air, and dropped it on the head of the pants-less demon. By the time its wheels bounced to the ground he disintegrated to black ooze.

“Oh
yeah, the force is strong with me.” I giggle-hiccuped.

“
Given up entirely on attempts to be discreet, have we?” a husky voice murmured against my ear.

I spun around. Hands raised, palms out, to do
… something. Any attempt at intimidation disappeared when I tripped over my own feet and fell into my “attacker”. Cradled in a pair of muscular arms, I peered up at a golden-haired hottie.

“Rowan!” I
exclaimed loud enough to wake the sleeping neighborhood. “What’re you doing here?”

“
When ya didn’t beat down me door tonight I worried some nasty demon had bested ya.” He lifted his chin toward the lawn mower and demon goo. “Didn’t realize the attire for your battles had become so lax.”

“We were having a bachelorette party for Alaina, then the entertainment turned out to be
—” I pushed off his chest, looked side-to-side to see for eavesdroppers, then cupped my hands around my lips and mouthed the word, “—evil.”

“You’re drunk.”

“I am not!”

He raised one
eyebrow and folded his arms over his chest.

“Okay, maybe a little,
” I tittered. A burp quickly turned that laugh to a grimace.

Disapproval oozed
from every pore of him as he shook his head. “Fate of the world depends on your safety and you’re standing out here in the middle of the night completely shnockered. Ya really don’t have a lick of sense, do ya?”

“I have plenty of sense.
You’re,
” I poked my finger into his pec, “just a big grouch. You better start being nicer to me, or I won’t ask you and your adorable chin dimple to go to my brother’s wedding with me.”

His stern exterior shattered and
for reasons I didn’t understand in the least he visibly struggled not to laugh. “You want me to be your date for the wedding? Even though—Heaven forbid—others might see?”

“Others-smothers!” I waved
a dismissive hand in the air. “Just you, me, and this adorable little butt-chin. What do you say?” I punctuated my question by sticking my finger into his chin dimple and adding a, “Boop!”

Somewhere in the back of my mind a little voice whispered
, “You’ll regret this tomorrow.” But that voice was
really
quiet and for some weird reason British.

Rowan grabbed my hand and
held it away from his face. “As touching as this moment is, let’s get you to bed to sleep it off before I answer.”

I tried to plant my feet. An act I quickly found to be impossible with jelly legs
. “No! Not until you agree to be my date.”

He pressed his lips together
. His gaze searched my face with an intensity that nearly caused another giggle fit. “Why are you asking me this? Is it
just
because of what I can do for you?”

Exhaustion quickly set
in and I let my head flop down on his shoulder. “Because you’re the only one that knows what a big ole’ mess I am. I don’t have to pretend when I’m with yooo … ”

I
passed out midsentence.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

I positioned the tulle to hide the white light-cord, then secured it with a thumbtack.

“It’s uneven.
Poofier on the right than the left.”

I grumbled to myself
and fluffed up the left side. “Tell me again why you’re here?”

Rowan handed me a section of green ivy
to drape over the tulle. “Right now I’d say I’m here to ensure that you don’t make this freakishly large, yet incredibly fancy archway behind the bridal table, a travesty of oddly placed sparkle and frill that could ruin the bride and groom’s special day.”

From behind dark shades
I shot him a glare he was sure to feel, even without me using my empathic skills. My head pounded from last night and I had no tolerance for him, bright lights, or loud noises.

He ignored
my look and busied himself digging another vine of ivy out of the box. “No really, Gabe and Alana are wonderful people. Deserve all the happiness in the world and perfectly placed lights … as it were.”

“Alaina,
” I corrected and scooted my ladder over to the middle of the archway.

“Aye. Her, too.”

Before I formed a suitable rebuttal, Alaina deterred the conversation as she buzzed up like a caffeinated humming bird. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a messy bun and her blouse hung lopsided from being buttoned wrong. Add that to her frantic gaze that darted here, there, and everywhere and it appeared our bride was on the verge of unraveling. “Celeste! Have you seen Kendall?”

I peered around the room
, my forehead creased. “Actually, no. I haven’t. Shouldn’t she be here with a clipboard and a whip making sure every flower and candle is positioned exactly right?”

“Yes!” Alaina’s hands came up like she wanted to grab someone and shake them.
Rowan and I both jerked back … just in case. “She has the centerpieces, the linens for the cake table, the guest book,
and
the wedding favors to go on the guest tables.” She counted the items on her fingers before she jammed her pointer finger into her chest hard enough to make
me
wince. “Do you know what
I
have?”

Rowan and I exchanged looks
.

“
Does she expect us to answer?” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

A
bit of her former eagle-self came out when she squawked, “
Do you
?!”

“Oh, she does.”

“Terrified guests?” I slapped a hand over my mouth, surprised I’d let it slip out.

“
No! I have three hundred guests attending my wedding
tomorrow
and no idea what’s going on because your sister insisted on handling everything and then decided to vanish! What do I do, Celeste?
What do I do
?” Sweat dotted her brow as her chest rose and fell with each ragged breath.

I
sidestepped the ladder, rounded the table, and took Alaina’s hand. Centering myself, I found my personal calm. My well of inner strength tended to run dry frequently as of late, but I gave her all I still possessed. Peaceful essence flowed between us. “Kendall
will
be here. She will. In the meantime, you’ve got all your family and friends working to make sure everything will be beautiful.”

T
he tension drained from her like someone pulled the plug on a full bathtub. Her breathing steadied and her hunched shoulders relaxed.

“Tomorrow you’ll marry the man of your dreams and you’ll get
the happily ever after you’ve waited centuries for.” I broke the link and dropped Alaina’s hand before she felt my own sorrows sneaking in.

Alaina sighed.
Once more she looked the part of the glowing bride-to-be. “Thank you. I needed that.” Her emotional reprieve came not a moment too soon because the overly tanned caterer began shouting about some insufficient electrical outlet drama.

“Duty calls!” She grinned and trotted off
, refreshed and regenerated.

Rowan
sauntered up beside me and eased the tulle from my white-knuckled fist. To others it would appear a meaningless act, the simple exchange of fabric, but with that brief skin on skin contact he drowned my pain with hope and optimism. Then, wordlessly, he strode back over to the archway and climbed the ladder.

I stared after him
, my mind blown by the realization that just occurred to me. “You knew today was going to be hard for me. That’s why you came.”    

He r
aked his fingers through his hair and let his lips slide into a cocky leer. “As noble as that makes me sound, it’s just not the case. My being here has less to do with your emotions and more to do with the startling revelations you made last night.”

H
eat rose in my cheeks. I quickly found a string of ivy that desperately needed untangling right that minute. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Rowan
crossed his forearms on the top step and gave me a wink. “Perhaps you’d like to stick your finger in me chin dimple and refresh your memory?”

My face ignited with heat so intense
it was surprising flames didn’t shoot out my eye sockets. The voice in the back of my head put down its tea and crumpet long enough to mutter,
“See? I told you you’d regret it.”

I struggled to keep my expression
neutral despite my radioactive glow. “Maybe decorating should be a silent activity.”