The Conduit (Gryphon Series) (23 page)

“Shoddy craftsmanship,” she stated, but doubt fluttered across her face.

I shook my head. “Solid metal.”

Confusion drew her smudged, penciled-in eyebrows together as she looked back and forth from the misshapen pole to me and back again. When her gaze settled on me, she peered at me as if we’d never met.

Shifting uncomfortably, I muttered, “See, I told you I was strong.”

She gawked at me, a tiny smile playing across her lips. “I’ll say. You definitely didn’t get that from my side of the family.”

I leaned the pole against the wall then returned to my place at her side. “Like I said, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“I don’t know what it is that you just did there. I’m sure you and I are going to need to have a conversation about that at some point. But right now, you need to burn rubber. Because strong won’t be enough, Celeste. You need to scram, just steer clear of Memphis. I told him you had left Gainesboro and headed off to college. He took your Rhodes pamphlet when he left. He was going there to find you. Now is your chance to disappear. Go to Florida, Alaska, Timbuktu, I don’t care. Just promise me that the three of you will stick together and get far away from here.”

“I promise, Grams. We’ll get far away from here.” About four hours away from here, to Rhodes College.

My grandma nodded. Her whole body went slack against the pillow. She had drained her limited energy reserve trying to get through to me. “Where will you go?” She asked sleepily.

Before I had to lie again, Dr. All
yn gave a soft knock on the door and then entered the room. “Good news,” he smiled. “Test results came back indicating that the swelling is minimal. You probably have a heck of a headache, but that’s the worst of it. You’re going to be fine. You’re a strong woman, Ms. Garrett.”

“I’m fit too. If you don’t believe me, just check out the
back door of this hospital gown,” my grandmother flirted through her haze.

“Grams!” If it was possible to die of embarrassment
, I would’ve keeled over right then. Dr. Allyn blushed and grinned like a school girl. Suddenly, I was very uncomfortable in that room.
Don’t I have somewhere to be, or a demon to kill?

“Maybe another time
,” the good doctor grinned back.
Unbelievably, unequivocally icky.
“Right now it’s time for another dose of your pain meds and some much needed rest.”

“That would be great. My arm’s achin’,” Grams admitted.

I gave her a feather-light kiss on her forehead. “Rest up.”

“Call me and let me know where you end up. I love you,” she whispered.

“I will. Love you too, Grams.” I gave her one last wave before I left the room.

Right before it shut
behind me I heard Dr. Allyn exclaim, “What the blazes happened to the IV pole?”

“Been like that since I woke up,” Grams answered.

Did I mention my Grams rocks?

CHAPTER 26

Gabe and Kendall met me in the hallway.

“How is she?” They both asked.

“She’s in pain
but still has the strength to hit on her doctor, so I’d say she’s gonna be fine. But…” I shot a quick look around. This was too populated a locale for this conversation. I jerked my head toward the unisex bathroom. We filed in together and locked the door behind us.

“We could’ve waited to get the update until after you did your business
,” Gabe teased and jerked his head in the direction of the toilet.

“No time for Gabe
-isms right now,” I scowled. “Barnabus specifically asked her where I was. She did us a favor and told him I had already left for college, which means we now know exactly where he is—Memphis.”

As soon as the word left my mouth a blaring siren went off in my brain. Alec’s parting words to me
: “I have to go to Memphis for a little while. Apparently there’s some big story there.”

I tried to be optimistic. It’s a big city
. The odds were slim that he would be anywhere near Rhodes. He should be fine. Most likely. Probably. Hopefully. Crap.

“Celeste? Where’d you go?” Kendall waved her hand in front of my face.

“Sorry.” Best to worry about one thing at a time. “Barnabus isn’t restricted by rules and orders like the Seekers are. He has no problem hurting or killing people. We learned that the hard way. So we need to stop him. He wants a war? I say we take it to him. Tonight.”

They fell silent as my words sunk in.

Gabe pushed himself off the sink he had been leaning against. “Hells yeah. I’m in.”

“He brought the fight to our doorstep. Now we end this
,” Kendall agreed. “So, guide us—oh, chosen one. What do we do?”

I flipped my phone open to check the time. Eleven o’clock. The drive to Memphis would get us there around two a.m. First, we needed to know what we were walking into. “Keni, you could make the flight to Memphis in half the driving time. But can you do it without being seen and scaring people?”

“It’s overcast and pitch black outside. As long as I stay above the clouds, it would, like, totally eliminate the risk of people seeing me and thinking it’s judgment day.”

“Awesome. Get to Rhodes and scope out exactly where Barnabus is hiding. Find out as much as you can. What this dude looks like, how many men he brought with him, what weapons they have, if they display any powers, anything that might help. But stay out of sight! Don’t do anything stupid, like get yourself caught.” My role as the leader felt surprisingly comfortable. “Gabe and I will drive there and meet up with you. Once we get the stats on what we are facing
, we can come up with a battle plan.”

Gabe’s lip curled up in a growl. “I could run there, Cee! Let the lion stretch his legs.”

I put one hand on my hip and looked up at him in exasperation. “You can’t run seventy miles per hour. We take the truck.”

“You’re bo
ssy now that you’re the Conduit,” he grumbled.

“Is that a problem?”

“Nope, just saying.”

“Good. Then saddle up, gang. It’s time for a showdown.”

They looked at each other, then erupted in giggles and snorts of laughter.

“Exactly which Earp brother are you supposed to be?” Gabe taunted.

“Shut up. Let’s just go.”

CHAPTER 27

If
this were a movie, we’d be mid-battle right now, I thought to myself as I watched the numbers tick by on the gas pump. Movies never showed the superhero stopping for gas. It went inspirational speech—or in my case a paltry excuse for one—then the epic battle. Never did they show the Batmobile at the Gas-N-Go. Alfred probably handled all that kind of stuff for the Caped Crusader. I needed an Alfred. If this turned into a permanent gig, I should look into that.

The gas station door chimed and Gabe came out. His arms overflowed with chips, beef jerky
, and a two liter of pop.

I gaped at
him in slack-jawed astonishment. “What are you doing?”

“What?”
He asked. “It’s a long drive, so I got snacks.”

“We’re not going on a road trip to an amusement park! We’re facing the forces of darkness, remember?”

“Yeah, so? I’m hungry,” he shrugged. “It’s like before my games, there’s no point in getting my game face on until I get there. In the meantime—road trip!”

“I bet Robin n
ever made Batman stop for chips,” I muttered under my breath as I returned the nozzle to its resting place on the pump. I turned back toward the truck and saw a spiky blonde head bop around the side of the building. “Kendall! You’re supposed to be halfway to Memphis by now!”

She
threw her hands up. “I’m going; I’m going! I just had to stop to pee. It’s a long flight.”

I squeezed the bridge of my nose between my fingers and shook my head. We had to be the lousiest warriors ever.

Gabe rolled down my driver’s side window and leaned out. “What are you waiting on? We goin’ or what?”

Batman had it easy. He was an only child.

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.”