The bridge was wild and unfocused, filled with power that could only flow from one of nature’s opened arteries and set alight by raw human emotion. Plummeting through that was like being dropped down an elevator shaft. After a while, his brain didn’t expect his body to survive the impact of landing. Instead of slapping against terra firma, however, he reached the other side of the bridge and was spat into existence two feet above a patch of cold, desolate ground.
He hit the hard-packed dirt on his side, his arms jerking at an odd angle because of the spear he still gripped in both hands. The tug of thorns within his palms brought back his combat reflexes as well as recent memories of what was following him from Oklahoma. A fraction of a second after he rolled clear of the landing spot, the Full Blood impacted against the earth. The gargoyles hit the ground next, like wet blankets tossed out of a passing car. Before the creatures could flap into the air, Liam was shredding them and scattering their bodies. Once the others caught the scent of their decimated companions, they scraped their hooked talons against the ground and convulsed until they were able to get some air beneath them. The trip had been dizzying to human and flier alike, but Liam seemed energized by the voyage. He looked up, clear juices dripping from his claws, and let out a breath he might have been holding for the last thousand miles.
Cole gripped his spear as a harsh wind tore across his face. Tristan had told him they’d land on Finnish soil, but the sudden time difference was still jarring. The sky was colored with light purples and reds. The wind felt as if it had claws that tried to shred his skin off. That alone reminded him of dawn. Only mornings were that cruel.
“You’re not leaving this spot,” Cole promised the Full Blood.
Liam crouched down and roared loud enough for his voice to rip across the landscape in every direction. The grass beneath their feet was brittle and thin. In the pale colors reflected from the sky, every green blade seemed washed out and tired.
Hearing shrieks in the distance, Cole held his spear so the metallic end was pointed like a bayonet at the end of a soldier’s musket. He charged the Full Blood, unmindful of how badly the odds were stacked against him or how slim the chances that he would live to regret it. Liam’s eye caught light from the clear sky and shone it back at the Skinner in an excited gleam. When their bodies collided, it was accompanied by the revelry of dive-bombing gargoyles.
Cole’s weapon drilled into Liam’s chest, but was stopped by a steely, unmoving rib. The Full Blood splayed his arms out, reared his head back and howled at a moon that could still be seen in the early morning sky. When he was out of breath, he gripped Cole’s hand along with the spear and snarled, “That all you got?”
“Nope.”
Remembering his lesson, Cole didn’t bother looking over his shoulder or checking to see where the gargoyles might be. When he heard their cries clearly, he simply let go of the spear and jumped away. His chest hit the ground and he covered his head with both hands, as if expecting a bomb to go off. The fliers, attracted to the blood on Liam’s coat and claws, swooped down with their bodies outstretched so they could immediately sink their talons in.
The gargoyles clawed Liam’s arms, their excretion making it harder for him to move. In his haste to peel the creatures from his shoulder and back, he left the spear where it was. Cole seized the opportunity to grab the spear again and grind it within Liam’s torso until he could feel it slide against the Full Blood’s rib cage. After ripping one gargoyle away and cracking the stony crust that had begun to form on his upper arm, Liam clapped a hand over Cole’s face.
“All I gotta do is think it and I can put a human through the Breaking,” Liam snarled. “You can’t take that away from me or any of the others. The power we’ve soaked up tonight is part of us now. You may have stopped the flow, but you won’t be able to stop what we started.”
It took all of Cole’s strength along with some supernatural reserves, but he managed to grab Liam’s hand and pull it