The Conduit The Gryphon Series - By Stacey Rourke Page 0,50

long blond hair, yanking her head to the side to expose her bloodied neck. Cutting into her flesh was a glossy, ebony claw that curled out from his index finger. Blood dotted the front of her violet dress, but she was alive.

“Good.” He sneered. “The other sister has arrived. Now we can figure out which is the Conduit and which gets to die.”

Logic told me I was no match for him. My body seemed to know otherwise. It eagerly anticipated the fight. Seeing Kendall’s terrified expression, I flicked a hint of the power I felt coursing through me at her. Her eyes widened and a slow smile spread across her face. She peered up at her attacker.

“You know,” She whispered. “I think you may be in trouble.”

An enraged snarl ripped out of the Seeker. He released his hold on my sister and stalked toward me. “I don’t care who or what you are. You are a puny, insignificant being and I would like to taste your blood. ” He spat the words at me as he morphed into the panther.

“Here kitty, kitty.” I taunted and beckoned him with the curl of my finger.

The panther charged across the roof, his teeth bared. I inwardly trembled, but stood my ground. About five yards away he pounced. He flew through the air at me claws first. To my own astonishment, I acted on instinct and sprang into the air. My mind reeled as I corkscrewed around to deliver a round-house kick straight out of Fight Club. My foot connected with his jaw in a bone crushing collision.

The wicked panther let out a yelp of pain as he skittered backwards across the roof. I landed softly, and rushed at him. With wide, anxious eyes he watched me come. His gigantic claws struggled to get traction on the cement roof as he retreated. To gain ground he morphed into human form. His jaw hung at a cockeyed angle, my kick apparently unhinged one side. Gross.

I put on the brakes as he approached the edge of the roof. He had nowhere to go. “You and I both know it’s over.” I stated. “Why don’t you step away from the edge and we’ll have a nice little chat about your demon buddies?”

His face sagged in a sickening grin. “I know who you are. Believe me when I say there is nothing but pain coming for you.” With that he did a reverse swan dive off the side of the building. I ran to the edge and watched in disbelief as he did a free fall towards the pavement. His arms and legs flailed until the moment when he exploded into a cloud of black smoke. It dissipated rapidly and left no trace of the black-eyed man.

I rushed to untie Kendall. She stared up at me in amazement.

“You ok?” I asked.

“I’ll be fine, just surface wounds. I can heal myself as soon as I get my wings out. But, Cee, that was amazing! He killed himself just to get away from you. You’re, like, a badass! How the heck did you do that?!”

“I have no idea! But it was cool!” I gushed. “Did you see the kicky, twirly thing I did? I don’t know what that was but it was friggin’ sweet!”

“Yeah it was! There was only one problem.”

“What?”

“Here kitty, kitty?” She raised one mocking eyebrow. “Really?”

“That was lame, I know. I’ll work on my snappy one-liners for next time.”

Her hands now free, Kendall rubbed her red, chaffed wrists. “That seems to be all you need to work on! It was a good thing the Gryphon picked today to soup you up. I was convinced I was a goner.”

“I know.” I grumbled. “I didn’t think I was going to get here in time.”

“But you did!” A wiggle of her shoulders and her wings appeared.

“Which was great because he didn’t seem to care if he accidentally killed the chosen one or not. He just wanted the info. Barnabus must be coming down hard on these guys. The gloves are off.”

“That means they’ll send a replacement quickly.” I looked her over and evaluated her injuries. Her neck would was only skin deep. But her shoulder was sliced to the bone. “We’ve got to get your arm looked at Keni, it’s bad.”

“Not necessary.” She grinned. “Watch this.”

Her wings drew in around her, forming a tight, down cocoon. The feathers began to glow with a soft luminescence. After a moment it subsided and Keni retracted her wings. Her injuries were gone, not