Chapter 41
“ T hree graynites,” Derek said. “More on the horizon. We have to go.”
I helped Curi to his feet, and he shook his head to clear it. “Fucking bastards.” His voice was a bestial rumble in goyle form. “We fight them. Kill them.” His tone deepened, body expanding.
Adaline grabbed my arm and pulled me back in time to avoid getting trampled on as Curi barreled forward, shifting into his chimera as he went—head morphing into a pantherine form, body leonine so that he was all muscle and bulk when he leapt out of the smashed window and into the night.
Adaline grabbed my shoulders. “This is bad. This is an ambush. They must know how vulnerable you are right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It takes several days for an elite to adjust to their chimera. Several days for full assimilation; until then, the chimera form is unpredictable. It takes and it drains. You’ll fight hard, but you’ll fall harder.
You must stop your friends. Tell them to subdue their chimeras and get back inside here.
I can put up a barrier with Levi’s help and hold it until the port reappears in fifteen minutes. ”
Fifteen minutes didn’t sound long, but it would be an eternity when fighting off graynites. “I’m on it.”
She grabbed my arm. “Don’t let your chimera out. It’ll want to break free when surrounded by the graynites, but you must subdue it.”
But Derek was my chimera. “Derek, you’d best stay in here.”
“I’m not letting you go out there alone,” Derek said.
“You’ve got to. We can’t risk the chimera emerging.”
He clenched his jaw, clearly conflicted, but there was no time. “I’ve got this. Trust me.”
Without him, I had no protection except my stone skin, which would probably be worth nothing against the graynites.
I needed him out there with me as my shield while I warned the others.
But he was more than a shield right now; he was also a chimera, and if he lost control out there, it would drain both our batteries, leaving us useless.
Outside, several huge forms collided, chimera on graynite, battling for dominance, and in the sky, dark shadows flew closer.
More incoming. My gut contracted, heat flooding my veins and threatening to cripple me with adrenaline.
I breathed slowly and evenly to calm the tremble in my veins because it wasn’t brute force I needed out there, it was agility and precision, and for that, I needed to be calm and focused.
“Get to Levi first,” Adaline said as I reached the window. “As a halfblood, he’ll weaken the fastest. Get him back here. He has no goyle form, just the chimera, and when it drops, he’ll be defenseless.”
“On it.” I took a deep breath, then climbed out the window and into the chaos of the night.
LEVI
We use our tail to knock a graynite down and our talons to shred its side. It twists and breaks free, jaws snapping at our face before punching us in the chest. We sail through the air and land in a crouch, ready to rebound and attack again.
“Levi!”
What is that? A small thing. A woman. Cameron?
She runs fast and low, keeping to the pockets of shadows, but her golden hair catches the moonlight.
Kill the graynite.
The thought eclipses everything.
“Levi, no! Get inside before the chimera drains you. You need to help your mother put up a shield.”
The graynite sees her and rushes toward her.
“No!” We bound toward it on all fours and collide with it, wrapping our jaws around its neck and twisting to snap.
It goes limp. Dead.
Good.
“Levi, please. The chimera will drain you. We need you inside.” So many words, too many for us to focus on when there is blood. “Portal…mother…More coming.”
The part of me that is Levi pushes to the surface.
Hands touch my face. “Come back. Please. Levi, come back.”
The chimera growls, attempting to push me into the background again, but I hold on to the image of her face, staring deep into her gray eyes, and emerge.
“Oh, thank fuck,” she says. “Get inside. Get the shield ready. I’ll get the others.”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“If you don’t, then we all die. Now GO!”
SHARNIZA
I’m in the back seat as my chimera attacks a graynite, swiping at it with huge paws tipped with five-inch talons.
Sparks fly where our claws glance off its stone skin.
We need to punch holes, hit harder to hurt it.
We spin to evade a slash of its claws and barrel back, hitting it with our shoulder, lifting it off the ground then slamming it into earth before smashing our heavy paw onto its chest.
“Shar, watch out!”
Cameron?
Another graynite hits us from the side, throwing us off our target.
We slide across the ground with the thing on top of us.
We twist and slash, and for a moment, the world fades away and there is nothing but talons and claws, screeches and roars.
Its hands are on our neck, pinning us, but we have reach.
We have a beak. We rear up and stab it in the throat.
It convulses, weakening enough for us to take control and roll it under us.
Our vision goes red as we maul, taking chunks out of its body.
Hot blood spatters our face.
Don’t swallow.
Spit it out.
Venom.
Bad.
Graynite dead.
More to kill.
We leap up, wings flaring, ready to fly at the next one when a small form dashes up alongside us.
“Get inside! Now!” Cameron cries. “You have to drop the chimera and get inside, or it will drain you.”
A warning. I need to listen, but the chimera is too strong; it wants to fight. It wants to rage.
“Sharniza, no!”
There is no Sharniza, only the beast.
CAMERON
Sharniza was too far gone. All I could do was hope I could get her into the building once her chimera blipped out.
I made a dash toward Curi several yards away grappling with a granite.
Until he wasn’t. He hit the ground, his body morphing to human form.
The graynite raised a claw, ready to rip out his throat, and I was too far away.
A scream lodged in my throat, terror racing through me and freezing my limbs.
I was about to watch him die.
A dark figure materialized beside him, and in the next instant, Curi was gone.
Derek had him.
He was safe. My paralysis broke, and I altered my trajectory to aim for the building. Sharniza? Where was she? If I could grab her along the way, then?—
A gust of air threw back my hair, and a gigantic form landed in my path, cutting me off.
I’d seen graynites before, been surrounded by them, but this thing was several feet larger, so bulky that his shoulder muscles had swallowed his neck.
But it was his bright blue eyes that held me captive, eyes I’d looked into more times than I could remember.
Eyes that had smiled at me, laughed with me.
My stomach dropped, hope leaching from my body. “Romi?”
The graynite roared, spraying saliva, but I was frozen in place, my body humming with recognition, stomach trembling with the horror of it. Powerless to do anything but stare at the monster that had once been my brother.
Romi snapped his jaws shut, lowered his head, and attacked.