Page 88 of The Stone Curse
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.
