Beyond the Veil - J.C. Kelley (ready to read books TXT) 📗

angry. These things had hurt my best friend. I wasn’t even sure if he was alright. And they weren’t going to get away with it. I grabbed the gargoyle’s arm and used it to pull myself up. I waited for the wings to come down, snatched one, and pulled hard. The thing screeched as we started to fall. I yanked again, this time breaking the skin just where the wing met its arched back. The monster howled and kicked at me, its wound spurting blood. My eyes matched its blood: a fury-fueled crimson. Instinct flooded my mind. ESCAPE. ESCAPE. ESCAPE. I wasn’t fully aware of what I was doing; I just needed to get away from these horrid things. I didn’t falter when my teeth elongated, shaping into large sharp fangs. I didn’t even hesitate. I just let my rage take over. I bit the creature’s arm, the one that held me. My fangs broke right through the skin and even pierced bone. The gargoyle growled and tried frantically to fight back without dropping me. Its claws raked my back before I managed to bite through its nerves. The arm went limp and once again I was soaring towards the buildings of St. Augustine. I don’t know how, but I hit the ground running. After bending my legs to absorb the force of the impact, I sprang into motion, leaping from one rooftop to the next without so much as a glance behind me. I’d seen all the horror movies. Looking back makes you run slower, and I was not

going to get caught by those terrible creatures because of a classic mistake. No, way. As I flitted across countless buildings, I realized I couldn’t run forever—well, unbeknownst to the winged things, I could

run practically forever, but they didn’t need to know that. Landing on a particularly long roof, I decided I could risk just taking a peek at my enemies. Peering over my shoulder, I counted fifteen, not including the one with the wrecked claw—which I felt especially proud of—following close behind in a tight group. I couldn’t tell if they were getting tired or not; their faces were too grotesque to hold any visible emotion. Well, whether they got tired or not, sooner or later I was gonna run out of buildings close enough together to jump to and fro. I needed to find a hiding place soon. And in order to do that. . . I looked down at concrete streets below. There was only one thing I could do. I skidded to a halt, allowing the monsters time to catch up to me, and dove out into the open air yet again

. The gargoyles were dangerously close and one managed to knick me on the shoulder, pushing me a bit harder down, before I landed, rolled, and bounced back up into a standing position. When the dust around me finally settled, I backed up to a dark corner, my eyes—the irises glowing orange—glued to the sky; my head cocked to the side, listening for any sign of them. The sound of urgent light footsteps reached my ears. I crouched down, trying to make myself shrink, and attempted to steady my breathing. But that was considerably difficult, seeing as I’d just outrun giant bat-things. Try as I might, I just couldn’t quiet myself in time. That’s why they heard me. The footsteps came to a sudden stop, followed by urgent whispers. Odd. Had the gargoyles spoken before? I had assumed they couldn’t. Perhaps they were more intelligent than I gave them credit for… I became aware of shuffling feet edging closer to the crossroad in front of me. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I thought about my options. Years of war video games had made me fit for this type of thing. I could keep running and see where that got me. So far it had led me to this trap, and it was going splendidly. Or I could fight, see where that

got me. So far I’d neutralized one of those beasts. That felt pretty good, to be honest. It was obvious: There was no choice. I’d rather fight and be taken down than run and be found crying like a baby in a corner. I crept toward the wall nearest to the shuffling footsteps, inching forward with my back against the wall until I reached the edge. Then I waited. And waited. And finally…The shady tip of a foot—or claw, I couldn’t really tell from that angle—slightly stuck out from the wall edge. After a moment’s hesitation, I raised my leg and, with a roar of determination, brought it swiftly down. There was an audible crunch

, followed by a pained howl. My enemy bent over to inspect its injured foot, and I grabbed its head and slammed it onto my raised knee. The thing slumped to the concrete and I turned to face my other attackers—Only to see the faces of five bewildered kids. Slowly, I rose from my fighting stance and stood blinking, dumbfounded, at the kids. Eventually, when the adrenaline ran out and my brain continued to function, I recognized them as the ones from the rooftop. The ones who rushed out and started fighting the gargoyles. The ones with weapons…I narrowed purple eyes, putting my weight on the balls of my feet in case I needed to move fast. “Hi, how are you? I’m—Kate. And you are?” They just stood there, staring at me. More importantly, they were staring at my mouth. I touched my mouth to see what was wrong, and my hand came away red. Then I realized that I still had blood on my mouth from biting that gargoyle thing. Ew

… I thought, wiping at it furiously until I was sure it was completely gone. “Bleh!

Oh, ew

, gross! I actually had blood in my mouth! Bleh

!

”They visibly relaxed. Hm. I guess they thought I

was a monster. How odd. “We’re here to help you,” replied a petite, spiky-haired Asian boy with intriguing emerald eyes flecked with gold. I couldn’t help myself. I had to let out my frustration. “Then why did you let me fall off the roof?” I snapped, to which the boy just looked down and paled a bit. “Well, you’ve got weapons,” I stated, waving a hand at the many knives and guns strapped to their black belts. “Are you gonna use ‘em? ‘Cause I’m kind of tired.”The dark-haired boy shook his head. “There’s too many. We can’t beat them. We have to get to safety.”Rolling my eyes, I asked, “And where exactly is

a safe place, dude?” “Our place,” he answered. Hmm… I eyed the brunette girl who’d failed to catch me. “Where’s Tyler?” “Your friend?” “Duh.”“He’s right here.” She gestured to a broad-shouldered blond boy who was holding my unconscious friend. “He’s okay,” she assured me. Yeah. Right. “Give him to me.”The brunette boy frowned, looking doubtful. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”“Give. Him. To. Me,” I demanded. “What if you take him and run? We can’t let you do that; the Shadows will get you.” Shadows? “Or even worse, what if you attack us again? Look at what you did to Alex over there,” he said, pointing to the still-passed-out gargoyle I’d fought. Oh…whoops… that gargoyle actually turned out to be another Asian kid, probably the other one’s brother, but I couldn’t see the resemblance because of the bruises and welts covering his skin. Oh, crap

… I pursed my lips and silently apologized to the poor kid before turning back to the others. “If you won’t even give me my friend so I can make sure he’s alright, how do you expect me to trust you?” I said. They were all silent for a moment. Touché

, I thought to myself, giving me a little pat on the back. The brunette boy gave a sigh of defeat (yes

!

), motioning for the blond boy to come forward. Just as he was about to hand me Tyler, a horrible screech resounded from the sky: the gargoyles were getting close. “We have to move now

,” said the short purple-eyed girl. “You think? You,” I said, eyeing the blond kid. “You’re big and strong, ain’tcha. You mind carrying that dude?” I pointed to the kid on the ground and Mister Strong Man nodded, shifting Ty to one arm and picking up Alex with the other. “Is your hiding place close?” I asked him as he passed. He nodded. “Then let’s go before they find us.”We ran. We ran like we were being chased by the Devil himself. And at that moment, it felt that way to me. After about five minutes I looked back to see the gargoyles tailing us, slowly gaining on us. “Are we almost there?” I yelled.“Not really,” the brunette girl called back, “Why?”“They’re getting pretty freaking close, that’s why!” I snapped, my heart pumping faster and faster as I struggled to keep up. I looked back at the blond boy. “I thought you said it was close!”“I lied!”“Ugh

!

” I screamed, frustration clouding my thoughts. I couldn’t believe this was happening. To me

, of all people! I was a nobody. An awkward outcast. Not physically; I was fine with my physical appearance—in fact I prided myself in not being obsessed with my figure like most teenage girls—but mentally. I was always the quirky one that drifted off to other worlds in class. No one knew my name except for Tyler—and I was fine with that, believe me, I actually preferred it that way. But now suddenly I was being attacked by monsters

, for gods’ sake, and to get away from them I was following a group of weird kids who weren’t even fazed by the monsters! And they fought them with freaking guns and knives!

I mean, what the hell? They all seemed a bit off-kilter, especially that blond kid. He was carrying two massive deadweights and

managed to keep up with us!My thoughts hindered my movements, and before I knew it I started to fall back. I only became aware of it when the blond kid caught up to me, eyeing me nervously. “You okay?” he asked, only slightly out of breath. While I, on the other hand, was breathing raggedly. “Fine.” A stitch in my side made it harder and harder to match his speed. “How much farther?”“About a mile,” he said. I looked back again. “We might not get there in time.” The monsters were dangerously close now. “Hm. We’ll just have to speed up.”“Why don’t you guys fight them? Isn’t that what the weapons are for?” I asked, pointing to the holstered gun on his belt. “We would, but we have you guys,” he said. “Hey! Tyler couldn’t punch someone if he had a gun to his head, but I can fight!”“Please

,” he snorted, raising his eyebrows. “You barely made it away from the Shadows.”“The what?”“Shadows. Those things that are chasing us, trying to capture you. You know, the ones with the wings

and claws

.” I literally growled at him. We were being chased by things that you see in horror flicks, and he was being sarcastic

. Boys. I stayed quiet, saving what little breath I had left. I guess it was working that well, because soon enough the blond kid was eyeing me again. “What

?

” I demanded. “Are you okay?”“I said I’m fine,” I snapped, holding my side. The stitch was getting more painful. More importantly, my back had been burning since I’d jumped off of that roof. When I reached back, my fingers touched the edges of a nasty gash, instantly causing more pain. Damn. I had forgotten that the gargoyle—or Shadow, I guess—had clawed me when I bit its arm. Ow. That was gonna be a major problem if we didn’t get to their hideout soon. I didn’t snap out of my thoughts until I heard the beating of wings. “Watch out!” Mister Strong Man screamed, tackling me to the ground. A Shadow swooped down, clawing at the air where I had stood only a moment before. It rose, circling back for Round 2. Mister Strong Man jumped to his feet, still carrying Ty and the Asian kid, yanking me up with him. “Ugh!” I grunted, clutching my shoulder. The others turned back, pulling out their weapons. “You guys alright?” the brunette asked when they reached us. 

“She’s not,” the blond replied. I rolled my eyes as everyone stared at me.

“Ugh. Gods, I’m fine! I’m just tired!” I