The Axelridge Series Book 4 Griff's Red Card

GRIFFIN

Like watching two family members quarrel over dinner, we sit back and stare at the two supernatural beings argue the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard.

“How dare I? How dare you! You’re the one going back on the deal. Do you realize how much resources I’m losing because of that?!” He slams a finger into his chest.

He takes a few more steps closer to her.

“Listen, sweetheart. I’m doing your dirty work. You can’t kill anyone so, I’m doing you a fucking favor. How that happens is none of your fucking business.” He grinds. “Go grab a cloud or…whatever.” He waves her off.

Genesis strides to him, closing the gap.

“If you think for a second, I’m going to allow your filth to crawl across my creation, you are sorely mistaken.” She spits.

Alistair stands in front of her nose as they exchange challenging glares. He lifts his chin and sneers. “What are you going to do? You can’t touch me...” He slowly looks her over then meets her eyes. “You don’t have the balls.”

As I hold onto Ivy at the back wall, the beings challenge each other and the wind whips through the room. Our hair is blown all over and we have to shield our faces from the rising dirt.

Without hesitation, Genesis raises her arm and plants a hand on Alistair’s chest. A white hot blast of cosmic magic hits him point blank and he flies through the air. He hits the side wall and thuds to his stomach on the floor with a loud groan.

I watch him stand and I mentally score 1 for Genesis. “Nice shot.” I shoot Ivy a satisfactory grin as the wind dies down. She shakes her head and turns back to the battle of the beings.

Genesis stands tall, fists at the ready. “I don’t need…balls.” She curls her lip and ticks her head.

Alistair starts to chuckle and shake his head as he rises to his feet.

“You really are a stupid bitch.” He straightens his jacket, rips off the torn, burnt fabric of his t-shirt and the burn blast on his chest falls off his skin like sizzling ash as he walks. “You realize what you just did?”

“I don’t care, Alistair. I should have known not to trust a demon.” She snarls.

I look to Ivy then back to Genesis. “Hang on...”

“Griff…” Ivy tries to grab me as I get up on my feet, hold my bleeding side and stumble to them.

I hold a hand out to Ivy behind me as I approach them. “You schemed a plot to destroy humanity and you trusted him?” I motion to Alistair as I talk to Genesis.

“Yes.” She gives me that look that says I’m not worthy to be speaking, much less questioning her.

I nod my head, look to the floor, press my lips together then shoot my infuriated eyes to her.

“BLEEDING DEMON!!” I motion both hands to Alistair as I yell at her.

“Is yer head full of rocks, Miss?!” I thump my finger to the side of my head several times as I scowl then I point to her nose. “That’s about the dumbest move in the fecking history of spanner moves! Ya be outta yer head, spinning in the fecking wind, trusting this maggot with anything! You’d think a bleeding God would understand that!”

“Griff…”

“I have seen my fair share of eejits. Lord knowin’, I suffer the lot of them, but there’d be a real, cold day in July, where's I’d stake my interests on the likes of him…”

“Griffin…”

“Ya call yerself a bleeding God?! Ha! I've seen more holiness in my fecking socks!” I stride up to Genesis and shove a finger in her face.

Her eyes are raging, but I don’t care in the least.

“You, lass, are in need of severe thrashing, if I ever saw. This one…” I point back to Alistair. “Needs to go back to the brimstone, right fecking quick and you, get yer bleeding head out yer arse and the shite out yer ears before someone replaces it with the toe end…OF A FECKING TRAINER!” I throw both my hands in the air as Ivy relentlessly taps my bare back.

“GRIFFIN!”

“WHAT?!” I turn to Ivy and she’s pointing to Genesis.

I look to where she’s pointing and Genesis has two hands full of white magic.

My brows go up as my eyes meet hers. “Oh, shite…”

She raises her hand and I grab Ivy. We dive out of the way just the magic grazes our backsides. We hit the floor and I turn to Genesis. She powers up and I whip my head to Ivy. “RUN!”

“OF ALL THE LOUD MOUTH…INSULTING…DISRESPECTFUL…”

She fires again and we duck for cover as we run to the door.

“DON’T LOOK BACK, IVY!”

“I LOOKED BACK!”

“I SAID DON’T! DAMN WELL LISTEN TO ME, WOMAN!!” I growl as we sprint to the door.

Just as we were about to hit it, the door busts open and Axelridge fighters pour through the door.

“DOWN!!” Finn yells as the first line drops to their knees and aims their weapons.

We slam our bodies to the floor as a line of fighters open fire on Genesis and Alistair.

“KILL THEM!” Alistair bellows.

Genesis screams and throws her magic at them as we scramble out of the way.

We get to the line just as 10 wolves sail over the kneeling fighters. Loud growling and barking overtake the noise of the demons.

I watch their paws hit the floor and they waste no time crashing with the demons.

“Go, lass! Out the door.”

“Griff, your side.” She protests.

“I’m fine! Run!”

I spin around, shift and run back into the fight.

My wolf hits a demon on hind legs, teeth gnashing as he wrestles the creature to the ground.

I grab his throat and throw him just as Genesis throws a ball my way. Her magic hits the demon and he explodes in a sparking, black cloud with a demonic scream.

‘Genesis can kill demons!’ I link out.

‘Well, fuck. Batter up!’ Marcus' black wolf barks.

Our wolves rush deeper into the warehouse and get right into the thick of demons. They throw us back with their own powers and swinging punches at us when we land.

Genesis had her own worries as Alistair calls more minions and they crash through the skylight around her.

“I bid you all one hell of a fucking bad night.” Alistair salutes us and disappears with loud cackling laughter.

‘ASSHOLE!’ Jax growls as he grabs a demon’s arm in his jaws and throw him at Genesis.

She’s throwing her magic like mad and backing up as the demons move in on her for an attack. Demons explode one after another in dark, screeching, black smoke.

‘We need to split before she runs out of targets!’ Noah links.

‘I hear that. Retreat!!’ Finn orders.

Just as we turn, four heavy streams of light hit the warehouse floor and we all trip over our paws from the impact.

The demons roar at the sudden burst of blinding light that filled the room.

“GENESIS!” A loud booming woman’s voice threatens to burst our ear drums as the light dies down.

‘Oh, shit!’ Finns wolf’s head perks and his ears flip up.

Standing in a line is Fate, Hope, Destiny and Eternity. They all look pissed.

Genesis throws up her hand as the demons around her take one look and bolt for escape. “Stay away from me!” Cosmic power builds in her palm.

Fate raises her own hand and her cosmic power builds. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you give me no choice.” She grits.

‘Finn?’ Marcus' wolf starts to back up.

‘Yeah…That’s a them problem. RUN!’

We all turn and run out the door as fast as we can. My wolf barks at Ivy who shifts and her black wolf joins my side. I give her a quick lick and we dig our claws in deeper to gain speed as the warehouse behind us explodes in a mini mushroom cloud of cosmic energy.

Pieces of the building slam down all around us as we make our escape.

‘Where are we?’

‘New Jersey.’ Finn answers.

‘Fecking hell.’ My wolf huffs.

We ran to where a Falcon Ridge Helicopter was waiting.

Once aboard and in the air, I feel a huge sense of relief that my Ivy is safe. Also, a lot of fucking pain.

“Damn it.” I look to the partly closed wound on my side.

“Griff, I can’t believe you fought with this finger. This is going to hurt.” Jax grabs my broken, crooked finger and re-breaks it. I hold back my scream, press my back into my seat and grip the edge of it with my other hand.

“Griff.” Ivy says softly as she holds my head to her chest.

“I’m fine…I’m OK…Damn it.” I growl.

Jax pulls out a finger splint and sets it. “This should be good in a few hours. Let’s look at that wound.”

He gives my side a once over. “You'll heal.”

As Jax bandages my wound, I glance at Finn. “How'd ya find us?”

“Ivy.” Finn smiles.

Ivy scrunches her brow. “I did?”

“Not you. You're clone. Apparently, there’s a one way psychic connection. Your clone always knows where you are. It helps them assist in the fight. That’s the theory anyway.” He informs.

“She told you this?” Ivy asks.

“Yeah. She’s quite the chatterbox. I didn’t think you talked so much.” Jax chuckles as he tapes up my side.

“Where is she?” Ivy floats her head between the men.

“She...walked back into the lake. After you disappeared, she told us where you were after the connection to you was found. We sent her back to the city with Noah and she told him she needed to see the lake. He took her and she walked back into the lake. Never came back out.” Finn informs.

“Hang on…” I push Jax away and turn to Finn. “How long were we gone?”

“2 weeks.” Jax says.

“2 weeks?!” My brows shoot up.

“It felt like minutes.” Ivy says with shock.

“Genesis stopped time in the warehouse.” I glance at her. “My guess is, she wanted to trick Alistair to get close to him. That means the ritual is ruined right?”

Adam crosses his leg. “For now. He can try again, but he’d have to wait for the next moon.”

“He said this curse wasn’t about me. But the women still aged prematurely and the men broke their bonds.” Ivy explains.

“That’s not part of the ritual. You only need the hearts. He told you that?” Adam questions.

“No. My brother did. He said it was a curse put on us by a Witch.” Ivy glances around at us.

Adam’s lip ticks up. “Sneaky bastard. No, not at all. He preyed on the weak minds of corrupt men. Guaranteed, the men who left had black on their souls to begin with. It’s the only way Alistair can have access to their minds. He used illusion to make the men in your family think the woman aged. He probably felt he needed to break the bonds to make the women more desperate so they’d be more willing to kill their children.”

“So, it was all fake?” I cinch my brow and look him over.

“The ritual was very real. The broken bonds, that was the result of a fake spell.” Adam confirms.

“So we have nothing to worry about if we have wee ones?” I hold a hand out to him.

“Not that I know of. Why? Are you expecting?”

“No!” Ivy responds sharply then starts to chuckle. “No…I mean...Not right now…We just met…right Griff?”

“Well, it will be a talk for later, I’m sure.” I smile as I lean back in my seat.

“Much later…We don’t want to rush into things.” She nervously chuckles again.

“Fair enough.” I side eye her and get comfortable for the trip back home.

I really hope this experience hasn’t turned Ivy off of having children. I still hold firm to having a tiny team of footballers. I won’t force the issue, of course. If she’s not accepting, I’ll make due, but I’d be empty if I don’t have at least one.

I understand the predicament and her apprehension.

I think a lot of it stems from a lack of solid family.

Maybe…I should show her the family she’s about to get being with me. That might turn this whole game around.