The Axelridge Series Book 4 Griff's Red Card

(Chapter song ‘Storm’ by Colm R. McGuinness, ‘Crimson Blaze’ by 2WEI)

GRIFFIN

“AHHHH!”

“IVY! RUN!”

I grab her arm just as Regina slams the knife down on the floor. She whips her head to us and snarls her disgusting hag of a lip.

“C'MON!” I pull Ivy the to door as Alistair steps in front.

“Don’t think so, buddy.” He smirks.

“We're getting through that door, mate!” I pull my fist back and land a left to his jaw then a quick right to his other side.

“NO!” Regina growls and grabs Ivy’s hair.

“LET GO!” Ivy spins and backhands her grandmother across the face. Regina stumbles back, raises her crazy eyes to her and comes at her with the knife.

“NO!” I yell before I’m clocked in the chin.

I fall down the four stairs and Alistair walks down them in front of me. “I’m really getting sick and tired of you getting in my way.” He stands at my side as I lay on my back, reaches down and grabs my shirt. “Time to end you.”

I grab his wrist and grit my teeth. “Naw, mate. Ye be the one getting in the way of me.”

I hang onto to his arm with both hands, lift my feet and nail him with kicks in the stomach and head.

He yells out as he stumbles back. As I jump to my feet, he raises his head to me, throws me a death look and rushes me.

I brace myself and he slams me, holding my shoulders. We fly to the back wall and my back hits it. He tries to get a hand around my neck and I hold his arms back as I clench my teeth. He’s fucking strong, but Ivy makes me stronger.

“You're nothing but a pissant wolf with nothing to go on, but your fucking mouth!” He growls as he pushes on me.

“Yeah?” I tilt my head and lean to him. “Then why ya look scared.” I smirk then slam my head into his nose.

He screams and falls back as I push off the wall. “Christ.” I wince as I rub my forehead. “Your fecking noggin be harder than the rocks rolling around in there.”

He heaves his shoulders and takes a step when a scream has us both turn our heads.

Regina has Ivy, pinned to the floor and is trying to plunge the knife in her as Ivy holds her back.

“YOU WORTHLESS BITCH! I WANT WHAT’S MINE!!”

“IVY!!” I go to save her, but Alistair had other plans.

“I’m not done with you yet!”

His magic grabs me and throws me into the roof, I fall and thud on the floor with a coughing groan.

He stomps to me and grabs the back of my jacket. “We're just getting started. You can’t run from me now.”

As he lifts me up, I ball my fist and swing it at his head. I slam his jaw and he falls back. He turns his eye back to me and he looks at me with angered shock that I ain’t backing down.

“You fecking disaster!” I growl as he rubs his jaw. “You evil, rotten son of a bitch! Ya wanna play? Fine! Let’s play the Irish way.”

I stare him down just before I jump and high kick him in the head. He growls a demonic growl and slowly lifts himself while keeping his eyes trained me.

I hear a crash and Ivy’s managed to kick Regina into the coffee table and some chairs. She stands and shoots me a look as she catches her breath. I nod to her and we both posture as a team. I’m in so much awe of her right now.

I turn my eye slowly back to Alistair. He’s glaring at me as he wipes the blood from his lip

“Aye. The look. We've been here before, you and I. The difference…shite for brains…I know what I’m fighting for now and ya ain’t getting it.” I grit my teeth and watch him stand, back up and fists ready.

“You’re puny ass can’t beat me.” He shakes his head as he challenges.

“Find out, mate.” I whisper.

He comes at me with a demonic roar and I come back, swinging hard. My fists fly as I lay blow after blow on his head and chest. I grab his shoulders knee him in the gut and uppercut his jaw.

Before I can land a power kick to his head, he throws out his hand and I’m hit with his magic. I hit the floor, slide back and slam against the wall.

I squeeze my eyes shut them open them as I absorb the pain. Before I know it, he has my shirt in both hands and is lifting me up to my feet.

He pushes my back to the wall and glares into my eyes. “I’m going to enjoy ripping you apart.” He growls.

A screech, once again, distracts us as Ivy wrestles with her grandmother. My eyes widen as their fight gets dangerously close to the window.

“IVY! WATCH IT!” My heart speeds up as I see her back hit the glass and it shakes. Regina cackles as she tries to stab Ivy's chest.

Regina takes a swipe at her with the knife. Ivy grabs her by the hair and screams out a growl. She spins her around and throws her to the glass.

I watch in horror as Regina’s body smashes the window. Giant glass shards fly out into the open air. Her evil hand grabs Ivy's jacket as she goes, pulling them both to the freefall below. Even at this moment, her hatred for Ivy showed in her eyes. All because Ivy’s beautiful and young.

My world stops. Alistair even disappears. The only thing I hear is the pounding of my racing heart. My mouth falls open and breathing speeds up as I watch them fall out of the building.

“GRIFFFIINNN!!”

Her wail brings me back into my nightmare.

“NOOOO!!”

I grab Alistair's collar, land two punches to his face, push him away and run for the window.

“IVYYYY!!” I cry out as run and skid into the metal frame of the floor to ceiling window.

The wind from being 40 stories up doesn’t stop me from watching my love fall to her death. “No…” I huff out breathes as I feel my knees get weak and my stomach get sick.

Every painful, panicked thrash of her arms and legs is like claws ripping out my soul. I lean on the frame and tears well as I start to shake.

Alistair slams himself onto the other metal frame. “Fucking hell!! “

The fall seemed to take forever as tears poured out my eyes. My heart smashes with every second. I can’t…I….My hand covers my mouth as her screams hit my ears.

Just before I couldn’t take anymore, I see it. The impact. My eyes close and I lower my head as I cry. I suck back my tears through shaky breaths as a smile grows on my lips and I start to laugh through my grief.

I slowly sit it back on my calves, dropping my arms to my side and raise my head up to sun.

As I stare at it and think of my beautiful Ivy, I cant help but quietly chuckle. “She's fucking brilliant.” I hitch.

“She’s fucking DEAD!” Alistair growls as his eyes flash fire.

“HEY!”

I fall to my backside and I see my Ivy, in a white business suit, aiming a gun at Alistair. She’s standing in the doorway of her office bathroom.

Her face is twisted in anger and tears. “Go to hell, you son of a bitch.” She clenches.

I’m so overwhelmed with emotion, I don’t even flinch when the gun goes off and the bullet hits Brock between the eyes. He stands with a dumbfounded look on his face. The hole flickers with orange lightning and leaks black smoke. It teeters a bit then crumples to the floor.

I turn back Ivy who’s breathing heavy. She looks like she’s defeated and wants to cry as she stares at me. She drops the gun, it hits the floor and she doesn’t move.

“Love…God, my Ivy…” I breathe.

I'd never moved so fast for anyone in my life. I rush to her, grab her in my arms as she sobs in chest. I pull her back, grab her cheeks and kiss her like my life depended on it. She whimpers on my lips and it’s the most beautiful sound I’ll ever hear.

“You’re so fucking smart…Fuck, I love you so much…I thought I’d lost ya…” I whine between kisses as she cries too.

“I’m sorry…” She chokes through the tears. “Griffin, I’m so sorry.”

I pull her back, hold her head and wipe her tears. “There’s nothing to be sorry for, Ivy. I’m the one who needs to be sorry.” I look to the room then back at her. “I had a whole thing back there.” I thumb over my shoulder.

She smiles and gives her cheeks another wipe. “I know. I heard every word. Griffin. I doubted you. I know it was my head. I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything…”

I lean to her. “You’re right, Miss, but let's not talk now.”

I turn to Alistair on the floor. Already, small streams of black smoke are snaking out his ears, nose, mouth and bullet hole.

“We gotta go!” I grab her arm and start for the door.

Brocks body starts to convulse.

As we turn down the hall, the familiar sounds of the demon snake rises from the office.

“GRIFF, THE STAIRS!” Ivy directs as we practically run people over.

The demon booms with thunder and electric whines as it crashes through Ivy’s office door. People scream as it hits the hallway wall, spreads out then reforms to turn our way.

“RUN!!”

Alistair roars out and people dive for cover as the demon snake races after us, hitting the ceiling, floor and knocking people out of the way.

I shove Ivy into the stairwell. “Don’t stop, love!”

We jump down flights of stairs, one after another. The stairwell feels like it’s in an earthquake as Alistair rams himself through the door above. He lets out high pitched squeal and aims down the middle.

As we run his cloud shoots past us, he hits the ground floor, his cloud mashes, reforms and heads back up our way. We bust through the door at the 4th floor and run past the people in a panic. Alistair didn’t let up.

“OUT OF THE WAY! MOVE!!”

Alistair broke through the door and barreled his way through. Desks, cubicle walls, papers, and screaming people were tossed like a wake behind him as we ran across to the other set of stairs.

We hit the door, leap over the railing, shift to our wolves and land on our paws on the ground floor. We shift again and run for the front door which was a bit of shock since we were now naked. People gasped as we ran by. Offended by the rudeness of it. They shut up real quick when Alistair crashed through. The screams he made shook the room and people almost trample each other to get away.

We run out and jump down the stairs.

I hear Ivy yelp behind me and I look back. She and another man are on their buts. They collided in the escape. I run back to help her and the man takes off in terror just as Alistair explodes all the glass of the front entrance.

I cover us from the flying shards, hear cars smash and people run in terror as Alistair rises over the courtyard like a gigantic black cobra over us.

As I look around at the people of Axelridge shaken with fear and feel Ivy's as she pushes into my chest, something snapped. I could die a million ways, but at this point I couldn't give a flying fuck. I stand up and face the beast.

He towers over me as I take a few steps toward him and if he had eyes I'd be locking with them and shooting daggers.

He lowers his head to me and I look over the black smoke billowing and turning to form his body.

“You can try and destroy us as much as you want, mate.” I say low as I lower my head then raise my eye to him. “At the end of the day, it’ll be us who wins. You can exploit all the hatred and malice, but you’ll never beat us.”

I step closer as the orange electricity pops and sparks inside the darkness. “One thing you and your kind keep forgetting, lad. We're willing to die for our cause…that tends makes us fight harder. We'll fight and risk our lives to beat you to bleeding ash so that these people will be safe…from you.”

I close the gap and get real close to the demon snake. I can smell the fire in the smoke. I lift my chin, jut it out and tilt my head. “See, mate, it ain’t about us. It’s about them. We fight you…for them and we win because of it. That’s why…you’ll lose.”

The stand off felt like an hour.

His snake body slowly sways back and forth behind the tip which is glued to my stare. I stand and puff my chest. I’m showing him he doesn’t scare me even though I’m terrified.

He seems to look me over as Ivy walks up behind me. I stand firm as slowly rears back. He rises and arches down to as I hold Ivy behind me.

He unleashes a hellish scream as he plunges down to us.

I spin around, grab Ivy and drop us into a ball. She screams as Alistair hits us and his smoke starts to spread like a fog.

The storm inside knocked us about, but I held onto Ivy with every ounce of strength I had. The black encased us and lightning crashed all around us.

The thunder was deafening and the power was almost too much.

“Be brave, love…be brave.” I whisper in her ear as I hold her tighter.

Her nails almost cut into me as her grip on my arms increases.

The powerful winds in the cloud threaten to lift us, but I shrink us more. I feel his power increase and I know this is it.

“I love you.”

I feel him. Attacking my soul from every angle. He’s trying to get in. He won’t win. I feel his demon claws pick at me, trying to find that crack.

Fight, Griffin! Fight!

My jaw clenches as he increases his punches to my spirit. I hear his laughter in my head. I hear him taunt me. He's trying to weaken me. Be strong, boy. Beat him for her. Don’t let him in.

The hurricane spins around us as he unleashes everything on me. My shield is impenetrable. Ivy’s love protects me. My love keeps me safe.

My body shakes and sweat beads off my brow. My breath comes out as whines as he raises his attacks.

“Ivy.”

I hug her more as tears fall down my cheeks. The images in my mind are terrifying. His words are unimaginable. It’s taking everything I have to push them out, only to have him shove back harder.

I slow my breath and close my eyes. I take my mind somewhere safe. A small smile grows as the vision of Ivy by the pond appears. How the sun danced in her silky hair. The feel of her touch. Her beautiful smile. The warmth of her heart as we made love. I breath deep and slow as I live that and push Alistair away. Everything went quiet and peaceful. My body and soul were being ravaged, but all I felt was Ivy.

As the lightening strikes increase all around us and get close to electrocution, it stops.

The storm starts to calm and I open my eyes to see a chunk of smoke disappear really fast then more and more. The people surrounding us come back into view and the air clears.

I lift my head to see Alistair’s black snake being yanked into the sky.

We watch as Alistair is pulled up to the broken window and into the building.

“He found another body.” I say to Ivy as I scrub a hand down my face.

“Who?” She asks.

We hear whistling wind come from above and look up to see a black figure falling from the sky.

Our mouths hang open as Brock lands both boots on the concrete in front of us, cracking it when he lands.

People gasp and gawk as the crowd grows on the streets.

Brock slowly raises his head as I shove Ivy behind me and stand like a wall between them. He rubs his bottom lip with his thumb as the bullet hole on his forehead knits together.

Eyeing everyone, he finds my eyes, pulls his jacket, fixes his shirt and strolls to me.

He holds the bullet up to my nose in his fingers. “You’re going to have to do better than that…mate. You got me once. Won’t happen again.” He warns as he holds it out to me and I raise my hand.

He drops the bullet in my palm and I look at it with disbelief.

He steps into the giant, drying puddle of water with Regina’s twisted, mangled body in the middle of it on the walk. I hug Ivy's head to shield her from the sight.

He rubs his nape, squats down and sighs as he looks her over. “Goddamn it.” He grumbles, picks up a piece of Regina’s head and tosses it on her.

He twists his body around to us. “I guess it’s time for Plan B.” He smirks, ticks his head, snaps his fingers and disappears.

“Plan B?” Ivy asks.

I shake my head, still not believing that the head shot barely scratched.

What the fuck are we going to do now?