“You know nothing of what you speak. I was with the usurper at the human settlement called Fort Verhulst. Like the others, I killed at his command.” Snaggletooth’s voice softened then, and the old gargoyle nodded, its eyes filled with regret. “Yes, back then I obeyed without question, foolishly. Would that I had known better. Still, those humans did not die for any reason but one: They knew the usurper’s name.”
“His name? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Names have power,” Snaggletooth said. “To know someone’s name is to have an advantage over him. It can be the most dangerous information of all.”
“Then tell me his name,” I said.
Snaggletooth sighed. “Would that I could remember, but the point is moot now. Too much time has passed. No one remembers his name. Not even the usurper himself.”
It figured. Nothing was ever that easy. And yet I had the strangest feeling that the answer was dangling just out of reach, a missing puzzle piece I could almost see.
I hurried after Snaggletooth. “Even if I managed to get a shot at his heart, how would I pierce his armor? Everyone says it’s impenetrable.”
“It is not armor,” the old gargoyle corrected me. “It is a shell, a carapace containing only his essence. All that remains of the usurper’s original form within is his heart, and the feathered fragments of his soul.”
“Feathered…? Oh, the crows,” I said. “But that still doesn’t tell me how I can get to his heart.”
“The usurper carries with him the only spell that can pierce his carapace.”
“A spell? How am I supposed to get it from him?”
“That is up to you.”
We came out of the tunnel at the cave mouth. Snaggletooth went first to check if the coast was clear, then waved me forward. “We must get you to safety. The time will come soon for you to face the usurper again, and when you do, remember what I have told you.”
“Come with me,” I said. “If the Black Knight finds out you helped me, you’ll wind up part of his throne.”
“No, he will never suspect me,” Snaggletooth replied. “I am his vizier, his trust in me is absolute. As is his trust in others he ought to be more cautious of.”
Another gargoyle emerged from the shadows. I stiffened, but when Snaggletooth didn’t react I realized it was one of his allies. To my surprise, it was Yellow Eye. I remembered Yellow Eye spotting me on the street in Manhattan but backing off instead of attacking. Now I understood why. Yellow Eye had been part of Snaggletooth’s underground resistance all along.
The two gargoyles chittered at each other for a moment, and then Snaggletooth turned back to me. “You will be taken to safety, but you must go now. The usurper will notice your absence soon and come looking for you. His rage will make him even more dangerous.”
“Let’s hope he doesn’t blow up any more gas stations,” I said.
“Once again you know nothing of which you speak,” Snaggletooth said. The old gargoyle spoke quickly, knowing there wasn’t much time. “The fire was not his doing. I followed the usurper this day as he searched for you, though the cover of the storm clouds could not fully shield me from the painful rays of the Dayburning Hellstar above. Yet follow him I did. Your trail led him to the building you speak of, this gas station, but it was destroyed before he reached it. The death of those inside is one crime the usurper is not responsible for.”
“What?” If the Black Knight hadn’t destroyed Underwood’s base, who had?
A loud gargoyle screech emanated from deep within the cavern. Snaggletooth and Yellow Eye looked back in alarm.
“We have run out of time,” Snaggletooth said. “Your absence has been discovered. Even now, the usurper will be sending guards to find you. You must go!”
Yellow Eye took to the air above me, flapping its wings hard enough to cause a strong downdraft that almost knocked me over. It grabbed me under the arms with its prehensile hind claws and lifted me off the ground. Below, Snaggletooth turned and started walking back into the tunnel.
“Wait,” I said. “You never told me your name.”
The gargoyle turned to face me. “It is Jibril-khan, fourteenth hatchling of Khan-maku. Go now, and may the Guardians show you favor this night.” Then Snaggletooth—Jibril-khan—disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.
Gripping me tightly, Yellow Eye flew us out of the cave mouth. The gargoyle’s claws dug through the fabric of my trench coat and shirt and into my shoulders. It hurt like hell, but at least it kept me from falling into the Hudson River as we flew toward the distant shore of Manhattan. I breathed a sigh of relief as the cavern—and the Black Knight—fell farther behind.
I looked up at Yellow Eye. “I remember you from the warehouse. We fought there, didn’t we? I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
Yellow Eye looked down at me with its one good eye and grunted dismissively, as if to tell me I was flattering myself.
Just then, another gargoyle came hurtling out of the cave mouth behind us. Yellow Eye saw it the same time I did and immediately took evasive maneuvers, diving and banking while I held on for dear life, but we couldn’t shake our pursuer. The second gargoyle flew high, then dove in front of us, causing Yellow Eye to pull up in order to avoid a collision.
The other gargoyle screeched, loud and angry, and I saw that it was Long Face, the same gargoyle that had helped Yellow Eye carry me from the cemetery. Now that Yellow Eye’s betrayal had been revealed, Long Face was enraged. The two gargoyles shrieked, bit, and clawed at each other like bitter enemies. Yellow Eye twisted in midair to slash at Long Face, jostling me dangerously in its rear claws. I held on as tightly as I could.
Long Face let out a high-pitched screech of pain and fell back. Yellow Eye flapped harder, propelling us toward the far shore. We didn’t get far before Long Face came at us again, though this time the gargoyle flew directly at me. I got my legs up and kicked, striking Long Face in the snout and knocking it back a few feet in midair. The kick jostled me in Yellow Eye’s grip again. I glanced nervously down at the dark water far below.
Long Face came back at us. Yellow Eye banked to one side, trying to get around Long Face, but it was no use. Long Face attacked Yellow Eye again, and the next thing I knew we were spinning out of control. Blood rained on me from above, but from which gargoyle I couldn’t tell. Given the ferocity of their attacks, probably both of them. They snarled and shrieked and clawed at each other, and all the while we fell, twisting and spinning, toward the frothing black waves below. I held on tight and scissored my legs in a futile attempt to try to stabilize us, but I had no leverage. We were out of control.
I looked up in time to see Long Face tear out Yellow Eye’s throat with its teeth. More blood rained all around me. Yellow Eye’s body went limp in midair. Its claws relaxed their grip on my shoulders, and suddenly I was in free fall. Long Face snarled, folded its wings against its body, and dove to catch me.
The gargoyle’s claw reached for my arm, its fingers starting to close around my wrist, and then all three of us slammed into the Hudson River.
Thirty-three
The force of hitting the water was as painful as landing on a hardwood floor. The freezing cold waves of the Hudson closed over me instantly. Swallowed me whole. Underwater, it was too dark to see. I was too stunned and disoriented to know up from down. I thrashed and twisted in the cold, black void until my lungs burned for air. I was panicking, I realized, and if I didn’t stop I would drown. I went as still as I could and let myself rise like a buoy to the surface. It seemed to take forever, my lungs like overinflated balloons threatening to burst. When I finally broke the surface, I sucked in so much air that the astrophysicists at Columbia University probably thought a new black hole had formed off the coast of Manhattan.
I hadn’t dropped far in that final free fall, maybe forty feet, but still, I was lucky I hadn’t broken my neck on impact. Yellow Eye’s dead body floated a few feet away. Damn. The gargoyle had been trying to help me, and had gotten killed f
or its trouble.
I treaded water, keeping an eye out for Long Face, but there was no sign of the gargoyle. They were tough creatures, though. I knew that if I survived, Long Face probably had, too. I didn’t like not knowing where the gargoyle was, but I had other priorities at the moment, like getting the hell out of the freezing cold water.
I swam toward Manhattan, fighting against the strong current that kept trying to pull me downriver. I was sore all over, a man-shaped contusion, but I didn’t let myself slow or stop. I kept reaching for the city lights twinkling in the distance like a beacon, until finally I felt the bottom of the river under my feet. Then I stood and stumbled like a madman through the surf. Cold, wet, exhausted, and in pain, I collapsed onto the slick, unyielding rocks that formed a narrow ribbon along the shoreline.
I didn’t pass out. I never do, it’s one of drawbacks of my condition. I lay there a long time, though, and was conscious for all of it. I was also painfully aware of something poking me in the thigh, something that felt different from the hard stones underneath me. I reached into my pocket—a simple, commonplace action that suddenly took Herculean effort—and pulled out the object that was poking me. It was the cell phone Isaac had given me. I almost laughed, but all I could manage was a throaty cough. I flipped the phone open. Water poured out of it. The display screen stayed dark. The phone was dead. That’s what it got for hanging around the likes of me. That’s what everyone got, in the end.
The cell phone dropped out of my hand, and my hand dropped to my side. I didn’t have the strength to move anymore. I knew this feeling, and I knew what would come next. I’d wondered on occasion what would happen if I died and there was no one around whose life force the thing inside me could steal. Would I just lay there, inert, until some unlucky soul wandered by? What if no one did? How long could I stay dead before it was irreversible? I had a feeling I was about to find out.
I waited to die, but I was wrong. Death didn’t come for me. Rejected again. Maybe it was done trying at this point.
Once my strength had recovered enough that I was able to get up and leave the shore, I stumbled inland. I made my way through trees and up a slight incline. I heard the distant sounds of traffic on the Henry Hudson Parkway, but the first road I arrived at was something else. Narrow and deserted, it was little more than a paved path. An access road, probably designed for emergency or sanitation vehicles. A single lamppost beside the road struggled to fend off the dark all on its own. I sympathized.
I stepped onto the road. Aside from being cold and wet, my bones ached and my legs shook, barely able to support my weight. The idea of walking very far was a joke, though I wasn’t sure what the punchline was. Still, I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other and hoped I would wind up somewhere.
Something dropped from above, crashing through the treetops and landing on the road in front of me. It was Long Face. The gargoyle was bruised and battered, but still alive. We had that in common, at least.
Too weak to run, I just stood there, wobbling, and said, “Oh. It’s you.”
I braced myself for the gargoyle’s inevitable attack, hoping that if Long Face killed me he would at least stick around long enough to contribute to my resurrection. Provided it worked with gargoyles. I didn’t know if it would. The thing inside me had only ever stolen the life forces of human beings before. It’s funny, the things you wonder when you’re about to die.
I thought I heard the revving of an engine in the distance, growing louder and nearer. Long Face chittered angrily. The gargoyle crouched like a jungle cat ready to spring.
A big black Escalade came roaring out of the darkness, barreling down the road right for us. Startled, I threw myself out of the vehicle’s way on a surge of adrenaline. A moment later, it slammed into the gargoyle like a battering ram. The Escalade’s front grille crushed inward and a single headlight shattered. The vehicle skidded to a halt while Long Face was sent somersaulting through the air. The gargoyle collided with the metal lamppost with a painful-sounding clang. Long Face tumbled to the ground, but the gargoyle was a resilient bastard. Almost immediately it rolled back up onto its feet.
The driver’s-side door opened, and Philip stepped out, the streetlamp’s light reflecting in his mirrored shades. He marched grimly up to Long Face, undeterred by the gargoyle’s threatening hisses, and punched it in the face. Or rather, through its face. Philip’s fist, covered in blood and gargoyle brain matter, came out the back of Long Face’s head as if the gargoyle’s skull was made of papier-mâché. Long Face stopped hissing, twitched a bit, then fell still.
I got up on wobbly legs. “You should be more careful. You almost hit me when you were aiming for the gargoyle.”
“Aiming for the gargoyle? Sure, let’s go with that.” Philip pulled his hand free from Long Face’s skull and shook the gore off of it. “Get in the car.”
I wasn’t about to argue with someone who could punch a gargoyle to death, so I went around the other side and got into the passenger’s seat. I shrugged out of my sopping wet trench coat and tossed it in the back. It didn’t help much. The rest of my clothes were wet, too, and I was still cold. “What are you doing here?” I asked Philip as he got behind the wheel. “How did you know where to find me?”
He started driving, following the access road. The light of his one working headlight briefly lit up Long Face’s body on the side of the road, then left it behind. “The cell phone Isaac gave you has a GPS chip inside it. I followed it until the signal died, and after that…” He paused and glanced at me. “Let’s just say you have a peculiar smell for a human. Spicier, like gumbo. Definitely not the same as everyone else’s. All I had to do was follow my nose.”
I lifted my arm and sniffed my armpit. I smelled like the Hudson River, but I had a feeling that wasn’t what Philip meant. First Ingrid had said my aura was wrong, and now Philip said my scent was wrong, too. Just more unanswered questions for me to obsess over instead of sleeping.
“You shouldn’t have come for me,” I said. “I told Isaac Reve Azrael was following me. I can’t go back.”
“It was his idea. Me, I think if someone wants to run off and get themselves killed that’s their prerogative, but Isaac doesn’t leave people behind. Ever.”
“He should have this time. He knows it’s safer for me to stay away.”
“Let me tell you something about Isaac Keene,” Philip said. “I was in the Towers the day they came down. The South Tower, the first one that fell. I was trapped for hours with the sun coming through a hole in the rubble above me and burning me alive. It was Isaac who pulled me out. He’d been there all day, rescuing people from the wreckage, never stopping, never resting. He didn’t care that I was a vampire, or that the only reason I was there was because I was feeding on a janitor when the shit went down. All he saw was someone who needed help. Isaac saved my life.”
“Yeah? Is that why you stuck around?”
“According to the laws of my kind, I owe him one hundred years of servitude in return, and I give it gladly. Isaac may have his flaws, but he doesn’t give up on anyone.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Flaws? I thought he was Mr. Perfect.”
“Oh, he has his flaws,” Philip said. “For instance, he won’t let me feed the way I want to, and that is a definite flaw. I haven’t had fresh human blood in over a decade. It’s unnatural. Do you know what happens to a rutting bull when he’s not allowed to mate?” He glanced at me. “You have no idea how close I came to tearing your throat out when we met. The smell of your blood…” He trailed off. I was glad not to hear the rest of that sentence. “You have Isaac to thank for keeping your throat intact. He gave you a second chance because that’s who he is. It’s what he does. He did it for me, and he did it for Gabrielle and Bethany, too. They have their own stories about how Isaac found them at their lowest points and gave them a purpose. He cares. In fact, he cares too much, and that’s his biggest flaw. It makes him weak. It will get him killed one day. Luckily, he’s got me aroun
d to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Isaac had surrounded himself with special people from the start, I realized, each with his or her own talent. He’d been putting this team together for a long time now. He’d been preparing all along to take up the fight, even if he didn’t know it.
Philip found an exit off the access road that brought us onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, where we merged with traffic heading downtown. I was starting to feel much better, almost fully recovered. Even my bones hurt less. The sun wasn’t up yet, but it was getting close as the black sky brightened toward gray. The headlights of oncoming traffic speared through the dark and reflected off Philip’s mirrored shades.
“Can you see in the dark with those glasses on?” I asked.
“I’m a vampire,” he said. “I can see in the dark with a blindfold on.”
“Do you ever take them off?”
He turned to me with a slight grin. I could see the tips of his fangs. “Trust me,” he said, “you wouldn’t want me to.”
Something in the tone of his voice told me to drop the subject.
He continued, picking up the thread of our conversation, “Isaac didn’t just send me to get you because you were in danger. He needs you, Trent. Just like he needs the rest of us. It’s all-hands-on-deck time. The question is, are you going to be a man and step up, or are you going to keep running?”
I sighed and looked out the window. “All I ever wanted was to find out who I am and where I came from. I snuck into a warehouse to steal a box because I thought it would get me the answers I needed, but instead it turned my world upside down. Made me question everything I thought was true. As if that wasn’t enough, now you’re asking me to help stop an unkillable million-year-old creature from waking up and destroying everything?”
“Welcome to New York,” Philip said. “You didn’t say no, so I take it you’re in?”
Outside the window, I saw the passing lights of the city. How much longer would those lights burn if Stryge got loose? How many thousands, millions of people would die? I already had too many deaths on my shoulders. “Fine,” I said. “I’m in.”
Dying Is My Business Page 32
