In the rearview, I saw him wipe his hands over his face. “God. I need to see Gabrielle. Right now.”
Bethany shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry, Thornton, we can’t go back yet. If we do, we’ll lead the gargoyles right to Citadel.”
“Bethany, for Christ’s sake, I have to see her.”
“You will, I promise,” she said. “Tomorrow, when the sun is up and it’s safe, we can go back, but right now we can’t. I need you to understand that.”
Thornton chewed his thumbnail worriedly. “You promised, Bethany. I’m going to hold you to that.”
I didn’t know who Gabrielle was, but judging from the way Thornton was so desperate to see her before his time ran out, I figured she was important to him. His girlfriend, maybe. So what did that make Bethany?
In the backseat, she said, “Now we just need to get the box back, before…” She trailed off self-consciously.
“Before I die, you mean. Permanently this time.” Thornton leaned his head back against the top of the seat. “Shit, Bethany. You always figure you’re going to die sometime, but it always seems so far away. Though, on the plus side, I’m already dead, so I guess I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“Thornton, I’m serious about the box,” she said. “You know how important it is we get it back to Citadel safely. It’s why we split up in the first place, so you could find someplace to hide it.”
Thornton sat up. “That’s why you brought me back, isn’t it? It wasn’t because you couldn’t leave me there, it wasn’t sentimental, it was because I know where the box is and you don’t. Jesus, Bethany. I’m right, aren’t I?”
She didn’t answer. Her silence did it for her.
I slowed behind a car that was taking a right turn onto Ninth Avenue and did my best not to look like I was eavesdropping.
Thornton glared icily at Bethany. “You don’t have to worry about it. The box is safe.”
“You’re sure?” she pressed.
He nodded. “I left it in the safest place I could think of, with someone even the gargoyles wouldn’t dare mess with.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh no, you don’t mean—?”
“I gave it to Gregor.”
“Tell me you didn’t,” she said. “Gregor’s a compulsive hoarder. He keeps everything.”
“Just another reason it’ll be safe with him.”
She groaned. “There’s no guarantee we’ll ever get it back now. Not from him.”
“He owes me a favor. A lot of favors, actually. He’ll give it back. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
Bethany sighed and crossed her arms. It was evident she was someone who hated not being in complete control of a situation.
“Who’s Gregor?” I asked.
“An old friend,” Thornton said.
“Very old,” Bethany added, like that cleared things up.
Apparently that was all they were willing to tell me. I pressed a little harder. “Is that where we’re going now, to get this box back from Gregor?”
Bethany shook her head. “Just keep driving. Right now, our priority is to make sure we’ve lost the gargoyles.”
I maneuvered the car across the intersection at Eighth Avenue, still heading east. I checked the side mirrors. The buildings in this part of town were too tall for me to see anything but walls and windows, but we were moving at a pretty good clip, especially by Midtown standards. “I think we’ve shaken them off.”
“It won’t be that easy,” she said. “They’ve got our scent. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still tracking us but hanging back, waiting to see where we go.”
“What’s their beef with you anyway?” I asked.
“They want the box,” Bethany said.
That made two of us. “Okay,” I said, “but why?”
“It’s complicated.”
Why wasn’t I surprised? Everything had gotten a lot more complicated when I walked into that damn warehouse. “News flash, sweetheart, I’m the guy who saved your ass back there by turning a gargoyle into a pile of ashes, so maybe you can clue me in on what this is all about.”
Bethany turned to Thornton. “Did this asshole just call me sweetheart?”
Thornton leaned forward in his seat. “Wait, what are you talking about, turning a gargoyle into ashes?” I told him what had happened when I used the staff. His eyes bugged. “But that’s impossible, the Anubis Hand isn’t supposed to—”
“I’d really like to be the one asking the questions right now,” I snapped.
I drove across Broadway, staying on Fiftieth Street. On the next block, a short one between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, the traffic was backed up to a standstill. I reluctantly slowed to a stop behind a fresh-produce delivery truck. Its big, boxy semitrailer blocked my view of the street ahead. I realized then that I’d made the wrong choice. This close to Times Square, I should have known the traffic would back up. Considering what might be following us, I didn’t like having to slow down, not even for a moment. I threw the Explorer into reverse and checked the mirrors, but I was already too late. Cars were filing in behind us, boxing us in place. Damn. If the gargoyles found us now, there was no place for us to go. Our only escape route would be on foot, out in the open.
“What do the gargoyles want with the box?” I pressed. “What’s so special about it?”
“It’s theirs, kind of,” Thornton said.
I met his eyes in the rearview. “What?”
“It doesn’t belong to them,” Bethany interjected quickly. “It doesn’t belong to anyone. Look, what’s important is that we can’t let them get their hands on it. There’s a good reason it was kept hidden for so many years. The safest place for it now is locked away where no one can get to it.”
“What is it, some kind of weapon?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Bethany said. “But in the wrong hands, it would be extremely dangerous.”
“Not to be a stickler,” I said, “but isn’t that the definition of a weapon?”
Outside, a chorus of angry honking began. Traffic inched forward, then stopped again.
Thornton looked out the window, lost in his thoughts. “We should have left the box where it was.”
“You know we couldn’t,” Bethany told him.
“Where was it?” I asked. “You said it was hidden.”
“Have you heard about the renovations they’re doing at St. John the Divine uptown?” she asked. I shrugged. I didn’t keep up with current events much. “Well, the construction workers were repairing the foundation and found a secret chamber under the cathedral. A chamber older than the cathedral itself. The only thing inside it was the box. They probably would have sent it somewhere to be examined. They might have even tried to open it themselves. Anyone could have gotten their hands on what’s inside. We couldn’t take that risk. We didn’t have a choice, we had to go in there when no one was around and take the box.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, turning around in the seat to gape at them. “You stole it?”
“We secured it,” Bethany corrected me. “I told you, what’s in that box is too dangerous.”
I chuckled and shook my head. They were thieves, just like me. Sure, I called it collecting and they called it securing, but whichever word you used, and whatever rationale you gave for doing it, it was the same damn thing.
“But we were sloppy,” Thornton said. “We should have realized there was a ward around the chamber. As soon as we took the box out, that was it. It was like every gargoyle just knew. Within minutes, they stormed the cathedral. We barely got out of there alive. That was last night, and we’ve been running ever since. This mission has been screwed from the start.”