“Oh, please, save it for the preacher. You were out cold.”
He stopped to turn onto the main road that would lead us back to the bridge across the Columbia and into Portland. He drew a breath to argue, but movement to his left caught both our attention.
A shadow. Two shadows, running in the night. Running toward us, toward Zay’s side of the car.
Holy shit.
Zayvion tensed, then very calmly whispered a spell that I knew would tear someone apart from the inside out.
The figures broke from the shadows and moonlight bathed them in silver.
Shamus sprinted and threw open the back door, holding it for the gargoyle who ran beside him.
“Go, go, go,” Shamus said as he jumped into the backseat behind the gargoyle and slammed the door shut. “Drive, drive, drive!”
Stone caught sight of me and cooed.
“Stone!” I twisted in my seat and rubbed his warm, marbled head. “Good to see you, big guy. Are you hurt?”
He crooned again and lifted his ears. He looked happy, and had not a scratch on him.
“What the hell, Shamus?” Zayvion said, not driving. “Tell me you did not just steal that gargoyle.”
“Steal? Come on. He doesn’t belong to my mum or the Authority. Can’t steal something that didn’t belong to them in the first place.”
“You know your mother will find out,” Zayvion said.
“Not if you drive fast enough, she won’t.”
I thought Zayvion, the responsible goody-good guardian of the gates, was going to turn the car around. Instead he put it in gear and started toward Portland. “You have a decent cover story?”
“Bulletproof. Couldn’t stand to see you two get the nod for your Complement status; I went out for a smoke and a whiskey. Girls closing up the bar even saw me crying in my drink. Such a sad, sad thing I was.”
I was still rubbing Stone’s head, so I saw Shamus’s wicked smile.
“Of course, I have no idea how the beastie shook off the Grounding stone and snuck out. Clever, though. Too bad we don’t know enough about animates to have kept him properly caged.”
Zayvion shook his head. “And I caught up with you?”
“You know how I am. Shadow to your light. Saw you and Allie leave, and you hauled my drunken ass along for the ride.”
Zayvion chuckled. “Pretty good.”
“Good? Gold. Plus, with Armageddon going on back there, I don’t think they’re going to worry much about a missing statue.”
“Are you comfortable being an accessory to his crime?” Zayvion asked me. “The Authority will not approve of this kind of behavior.”
“What crime?” I said.
Shamus grinned and sat back. “You know,” he said. “The three of us could take the world apart and have a hell of a lot of fun putting it back together.”
“Who knows?” Zayvion said. “We might get that chance.”
Chapter Nineteen
Like teenagers sneaking a keg into our parent’s basement, Zay, Shamus, and I managed to smuggle Stone into my building and up the three flights of stairs to my apartment without getting caught. Sure, we could have used Illusion to cloak him, but no one suggested it. I didn’t know about the boys, but I was exhausted and had had enough magic to last me a while.
Our luck held. Nola wasn’t back from getting Cody, which worried me until I realized it was only ten o’clock. Paperwork and processing can take a lot of time. And they might have stopped off for a late dinner, or, heck, gone out to a movie, for all I knew.
Once inside the apartment, Stone lifted up onto his hind legs and waddled off to the bathroom, clicking all the way. The hiss of water turning on and off was accompanied by his clicks.
“Now, that’s good fun,” Shamus said. “He has a thing for water?”
“Just the bathroom sink so far,” I said.
Shamus headed down the hall and looked in on him. “Hey, fella. You like the sink?”
Stone just clicked and hummed. I had no idea if it was an answer.
“Do you want me to take him somewhere else?” Zayvion asked.
“Shamus? Yes, please.”
He smiled. “Stone. Back to the restaurant?”
All I could think of was the chain that held him down there, and how he had pleaded for me to release him. “I don’t think he’d make a very good statue anymore,” I said. “His world has gotten a lot bigger now.”
Zay caught my double meaning, and nodded. He strolled over to my window and looked out. “Can’t let him loose on the street all alone. Even if the Necromorph is under lock and key, there’s a lot of dangerous things still out there.”
“I’ll see if he’ll stay here during the day. Maybe let him out at night. He’s been free for a few days already. I haven’t heard any reports of a gargoyle loose in the city. He knows how to stay hidden. Knows how to take care of himself.”
“If someone who is part of the Authority sees him, or if the police or Stotts sees him, you’ll have to give him up.”
“I know.”
Zayvion turned. “He might not last long anyway. There isn’t a lot of information on animates. A few old stories about magic users-Hands-making golems and other creatures. Those histories are more story than history, though.”
“Speaking of Hands,” I said. “When you Closed Cody, did you see his spirit?” I asked.
“No.” Zayvion drew the word out, asking me to explain.
“I saw him. His spirit. At the gate. He was there. He made me promise to make this right for everyone. Then he jumped into the gate and closed it.”
Zayvion was suddenly very quiet and very focused. “He did what?”
“Jumped into the gate.”
He didn’t say anything.
“You want to tell me how that is any weirder than everything else that happened tonight?” I asked.
“He’s not dead,” he said.
“Cody? I know. Nola just got cleared to foster him.”
“Yes.” Zayvion held up one hand. “Cody is still alive. But that part of him, the part of him I Closed, should have stayed within him. He shouldn’t be dead.”
“He said his mind was broken before and he was just half of himself. That he couldn’t reach the rest of himself when he was Closed.”
Zay rubbed at the back of his neck and stared at his shoes for a minute, thinking. “So Cody is alive and dead, so to speak. Your dad is alive and dead, so is Greyson, and Mikhail. This is a disturbing trend.”
I rubbed my hands through my hair. Bad move. One, I was sore, so putting my hands up over my head made everything ache. Two, my hair was in serious need of brushing.
“Is that something we need to deal with tonight?” I asked.
He must have caught how tired I sounded. He walked over to me, put both his warm palms against my arms. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but then I wasn’t trying to.
“No. Not tonight.”
Shamus strolled into the living room. “High-larious, that rock. Kind of wish he were mine.”
Zayvion pulled away. “He’s not, so don’t get any smart ideas.”
“Please. I have some morals,” he said loftily. “Ready?”
Zayvion nodded. Then, to me, “I need to go back. There will be a council meeting called. I’ll need to be there.”
“Will I see you later?”
Shamus was already at the door, looking out through it before he opened it. Such a small gesture, but so telling. Zay was right, there still were dangerous things out there. Maybe more than I knew.
It just might be time for me to buy some decent Wards for my door.
“If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll come by in the evening,” he said.
“Good luck.”
That made him smile, and I liked the look of it on him. “You too. Lock the door.”
And then Zayvion and Shamus were gone, out my door, which I did indeed lock behind them.