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 around to make sure that doesn’t happen.”