alive?” he asked. “He survived KC.”
Placing her hands on her hips, Paige replied, “According to every animal expert or scientist out there, most of the things we fight shouldn’t even exist, so I don’t know how he survived KC. I’ve become an expert in dead things, though, and this thing’s definitely dead. All we need now is a ride back to the States.”
Cole reached into his pocket for his cell phone. When he tried to make a call, he cursed and shoved the device back into his pocket.
“Can’t get a signal?” she asked. “I told you not to keep splurging on those new ones before all the kinks are ironed out.”
“Okay, smartass. You try to call this number and ask for Tristan.” She punched in the number he gave, listened to the recording that followed, and calmly deactivated her phone. “Let me guess,” he said smugly. “No international calling plan?”
Paige nodded toward a pair of headlights that bounced through the tall, swaying grass. “Maybe we could use this guy’s phone.”
Following her line of sight, Cole picked out the headlights in the distance. The sound of the vehicle engine mingled with gusts of salty air brushing leisurely against the barren field. He closed his eyes, sampled the fragrances that had been carried in from the Gulf of Bothnia and smiled as he heard the distinctive creak of fur hardening into stone. After less than a minute the single live gargoyle flapped away from Liam’s shoulder and the others fell off like wet cloths sliding down a wall.
“I’ve read journal entries on gargoyles,” Paige said while bending down to take a closer look at one of the thin leathery bodies, “but never saw a real one. I thought they were wiped out.”
“So did Jessup. He said lots of things are getting flushed out from where they’ve been hiding. Gargoyles, Shunkaws, more Chupacabra. All sorts of good stuff like that.”
She shook her head and turned to watch the vehicle that ambled straight toward them. “It was bound to happen. Things had been balanced so precariously for so long that we got used to it being that way. Half Breeds sprouted up here and there and we hunted them down. Full Bloods were kept in check by thinking Nymar controlled the cities, and Nymar were kept in check by thinking we could enforce every law we laid down. Once Misonyk and Henry came along to upset that balance, it all crumbled.”
“We lived through this,” Cole pointed out. “That’s saying a lot.”
“We did more than live through it. We actually won. But the Breaking Moon hasn’t even fully risen yet,” she said while standing up and brushing off her hands. “What’s left in New Mexico?”
“Esteban is wrapped up but not dead. Randolph was wounded but he and Cecile got away.”
“You talk about her like she’s still the girl she pretends to be when she’s not covered in fur. That’s not smart,” Paige warned. “There’s a long way to go, and even though we’re short one Full Blood, the others are stronger than before.”
Since the sight of Liam’s petrified body had already lost its luster, Cole focused on Paige’s face. That was good enough for the moment.
The vehicle that had driven out to them was now arriving with the noisy rattle of an outdated engine. Cole allowed himself to catch his breath. He plastered on a friendly smile and returned the wave thrown at them by a skinny man with a round face who drove a strange little thing that looked like the front half of a compact car welded onto the flatbed of an old farmer’s truck.
“Hello?” the man said in a thick accent while climbing out of his vehicle. “You look like you are in trouble, yes?”
“You speak English?” Paige asked.
He nodded and squinted in the sunlight that had grown bright enough for him to kill his headlights. “Just a little. You are Americans?”
“Yeah,” Cole replied. “Does it show?”
“Oh yes, for certain. Americans come out to see the water and they like to wander. I saw the lights and heard the loud noises and knew more Americans were throwing a party. I come to tell you to stop. Now I see there is no party.”
“Not yet.”
Now that he didn’t have to run off a bunch of kids from his field, the man’s face creased into a tired smile. That faded when he got a look at the mess of shredded gargoyle bodies scattered around the petrified werewolf. “What . . . is this?” he