asked.
“We’re artists,” Paige told him. “Sculptors.”
He leaned toward the werewolf, rubbed his chin and studied the roughly hewn rock while sniffing air that smelled of guano and bird guts.
Cole stepped on his spear to make sure it was hidden within the grass when he announced, “It’s called, ‘Beast Who Crawls Out to Sea.’ What do you think?”
“It is troubling. Will you be moving it?”
“Of course,” Paige said. “Just as soon as we can call some friends of ours. Do you think you could take us to a phone?”
“You have no phone?” the man asked. “Or car?”
“It was a beautiful night,” Cole said as he looked up at the sky. “The muse struck and we answered her call.”
“Ahh,” the man grumbled. “Artists. Come. I will take you to my lighthouse.”
“I’m Cole,” he said while extending a hand. “And this is Paige.”
“Vihtori,” the man replied while shaking Cole’s hand.
After collecting their weapons and quickly tucking them out of sight, Cole and Paige followed Vihtori back to his truck. Since the flatbed portion was barely large enough to hold a pair of duffel bags, Paige sat with her back against the cab, Cole with his legs dangling off the side and his hands locked onto the side of the vehicle.
“Should we leave him here?” Cole whispered as the man settled in behind his wheel.
“He should stay fresh for at least a week and maybe up to a few months. This is a first for me, so I’m kinda winging it here. All I know is that we need to get to a phone.” As the vehicle began trundling along, she asked, “So the whole gargoyle thing was your idea?”
“I didn’t find them, but yeah.”
“And Tristan?”
“She wanted to help and this is what she could do. She said there may be side effects with having to tap into the darker emotions, so we should probably keep an eye on her for a while. That was quite a jolt flying through a fear portal, huh? Lots of falling and tumbling through dark, empty space. Freaky.”
Paige’s trip across the Norwegian Sea had felt like she’d been tied to the back of an F-14. Screams filled her ears and there had been so much light that she wondered if she would be blind when she finally arrived at her destination. “Yeah. Freaky, but worth it.”
They watched each other without saying much of anything else for the remainder of their ride. Vihtori’s lighthouse was situated at the farthest edge of the field. Tall grass gave way to flat rock. The rustling of wind was soon overridden by the sound of water crashing against the shore. Cole’s pulse returned to something close to normal and hundreds of questions rolled through his head, but he kept his mouth shut. If one thing had become clear in his time as a Skinner, it was that he needed to enjoy the quiet moments when he could because they didn’t come around too often.
Hailuoto was much cooler than New Mexico and Oklahoma. Even though he’d never been to Finland before, there was something different in the air that made it clear he was far from where he’d started. The scents were different. The automobiles were different. The road was rougher. The fields were cleaner. Whatever it was, Cole liked it. Before he could settle into thoughts of early retirement, Vihtori turned onto a gravel road that led straight up to a silvery gray lighthouse. He parked the car/truck combo, hopped out and motioned for them to follow.
“If you make expensive call, I will know,” he warned. “I have food and water inside. Also, some bandages, yes?”
Cole was about to insist he was all right, but one glance down at himself was enough for him to realize he looked as if he’d been dropped from a plane and into a trash compactor. His clothes were ripped. His skin was dirty and scarred. He even smelled like war, which clung to the back of his nose as a mix of blood and fire. “Thank you,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
“Was there trouble?”
“No,” he said. “It was just a really rough night.”
Vihtori obviously didn’t believe him, but wasn’t suspicious enough to call the authorities. At least, that was his read on the man. If he did call the cops, Cole hoped the other man had the decency to let him sit down and have a glass of water first.
“We wrecked our car,” Paige said while climbing down. “We’re still fuzzy on the insurance, so . .