Mia had the presence of mind to anticipate this and held on to him as she shot upwards.
The dog chasing Murphy jumped up to take a bite out of the farmer as the dog chasing Mia leaped to take her down to the ground. They collided. Mia shouted into the void, “Incoming!” as the beasts fell in. Mia knelt and smudged the line. She tried to get up, but the poison from the Nephilim’s claws had started to work on her system. She stumbled backwards. Tom caught her and steadied his friend.
“Mia, Murphy, that was awesome,” he said, holding on to his shaking friend. “Honey, are you alright?”
“I… I don’t think so,” Mia said and puked on the hood of his car.
Ted rolled into the farmhouse drive, surprised to see a strange car there. Lazar ran out and grabbed Varden from Ted’s lap. “I hope you don’t mind, but I asked my mother and grandmother to come and help with the boys.”
“That’s smart thinking. I think we have to think about how we can restrain a gargoyle here if they manage to capture him alive.”
Cid pulled the van in front of the farmhouse. Audrey slid out with Luke. Lazar’s mother, Magda Popov, took the baby from her while his grandmother Babcia Sophia examined her scratches and bruises.
“I’m fine,” Audrey insisted. “You should see Mia. She had these claws stuck in her side.”
“What claws?” Babcia Sophia asked. “Not hellhound?”
“No. Nephilim. Murphy and Nicholai pulled them out.”
“Which Nephilim?” she pressed.
“I heard Altair call him Daskalov,” Audrey said.
“I’ve got the claws in the back,” Ted said, pulling up the back door of the truck. He hopped in and came back with a sealed box. “Mia gave one to me and one to Cid. Come to think of it, she did mention that they could be poisonous.”
“How did your wife look?” Babcia Sophia asked.
“Tired and unfocused. I thought she was just still mad at me. She wouldn’t look me in the eyes.”
He handed the old woman the box. She opened the lid and sniffed. “Black locust.”
“How bad is it?”
“She needs to have her stomach pumped,” Babcia Sophia recommended.
Ted’s phone rang. He saw it was Tom Braverman and feared the worst. “Hello?”
“Dude, your wife just puked all over my car...”
“She needs her stomach pumped…” Ted interrupted.
Tom continued, “and then all over the pavement, projectile vomit everywhere. Ted, there’s nothing left to pump out. When she finished, she had dry heaves for a while, and then told me she was hungry.”
Ted related the information to Babcia.
She took the phone. “This is Babcia Sophia. How is she now?”
“She left with Murphy, but aside from smelling like puke, she seemed fine.”
“She must have some tough constitution,” Babcia Sophia said and handed the phone back to Ted.
“Is my mom going to be alright?” Brian asked.
Babcia looked down at the child they forgot was there and said, “Yes, she will have a bad stomach for a week, but I’ll make something to ease her symptoms.”
“Can I watch?” Brian asked. “I’m going to be a wizard when I grow up.”
“Are you? Why not a dentist? They make better money. Wizards don’t make crap.”
“Come on, Brian, let’s get you in a bath,” Lazar said. “Then I want to hear about your adventures.”
This seemed to placate the overtired child.
Ted looked on and said, “I know you don’t want him here, Babcia Sophia, but he is needed desperately.”
“I can see that now. He can’t have children because of the bomb. Maybe he gets what he needs from watching your boys.”
Ted understood. “Do you know anything about how to cage a gargoyle?”
Babcia thought a moment. “They don’t like deep water because they sink. They can manipulate stone…”
“What about rubber?”
Babcia hunched her shoulders. “What do you have in mind?”
Ted smiled. “I’ve got a crazy idea,” he said and put his hand on her shoulders as he walked to the barn and threw open the large doors. Inside were four old tractor tires Cid had dug out of his lot when he excavated for this cellar last year.
Cid followed them inside and approved of the idea. He loved how Babcia Sophia pulled an apron off the wall by the workbench and tied it around her waist. “What are we waiting for? We could have a gargoyle at any minute.”
Chapter Thirty-four
The tall Other ran for cover when the birdmen landed. He needed to get to someplace safe to communicate and call in the Other army. This was an extreme case, and the contract covered all expenses. He found himself in a more affluent area of the graveyard. Fog swirled amongst the tall headstones. Many were adorned with statues. There were cupids for the lost young ones. There were also Greek statuary and lots of angels.
One particular angel-topped gravestone caught his eye. You didn’t normally see a female depicted as an angel. Someone must have spent a lot of money. The wings alone on this statue would have broken most banks. He applauded the sculptor. When he finished with this contract, he was going to come back and take this for himself. He ran his hand along the outstretched arm.
The stone felt funny. He looked closer, and that’s when he felt a cold blade at the back of his neck.
“I’d like to see that contract now,” Orion asked.
He turned. There, on a headstone, stood a diminutive man with wings.
The tall Other laughed. “You’re far outclassed, tiny.”
The statue behind him grabbed him and flung him to the ground. A very long sword pinned him down through his neck skin, just shy
