Marlowe let the toy drop to the floor, licking the side of Remy's face affectionately.
Remy stopped inspecting the dog and looked into Marlowe's dark brown eyes. 'What do you mean, nice?'
Remy reached down to pick up the monkey.
'This isn't yours?' he asked the dog.
Images filled Remy's head as things became more clear, like jagged rocks suddenly visible through wafting holes in thick, ocean fog.
Terribly clear.
He remembered the contents of the transport containers on the oil rig, furnishings for a home, blankets and toys.
Stuffed animals peering out at him from their clear plastic packaging.
ELEVEN
Remy called Francis on the way to Lynn. The former Guardian angel turned assassin wasn't home, so he left a message.
'Hey, it's me. Heading to Lynn on the North Shore to check out a piece of property that the old man purchased a few weeks ago,' he told his friend, debating if he should explain further or wait until things had crystallized a little bit more.
'Give me a call when you get this. There are some things I need to run by you before you accept the Grigori's offer. Later.' Remy ended the call and slipped the phone into the pocket of his leather jacket.
He'd reached the rotary in Revere, and veered right onto the Lynn Marsh Road. It was a straight shot from there, across the long stretch of causeway that connected Revere to Lynn.
His thoughts were wandering again to the pale-skinned creature sprouting wings in his living room. He remembered its eyes, moist, dark, and shiny, like the cold ocean water of the marshlands he was passing by now.
But there had been something else in the blackness of its stare, ferocity, fear…
Intelligence.
He passed over the Foxhill Bridge into the city of Lynn.
The sprawling General Electric jet engine plant was to his right, the city's major employer since it lost the shoe industry to foreign shores back in the 1920s.
Remy fished the piece of paper he'd written the address on from his pocket and gave it another glance. According to Map-Quest, he wasn't too far away.
He continued on down Western Avenue, thinking of the silly little rhyme that just about everybody on the North Shore seemed to know.
It wasn't long before he found River Street. It wasn't one of the city's better neighborhoods. Most of the buildings were boarded up and empty, many blackened and charred as if by fire.
He parked his car beneath the dim light thrown by the single working streetlight, and stepped out onto the street. He could still catch the musty smell of smoke in the air.
Most of the buildings were missing numbers, and it took a little while to figure out where he needed to be looking and on what side, but as he walked the lonely stretch of River Street, it soon became obvious where he was heading.
He could see it ahead of him, the tall spire reaching up into the dingy night sky, the abandoned remains of Saint Mathias Church. She appeared to have been let go quite some time ago, the cruel years having their way with her. Remy always felt a tinge of sadness when he saw buildings like this, places of worship no longer carrying the prayers of the devoted faithful up to the heavens. It was a sign of the times, he told himself, but it didn't make it any less sad to see.
Saint Mathias was more than just a church; it was a sort of compound. An alley separated the church from a run-down rectory and an old brick elementary school.
It seemed that Noah had bought it all.
At the back of the church, a frame from one of the elaborate stained-glass windows depicting the Stations of the Cross had fallen away, allowing Remy to look inside.
The building was empty. Anything that would have made it recognizable as a place of worship had pretty much been removed; the only things serving as a slight reminder were wooden pews, stacked in a far, dark corner, as if waiting to be used as kindling.
He saw nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to pique his curiosity, so he turned his attention to the rectory, directly across from the church. Remy climbed the three chipped and broken concrete steps to the side door. It appeared that new locks had been recently installed.
Remy knew how to do the whole lock-picking thing, but seldom remembered to bring his tools. Looking around-as if there'd be anyone around here to raise an alarm-he placed his hand against the door. He utilized a little bit of his divine strength to force it open, and went inside.
He pulled a small flashlight from his jacket pocket and turned it on, the thin beam of light cutting through the murk. He was in a small hallway that led to a kitchen.
The room appeared clean-too clean. It had been used recently, not like the rest of what was around him. Covered in thick dust, the place looked to have been abandoned more than a few years ago.
Across the kitchen was a swinging door, and he went through into a corridor. There was a flight of stairs leading up to the next level on his right, and a short hallway that led to the rectory's main office. He checked out the office next. All he found was an old grime-covered desk and a broken wooden chair.
Remy returned to the stairs and climbed to the next floor. He stood on the landing, shining his light across closed doors to rooms that would have once housed the priests of the Saint Mathias parish. There was a strong, musty smell of dampness on the second floor-and something else.
As Remy approached the first door, he tried to convince himself that in a building this old, and in such disrepair, the offending smell could have come from a number of sources: a dead mouse or rat, maybe even a pigeon.
He turned the old-fashioned metal knob. The first door swung open. A rusty box spring lay on the floor in the room's center. There was a clean spot on the yellowed wallpaper where a crucifix had once hung.
At the next door, the smell was stronger, and Remy prepared himself. He opened the door and found a rat, its withered carcass caught in a trap. He let the beam of light linger on the desiccated rodent corpse, surprised at the amount of stink that still emanated from the remains.
The third room proved to be the charm. This knob was warm to the touch, but he barely noticed as he swung the creaking door wide, moving the beam of his light around the nearly empty room.
Nearly empty. At first he thought it was a sleeping bag, the encampment of some vagrant who found shelter from the harsh New England cold. But then he realized otherwise.
Remy entered the room, his light trained upon the unmoving shape on the bedroom floor. It took him a moment to process what it was that he was looking at. It was a body, wrapped up in strips of heavy cloth like a mummy. Only the face was left exposed.
A face that Remy knew.
He held the light on Noah's face. Somebody had cleaned him up, washing the dried blood from his battered face and white beard.
Preparing him for burial.
Around the old man's body, somebody had dropped slides, as if in some sort of tribute, pictures of all the animal species the old man had saved escorting him on his way to the afterlife.
The sudden sound of a floorboard creaking behind him caused him to spin around, his flashlight beam searching out the source. But he found only an empty doorway, the door slowly closing on its own.
The ringing of his cell nearly gave him a heart attack.
He lowered his flashlight and fished the phone from his pocket. It was Francis.
That was when the creatures chose to make their move. There were three of them. Their pale flesh glowed translucently in the ' darkness of the room as they emerged from the shadows. They were lightning quick, swatting his cell from his hand. Remy could hear the faint voice of Francis, calling out his name as the phone slid across the floor.
Remy opened his mouth to try and communicate, to experiment with the theory that perhaps these creatures-these Chimerian, which he was pretty convinced they were-were not as threatening as Sariel had painted them to be.
But he didn't get the chance. Their strikes against him were savage, relentless, driving him to the floor beside the wrapped corpse of Noah. Just as he was about to call on the destructive forces that resided within him, he felt a taloned hand grip his hair. Savagely, the creature slammed his head back against the hardwood floor.
And as the flood of darkness rushed in to drag Remy down, he heard a voice cry out.
'No, do not harm this one,' it said. 'He isn't one of them.'
A mysterious voice that saved his life.
