A Hellhound in Manhattan: Part 1

Chapter 11

As per her directions, Brooklyn dropped Loona off outside the abandoned church. He would have felt a lot better if she had others to stay with, but he understood her trust issues given what she had been through. For now he had to trust her; she made it this far on her own, after all.

He examined the building from its rotted doors to its steeple. At least she was in a place she could call sanctuary.

"You sure you'll be okay?" he asked once again.

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

She looked up at him. There was still that concerned look in his eye again. Someone else actually worried for her.

Her chest ached. She didn't know how to respond to that.

She hugged him, nearly knocking him back, and he returned the gesture in kind. He draped his wings around her as well, unable to imagine how lonely she must have been. To be hurt so bad that she feared others so.

They pulled away, and a tear escaped Loona's eye. She wiped it off with her sleeve, embarrassed that he had to see that.

"I'll come back tomorrow night," Brooklyn offered. "Okay?"

"Yeah, I'd like that..."

She watched as Brooklyn made his way up a nearby building and launched off, gliding into the night.

She rushed back inside the church and threw off her coat. She lifted the loose floorboards and found the blue spell book. She had better get to work. It was her turn to do something nice for him.

***

Goliath waited atop the high tower of Castle Wyvern. The sun was to rise at any moment and Brooklyn had not yet returned.

There was a distinct scratching up the side of the castle and Brooklyn climbed over the ledge.

Goliath frowned. What had been a courtesy before had become protocol since the rise of the Quarrymen. One was to inform the others if they were to return late.

When their eyes met Goliath only spoke with a disappointed gaze, and Brooklyn responded with a side-glance that said that Goliath wouldn't have wanted to hear him out anyway.

Brooklyn walked over to his own perch on the end of the battlement. He remembered how he and his brothers fought for the position of Goliath's second-in-command, and how difficult it was accepting that responsibility in his absence.

He knew he should have told them why he might have been late. He knew he should inform them of his new friend and ally. But at this point he half-expected a lecture from Goliath on personal responsibility.

He glanced over at Broadway and Angela making their perch side-by-side for another dawn. Maybe Brooklyn just wanted something he could have for himself for once.

As the sun rose and they reverted to stone, they hadn't noticed that Owen Burnett had stepped out for an early constitutional, and had keenly observed the coldness between them.

***

In the late afternoon to follow, Victor had called Sevarius over to his penthouse for drinks.

"Thank you very much for inviting me, Victor," Sevarius stated as he stood in the doorway.

"Well, how could I not want to catch up with my old buddy outside of work?" Victor shrugged. He looked down and saw that Sevarius had a briefcase in hand. "Uh, this isn't a work meeting, Anton."

"Oh, I know, but I just couldn't wait until Monday to share this." He stepped inside and Victor closed the door. "I have fantastic news for you..."

"You've captured a gargoyle already?" Victor poured himself a glass of scotch.

"No, but we may have found the source of Manhattan's little hellhound infestation..."

Victor paused.

"Aren't you going to offer me a drink, old friend?"

"Oh, yes." Victor poured one for Sevarius as well. He sat down in his chair and asked, "Are you certain it was the hellhound?"

Sevarius sat in the chair next to his and set his suitcase at his feet.

"If the fur coat fits," Sevarius replied. He reached into his briefcase and retrieved the photos that Kenneth had captured. "You really should have a look at these."

He handed the pictures to Victor, who set his drink down and adjusted his glasses. The achromatic photos featured blurred images of a person with wild hair charging towards the camera, with the silhouette of a gargoyle standing behind them.

"These were taken from Kenneth's body camera just last night," Sevarius explained. "He wasn't able to apprehend a gargoyle because he was intercepted by an awfully peculiar human..."

"That's hardly proof of a hellhound, Anton. You know how crazy and violent these homeless people can get. Like rabid animals, they are." He flipped through the photos and his eyes narrowed on the young woman's face as they became clearer with her proximity.

A chill ran up his spine. He knew those fearsome eyes anywhere. The last photograph managed to capture a brief moment where her human teeth had turned to that of a furious .

Sevarius sipped his scotch and detected his friend's tension. "She's certainly not one of mine. You know her?"

Victor swallowed back a lump in his throat. "Yes... I think she... might, in fact, be mine..."

Sevarius raised his eyebrows. "Why, Victor! I'm impressed! I never thought you to dabble in genetics!"

"It wasn't genetics. It was alchemy. Or, at least, I thought it was..." Victor set the photos down on the coffee table with a sigh. "It was... a long time ago. I was young, foolish..." He paused. "You remember that time I disappeared and dropped out of school, Anton?"

"Yes..." Sevarius confirmed, intrigued to finally be given an explanation.

Victor exhaled sharply. "I wanted to find a way to make cheap chemicals. You saw how obsessed I was with the old masters."

"Ah, yes. As I recall, you would hole yourself up in your apartment for days on end. Doing research, I presume?"

"Yes. My... my findings brought me to this old tome. This fellow said he'd let me borrow it. Now that I think of it I don't think I ever returned it..."

Sevarius clicked his tongue. "And you were always so good at returning your library books."

"Please. Anyway, I set up shop in my family's old summer cottage. We hadn't used that old place in years and no one wanted to buy it; it was the perfect place to work in private." He paused. "I thought I was performing an exchange of metals, but then... it emerged. It was hideous... It tried to kill me...! It was a miracle I had gotten out of there alive..."

Sevarius raised an eyebrow. "And so that's the creature everyone's been so hysterical about."

"Looks like it..." Victor nodded. "I didn't think it survived... Or that it could take human shape for that matter." He looked at the semi-blurred closeup of her. "How did it find me...?"

Sevarius set his drink down on the coffee table. "I wouldn't concern yourself about that, Victor. I have worked in this field for years and, whether we retrieve a gargoyle or a werewolf, I assure you I have the facilities necessary to keep them under control."

"You promise?"

"Absolutely. And trust me, the windfall from what your team could make of this monster menace will be a substantial gain for your company."

Victor smiled. "In that case, it just might just be time to call Lassie home, don't you think...?"