"I've been here once before," Adrian remarked.
I was surprised. Had he been everywhere? Probably, I reminded myself. Adrian had had at least two normal life spans to travel, plus with access to realm vortexes, I supposed I shouldn't be surprised that he'd gotten around. "When?"
He gave me a sardonic smile. "The first time I slipped Demetrius's watch and explored the human world. I couldn't do it near my realm because too many people would recognize me, so I went through a vortex and it spit me out by the basilica. The sunshine, the cars, all the people... I'd never seen anything like it before. It freaked me out, so I started running and didn't stop until I reached this town. It was quiet here, so I stayed for a day, just taking it all in with amazement." Then his smile vanished. "Demetrius had such a fit when I went home that it took me a year to risk exploring this world again."
Brutus snarled as he darted from tree to tree, and that shattered my fascination with Adrian's story. Adrian whirled, looking for danger, and I pulled out a knife while I checked my arm. My slingshot wasn't glowing and no one seemed to be around. When Brutus snarled again, I realized he was doing it in general grumpiness about being out in the sun. He'd wanted to stay in the van, but we didn't know if we'd need a quick aerial getaway, let alone the protection of his lethal wings. Now those snarls, combined with his baleful looks, were his way of letting us know what he thought of that plan.
"Feeling anything yet?" Adrian asked, relaxing when he saw that Brutus was just expressing his displeasure.
"Just my toes getting cold," I replied.
Adrian glanced down, as if just now remembering that I didn't have on any shoes. "Aw, crap. Here, you can wear mine."
I stopped him in the process of kicking his off. "Don't bother. Your feet are twice as big, so I'd only trip."
He began to walk faster, his gaze darting around. "If we're lucky, this won't take long."
As if on cue, my senses began to perk up. A low, dinging vibration felt like it hummed along my subconscious, picking up in intensity as we continued to walk. By the time we'd gone another hundred yards, those dings had turned into inner gongs.
"Something's here," I said, keeping my voice low.
Adrian's hand tightened around the knife he had holstered in his jeans pocket. "Minions or demons?" he asked softly.
"Neither," I said, with a quick look around to make sure that I wasn't speaking too soon. "Something hallowed."
I began to walk away from the river, letting the supernatural sensor inside me guide my steps. Adrian and Brutus followed me, the latter snarling even louder when I took us well outside of the shelter of trees that had hugged the riverbank. Up ahead, I saw a line of warehouses, but in the clearing before that, on the gentle rise of a small hill, there was a crumbling stone structure that looked to be several hundred years old. Next to that, on a flat section of earth, I felt the ground beneath me change from grass and dirt to something harder. And the hardened ground sent my hallowed radar into overdrive, although it didn't physically knock me over or hurt to be near it the way it had when I'd walked into the crypt under the chapel at the campus.
"Here," I said, my voice a little hoarse from the mystical energy pouring into me.
Adrian knelt beside me, pulling at the grass. It didn't take long before he revealed large, flat stones. Judging from their size and placement, these weren't natural formations. They were the base of a structure that was no longer here.
And the hallowed item contained somewhere beneath these stones felt like it was calling out to me.
"Okay, let's get started," Adrian said with obvious relish.
I looked around, realizing that in our haste to get here, we'd forgotten something very important. Namely, any tools that we could dig the staff out with.
"Um," I began, hoping that there was a French version of a Home Depot nearby, but Adrian just started talking to Brutus in Demonish. When he was finished, the gargoyle went over to the slab and pounded his broad, leathery heel onto it.
The impact shook the ground. Brutus beat his wings to increase his momentum, and his foot repeatedly slammed down to the accompanying sounds of stone breaking. He used so much force, I was worried that he'd hurt himself, but his apelike features actually looked like his version of happy. Maybe he was. He now had something to take out his frustration on, and he was making that stone slab pay for his being out in sunlight.
But when Brutus had stomped his way down about three feet, I caught a flash of purple among the pale gray stones. Then shards of the same color flew out, and when one of them hit me, the supernatural vibes coming from it made me realize that it was different from the other stones in more than color.