Raincheck (5 page)

“On the roof of the Freemont. You’ve been mugged.”

David moved convulsively, reaching out beside him with a hand. “My papers!”

“Don’t worry. They’re all here.” Rodney watched as David relaxed against the rough surface of the rooftop. “Look, you really need to get checked out by a doctor.”

“I remember flying through the city. Did I really fly?” David raised an eyebrow at Rodney, who couldn’t help but grin.

“I flew; you wallowed in my arms. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Fine, fine.” Eyes, closed, David flicked the fingers of the hand resting on his chest up and down, as though indicating his intention to get up any second now.

Rodney cocked his head as he looked down at David. “I don’t know about that. You humans seem awfully fragile to me.”

David opened his eyes again. “Fragile? What makes you say that?”

“Well, your arms come off too easily, for one,” Rodney said thoughtfully.

David’s eyebrows lifted in a startled expression, and he began to laugh, only to stop and clutch at his head. “Oh, ow. That hurts.”

“See? Fragile.” Rodney was prepared to smugly rest his case when he realized that David had passed out again.

An emotion that he’d never felt before nearly paralyzed him before he realized it was fear. David shouldn’t have passed out again like that, not if he was really okay. He needed to get David help, and fast. He opened his hands and stared down at the items within.

He was
just using the key to unlock David’s apartment door when he heard the small
snick
of sound behind him. Rodney had been lucky so far; he knew that. He’d traversed the distance from the roof down the level of David’s apartment, the sound of his clawed feet echoing on the metal stairs as he clattered his way down the stairwell. He’d crept down the hallway to David’s door after a hasty glance in both directions from the safety of the stairwell door. Another few feet and he would have been safely inside, where he could open the skylight and fly back to the roof for David. It had been a daring plan, but a reasonable one, given the circumstances.

The little old lady standing behind him couldn’t have been more than five feet tall. Her dark, curly wig was slightly askew on a head that was otherwise covered with gray peach fuzz. She wore heavy bifocal lenses and a burgundy pantsuit that had been fashionable in the 1970s. In her unsteady hands, she wielded a long-barreled revolver. A Colt .22, if Rodney was not mistaken. As he stared, the old woman used both thumbs to pull back the hammer, the movement making her hands shake even more.

“Stop right there, buster,” she snarled. “I’ll have you know I’m a crack shot. What do you think you’re doing?”

Rodney held up the keys. “Um, I have permission to be here?”

“Oh, yeah, right. Try pulling the other one.” She shifted her weight to wave an ankle in his direction, her foot encased in a brand-new orthopedic shoe. “What are you, a demon?”

Rodney was getting tired of answering this question. “No,” he said through gritted teeth. “A gargoyle. Look.” He interrupted her before she could speak again. “I’m a friend of David’s, okay? He got mugged tonight, and I’m just helping him get back to his apartment.”

“He’s right.” David’s voice caught both of them off guard, and the old woman whipped her gun in David’s direction. He was leaning against the wall, one hand on the back of his neck, his suit rumpled and smudged with oil. He had the canister slung over one shoulder by its strap. His eyes opened wide when the gun turned toward him, and Rodney almost threw himself between David and the weapon, but he was afraid any sudden movement would cause the old woman to fire. David straightened quickly and held up his hands at chest height. “Easy there, Sadie.”

Sadie pursed her lips and released the hammer, shoving the Colt unceremoniously into the giant purse on her shoulder. “You should tell your friend to put on some clothes, David. He shouldn’t be walking the halls with that great big schlong hanging out like that.” Sadie waved a hand in irritation toward Rodney.

David turned bright red; even his ear tips were red, Rodney noted. “I’m sure it won’t happen again, right, Rodney?”

“Right.” Rodney turned his back on the surreal conversation behind him to unlock the door. He pushed it open and stepped aside with a flourish. “After you.” He handed the keys back to David.

David gave him an unfathomable look as he shouldered past Rodney into his apartment, his color still high.

“Madam,” Rodney said, giving Sadie a little bow. He followed David into the apartment with the utmost dignity, his tail draped over one arm as he shut the door behind him.

David
came to rest at the kitchen table, peeling the strap off his shoulder and dropping the canister to the floor so he could let the table hold him up. He lifted his head to watch as Rodney entered the small, radiant glow cast by the light over the stove. Toenails ticked on the smooth surface of the hardwood flooring, and if toenails could sound tentative, then Rodney’s certainly did.

The claws were black and caught the gleam of the ambient lighting as though they’d been polished. Rodney walked upright on his toes like a dog, the heel of his foot elongated and rising up from his foot like a horse’s hock. His skin was moss green in color and had a sheen to it that made David think it would feel like fine leather. Rodney’s legs were muscular and strong; David’s memory flashed back to the sight of Rodney crouching beside him on the rooftop, sitting on his haunches effortlessly. Well, he probably had a lot of practice doing that. An inappropriate giggle threatened to make its way out of David’s throat, and he had to beat back the temptation to burst out laughing. He sobered quickly when he realized the enormous
power
of the being standing in front of him.

David followed the line created by Rodney’s legs up to the rest of his body. “Six-pack abs” was a phrase that David had heard bandied about the gym and among his friends, but he’d never really appreciated what that had meant before. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on Rodney, and the muscles of his belly corded and bunched so that each isolated grouping was clearly apparent. His waist and hips were the narrowest part of his body; his chest widened above his belly to include broad shoulders, each muscle clearly visualized there as well. His dark green nipples fascinated David; he swallowed hard before continuing his visual assessment. Rodney had tucked his wings in close to his body in order to enter the apartment, but David could see the hinge-like joints and the great expanse of skin across them.

And then there was the matter of what Sadie referred to as his
schlong
. David had never seen such detail on a stone gargoyle, but there was no mistaking that Rodney was a living, breathing being with functional anatomy—not with a cock like that. Like everything else about Rodney, it was huge. It also was erect, with a bullet-shaped hood of foreskin that made it look very much like an arrowhead. David thought briefly about what it would be like to be nailed by something like that, and he felt a warm flush steal over his face again. There was something very pleasing to the eye in the symmetry of Rodney’s cock and the balance of his balls, and David suddenly realized he was staring.

He jerked his gaze upward to Rodney’s face. The uncertainty there in Rodney’s expression made David catch his breath. Rodney was hunched a little, as though afraid of breaking something if he moved. His ears, which were decidedly Yoda-like, no matter what he said, drooped at the tips. Rodney’s gaze, green and intense, flicked around to the sides, taking in the apartment before coming back to rest on David’s face. He took the end of his tail, and despite the fact that he already had something in his hands, he began to fiddle nervously with the tip. This time, David did laugh.

Rodney frowned. “What’s so funny?” He looked really irritated now, and David realized that it probably would be smart not to piss off the giant gargoyle. The sarcastic gargoyle who read books and had probably just saved his life. He took the chance anyway.

“You,” he said with a grin, indicating the tail. “You with that gesture. You reminded me of the Cowardly Lion. And there’s nothing cowardly about you.”

Rodney released his tail abruptly, but his expression lightened briefly before it became puzzled again. “Don’t you find this whole situation just the slightest bit odd? Most people who catch a glimpse of me end up weeping and making all kinds of crazy promises to the deity of their choice. You’re the first person who’s ever even
heard
me before. Now, all the sudden, I’m having casual conversations with people left and right, and no one is freaking out. Well, except for your mugger, that is. I sort of wanted him to freak out, though.”

“Sadie doesn’t scare easily,” David drawled, enjoying the absurdity of the whole evening immensely and picturing what his mugger must have looked like. He wondered if the sorry bastard had wet his pants. “Besides, you know how the city is. Anything goes.” He decided to leave out the part about how Sadie was nearly as blind as a bat.

“What about you?” Rodney’s ears wilted further, and his wings seemed to fold in protectively around his shoulders.

“Well, I got hit in the head,” David said slowly. “So everything was a little muzzy at first. By the time I realized I wasn’t really seeing things, I already knew it was you. And I
know
you. You’re the guy from the roof. We’ve talked about books, for crying out loud. How can I be afraid of you?”

Rodney rocked back on his toes as though staggered by David’s words. A shy, crooked smile teased at his lips before it faded. “I finished the Sherlock Holmes collection, by the way. It was fantastic. I’ll leave it on the roof for you. I should be going now. You need to get to the hospital.”

David loathed the thought of Rodney leaving. He had a funny feeling it would be the last time he saw Rodney if he did. “I’m fine. I don’t need a doctor.”

“Yes, you do,” Rodney snapped, folding his arms across his chest. His wings lifted out from his body slightly, and he looked immense in the small apartment. “I’m not an idiot, you know. I read the papers. I know how deceptive head trauma can be in you humans. You need to get completely checked out. You’re getting a CAT scan. I’ve already called someone to come get you.”

He held out his hand, opening the palm to reveal David’s cell phone. David stepped forward and took it automatically before it registered with him that Rodney had used his phone. “You
what
? Who’d you call?”

“I called someone named ‘Sean’. It was the first name on the ‘emergency contact’ list.” Rodney spoke almost primly, like a lecturing professor, and David wanted to laugh again.

It could have been worse. “He’s my brother. What on earth did you tell him?”

Rodney shrugged, an oddly human gesture for one so alien. “The truth, basically. That you’d been mugged and were back at your apartment but refusing to go to the hospital. He’s on his way now.”

“Shit,” David muttered. “No, no, you did the right thing.” He waved off Rodney’s sudden look of concern. “I just really don’t want to deal with my family at the moment.”

“You’re lucky to have family,” Rodney said. “I have to make up my own.”

Before David could respond to that intriguing statement, the buzzer rang loud and long as someone leaned on it.

“Shit!” David looked around for a hiding place and failed to find one. “Quick, hide in the bedroom or something!”

Rodney started suddenly, turning to look back at the door in agitation, and one of his wings brushed the countertop, sending a glass crashing into the sink.