[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

I d hit him. The look in his eyes was just as accusing.  And youkissed me.
 Sorry. I resisted the urge to wipe off my lips.  I was dreaming.
 Must have been a hell of a dream. He slid his hands into his jeans pockets
and rocked back on his heels while looking at anything but me.  There was
something on the news I thought you should see.
In the other room, Max had CNN on the television. The picture-in-picture
function displayed MSNBC. I dropped onto the couch.  No porn? This must be
important.
 Shh, it s on again. He gestured to the screen.  It s been coming on after
the  top of the hour shit.
The anchorwoman, who d previously reported a story about a toilet-trained
horse, put on a more somber expression.  Police inGrand Rapids,Michigan , are
searching for a suspect in a brutal slaying that took place in front of
several eyewitnesses Monday night.
 That was last night  The words stuck in my throat.I grabbed one of the
throw pillows and hugged it tight to my chest.
The anchorwoman continued.  The victim, whose name has not been released, was
jogging down a public bike path when an unidentified man tackled her to the
ground and cut her throat.
A teenager appeared on the screen, her face blotchy and red from crying.  It
happened so fast, no one could do anything. His face was all messed up, like
it got burned up or something. It was like he just ripped her whole neck out.
 We re following up with witnesses and pairing them with police sketch
artists, and we re hoping to get an arrest as soon as possible. I recognized
the middle-aged police officer on the screen as the one who d given me a
speeding ticket earlier that year. He looked a lot more forgiving of the
psycho killer than he had of my measly eighty in a fifty-five.
Back in the studio, the anchorwoman fixed the camera with a somber gaze.
 Police artists have compiled this drawing& .
Though it was hastily sketched in pencil and the jagged snout of his feeding
face had somehow translated to a larger nose and whorled burn scars, there was
no denying the man in the picture was meant to be Nathan. The reporter s voice
continued.  Police say the suspect is Caucasian, in hismidthirties , with
facial scars and several tattoos. He should be considered dangerous.
 Tattoos. I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index
finger. The sigils.Of course.
 Hopefully, the Movement will have more information on this when we land,
Max said softly.
 They re going to kill him, aren t they? I couldn t remember ever feeling so
tired. This was where Max was supposed to say something to comfort me. He
remained silent.
I covered my face with my hands.  I hope they do kill him.Because if they
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
don t, he ll never forgive himself.
4
A Rabbit Hole
If the dead priest hadn t owned atelevision, Cyrus might never have known
what was happening.
Not that he felt he owed the Father any gratitude. Cyrus hated television.
Since its horrible birth, the blasted thing was all humans could talk about.
In this wretched captivity, though, Cyrus needed something to occupy his mind,
and he wasn t about to take up Bible study.
The Mouse still slept. After she d finished crying and he d rested long
enough to manage sitting upright again, he d demanded she bring him a first
aid kid to bandage her bruised and bloody neck. He d let her sleep in the bed.
He had no use for it. The care and, God help him, nurturing, he d displayed
had unsettled him. There d been no chance of sleeping after that.
For the first few hours, he d busied himself ripping pages from the Bible on
the shelf to make paper cranes. He d worked through the first half of Genesis
when he grew bored and flipped on the television. It helped him cover the
sounds from upstairs. Though any sensible vampire would have been sleeping by
now, the Fangs seemed content to blast pounding, repetitive noise that barely
qualified as music.
There were three channels, and only one showed anything of interest. The
local news anchorwoman wore too much rouge and her hair looked like one
perfectly molded plastic piece. Exactly the kind of woman Cyrus liked to
charm, then torture to death. He leaned forward in his chair.
 Authorities inLoudenCounty are calling off their search for three people who
were reported missing after a church fire inHudson . The picture cut to three
photos. The dead priest and nun, and a pretty girl with a bright smile wearing
a cotton sundress.
The Mouse.
The anchorwoman s nasal voice continued.  Police say Father Bartholomew
Straub, Sister Helen Jacobs and Stacey Pickles were working at Saint Anne
Catholic Church on Friday when the fire broke out, but the three have not been
seen since. Footprints leading away from the building suggest they may have
attempted to walk to safety, but with desert temperatures reaching record
highs over the weekend, they are presumed dead.
Cyrus eyed the girl on the bed, shaking his head. Pickles?
More disturbing than the Mouse s ridiculous name though barely was the matter
of the fire. Why would the authorities believe the building had burned?And if
the weekend had passed&
 Get up. He stood, glad of the little strength sleep had returned to him,
and shook her.  What day is it?
She stared at him in bleary confusion. Tuesday or Wednesday. I lost track.
You re standing.
Tuesday or Wednesday.Which meant he d been raised on Monday.But they d been [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]