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"FUCKING Oakland"

Through half-closed eyes, Celluci watched Sullivan walk toward the bed This is it Now or never He&039;d lined up a few more cliches that see rabbed his shoulder and shook him, hard He let his head whip back and forth on the pillow, hoping it looked like he didn&039;t have strength enough to fight thewent, it wasn&039;t h it were connected to his body by a not very thick elastic band

"I&039;ive me any shit &039;cause I&039; runs behind and I had fifty fucking bucks ridin&039; on the garound between the muscles of his left forearm and into the bone

"Felt that, did you? Good"

The leather strap fell away He flung his arers around Sulli?van&039;s throat

A vicious backhand snapped his head back His ht between knuckles and teeth Well, you wanted hi to sithout choking All part of the pi A sudden, agonizing pain in his left wrist cut off the rest of the thought and brought involuntary tears

"Weren&039;t you listening when I said I wasn&039;t in the mood for this kind of crap?"

The pain painted red starbursts on the inside of Cel-luci&039;s eyes He didn&039;t think the wrist was broken, but at the ave him very little actual comfort Only the left I won&039;t need the left Christ, couldn&039;t I have come up with a plan that hurt a little less? If it had only meant the loss of a kidney, he&039;d have been te loss of life however-his life-had to be worth a bit of discomfort

As the last restraint fell away, he tried to lunge off the bed This time, he rocked back with the blow so that Sullivan&039;s hand ihtly less force than previously Slightly What was that plan again Let him beat you senseless, then escape in the confusion? With any luck, the pounding in his te off the inside of his skull Oh, good plan

The roo, "I should just leave you there to piss yourself"

Breathing heavily, the dizziness as much from the earlier blood loss as froed to twist his split lip into a close approximation of a sneer "You&039;d haveto clean it up, but maybe you&039;d like that"

Sullivan blinked mild eyes and smiled The smile held all the petty cruelty the eyes did not "Yeah? Well, I&039;onna enjoy this"

The first punch drove all the air out of Celluci&039;s lungs He&039;d have fallen had Sullivan not rip on his shirt Seams cut into his armpits as the fabric stretched to its liet his feet back under him but had no success at either

He didn&039;t feel the second punch connect, only the result One , the next, he was flat on his face on the floor Which here he wanted to be Unfortunately, he&039;d intended to be just a bit ?"

The words see ay

"That you&039;re a cop"

Oh, shit

The sudden flurry of kicks that followed pounded out a rhythh They hurt, but no?where near as much as they would&039;ve had Sullivan not been in sneakers or had he been able to reach ets Or, for that erating the effect, Celluci tried to rise and fell, only partially faking as he&039;d forgotten that his left wrist was essentially unus?able Whiood it felt to let some of it out-he squirmed frantically forward on his belly until his shoulder slah to rock the heavy furniture

"Bet that hurt" Sullivan was breathing as heavily, but not froht arers over the floor Just when he thought he&039;d made an unsurvivable th to spare for a suys when the doctor was done, but since you&039;re not gonna survive the operation, I&039;rabbed the waistband of Celluci&039;s jeans, jerking the heavy cotton up into the air "Now, get back on your fucking feet"

Celluci went lith He kept his right ar as possible The e of the dresser, he spent all his hoarded strength on one bloinging up and around and slath of stainless steel pipe fros

Thelike a fish out of water, Sullivan sank slowly to his knees, both hands clutching his crotch

Hauling hie of the bed, Celluci half turned, intending to sainst the back of Sullivan&039;s head To his astonish?ot a hand up and intercepted the blow The pipe spun off across the roo equal, the two men were about evenly matched but, as it was-as they were-Celluci didn&039;t stand a chance without a weapon and he knew it

Injured arered out of the bedrooht with the outside door, he could hear Sullivan getting to his feet, yelling a ed to lift the latch, and he staggered out into the night

"Son of a bitch! He&039;s not there"

Screened frohbors by double rows of cypress, Henry turned off his head?lights and sped down the winding drive toward the low rectangle of Swanson&039;s house nestled within its cocoon of security lights "He could be in bed We won&039;t know until we&039;re out of the car"

"He&039;s not there," Vicki repeated, her voice rising in frustration She didn&039;t knohy she was so certain, but the blank stare of the dark s said ehts off; not home The instant Henry stopped the car, she leaped out onto the concrete, senses extended "I told you we should have gone to Dr Mui," she snarled after a reed that the doctor is probably with " Half out of the car, Henry paused, head lifted to catch the breeze "Vicki! Do you " He didn&039;t bother finishing because she was already racing toward the back of the house

The way Celluci saw it, he had two choices; he could try to outrun Sullivan on unfa to reach a road and witnesses if not safety, or he could dive into the seh and hope to lose hi like a sailor with every step, he realized he had no hope in hell of outrunning anyone, not even a ainst the protests of his abused body, he pushed into the darkness

The trees blocked the little h the cloud cover-he couldn&039;t see as far as his feet, and higher obstacles like trees and bushes were patterns of shadows on shadow Big mistake I&039; in the shrubbery behind hi him forward Since he had to believe Sullivan could see no more than he could, he had to hope that the sound of his escape was drowned out by the sound of pursuit It was prettythat poked sharp edges through his sock and into his ankle, caught hi across a forty-five-degree slope Up or down? Since he had no idea of where he was and no idea of where he was going, down seeravity work for h to raise a welt Thorns he couldn&039;t see snagged his jeans and dragged bleeding scratches across bare aran to pick up speed

He flung out his left arm to block a sudden shadow and nearly cried out when his wrist slaht back the dizziness Shadohirled He ht tilted sideways

Rocks and trees slah to hurt, never hard enough to stop hih some kind of bush-it had no thorns, that was all he either knew or cared about- picked up speed across an open clearing, and sla wall on the far side

The world went away for a while

"You better not have da, asshole!"

and came back in a rush

Celluci drew in a deep breath-moderately relieved to find it didn&039;t hurt as h the cloud cover, tried to focus on thebeside him In spite of the poor visibility, Sullivan&039;s bovine features looked scared "Doctor won&039;t be pleasedif I&039;ot kidneys she could use"

"Shut up Just shut the fuck up"

The open-handed blow rocked Celluci&039;s head back, but everything hurt so ht You&039;re goin&039; back to the fucking cottage and I&039;onna needto have tocarryyou if I have to"

"Better not da, he threw hi round and a little luck

Beefy fingers grabbed the front of his shirt and heaved his torso up off the ground He saw the fist raised, a club-shaped shadow against the sky, then Sullivan disappeared, and he dropped flat on his back again

"Are you all right?"

"Fitzroy?" Sing a ood ar him as he swayed

Vicki had Sullivan on his knees in thethe scalp under the short hair, dragging his head back so far the corded muscles of his throat cast lines of shadow Her eyes were pale points of light in a face of terrible, inhunize

"Vicki?" When she turned her burning gaze on hiht arm, he was suddenly very, very cold "Vicki, no Don&039;t kill hied to match her face; seductive, irresistible, deadly

There was no need, not even for e, his bloodunder his skin; he only hoped she could under?stand "Because I&039;htened, the quiet plea reaching her in a way anger or fear would not have been able She re?leased her captive, ignoring hiround, and took a step toward Celluci "Let hi more human with every word "Are you out of your mind? He is mine!"

"Why?"

"Why? For what he did to you"

"Wouldn&039;t thatbeauty

"Vicki, please Don&039;t do this"

"This is where I draw my line in the sand "

The scent of terror drew her back around to face her prey Without her hand to hold hi hier sang the song of the Hunt, of the blood

It was all she could hear

She tensed to spring, and it was over

Henry let Sullivan fall to the ground, head lolling on a broken neck Calh he hadn&039;t just killed a

When he nodded, she turned to face Celluci, the Hunger fading now that the terror had stopped and the blood was cooling She should have felt rage at the theft of her prey by another, but all she felt was grateful She&039;d stood on the edge of a precipice and had just barely escaped plunging over Her fingers curled into fists to stop their sudden tre

"Is he dead?"

"Yes"

Celluci looked from Henry to Vicki and realized he&039;d received exactly what he&039;d asked for Vicki had not done it, Henry had But he&039;d seen Henry kill be?fore in a barn outside London, Ontario He&039;d known for a long tihtwalker Immortal death Henry Not Vicki He closed his eyes The lids had barely fallen when a familiar arm went around his shoulders and a faainst his ear

"Are you all right?"

He shrugged, as well as he was able all things con?sidered "I&039;ve been better"

"Do you need a doctor?"

Froet you out of here Henry&039;s car is at the front of the house" She hesitated, ready to slide the other ars "May I?"

"Just don&039;t ainst his face, then she carefully lifted him into her arms He kept his eyes closed Sohed as he turned onto Nisga&039;s Drive, thankful to be almost home The black-tie fund-raiser for the Transplant Society had been a depressing af?fair,with the recent death of Lisa Evans and how much both she and her open checkbook would be nificant detail of the car pulling out onto the road, realizing only at the last moment that it pulled out of his driveway There seeood look at the driver as it sped past ?&039;Dangerous," he told hih he didn&039;t knohy, and he wondered if perhaps his house had been robbed while he ay Shaking his head as he turned in between the cypress, he told himself not to be ridiculous Thieves seldohborhood where Bentlys were the car of choice, it wasn&039;t that farfetched a theory

The house see it in the brilliant quartz halogen glare of the security lights He didn&039;t want any surprises He didn&039;t like surprises After a careful inspection, he left the car where it was and walked over to the front door

The security system hadn&039;t been taht have used another entrance There were four-No, five, he a the trench doors Rebecca had insisted on having in the dining roohts switched off and on autohts had been Rebecca&039;s idea as well and only herthe followed around by ghosts

Upstairs, Rebecca&039;s jewel case lay where she&039;d left it on that last day Swanson knew the order of the contents the way he knew the order of his desk, and they hadn&039;t been touched

Not thieves, then

Who?

He turned to face thethat looked out over the lawns, the gardens, and, ulties tucked a discreet distance down the wooded slope Although their locations had been chosen so that they were as private as possible, there seeh the trees surrounding the farther building

Dr Mui had a donor in one of the cottages

Perhaps the three in the car were colleagues of hers

His fingers closed around the curtain edge, crushing the fabric He hadn&039;t wanted the donor here Dr Mui had no business turning Rebecca&039;s hoh of hospitals and clinics during that last horrible year before she died Whether it had been a good business decision or not, he should never have agreed to the use of the cottage It was one thing to allow the buyer to conva?lesce in peace and quiet for a few days and quite another thing to open his home to the sort of people who provided thedown there to find out exactly what is going on If the doctor thinks it a good idea I maintain my distance from the donors, then she shouldn&039;t have left one on ht of his reflection in the mirror and wondered if e his clothes before he went to the cottage Twitching a jacket sleeve down over a heavy gold cufflink, he decided not to bother "If anyone complains," he told his reflection, "I&039;ll ex?plain that I&039;ation"

Had Rebecca still been alive, she&039;d have laughed andher laugh But Rebecca was dead His shoulders slu the cameo he&039;d had made for her in Florence, he left the bedroom

At the back door, it suddenly occurred to him that the car could be connected with Patricia Chou The reporter had accosted hi to kno a roooing to help anyone but the caterers So far, she&039;d been careful to confront him only on public property, but he had no doubt she&039;d consider a trespassing charge a s a distinct irritant, and so about her

He checked the perihts for a camera crew and only when he was certain he was unobserved did he step out the door

As he drew closer to the lit cottage, he began to feel more and more uneasy When he rounded a cor?ner and saw the open door, he knew soht in the place is on," heover the threshold "Don&039;t these people real?ize hydro costs e was empty Both the donor and the orderly that Dr Mui had proone Swanson frowned down at the re?straints on the bed and tried to work out what had happened Perhaps the people in the BMW were the donor&039;s colleagues, not Dr Mui&039;s Perhaps this donor hadn&039;t co turks who&039;d crashed and burned in the recent reces?sion and now needed money from any source to main?tain his lifestyle

It explained why Dr Mui had felt he couldn&039;t be kept at the clinic

Perhaps at the last ed his mind and his friends had come for him

But where was the orderly?

And more i into Vancouver on the 2:17 frory line, Swanson started back to the house after having carefully turned off all the lights and closed and locked the door He&039;d missed the e, but a broken branch nearly tripped hiht it to his attention

Although wisps of cloud blew continually over the one crashing through his expensive under?brush There&039;d been a recurring proble household pets, but Swanson had always assu cats were less obtrusive travelers In his experience, only people caused that kind of destruction to private property

Had the orderly not been one back to the house to call the police As it was, he stepped off the path

It wasn&039;t a difficult trail to follow, even in the dark Se ones bent or bro?ken Then thehis way carefully down the slope and into the clearing above the retaining wall, Swanson swore softly to hirass and he went down on one knee He put his hand on what he thought was a fallen log and felt cloth

The moon came out

"Oh, my God Oh, my God Oh, my God"

"So, nohat do we do?"

Celluci sucked air through his teeth as he lowered himself down onto the bed He&039;d walked up from the car to the elevator and the elevator to the condo under his oer Mostly "Noe figure out a way to bring in the police without involving the two of you"