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"Asshole," he et a paranorhts case in front of the Suprehts for PAs (short for "Paranormal Americans," Kane’s preferred term for what everyone else called "monsters") His case had been postponed when the court’s chief justice, Carol Frederickson, wasif, in my opinion--PAs could live anywhere We could vote, travel, do anything the norms could do Checkpoints like the ones in and out of Deadtoould be a thing of the past And so would asshole border guards
"It’s worse at night," I said "That’s when they put all the Hu the border on my way to and from today’s job
"It’s more than that," Kane said "Haven’t you listened to the news today?" He clicked on the radio
A ory details of Boston’s latest murder Of course I’d heard about that--everybody had In the past three days, two bodies had been discovered in the South End The first, sprawled in a park near Rutland Square a crocuses, had been bad--sliced up beyond recognition, with strange symbols carved into the victi city; ht hours later, in the wee hours between last night and this , another victim was found a few blocks away The second victim had been dumped in the middle of Harrison Avenue, not far from Boston Medical Center The cops refused to say whether the killings were related, but no one had any doubts A serial killer stalked Boston Some reporter for the Herald had even come up with a nickname, based on leaked information that the killer used a curved blade, like a sickle: the South End Reaper
The newscaster continued: "Boston Police commissioner Fred Hanated Area 1, popularly called Deadtown" Code red--no wonder that guard had taken so long with our papers Code red meant zombies couldn’t leave Deadtown at all; no permits would be issued for thehtened restrictions on the moveht I was going for overkill on the for Apparently, I’d done just the right amount
The possibility of a serial killer worried me Not because I expected the South End Reaper to ju at me with a curved blade I could take care of er sheathed inside ht of the other two tucked in my purse In my world, "be prepared" was more than just the Boy Scout ht be a supernatural force driving this killer, a force darker and ine
A o, a really nasty demi-demon named Pryce Maddox had attempted to lead demons out of their own plane to overrun the human world Pryce called himself my cousin--a far-fetched claihly rotten branch of the fa that an ancient prophecy pointed to his own ascendancy over both the de the Morfran, a spirit of insatiable, destructive hunger that’s the essence of all demons My Cerddorion ancestors had iround in an old slateit inside the stone Pryce had discovered the spell to release it, and he believed various signs indicated the tiht for hirow stronger--and the de Morfran takes the form of monstrous crows that rip and tear at their victims with cruel beaks Crows are carrion eaters, and Boston’s two thousand zombies looked like an all-you-can eat buffet to the ravenous Morfran Pryce sent the spirit there to feed At an open-air concert, to celebrate Paranor nearly a dozen zoain Or ot away And when the Morfran possesses a human, the spirit drives that person to kill--over and over and over
If the South End Reaper was Morfran-possessed, could Pryce be behind it? The last tiround, alive but little ht, I’d killed Pryce’s de his human form comatose And then Pryce’s body had disappeared The two hu him were dead, every drop of blood sucked from their bodies It was how the Old Ones, those über-vampires my roommate Juliet feared, killed their prey
It seemed clear the Old Ones had taken Pryce--but why? De Even if the Old Ones could revive Pryce, ould they ith hihly evil and cared for no one but himself Besides his ambitions to subject the human world to demons, he’d tried three times to kill me--and that was to test whether I orthy" to be raped and forced to bear his child Personally, I hoped the Old Ones had drained Pryce dry, as they’d done to those cops I hoped I’d never see or hear of Pryce again And I hoped the South End Reaper was just some run-of-the-mill psychopathic killer, with no ties to demi-deh the night, the voices on the radio edging toward hysteria, a quieter voice inside me whispered that any such hopes were utterly foolish
3
GWEN GREETED ME AT HER FRONT DOOR WITH A WARM hug Hints of Italian herbs underlay her expensive perfuot a lu The strength of her hug showed she thought so, too
She stepped back and offered a hand to Kane, welco for me, a handshake for Kane--and took our coats
"Where are the kids?" I asked, stepping into the living room As soon as I cleared the doorway Maria, my eleven-year-old niece, rocketed over and threw her arms around me I stroked her fine blonde hair and kissed the top of her head She was getting so tall
"I see you found Maria," Gwen said "The boys are already in bed" The boys meant Zack, six, and Justin, o "That’s why I invited you for a late dinner, so I could wrestle the little hooligans into bed and have a grown-up evening for a change" She put a hand on Maria’s shoulder and drew her back a step "And that’s why Maria is on her way to bed, too"
"But Moreed you could say hello, and then you’d go to bed No arguments Remember?"
"Yeah" Maria looked at the floor