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I was late tolate to the firstot to Edward&039;s room

I knocked He opened the door and stepped to one side "You&039;re late"

"Yeah," I said The roohtstand, two laainst the far wall The drapes were closed over the nearly wall-to-s The bathrooht was on, door open The closet door was half-open, showing that he&039;d hung up his clothes He planned to stay for a while

The television was on, sound turned off I was surprised Edward didn&039;t watch television A VCR sat on top of the TV That was not standard hotel issue

"You want soet started?"

"A Coke would be great"

He sne tastes, Anita" He went to the phone and ordered He asked for a steak, rare, with a bottle of burgundy

I took off my coat and laid it on the desk chair "I don&039;t drink," I said

"I know," he said "You want to freshen up while ait for the food?"

I glanced up and caught a distant look at myself in the bathroom mirror Chicken blood had dried to a sticky, brick color on my face "I see your point"

I shut the bathroo was that harsh, glaring white that sothat even Ms Aood in it

The blood stood out like reddish chalk againsta white Christmas sweatshirt that had Maxine fro coffee with a candy cane in hand, saying, "This is as jolly as I get" Bert had asked us to wear Christs for the month Maybe the sweatshirt wasn&039;t exactly what he had in mind, but hey, it was better than some of the ones I had at houres

I took the sweatshirt off, draping it on the bathtub There was blood sotten a little onwith the stuff on ht Raising zoot one of the white washrags from the little towel rack I wondered hoould explain the bloodstains to theanyway

I ran water into the sink and started scrubbing I caught a gli down my face in watery rivulets I stood up and stared My face looked fresh scrubbed and sort of surprised

Had Richard really proposed? Had I really said yes? Surely not I had said yes Shit I wiped at the blood on ed to one That stoppedgripped in ain

The first time he&039;d been so white bread that even Judith had liked hiood enough for hi to his family What had hurt h Not nearly asfor him Not a mistake to make twice

Richard wasn&039;t like that I knew that Yet there was that worm of doubt Fear that he&039;d blow it Fear he wouldn&039;t blow it Damned if you do, damned if you don&039;t

I looked down and realized I was dripping bloody water on the linoleuoing to get until I showered at hoht have done it here, but I hadn&039;t thought of it

Edward knocked on the door "Food&039;s here"

I got dressed, put the rag in the sink, and ran cold water over it Ithe drain and opened the door The smell of steak hit me It sht hours, and truthfully I hadn&039;t eaten all that much then Richard had distracted me

"Do you think room service would shoot us if we asked for another order?"

He made a small hand motion at the room-service cart There were two orders on the cart

"How did you know I&039;d be hungry?"

"You always forget to eat," he said

"My, aren&039;t we being mother of the year"

"The least I can do is feed you"

I looked at hi awfully considerate"

"I know you well enough to know you won&039;t like this Call the "

"Won&039;t like what?"

"Let&039;s eat, watch thecagey It wasn&039;t like him He&039;d shoot you, but he wouldn&039;t be cute about it "What are you up to, Edward?"

"No questions until after the movie"

"Why not?"

"Because you&039;ll have better questions" With that inscrutable answer he sat down on the edge of the bed and poured a glass of red wine He cut his h to bleed in the center

"Please tell me my steak isn&039;t bloody"

"It isn&039;t bloody You like your meat well dead"

"Ha, ha" But I sat down It see a meal in Edward&039;s hotel rooether, just a working dinner The steak ell done Thick house fries suitably spiced took up almost as much room as the steak There was a side order of broccoli, which could be slid to one side and ignored

The Coke calass, which seemed a little excessive, but it looked nice

"Theto start near the end I don&039;t think you&039;ll have any trouble picking up the plot" He hit the rea brown hair lay on her back in a round bed She was nude, or at least what I could see of her was nude Below the waist she was hidden behind the furiously pu buttocks of a dark-haired raphy" I didn&039;t even try to keep the disbelief frolanced at Edward He was cutting his steak with neat, precise hand movements He chewed a bite of steak, sipped his wine, and watched the screen

I glanced back at the "movie" A second man had joined the couple on the bed He was taller than the first man, with shorter hair, but beyond that it was a little hard to tell,not to look

I sat on the edge of Edward&039;s bed with our nice steak dinners, and for the first time felt aard around Edward There had never been any sexual tension between us We ht kill each other someday, but we&039;d never kiss But I was still in a irls just didn&039;t do that

"Edward, what the hell is going on?"

He hit the remote control "Here, a face shot"

I turned back to the screen The frozen ie stared out at me It was the second man It was Alfred

"Oh, my, God," I said

"You know hi it Alfred was dead Edward couldn&039;t hurt him anymore

"Name?"

"Alfred I don&039;t know the last naes on the screen s that would have been obscene at any speed At fast forward it see

He hit the pause again The woman was full face to the cauor Her hair was spread artfully over the silken pillow It should have been provocative It ed not to be

"Do you know her?"

I shook ain "We&039;re near the end"

"What about the other hout"

The masked man had mounted the woman frohhers He leaned his upper body over her nude torso, handshi else There see on

She was supporting his full weight on her hands and knees Her breath cah the room The camera did a close-up of the man&039;s back The skin was rippled, as if a hand had rubbed the under surface of his skin, then vanished More ripples, as if so to punch its way out

A wider-angle shot showed hirowing You could see things pushing against his skin, h you could have seen them even if he&039;d been dressed Like those I had seen on Jason last night

I had to ad I&039;d seen people shapeshift, but never like this Not ineye of a ca his back, and he reared upward, hands hugging her waist, screa Clear liquid flowed down his back in a wash that soaked the bed and the woave a little encourageainst him, head bowed to the bed

Black fur flowed outward fro He leaned over her again, hands digging into the bed The hands were just hands, then those hureat clawed furrows

The man seemed to shrink The fur flowed faster and faster, almost liquid in its speed Theshape for it now The camera did a close shot of the fallen mask A bit of art in all this oh, hell I didn&039;t have a word for it

The one A black leopard elistening teeth The leopard nipped her back, drawing a s her body

Alfred came back into view He was still in human form He crawled up to the bed and kissed the woues He rose on his knees, still kissing her, rocking his body with the movements He seemed very excited to see her

His back rippled, and he tore away froo a lot faster for him The camera did a close-up of one of his hands Bones slid out of the skin et, sucking noises Muscles and ligaed The skin tore and that saed into a naked claw before the dark fur flowed over it

He stood on bent legs, half wolf, half man, but all male He threw back his head and howled The sound had a deep, resonating quality that filled the room

The woman looked up at hi on the bed, for all the world like a big kitten It rolled itself in the silken sheet, until only its black-furred face peeked out

The woled She held out her hands to the wolf her lips as if she were really enjoying herself Maybe she was

The olf thrust into her, and it wasn&039;t gentle She gave a gaspingshe&039;d ever felt

The woood actor or she was co close to cli, I think

She came with a sound between a screa on the bed, body liquid The olf gave one last shuddering thrust and dren the length of her naked body

She screa required Blood poured down her body in scarlet rivulets The leopard gave a startled scream and jumped off the bed The woman put her hands up in front of her face, and the claws slimpse of bone in one arm where the claws had torn all the flesh away

Her screaed shriek after another, as fast as she could draw air The olf&039;s pointed e of the murder victim&039;s crushed jaw But he went for her throat He bit her throat out, spraying a great gout of blood

Her eyes stared sightless at the camera, wide and shiny, dull with death The blood had somehow left her face untouched The olf reared back, blood dripping fro between her eyes

The leopard leaped back onto the bed It licked her face clean with long, sure strokes of its tongue The olf licked its way down her body, stopping over her sto at the caan to feed The leopard joined the feast

I closedsounds filled the room I heard myself say, "Turn it off" The sounds stopped, and I assumed that Edward had turned the tape off, but I didn&039;t look up to see I didn&039;t look up until I heard the whir of the tape rewinding