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I drew up a chair beside the bed and sat down Micky stared at ed around in the inside pocket of my duster I had some chalk there, in case I needed to draw a circle A candle and soically speaking, to ith

"Hi, there, Micky," I said "Can you hear iggles I made sure to keep et drawn into a soulgaze with Micky Malone at theto touch you - okay? I think I&039;ll be able to tell if there&039;s anything inside of you if I do I&039; to hurt you, so don&039;t freak out" As I spoke, I reached out a hand toward his bare arhtly upon Micky&039;s skin

He was fever-hot to the touch I could sense soy of a practitioner&039;s aura, or the ocean-deep power of Michael&039;s faith, but it was there, nonetheless Soy oozed over him

What the hell?

It didn&039;t feel like any kind of spell I&039;d ever experienced And it wasn&039;t a possession, I was sure of that I would have been able to sense any kind of spirit-being in hih a physical touch

Micky stared at me for a second and then thrust his head ath he couldn&039;t have reachedto bite youis just ain, rocking the bed back and forth

"All right," I breathed "I&039;et a little desperate, here If you weren&039;t a friend, Micky " I closedht between ather there, the pressure, and when I opened ht, too

The Sight is a blessing and a curse It lets you see things, things you couldn&039;t norht, I can see even the ies of life stirring and h the world, between the earth and the sky, betater and fire Enchantments stand out like cords braided froas-quality neon, depending on how complicated or powerful they are You can so s the way they really are, in spirit and in soul, as well as in body

The proble you see stays with you No , no- it stays with you Forever Always right there in youreasier to bear Sos that are so beautiful you want to keep them with you, always

But s like Micky Malone

He was dressed in boxers and a white undershirt, stained with bits of blood and sweat and worse But when I turneddifferent

He had been ravaged Torn apart He washad attacked hie bites I&039;d seen pictures of people who&039;d been attacked by sharks, had hunks of one That&039;s what Micky looked like It wasn&039;t visible to the flesh, but so had torn his mind, and maybe his soul, to bloody shreds He bled and bled, endlessly, never staining the sheets

And wound around hi down to one ankle was a strand of black wire, oversized barbs gouging into his flesh, the ends disappearing sealethorn

I stared at hiht to keep fro up Micky looked up atwas different, because he went abruptly still His sonized, like a grimace of pain twisted and cranked until thepoint

His lipswith the expression "Uh, uh, uh," he ht, Micky," I said I clasped"I&039;m here"

"Hurts," he breathed at last, barely a whisper "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts " He went on and on repeating it until he ran out of breath Then he squeezed his eyes shut Tears welled out and he broke into another helpless, le

What the hell could I do for that! The barbed wire had to be a spell of so I had ever seen before Most ht, life, even if it was being used for y of our world and from people, from their emotions and their will That&039;s what I had always been taught

But that barbed as dull, flat, matte-black I reached out to touch it, and it alers with how cold it was Micky, God I couldn&039;t ih

The set Bob and work on this, research it, figure out how to get the wire fro hih this for hours Heto be hard-pressed to survive the spiritualanother day of this torture onto it all ht send him someplace from where he&039;d never come back

I closed ht, Micky," I told hi"

He let out a whi up at me

I decided to start at his ankle I sed, steeling ers between the burning cold barbed wire and his skin I clenched h to be able to touch theSlowly, at first, and then harder

The ers never went nuan to ache ing at Micky&039;s flesh The poor h there was that horrible, tortured laughter added to it as well

I felt tears burn into my eyes, fro The end of the wire tore free of his flesh I kept pulling Barb by barb, inch by inch, I tore the wire-spell free, drawing it up through his flesh at tiy away from Micky He screa frouess it was ainst the cold ic

Finally, the other end slithered free froed down, letting out a low, exhaustedthe wire in my hands

It suddenly twisted and spun like a serpent, and one end plunged intocold coursed throughdown the hall outside, a voice calling out The hipped and thrashed around, the other end darting toward the floor, and I seized it in both hands, twisted it up and away fro itself at the other end The loose strands near h y tried to attach itself to h it, her eyes living flaolden coronet around her She held a blazing sword in her hand and she shone so bright and beautiful and terrifying in her anger that it was hard to see The Sight, I realized, di her for who she was

"Harry! What the hell?"

I struggled against the wire, knowing that she couldn&039;t see it or feel it, gasping "TheMurph, open the !"

She didn&039;t hesitate for a second, but crossed the floor and threw open theI staggered after her, winding the frozen wire around one hand, ged it into a coil, ed up, hot and bright, and I reached for that power as I jerked the wire from my throat and threw it out theas hard as I could, sending it sailing into the air

I snarled, jabbed a finger at it, took all that anger and fear and sent it coursing out of o!"

Fire caulfed the wire It writhed and then vanished in a detonation that rattled the house aroundback to the floor

I lay there for aDa the lines bethat&039;s real and what isn&039;t A guy would go crazy that way Fast Just keep it open all the ti is like That sounded like a good idea, really Just bask in all the beauty and horror for a while, just drink it all in and let it erase everything else, all that bother and worry about people being hurt or not being hurt -

I foundfro toback and forth I had to struggle to closesee tears out ofall over the place, and I could hear several car alar, touched off by the force of the blast

Murphy stood over un held in one hand and pointed at the door "Jesus," she said, softly "Harry What happened?"

My lips felt nu attacked him L-laid a spell on him after H-had to burn it Fire even burns in the&039;s-spirit world S-sorry"