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A fraction of a second too late
The shotgun hit just as so crashed into her and knocked her flat Wolf covered her up as the shotgun roared a thunderous baROOM! The slug brrred over Wolf ’s head, trailing hot brass and burnt powder before s into dryith a heavy thunk More shots jetted through the shatteredCraning past Wolf ’s shoulder, she saw Bert’s body jitter in a spastic little dance, then drop, face-first Even with the cottony buzz in her ears, she heard the crunch as the glass dagger punched bone and then brain Bert’s arht out, like those of a little kid yelling surprise, then went li wild over the sill Fros as bullets ricocheted off the cast-iron woodstove, she didn’t think he hit nite all that pine Fire’s the last thing we need Ernie was a waxen doll in a blood lake In the kitchen, Penny was screaet her out" She was still pinned under Wolf, their faces only inches apart, his wolf skin so close she s of the animal that had once worn it She read his panic, set across her ht, Alex, relax; let the monster out; let it help you She roped back the impulse That would be insane Instead, she put her hands on Wolf ’s shoulders and grabbed his eyes with her own "Give e ka-BANG, a flash of orange light as so exploded outside A second later, a cyclone of pulverized earth and superheated air blasted through the ruined , knocking Marley off his feet The roo, Alex felt the burn in her throat and lungs Above her, Wolf ’s body went rigid, his face tightening in a pained grimace The air inside and out dripped with sounds and s of spent explosives, an isolated screalobs of quivering flesh, the stutter of weapons fire
Then there was a silence, as if time had decided to take a very deep breathand that hen Alex reotten, because, now, she felt the sudden flare in the center of her brain: Go-go Push-push
The red store mind--was here
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For three seconds, all Chris kneas he was facedown, on the floor, hacking and trying to breathe through a throat that felt as if a boot had planted itself on his windpipe and ground it to pulp Blood fro into his eyes and coursing down his cheeks His ht hand was slick, too, the fingers beginning to burn Over the thin, airy shrieks whistling in and out of his throat, he could hear a guttural aw Not coed to turn his head--and felt his heart try to fail
Propped against a far as a boy, glittery-eyed, shaggy A giant Chris was tall, just an inch shy of six feet, but this kid had hi as a barrel, and otten to the kid, though Huge gashes scored ed’s face and oozed pus His lower lip was ripped in two, the flaps drooping to expose dusky blue gums and stained teeth
The boy’s hands were clapped to his right thigh A triangle of sht, and blood was dripping to the floor As Chris watched, the boy opened his ruined ain: "A"
Got to led out of his ruined flannel, then tugged off the therer, but the fingers worked Staggering to his feet, he tried a step, slipped, clutched the table for balance Over the drum of his heart, he heard the stomp of a boot as the boy pushed fro as he swayed If not for the table propping hiain For a split second, Chris’s ht He was trapped, weaponless, already hurt Less than a o, he’d been as close to death as when Hannah’s poison oiled over his brain Everything he ht be able to use as a weapon--pots, pans, those knives--was behind him, miles away So he could only watch the boy, this htmare from his memory and fever drea to find a father reeking of booze and staring down at Chris with hate Of reading as behind his father’s red-riht Groping, Chris’s hand closed over a plate He whipped it, fast, in a Frisbee throw The boy saw it co and batted the dish away, but Chris had already scraped up a glass, another dish, a saucer, tossing everything he could get his hands on, listening to the crash, hearing the crunch, trying to work his way around the table The Changed just kept co, as inexorable as fate Despite the boy’s obvious pain, Chris also thought the kid was actually enjoying this Maybe the kid was looking forward to some payback Tear out a chunk with his teeth, hurt Chris pretty bad, but then set hiet
As if finally tiring of the ga away dishes, and that thigh had to hurt--the Changed boy grabbed the tablecloth and yanked With a yelp of surprise, Chris danced out of the way as dishes and cutlery slithered to the floor in a splintery sing stink of kerosene that made Chris’s battered throat double-clutch
up a chair, the boy hurled it the way a basketball player pops that fast bullet of a pass The kid’s aie in his face Startled, Chris had no time to duck The boy’s chair whacked his chest Stunned, Chris stumbled and then caet up! Retching against fu, he tried to roll, get his feet under him, scramble out of the way From the corner of his eye, he saw the boy’s knee cock and then the kick co flat, Chris heard the boot whiz over his head As he rolled to his right to get under the table, Chris felt the boy clamp onto his left ankle Frantic, Chris wrapped his hands around the butcher block’s heavy center pedestal for leverage, then kicked back with his right His boot connected with a satisfying thunk, followed a second later by a heavy grunt As the boy’s grip slackened, Chris scrambled under the rest of the way, set his feet, and squirted out the opposite side The woodstove was in front of hiht--and he spotted the weapon he needed If he only had tiot his hands under the heavy table, pulled straight up, and then pushed as hard as he could The table toppled with a gigantic bang The Changed only dodged to his right, but that was all Chris wanted: just to slow the kid down for another few seconds As the boy barreled around the table, Chris’s hands shot for the woodstove and the handle of that stea saucepan He let out a harsh bawl of pain as hot o; this was the only play he had Still screaush of water just the near side of boiling and the heavy pan hit the Changed in the face There was a hollow chunk as iron bounced against bone A starburst of blood erupted on the boy’s forehead For a half second, the Changed boy went absolutely rigid--and then instead of a guttural a, he let go of a long, high, girlish screech Lurching backward in a clumsy wobble, the boy ed in a swirl of blue tablecloth and slick kerosene
Bellowing, his hands shrieking with pain, Chris charged--not for the butcher block and its te rack Seizing a skillet, he wrenched it froers quaking over flesh that blazed a hot, boiled purple where it wasn’t red with blood Skillet in hand, Chris drove forward, already certain what needed doing, knowing nothing on earth would stop hied lifted his head, and Chris saw the left eye had gone aswhite
From far away, another planet, came a shout, the clap of a door His name: "Chris! Chris, wait!"
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"Get up, co Wolf aside, Alex squir huthe char fro to Wolf ’s back and her hair
Marley had been flattened His nose, eyelids, and lips were gone Fire had chewed his dreads to the scalp; his parka was melted to his chest Where his face wasn’t parboiled, the skin was black as briquettes His teeth, insanely white, showed in a ghastly rictus
"Easy!" A shout, ry Male "You want to kill everyone in--"
Men? Were they the red stor with it? And what is that? She felt her mind shuttle, the monster unsure what to do Even the monster doesn’t knohat this is At the sao and get lost in that thrue that seeo-go
Dropping to a crouch, she scuttled toward the front of the house and risked a quick peep through the blasted rectangle of the ruinedWhat had been a snow- crater: a sore of blackened earth and srenade or bo was in pieces: the stub of what looked like an elbow; a foot, minus four toes and half the sole; three-quarters of a blasted head teetering on the lip of the crater like a sed--lucky or unlucky, depending on your point of view--sprawled in a twisted tangle and a halo of blood spray
What the hell? Whatever was going on here--and especially in light of the fact that there were ht was over a whole lot ht a flicker to the extreme left, the saed had co through deep green cedar and he wrong with it, and the sle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">