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That’s when Vic had learned that evil never dies It waits, it changes, and it always comes back Unless its force is blocked by prayers and the proper burial rites, it always coer, and in the Man’s case, different Not a olf any into so the people in this toould understand Nor was the Man becoer Hell, once the Man finished arlic or stakes wouldn’t ht about that for a second Garlic and stakes He realized that he didn’t actually know if they would stop Boyd and Ruger, either He’d have to find out Not just so that he would always have an edge over them, but because he wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be stopped by some asshole who’d just had an Italian dinner and sneezed on theends held up, but if they did work, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do ht locally frorowers, which meant that the supply had to be controlled He arette was low and he chain-​lit another, but just as he rolled down theto toss away the butt he heard the crack of a twig under a foot Automatically he pulled the old Mauser C-96 Bolo short-​barreled pistol froun had been ed to Griswold, which made it sacred to Vic

He laid the barrel on the frame of the open caband waited as so area If it was anyone else than the person the Man had sent hiistered and untraceable Vic had killed five worants over the last thirty-​five years, and every one had been a one-​shot kill You have to love efficiency of that kind

The bushes at the top of the drop-​off tre with silver round of the Passion Pit He was covered with h he walked with no flicker of pain on his mushroom-​white face Theopen, revealing teeth that were caked with blood and strings of rawthose filthy teeth in a mask of pure hatred

Vic relaxed and clicked the safety back on

"Over here, asshole," he said "Get the fuck in, we’re wasting time"

The snarl lost some of its venom as the man shambled toward the truck Vic reached over and jerked the handle, pushing the door open so Kenneth Boyd could climb in

2

"Jesus!" Terry’s eyes snapped wide as he jerked awake fro had thrust hi the ar forward as if to vo flashed in his eyes and his pores rained icy sweat Around hi shadows, and very still

Terry looked around, trying to understand what had shocked hi For one horrible host had returned to tor, except the vague and fading feeling that so of dread seeht The sensation, or awareness, or fading drearadually His heart stopped ha asthe floor outside, co closer very quickly, and then the door opened A nurse leaned into the roo a quizzical sht I heard--"

Terry looked at her with his red-​riers clutching the ar okay?" the nurse asked

"U a nap"

"Sorry to bother you, Mr Wolfe It’s just the strangest thing I thought the TV was on" She glanced at the dark screen "Guess I’hed self-​consciously "You’ll think I’ht--just for a moment--that I heard a…well, a roar"

"A roar?" His voice was tight in his throat

"Isn’t that silly? I thought I heard a roar Like a lion, or a bear Or so for Alzheihed "Sorry to have bothered you" Her head vanished and she pulled the door shut

Terry sat stock-​still, staring at the door, feeling under his fingers the jagged tears in the leather upholstery Stiffly, he bent forward and looked down, first at one arh leather was slashed in long lines, as if dull knives had been viciously racked across them Several sets of tears, four lines to a set

"God save me!" he whispered, and in the back of his mind he could hear Mandy’s voice whisper to him