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That evening, as night fell across Caldwell and did absolutely nothing to improve the humidity, Mr D stood in the hot upstairs bathrooe he&039;d applied hours and hours earlier to his gut The gauze was stained black The patch of skin underneath wasorkin&039; for hih it was only the one Less than twenty-four hours as the Fore-lesser and he felt like so rotten meat, and lit his barn on fire

He should have stayed just a soldier

Although it wasn&039;t as if he&039;d had the choice

He tossed the dirty bandage into the drywall bucket the dead people evidently used as a wastepaper basket and decided not to replace it The internal da by how bad it had hurt and how far that black dagger had gone in But for lessers, the intestinal tract was ledwas steot out of that alley alive If the Brother with the sissy locks hadn&039;t been reined in, Mr D was darned certain he&039;d have been deboned like a catfish

A knocking froht his head up Ten o&039;clock sharp

At least they were on time

He strapped on his heat, picked up his Stetson, and hit the stairs Outside, there were three trucks and a beater in the dirt drive and two squadrons of lessers on the front stoop As he let the boys in, the fuckers topped him by at least a foot, and he could tell they weren&039;t iood about his pro rooht of theun, palnum 357, and leveled it at the last one in the house

He pulled the trigger once Twice Three times

The sound was like thunder; none of that subtle popping like you got with nines The slugs went into the s his spine and blowing a hole through the front of his torso The guy hit the ratty rug with a thu up

As Mr D reholstered his weapon, he wondered when the place had last been vacuumed Probably back when it had been built

"I&039;etslayer

While oily black blood oozed out on the brown rug, Mr D put his foot on the slayer&039;s head and pulled out the wallpaper section the Oe onto

"I want to ht," he said as he held the thing up "You find this male Or I&039;ma pick you off one by one and start with a ne"

The slayers stared at him in collective silence, like they had one brain and it was spinning to come to terms with a neorld order

"Y&039;all stop looking at ed the picture "Bring him to me Alive Or I swear to s and feed strips of you to &039;ee here?"

One by one, they nodded as the downed num&039;s muzzle at the lesser &039;s head and blew that fucker to set movin&039;"

About fifteencenter&039;s locker roo he expected to happen in that particular place

"Kicks from Ed Hardy," Qhuinn said, as he held out a pair of sneakers "For you"

John reached out and took them Okay, they were hot Black White soled Skull on each one with Hardy&039;s siggy in rainbow colors

"Whoa," one of the other trainees said on his way out of the locker rooed his eyebrows at the guy "Spank, huh?" They were Qhuinn&039;s, John thought Probably so to wear and had saved up for

"Try &039;em on, John"

They&039;re awesome, but really, I can&039;t

As the last of their classmates filed out, the door eased shut and Qhuinn&039;s bravado eased off He grabbed the sneakers, put them at John&039;s feet, and looked up

"I&039;ht You know, at A and F, with that girl I was a prick"

It&039;s cool

"No, it isn&039;t I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you, and that is not cool"

See, this was the thing with Qhuinn He could be out there and he could let his edge get away from him, but he always cale most important person in the world to his

You&039;re a freak But I really can&039;t accept these¡ª

"Were you raised in a barn? Don&039;t be ruuuuuuuuuuuuude, ift"

Blay shook his head "Take theument, and it will save us from the theatrics"

"Theatrics?" Qhuinn leaped up and assumed a Roman oratory pose "Whither thou knowest thy ass fro scribe?"

Blay blushed "Co onto the guy&039;s shoulders and hanging his full weight off hiasp"

Blay grunted and scraape"

"Agasp sounds better"

Blay was trying not to s like sapphires and his cheeks were getting red

With a silent laugh, John sat on one of the locker room benches, shook out his pair of white socks, and pulled them on under his new old jeans

You sure, Qhuinn? &039;Cuz I have a feeling they&039;re going to fit and you e your mind

Qhuinn abruptly lifted hi "And now you offendstance

"Touch¨¦"

Blay laughed "That&039;s en garde, you damn fool"

Qhuinn shot a look over his shoulder "?a va, Brutus?"

"Et tu!"

"That would be tutu, I believe, and you can keep the cross-dressing to yourself, ya perv" Qhuinn flashed a brilliant s such an ass "Now, put the fuckers on, John, and let&039;s be done with this Before we have to put Blay in an iron lung"

"Try sanitariu lunch"

The sneakers fit perfectly and soh he had yet to stand up in the up a h your threads up a little Get you wearing some chains Hey, pierce your shit like mine and add more black¡ª"

"You knohy Qhuinn likes black?"

They all whipped their heads around and looked to the shower Lash was co out of it, white towel held in front of his privates, water dripping off his heavy shoulders

"It&039;s because Qhuinn&039;s color-blind, isn&039;t that right, cuz" Lash sauntered over to his locker and flipped the thing open so it slapped against its neighbor "He only knows he&039;s got mismatched eyes because people tell hi absently that the sneaks had aweso at Lash&039;s bare ass,in about a second and a half

"Yeah, Qhuinn&039;s special, aren&039;t you" Lash pulled on a pair of caold signet ring onto his left forefinger "Some people don&039;t fit in and never will It&039;s sad as fuck that they keep trying to"

Blay whispered, "Let&039;s go, Qhuinn"

Qhuinn gritted his teeth "You need to shut your hole, Lash For real"

John stepped into his buddy&039;s grille and signed, Let&039;s just go to Blay&039;s and chill, okay?

"Hey, John, a question just occurred to uy, did you scream with your hands? Or just breathe really hard?"

John went devastation-still As did his two friends