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Mr D PULLED UP BEHIND the faret were in the passenger seat, and he grabbed theot out The receipt in his wallet read 14773
His credit card had been rejected, so he&039;d written a check that he wasn&039;t sure was going to clear, and wasn&039;t that just like old ti, and not because he played basketball in high school
As Mr D kicked shut the driver&039;s-side door, he wondered if the reason lessers drove shit boxes wasn&039;t because the Society was just keeping a low profile, but because it was out of money Used to be you never worried if your credit card worked or whether you could get neeapons ASAP Dang it, under that there Mr R as Fore-lesser? Back in the eighties? The coood-like
Not so much anymore And now that was his problem He should probably find out where all the accounts were, but he didn&039;t have no idea where to start There had been so much turnover in Fore-lessers When had the last one with any organiz¡ª
Mr X
Mr X had been good in the saddle, and he&039;d had that cabin in the woods¡ªMr D had gone there once or twice Chances were good that if there was account information around, it would be there in so was, if his credit cards were failing, others&039; were Whichon their own for cash, stealing fro stuff they&039;d looted
Maybe when he got there, he&039;d luck out and find that the piggy bank was fulled up, just lost in the shuffle But he had a feeling that weren&039;t going to be the case
As rain started falling again, he propped open the farm-house &039;s back screen door with his hip, unlocked the place, and went into the kitchen He held his breath at the stench of the two bodies Thetheir best i about being a lesser was you came with your own air freshener Within moments he didn&039;t smell thes down on the counter, there was the oddest sound drifting around the house, a hu like a lullaby
"Master?" Either that or so Radio Disney
He ca roo beside the ratty table, leaning over the naked body of a blond male vampire that was stretched out flat The vaht up close to the chin, but the injury had been stitched up, and not in an autopsy way That was soht chere
Was the thing alive or dead? He couldn&039;t tell¡ªno, wait, that big chest was going up and down a little
"He is so beautiful, is he not" The Oa&039;s black translucent hand drifted over the male&039;s facial planes "Blond as well The mother was a blond Hah! I was told I could not create Not like her But our father rong Look at my son Flesh of my flesh"
Mr D felt like he had to say so, kind of like he&039;d been presented with a baby for the praising "He&039;s a good-looking one, yes, suh"
"Do you have what I asked for?"
"Yes, suh"
"Bring me the knives"
When Mr D caa put one hand over the male&039;s nose and another over itswas too weak to do a&039;s white robes
"My son, do not fight," the evil breathed with satisfaction "The time for your second birth has arrived"
The jerky struggling crescendoed until the va on the table and its palms squeaked on the wood It flopped about like a puppet, all flailing, uncoordinated limbs and useless panic And then it was done and the male stared upith blank eyes and a lax a swooped the white hood off his head and unclasped his robe With an elegant toss, he cast the vest across the rooht in the corner, as if draped over aand thin, rubber- above the table He grasped its chain at the point where it entered the ceiling, and with a quick yank pulled the fixture free and pitched it into the corner Unlike the robe, it did not land neatly, but ended its useful life, if it hadn&039;t already, in a tangled heap of broken bulbs and twisted brass ar like swa over the vaa said
"Which one?"
"The short bladed"
Mr D ruled to bust through a consu it made hih," the Oet me some scissors¡ª"
"Give it tohit thefree of the blade and dropping to the floor in a twisted brown snakeskin
As the Oa turned to the vampire, he tested the sharpness on his own shadowy forear as black oil rose out of the slice he , and it happened just as fastWhile thunder prowled around the house as if it were searching for a way to get in, the Oa drew the blade down the center of the uy&039;s throat to his belly button The s out over the baby-fresh scent of the a pronounced the word vahz, not vase
Mr D brought over a blue ceramic jar what he&039;d found in the housewares section As it changed hands, he was tempted to point out to the master that it was too soon to rea&039;s blood had to be circulated through the body first &039;Cept then he remembered the male was dead anyway, so what did it matter?
Clearly this was not your everyday induction to the Society
The Oertip and burned open the va Mr D&039;s nose to wrinkles The ribs were then split open by unseen hands at the will of the a&039;s translucent pal a new nest for the organ With an expression of annoyance, he plucked the knot of muscle free fro in a stream onto the pale skin of the ot the vase ready, uncapping it and holding it under the Oa&039;s hand Flames burst up from the heart, and a stream of ash fell into the vessel
"Get the buckets," the Oa said
Mr D capped the vase and put it in the corner, then went into a bag and pulled out four red Rubbermaid buckets, the kind his mama had called sloppers He positioned one under each of the vaa went around and opened cuts in the wrists and ankles to drain the body of blood It was a through the spectruray
"The serrated knife now"
Mr D didn&039;t waste his effort on the blade&039;s plastic lockdown The O, then took the knife and put his free hand down on the table Curling his fingers into a fist, the h his orist, the sound as sharp as if he orking through aged hardwood When he was finished, he passed the knife back, picked up his hand, and placed it inside the ea whispered as another hand appeared at the blunt end of his forearh you in but a a streaked the other knife across his newly formed wrist and held the wound over the black fist
Mr D remembered this part from his own induction He&039;d screamed in what had been more than physical pain He&039;d been duped So duped What he&039;d been proony and terror had made him pass out When he&039;d done woke up, he&039;d been so dead, an i evil work
He&039;d thought it was just a gang He&039;d thought ould happen to hi to mark that he was in with the out Or that he wouldn&039;t be hu re his mama used to say: If you make a deal with a copperhead, you can&039;t be surprised you get bit
All at once, the electricity went out
The Oa stepped back and a hum started This ti of a great gathering of energy, an irew louder, the house started to shake, dust falling fro on the floor until they were doing the do-si-do Mr D thought of the bodies in the kitchen and wondered if they was dancing, too
As he put his hands to ears and ducked his head, he got back just in ti hit the farmhouse&039;s roof in what had to be a direct line of contact With the noise itoff of a larger piece
Yup, this weren&039;t no chip of a stone that got in your eye; this was the whole boulder landing sistered as pain in the ears, at least to Mr D, and the shattering force of the i to crash in on thea didn&039;t have that worry, &039;parently He just looked up with Sunday-preacher zeal, all rapt and orgasht out the rattlers and the strychnine
The lightning funneled through the house&039;s electrical highways, or in this case its back roads and beaten paths, and caht over the body The chandelier&039;s hanging wires gave it its guidance, and the vampire&039;s open chest with its oiled heart was the basin