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Lash stumbled out of his parents&039; hoed, his stride jerky As he tripped over his own feet, he looked down Oh, God, the stuff was on his shirt and his boots, too
Mr D popped up out of the Focus "You hurt?"
Lash couldn&039;t find any words to answer Lier than I thought"
"Here, now, suh, let&039;s get you in the car"
Lash allowed the little guy to take hier side and settle hiot in your hand there, suh¡ª"
Lash shoved the lesser to the side, bent over, and dry-heaved a couple of ti black and oily came out of his mouth and dribbled down his chin He wiped it off and looked at it
Not blood At least, not the kind "I killed them," he said hoarsely
The lesser knelt down in front of him " &039;Course you did, and you made your daddy proud Them bastards ain&039;t your future We are"
Lash tried to stop the scenes fro in his head "My mother screamed the loudest When she saw me kill my father"
"Not your father Not your s were ani down a deer or, yeah, like a rat, you know? A vermin" The slayer shook his head "They wasn&039;t you You just thought they was"
Lash looked down at his hands The knife was in one A chain in the other "So much blood"
"Yeah, they done bleed a ton, those va silence Like, one that lasted for a year
"Say, there, suh, you got like a pool thing &039;round this place?" When Lash nodded, the lesser said, " &039;Round back?" Lash nodded again "Okay, we gonna take you there and let you wash up We got you soonna put &039;em on"
Before Lash knew it, he was in the estate&039;s pool house under a shoashing the re the red funnel down the drain at his feet He rinsed off the knife and the chain as well, and when he stepped out to towel off, he put the stainless-steel link around his neck first
There were two dog tags hanging off the thing One was his rottweiler&039;s last license, and the other the record of King&039;s final rabies shot
Lash&039;s change of clothes went on quick enough, and he transferred his father&039;s wallet from the soiled pants he&039;d had on to the clean ones Mr D had gotten for hi the boots, but the stains were browning up, looking less red, which made it more bearable
He ca on one of the glass-topped tables by the lawn chairs
The lesser hopped down off it "You want me to call for the backup now?"
Lash looked at the Tudor Driving over here, he&039;d intended to ransack the place Take anything that orth a dia had told him were his troops to strip the place down to its wallpaper and floorboards
It see to do The perfect declaration of his new status You don&039;t just crush your enemies, you take their horses and burn their huts and hear the lamentations of their women
Trouble was, he kneas inside that house With the bodies of his parents and the doggen in it, he was staring at ain a swar
"I want to get out of here"
"We&039;ll coet me the fuck out of here"
"Whatever you like"
"Right answer"
Moving like an old man, Lash walked back around to the front of the house and kept his eyes straight ahead, avoiding the s he passed
When he&039;d slaughtered the doggen in the kitchen, there had been a roasting chicken in the oven, the kind that had one of those little popup thingies that let you knohen it was done After he&039;d bled out the last of the servants, he&039;d stopped by the Viking stove and turned the light on The chicken&039;s popper had gone off
He&039;d opened the slim drawer to the left of the stove and taken out thite-and-red-striped oventhe oven off, he&039;d slid the roasting pan froas burners Golden broith corn-bread stuffing Giblets were in the bottoravy
He&039;d turned off the potatoes that were boiling in water, too
"Get me out of here," he said as he slid into the car He had tohis hands
A ine turned over, and they started down the driveway In the dense silence of the shit box, Lash took his father&039;s wallet out of his fresh cargo pants, flipped the thing open, and checked through the cards ATM, Visa, Black Ao?" Mr D asked as they came to Route 22
"I don&039;t know"
Mr D glanced over "I kilt my cousin When I was sixteen He was a bastard, and I liked it while it was happening and it was the right thing to do But afterward, I felt bad So you got nothing to apologize for if you done feel like you wronged &039;em"
The idea that soh htmare "I feel dead"
"It&039;ll pass"
"No I&039; to feel like¡ª Oh, fuck it, just shut up and drive, okay?"
Lash slipped the last card free as they took a right on Route 22 It was his father&039;s fake driver&039;s license As his eyes hit the picture, his stomach rolled "Pull over!"
The Focus shot onto the shoulder As a massive SUV passed them, Lash opened the door and heaved soround
He was lost Utterly lost
What the hell had he just done? Who was he?
"I knohere to take you," Mr D said "If y&039;all just shut the door, I can get you to where you&039;ll feel better"
Whatever, Lash thought At this point, he would take suggestions from a bowl of Rice Krispies "Anywhere but here"
The Focus pulled a U-ie and headed toward don They&039;d gone a couple of lanced over at the little lesser "Where we headed?"
"Place where you can catch your breath Trust me"
Lash looked out of theand felt like a total pussy Clearing his throat, he said, "Tell a squadron to go back there And take everything that isn&039;t nailed down"
"Yes, suh"
As Z pulled the Escalade up to the Tudor mansion Lash and his parents lived in, Phury frowned and sprang his seat belt free What the hell?
The front door ide-open to the suht frolow over the stoop and the pair of topiaries standing at attention on either side of the entrance
Okay, this was just wrong You expected colonials with porch pots and gno open like that Or e and chalk drawings on the sidewalks Or, hell, even trailers with busted s and decrepit plastic chairs dotting their weed lawn
But Tudor ht with their grand front doors wide open to the night It was like a debutante flashing her bra thanks to a wardrobe ot out of the SUV and cursed The smell of fresh blood and lessers was all too fauns as he shut his door "Shit"
As they walked forward, it was pretty da to Lash&039;s parents about what had happened to their son Chances were good he and Z were going to be finding bodies
"Call Butch," Zsadist said "This is a crime scene"
Phury already had his phone in his hand and was dialing "I&039;m on it" When the brother answered, he said, "We need backup here, stat There&039;s been an infiltration"