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HE had an arm like a train All the breath shot out ofthe stair rail with one flailing hand It wasn&039;t as bad as it ht have been for anyone else I didn&039;t want a second helping, though

Coldfield&039;s dark face was darker than nore "You knohy I&039;m here," he rumbled Volcanoes reach that kind of deep pitch before they blow

Took an experimental sip of air for speech "Oh, yeah"

"Why the hell did you do that to hiot people ork at the hospital One of the like he&039;d been worked over by a bulldozer and called me They wouldn&039;t let me see him Took one look and kneasn&039;t a relation I tracked down the aot therown a thick hide over uilt over sos I&039;d done in life, but it was no protection noas in the wrong, and there were consequences to face

"Charles and I had a fight-"

"The hell you did! What about?"

The words got stuck long before the halfwaya reprise of ht with Escott Sweat popped out on my flanks

"What?"

I shook my head There was no way I could tell Coldfield what I&039;d done that had infuriated Escott enough to beat the crap out of house-crazy out of control and returning the favor All I could do was thank God that I&039;d stopped short of ht, but the aftermath was clear and sharp, especially those frozen-in-lead ht Escott was dead

"What?" Coldfield loo and we got into it It&039;s not i as co No way out

"Goddammit, you put hiut-busters, grunting from the effort He was in on ly business with Hog Bristohat the bastard had done to le punch

And I took it

He finally knockedover

"Talk toaway Co on e than Escott

I raised one hand in surrender Seemed like too ain It hurt to draw breath to speak Took a h air inside to do the job "Look you once socked hiot fed up?"

Coldfield nodded slowly "What about it?"

"This time it was my turn He did his damnedest to pound some sense into me Nearly took my block off"

"You don&039;t look it"

"I heal fast, remember?"

"And then what?"

"I wouldn&039;t listen So Charles kept at me until I hit him That&039;s where the ambulance cao that way I&039;d take it back if I could"

"You can&039;t"

Bowed my head "No I can&039;t"

He er He wanted to hurt me and make it last

I used the stair rail to pull to ood and hard, without brass knuckles, either If he was like that with bare fists

He laid in again with enough force so I&039;d reet I dropped all the way, curled, and stayed there, gasping Pain More than I expected Wouldn&039;t be surprised if he&039;d ruptured soh That&039;d be spitting in his face I&039;d take what he dished out and like it

He stooped into limpsed as inside hihest ain, I will kill you" He knew exactly how to do it, too

I believed him

"We clear on that? You understandsideways because ain Proh to shake the house A ears, and roared away

Good thing he was a friend or we ht have both been in trouble I don&039;t take this kind of crap from enemies

Another moment or three passed, then the stairs creaked as Kroun came down He squatted on his heels next to me, hands clasped loose in front of hioddamned stupid question And he wasn&039;t a stupid man I eyed hi "I&039;reat Toot the e It was none of his beeswax, but he almost smiled "And he knows about you, too?"

"Yeah"

"F&039;cryin&039; out loud, put it on a billboard, why don&039;t ya?"

"Okay"

Alook from him, followed by a dismis sive headshake "I can&039;t find soap"

Soap? While I got pulped he was looking for soap? What kind of a loon was he?

"Try the second-floor bath," I ot two johns in this joint?" My getting a beating was nothing to sweat about, but a house with two toilets knocked hiht over

Actually there were three Escott had put in a bath all to his, but it was his house, after all I didn&039;t say anything as Kroun was already impressed, and mention of more would be pretentious As a kid back on the far about our three-seater outhouse lest the neighbors think the Fleance

"What was his probleain

I checked my middle Carefully Oh, yeah, that hurt A lot At least Coldfield hadn&039;t used wood A baseball bat would have done soe onto worry about"

"I&039;m not, but why&039;d you let him do it?"

"He had to work off stea"

Kroun thought that over, looking at me the whole time "You," he concluded, "are crazy"

No reason to deny it Tonight I happened to agree with him

"Who was he? Looked fa in the Bronze Belt He&039;s best friends with Escott He was in that grocery store alked through to visit Gordy the other night Youout for hile?"

"It never hurts to have someone like Gordy owe you a favor"

"So I&039;ve heard Is that what this is about? You wanting me to owe you a favor?"

"Huh?"

He stared a second "Ahh, never h to grab soap fro up to the third floor Soon water was running in the pipes,journey up froain, I checked et ofand spared his knuckles The man was a s still hurt, and I stubbornly held on to it as though that would somehow help Escott

I hobbled into the kitchen to blink at the clock If he rushed things, Kroun could get cleaned up and make it to bed before dawn I could take my time

I ain just because, then vanished, sinking down through the kitchen floor Once solid again in one, but I was tired, very tired

The sht next toblackness I&039;ic to the dark I didn&039;t used to be that way; but, after the crap I&039;d been through sincein the

No ere in y to sunlight Kroun had a right to be concerned about avoiding it, but he could s had to be a lot better for hi boom Did he have a supply of his hoht to ask

Damn, I didn&039;t want to think about him and what to do with hi his apparent death But the probleain, no way out of it The mess Kroun had come to town to clear up orse than before

Derner-following ive to the New York ht not satisfy them They were told that Kroun had been killed in the car explosion, then the ed the bomb was in turn killed by me in a shoot-out Very tidy Too oldfish," Ioff et out that there was no body in the destroyed car The bo, but not so et Unless Kroun did so, New York would only send another ottenpeople one tooclear of town for a while was te

My other option was just to get it over with and let the mob do the hit Let theo hoh I&039;d survived such attacks before The probleo back to al papers to a new naed would be a pain in the ass I had friends, fas to do, and I needed to be able to do the

I stretched flat on the cot, looseningme toward the center of the planet Illusion The pull was really from the spread of earth under the protective oilcloth This was one to, a tiny scrap of peace in the red chaos, protection froh a ton; the feeling was surprisingly pleasant

If I could hypnotize that nexthis job all would be well, but even thinking about using one of my evil-eye whammies made my head buzz like a too-crowded beehive The last time I&039;d employed that talent had damn near exploded my brain Deep-down instinct said another atte to be La men&039;s minds like the Shadoere over

Kroun was not crippled in that area, though I could probably talk his, especially if it meant his own safety If I were hi to try

Only he wasn&039;t ht as the rising sun swept me into the dreamless abyss for the day

KROUN

God, over that wouldn&039;t quite give up and leave

The through and through Gabriel had taken was healed; he could tell thatdeep under his knitted skin had alh pieces of hi their way back into place again What wouldn&039;t fit kept trying to rate up his throat If he was careful not to breathe orsee would rise, crest, and set his Gabe was da there would be nocalled the guest bath, twisted the sink&039;s left-hand tap, waiting, waiting, waiting until the water ran hot

Gabe stared at the mirror over the sink His faded, near-transparent reflection stared back The ones like Fle able to see hi must be an ordeal

On the other hand, he could disappear and get well again anytiiven much to have that; it would have saved hi close, he checked his tongue and eyes, didn&039;t find anything of interest, then scratched his chin and neck Yeah, a shave would be good, but have to wait No razor Did he need a haircut? If he could grab his hair in the back then it was too long Gabe ran a hand over his head Yeah, half an inch there at least Tie was still there of course-the one in the bone on the left side of his skull It one in And stayed That small piece of metal allowed him to discern a remnant of his presence in mirrors

His head hurt Not like when it first happened, but bad enough, aggravated by the latest calaain, and he didn&039;t like the violent reo someone had actually succeeded

He also didn&039;t like thinking about how many other people wanted him dead One fewer to their numbers, but still-

I&039;d trusted him Goddamned Mitchell Godda

It wasn&039;t as though Mitchell had intentionally shot Gabe tonight at the girl&039;s flat, but he had planned the bomb for the car What a dirty way to kill athe hell out of-

Jack Fle to be helpful, the next letting hiet pulped flat in his own house What kind of a screwball was he? He see a-Gabe stuly word

He&039;d read up on it, of course, and other details had just come to him from God knohere Northside Gordy had filled in uy who&039;d actually been through the sa toowas curious and had only begun to start with the snooping

Reporters They&039;re incurable

Gabe was inclined to shed hi, full of good intentions With the whole of Gordy&039;s organization on the hunt, Gabe wouldn&039;t stay lost for long He&039;d have to handle this carefully, keep the ed

He had been lucky at surviving until now, until they sent hiar punk who&039;d iced Hog Bristow

Having other errands to see to, Gabe had gone, hoping to figure a way to avoid killing anyone Fortunately, the punk had been s out that he was in the same bloodsuckers&039; club-well, that had been a real distraction

But while the co was too reckless about who he let in on his secret; sooner or later, he&039;d tell others about the new guy in town Though he seeht for the moment, he could turn on a thin dime

TheIt&039;d been daone into that fit Gabe couldn&039;t recall ever seeing anyone acting like that before, the sudden uncontrolled shivering, the eyes rolling up, then the poor bastard vanished into nothing He said he was better now, but if he forgot hiain apparently that hat set hi Torturing a bystander had never been part of the plan to get rid of Bristow, and it was just as well Fle hard to keep hi, and that erous to be around Soon as Gabe was on his feet and able to et clear

For that he would need a car and et it, but later, when he wasn&039;t wheezing like a bad engine

Moving with great caution to keep fro, Gabe stripped to the waist and ran a hot, soapy washcloth over his face and neck, going easy over the fresh scar on his chest There wasn&039;t enough time for a shower-bath He would only have to put on the saain It felt like he&039;d worn these for a week If this hat being dead involved then he should have planned it better

God, what have I letto work?

Gabriel Kroun wasn&039;t a nobody who could leave the party without a ripple He&039;d been through that before, the first time he died and found his had to run differently this time, and he had to work it better to avoid the same problems The boys back home either liked and feared him or hated and feared him, and there was at least one who couldn&039;t let his very public death slide without doing so didn&039;t seem to be too worried about that, and he should be; he was either an idiot or counting on Gabe to step in and help

Iout he was still walking around Gabe had gone through too et away frouys, but then Mitchell had seee for insurance, the man was made incurious about where and how Gabe spent his days, and that had been enough Not once had Gabe thought to add, Oh, by the way, don&039;t try killing o back to that Somebody up there had handed him a new start on a platter He was certain he didn&039;t deserve it, and suspicious that it ure out souest room was clean, but basic There was a wardrobe, no closet None of the rooms on the floor had closets Except for spare blankets, the wardrobe was empty and too small to hide in He pulled all the blankets out and spread them on the bed Damn, that looked vulnerable

The room had one tall, narro with curtains and a pull-down shade that would di it aside he peered at the street below and each house within view A few lights showed in s Early risers were getting ready for work, their wivesthose things, but not their taste It had been good He was sure of that

Bacon greasy, hot, crisp when fried right, but was it sweet, sour, bitter, or salty? He just didn&039;t know

He put the shade back and yanked the heavy curtains together The predawn light was strong, leaving painful after-iot worse because of it

He shucked his shoes and trousers, folding hiood, in fact The sheets sees, so he h to pull over his head along with the extra blankets Black as a o