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"You, too"

"I&039;ll be fine Shoe and I are staying"

Coldfield didn&039;t speak, but his expression was eloquent Yes, Escott seeate the fact that I&039;d nearly killed him If not for Gabriel Kroun and the devil&039;s own luck, Escott would almost certainly be dead by noever matters had turned out, I had been stupid, and Coldfield did not forgive stupidity

We were very e to Escott&039;s skin had faded His color was nearly normal except for the bruises, and he looked to be in a natural sleep instead of deeply unconscious That death smell was still present, but it was old air not yet cleared by the ventilation What I got fro reassured

It&039;d happened extremely fast In a tiny span of hours he&039;d drifted back from the brink I&039;d watched the process and hardly dared to hope The doctor had muttered about a lance at me and whisper to others, and on down the ladder went the story Even the deaf old janitor otten word; he kept his back to the co any part of it

What the consequences uess Bobbi-all of us-wanted to know if it would change him in some other way

I only knew of one means to turn a person into a vae takes place, but with a nor in the vampire&039;s blood; that was hoas done

Kroun&039;s variation was new to , which was nuts What har about drinking Kroun&039;s blood? Perhaps as a fever-induced dreaht tell him I wouldn&039;t knohere to start

Bobbi proood-bye, nodded at Coldfield, who did not react, and left

I drove to the Stockyards

Snow sifted down, cheerful as Christ The milk trucks were out, as were the newspaper trucks, not a lot of cars We h he wouldn&039;t ad Bristow put otten into the habit of never letting e I found a place to park under a broken streetlaot out

"Cripes, what a stink," he coh fence separated us from the source of the stink Not a probleet in He studied the fence and shook his head, apparently mindful of his new clothes

"It&039;s not that bad," I said

"Yes It is You have more of those bottles in your icebox?"

"Yeah, but-"

"I know Not fresh I&039;ll get by Hurry it up before we&039;re under a drift I&039;ll be in the car"

He had a hell of a lot more self-control than I did By now I&039;d have been crazy-starved, shaking, and suffering tunnel vision Maybe the bullet in his skull had so to do with it Kroun sauntered back to the Buick and shut hih the fence, and re-formed on the other side

After et used to ot was one thing; it was the part about biting into a living ani fro tih, and eventually I reached the point of not thinkingand hot ht not have the saht froh with two-day-old leftovers Others wouldn&039;t even notice a difference Maybe he was like that

These nights I had to be cautious about choosing a four-footed victi skittish animals; now I had to find ones that were already calic, the next trying to tra handled The shorter hair on their hides was a bonus

Three tries to find an animal that allowed s were getting da onto a butcher shop was looking better by the minute

The cattle in the next pen over abruptly stirred, restless and noisily fretting Theyair, but if not, then so else had bothered the more careful was still fresh in my mind

You can&039;t be paranoid if so and looked around, listening hard, but I heard only lowing and the wind Sight was li snow The cattle could have been reacting to the weather or one of the yard workers I&039;d learned to avoid theot spotted Usually ahi about a dark-clad specter haunting the stock pens

Had it been a worker, he&039;d have yelled by now My neck prickled the way it does when you think you&039;re being watched Most of the ti, and no one is around, but I paid attention to such warnings The instinct is there for a reason The last tian had stepped out of the cold shadows and shot me

He didn&039;t seem to be around, which was just as well for us both I&039;d have killed hiht Not a lot of people inspired that kind of reaction in iven the opportunity to bury hihts

I had co e, I vanished and floated out, not re-for until I was close to the Buick If anyone saw, then their vieould be as iander at what I could see of the e it

"What?" Kroun asked "Soht"

No disagreeain

Any other tier, but it was late, and I was tired I should have a revolving door installed so the next wave of house-breakers would have an easier ti a door lock, someone had let hi out the glass near the top so he could twist the catch, lift, and cliht away I noticed the curtains fluttering The as wide open, and glass shards gleamed from the melted snow that had blown in It overlooked the alley behind the house The neighbors had

"Your friends were here again," I said, disgusted

Suitcases full of his new clothes in hand, Kroun put thears on top of one He walked to theand studied smears left by the intruder&039;s wet shoes "Don&039;t think so Michael can open any door, and Broder would just kick it in They&039;re not this sloppy"

Yeah, maybe I did a quick search of all three floors, attic, and the base bosses fro outside, I looked in the garage, but Escott&039;s Nash was safe I found footprints in the snow by the house, but the fresh fall had nearly filled them in-not that I was an expert tracker The intruder had pushed a garbage can under theand used it to boost hi the locked doors, he&039;d left the same way His prints led toward the alley entry and the street beyond

"Michael&039;s got no reason to return," Kroun said when I came back "If he wants to knowto Gordy"

"What if they were here for you?"

"Then they were disappointed, but this doesn&039;t s to shake me up"

"Why should they bother?" He shut the front door, cutting down on the cold cross draft fro?"

"Don&039;t know" I made a second search of the place Escott and I didn&039;t have old pocket watch, but kept it in a safe hidden under the basear boxes stuffed with money there, too Neither of us trusted banks hout the house so seelar," said Kroun "A reporter after dirt? There were plenty of them around when that Russian dame was all over you"

"Maybe Faustine wasn&039;t shy about na names But if anyone wanted to know about me, he could ask for an interview No need to do this"

"What about the FBI?"

I didn&039;t like that one "I&039;h for them to bother with"

"Don&039;t be so sure That Hoover is crazy He tells his boys to do soood idea or not Like me with Gordy&039;s bunch"

"But-" I broke off

"You think of so?"

"Gilbert Dugan-that society bu to send anonymous letters off to a lot of places, the cops, the FBI, the tax people, to let theate I got rid of those letters, but he ht have written more"

"They&039;d pay attention to mail from souy having a slow day to set a ball rolling Maybe the G-le a joint, but this doesn&039;tfirst"

"Who else has it in for you?"

"Hand me a phone book"

"Don&039;t stay here then I&039;m not" He went into the kitchen and opened the icebox He pulled out a brown bottle and yanked the cork I&039;d seen drunks guzzle a beer that fast, but not often As before, it hit hiood stuff you keep there Thanks for the hospitality" He left the empty in the sink and went toward the front hall He looked at his suitcases a moment, shook his head, and walked out the front door without them

"Hey, I&039;m supposed to keep an eye on you," I called from the porch

"I&039;ll stay out of trouble, I pro?"

"Don&039;t know yet Safer that way"

"You need a ride there?"

"Nope"

"You co Still need to wind up so the snow

No point asking what the business et his clothes

I shut the door and s about the ass who&039;d broken theThe place wasn&039;t secure forthe day

My secret room under the kitchen well, so under it were slightly out of place Escott was s squarely over a sarette burn he&039;dit was a kind of burglar alarm, and damned if it hadn&039;t worked The burn was visible noas seriously spooked

The intruder had not made it down into the rooet out I had a folding one kept out of sight under ht, unused

The intruder chose to avoid getting trapped in my basement lair, but he&039;d still seen it What had he made of it? I didn&039;t keep any secret diary or i lurid fiction for dih himself silly

A sense of violation, shaken confidence, and rage-I had the whole list of what it feels like when an unknown threat invades one&039;s supposedly safe castle This was far froh the experience, but you never get used to it If I found the guy he wouldn&039;t be happy With both arms broken, it&039;s hard to clied scrap boards in the baseot the ha to the sash, I stuffed layers of newspapers in the gap between theain, he could do it; this was just to keep the weather out As a repair it stank, but I felt better for the effort

It was too dangerous to sleep the day here, and there wasn&039;t time to drive to Lady Crymsyn and hide out in its hidden sanctuary-if it was indeed still hidden The bad guys htcrawler and having a couple of the bouncers coht be in on it Maybe it had been an overeager reporter looking for dirt Maybe it had been those two cops, Merrifield and Garza

Locking the front and back doors-including shoving a chair under each knob-I inspected all the s, pulling shades, seeing to it the catches caught It wasanyone out I worked h ti as I was quick One scalding-hot shower and a close shave later put me in an iht, intending to waste no ti back to the hospital to see Escott Yes, he was better, but a relapse could happen Hope and worry chased the the other turn on turn, no end in sight to their insane race

Grabbing two spare blankets from a cupboard and an oilcloth packet of my home earth, I went up to the attic

A deteret in despite a heavy trunk I&039;d dragged over the trapdoor, but I wouldn&039;t be sleeping there Stooping to avoid rafters, I walked to the far end of the narrow space where a slass peered at a sih, floated over, and re-fors, went semitransparent, and drifted to a dark corner behind soain andquietly, I put one blanket on the dusty floor, lay down, and wrapped up in the other Very cozy I&039;d done this before for a little peace ofunder the s I couldn&039;t handle I&039;d rest well for the day, as safe as could be ihbors would find e sihhis presence He&039;d look after hi the way

That gave uy, same as his friends Michael had specifically warned me to beware of hi up to the side he&039;d shown tonight If he was that bad, then why had he saved Escott? So that I&039;d owe hienuinely concerned at the time

Why wouldn&039;t he talk?

Wh-

Sunrise

KROUN

Cold town Damn cold town

Gabriel felt a lot better with a bellyful of blood, but even that wasn&039;t enough to take away the heavy weariness that had crept up on him over the last few hours

He needed rest, the kind he only ever got fro on soil, but that was a luxury he&039;d just have to put off Leaving hiht terrors in the day, whatever they were, was more important

Mixed in with their horrors was inforh the car, but if they also led to so useful-like how he&039;d known his blood would help that h it

Fle too pushy with his questions

Gabe hadn&039;t enjoyed busting the kid, but souy&039;s playing du wasn&039;t duetting under the skin No wonder Hog Bristow had

Gabe&039;s shoulders jerked No, better not to be thinking about that mistake just before bedtis about another man&039;s run of bad luck He did not need to drea survived the ordeal? Even Gordy didn&039;t have those particulars

Looking over his shoulder more than a few tiotten into Fle fro to come after one or the other of them

No one showed himself on foot or in a car; what could be seen of the street through the thick snowfall was clear Fleet, then Presumably he would find a safer haven for the day than that drafty brick barn

Notup the pave in his tracks, Gabe left the rows of houses, entering the beginnings of a business area This here the neighborhood wives bought their groceries, where their husbands worked, where their kids ran errands A good life when you could find it Gabe&039;s life before his change had not been so tranquil, he was certain of that

He found the shop he wanted, one that Fle had driven past on the way back to the house On second look it still see the street was obscured with sheets of yellowed newspaper to discourage the curious fro crookedly on the door The alcove entry was littered with minor trash, indication that no one had been there for months Make that years The papers dated froot his went bust on Wall Street There were a few long tables, shelving, and a single counter for the clerk and cash register, but no other indication of its history The dust was thick and the stale air cold, but Gabe had knoorse places to spend the day

He found a se closet in the back Solid door, no s Good No rooood, but he&039;d live with it He scrounged around the shop and found a spindly wooden stool that would serve A feipes with a forgotten rag cleaned the dirt off the seat Gabe took it in the closet and positioned it just right He sat, back against the closed door, legs braced so he wouldn&039;t fall over No one could sleep like that, but then his bout of daylight immobility couldn&039;t really be called sleep Better this than sitting on the floor in his new clothes

Gabe let his head droop forward, shut his eyes, and waited for the sun to smother his conscious mind for the day

The dreams did not disappoint

The ain There was no losing them, not when they called the inside of his head ho car He felt the fire, the ripping within his chest as the smoke seared him from the inside out Close, too close He could have died there Died again The changes in his body prevented that, but the awful recovery

He ept farther back and heard the wind threading through the pine needles again How he loved that sound Peace, pure peace It did not last The soothing music cut off as earth, wet and icy cold, was heaped over his inert body

Yes, it was bad One of the really bad memories

He&039;d been buried and would stay there, deep in his grave

No ending to this one Death was like that It was forever He was dead and aware of every grindinghi panic, the weight crushing his chest, the dirt clogging his mouth, nose, and ears, the absolute paralysis, the cold; he was coelic choir, no hell&039;s chorus, no afterlife at all, only infinite, unrelieved isolation He&039;d go et free, somehow

The earth was heavy, but he could shift it if he tried Maybe

Some shred of will returned to as left of his consciousness and transferred to his dead liled and squir upward He hoped it was up There had been stars framed by pine branches above hi toward the he&039;d ever done Had they heaped rocks atop his body? He pushed at whatever it was, shoving it to one side rather than lifting-

His frozen hands clawed air

More effort, and he worked his torso free, then his legs, boosting hirabbed at a tree trunk and held on, spitting dirt, blinking

Woods Darkness A shts No sound but the wind and the soft lap of water A lake no, a river He ca That, and and as it?

He was filthy, and he stank Smells were painfully sharp: the clean cold wind, the scent from the pine trees, the muddy earth, the blood His clothes were soaked with it

And God in heaven, his head hurt He pressed pal Take a lifetiht co storm

It hurt the ht in the bone As he touched it, the pain exploded He dropped in his tracks, unable to bite off the screarave and shrieked until his air was gone Not replacing it see, he understood it was all right He was dead, and things were different now

Dead Just not a ghost Soony eased

Only it didn&039;t

After a long, long ti away

He swiped dirt from his eyes His vision blurred and failed for a fewpain: he had the firsthand h it He was in danger fro the sun It would rise soon He had to find a place to hide froain Not ever

Besides, there was no, that couldn&039;t be right For a tiny instant he forgot his pain, trading it for curiosity

Gabe touched an oddly faed under the loose clods and rust brown pine needles

His nu it off

When he realized what it was, he yanked his hand back as though fro up to the left side of his head as though to keep his brain froh the bone

He had no comparable pain, but reotten through it?

Where was that place? Not near Chicago It was the cabin and it was

Gone now The sunset took it fro he&039;d found as it? He could alertips

The sunset took that as well

Damn

His raised hand was a fist now, and he considered punching a hole in the wall, then thought better of it This deserted and forlorn old shop wasn&039;t his property to dae He made himself relax and stretched out of his braced posture

Not too bad, just a little stiff He&039;d lose that on the walk back to Fle&039;s house Gabe wasn&039;t fully rested, but he would make up for it later

Patience Another day&039;s worth of drea

In the meantime he&039;d talk to the old bastard and see if that would help