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FLEMING

DUGAN held the shiny-clean scalpel rock steady between his fingers, looking doith that damned perlinted now He was a truly happy man

You knohat coainst it I&039;d been to the brink and over I couldn&039;t go there again

Eyes shut, I gave up

Mywith the hot breeze, shade tree overhead, sunbeaood, but I needed coainst the tree was Escott, coatless, shirtsleeves rolled up, waistcoat unbuttoned, no tie He sipped lereen fields around us He looked surprisingly at peace

Bobbi was in the stock tank She heldswi from red to blue to yellow, soht on her, but this was the first tiht It reen sparks in her eyes

She smiled like it was the world&039;s first day and bent to kiss me I felt her lips and knew if she stayed with, harsh as a wasp

I held fast to my illusion for a few more precious seconds, then had to see what hurt

It was and was not what I&039;d expected

My wrist hung out past the edge of the table, and Dugan had sliced into it, but not to strip away flesh He was hunched over holding a glass under the wound, collecting the blood

My initial shock and disgust were overwhel to skin me, just drain me dry That wasn&039;t as painful In the end I&039;d just fall asleep

As deaths went, it was the best I could expect

I smothered my relief, but while one part of , another part seethed with blind fury for what he was doing I tried to pull away, but of course the metal held The hot shock wasdown in reaction to the blood loss I could feel enuinely warht, didn&039;t they? The hospital Your friend was so sick I was there"

How? One of the reporters? But they&039;d left The only other one

"You are quite the catalyst for cala? First that actor shot, then your partner hurt What a terrible beating he had I troubled to get close to your little group, and it was just too easy You&039;re all so tidily wrapped up in your concerns You looked right at me once, but didn&039;t really see No one notices a huht Too late now to feel stupid over it The wig, thick glasses, and a big mustache to hide his distinctive mouth had done the trick

"Such a reossiping about the dying patient as made to drink blood, then had a miraculous recovery"

The cut insidea welt that would fade if I lived long enough The glass he held was a laboratory beaker with measurement lines up the sides He&039;d drawn off at least a cup of my blood Much et free I was dizzy fro the contents of the beaker

"How generous you were to save his life-and letting e mine for the better"

I wanted to s him not ss I&039;d not paid them the proper attention Now theyjust to hear his own voice I understood now

He wanted to turn hian correctly interpreted my revulsion He leaned in close "Remember e first spoke in your office? I told you then I wanted you for a very si that would offend your sense of er sharply against the rod It ain, and more of et into one of the larger banks for a modest withdrawal They wouldn&039;t have missed it, and it would have been of considerable help to ry Bloodsmell was everywhere, and I couldn&039;t touch it I had to fight to stay focused

"I realized there would be no effective way to control you; therefore, my best course of action was to acquire your abilities ly little information available, and much of it is suspect However, your friend&039;s ave me all I really needed" He lifted the beaker "I&039;hts to effect the full transforreeious nonsense Now you kno long you&039;ll be here Once I&039;o-I know you don&039;t believe that You dealt me some very shabby treatment, but really, I was never your eneravestone

"Be assured, I&039;ll have a long head start before you&039;re set free I know you won&039;t be persuaded to a sensible neutrality toward ainst you You&039;re no different fro to instinct You lack the capacity for-"

"Ya want in the union?" I asked My voice had turned reedy It was hard to draw in enough air to speak "Why dint ya say so? I&039;da put th&039; word in"

"You waste yourself"

No doubt I needed him to underestimate me

"And you can&039;t even see it But you have o Oh-your friends won&039;t e made when I broke into your little lair I also left a suitablyservice They&039;re under the i Exasperating, perhaps, but they won&039;t look for you"

Would Escott question that? Or Bobbi? The way I&039;d been acting lately

"This won&039;t be pleasant for either of us, but I will be civil to you for the duration Once this is over, you&039;ll never see an raised the beaker to his lips and took his first taste It e by his expression He had to force himself

He drank all of it, which was more than was needed A sip would do the job-if it worked I stared the way you do at a car accident It&039;s bad, but you can&039;t stop until you see the worst What would it be, a dead body or a dying one? I was the one dying, though I&039;d lost soaway the rest

Yet as I lay there, weak and starving, I began to laugh, very softly

He&039;s got it wrong

I used up what little strength reood

His eyes were strange, very bright It would be hard getting hione himself

"What is it?" he asked Suspicion from him now I had to be ive hi to mislead "You look funny, Gurley Hilbert" I trailed off drowsily Not an act-I was shutting down the same as I did at dawn

He disliked the distortion of his naht hied animal Hell, he was in control, but it wouldn&039;t last He&039;d et so weak

"That pettiness doesn&039;t matter to me You don&039;t see that I I don&039;t-"

Then he abruptly broke off, falling fro blood is not so people just do There&039;s only sosick Even with ood, it had taken ot used to the idea itself and accepted it How much worse was it for this fastidious, fancy-pants society swan You can&039;t think too an was obsessed with his intellectual superiority Whatever was going through his hly Odds were he&039;d find it impossible Minds like his had no off switch

But was his reaction a result froeneral or my blood in particular?

Until that miracle in Escott&039;s hospital room, I&039;d have bet on the former Not so sure any, but ould it do to a well ot it wrong

This had happened to e her had gotten the ordering right If Dugan had somehow made me drink his blood first, and then taken from me, I&039;d have been worried He&039;d left out that step We were both in strange waters with this variation

I wasn&039;t going to tell hi, ust than physical pain Escott hadn&039;t reacted, but he&039;d been unconscious

If I could just lift up a bit to see as-

Then my eyelids suddenly closed on their own

Death&039;s own silent chill seized s, trunk, it was like being buried in snow, very snug, very final I&039;d been through this before, too Didn&039;t like it, but better than getting skinned

I&039;d expected this, but still felt a hurt surprise