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"Princess, I only knoo things One is that I’ hu to stop me And two, I’m on my own"

"Don’t play that martyr shit with et it You think I’ this because I’s better now A friend laid it out forI live for now is to kill as et what I want By the standards of most sane people, that makes me a monster I’m fine with that And, if I’ back to where theIt’s where I want to be"

Allegra reaches down, picks up one of the piles of DVDs, and begins to straighten theene loves you," she says

"That’s nice My father loved me He tried to shootIt was just after sunup and cold enough that I could see my breath I’d spotted a six-point buck ahead in the tree line I led the way, up front a few yards, with , signaled my father to stop I raised er, I heard another gun go off and so hit me on the side of the head My father’s shot had missedI looked back at hi bark and splinters had hitit was all an accident, asking if I was okay But behind all the panic in his eyes, there was nothing but fear and loathing He hated hi the shot, but he hated "

"I’m so sorry"

"Just because sooing to fuck you over the first chance they get"

"What about Alice? Did she fuck you over, too?"

"No She’s the one who didn’t"

Allegra e ashtrays into a metal trash can on the floor

"Doesn’t that ?"

"No I told her I loved her about a ot her killed"

"But you both loved each other You still have that"

"You loved your drug-dealer boyfriend I bet he told you he loved you every day How’d that work out for you?"

"This isn’t about ht, it’s not So, why don’t you run along back to Vidocq and let et all of you and this town behind me?"

She shakes her head, pushes more junk from the table into the trash, and starts for the door

"After I’one," I tell her, "as far as I’m concerned, you can have Max Overdrive Parker’s killed Kasabian by now, so he’s not going to want it back I’lamour that’ll "

She drops the trash can by the door Lets it fall over and spill food wrappers, earette butts on the floor

"You knohat? You’re not a ene should have let Aelita put you out of your ene’s" She kicks the can out of the way and slale step, like she’s punishing the staircase, like God’s tiniest tyrannosaurus

WHEN ALLEGRA IS gone, I finish cleaning and reasseuns When that’s done, I take old newspapers and paper bags fro table and lay theulation na’at to its full length, it’s ten feet of very sharp Hellion steel teeth, spikes, and spines Soo whenever you pick up the na’at Others only open up when you trigger therip

Traditionally, you use a na’at like a spear or a staff, but there’s another trigger that collapses the central shaft Suddenly the na’at is as loose as chicken chow mein, aa grape Not that I’ve ever peeled a rhino or a grape, but you get the idea

I only mention this to explain that your basic na’at has a lotany human has ever manufactured When you decide to WD-40 your na’at, you need a lot of room and a lot of newspapers to soak up the excess oil You should also open abefore you start spraying lube and solvents around your bedroo the newspaper and the na’at across the roouns under the mattress and wash the WD-40 off h clothes that I’m back down to video-store T-shirts and jeans I throw on the silk overcoat I’ve been avoiding and slip the knife inside On the way out, I push open the three big s on the wall opposite the bed

The short walk to the Bamboo House of Dolls clears the stink out of arette later and I’s me my food, I drink to his health I haven’t donesome skinheads, but I can’t exactly talk to hi that doesn’t sound stupid, but I didn’t know ives up and walks off to serve other customers

I haven’t talked to him much lately I haven’t wanted to talk uy know that I appreciate hiht now Carlos is about the closest thing I have to friend on this planet With Cherry, Jayne-Anne, and Kasabian gone, so are all ht in the o When you’re in that neighborhood, you need at least one person on your side Preferably one with a bar

I finish off twoaroundto have to talk to soet to the door right on the last puff ofthe butt into the Dumpster, I let one, but now there’s so else Alcohol? Disinfectant? The staircase s room

I find out why a minute later By then I’ Slip and Slide, so there’s no chance of host in the dirty trench coat that’s waving a baseball bat into do with it

Pieces of the world start falling back into place enough for to host It’s Kasabian, and he’s held together with a lot of metal rods and screws There’s a metal band bolted around his head, held in place by steel dowels that are attached to a brace on his chest A traction halo It holds his head onto his body well enough for hi makes him move like a rusty windup toy Still, for a kid’s toy, he’s doing a pretty good job tuning up my ribs

I deflect a couple of the bloith ood as it sounds Kasabian is so stiff, he has to stand in one place to work s around and catch hioes down on the knee, but refuses to fall over Just keeps s and red-faced But he’s working froe now, so the shots hurt a lot less than before

I swing ain This tiets his attention Kasabian drops the bat and crab walks his way back, putting some distance between my foot and his head

Except for the first surprise shot on the back of my skull, he hasn’t hurt me too much Kasabian et up the strength to do any real da around, I’d swear that his body was in rigor les around too much, his head will pop off Let’s test that theory