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Wind suddenly gusted strongly through the alley, whipping dead leaves and a few scraps of paper ahead of it

The cop’s eyes had becoht source behind theed, too, until they were elongated and strange like those of a cat

The dog’s growl becahtened whine

In the nearby ravine the eucalyptus trees shook in the wind, and their soft soughing grew into a roar like that of an angryas a cop had commanded the wind to rise to lend h surely he did not have so much power as that

"When I come for you at sunrise, I’ll break open your bodies, eat your hearts"

His voice had changed as coravelly, the ed in Hell

He took a step toward the Her heart was ha so hard, she knew her tor also retreated, alternately whining and growling, his tail tucked between his legs

"At dawn, you sorry bitch You and your snotnosed little brat

Sixteen hours Only sixteen hours, bitch Ticktock ticktock

ticktock"

The wind died in an instant The whole world fell silent No rustling of trees No distant thunder

A twig, bristling with half a dozen long eucalyptus leaves, hung in the air a few inches to her right and a foot in front of her face It waswind that had supported it, but still ically suspended like the dead scorpion in the souvenir acrylic paperweight that Vince had once bought at an Arizona truckstop

The cop’s freckled face stretched and bulged with areat pressure had been exerted His green, catlike eyes appeared ready to pop out of his wildly deformed skull

Janet wanted to run for the car, her haven, home, lock the door, safe in their home, and drive like hell, but couldn’t do it, dared not turn her back on hiht down and torn apart in spite of the promised sixteenhour head start, because he wanted her to watch his transfornored

The powerful were intensely proud of their power The gods of fear needed to preen and to be admired, to see how their power humbled and terrified those ere powerless before the together, eyes liquefying into red pools of hot oil, the oil soaking into his doughy cheeks until he was eyeless, nose sliding into hisout across his chin and cheeks, then no chin or cheeks anyround, so the presence of heat was probably an illusion

Maybe all of it was an illusion, hypnosis That would explain a lot, raise new questions, yes, but explain a lot

His body was pulsing, writhing, changing inside his clothes

Then his clothes were dissolving into his body, as if they had never been real clothes but just another part of him Briefly the new form he assuated head began taking shape on a powerful neck, hunched and gnarled shoulders, baleful yellow eyes, a ferocity of wicked teeth and twoinch claws, a movie olf

On each of the four previous occasions this thing had appeared before her, it had ’manifested itself differently, as if to impress her with its repertoire But she was unprepared for what it became now

It relinquished the wolf incarnation even before that body had couise once h the facial features were less than half developed, she believed it was going to become her dead husband The dark hair was the same, the shape of the forehead, the color of one malevolent pale eye

The resurrection of Vince, buried beneath Arizona sands for the past year, shookJanetelse the creature had done or become, and at last she cried out in fear Danny screa did not have the fickle heart of a stray He stopped whining and responded as if he had been with them since he was a pup He bared his teeth, snarled, and snapped at the air in warning

Vince’s face remained less than half formed, but his body took shape, and he wad naed as he had been when she had overwhelmed hiht she saw the wounds left by the kitchen knife hich she had killed hiashes that were bloodless, but dark and raw and terrible

Vince raised one ar attacked Collarless life on the streets had not left Woofer weak or sickly He was a strong, wellmuscled animal, and when he launched hiht as readily as a bird

His snarl was clipped off, and he was miraculously halted in e on a videotape after someone pushed the "pause" button Flashfrozen

Foamy slaver shone like frost on his black lips and in the fur around his leamed as coldly as rows of sreen leaves, hung unsupported to Janet’s right, the dog to her left The at Woofer for eternity in his e, yet Janet was able to breathe when she remembered to try

Still halffor

She turned and ran, pulling Danny with her, expecting to freeze in midstep What would it feel like? Would darkness fall over her when she was paralyzed or would she still be able to see Vince walk into view froain? Would she drop into a well of silence or be able to hear the dead man’s hateful voice? Feel the pain of each blow that he rained on her or be as insensate as the levitated eucalyptus twig?

Like flood waters, a tide of wind roared through the alleyway, nearly knocking her over The world was filled with sound again

She spun around and looked back in time to see Woofer return to life in er anyone for hi landed on the paveain, snapping his head around in fear and confusion, looking for his prey as if it had vanished before his eyes

Danny was crying

The threat seemed to have passed The backstreet was deserted but for Janet, her boy, and the dog Nevertheless, she hurried Danny toward the car, eager to get away, glancing repeatedly at the brush filled ravine and at the deep shadows between the huge trees as she passed theain, ready to feed on their hearts sooner than it had pro flickered The roar of thunder was louder and closer than before

The air smelled of the rain to come That ozone taint reminded Janet of the stink of hot blood

Harry Lyon was sitting at a corner table at the rear of the burger restaurant, clasping a water glass in his right hand, his left hand fisted on his thigh Now and then he took a sip of water, and each sip seelassabsorbed a chill, instead of heat, froaze traveled over the toppled furniture, ruined plants, broken glass, scattered food, and congealing blood Nine wounded had been carried away, but two dead bodies lay where they had fallen A police photographer and lab technicians were at work

Harry are of the room and the people in it, the periodic flash of the camera, but what he saw more clearly was the re down at hiled limbs of the mannequins The parted lips ith blood The ts of his eyes and the view of Hell beyond

Harry was no less surprised to be alive now than when they had pulled the dead man and the departmentstore dummies off him

His stomach still ached dully where the plaster hand of the ht of the perp behind It

He’d thought he’d been shot The perp had fired twice at close range, but evidently both rounds had been deflected by the intervening plaster torsos and limbs

of the five rounds that Harry had fired, at least three had done e

Plainclothes detectives and techs passed in and out of the nearby, bullettorn kitchen door, on their way to or from the second floor and attic Some spoke to him or clapped him on the shoulder

"Good work, Harry"

"Harry, you okay?"

"Nice job, , Harry?"

"Some shitstorm, huh, Harry?"

He murmured "thanks" or "yes" or "no" or just shook his head