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I soaped my hair and scoured the botto in between as well, every part of me that Bruiser had touched, had h, unshaven face I was abrading the top layer of skin and I didn’t care If that hat it took to get the reek of Bruiser off ofoff the wall Leo stood there, vaed into the blistering strea, "You are--"

Time stood still Droplets of water stopped, suspended Stea--vibrated in place Leo hung in the air, midleap, his face frozen in a rictus of fury Still dressed in his tux

There were two-inch talons on each fingertip His lips were pulled back in a snarl Three-inch fangs were snapped down in eating/fighting position Eyes like pits into hell, opening inside volcanos, viewed from above as one fell into the darkness Vamped out Vamped out and beyond ticked off Leo didn’t like to be dissed

Timetime was stopped Or nearly so Or I was suddenly outside of it

Silver lights stood a the shower droplets, black ray place of the change And nothing was happening I wasn’t shifting I was justhere The gray place of the change was present and real, yet not overtaking ested that I offer a blood sacrifice, I had wanted time to stop Now it had And I had no idea how it had happened except that I had done this So-cat alone Hayyel made us so But there will be a price

Isn’t there always? I thought back

In the shower stall, the water droplets seemed a fraction of an inch lower Leo, a fraction of an inch closer But I had plenty of tiel The Everharts and Truebloods had suelina Everhart Stone had suic, black arts, blood-diamond artifact that currently resided in one ofwith the iron discs otha and a few pocket watches from Natchez, Mississippi--which also had so the about ti that I wasn’t sure it out, and that I’d eventually have to find a physicist to explain it toIt stood still and it rushed ahead all at once, all the pathways and possibilities of the future open at one time I hadn’t seen much of it What I had seen was distorted and blended, like a single frame from a thousand movies, overlaid and viewed at once Madness Madness I had instantly forgotten, too much for my human brain to see/internalize/analyze/understand

Thoseto rise A distinct i with heat and possibility And still tooto you, to us, in the ht

Yesss

What? What did he do?

Hard to think Hard to think like Jane Beast shook her head and pawed my mind, frustrated He showed Jane a way totrue life He showed Beast how to forgive the life that Jane had stolen

I understand that part But that doesn’t explain the ies in all the droplets Or the fact that ti to kill us It also doesn’t tell us what to do about it all