Page 55 (1/1)

They were co sound she’d heard once before, she recognized the pounding of footsteps and the swish of fabric

He was running right for her

She pressed the button on the intercom with a sharp sense of satisfaction Blood rushed past her ears, deafening her and h, signaling that she was out therecalling for help

Before she could blink, she felt a muscled arm snake around her throat, and a hand close viciously over her ed backward, violently hauled down the stairs and away froht have connected her to Sara The cell phone fell froled--or tried to--but the ar her so tightly that she was already suffocating within the to break free from the callused hand that covered her ed and her throat burned as her windpipe threatened to collapse on itself

He whisked her away frohed less than nothing It took her a moment to realize they were in the alleyway between the Center and the next building It was dark in the space between the massive warehouses, darker than it had been out in the open And when he released Violet, throwing her to the ground, she landed hard on her hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air She didn’t bother to look up She didn’t need to see his face to knoho he was Or what he was capable of

Janized those imprints anywhere

"Look e have here" His words ca with the choral voices of the echo he carried "Bet you didn’t expect to seeViolet to look directly at hiaze away froled beneath his skin, shifting around the permanent ink on his face and neck He’d shaved his head since she’d seen hio It was s echo snaked over his skull now too

Unsteadily, Violet struggled to her feet "Why are you here?" she squeaked out, her throat barelyroom for her words "What do you want fro her movements so that his mouth remained just inches from hers So close that Violet could feel his sticky breath So close she was certain he could taste her fear "I came here to find you" One of his black brows slashed upward "And you made it so easy," he sneered "Not that many White Rivers around My boys and I, ere able to track you down likethat" He snapped his fingers in front of her face, and Violet flinched

Her heart haled to think of a way out of this Tried to decide if there was a way out "Why m-me? Wh-what did I do?"

"I think you knohy I think you should stop asking stupid questions" His jaw flexed and Violet could see hi fro , and Violet was thrown backward by the powerful blow Her cheek just below her left eye exploded with shattering pain, and her vision blurred as she crashed to the ground behind her "I don’t knohat you told them, or what you think you saw, but you don’t know shit" Violet barely had ti stride and his foot was flying toward her Instinctively, she rolled away froraze her hip

"S-stopplease," she begged, her face in her hand, her cheek throbbing savagely "I didn’t see anything! I swear" It wasn’t a lie, not really

"Then what? Did you hear her? Did you hear that durin broke over his face A depraved and sinister grin Violet felt sick as his voice dropped "Did you hear her screa for the lives of her babies?" Violet tried to shake her head, to tell hi for her, grabbing a fistful of her hair He yanked her so hard that her neck felt like it had snapped as he lifted her so her face was even with his "Do you knomouth shut!" Spittle sprayed froonna kill you, bitch"

And then he was dragging her by her hair, away from the mouth of the alleyway into the shadows beyond, where no one would see the into the paverab on to

She believed what he’d said about killing her, and she was desperate to find a way to stop him When he threw her down behind a pile of wooden pallets covered with broken-down cardboard boxes, her entire body was shaking, her fingertips bloodied and raw She desperately hoped that the haunting chorus of echoes he carried wasn’t about to become the eerie backdrop to her death

He loo an expression thatwhen she kicked out at hi in pure survival s, and she was rewarded when she felt his kneecap grind beneath her foot When she heard hiasp sharply, practically a screa she still had a chance

"Help!" she shrieked, running--stu, really--away from James Nua "Pleasesomeone help me!" But her voice was splintered, too soft and too frail