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"Yeah I also know that what happened to your wife and to your kids when they were attacked by witch va in the wrong place at the wrong time I also know that the real reason you hate h job of protecting your faht, you hate rowled, soa pop psychologist?" he asked "Because I’et back home To ive yourself I understand uilt I totally understand it" Before he could raise one of his massive fists and knock me into the next state, I held out the discs from the pocket-watch amulets As per Evan’s instruction, the discs had been removed from the amulets and were now all fused into one circular luain but extended his hand I dropped it--them--into his left paw I placed the iron sliver in its copper wiring in his right hand, just like he had texted me The moment his hand closed on the sloeird yellowish color in the griht

I looked at Bruiser and said, "Let’s do this"

Bruiser was heavily ar everything I owned that had a point, a sharp edge, or would fire a full of stuff Evan had required, under un, checked the load, and headed inside, following Bruiser, who broke through the crime scene tape and busted open the door with a well-placed kick He-man stuff Which would have made me smile if my face still remembered how

Inside, the house was cold but dry, the heat off The electric company hadn’t turned off the power, however, and the house had little lights along the walls, like Christhts, to show the way I took the lead and found the hidden door to the basement Opened it, as I had the first time I was here

The smell ballooned out, as if it had been under pressure and opening the door released the effluvia It was horrible It would never go away, no matter how many cleansers they used, no allons of cherave never, ever, went away They would have to burn the place But now, nearly hidden below the stink of the grave, the place smelled of spidey vamp

I stepped down the stairs The hts as I ca the room below The cement floor was a reddish brown--the color of the blood that had seeped into the porous surface There was no furniture, only bookcases on all four walls, the shelves bare The place had been cleaned out by the cops searching for an entrance, a vamp lair They hadn’t found one But I had a new secret weapon, even better than holy water I had Molly’s husband

I set the shotgun nearby, where I could grab it up in an instant--not that having it handy was gonna help s we had come to kill The best it would do was slow the and took out the full-sized white bedsheet It was brand new and I ripped the plastic wrap, stuffing the trash into the bag, and spread open the sheet On it I drew a circle with blackbeneath the s pale yelloalked through the opening, and I closed the circle behind hi the black marker onto the sheet, and capped theinto the small space with difficulty He laid the fused disc on the sheet between his knees, keeping the copper-wrapped iron in one fist With the other hand, he pulled a small wooden flute

"Are you sure?" I asked It was an awfully weak circle

Big Evan glared at ed, and Evan placed the flute between his lips He started to play It was a si he could play with the fingers of one hand, four notes in a dirge of song, primitive and plaintive

He had played for less than five ling to the right only a few millimeters It paused, then traveled over the sheet the way iron e of the black circle I had drawn and Evan had powered The witch stopped playing, the sad notes hanging on the air for a moment "The lair is there Behind that wall and down"

Bruiser pulled a crowbar out of his belt, and I s," I said He flashed ing the sharp end of the crowbar into the wood of the shelves Withinonly brick, until he splintered a long board off the wall and a small aluun and braced it against htly Bruiser looked at ripped the wood With a single savage jerk, the daes A black ed across the darkness Tilue, each moment clear and concise, as if trapped in a, stretched-out moment was that Molly would never survive the loss of her husband My godchildren, whoroithout their father If this didn’t work

Silandre waved through the opening, as if pulled along byEvan stood, as if safe in his weak circle I fired once, twice, three ti her each time as she wove side to side The vampire launched herself at Evan, the witch in her lair

I pivoted, following Silandre’s wavelike charge

Bruiser fired at the forain, at Lotus, her black hair flowing like a skein of silk The rounds hit But the silver fléchettes didn’t slow the vah the air And across the circle Around Evan, the witch circle i to work