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Astonished, she felt his ar her in a circle The screahts were violent streaks of white, red She wasup at hi on, for it seeh into the air over the heads of the crowd And then as he set her down and bowed his head, his hair falling against her cheek, she felt his mouth close on hers

The throbbing ed into the sea She felt hiers sliding up her neck Her breasts were pressed against the beat of his heart; and a voice was speaking to her, purely, the way a voice had long ago, a voice that knew her, a voice that understood her questions and kne they must be answered

Evil, Jesse As you have always known

Hands pulled her back Hu separated from him She screamed

Bewildered, he stared at her He was reaching deep, deep into his drea he only faintly re on either side of the altar But it was no one; he was baffled; his shts that were constantly blinding her "Beautiful Jesse!" he said, his hand lifted as if in farewell They were carrying her backwards away froe

She was laughing when they set her down

Her white shirt was smeared with blood Her hands were covered with it-pale streaks of salty blood She felt she knew the taste of it She threw back her head and laughed; and it was so curious not to be able to hear it, only to feel it, to feel the shudder running through her, to know she was crying and laughing at the sa crude, threatening But that didn't matter

The crowd had her again It just sed her, tu her out of the center A heavy shoe crushed her right foot She stu ever more violently, towards the doors

Didn't matter now She knew She knew it all Her head spun She could not have stood upright if it were not for the shoulders knocking against her And never had she felt such wondrous abandon Never had she felt such release

The crazy cacophonous music went on; faces flickered and disappeared in a wash of colored light She s cold to drink Soain and licked at the salt and the blood Her body tree of sleep A soft delicious tre She licked at the blood again and closed her eyes

Quite suddenly she felt herself pass into an open place No one shoving her She looked up and saw that she had come to the doorway, to the slick ramp that led some ten feet into the lobby below The croas behind her, above her And she could rest here She was all right

She ran her hand along the greasy wall, stepping over the crush of paper cups, a fallen ith cheap yellow curls She lay her head back suddenly andin her eyes The taste of the blood was on the tip of her tongue It seeain, and it was a perfectly fine thing to do For the moment, there was no past or present, no necessity, and all the world was changed, fro, as if in the center of the most seductive state of peace and acceptance that she had ever known Oh, if only she could tell David these things; if only so secret

So hostile to her Reluctantly she turned and saw a hulking figure at her side What? She struggled to see it clearly

Bony lilyteeth Not human One of them! Talamasca?

It came at her like a hiss It struck her in the chest Instinctively her ar on her shoulders Talamasca?