g laugh hit Brandt l

The veins in his neck bul

arge hand clamped around

nuckles turning white. He stared intensely into her eyes,

was

ck of oxygen. Her lungs burned as if she had inhaled f

t ounce of strength le

her head

directly into the side of Brandt's neck,

pensive, stiff fabric of his collar

nstantly flooded Eulah's mouth. I

a roar of pure,

ck and swung it forw

threw Eul

h the air, the heavy

crack echoed th

l smashed into the jagge

ad. It poured down the wall, staining th

e hung completely limp, suspended only by

gray haze. But she kept

clamped over his bleeding neck. B

familiar-flashed

soaked fingers against the wound, not out of any sense of mercy, but driven by a furious, twisted possessiveness. She

ll, Mace heard

, his keys jingling

d the prisoner bleeding out on the wall. His knees gave out. He co

rey had died without his per

He snatched the standard-issu

, Brandt drove the blade strai

. His blood mixed with the muddy p

the monster

h twitched up into a gr

uffocating darkness

ock. Ti

ticking sound pier

yanked from the se

gs expanding so fast it hu

soft, silk-sheete

gh the gap in the heavy velvet curtai

the back of her head

ct. There was no blood. N

e scrambled up, her eyes

She saw the oil paintings of landsc

r heart hammered against h

her bedroom at t

hteen years