eyes snap

if she had been run over by a freight train. She gasped, the cold morning ligh

head against th

led back facing her. Deep, angry red scratch

deep, slow, and incredibly controlled. The sheer, oppressive weight of that steady rhythm felt entirely alien. It carried a dark, int

She looked down. A stark, dark red stain blo

she tasted copper, forcing the panic down. She slid off the h

floor, her hands shaking slightly as she pu

ed to le

a custom Marriott notepad resting on the m

ted like a cheap whore by a stranger. She grabbed the pen and scrib

out of ten. You owe me

a twenty-five-cent coin. She had kept it in prison for five y

d in the hallway outside. The static crackle o

the floor-to-ceiling windows. She unlatched the glass and pushed it

g down, she swung her body over, catching the edge of the drainage pipe. She slid down the side of the bui

orbing the shock. She pulled the hood of her jacket over her h

ded to find a payphone. She

elp!" a wom

bespoke wool suit collapsed onto the wet crosswalk.

their phones out but stepping

freezing asphalt beside the old man. She grabbed his jaw, tilting

fast. Acute myocardial infar

into the puddles. She quickly checked his airway, tilting his head back to ensure it was clea

intaining a relentless, textbook rhythm she had drilled int

, but she performed them with the cold, mechanical precision of a seasoned first responde

st heaved, and his eyes fluttered open. He st

en cut through the city nois

would be notified. She stood up, wiped the blood on her jeans, and backed away. By the time the paramedics ju

Club, the electronic lock beepe

ed by four massive bodyguards.

ized bed was a wre

freezing wind billowed the fabric, exposing the violent, red scratches running down his muscular ches

his knees literally shaking. "Did..

e pitch black, devoid of any human warmth. H

w the dark bloodstain on the white she

e of the twenty-five-cent coin he held in h

a low, vibrating growl tha

pped out from behind Brodie

ressing harder into the coin. "Pull every camera from the hotel and sweep t