Fucker re-formed, but it didn’t take another shot. It boiled for the one window that didn’t have salt on its sill and the shattering of glass was a shocker, the sound echoing throughout the house.

At that very same moment, the light in the circle sucked out of the room, and its exit was even louder, a sonic boom that made Jim’s eardrums pop and the mirror over the dresser crack into pieces. Eddie was thrown back by the burst of energy and he slammed against the wall just as Vin was revealed on the floor, pale, shaky, covered with sweat.

As he curled over onto his side and drew his knees up to his chest, Marie-Terese broke free of Jim’s hold and rushed to him.

“Vin?” She brushed the guy’s hair back. “Oh, God, he’s freezing cold. Give me the duvet.”

Jim yanked the cover free from the bed and put it in her hands; then he went to check on Eddie, who seemed to be out cold. “You okay there, big man? Eddie?”

The guy jerked to attention and looked around as if he were momentarily lost. To his credit, though, even in his out-of-it state, the crystal dagger was locked in his fist, his knuckles white like the thing was going to have to be pried out of his grip with a pair of pliers.

His expression was not one of triumph.

When he tried to get up, Jim grabbed the guy under the armpits and helped hoist him off the floor and onto the bed. “You’re not looking like this went okay.”

Eddie took a couple of deep breaths. “He’s clean…and nice move with soaking her.”

“Figured it’d be more effective.” Jim shifted that thick braid over the guy’s shoulder and couldn’t understand why Eddie seemed so disappointed. “I don’t get it. What’s the problem?”

Eddie focused on the busted window and shook his head. “This was too easy.”

Shiiiiiiiit.

If this had been a walk in the park, Jim wondered what in the hell a real fight looked like.

CHAPTER
39

Saul pulled into his driveway in a daze and put the cab in park. In the glow from the garage light, he lifted his eyes to the rearview mirror and tilted his head to the side. With his cut finger, he brushed at the bald spot near his ear and remembered being with the woman in the back of the cab.

They’d had sex.

It had been the first time since he’d been to prison ten years ago.

He’d liked it…at least until the end. In the afterglow, as he’d gone lax beneath her, a strange, sickening lethargy had seeped into him, and he’d found himself not so much relaxed as trapped.