Cain snorted. “I’ph grown beyond my heart. Go ahead.”

“We’ll see.”

Cain’s eyes met mine. Now tears welled in the stretched corners. “Please . . . don’t . . .”

I sneered. “Kiss my ass.”

I went into my best Two Gun Kid imitation, firing both guns from the hip and making that beating heart dance.

Cain screamed with the sound of a thousand voices.

The heart blew apart into a splattered mess of tissue and goo, a hundred bloody chunks. I kept firing until there were a thousand, reloaded and shot until I had to reload again. The heart was a grease mark when I finished. A crimson smear.

While I reloaded, I noticed Mo’Lock going berserk.

He had smashed one altar and was on to the next, using a steel candle stand as a weapon. Hit by crushing hit, he was destroying everything in sight.

“. . . Please, stop . . . please!” Cain pleaded to deaf ears.

He screamed and begged and howled for help that would never come. Or so I thought.

Because right then, I heard three clicking sounds behind me. Mo’Lock and I turned in unison, raising our hands as we swiveled. It was a reflex. You always reach for the sky when you have guns pointed at you.

At the mouth of the chamber stood Randy, Scott, and Miriam—the Frankenteens. Each held an M16, and they all wore a look of condescending “I-screwed-you” pleasure that made my stomach twist in a knot so hard it actually hurt.

“Motherfuckers.”

Cain giggled at our backs. Randy raised his weapon and stepped forward.

“You’re the motherfucker, McDonald,” he spat. “You’re the one who took everything away from us!”

I glanced at the ghoul, utterly shocked at the sight of him. His eyes were wide, blazing. I’d seen him angry before, but this? This was different. It sent a chill down my spine.

I kept my hands raised. “I tried to help you kids. How was I supposed to know you were as messed up as Lazar.” I pointed a thumb back toward Cain. “And I don’t even want to know how you got hooked up with this loser!”

Randy twitched angrily and squeezed off a shot at my feet. Cain squealed. Randy shot again and this time he hit me right in the same goddamn spot he’d shot me the first time! I reeled back and screamed. It hurt like a bitch.

Scott and Miriam looked nervous.

“Mr. Cain contacted us,” Scott said. “In our heads.”

Miriam smacked Scott in the chest. “Shut up!”

Randy moved forward again.

“The next one goes through your head, McDonald!” He yelled and raised the M-16 as promised.

I didn’t even see Mo’Lock take the gun out of the kid’s hands. It was that fast. Then the ghoul stood over Randy, his face twisted in such a grotesque sculpture of rage that I hardly recognized him.

“You lied to me.”

That was all he said before proceeding to dismember Randy limb from limb. He ripped the kid’s arms from their sockets effortlessly. Skin tore with a rubbery snap and bones popped with a sickening crunch. In a matter of seconds, Randy was returned to the pile of miscellaneous organs and limbs he’d been in Dr. Polynice’s Lab.