Page 48 of Midnight Coven

They were pristine, untouched.

The panting got louder, interspersed with soft cries.

Nick heard pain in it, despair.

He smelled blood. Some of that blood was already dying.

But not hers. Not the woman who lay at his feet, half naked in a silk bathrobe. Her hair was up in pins and rubber bands. It looked like she’d just taken a shower after having her hair done, and she’d pinned it to keep it from losing its shape.

Now pieces had fallen out, framing her face in gentle but asymmetrical chunks.

Her lipstick was smeared.

Mascara ran down one perfect cheek.

The Stranger, the man with the hat and the dark coat, held a finger to his lips.

“Shhhh,” he told her softly. “Shhhh, mama.”

He held a baby to his chest.

A human baby.

A fat fist and arm waved from the folds of cloth around his chest.

It didn’t cry. It snuggled into him, seemingly content to be there with him.

“Babies have always liked me,” the Stranger told her.

Revulsion swam through Nick, making him frantic.

He had to stop him. He could already feel what he would do, how bad it would be. But the Stranger only smiled. He hadn’t begun yet. He was in no hurry. He only held the baby softly to his chest, rocking and bouncing it gently to keep it quiet.

Looking away from the woman on the floor, he stared out through a crack in the curtains, watching people outside.

Those people didn’t see him.

They were busy, doing their jobs.

They were cutting hedges with clippers.

Mowing a sprawling lawn.

Trimming bushes into precise shapes with electric knives.

Nick watched the youngest of them, maybe a son or someone’s brother, use a silent blower to clean leaves off the walkway. He formed them into piles on the driveway, raked them into cloth and canvas bags.

Nick watched an older Asian man on his knees, planting some ground-covering plant in a bed of near-black tan bark.

Part of the garden consisted of raked white sand. It was dotted with quiet-looking stone shapes, small statues, red-painted bridges.

The baby cooed where the Stranger held it against his chest.

The woman on the floor sobbed silently.

She stayed quiet.

She stayed quiet for him.

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