Page 685 of Love Bites

“I’m here, hon. Just hang in there.” The left side of her face was a bright shade of candy red and blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

I snarled and lunged forward, but the creep held up Jude between us, effectively stopping me in my tracks. This close to him, I could smell the rot of death all over him, and under that, sassafras.

“Why?” I asked. “What is with the sassafras?”

He cradled Jude back in his arms, a muffled coo as he rubbed the five-month-old’s belly. “My mother used to bathe me using a mixture of lavender and sassafras oil. She believed it to be a gift from the gods. A way to create a direct conduit to the spirits. She wasn’t wrong.”

“Please put my baby down,” Sunny said. “He’s innocent.”

“Aren’t we all?” The killer looked up at me. His eyes were like black marbles in the shade of the bear mask. “I’m so close, Chavvah. You have no idea how long I’ve waited. When I saw you in that cage—”

“Wait. What? How did you see me?” God, maybe he had been one of the guards. Impossible, I thought, but my old fears crept in.

“The same way I saw you two nights ago. You are like me. You can cross into the between. I saw you staring at yourself in that cage. The same way I saw you a year ago. It’s the reason I’m here. The reason we’re all here.” He sounded jubilant and self-assured. This maniac was drinking his own Kool-Aid. Even so, I believed him about the spirit realm.

“Are you the coyote that I saw running across the field?” I moved closer, putting myself between him and Sunny.

I couldn’t see his smile, but I could hear it in his voice. “Yes. I’m so glad you saw me. That form is magnificent. I’m only truly free when I’m there.” He leaned close, holding Jude tighter and whispered, “I want to be free here.”

“You’re nuts if you think you’re going to get away with this.”

“Don’t poke the crazy,” Sunny muttered.

He pulled handcuffs from under the furs he wore and threw them at me. I caught them. They looked like standard police issue, but what the hell did I know?

“Cuff yourself to the fridge handle.”

Reluctantly I did as he asked. The metal bit into my wrists. “Now, put Jude down.”

“I’m a man of my word, Chavvah.” He bent over and put Jude back into the baby carrier then moved the carrier down by Sunny, and I could see some of the tension leave her shoulders.

“This is just between you and me. Let Sunny go.”

“I have no intention of harming your friend or her child. I only want you, Chavvah. Since the first time I saw you, I knew you would be the last. You have two animals to call. I’ve seen it. I only need one. You are more connected than anyone I’ve ever met to the spirits. Your god speaks to you, he changed you, and through your sacrifice, my god will change me. Your skin will be my transformation.”

From my vantage by the fridge, I was parallel to Sunny. When she got her wrists free, I had to fight to keep my pulse from pounding out of my chest. My brave, brave friend, who had more heart than sense at times, was a fighter, and if she could fight, so could I. But first, I had to help her get away.

I yanked at the refrigerator doors, using my body to rattle it from its place.

“What are you doing?” The man had a knife in his hand now. The curved skinning blade I’d seen in Sunny’s vision. Oh, Jesus. I prayed I’d get out of this with my skin intact.

I screamed. I howled. I wailed. I made so much noise the rafters should have been falling around my ears as I jerked on the cuffs, dragging the fridge out of its place by a few feet. My wrists were shredded where the unforgiving metal dug into them.

The man shouted, “Stop!” as he raced to me, grabbing me from behind. “You’re ruining it. You’re ruining everything!” He lifted me from the ground, and I threw my head back, slamming into his forehead. He kept one arm around me while he yanked my hair until I could feel the skin pull away from my scalp. I cried out, this time with pain.

I saw spots, which happens when you get your bell rung, but a loud, sharpthwapsounded, and the monster staggered back. Sunny was holding a cast iron skillet, the one I’d given her as a Christmas present. It was ten pounds of deadly, and she was wielding it like a Samurai.

“Run, Sunny! Take Jude and run!”

The killer was already coming to his knees, a fierce growl tearing from his lips. Was he shifting? Goddamn it! I was still tied to the large appliance, and Sunny and Jude would be helpless.

“Go!” I screamed when he shoved Sunny back before she could get in another hit. I kicked out, landing a solid blow to the side of his knee. He dropped to the ground with a howl of pain. He grabbed my foot and yanked, pulling my feet from under me, and in the process, hanging me by the hands.

Luckily, it had been enough time for Sunny to grab the baby and run out the side door.Good girl!

The man crawled over to me, his words a snarling, raspy tangle of rage. “You think you’re tough? You won’t think so for long.”

My wrists burned, and my head throbbed, but I looked him in the eye, getting my first close-up glimpse of the color. Brown. I sneered, rivulets of blood running to my eyes. “I am tough. If you think I’m going to cry or beg you for any goddamn thing, you can keep on waiting.”

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