a Hay

duffel bag and a single battered cardboard box containing my bookbinding

bare mattress, taping the

d open, followed by the heavy, uneven thumping

pen this d

ed several rental properties and, even though her daughter had married my brother, had

and walked into the small en

ed beneath a plastic rain bonnet, her yellow

cane in one hand and a cr

ing flecks of saliva

hundred dollars for the plumbing repair from three months ago! You

lumbing broke because your pipes are fifty ye

we you a s

raised her cane, rattlin

sh! Your brother is a cripple, and you're r

e hallway bega

eads out, whispering an

d my ribs, but I refused

cell phone f

t's see what the city housing inspector

they believe-a respectable propert

vered over

t would only create a public record a

down my contacts to the only other nu

, putting the

ice before

ep, unnerving silence that sound

nough for Agnes and the w

locking the doorway demanding five hun

lf-second paus

iver, cool, deep, and carrying a metallic

r on th

ed by the sudden

the phone t

wants to spe

he phone with a

if you think you can take

stop

e speaker-a sound so deep and resonant it vib

fying weight that bypassed human intellect and struck s

led red to a ghastly, chalky

tched in a st

ted terror, her pupils dilating until

speaker, devoid of emotion, yet sounding like an apex

o my wife again, you

phone as if it had

attered onto

stumbled backward, clutching her chest, letting out a whimpering sob before t

ay fell d

ors slammed their d

ressing it back to my e

at did you

e answered smoothly, his voice retu

down. I am par

nt window and pulle

pickup was idling

essed in his dark wool coat, staring

le, motionless gaze felt like a

the empty hallway, and carried my bags do

e truck, holding a large bla

ith one arm, lifting sixty pounds of tools as if it w

tly, holding the pass

Sincl

s plunged in near-total darkness, illuminated only by the faint bi

around the polished obsidian round table, th

er of the Olympic peninsula," Elder Cassian repor

unal discovers their trail within our ter

n the armrest of my

hin three miles of the town line is to be executed wi

d electronic vibration sha

nd amber eyes snapping toward the small, generic

device had ever been permitt

ated three chairs dow

he glowing sc

raised my left hand, cutting Cassian off mi

ne to my ear i

ng that a mortal parasite was cornering her for money,

across the o

the phone,"

receiver was child's play, but the insolence of th

rising from the table before the

h preternatural haste, pulling the truck to the curb just as

meager worldly possessions in the rain, something

under my

territory would dare lay a finger