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She heard his words, but they didn’t register clearly. They were words she would remember later, after it was too late. “You know I get a lot of my shit from Haitians, Maggie. What you just got is a mild dose of the shit they use to make zombies. Nothing permanent, but it’ll keep you feeling nice and agreeable for about . . .” He looked at his watch. “Three hours.”

He slid his hand under her arm and fondled her breast. Deep in the darkness, far away from her body, she wanted to scream. She was pretty sure the last thing she ever wanted to have happen to her again would involve sex with Tom Pardue.

She needn’t have worried. Tom never went beyond the quick groping stage. Had she been able to think coherently on the surface of her mind, she would have realized that was because she was too compliant for his tastes right then, he preferred his sex toys struggling and crying.

Tom pressed up against her from behind and kissed the side of her face.

“We’re going to a party, Maggie. And guess what? You get to be the main course.”

Later, much later, she’d think about those words. When the drugs were all finished working through her system and the blood and violence of the night was done, she’d think about those words again and again.

And she would have reason to hate Tom more than she ever knew was possible.

But before then, she had a fraternity to meet.

IX

Children had a special place in Jason Soulis’s mind. They always had. There was something fascinating about their youth and vitality. They were often sweet, sometimes vicious, and always so eager to explore new things. He loved those traits in the people around him.

Ideally he would have had only children, but he had to take what he could get. All of them were young, none much older than their late teens, and all of them were doing their very best to get wasted on alcohol. Their best was quite sufficient. The group had gathered in a clearing not too distant from his home and his birds had told him exactly where they were. He couldn’t have been more pleased.

They’d been imbibing for quite a while, and there was little struggle as a result. The hardest part was getting them back to his house without being seen, and he had learned many tricks to cover that department over the years.

An hour after sunset, they were where he wanted them, and surrounded by his children.

“Can we go out tonight?”

“No. I have brought you your food.”

“Please? It’s always dark here.”

“It’s for the best. You won’t much like the light anymore.”

One of them tried. One of them almost always felt they had to try. He let the fool cover a few dozen feet and then moved to intercept the escape effort.

She cried when he struck her, and whimpered along the cold stone floor.

“I said no, my child. Not tonight.”

“But why?” She was so sweet in her innocence.

“Because tonight is special. Tonight you will earn a new master.”

They hissed, uncomprehending.

“Enough. I’ve brought you your feast. Eat and be happy with what you have. All will be explained in time.”

They fell upon the teenagers he’d found for them, ravenous with the needs of their still-changing bodies. Most of them were still too new to hunt on their own.

Jason left them, walking back to his home and listening to the sounds of the youngsters as the alcohol failed to completely numb their senses.

Now he had to wait.

It was time, and Maggie was due to come into her own.

He had heard the conversation between the detectives in town—his birds had ears as well as eyes—and was surprised that they caught on as quickly as they did. That was the real reason that his children were not allowed out of their home.

The detectives were closer to thinking things through than he wanted them to be, and he wanted to throw them off.

Besides, Maggie would likely do more than double the numbers if everything went the way he suspected it would.

Maggie was suffering in darkness at the moment, her mind numbed by that fool who sold her services.

But the drug would wear off, and when it did, she would come into her own. She would be a magnificent animal and she would awaken to a radically different world.

And she would awaken hungry.

Soulis smiled as he heard a distant siren wail; it mingled well with the screams from below.

Chapter 15

I

There are only a few days until Halloween, and I couldn’t care less about a costume. How sad is that? The thought crept into Ben’s head while he was supposed to be working on more homework.

Damned near everything was depressing him tonight. What wasn’t depressing him was leaving him agitated and annoyed. It was one of those days; he was restless and he was lonely and he wanted to have a life beyond his apartment.