by Skye Knizley
“Your blood roses are dead, doctor. You’re next.”
Davis laughed and it was a sound with no humanity left. “I can grow more! Come here, little girl!”
Davis’ charged and reached for Chastity with his claws. She watched him until the last second and then rolled again. Davis crashed headlong into a piece of equipment that crumbled under his claws and made the lights dim.
“Doctor!” Dippel yelled.
Davis ignored him. He picked up a chunk of the shattered equipment and raised it over his head, intending to crush Chastity with its bulk. She looked up at the piece of machinery and knew she would never be able to roll far enough away to avoid being pulverized.
I’m sorry, brother, she thought.
And suddenly Price was there, on Davis’ back.
“Tell me, Doctor,” he said in a calm voice. “Can you live without a brain?”
Davis turned and tried to shake Price loose. “No! No, get away from me!”
Price’s Colt boomed and Davis’ head exploded, sending rotten brains and blood across the chamber.
Price dropped to the ground beside the thing that had been Davis, grabbed Chastity’s hand and ran. Behind them the machinery crashed down on top of Davis’ body and the whole macabre ensemble fell to the ground, sending dust and debris in every direction, destroying much of the antique equipment. As the cloud settled, Chastity could see Dippel standing next to the patchwork woman, her hand held in his. There was no sign of Cutbush.
“Professor?” Chastity asked.
Dippel looked at her and Chastity had never seen such hate in a man’s eyes before.
“She’s gone. Gone because of you!”
Chastity shook her head. “She’s gone because of an accident, long ago. What you offered her wasn’t life. It was a mockery of life, an abomination that could not be allowed to exist.”
“You are under arrest, Professor,” Price said.
“It doesn’t matter. She’s gone. It’s all gone.”
Price tied Dippel’s hands with a leather thong and, with a look at Chastity that said don’t be long, guided him out.
When they were gone, Chastity covered Marianna with the sheet, then lit and placed Nikola’s bomb and ran. It exploded twenty seconds later, destroying Dippel’s equipment and incinerating the lab.
THREE WEEKS LATER, Chastity sat beside the fire at Price’s home. He’d made quite a good dinner and was now serving a dessert called Strawberry Corncake. If it was as good as he claimed, it would be quite a treat. In her hand was the report that Herbert and Malachi had filed. It appeared as if Dippel had been doing something he called “trawling”, attempting to find the souls of his wife and daughter. Instead he kept pulling back the souls of the damned and inserting them into others, displacing their own souls to God knew where. Apparently he’d succeeded in finding Marianna on the night of the storm, though they would never know for certain. If it had been recovered, it was lost when the bomb destroyed his lab. Two bodies and a handful of machinery was all that was recovered.
She reread the note and considered whether or not to tell Price that one of the bodies was missing. She could hear him coming and thought better of it. For now, life was good. Whatever was going to happen would happen. With a smile, she tossed the letter on the fire and warmed her hands.
“Here we are,” Price said, entering.
He was holding two plates laden with enough strawberries and cake for an army.
“I can’t eat all that!” Chastity said.
Price smiled and sat next to her. “Have you ever tried over-indulging, Miss MacLeod? You might find you enjoy it.”
Chastity took the offered plate. “Are you ever going to call me by my first name?”
Price smiled around a mouthful of cake and didn’t answer.
SOMEWHERE, NOT FAR away, Adam stirred and closed one massive fist.
“Father?”
My gamers. I love you guys!
My publisher, Sarah, who never gives up on me.
My publicist, Jeannette, who makes sure everyone knows my name.
My stylist Kelly, who makes me look human.
Richard Blue and Brad Burkett at Royal Gate Dodge.
The kind folks at Feather Mountain.
Above all, to my fans, a growing group of people who continue to prove family isn’t just blood.
Thank you all so much,