Free Blood And Bone by Dawn Brown Page B

wood floor were too loud in the unnatural quiet. God, he hated this place.
    The library was tucked away at the back of the house. Dark wooden bookshelves lined the walls, filled with dusty volumes he was sure no one bothered to read. In one corner, there was an ancient rolltop desk and an assortment of chairs from various periods in history sporadically placed about the room.
    Heddi waited for him, stretched out on a faded chaise. A ruby-colored blanket draped over her lower half, the outline of her bony legs almost invisible amongst the folds in the fabric.
    She pretended not to notice him, gazing through the picture window at the meticulously-landscaped outdoors. One of the games she played before striking to encourage her prey to lower their guard. But Des had been struck far too many times to fall for it.
    At last she turned to face him, her thin lips pulled back into a smile, exposing yellowed teeth too large for her thin face. Her appearance surprised him. He’d managed to avoid her for nearly three months. While having heard about her illness from Ian, he’d yet to see the results in person.
    Sickness had left Heddi shrunken and haggard, but despite having been ravaged by disease those black eyes gleamed from her gaunt face.
    “You look awful,” she said, gazing up at him.
    Funny, I was thinking the same about you. “I know.”
    “Sit down,” she ordered. “I’ve no intention of craning my neck.”
    Des sat in the chair facing her, slouching to annoy her. Heddi ignored him and turned her attention outside to the slow-moving river. The morning sun glittered on the dark water like diamonds on black velvet.
    Another awkward silence settled between them. This was where she hoped people would talk, filling the void with idle chitchat or confessions for things she’d been previously unaware of. Why she bothered with him, he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t fallen for this since he was ten.
    “It’s been a long time since you’ve been here,” she said at last.
    His insides tightened, but he remained slouched, his expression relaxed.
    “A few months.” He shrugged.
    Again the silence. What was she hoping for? His body hummed with nervous anticipation.
    “I’m dying, you know,” she said as blandly as if she’d told him she planned to repaint the room.
    Good. “I heard.”
    “Stomach cancer,” she told him. “It’s eating my insides.”
    “What do you want, Heddi?”
    She smiled again, that horrible skeletal smile that made his skin crawl. “Have you no pity for a poor, old woman?”
    “I might if there were one here.”
    She laughed, but it sounded more like a dry cackle. “You’ll get nothing when I go. Not a cent.”
    “I’m glad we cleared that up. I guess I’ll be on my way now.”
    “You don’t care, do you?”
    Des slouched farther down in his chair and a smirk touched his mouth. “It’s a nonissue.”
    “A pity your sister couldn’t say the same.”
    His stomach jerked and his smile fell away. Malicious glee shone in her eyes—black eyes like a shark’s.
    He used to think of her as a shark, eager to tear into his flesh at the first scent of blood. Until one night after moving out from under Heddi’s thumb for the first time. He’d been living in a dumpy, one-room apartment, stoned from a joint he’d just smoked, eating Pringle’s potato chips from the tin on a stained futon mattress and watching a documentary about killer whales.
    They hunt in packs like wolves, positioning themselves over another whale and biting painfully small strips of flesh to keep their prey from surfacing and getting air. Eventually the other whale suffocates.
    That was how Heddi worked. Tearing off strips of flesh and keeping him from catching his breath. Only she didn’t need a pack. She was that vicious all on her own.
    “What do you want?” Des asked again, turning to look at Heddi. “I have to get to the office.”
    “Yes, of course. You’ll want to get to work. You do owe a considerable amount of