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“Bastard!” she screamed.
His heartless leer chilled her to the bottom of her soul. “If you only knew.”
The gun was only a few feet away. If she jumped to the left…
“At last, your blood will spill,” he taunted. “Your time has come, too.”
“Justice,” Maddie whispered, glaring up at him, tears streaking down her wrinkled cheeks. “Run, girl.”
Justice. His name was Justice. He’d attacked Maddie with the knife and hidden upon hearing Becca arrive. The gun was her defense, and Becca had taken it from her.
And now he was back to finish the job.
Take not only Madeline’s life, but hers as well.
No way!
Becca lunged for the gun but he was quick, anticipating. His knife whizzed through the air, sliced into her arm. She cried out but her fingers found the handle of the gun. She grabbed it, flung her arm around, aiming the barrel his way, finger on the trigger.
He yelled at the same moment she screamed.
BAM!
The pistol kicked, but he’d expected the shot as he threw himself sideways, rolling out of harm’s way. Becca scrambled to fire a second shot.
BAM!
The bullet slammed into the side of the wall, kicking up sheet rock and bits of wood. He ducked sideways, then quickly out of the way, around the corner.
Becca’s pulse deafened her. “Leave before I blow you away!” she yelled, but heard nothing save her own ragged breathing, the shriek of the wind, and Maddie’s slow moans. Becca’s hands were shaking, but she forced them steady, training her aim on the doorway. If the son of a bitch stepped one foot into the open area, she’d pull the trigger again. Her arm hurt and she
saw blood soak her sleeve. The useless cell phone was still within reach, but surely the shabby motel had a landline…She glanced around the room, searching for a receiver. A shadow streaked across the window.
He was outside!
She turned toward the sagging window where the panes rattled and cold air hissed into the room. But she was mistaken. The moving umbra she’d seen wasn’t this monster of a man, but merely a branch being tossed in the wind. From the corner of her eye, she saw movement in the hallway.
What?
She whirled as he flew through the door, his knife raised. She shot again, the bullet zinging into his shoulder. Again! Her fingers tightened over the trigger, but he was on her, the weight of his body, toppling her to the floor. She screamed and they fell on the near-dead woman and she groaned painfully.
The demon-man’s breath was hot against her, his body all muscle and sinew as they struggled. Becca slapped at him, tried to claw his face, attempted to shoot the damned gun again, but as she did, he wrestled her arm behind her back.
Pain shot through her shoulder and she dropped the gun, heard it hit the floor. No! Oh, God, no!
“Finally, sister,” he growled. “Finally.”
“No way in hell,” she threw back at him and he cinched her arm up a little higher. She screamed in pain and he, lying atop her, pinned her to the floor, said, “Scream all you want, Rebecca. No one will hear you out here.”
He was right. Even on a day when the wind was still and the surf quiet, this old ruin was so isolated, a scream would never carry to another human’s ears.
“By the light of the moon,” Maddie whispered. “When the demons of the earth arise, then will you be taken, son, to the world from where you came. I curse you this day and the day of your birth. You, Justice, are the true spawn of Lucifer.”
Becca felt the man atop her tense. This monster was Mad Maddie’s son?
“You curse me?” he demanded, looking up and glaring at his dying mother. “You curse me? When I’m God’s messenger? Sent here to right all the wrongs of Siren Song?”
Becca didn’t move, didn’t want to distract him. He was on his knees now, all of his attention focused on the woman who had borne him.
