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“As…” I screw up my face. “As ourfriendwho we care about, even when he is a dick.”
Pax shoots me a funny expression. He turns on his heel and slowly stomps down the stairs. A moment later, the door slams shut behind him.
Great. All my men are ignoring me, and I am so horny even the suit of armour in the corner is starting to look good. Could things around here get any crazier?
Don’t answer that.
29
Bree
I’m sitting on a rug in the foyer of Grimwood, and I’m cosy, warm, and happy. I’m playing with some blocks, and it’s the most exciting thing in the world to stack them together into a great tower and then knock it over. I’m a monster! I’m Godzilla flattening a city!
But I’m not alone anymore. A woman kneels down next to me. She’s wearing a bright pink suit with a matching pink suitcase and umbrella leaning up against the sofa. She’s even wearing pink lipstick. How interesting!
I reach for her, because I want to play with the Pink Woman who has a nice smile. Maybe she’d like to bust over block towers, too. But my arms are much smaller than I remember, and I’m not very good at balancing, so I fall over.
“Oops, there you go.” She holds me under the arms and sets me upright. Her smile is so pretty. She reminds me of my mother, except that Mum never wears pink.
“Hello, Bree,” she says. “I’ve come a long way to find you. I wanted to see if you have the gift I gave you, and it seems that you do. It’s a beautiful gift, but it’s also a curse. That’s why I couldn’t stay here, but maybe you’re stronger than me. They have never stopped hunting me, and I think they’re getting closer. I don’t believe I’ll be around to see you grow up, but I have left you everything you need in my rose garden. Sylvie has done so well for herself. I am so proud—”
THWACK THWACK THWACK.
The noise reverberates through the whole house. I glance all around, but I can’t see what’s making the noise. My stomach twists with fear. Tears spring in my eyes, and a loud wail bubbles up inside me.
I don’t like the noise. I want it to stop!
“I think someone needs you, dear,” the Pink Woman says. She starts to disappear in a cloud of pink mist.
“Nooooo,” I cry. I grab for her, but my fists grasp only air.
I know she was about to tell me something important, but—
THWACK.
I’m jolted from bed. It takes me a moment to realise that I’m not sitting on the rug with the Pink Woman, but in my room, the sheets tangled in a ball at my feet, my arms outstretched as if I might somehow be able to pull the Pink Woman from my dream.
What an odd thing to dream about. And what was it that woke me up?
THWACK. THWACK.
That’s right. The noise. It sounds like a small object hitting glass or something. And it’s definitely in my bedroom.
Ice runs down my spine.
The Ripper has come back.
But how did he get past the wards?
Shit, shit, shit.
And Pax and Ambrose aren’t here. What do I do?
I pull the covers up to my chin, listening hard as something hits the window outside. What I wouldn’t give to find Pax at the end of my bed, watching over me. But he’s had to give that up now—
THWACK. THWACK.
There it is again.
