anyone?s face, an animal?s face. The corners of his mouth quivered, as though teased by an inner joke. He circled my lips with the tip of a knife.
My mouth was so dry my tongue stuck to it when I tried to talk. I swallowed.
?I?d li-?
?Shut up! You shut your fucking mouth! I know what you?d like. I know what you think about me. I know what you all think about me. You think I?m some kind of genetic freak that ought to be exterminated. Well, I?m as good as anybody. And I?m in charge here.?
He gripped the knife so hard his hand trembled. It looked ghostly pale in the gloom of the hallway, the knuckles bulging white and round. Surgical gloves! That?s what I?d smelled. The blade bit into my cheek, and I could feel warmth trickle down my chin. I felt utterly without hope.
?Before I?m through you?ll be tearing your panties off, you?ll want me so bad. But that?s later,
He was breathing hard, his nostrils white. His left hand toyed with the choke chain, wrapping and rewrapping the links around his palm.
?Now. Tell me.? Calm again. ?What are you thinking?? His eyes looked cold and hard, like some Mesozoic mammal.
?You think I?m crazy??
I held my tongue. Rain pounded the window behind him.
He pulled in the chain, drawing my face close to his. His breath brushed the sweat on my skin.
?Worried about your daughter??
?What do you know about my daughter?? I choked.
?I know everything about you, Dr. Brennan.? His voice was low and syrupy again. It felt like something obscene crawling in my ear. I swallowed through my pain, needing to speak, not wanting to provoke him. His moods were swinging like a hammock in a hurricane.
?Do you know where she is??
?I might.? He raised the chain again, this time slowly, forcing my chin into full extension, then he drew the knife across my throat in a slow backhand motion.
Lightning flashed and his hand jumped. ?Tight enough?? he asked.
?Please-? I gagged.
He eased off on the chain, allowing me to drop my chin. I swallowed and took a deep breath. My throat was on fire and my neck was bruised and swollen. I raised my hands to rub it, and he jerked them down with the wrist chain. His mouth did another rodent twitch.
?Nothing to say?? He stared at me, his eyes black and all pupil. The lower lids quivered, like his lips.
Terrified, I wondered what the others had done. What Gabby had done.
He lifted the chain above my head and began to increase the tension, a child torturing a puppy. A homicidal child. I remembered Alsa. I remembered the marks in Gabby?s flesh. What had J.S. said? How could I use it?
?Please. I?d like to talk to you. Why don?t we go somewhere where we can have a drink and-??
?Bitch!?
His arm snapped and the chain tightened savagely. Flames shot through my head and neck. I raised my hands in reflex, but they were cold and useless.
?The great
Through my tears I could see his lids jump wildly. He was reaching the edge. Oh, God! Help me!
?You?re like all the others. You think I?m a fool, don?t you??
My brain was sending two messages: Get away! Find Katy!
He held me while the wind moaned and rain lashed the windows. Far away I heard a horn honk. The smell of his sweat mingled with my own. His eyes, glassy with madness, bore into my face. My heart was beating wildly.
Then something plupped in the silence of the bedroom, and his lids tightened momentarily as he paused. Birdie appeared in the doorway and emitted a noise between a squeak and a growl. Fortier?s eyes shifted to the white shadow and I took my chance.
I shot my leg out and brought it up between his legs, concentrating all my fear and hatred in the force of that blow. My shin slammed hard into his crotch. He screamed and doubled over. I jerked the chain ends from his hand, spun, and flung myself down the hall, terror and desperation propelling me forward. I felt as if I were moving in slow motion.
He recovered quickly, his scream of pain converted into a howl of anger.
?
I pitched down the narrow hall, nearly tripping over the dragging chain.
?
I could hear him behind me, lurching through the dark, breathing like a desperate animal. ?
I staggered around the corner, twisting my hands, fighting to loosen the wrist chain. Blood pounded in my ears. I was a robot, my sympathetic nervous system working the controls.
?
He was between me and the front door, forcing me to cut through the kitchen! One thought drove me: Get to the French doors!
My right hand slipped free of the chain.
?
Two steps into the kitchen the pain slammed into me again and I thought my neck had snapped. My left arm flew up and my head whipped back. He had gotten a hand on the trailing neck chain. I felt my insides heave as my air supply was again choked off.
With my unbound hand I tried to free my throat, but the harder I clawed the tighter he pulled. I twisted and pulled, but the chain only cut deeper.
Slowly, he reeled in the chain, drawing me back toward him. I could smell his frenzy, feel his body tremble in the shake of the chain. Loop by loop he shortened my leash. I began to feel dizzy, and thought I was fainting.
?You?ll pay for that, bitch.? His voice was a hiss.
My face and fingertips tingled from lack of oxygen, and my ears filled with a hollow ringing. The room began to heave about me. A spatter of dots formed in the middle of my field of vision, coalesced, then spread outward as a black cumulus. Through the growing cloud I saw ceramic tile rise toward me, as if in slow motion. I watched my hands reach out as I floated forward, an insensible host tumbling with its parasite rider.
As we pitched forward, my stomach struck a section of counter, and my head slammed into an overhead cabinet. He lost his grip on the chain, but pushed up hard behind me.
He spread his legs and molded his body against mine, pressing me against the counter. The edge of the dishwasher cut painfully across my left pelvic bone, but I could breathe.
His chest heaved, and every fiber of his tissue felt taut, like a slingshot stretched to deliver. With a looping wrist motion he retrieved his grip on the chain and forced my head into a backward arch. Then he reached across my throat and placed the tip of the knife under the angle of my jaw. My carotid throbbed against cold steel. I felt his breath on my left cheek.
He held me for an eternity, head back, hands straight out and useless, like a carcass dangling on a hook. I seemed to be watching myself from across a wide gulf, a spectator, horrified but powerless to help.
I got my right hand onto the counter, trying to push against it to elevate myself and slacken the chain. Then I touched something on the countertop. The orange juice container. The knife.
Silently, my fingers wrapped around the handle. I moaned and tried to sob. Divert his attention.
?Quiet, bitch! We?re going to play a game now. You like games, don?t you??
Carefully I rotated the knife, gagging loudly to cover the tiniest scrape.
My hand trembled, hesitated.
Then I saw the women again, saw what he?d done to them. I felt their terror and knew their final desperation.
Do it!
Adrenaline spread through my chest and limbs like lava rolling down a mountainside. If I was going to die, it
