thought about Rex Morrow. If she could put that much concentration into the house, she'd have it a showplace in no time.
Alexi opened the shower door and groped for her towel. She found it and patted her face, blinking to clear her eyes. The mist from the shower should have cleaned her lenses somewhat, but they felt grittier than ever. It must have been all the dust from last night, she reasoned.
She started to step out of the stall, then noticed a curious dark line on the floor. A wire? She blinked, wishing again that she had better luck with her lenses. There shouldn't be a wire on the floor.
Nor did wires move by themselves.
Alexi gasped, hypnotized at first. There was something on the floor about a foot long and as thick as a telephone wire. Except that the top of this wire was rising and moving, and it had a little red ribbon of color right under the...
The head!
'Oh, my God!' she breathed aloud.
It was a snake--a small one, but a snake nonetheless, slithering, slinking across the bathroom floor.
Her throat constricted; she didn't move. She didn't know whether the snake was poisonous or not, and at that point it didn't really matter. She hated snakes; they scared her to death.
The creature paused, raised its head again, then started slithering toward the toilet bowl.
She swallowed. She had to move.
Trembling, Alexi reached out for her robe. Soaking wet, she slipped into it and belted it, still standing in the shower stall--and barely blinking as she kept her eyes trained on the snake; In desperation she looked around the little bathroom. A little tile side pocket in the wall held a magazine. Alexi grabbed it and rolled it up.
Panicked thoughts whirled through her mind. If she didn't kill it on the first swipe, would it bite her? She could just run....
No. Because if it slithered out of sight, she would never, never be able to sleep in the house again.
She stepped from the shower stall with her rolled-up weapon. She inhaled sharply, then smacked the snake. She jumped back, screaming. The blow hadn't stopped the creature in the least. It was just writhing and slinking more wildly now.
She attacked again--and again. Somewhere in her mind she realized that paper would not kill the serpent. It might not be big, but it had a tough hide.
Finally, though, the thing stopped. Or almost stopped. She had most of the body smashed against the base of the toilet. Only the head wavered a bit.
She swallowed sickly. What was the damn thing doing in her house? She felt like a torturer--but she was terrified.
Alexi dropped the paper. She had to get something. A spade--something with which she could scoop the creature up and out.
And kill it. It wasn't dead--and even though it was a snake, she hated to think of herself torturing the thing. She backed away, then ran--into the kitchen and into the pantry. She wasn't sure what lay in the bottom shelves, but she had seen a number of tools there.
She found a heavy spade. Armed with it, Alexi made her way back to the bathroom, where she stopped dead still. The snake had disappeared.
'It couldn't have, it couldn't have,' she whispered aloud, leaning against the wall. But it had.
She searched the bathroom, the floor, the shower stall. But there was no snake. She began to wonder if she had imagined the creature. Had the night been so bad that she had gone a little crazy? She didn't like spiders and bugs, but she could tolerate them. She was terrified of snakes, though. She had almost told Rex Morrow so last night after he had killed the spider.
Calm yourself, calm yourself. She tried to think rationally. She had seen the creature. And now it was gone. She drew in a deep breath. Had it been poisonous? What had it looked like? She was going to have to find out. She'd have to ask. She'd have to...
'Argh!' A gasping, desperate sound escaped her as she felt something slither over her foot. She looked down in terror. It was the snake.
She had her spade. She screamed, jumped--and slammed it down.
She dropped the spade, leaving the snake pinned beneath it, and backed away. Nearing the kitchen door, she turned.
Only to see another of the foot-long blackish creatures.
Sweat broke out all over her. Shaking, Alexi wrenched open the kitchen door and ran to the pantry again. She found a pipe wrench and raced back into the hallway. She swung the wrench down with force, careless of what she might do to the fine wooden floor.
She wasn't about to pick up the spade or the pipe wrench. She burst into the parlor instead. With trembling fingers she found Rex Morrow's phone number and dialed it.
'C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon...!' she muttered as the phone rang. When she heard Rex's voice on the other end, she started to speak, then realized it was an answering machine. He didn't identify himself by name; in a deep, pleasant voice said merely, 'I can't get to the phone right now, but if you'll leave your name and number at the sound of the beep, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.'
Alexi waited for the beep. 'Rex, it's Alexi. Rex--' Her eyes widened, and she broke off with a long scream. There was another one! Another one, coming into the parlor!
She dropped the phone and raced to the fireplace. Grabbing the poker, she went for the snake. She got it. Or at least got it pinned beneath the poker. She had to get out. Just for a minute; just to breathe. Her hair was soaking wet, she was barefoot, and her robe was hardly even belted, but she had to get out.
Tears stinging her eyes, she raced for the front door. By the time she got the stubborn bolt to work, she was crying in great, gulping sobs.
She flung the door open and went running out and down the path, right into a pair of strong arms. 'Alexi!'
She screamed in panic at the feel of the strong fingers tight around her shoulders. Everything that touched her had become a snake, and she couldn't see anything, as her face was crunched to his chest.
'Alexi! What is it? Oh, my God, what happened? Is someone in there? Did someone hurt you? Alexi!'
Somehow the fact that it was Rex filtered into her mind.
'Oh, Rex!' She grabbed his shirt, her fingers like talons as they dug in. She moved even closer to him, trembling.
He shook her gently.
'Dammit, Alexi, what the hell happened? Did someone attack you?'
She shook her head, unable to talk.
'Alexi!'
He caught her hands and gently unwound her fingers from their death clutch upon him. He held them between his own, then slipped his hand beneath her chin to raise her eyes to his. She saw the concern in them, the raw anxiety in the hardened twist of his jaw.
'I tried to call you--' she gasped out. 'I know, dammit, I know! I was there! I heard you scream, and I ran here as fast as I could. Alexi, what--' 'Oh, it was horrible, Rex!' 'What, Alexi, for God's sake! What?'
Her eyes were glazed, her lips were trembling, her whole body was shaking. She was deathly pale, terrified.
And she was beautiful. Not even his confusion and fear for her could block that fact. She was scrubbed and damp, and her hair was soaked, but she was beautiful. Her eyes were huge and as green as emeralds with their glazing of moisture. She was pure and glorious beneath the sun. Her scent was soft and dazzling, as soft as the pressure of her body against his. She was a barefoot waif in a white robe, and he was painfully aware that she wore nothing beneath it.
And she called on everything primitive within him. He wanted to go out and do battle for her. He wanted to sweep her into his arms, hold her to his heart and swear that things would be okay. And he wanted, with a throbbing intensity, to take her away with him, away from any horror, and make love to her. To tear away that slim barrier of terry and drown in the soft, feminine scent of her.
'Alexi!'
