A thoughtdawned on Amber and she suddenly realized that the stranger behindher was not bleeding from the throat. His breath was not coming outraspy or wet enough. So he had cut through the flesh of someoneelse’s throat and been covered in the spray in the process. He hadprobably watched the spray until it died down and he knew for surethe victim was dead from loss of blood.
Amber almostjolted upright in bed at that thought. The only person who could bedying in her house would be Greg. Tears came unbidden to her eyesand she squeezed them shut. Greg was not dying downstairs as hewould all ready be dead by now. The amount of blood on the manbehind her and the amount of time that had passed between Gregbeing cut open and her lying there thinking would mean Greg couldno longer draw breath and never would again.
She pushed hereyes shut to stop the tears and wondered if the man was leaningover her enough that he could see her profile. If he was, he mustbe able to see her crying and see that she had been awake thiswhole time. Amber realized with a spark of knowing that he couldnot see her face. He was not at the right angle and her head wasburied in the pillows.
Anger rose upin her then. Who was he to kill her husband on her most favoredholiday during her favorite time of year? What did he gain from it?Amber’s tears died and she scowled deeply. Before she could secondguess her own actions she let out a roar of fury, threw the coversfrom her form and over the man. She then tackled the man,collapsing atop the struggling form and releasing a flurry ofpunches to area where she thought his face would be.
She screamedwordlessly with every punch she laid on the man underneath her.Strong arms clamped around her waist so suddenly that she did notregister them until she was being thrown off. Her head slammed intothe thick metal foot board of the bed and she lay there dazed for along moment.
In that moment,the stranger tugged the covers from his bloody person. Amber notedin a daze that she recognized the man as the one she saw when shehad been shovelling snow. His hair was brown and messily tied in apony tail and his eyes were the same shade as his hair. Amber notedgleefully that his nose and lip were now bleeding freely.
She tried topuller herself to her feet but found that her body declined to giveher the proper response. The man stood and shook himself like a dogcoming out of water and Amber tried to shift away. Her neck andback shouted in protest. Amber let out a little gasp of pain butrefused to close her eyes in protest of the agony.
By now the manhad turned and was looking down at her with a grin that set his lipto bleeding more quickly. Amber blinked away the haze threateningto settle on her and wondered at how bad her concussion actuallywas. She hoped it would not hinder her too badly so she could getout of this situation but knew hoping was not enough.
The man took astep towards her and Amber let out a growl as her only warning. Theman tilted his head to a side and almost started laughing untilAmber’s foot slammed into the juncture between his legs. He doubledover and Amber noted the bloody knife that dropped out of hishand.
When he fell tohis knees, she kicked him with both feet in the face. When he fellbackwards, she slammed both her heels into his stomach four times.Finally she regained most of her senses and was able to pullherself to her feet.
The worldtilted dangerously and Amber felt bile rising to her throat. Shelooked dizzily at the dresser for the other portable phone but sawit was not there. She also noticed that her baseball bat wasmissing and scowled at the writhing figure on the floor. For goodmeasure, she put her full body weight into his groin until hescreamed and passed out from pain.
She nodded thenregretted the motion of her head. Amber leaned against the bed forsupport taking a few deep breaths before stumbling out of the room.She pulled the door closed behind her and pushed a potted plant infront of it. When he came through the door, she would hear him ifshe was still in earshot. She was not planning to be inearshot.
She fumbleddown the stairs with her head spinning and her stomach lurching atevery step. The scent of blood came to her nose again and sheturned wildly to look behind her, unbelieving that she had missedthe sound of the pot breaking. She lost her grip on the railing andtumbled the rest of the way down.
She landed backfirst in a cooling pond of blood. She noted with some difficultythat the man had not been behind her and the smell had been comingfrom in front of her. She slid in the blood as she tried to getback up. She managed only to fall twice more and stained her clothsred.
Finally she wasable to get to her knees and stare into the messy lake of red bloodbefore her. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light coming through thewindow of the front door and she saw Greg’s still body crumbledbeneath her. He had broken her fall.
Amber’s breathhitched in her throat at that and her slick hands came up to coverher mouth to prevent the shout of agony that was threatening to ripfrom her throat. Greg’s eyes were unblinking, unseeing and startingto glaze over. The wound on his throat was at an angle, startinghigh on the right side, almost behind his ear and finishing so lowshe was sure it would scrape against his left clavicle.
Amber noticedwith stark precision that the wound was almost three inches deep inthe middle of his throat and the edges were ragged. The skin aroundit was blotted with red as was the front of his tan suit and whitedress shirt. There was a forming bruise under his left eye and hisknuckles were split.
