of your flesh. Your Shooting Star, Sean
Hood felt Seliah's hand tighten on his knee. Surprisingly strong. He heard the rough rumble of her breathing, then a catlike purr from deep inside her. She looked at him and the tears rolled down her cheeks. Her pupils were tiny and there were small beads of perspiration along her upper lip. She turned back to the screen and stared at it, breathing slowly. Hood felt her hand trembling on him. Time passed but the trembling did not. Then Seliah placed her free hand over the hand on Hood's knee, pulled it away and stood.
She was in the bathroom a long time. Then the bedroom. She came out wearing a red silk tank that covered her to mid-thigh and that was apparently all. Her body was damp and lotioned. Her makeup was fresh, her blue eyes set in darkness. Her platinum curtain of hair swayed as she flicked off the living room lights and sat down next to him again, the smell of her surrounding him. He could hear the deep rumble down in her chest again-a catlike purr or the rattle of mucous-he couldn't tell. She leaned into him and put her nose to his ear. Rattle. Purr.
Utterly flummoxed, Hood stood and walked into the dimly lit kitchen and looked back at her. She stared at him for a long moment, almost dreamily, then strode over. She lifted his hand to her lips and watched his eyes while she kissed it. Then she stepped into him and put her arms around him and raised her mouth to his. Hood felt the heat of her breath and the weight of her body and his own swift reaction. He unwrapped her arms and held her at arm's length and tried to read her face in the half-light. Gradually Seliah's dreamy expression became a small smile and she tried to embrace him again but Hood held her away. She was very strong and Hood stumbled and she let him overcorrect and it seemed that she was playing with him. She pulled him in closer without effort, as if he were a toy, and looked at him with an expression unreadable to him. He moved her away and felt the unlikely strength of her arms. She bit at him, her teeth clicking together. She laughed. The laugh ended and the smile departed, and Seliah looked down at herself. She easily broke free of his grip and ran from the kitchen into the bedroom and slammed the door.
Hood stood there in the kitchen with his heart pounding, wondering what to do. His standard default options seemed pointless. He felt as if he'd been led to the edge of chaos and was being asked to jump into it. The water in the master bath went on. He went to the bedroom door and listened.
Then back to the living room. He sat in front of the laptop and rubbed his hands down his face. He looked at her wineglass, empty. She'd had a beer and a bottle and a half of wine with dinner. Another big glass here. But alcohol didn't account for this, just another explanation rendered pointless by Seliah Ozburn.
When she had been gone ten minutes Hood went again to the bedroom door and listened. The water was no longer running.
'Seliah? Seliah?'
The knob turned in his hand and Hood pushed open the door. The room was dark but the light was on in the master bath. She was talking to herself.
'Hang in there, Seliah,' she said softly.
'Seliah. I'm coming in.'
'Go home. I don't want you here. Hang in there, girl; be steady now.'
'Are you all right?'
'I'm all right. Go away.'
'I want to see that you're okay.'
'Hang in there, Seliah. Get away from me! You're good. You're gonna be just fine, hon. That's it… Hang in there.'
He walked to the threshold of the bath. In the hard light Seliah sat on the tile floor near the toilet. She was wearing the red tank and nothing else. She tracked his eyes and lifted the shirt off her thighs and sneered at him. She had handcuffed one wrist to the toilet seat hinge. Saliva hung from her chin. With her free hand she swept it away and wiped it on the tile.
He drooled all down his shirt and pants. He growled like a wolf. He became strong as a chupacabra. He bit and raped his wife for four days. He repented and locked himself here to die. To save her life.
Hood took a step in and sat on his haunches on the floor a few feet away from her and looked only at her eyes.
'Let's get you to a doctor.'
'Why?'
'Look at you.'
Her sneer had dropped away. 'A pretty girl drinks a little too much and wants to kiss you, so you call a doctor? Maybe the doctor should be for you.'
'I want a good doctor to take a look at you.'
'Oh, all right.'
'That was easy, Sel.'
She raised her rump and with her free hand pulled the tank to cover her more and held it there. She sighed. 'I know you're right. You can't believe how tired I am.'
'I mean tonight. Now.'
'Okay, Charlie. I know you're a true friend. I was trying to protect you. See? I flushed the key. These cuffs are Sean's. I don't know why the Juan Batista story affected me so strongly. I feel very drunk.'
He was not crazy. He went with the devil.
Was he an evil man?
No. He always loved God.
If he loved God, why did he go to the devil?
The devil came to him. In the caves of his blood.
'I'm going to call for the paramedics, Seliah. They can help.'
'Are you going to leave me locked up until they get here?'
'Yeah.'
'Good thinking. But you better stay here and keep an eye on me because I could chew off my arm and escape. Come, sit right here.'
She let go of her blouse and patted her palm on the tile beside her.
'I'm good here, Seliah.'
She laughed. 'Charlie, if you get in range, I'm going to yank you close and kiss your cute little mouth right off. Then I'll eat you alive. Stop that, Seliah! Hang in there, girl.'
Her smile collapsed and she wiped her chin again and the tears came down her face in rivers.
Hood sat on the bed and called Soriana, who said he could circumvent the ER. He'd also get some of Seliah's background information to the examining physician ahead of time. She sobbed and talked to herself, then went quiet. When Hood went back into the bathroom she was asleep with her head on the toilet lid and a hand towel folded over for a pillow. He could have used his ATF hand-cuff key to set her free but he left her sleeping as she was. The doctor was Tim Brennan, a general practitioner affiliated with San Clemente Hospital. He was young and cheerful for being called from home to work at ten thirty p.m. He let them into a small examination room.
Seliah was calm. After the paramedics arrived, Hood had taken off her cuffs and she'd gotten into a simple white tee and the hiker's pants and athletic shoes of earlier in the day. Now she sat uncomfortably upon the exam table, looking close to exhaustion. Brennan asked a thousand questions and made notes on a yellow legal pad with a thick wood-bodied pen. Hood stayed for the interview and sat in an empty waiting room down the hallway while she was examined. The TV was on but Hood muted it and thought about Seliah while images of her terrible beauty flashed out of order through his brain.
Brennan found him there and sat down in the chair beside him. Hood glanced at the closed door of the examination room. 'I want to keep her tonight. She's okay with that. She's very tired and fairly intoxicated. I've given her a light sedative. I took some blood and a urine sample and now she can get some rest. Tomorrow we'll probably have a vastly improved young woman. I've got a few questions for you, Deputy Hood. I got most of this from Agent Mars over the phone, but the husband, Sean, he's been living away from home for how long?'
'Fifteen months.'
'Isn't that long for an undercover assignment?'
'A year is usually tops but this one was… Well, it was especially important.'
'ATF tries to control guns going south into Mexico?'
Hood nodded.
