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of light. Other times I become the night, insubstantial as a shadow, as quick as a thought. Most of the time the part of me that's Cyrus Trigg sits in the backseat because I'm afraid to let myself go. Afraid to really get in there and drive." |
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He felt the weight of her eyes on his face. |
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"I remember reading about this experiment where a bunch of lab rats were put in a cage. They were given a choice between food pellets or a chemical that stimulated their pleasure centers just by pushing a button. Don't you know, those old rats kept right on nosing the button for that pleasure pill until they starved to death. I'm afraid it might happen to me like that. So wonderful that I couldn't stop." |
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"If it's that good, why do you come back?" |
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He looked at her and smiled. It wasn't what you'd call a happy smile, so full as it was of melancholy. |
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"Come on, Kyna. You know why." |
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She laughed. "Don't go blaming it on me. Ever since the first one of you men bashed his honey over the head with a club, you've been blaming us women every time you wanted to do something but couldn't. You want to go running through the woods chasing your tail, be my guest." |
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She felt his body stiffen and blurted out, "Jesus H. Christ, I was only kidding." Then she noticed how still he waslike a Labrador retriever on pointand she whispered, "What is it?" |
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Cyrus pushed himself off the tree and turned his back to the ocean, focusing his hearing on the tall weeds at the end of Ocean Avenue. Something was moving back there. Something that walked on heavy feet. |
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The wind was coming from the sea, so he couldn't smell anything yet, but he could see four shadowy figures moving against the background of light from the parking lot. |
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"I don't know yet," he replied. "Maybe just kids out for a walk on the beach." |
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But he could tell by the way the silhouettes moved that they weren't kids. They were slow, plodding. Like they were carry- |
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