Page 105 of Strangers She Knows

An angel’s promise of guidance.

Kellen slept.

44

Kellen woke to the blast of a shotgun, and at the sound, went instantly from prone and asleep to on her feet and battle ready. She stared toward her door, smoking and shattered, and at Mara standing holding a sawed-off single barrel weapon.

Mara’s eyes were molten, her mouth was twisted, her color high. She was seething aboutsomething. Which something it was, Kellen didn’t know. Mara seethed a lot.

Kellen’s eyes were so wide they hurt. “Hi.”

“How did you do it? How did you free yourself?” Mara shoved the door all the way open with her foot and stalked into the room, pointing the shotgun at Kellen’s belly. “Where did you put my rifle? Where did you put my Taser? Where did you put my pistol?”

“Um…” The sun shone in the window as if the storm had never been. Kellen shaded her eyes with her bandaged hand, then slowly removed it and squinted into the light. “Actually, it was Max’s pistol.”

Mara steadied the barrel at her.

Careful. This morning, Mara’s mental screw had twisted itself almost loose. “I don’t know anything about where it is, or about your rifle and Taser.”

“Liar!”

“An angel helped me get free.” That last part was not true… Was it?

Kellen looked toward the place in the wall where the angel had appeared. It looked like the rest of the walls, paneled and painted. But in the spinning merry-go-round of her memory, she remembered a light. She remembered Luna and an old woman dressed in white. That had been real… Or perhaps not. She also remembered a talking Cheshire Cat in the kitchen light and one grinning in the faucet. And Mara with a cat’s head.

“Maybe the angel took the weapons,” she said.

“You are so full of shit.” Mara was breathing hard. “You did this!”

“Ridiculous!” Kellen said heatedly. “If I had done this,youwouldn’t be holding a shotgun.”

“You didn’t know I had it! It’s sawed off, so it fit in the bag I stowed at the top of the closet.”

Kellen remembered Old Angel, how very human she had seemed, how tiny and frail she had been. If she had taken the rifle, the pistol and the Taser—and how else had they disappeared?—but hadn’t been able to reach the bag to check it out…

Kellen lifted her bandaged hand and showed Mara the blood that had seeped through the gauze. “Fine. I freed myself the same way you did—I pulled my hand off the top of the needle. After all, if you did it, it can’t be that hard.”

Mara bounded forward and pressed the end of the weapon to Kellen’s belly.

Kellen recognized the opportunity.

Mara was close.

Kellen was fast, a trained soldier with warrior skills, and a match for Mara in motive and determination. She could shove the shotgun aside, slam her fist into Mara’s face, fight with her, maybe win.Maybe.

But kill her? With her bare hands? Even if both her hands were well and whole, Kellen knew herself. Killing someone while looking into their eyes, while seeing desperation and life and soul slipping away…that was the task of a heartless killer. A serial killer.

Yet a memory prodded at Kellen, a memory from last night. Mara’s voice, saying,“It’s not you who is my soul mate. It’s your daughter. I promise I won’t ever let her be alone.”

Rae. Even if Max had brought her through the storm, she was doomed. If Mara lived, she would take Rae, hurt her, warp her, make her into a twisted and damaged version of herself. Mara’s soul mate. If Rae fought back, if Mara didn’t succeed, Rae would die.

No.Maraneeded to meet her final, bloody end. For Rae, Mara had be to stopped, and it had to stop here.

Kellen stood very still, looked into Mara’s eyes, and through her tumult of emotions and fears, tried to project a Zen-like tranquility. “About today—aren’t we going to play ‘Kill Kellen the Fun Way’?”

Mara still breathed as if she’d been running.

“If you shoot me, the game is over.”

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