Part 45 (1/2)

”Yeah, whatever.” He freed his claws from the surface layer of skin and walked up Dean's chest until he could stare into his face. Blue eyes blinked myopically back at him.

”What?”

”You're okay?”

”I'm bleeding and I'm after being awake when I'd rather not be, but yeah.” His voice softened, and one hand stroked gently along Austin's spine. ”What's wrong, then?”

”Nothing. Why should anything be wrong?”

”I just thought . . .”

”Well, don't.” A purposeful climb over an inconvenient shoulder and onto Claire's pillow. Snuggling down, he glared at Dean, now gazing at him with concern. ”I thought you were sleeping?”

”I was.”

”So sleep.”

”All right. But we'll talk about this in the morning.”

”Not so smart to warn me,” Austin muttered. Not one of his best comebacks but he was shaken. He watched Dean until he went back to sleep. Watched him sleep. Could see nothing wrong.

He'd been so sure on the stairs. So sure.

He thought about the mouse lying dead under the table and sighed. Maybe he was just getting old.

Chapter NINE.

A pale and slightly murky green, the water had never been treated by chemicals or filtered through anything but a fish bladder. As Claire's head broke the surface and she sucked in a welcome lungful of air, a light caress trailed down the inside of one leg.

Oh it's fresh water. Great.

Pus.h.i.+ng her dripping hair out of her face with a quick swipe of one hand, she began treading water and trying to figure out exactly where she was. A combination of suns.h.i.+ne and a gentle swell threw reflected light up into her eyes, making her squint.

Outside.

Far enough beyond the segue for there to be actual weather, not the neither/nor sort of sky that had been draped over the mall, but still on the Otherside.

She'd been lucky. With both her conscious and subconscious preoccupied in sending the shadow a.s.sa.s.sin to a place where it would be no threat, she could have ended up anywhere. Stepping through a door on the Otherside with no clear idea of a destination could have resulted in a visit to any number of unpleasant places, not only on the Otherside but in the real world as well.

She could have ended up on the south side of Chicago.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The West Bank.

The north of Afghanistan.

At a second-run theater screening of Attack of the Clones.