"That's a no-go, Z. Tohr said the family's not putting it on the market anytime soon. They want to keep it."
Z ground his molars for a moment. "Cop, do yourself a favor and get out of here."
"Rather drive you home. Damn close to daybreak."
"Yeah, I really need a human telling me that."
Butch cursed on an exhale. "Fine, go crispy if you want. Just don't come back here again. Her family's been through enough."
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As soon as the front door shut, Z felt a flush come over his body, like someone had wrapped him up tight in an electric blanket and cranked the dial. Sweat broke out on his face and his chest, and his stomach rolled. He lifted his hands. The palms were wet and the fingers sported a fine tremble.
Physiological signs of stress, he thought.
He was clearly having an emotional reaction, although damned if he knew what it was. All he picked up on were the ancillary symptoms. Inside of himself there was nothing, no feeling that he could identify.
He looked around and wanted to set fire to the farmhouse, just burn the thing down to the ground so no one could have it. Better that than knowing he couldn't go in anymore.
Trouble was, torching her place was like hurting her.
So if he couldn't leave a pile of ashes behind, he wanted to take something. As he thought about what he could carry with him and still dematerialize, he put his hand up to the slender chain stretched tight around his throat.
The necklace with its tiny inset diamonds was hers. He'd found the thing in the rubble the night after she'd been abducted, on the terra-cotta floor under her kitchen table. He'd cleaned her blood off of it, fixed the broken clasp, and had worn it ever since.
And diamonds were eternal, weren't they? They lasted forever. Just like his memories of her.
Before Zsadist left, he took one last look at the fish tank. The food was almost gone now, snipped off the surface by little gaping mouths, mouths that came at it from the underside.
John didn't know how long he stayed in Wellsie's arms, but it took him a while to get back to reality. When he finally pulled back, she smiled at him.
"Sure you don't want to tell me about the nightmare?"
John's hands started moving, and she stared at them hard because she was just learning American Sign Language. He knew he was going too fast, so he leaned over and picked up one of his pads and a pen from the bedside table.
It was nothing. I'm okay now. Thanks for waking me up, though.
"You want to go back to bed?"
He nodded. It seemed as if he'd done nothing except sleep and eat for the last month and a half, but there was no end to his hunger or his exhaustion. Then again, he had twenty-three years of starvation and insomnia to make up for.
He slid between the sheets, and then Wellsie eased down beside him. Her pregnancy didn't show that much if she was standing, but when she was sitting there was a subtle swell under her loose shirt.
"You want me to put the light on in your bathroom?"
He shook his head. That would only make him feel more like a pansy, and right now his ego had pretty much Page 22
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taken all the shriveling up it could handle.
"I'm just going to be at my desk in the study, okay?"
As she left, he felt bad that he was kind of relieved, but with the panic gone he was ashamed of himself. A man didn't act like he had just now. A man would have fought the pale-haired demon in the dream and won.
And even if he'd been terrified, a man wouldn't have cowered and shook like a five-year-old when he woke up.
Then again, John wasn't a man. At least not yet. Tohr had said the change wouldn't come to him until he was closer to twenty-five, and he couldn't wait for the next two years to pass. Because even though he now understood why he was only five feet, six inches tall and 112 pounds, it was still tough. He hated facing his bony body every day in the mirror. Hated wearing boy-sized clothes though he could legally drive and vote and drink. Cringed at the