No Dominion The Walker Papers - By CE Murphy Page 0,99

so hard I could barely stay in the saddle, an’ I took it out to smack one of the smaller stones outta my way.

Its light cut through the dust, lettin’ me see a blond woman dressed all in white, standing with her back to me. The air was vibrating with her screams, pulsing with ‘em while the building fell down around her. Joanne was a couple feet further on, barely on her feet, looking like the screams that were bugging me were about to shatter her.

The blonde never knew I was comin’. It was just a couple of long strides for the brown mare, an’ I drove the rapier into the woman’s back.

Her screaming cut off with a squeak, an’ she slid off the sword without making any more sound. Joanne went from looking about to shatter to being rigid, the kinda rigid that said she was in more danger of falling apart now than she’d ever been before. Her eyes were wider than I’d ever seen ‘em, tears rolling down her cheeks, an’ she wasn’t breathing. She was just staring at me, not even at the lady I’d killed, but me, like she’d never laid eyes on me before. She didn’t blink while I looked down at the dead woman.

The dame was degrading like a salt sculpture in water. Her dress shriveled, an’ so did her hair, an’ it went faster and faster, until I figured she was prob’ly dead for good, and looked back at Joanne.

My poor girl still hadn’t moved, still wasn’t breathing. I didn’t know what she’d been through while I’d been gone, but it didn’t look like any of it had been good, an’ it was gonna end with her passing out if she didn’t take a breath soon. I figured I better do something, so I called up my best wicked grin, slid off the mare, an’ opened my arms.

“H’lo, darlin’. Did I miss anything?”

~0~

The Rising Green

“The Rising Green” takes place at the same time MOUNTAIN ECHOES (Book Eight of the Walker Papers) ends, but contains no spoilers for that book.

The pull came from under her skin, a faint itching sensation that wouldn’t go away. It reminded Suzy of the chicken pox, which she hadn’t had until she was eleven, so she remembered it all miserably well. It wasn’t that bad, but it was enough to wake her up. Suzy crunched her eyes shut and flung one elbow over them, rubbing her forearm with the other hand. It itched. She ignored it, or tried to. Then she lifted her elbow and looked at her clock, illuminated by a soft green glow.

A quarter to midnight. Suzy dropped her elbow over her eyes again. The green glow lingered behind her eyelids. She was supposed to be up in six hours for an early-morning study group, preparing for a test the next afternoon. She didn’t need the study group. She was going to ace the test anyway. But study groups were the only thing Aunt Mae would let her out of the house for, ever since The Halloween Incident. It had been almost six months, and Aunt Mae still referred to it that way. The Halloween Incident.

Suzy’s parents had never managed to keep her grounded for more than a weekend. Not that she was doing that thing, the omg my parents were so much cooler than you thing, because although it was true, it was also true that just because Suzy was fifteen didn’t mean she was a complete asshole. Her aunt, her father’s sister, had stepped up like crazy when Suzy’s parents were murdered, and she was doing the best she could with suddenly being a parent.

It was also true that while her parents had been alive, Suzanne Melody Quinley had never done anything like walk out of school at the last bell, get on a bus, and head a hundred miles out of town without any kind of warning. She’d had to see Detective Joanne Walker. It had literally been life-and-death important. Aunt Mae would never really understand that, but then, Suzy hadn’t tried very hard to make her. She’d deserved to be grounded. Maybe not for six months, but still, she’d deserved it.

And she was never going to get back to sleep with the green shimmer peeping through her elbow or her thoughts going circles on the topic of The Halloween Incident. Once she started remembering the zombies it was all over anyway. Suzy sat up with a sigh and threw the covers aside.

The

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