across the seat, threw her arms around the little old man, and kissed him on the cheek. "Take me home fast, Fritz. Faster than you've ever gone before. Break every traffic law."
"Madam?"
"You heard me. As fast as you can!"
Fritz was all flustered from the attention, but he recovered quickly and punched the gas.
Mary put her seat belt on and then popped the visor down and looked at herself in the little lighted mirror. Her hands were shaking as she put them to her cheeks, and giggles broke out of her mouth, especially as the car careened around a corner and she was thrown against the door.
When sirens sounded, she laughed even harder.
"I beg your pardon, madam." The doggen glanced over at her. "But I must evade the police and this might get rather bumpy."
"Blow their doors off, Fritz."
The doggen flipped something and all the lights in and outside the car were extinguished. Then the Mercedes let out a roar that reminded her of that ride in the GTO with Rhage through the mountains.
Well, except they'd had headlights then.
She grabbed on to the seat-belt strap and shouted over the din of squealing tires, "Tell me you have perfect night vision or something!"
Fritz smiled at her calmly, as if they were just chatting it up in the kitchen. "Oh, yes, madam. Perfect."
With a jerk to the left he swerved around a minivan and then shot down an alley. Slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting a pedestrian, he nailed the gas pedal to the floor again as soon as he had a clear path down the narrow street. Darting out the other side, he cut off a taxi, dodged a bus. Even made an SUV the size of the QE II think twice before pulling out in front of him.
The old guy was an artist behind the wheel.
Okay, an artist in a Jackson Pollock kind of way, sure, but amazing nonetheless.
And then he shot into a parking spot. Right on the main drag. Just like that.
The chorus of sirens got so loud she had to yell. "Fritz, they're going to - "
Two police cars sped right by them.
"One more moment, madam."
Another cop car went flying down the street.
Fritz eased out and continued at a brisk pace.
"Nice trick, Fritz."
"With no offense to you, madam, human minds are rather easily manipulated."
As they sped along, she laughed and fidgeted and tapped her fingers on the armrest. The trip seemed to take forever.
When they got to the compound's first set of double gates, she was practically vibrating, she was so excited. And the moment they pulled up in front of the house, she bolted from the car, not even bothering to shut the door.
"Thanks, Fritz!" she called out over her shoulder.
"You're welcome, madam!" he shouted back.
She burst through the vestibule and bounded up the grand staircase. As she took the corner at the top, going at a dead run, her purse swung out and clipped a lamp. She doubled back and righted the thing before it crashed.
She was laughing out loud as she burst into their bedroom -
Mary careened to a halt.
In the center of the room Rhage was naked and kneeling in a trance on some kind of black slab. He had white binds tied around his neck and wrists. And there was blood dripping onto the rug, though she couldn't see where it was coming from.
His face looked as if he'd aged decades since she'd seen him.
"Rhage?"
His eyes slowly opened. They were opaque, dull. He blinked at her and frowned.
"Rhage? Rhage, what's going on?"
Her voice seemed to snap him to attention.
"What are you - " He stopped. Then shook his head as if he were trying to clear a vision. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm cured! I'm a miracle!"
As she ran to him, he leaped out of the way, holding his hands up and glancing around frantically. "Get out! She'll kill you! She'll take it all back! Oh, God, get away from me!"
Mary stopped dead. "What are you talking about?"
"You took the gift, didn't you!"
"How do you... how do you know about that weird dream?'
"Did you take the gift!"
Jesus. Rhage had lost it completely. Shaking, naked, he was bleeding from his shins and white as limestone.
"Calm down, Rhage." Boy, this was so not how she'd pictured this conversation going. "I don't know about any gift. But listen to this! I fell asleep while I was getting another MRI and something happened to the machine. It exploded or something, I guess, I don't know, they