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Part 5
When he relaxed his concentration the car had slowed, nearly idling as Christine crossed a huge divot in the pavement. A moment later, they were on his block. The apartment building was a plain, eight-story cracker-box built of bricks. Its windows were uniformly dark.
“Pull into the lot here,” he pointed to his right. “I’ll get the parking.”
“Fine with me.”
Dan dug in his purse for cash while Christine turned into the parking lot. He was out of the vehicle before she even parked. Trying not to break an ankle, he jogged over the potholes and shoved enough money into the pay box for a whole day.
His companion joined him as he hurried to the front of the building. A low brick wall surrounded it, with a narrow strip of lawn pinched between. There was a yard light and a security camera above the main entrance, so Dan made an effort to restrain himself and walk like a lady. Meanwhile, Christine loped along beside him with an easy stride. It annoyed him that the woman made no effort to appear feminine. He tapped his security code on the keypad beside the glass door. There was a loud buzz, and he pushed the door inward.
If the security system was new, it was the only thing about the building that claimed such a distinction. The carpet in the lobby was faded, the wallpaper peeling, and the air held a cloying tang of mildew. The elevator groaned as it descended in response to their call.
The ride up seemed even longer than the wait for the elevator. Finally, they reached the sixth floor. The air was a little fresher in this corridor because one of the windows was stuck half-open, revealing the curt lines of the fire escape beyond.
Keys jangled as Dan turned the deadbolt, and then the knob. With the speed of habit, he turned on the lights and dropped his purse and coat on a ratty sofa, which crowded most of the tiny living room. Christine strolled in and he shut the door behind her.
“Nice place,” she drawled with unmistakable irony.
Dan frowned. Without Marilyn’s income, he could hardly afford even this dump. “Wait here. I’m going to check on Grace.”
“Sure thing.” Christine smirked at his annoyance and dropped her gym bag on top of his coat.
To the left of the living room was the equally cramped kitchen, and a darkened hallway parallel to the living room. Dan bent to take off his shoes before crossing the linoleum, and carried them down the hall. Grace’s bedroom was straight ahead. He stealthily turned the knob and eased into the room on stocking feet. A night-light in the shape of a yellow plastic moon gave enough radiance for him to approach the bed.
The little girl lay on her back, face half-turned toward the wall. Both hands were clasped behind her head, fingers tangled in a spray of dark curls. Her eyelashes made two crescent moons in reverse, and her mouth was like a budding rose. But she lay so still that for a moment he thought she wasn’t breathing. An instinctive, parental panic squeezed his guts. Then Grace sighed deeply, and one sleepy hand rubbed at her nose. The tight knot of grief and worry inside him eased.
Even in the dim light, he could see how thin she was. The bones of her wrist stood out from her arm. In recent weeks, Grace had become so weak that it winded her just to walk to the kitchen for breakfast. Now, he knew why.
Despite his resolve, Dan felt his lips tremble with emotion as he bent to kiss his sleeping daughter. But a muffled sound behind him made him tense. He straightened and whirled to confront a nightmare.
“You!” he gasped.
The Gellboar was in the closet. There was no mistaking the misshapen bulk among the child’s dresses hanging in the shadowed recess. It stepped forward with deliberate menace, and the hangers chimed plaintively behind it.
Gray lips grinned above the black trench coat. “Welcome home, Mommy.”
Rage filled him. How dare this creature, this monster, invade his home and make fun of him after what it had done?
“You… I’ll kill you!” Dan dropped the women’s shoes he was holding and planted his feet. With a snap he lifted his wand, summoning his psais.
He moved too slowly. The Gellboar charged, tentacles lashing out. One pinned his right arm to his side and another wrenched at his left wrist, forcing his wand upward. As it came at him, its weight threw him backward. Windows rattled as he fetched up against the wall.
“Chris —” he started to call, but a cluster of tentacles wrapped about his throat, squeezing, tightening.
“Not so loud,” the alien creature grated with menacing mockery. “You’ll wake the child.”
Dan’s head was swimming, and he could feel its power trying to subdue his will. He threw his head back and squeezed his eyes shut, hardening his psais in self defense. His mouth worked, but he could not draw breath to speak.
The Gellboar rasped, “Be still, and you will live.”
Dan fought anyway. His arms were caught, but his legs were not, and he flailed them wildly, beating against the walls and the too-soft mass of his enemy’s body. The hollow thumps, like a wildly beating heart, sounded muffled, ineffectual. Would anyone hear him?
The creature slammed him into the wall again. His head snapped back against the hard surface. The resulting thud echoed hollowly in his skull, and yellow lights flashed before his eyes.
He was faintly aware of a rustling nearby as Grace moved in bed but he could not turn his head to see her. Mother-God, please don’t let her wake. A child shouldn’t have to see her own father murdered. Creeping numbness infiltrated his limbs. It was all he could do to draw breath through the fiery bands about his throat.
“Do as I say,” his enemy growled, “or you’ll regret it.”
The door slammed inward. Light from the hallway flooded the room, blinding him temporarily. Dan felt a jerk as the Gellboar started to move and stopped suddenly. When he blinked his vision clear, it was to greet a welcome sight: Christine Cooper stood behind the Gellboar.
“I think,” she was drawling with grim sweetness, “that you’d better do what I say. And I say, the man breathes.”
“But I also have something you want, do I not?” It answered with a cautious defiance. Nevertheless, Dan was able to draw in a full breath for the first time in what seemed an eternity.
Christine had changed clothes, trading her flashy stage costume for a flannel shirt which hung loose about her lanky frame. A part of him couldn’t help noting that her legs were bare beneath the garment’s hem. The more important detail was a gleam below the brim of the Gellboar’s fedora, something dark and metallic: a gun. He hadn’t thought Christine would carry one, with her command of psais, but he was extremely glad she did.
“You willing to bet on that?” Christine pushed with the nose of the gun in a demonstrative manner. “Let him down now, nice and slow, and keep your hands, or whatever they are, where I can see them.”
Dan’s head was clearing, and he had a moment to think. The Gellboar could have strangled him or broken his neck, but it hadn’t. It wanted to coerce, not kill. As he’d hoped, the creature’s hunger for psais could be its weakness.
The alien must have decided Christine wouldn’t miss at that range. Dan felt himself sliding down the wall, his feet touching the floor.
“Very nice,” Christine said. “Now step back toward me. Slowly! What in the hells are you doing here?”
It answered without fear or shame, “Merely minding my own business.”
Did that mean killing Grace, hiding the evidence of its crime? Or had it really come for Dan, knowing he would check up on his daughter as soon as he got home? It sure didn’t expect Christine to come home with him. He was more than lucky she had.
Christine bristled. “Business? Look, you. We’re not cattle for you to feed on.”
“I do not feed.” It was the same unfeeling statement. “The energy is essential, and I do as I must to have it.”
Dan stared, feeling slightly queasy. He hadn’t thought there could be a motive besides vampiric survival. Not that he cared what it might be.
Christine wouldn’t let it rest. “Essential for what? What’s so important?”
For the first time, the alien eyes showed a trace of some emotion, dark and intense. It kept its lips shut, until she shoved again with the gun.
The Gelboar turned slowly, stared at her with its flat black eyes. “I want what any female wants, and there are no males of my kind here.”
Christine’s lips curled in a disgusted sneer. “You did this to… What, clone yourself?”
“It takes great power to fertilize eggs without sperm,” the Gelboar replied.
Dan wasn’t sure what offended him more, that this alien creature was a woman, or that she had murdered his family to create more horrors like herself. It didn’t matter. He had an opportunity to get revenge, but he had to move fast.
“I’m fine,” Dan interrupted. “Let it go, Christine.”
The two of them eased back, and the tentacles’ grip slackened. He threw them off with disgust. To the creature, he said, “I’ll give you what you want.”
The Gellboar had the nerve to grin at him.
Dan swallowed his hatred, using every bit of acting skill he had picked up to appear a distraught, beaten father. “I’ll sign it. I’ll do whatever you want. Just take the life link off Grace.”
“I accept,” the Gellboar smirked.
To be continued…
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