Something Deadly. Rachel Lee

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      He was racing to kill the woman he loved.

      Dec’s heart beat heavily with anxiety and fear. He heard the mournful howl from the back of the house. He realized as he rounded the corner of the house that she was no longer the woman he loved.

      She had been taken over by evil.

      He pulled the vials out of his pocket and drew a cc of tetradotoxin into the syringe. He watched her, standing in the middle of the yard, arms thrown wide in celebration and triumph.

      She was a stranger looking back at him with Markie’s eyes.

      “Hi, honey,” he said, smiling as he had always smiled when they met.

      Markie felt the darkness inside her try to force her to reach out and hurt…. “Dec…”

      He leaped at her, knocking her to the ground. He dropped to his knees beside Markie, beside the love of his life, whispering, “God help me…I’m sorry….” He plunged the needle into her arm and rammed down the plunger.

      Markie grew still. Dec felt for her pulse.

      It was gone.

      Something Deadly

      Rachel Lee

       www.mirabooks.co.uk

SOMETHING DEADLY

      Contents

      Prologue

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 26

      Chapter 27

      Chapter 28

      Epilogue

      Prologue

      Shadow smelled it first. He lay on the living-room floor at his owner’s feet, sprawled on his left side with a rawhide chew bone a whisker’s length from his nose. He’d worked the knot for a while earlier, massaging his gums, as close as he was likely to get to the satisfaction of gnawing fresh, warm meat from the bones of a kill. Now the comforting scents—the half-chewed bone; the master’s feet wrapped in old leather slippers; the rug still rich with the aroma of pipe tobacco, though the master had long since stopped smoking; beef and potatoes and carrots and red wine in the pot on the stove; the barest remnant of the master’s wife’s perfume, even though she’d gone out the door; the salt air that was ever-present; loam on the master’s slippers from the garden; the varied and precious scents of Shadow’s world—were displaced by something else.

      He drew in the air in quick, rapid sniffs, emptying his lungs when he could hold no more, repeating the process again and again, focusing, letting his agile mind filter out the familiar to pinpoint the new odor. Cold. Earth. Must. Decay. Chill. Death. Evil.

      Woof.

      One quick noise, as much to chase the horrid scent from his nostrils as to alert the master. But the smell would not leave. The growl grew low in his chest as he rolled onto his haunches, not yet standing, still sampling the air.

      Go away!

      “What’s wrong, buddy?”

      The master’s voice, so soothing with its deep rumble, barely reached his mind. In a smooth, graceful motion, he rose and trotted to the front window, his nose still foul with the air. Couldn’t the master smell it? Probably not. The master and his wife missed so much of the world.

      His pupils widened as he approached the glass, beyond which lay the dark world, full of the rising scents of nighttime. But they held no interest. It was there. It was right out there.

      Arrf-arr-arr-arr-arr-arrf!

      Begone! This is my master’s home! You may not enter!

      If it heard him, or understood, it paid him no heed. But his friends in the other houses heard, and understood, taking up the cry.

      “What, Shadow?” the master said, now at his side.

      Shadow looked up at him, then out the window again, growling an angry warning as it approached.

      “There’s nothing there, boy! Stop that racket.”

      The master couldn’t see it? Of course he couldn’t smell it, but couldn’t he see?

      ARR-ARR-ARR-ARR-ARRUFF-ARR-ARR-ARRUFF-ARRUFF!

      No! You can’t have him! I will die before I let you near him! Begone! Evil! Danger!

      Shadow looked up, his teeth bared, as it came through the glass—how could that be?—and leapt up at it, snarling and snapping, clawing at it and finding nothing.

      “Calm down, boy!” the master said, though his scent now held the tiniest inkling of fear.

      Be afraid, Master! Run!

      Shadow grabbed the cuff of his master’s pants and pulled.

      Run! Please!

      The master reached down to push him away. Noooooo! Shadow made one last lunge, then turned to the foul horror that seemed to stab at his nostrils like the quills of a porcupine and let out a savage growl, leaping between it and the master.

      But it passed right through and into the master’s body, now curling and ripping inside him. The master crumpled to the floor. Shadow pushed at him with his firm nose.

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