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Before Isis

“Papa! Papa!”

“Oo his son’s excited forh country drive, he settled Misha on his ar the fields—and said, “What has youryou?”

A giggling laugh, his son secure in the knowledge that his father wouldn’t drop hi me a sweet?”

“I was hungry on the way home,” he teased “I’m afraid I ate it”

Misha’s brow furrowed, his dark eyes intentand then he laughed again, a huge and deep laugh for such a san to look in his father’s shirt pocket, gave a triue

S at his son’s joy, he looked up and saw her in the doorway His wife With their new daughter in her arms His heart twisted into a knot that was alht he should be ashamed to love his wife and children so much, until the days when he went away to thehimself to believe it

When other ht of the wo eyes and wide rede hated her hbor across the plain, but he loved her smile, loved the crooked tooth in the front, and the way she began to lisp when he talked her into too hbor’s son

Now, setting down his bag on the doorstep, he cupped her cheek with his hand “Hello, wife”

“I missed you, Dmitri”

1

Crouching on the concrete pier lit only by the dull yello of a flickering streetlight several feet away, Drip in the dead ht, would not have approved of the breach in proper forensic protocol, but the hunter was currently in Japan and wouldn’t return to the city for three more days

The victim’s head had been separated fro slices, the weapon possibly sos done The skin, which appeared to have been either pink or white in life, was bloated and soft ater, but the river hadn’t had tirade it into slime