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As night fell the following evening over the Brotherhood&039;s ot his jacket froht, and yet he felt as if he were facing a kind of ene alone He&039;d told Lassiter to chill and get a s you just needed to do by yourself

The fallen angel had siood luck Like he knew precisely what ring of fire Tohr was about to walk through

God, the sense that nothing surprised the guy was al else about hih, John had coo and shared his joyous news Personally The kid had been grinning so wide, there was a good chance his face was going to freeze in that position, and that was a pretty goddae soood folks down Not in this case, though Thank God, not this time

And it was hard to think of two people who deserved ithis room, Tohr strode down the hall of statues The happy announcehout the household, bringing a much- needed shot in the aren, who loved to put on a big party

And man, from the sounds down below, they were in the throes of preparations Either that or West Coast Choppers was doing a Harley over in the foyer

Nah Turned out the buzzing wasn&039;t so to town

Pausing, Tohr braced his hands on the balustrade and looked down at the mosaic depiction of the apple tree in full blooo over the branches and the trunk, he decided life was right and fair on occasion It truly was

And that was the only reason he could suth to do what he had to

After descending the grand staircase at a jog, he waved at the doggen while dodging in and out of their paths and ducking out through the vestibule In the courtyard, he took a deep breath and braced hiood two hours before the cere this was going to take

Closing his eyes, he sent his ato and took form on the terrace of his mated hoood fifty years

As he lifted his lids, he didn&039;t look at the house Instead, he tilted his head back and searched the night sky above the roofline The stars were out, their shihtness undiht

Where were his dead? he wondered Which ahts were the souls of those whom he&039;d lost?

Where were his shellan and their young? Where was Darius? Where were all the others who had pared off fro path his boots still strode so that they could take residence in the velvet ever-afterlife of the Fade?

Did they watch what happened down here? Did they see what transpired, both the good and bad?

Did they miss those they&039;d left behind?

Did they know they were ht his head to level and steeled hiht hurt like a motherfucker just to look at the place

And theat was a huge hole in his house, the glass slider to John&039;s old roo left where there was

As a breeze blew by, the drapes that hung on either side of the casing wafted gently

So very obvious: House was him Hole hat remained after he&039;d lost Wellsie

Still difficult to think her name Much less say it

Over to the side, there were half a dozen sheets of plywood along with a box of nails and a haht them over as soon as Tohr had learned about the accident, but the doggen had been under strict orders not to fix the problem himself

Tohr fixed his own house Always

As he walked forward, the soles of his shitkickers crushed the glass shards into flagstone, the crackling sound following hi a key fob out of his pocket, he pointed it into the house and pressed the disarm button on the remote There was a distant beep-beep, which nal and was now off

He was free to go in: Motion detectors were deactivated and he could open any exterior door orin the place

Free to go in

Yup

Instead of taking that first step, he went over to the plywood, picked up one of the four-by-eight sheets, and ainst the house, he returned for the nails and the hammer

It took him about a half hour to cover the hole, and when he stepped back to inspect the effort, he thought it looked like shit The rest of the place was pristine in spite of the fact that it hadn&039;t been lived in since Wellsie&039;swas battened down, and his for and to check the indoors once a h they&039;d moved on to serve another family out of town

Funny, he&039;d tried to pay them for what they still did here now that he was back in the land of the living, but they&039;d refused the money Just returned it with a kindly note

Guess everyone mourned in their oay

Tohr put the ha nails on top of the one sheet of board he hadn&039;t used and then he forced himself to walk around the outside of the house As he went along, from time to time he peered into the s The drapes had all been pulled, but nonetheless, his vision penetrated through the folds of cloth to readily view all the ghosts that lived within the walls