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The door chi a fourth time

Only when Brad was out of the shop did Isobel feel the shakes begin to subside

She looked around, but Varen had vanished

She bent to retrieve the ers haphazardly into the cash drawer and shoving it closed again, as though it could contain what had already gone awry

She gripped the sides of the register and stared at the nu to decide if the here and noas too ihts sliced through the front s, as bright as search bea Isobel shut her eyes She listened as he peeled out of the parking lot, the blast fro into the night

Nuain to pan the destruction around her Chairs overturned, ice crean of Varen

She shuddered, overco akin to relief She couldn’t have faced hiain Not after this

Moving on impulse, Isobel hurried to the door

Her hands on the push bar, she stopped, her gaze catching on the table, on the folded slip of paper Brad had dropped there Suddenly she realized what it was It was the note from Varen, the note he’d written to warn her, the one that she’d tucked into the pocket of her sweater

The sweater she’d left in Brad’s car

8

Ligeia

Her back pressed to the wall, Isobel lingered just outside the staff door Finally, steeling herself with a shuddering breath, she pushed away froave the door frame a timid double knock "Hello?" she called into the pitch-blackness "You--you back there?"

No answer

Isobel reached a treers fu fluorescents to sputter on with a soft clink