Page 5 (1/2)

Chapter Five

Listen for a Whisper

Kaers bit into a pressure point on the arm at her throat When the hold loosened, she went do, keeping her grip steady, and used her body to trip the guy and flip hi that"

Rusty’s eyes gleaht even in the darkness "I’ you fro ave hiainst the wall "You’re right, I a meaner"

Rusty got up and held the back door open for her because he was a gentle person who kept attacking her Ka off all the white surfaces in that spotless kitchen, and Rusty leaned against the doorfralance, Rusty was a masculine version of his sister--tall, dark, and incurably lazy He had the same athletic frame, which he draped on walls and furniture as if simply too weak to support himself He had the sah his was shot with the red highlights that gave hiela and Rusty were markedly different They were even lazy in quite different ways Rusty was sleepily good-natured and thought Angela wasted energy being cranky Angela refused to cope with being hassled by teachers, so she was brilliant at school, while Rusty had failed out of Kingston University after one term

Rusty had also been the one to introduce Kaoatee She didn’t hold it against hiainst Rusty

"Oh, Rusty, why did you let her in?" Angela said "We could have just lain down on the floor until she went away We could’ve had a nice floor nap"

"Have you guys eaten?" Ka is so much trouble," Rusty said ested

"Delivery people are so annoying," Angela responded

Ka around for supplies She found a half-e to cook so"

Rusty drifted over to the kitchen island, where he sank onto a stool "So little and so busy," he remarked with solemn wonder "Like a squirrel"

Kaht it and then, as if he only worked in fast-forward and slow-reat deliberation

"Rusty attacked ood money to have me attack the a one-man bordello"

Rusty leaned his chin in his hand, the effort of keeping his head upright obviously too much for hiood money to have Rusty attack theht self-defense It was the sole thing in the world Rusty was passionate about, and that rowing up

"What do you have now?" Kaht, counting you guys"

"You can’t count us," Angela said, strolling into the kitchen "We don’t come to your stupid classes, and we don’t pay you"

"My parents give hter to defend herself froe because she feeds et out of situations she will inevitably throw herself into It’s all very equitable Which re dealer, desperate for the change in your jeans pockets What do you do?"

"No," Angela coela fell backith a screa over the noise

"So, I was looking through websites about animal sacrifice on the Internet," Kami announced to distract herself "Apparently it’s a feature in Satanic rituals"

"Wow," Rusty rehtly muffled "I sure hope this conversation continues over dinner"

"Wait," Angela said, expertly twisting Rusty’s ar twelve-year-old Satanists?" She paused "Actually, that makes a lot of sense I suspect those kids froela and Rusty to take this seriously They knehat Kami had seen, but they hadn’t seen it thehts whiletheir pasta anyway

"It wasn’t just cruelty It was either a ritual or staged to look like one If it was staged, why?" Kami asked "If it was real, people don’t perform rituals, Satanic or otherwise, for no reason I’ve done ood winds, to tell the future"

"So the answer is that they are crazy?" Angela inquired "Shocker"

"Don’t think about the answer, think about the question," Kami said "The question is--what do they want?"

Neither Rusty nor Angela had an answer Kami didn’t have an answer herself and didn’t coela had offered to walk her hoh