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Demons of the Past Excerpt
PROLOGUE
“How was it that time?”
The patient closed his eyes and let his breath out in a quick, heavy sigh. If his lips hadn't been numb from the drugs they'd pumped into him, he might have made one of his typical smart-ass remarks. If they'd given him the use of his arms today he'd have flipped the bird. He closed his eyes tighter.
Nope. Can't even move my fingers today.
The doctor in the starched white coat leaned over the patient and frowned, chewing on his white, newly trimmed beard. It used to be long—the beard—nearly reaching his navel, the patient remembered. His eyes opened, blinked, stayed open. He wasn't sure, though. His mind didn't seem to want to remember.
“Did it hurt?” the man asked.
The patient mentally struggled against the nylon straps that bound his wrists, ankles, and neck against the bed. No, it wasn't soft enough to be a bed. A table with sheets. That was it.
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Demons of the Past Excerpt
Chapter One: BLOOD FETISH
Blood tastes like a mouthful of hand-warmed pennies.
I rolled my tongue around in my mouth, savoring the all too-familiar taste. I gingerly touched my bruised lip and scraped chin in a quick attempt to assess the damage the last fall had cost me. Blood came away on my fingertips.
Damn. I spat on the ground. Enough games.
Rustling in the bushes several feet away brought my attention to the left. I crouched and turned, holding my breath, gripping the pommel of my sword until my knuckles glowed white. My hands were sweaty, and I toyed with the idea of wiping them on my tunic. I frowned and shook my head.
Better not, if that demon rushes me again I want to be ready.
Something large and heavy several feet away dragged itself through the brush. My ears perked forward, listening intently to the ragged breathing that sounded like bubbles blown in a glass of milk. Just the sound of it made my skin crawl. I sunk lower into my hiding spot behind a clump of tall raspberry bushes, the twisted vines threatening to caress my face and neck as I fidgeted, trying to get a better view of my surroundings. I lifted a hand and pushed aside a vine to peer farther through the shadows of the tall pines, trying to differentiate between the shadows of the dying light and any possible movement along the deserted dirt road that wound through the forest and back toward home.
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