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in the nearby woods. It made two hobbling steps before the most powerful of
Jason's blows struck it halfway up its back, ripping it in two. The bottom half fell
to the ground, the legs kicking and jerking wildly.
The top half collapsed forward, entrails spilling out. As it hit the ground, a large
black cloud rose around it, smothering it from view. With a thought, Jason
destroyed the twitching legs, which evaporated onto the breeze. With another
thought, he dispelled the cloud. What he saw surprised him.
The three-headed beast was gone. In its place lay the remains of the original
Moloch. Its legs were gone, only its upper torso from just below the heart was
left. A massive pool of black blood covered the ground around it and its breath
came in struggling wheezes, but the M-shaped brand glowed with burning
malevolence.
Jason walked up and stood over it. Moloch stared back with its one good eye and
smiled.
"I believe the proper response is: Go fuck your mother," it said, blood dribbling
from between its lips. "But I'm afraid I made that impossible years ago, didn't I?"
Jason reached over and put his hand on the top of Moloch's head. He stared
directly into the creature's face.
"You're mine," he said.
Moloch's head exploded.
A furious whooshing rose over Jason's head. He looked up to see the swirling
vortex sucking back into itself, like water running down a drain. The opening to
Moloch's world closed with a thunderclap and the sky returned to its normal
shade of early-morning blue.
Jason's power subsided but he still felt its tingle within his muscles. For all he
knew it might never go away. He gazed at Moloch's destroyed body and
experienced only a slight glow of victory. Mostly he just felt tired.
The job's not over yet, he told himself.
He strode back to where Alex and his father lay under their protective blankets
of power. Lowering the protection, he picked Alex up, carried her over near his
father and lay her next to him.
He looked at his father. God, he looked awful. He looked at Alex. She didn't
look much better. The poison of Moloch's magic was turning her shoulder black.
I hope it hasn't harmed the baby, Jason thought.
Bending his head, he put one hand on his father and the other on Alex. The
power rose within him, pure white in its intensity, traveling through his body and
out his hands. Alex and Stephen began to glow.
EPILOGUE
� ^
Morning sunlight streamed through the hospital window, falling warmly across
Alex's bed. "It's going to be a beautiful May morning," she said.
Jason, who was sitting on her left, holding her hand, smiled and nodded.
Then the next contraction hit and neither of them thought about anything else for
sixty seconds.
When the pain subsided, Alex looked over at Jason. He took a damp cloth and
mopped her brow, then offered her some ice chips on a plastic spoon. She took
them and chewed slowly, letting their coolness wash over her dry mouth.
Jason smiled lovingly at her, then reached down to the bedside monitor that was
spitting out sheaves of paper. Two wires extended from the monitor to Alex. One
was attached to her belly to monitor the contractions, the other was positioned
inside her womb to check the baby's heartbeat.
"That was a pretty hard one," Jason said, looking at the readout sheet.
"You're telling me," she said.
"Is the epidural kicking in?" he asked.
"Seems to be."
"Good," he said. "This is killing me."
Alex gave him a half-smile and looked back out the window. She brought her
left hand up to brush some of the sweat-drenched hair from her eyes. As her
hand passed through the sunbeam, the light reflected off the golden band on her
third finger.
"They're coming about five minutes apart, so it shouldn't be too much longer,"
Jason said. "I know Dad is about to go crazy up in New Hampshire. He's already
called three times. Says he has to putter around the house like a madman to keep
from calling more often."
"He gets around pretty well in that wheelchair," Alex said.
"Yeah, and he told me he's also started his morning walks again. Although now
he does them with his walker and doesn't go nearly so far."
Jason's eyes and mouth tightened. Alex squeezed his hand.
"Hey, you did everything you could," she said. "You couldn't ask for much
more. The damage from the stroke was too extensive for you to repair
completely. You saved his life. That's more than enough."
Jason shrugged.
"Has he ever said what kind of grandchild he wants?" she asked.
"He said he just wants one with ten fingers and toes and one head. But between
you and me, I think he'd rather have a girl at this point."
"No shit," Alex said, then she paused and gazed out the window.
"Are you sorry we didn't find out what it was?" she finally asked.
"Not at all. This way, it's a total surprise."
"Yeah, in more ways than one if it's a boy."
Another contraction hit and Alex's statement changed to a grunt.
"Breathe, breathe, breathe," Jason coached. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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