His eyes positively bulging from his gaunt face, Cadaverous hauled her back, and now all she could see was the Cadillac. The pretty, pretty Cadillac, all dented and bashed and scraped and covered in dust from the chase. The passenger’s side window was rolled up. It was the one part of the car she could see that had yet to sustain any damage.
Then it was hurtling towards her and she closed her eyes and the world crashed and went dark.
***
The Cain girl had gone limp in his hands.
Cadaverous dropped her, disgusted, and she crumpled – less like a human body, more like a sack of human remains. Blood ran freely from the cuts on her face. At least she wasn’t saying anything any more. At least she had shut up now, had stopped spewing all those lies about Jeremiah. Of course she had lied. It wasn’t even her fault. She was a woman. It was in their nature. He had learned this a long, long time ago, had learned it as a child. His mother had been a liar. She had lied to his father so many times that it had reduced the man to nothing. Sharp words were like the blade of an axe – enough swings and they would chop down the tallest of trees.
He took hold of the girl’s ankle, dragged her easily, enjoying the strength his home provided him. His back didn’t spasm when he bent down to pick her up, and his muscles didn’t strain when he lifted her into the trunk. His age didn’t mean anything in here. In here, his energy was limitless.
He shut the trunk, went round to the driver’s side, got in behind the wheel. He paused for a moment, wondering if he’d killed her. He didn’t want her dead just yet. That would spoil his plans.
He focused on looking through her eyes, expecting nothing but darkness. Instead, he saw a red light. The interior of the trunk.
She was conscious again, and she was alive. He wasn’t surprised. She had survived a lot worse than getting her head smashed through a car window. She was tough. It was one of the things he almost respected about her.