Companions of the Night Read Online Free Page A

the fingers of her right hand bleeding again. By the time she made it back to Ethan, he had gotten himself resettled. He had his left knee up and was resting his head against it. The injured right leg was stretched out in front of him.
    "This is probably going to hurt," she warned.
    Like he wouldn't have guessed already.
    Sidowski swore again. "You think he's just some poor kid we took it in our heads to beat up on?" he demanded. "You think he's on the verge of dying because we pulled him off his bike and he got a couple cuts and bruises?"
    "I don't know," Kerry said, not wanting to argue.
    "He broke Ken's neck!" Sidowski shouted—Kerry jumped at the violence of his accompanying gesture. "Just like that."
    Ethan's half-bewildered gaze went from Kerry to Sidowski back to Kerry. "No," he whispered. "There were only the three of them—"
    Sidowski gave him another vicious kick.
    "Three," Ethan gasped again.
    Sidowski kicked him again.
    Ethan began coughing, great wracking coughs that brought up blood.
    "Stop it!" Kerry grabbed instinctively at Sidowski's arm.
    Though Kerry had always thought of herself as strong and able to take care of herself, Sidowski effortlessly swept her back and hurled her to the floor.
    Momentarily stunned, she knew she should roll herself into a protective ball but couldn't collect herself enough to do it. She was wide open if Sidowski chose to kick her. But he chose to kick Ethan yet again.
    "Stop it!" the owner urged in a frantic whisper. But he didn't really mean it, or he would have put the book down, he'd have gotten to his feet. Instead, he just said, "Sidowski, stop it!"
    That isn't going to stop him,
Kerry thought. Sidowski was the kind of person who was proud in the conviction that nobody could give him orders. Clearly, he was tired of the others telling him to wait till morning, and he was going to beat Ethan until he died. There was nothing the owner would do to stop it, there was certainly nothing she could do; and Roth—
    But it was Roth who
did
stop it. Roth, standing by the door, peeking through the blinds, hissed, "Somebody's coming."
    The owner finally closed his Bible. "Marcia?" he asked.
    Even before he shook, his head, Kerry knew that Roth wouldn't have said "Somebody" if it was one of their own.
    Sidowski knew it, too—probably even the owner knew it—but Sidowski said, "No time. Not even if she found the damn batteries at home." He pulled his gun from under his arm and placed it directly against the side of Ethan's head. "Vampire or not," he said, "it'll make an awful mess."
    Ethan closed his eyes and didn't make a sound, doubled over in pain as he was.
    Somebody pulled on the locked door, twice, then rapped knuckles on the glass.
    "Police?" the owner asked Roth in a hushed voice, frozen where he was.
    Kerry thought of her slipshod parking job and fervently hoped it
was
the police.
    But Roth answered, whispering also, "Customers. They're carrying laundry."
    Not the police, and not Dad, either.
But Dad isn't someone to wish for,
she told herself. She fought away a mental picture of him bursting into the place ready to yell at her and finding Sidowski instead.
    The owner was asking, "Do you think they heard—"
    The customers knocked again.
    Roth shook his head. "They probably saw me looking out, though."
    "Hey," a voice called.
College girl,
Kerry thought. And even though just the one word had been spoken, she could tell: one who'd been drinking.
    There was some giggling from outside. Two girls. The second one said, "Let us in. This is an emergency."
    The owner raised his voice. "We're closed."
    "It's an emergency," the first girl echoed her companion. "Tonya barfed on my bed, and I don't have any extra blankets."
    "We're closed," the owner repeated.
    "'Twenty-four-hour laundry,'" the second girl said. "Says it right here on the door. And on the sign. And on the window. What the hell is this? You on a twenty-five-hour day?"
    "The machines are broken," the owner called out. "The