Sins of the Flesh Read Online Free Page B

until slowly the mottled color faded away, leaving behind the tones of normal human skin. But almost immediately after that, the odd vibrant colors reappeared, painting everything around her with a bold impressionistic brush.
    She didn’t understand the colors on her skin, in her vision.
    They weren’t right. She wasn’t right, she remembered.
    She was sick. Only a sick person would hurt…
    The memories pounded at her brain again, creating a crater of pain in the center of her skull.
    So much blood on the floor and walls.
    All over her and the pieces of Dr. Wells.
    Soft wet pieces beneath her fingers.
    Control
, she urged and leaned back against the wall to stabilize herself. Her fingertips sank into the cinder block, grounding her as she tried to focus.
    Focus. Focus. Focus.
    She repeated the word like a mantra until the reminders of blood and death receded, replaced by scattered recollections of people and pictures and music.
    Music
, she thought, imagining the black and white of notes on a page. The rough bite of metal strings beneath her fingers. Smooth wood and cold varnish.
    She loved music, she recalled, and with that came the picture of a building in her mind’s eye.
    A building filled with welcome.
    She had to get to that structure. The music would be there. Music and happiness.
    Retracting her fingers from the cinder block, she carefully kept to the outside wall, following it around the edge of the building until she came to some lockers. Slightly rusty and battered, they nevertheless might hold what she needed.
    She quickly found a grey T-shirt in one open compartment and slipped it on. It hung on her, overly large on her slender body. A musty smell clung to the thin cotton.
    All the other lockers had locks dangling from their handles, sealing in their contents.
    With a sharp twist of one lock, however, it sprang free. Inside she found a pair of men’s jeans and shoes. Both were immense. She effortlessly opened the other combination locks, the metal bending like putty beneath her fingers.
    Within a short time she had scrounged together more clothing and a pair of sneakers she could wear. A candy bar as well. Her stomach had grumbled noisily, since Caterina couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten. Dressed, and with her hunger temporarily sated, she hurried toward the open back door, ever vigilant for the presence of others. She listened for a hint of any approach, the sounds of the night exceptionally loud.
    No one came.
    At the exit, she paused, hesitant. She felt surprisingly strong and energized, but still unfocused. Her vision drifted from the surreal colors which came unbidden to those familiar hues of reality.
    A reality which she had struggled to maintain since escaping the lab. A reality which seemed to elude her more often than she cared.
    As she escaped into the night, she knew she still had some distance to go until she reached anything familiar. Until she got to the building with the music, certain that once she arrived there, things would make more sense. Maybe even go back to normal, but more importantly…
    Instinctively she knew that once she got there she would be safe.

CHAPTER 4

    M ick stared at the bright yellow police tape and evidence seal on the door of Caterina’s townhome, which was located a block off trendy South Street. No matter how much Edwards wanted to avoid police involvement, they were clearly already on the job. Mick would have to hurry and locate her in order to curtail any further investigation. He wouldn’t try to guess why Edwards didn’t want the police poking around. His job wasn’t to question; only to acquire his target.
    Or so Mick told himself, hating that the scruples he still possessed insisted that he had to find out why Edwards wanted Caterina so badly before turning her over.
    As he examined the evidence seal, he realized that someone had carefully slit it open. The razor-fine cut wouldn’t be visible to a casual observer, but upon a more thorough