Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

protruding from his bleeding neck.
    There was a sickening, wet thud below them.
    Tessa clung to the ladder and looked down. The still form of the lymerer lay in a growing pool of blood as his dog sniffed and whined at his outstretched hand.
    Tessa didn't move, afraid the huge man would simply get up again, like something from a horror movie. But as she and Will watched, a faint black cloud began to gather around the body. The cloud grew thicker, hiding the body of the lymerer as well as that of the dog. After a moment the cloud lengthened and became two swirling black threads that trailed up and out of the alley, leaving an evanescent line of vapor in their wake. Soon only the broken wooden pole lay on the ground below them.
    The lymerer, the blood and the dog were gone.

Chapter 30

Tessa and Will made their way back down the ladder. It felt as though the rickety thing was going to fall away from the building, but maybe that was only because Tessa was shaking so badly.
    "He was real," she said when they got down. She hugged her arms to herself and closed her eyes, picturing the lymerer's gruesome face, the look of naked surprise as he flew past her, on the way to his death. She didn't think she would ever be able to forget it. "But did he die?" Tessa opened her eyes. "And what was that strange wispy smoke that came from his body?" She looked down at the bare, empty ground and back up at Will. "Where is he now?"
    "I don't know." Will scanned the empty alley. "He may have gone back from whence he came. Through the tapestry. But you are right. He and the dog were real enough. Both of them must have been people whose lives Gray Lily stole. What you saw leave were their threads."
    Tessa began to shiver. Will took a step toward her. "You are safe. It is over, Tessa."
    "I know, I know. I'm just ... I'm afraid of dogs," She confessed. "Even the little yappy ones. Kind of a wimp, I guess."
    He frowned. "I told you to go the other way."
    Tessa shrugged. "Since when do I take orders from you? Besides, I know these streets a lot better than you do." And I couldn't just watch you go . Suppose that had been the last time she ever saw him? The thought made her feel ill.
    "Stubborn," Will announced grimly. "And reckless. You are the most unmaidenly girl."
    "That's right," answered Tessa with a weak smile. "Get used to it. I can't believe that dog found us so quickly," she added, shaking her head in wonder. "I thought we were safe."
    "They track by scent," said Will. "They can smell blood a league away and--" He broke off and his lips tightened. "Show me your hands."
    Her hands? Her hands were stinging, Tessa realized. She turned them up as Will took them in his own and bent over them, pulling her closer.
    Tessa's palms were scored with small cuts. Blood mingled with rusty dirt and made ugly streaks where she had gripped the rungs of the ladder.
    "I guess it was the glass," she said, staring. "I never felt it." But now she did begin to feel the raw throb of pain, and her hands trembled inside his. She realized something else. She was an idiot.
    "The dog," she whispered. "It tracked the scent of my blood." She had led it and the lymerer here. "I led them right to you. That's why you told me not to use my hands," she said faintly. She tried to pull away.
    But Will didn't release her. "That is not why," he said in a low, impatient voice.
    He pulled her to him, lowered his head and kissed her.
    With the touch of Will's lips to hers, Tessa's world shrank. There was nothing beyond the small, dark space between them, nothing beyond the sensations that enveloped her like a wave. Like an ocean. She was sinking and yet weightless as his breath mingled with hers, his mouth molded softly to her own. She twined her arms up and around his neck and felt herself drawn even more tightly to him.
    Their lips parted slightly. "Tessa," Will whispered. His fingers wove into her hair at the nape of her neck, making her skin tingle. She opened her eyes to see Will smiling down at her. Everything had changed and yet everything was right. Tessa smiled back.
    Then a brittle voice came from the end of the alley. "So we meet again, young master. "

Chapter 31

Tessa turned in Will's arms. A stooped figure walked toward them, darkly outlined against the background of the alley entrance. It came closer. Tessa saw an old woman with wiry gray hair carrying a black plastic trash bag. For a crazy moment Tessa thought a bag lady was hailing them.
    But Will's eyes