Authors: Alex Archer

Magic Lantern (Rogue Angel) (41 page)

“I will.”

Fiona said goodbye and hung up.

Annja took a deep breath and placed the phone back in her pocket. Instead of being thrilled at putting one over on Roux, now she felt depressed and irritable.

The footsteps behind her accelerated and she saw the long shadow of her pursuer closing on her. She sidestepped at the last minute and the big man ran past. His heavy boots clomped on the cobblestones, but he stopped himself and twisted around.

He stood a little over seven feet tall and would have shamed an NFL linebacker. His skin was pallid, almost fish-belly white, and his face looked like a cinder block stretched across his thick neck. Intelligence gleamed in his milk-white eyes, but there was no shred of compassion or humanity.

“Annja Creed.” His voice was a low rumble.

“You know me.”

“I’ve seen you on television.” He started to circle her. Annja stepped to put her back against the wall.

“Mr. Hyde, I presume.”

“And I’m going to kill you.”

“Why?”

He grinned at her. “Because I’m a monster. Everyone has always said so. Killing you will make me even more famous. Besides, I have learned to enjoy killing. The bones in those women snapped so easily, and you could hear it. Snap, snap, snap.” He sighed. “I look forward to hearing your bones snap.”

“You’re going to be disappointed.”

“Why?”

“Because I fight monsters. And you picked a really bad night to make yourself available for me to vent my frustration.” Annja reached for the sword, felt the hilt brush against her palm, then decided not to use the blade.

Hyde rushed in and she let him. His size and weight were advantages he was used to, ones he counted on.

Annja ducked beneath his outstretched arms, but only barely. He was quicker than she’d believed possible. She rolled away as he threw one hand against the wall and halted himself, turning amazingly quickly. But his size worked against him in the end. She rolled to her feet behind him and slightly to one side. Coldly, with calculated precision, she kicked hard at his right knee.

The joint went violently sideways and shattered in a staccato of sharp cracks.
Snap, snap, snap.

Crying out, Hyde threw himself at her, trying desperately to get those big arms around her. Annja stepped back slightly, batting his arms aside with her forearms, and brought her right knee up into his face. Blood spurted and his nose broke.

Hyde went to the ground, caught himself on his knees and reached for her again. He howled like a rabid animal.

Thinking only of the women the man had killed, Annja grabbed Hyde’s outstretched right hand, slid her grip down to his ring and pinkie fingers, and twisted them viciously. The fingers dislocated and fractured. When Hyde drew his hand back, Annja twisted and delivered a side kick to the big man’s face that broke his jaw and knocked him out.

Broken and bloody, Mr. Hyde lay stretched on the cobblestones as a crowd from a nearby pub started to gather. The last few moments of the fight had attracted an audience. Conversations gained momentum and volume.

Annja took out her phone. It was a toss-up whether to call Doug Morrell or DCI Westcox first. She decided on Doug. Judging from the glowing lights of the cell phones in the hands of the crowd thronging the street, the inspector would know soon enough.

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ISBN: 9781459227682

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