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nowhere to go as the thing stared her down.
    The angel, demon, whatever-it-was must have decided she wasn’t any kind of threat for it finally dismissed her, turning back toward Henry. Debbie was relieved to find that she could breathe again when she was no longer faced with that horrifying visage.
    That relief was short-lived, however, for in the next moment alarms began blaring from the monitors surrounding Henry’s bed as the intruder ripped the various electrical leads from Henry’s body then yanked the breathing tube out of his throat.
    “Hey!” Debbie shouted, all thoughts of her own safety forgotten now that she was faced with threat to her son’s welfare. ”You can’t do that!”
    She hurried forward and grabbed the other woman’s arm, intending to pull her away from the bed and prevent her from doing any further harm.
    Doing so proved to be a mistake.
    Debbie had a second to wonder about the icy coldness and steel-like strength of the woman’s flesh and then she was found herself sailing across the room as the intruder flung her away like an errant insect. She slammed into the far wall with incredible force. The impact shattered several of her ribs, sending their jagged edges lancing through her lungs like razor-sharp pieces of shrapnel. By the time she hit the floor she was bleeding to death internally, but was unable to feel any of her injuries thanks to her severed spine.
    Debbie watched as the intruder scooped her son’s body up in her arms and turned toward the window.
    “No. Please no,” she begged. ”He’s all I have.”
    The other woman didn’t even bother to look in her direction. She took a few steps forward and then, spreading those leathery wings, launched herself out the window with Henry clutched securely in her arms.
    “Nooooooooo!”

CHAPTER FIVE

    “Another cup of coffee, love?”
    Riley looked up to find the waitress hovering over him with a pot of coffee in hand. He smiled, nodded, and held up his mug for her to refill.
    “Looks like it’s going to be a beautiful night,” she said while pouring and Riley had to agree. Stamford’s Seaside Diner had been built on the ocean’s edge with the back deck, where he was now seated, jutting out over the waters of Long Island Sound. It gave the two of them a marvelous view of the sunset spreading across the water. The sky was streaked with red and orange, the air crisp and clear, and it was just what Riley needed after yesterday’s events. He’d take the tang of sea water over the stench of blood any day of the week.
    The slight chill in the air kept the diner’s other patrons inside and so he had the outer deck to himself. The television mounted in the corner by the door into the restaurant proper was droning on about a comatose Marine who’d been abducted from a hospital in nearby Fairfield, but Riley didn’t pay it much mind; he had enough problems of his own to deal with.
    He returned to the commandery around seven that morning and had crashed in one of the ready rooms for a few hours of sleep. Duty called in the early afternoon, but the lead they had turned out to be a dud. Wanting to avoid answering any questions that might arise from Echo’s presence at the hotel the night before, Riley decided to avoid the commandery for the rest of his shift, figuring that “out of sight, out of mind” was best where the Preceptor was concerned. He had his mobile with him in case there was an alert and he could be onsite in less than fifteen minutes, if necessary. As senior commander, he had a bit more leeway in his ability to be away from headquarters than the men in the ranks and he figured now was a good time to exercise that option.
    The waitress brought his food and Riley dug into his porterhouse steak with gusto. The day’s efforts in tracking the Adversary had come to naught but he’d worked up an appetite just the same.
    He’d barely taken three bites, however, when a tall, lean, dark-haired man with an eye-patch covering his