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touched the cold, lifeless body, positioning Lauren so the bag could slide beneath her. Her exam glove rolled down slightly, and Mairi’s warm wrist touched Lauren’s cool chest.
    She hissed and jumped back. The body had . . . burned her. How was that possible? She looked at the symbol that had been carved between Lauren’s breasts and then at her wrist as she felt the burning give way to a painful tingling, like a bee sting. Her wrist was red, the scars as prominent as they had been when they were fresh.
    Louise poked her head around the curtain. “Want some help?” Mairi gasped and whirled around. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to freak you out.”
    “It’s all right,” she rasped, sliding the cuff of her jacket down over her wrist. “You just surprised me, that’s all.”
    Louise arched her brow, but let the comment slide. “I’ll have someone come in to prep the body for the coroner.”
    “I’ll do it.”
    With her hands on her hips, Louise arched her brows. “Five minutes ago you were bellyaching that you were on break.”
    “I know. Get Vicky to cover for me, and I’ll do this.”
    “You want some help? It’s creepy as hell doing death care by yourself.”
    “I’m good,” Mairi whispered. “I . . . kind of knew her.”
    Louise glanced at the body. “Poor child. What the hell is this world coming to? You know, the cops that came in here told me she’s the ninth one this month, but she’s the only one that was carved up like a turkey.”
    “Yeah,” Mairi murmured as she rubbed the elastic cuff against her wrist to relieve the stinging. “The whole world is fucked up, isn’t it? Maybe it’s a sign, Lou.”
    “A sign of what?”
    “The beginning of the end.”

    The shop bells tinkled as Mairi pushed open the door, and Rowan looked up from the magazine she was thumbing through. “Hey, I was just thinking of you, and here you are!”
    “Disturbing. I hate it when you do that.”
    Rowan laughed and closed the magazine, then tossed it onto the end of the counter by the cash register. “So, you just missed two of the hottest guys on the planet.”
    “Yeah?” Mairi drawled, looking around her friend’s New Age store. “Was one of them your weekly Tarot Guy?”
    Rowan flushed. Mairi swore that even the tips of Rowan’s short blond hair glowed pink. “Uh-huh. He brought a friend this morning. Double the visual pleasure.”
    “Thought you swore off men for a while after the disaster that was Aaron.”
    “Yeah.” Rowan sighed. “Still, it can’t hurt to look and . . . dream. It’s good for your mental health.”
    Mairi knew all about dreaming. Her subconscious had been conjuring up a hunk for the past couple of weeks. Man, the things the guy could do with his hands and tongue.
    “So, what’d Tarot Guy buy this week?” she asked, making a beeline for the bookcase. Rowan watched her with interest as she scanned the Occult section of the case.
    “His usual. A tarot deck. I swear, the guy must have hundreds. He says he gets different vibes from different decks so he has to have a lot to choose from to get the right reading. Today he picked out this really creepy black magick deck. The pictures were gruesome.”
    Mairi whirled around. “What do you mean, gruesome?”
    “Well, really dark. Morbid, with a sexual edge. Normally, I don’t carry that kind of stuff. Brings bad karma and energy, but it came by mistake. I had it on the counter, ready to pack up and send back to the supplier, but he saw it and went through the deck. I guess he liked what he saw because he bought it.”
    “I wonder what he wanted it for.”
    “Tarot readings.”
    “Well, duh, I know that,” she snapped, turning back to the bookcase. “Ro, you got anything on satanic symbols?”
    “Why, did you have that dream again?”
    This was when Mairi really hated the fact she had confided in Rowan about her strange dreams. Rowan was just way too in tune with people and the shit they tried to hide. Maybe her friend really