one last hard right into a Texan's face and turned to Wyrdrune, snarling at

him

through gritted teeth. "Damn it, warlock, when in hell are you ever going to

learn?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder, turned quickly, and uncorked one... right to

the jaw of a sergeant of the Metropolitan Police. He went down like a felled

tree.

"Ooops!" she said.

"You were saying?" Wyrdrune said.

Michael Blood turned away from the gory ruin of his brother's body and was

sick

against the wall. The policemen present averted their eyes. Although the nude

body had been savaged abominably, the face had not been touched, and they all

knew who it was. One of the plain-clothes detectives silently offered the

chief

inspector his handkerchief.

"Quite all right, Marston," Blood said weakly. "Thank you, I have my own." He

wiped his mouth, composing himself with an effort.

It had not been a surprise to him. That would have been unspeakable. He had

been

warned that it was his brother, and Marston had tried to dissuade him from

looking at the body, though he had known, of course, that it was pointless.

Blood was a cop and not just any cop, but chief inspector. Yet nothing, not

even

seeing five of the Ripper's victims, could have prepared Blood for the sight

of

his younger brother's corpse.

It looked as if Andrew had been torn apart by a wild animal, but no animal

could

have carved those... things into his chest, whatever they were. Macabre

designs

of some sort, almost like letters in some arcane alphabet. Blood had never

seen

anything like it. They looked obscene. But they were nothing compared to the

hideous manner in which the body had been mutilated. Michael shut his eyes

tightly and looked away. He prayed that the body had been mutilated, that

Andrew

still had not been alive when those appalling, horrifying things were done to

him. With an effort he made himself glance down at the body once again. A

tremor

went through him.

"My God," he said softly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Look at his

face."

"I know," said Marston. "I can't imagine what he must have seen." He gently

took

the chief inspector by the arm and turned him away. "Come on, sir, please.

Please. There's no need for this. We'll take care of it. I'll oversee this

personally and give you a complete report, but do please come away now."

He led Blood away, toward the squad cars at the mouth of the alley. Marston