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"Where is she?"

"Hiding in the OR. But don't worry, she isn't as scary as she looks."

Je

"I'M scared."

"Me too."

"I wet my pants again."

"How about we sing a song?" Je

She was also pretty frazzled. Since Lanz left, there hadn't been any other monsters trying to attack them, but a few minutes ago a pack of them had run down the hallway. A large pack, maybe thirty or forty. Je

While Je

"Does everyone know Old MacDonald?" she asked.

The boys nodded.

"Okay, we'll start with chicks. And let's use our indoor voices. Are you all ready? Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-Ohhhh. And on his farm he had some chicks..."

The kids fell in with the E-I-Os. Je

"...and on that farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-Ohhhh. With a--"

"SCCRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Je

Lanz had returned.

He was cramming himself into the door's broken window. But rather than getting stuck this time, his whole body slid through, flopping onto the floor of the closet.

The children screamed in horror. Je

She was going to stop the fucker's heart.

She grabbed the first two needles, one in each hand, gripping them in her fists with her thumbs on the plungers. Succinylcholine, a powerful paralytic. Etomidate, an anesthetic. Both went into Lanz's back, and as Je

Lanz screeched again, his remaining hand locking around Je

Fighting the urge to pull away, Je

Lanz opened his horrible mouth, his teeth locking onto Je

She'd injected Lanz with enough drugs to put a track team into a coma. But that didn't seem to matter. Spitting out her gym shoe, Lanz began to slither toward her, eyes wide, mouth wide, his talons outstretched and his massacred face shuddering in what looked like ecstasy.

Lanz

BLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOOD!MUST!HAVE!BLOOD!

The bitch nurse had jabbed him with a few needles, but that didn't matter. He'd just amputated his own arm without sedation. A few measly shots weren't going to stop him. Dr. Kurt Lanz M.D. was invincible.

Inching forward on his belly, he undulated in Je

He reached forward, stretching out his arm, a talon hooking into the cuff of her pants.

Then things started to get strange.

First, his lungs stopped working. They seized up, unwilling or unable to take a breath.

Then his head began to feel full and heavy, and the floor beneath him seemed to shift.

His vision blurred, going dark along the edges.

The drugs! It's the drugs! My body can't metabolize them fast enough!

Lanz snarled, tugging Je



Blood! Blood will revive me! Blood will get these drugs out of my system!

Lanz stretched open his jaws, ready to bite Je

Then something punched into Lanz's back. Something sharp and cold. He felt it stick up under his scapula, straight into his left ventricle. The pain made him gasp.

"Potassium chloride," Je

Potassium chloride?

KCl was used to treat hypokalemia and digitalis poisoning. But in large doses it was the primary drug used in lethal injections for death row inmates.

Potassium chloride stopped the heart!

Lanz moaned, the drug working instantly. He curled up, twitching and spasming, the pain stormtrooping through his entire body in agonizing, dizzying, pounding waves. He vomited, but it wasn't the contents of his stomach. It was his stomach, hanging inside-out from a slimy loop of esophagus, spilling out the precious blood he'd been digesting.

Even with everything going on, the smell of blood activated his biting reflex, and he chomped down on his own regurgitated organs, screaming as he chewed.

"You always were an asshole, Lanz," he heard Je

As his eyes rolled up into his head and his brain kicked out its last few beta waves, Dr. Kurt Lanz MD thought, Smart, smart girl. I probably shouldn't...have fired her...

Adam

"DID you stop the bleeding?" he asked.

"The Pitocin stopped it, but she's lost about fifteen hundred milliliters and her vitals are way down."

They entered Stacie's room, and something inside of Adam broke apart seeing her still lying unconscious and bloodless in the bed.

"Where's my daughter?"

"Resting peacefully in the nursery. The blood?"

He took his pack off and unzipped the pouch, handed Herrick the first unit of O-positive.

She already had the intravenous line lodged into Dee's arm, and she hung the bag on the metal stand's hook and plugged the IV line into the plastic, Adam watching the line of darkness push down the tube toward his wife's veins.

He touched the back of his hand to her cheek--clammy and cool.

"Is she going to make it?"

Herrick didn't answer.

"Nurse?"

Adam glanced over his shoulder.

Herrick stood with her hand cupped to her mouth, spitting blood and...were those teeth?...into the palm of her hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She looked up at him, confusion brimming in her eyes. Tried to speak, but more teeth were loosening, and she plucked one of her back molars out--root and all.

Said something that sounded like, "I don't feel right."

Adam reached out to touch her shoulder, but she retreated and ran out of the room.

He turned back to Stacie, took her cold hand in his.

"I'll be right back, sweetie. You're going to be okay now. Just rest."

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, and as he turned to leave the room to see what was wrong with Herrick, something standing in the doorway stopped him cold.

A little demon-girl.

"You get out of here," he said.

She hissed at him.

He noticed a pair of scissors protruding from her chest.

"Go on!" he shouted.