It was as if he was possessed, denial blazing in his heart. He grabbed his wife by the shoulders and shook her, ignoring her missing throat. "Get up, Maria! Sophia needs you! I need you!"
Her head flopped sickeningly and the last of her warm blood pumped out of the tear in her neck. Mackenzie felt his soul die as he hugged Maria's lifeless body to his and began to sob his anguish into the room.
"Not my Maria," he wept. "Not my love. Dear God, please don't do this to me."
Mackenzie had no idea how long he wept as Maria's body went cold in his arms. It didn't even register in his mind that she had still been warm when he'd arrived, that whatever had happened to take her from him had occurred probably only a handful of minutes before he got back to the holding.
There wasn't much rational
