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“There was a tunnel. A dripping tunnel.” I’m picturing it now.
“Tunnel… The old water outlet! You must have found it…it’s not far from your apartment block.” She rubs her forehead. “I thought they’d shut that thing down.”
I can still see it clearly. A pipeline sunken into the earth. I’d slunk in and found my way out to where the open land lay beyond. The place where I could bask in the moonlight. A place where I could howl to the moon that I’d found my true mate.
My eyes prickle as I fight back tears.
“They said they saw a wolf.” I lock eyes with her. “A golden wolf. They saw me. But I didn’t do anything bad,” I whisper. “I just wanted to sing. I didn’t do anything bad.”
“Of course you didn’t, Cedara. I believe you.”
But as I’m speaking, more images are flashing by me, and not all of them are of the moon. I stare down at where my arms are wrapped around my knees, my knuckles white.
I see blood.
My head shoots up as I stare at the doctor. “There was something there.”
“Go on…if you focus, you’ll remember,” she urges me.
The problem is, I don’t think I want to remember. Not when my mind is showing me things I can’t accept.
Screaming.
A face contorted in terror, screaming, “No! Please! No!”
Tearing into flesh, fangs sinking in. Ripping. Rage…and then a surge of satisfaction.
My heart feels like it’s going to explode as more visions flood in. The sensation of blood coating my face. My chest. My legs.
Death all around me.
Horror replaces the hope I’d been feeling. I cover my face with my hands before looking back at the doctor.
“I did it,” I whisper. “It was me…I did it.”
Chapter 25
Barrett
“It’s an easy jump from the window ledge to the bank below,” Edirn is saying from where he’s peering out the window.
I think of how I’d been aware of the tree outside this morning, my window level with its top branches. We’re only on the second floor. She could make it outside.
“But back in?” I call to him. I’m working my way through the rest of the torn sheets, trying to see if there’s anything else there. So far, nothing.
“From the looks of it, she came back the same way. Paw prints coming up the ledge. It’s a big jump, but it’s not impossible.”
“She’s pretty big in her wolf form. I’m guessing she could do it.” I drop the sheets, returning to the living room.
“She’s left tracks outside.” He joins me. “I think we should see where they lead.”
It’s the only idea we have right now, so I don’t object. We make our way downstairs, following first the paw prints and then the faint scent of her. It’s unmistakable to me – wired into my cells. I don’t even hesitate when it leads me straight to what looks like a wall of greenery. Edirn stops to watch as I stride up to it, then shove aside a curtain of overgrown shrubbery.
“There’s a tunnel back here,” I call over my shoulder, the words echoing around.
He’s right behind me. “This shouldn’t be here. If she could get out, anyone could get in.”
“We’ll worry about that later.” I keep moving forward, stooping at the waist. Foul-smelling water swirls around my boots, splashing with each footstep until we burst out into the light.
