Page 59 of Ravaged Devotion

“It’s Mrs. Corvina!” Hollis practically leapt to his feet.

Esti vehemently shook her head as the screams came again, closer this time.

“It is!” he insisted. “I recognize her! She’s out there!”

“My mother is dead.” Esti pulled her gaze off the glass and set it back on Ryker. “I watched her…” She swallowed. “I saw one of those things eat her.”

“She must have escaped,” Hollis was relentless, probably due to his guilt, but Esti glared.

“It ate her head,” she sneered. “I saw it happen.”

There was no coming back from that.

Hollis’s expression fell, then confusion set it. “Then what is that?”

“It definitely sounds like her,” Ishleen agreed. “But if it’s not, then how is whatever is out there doing that?”

“Mimicry,” Ellery suggested.

“Like, parrots and shit?” Hollis asked, earning himself a derisive snort.

“More like wicked beings,” Penn said. He’d gone pale. “There are versions of them in almost every civilization on every planet. Creatures that lure unwitting folks into forests, away from safety.”

“You’re saying that thing out there is trying to trick us?” Ishleen shook her head. “That would make it—”

“Intelligent.” Ryker was…unsettled, and it took a lot to get him there. “Finding new rooms is no longer a suggestion.” He turned to Ellery. “Go locate Cosima and make sure she and the rest of the staff know to close all of their blinds, and to not react if they hear something outside their windows.”

“She’s not going to believe that,” he stated. “She’s still convinced it’s a pack of wild bears, despite what we witnessed earlier.”

“Bears don’t roam in packs,” Esti pointed out.

“Yeah, that too. Let’s just say, Cosima isn’t going to be very helpful.”

“Are there blinds in the kitchen?” Ryker asked.

“Didn’t see any,” Ellery told him.

Damn.

“But the windows are a lot smaller,” Ell added.

“Let’s go there. Together. Tell Cosima and anyone else you find to meet there as well,” Ryker decided.

“The thing that chased you was trying to get through the door,” Lenore spoke up for the first time, but Ryker merely shrugged.

“It’s unlikely it’s still there waiting,” he said. “And we’ve got to eat.”

“He’s right,” Bowie agreed with him, wrapping an arm protectively around her shoulders.

“It’s settled then.” Ellery clapped his hands, causing more than half of them to jump, which he of course ignored. “Let’s get moving, shall we? That screaming is starting to annoy me.”

* * *

“You really think it’s a monster out there?” Ellery asked casually as he chopped an onion with a level of skill Ryker was honestly a bit surprised of.

“No.” He sipped at the beer he’d stolen from the fridge. “I think it’s multiple monsters.”

There were twelve of them in the large kitchen, their party and two staff members. Cosima had passed, saying she needed to keep trying to get ahold of the outside world. She, along with three other staff members, had gone to her office to deal with the murderous employee and so she could fiddle with her computer.