Page 7 of Big Bad Wolf

But squirrels didn’t growl and owls had never made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she’d never felt like the wind was following her. Stalking her.

Her heart still rammed painfully against her chest, and her breath was ragged. She needed to get a grip before she passed out.

She ran her hands over her legs and then over her arms, convincing herself that she was fine. Alive and well. Completely unharmed. Totally fine, she repeated to herself over and over until finally she could breathe without panting, and the panicked beat in her chest lessened.

She rose from her seat against the door and stood on shaky legs. She might be immune to most fears, but apparently her flight-or-fight instincts still worked. Except when mysterious men were involved. Her flight-or-fight instincts had wanted to curl up in Rafe’s lap, not run from him.

What that said about her, or him, she wasn’t sure.

The stairs creaked, pulling Ruby from her thoughts.

“Lena?” she called, but it was Lucifer, their sleek, black cat that rounded the corner, not Ruby’s sister. Ruby leaned down to give the little demon a scratch between his ears before heading upstairs.

She had bigger problems than her own overactive imagination.

She had to check on Lena.

Chapter Four

The small upstairs hallway led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. She used to share a bedroom with her twin, but when their aunt died, Lena took her bedroom. Ruby didn’t feel right sleeping in Aunt Millie’s room, but Lena had argued that it was a bit ridiculous for adult sisters to still be sharing a room. She had a point. It wasn’t exactly conducive to … visitors. Not that either sister had many. Especially not lately.

Light seeped out from beneath Lena’s door. Still up. Still having trouble sleeping. “Lena?” Ruby pushed the door open and found her sister staring out the window toward the woods. Had she seen Ruby running? Had she seen anything else?

“Lena.” Ruby squeezed her sister’s shoulder, but Lena didn’t budge. “Lena!” Ruby shook her sister, her voice rising. “Not again,” Ruby muttered as she turned Lena in her chair, forcing her to look away from the window. “Lena, can you hear me?”

Lena turned toward the sound of Ruby’s voice, but her pale eyes were blank and unblinking, like she wasn’t seeing Ruby’s face in front of her own. Ruby swallowed the panic in her throat. “Lena, it’s me, Ruby. Can you hear me?” She had to cut off the sob rising to the surface. Crying would get her nowhere; panicking would get her nowhere. It never had in the past.

Memories of her aunt sitting in her old rocker with the same blank expression on her face crowded into Ruby’s mind, but she pushed them away. Her aunt was gone, and Ruby had no one to ask about her strange habits, about what was happening to Lena.

Finally, Lena’s unseeing gaze settled on Ruby. Her dark hair hung around her pale face and, even though they were the same age, she looked so young and helpless right now. Ruby shook her fiercely. “Snap out of it, goddamn it!”

Lena cocked her head, as if hearing something no one else could.

Ruby froze, her fingers digging into her sister’s flesh. “Lena, please.” Her voice was nothing more than a choked whisper.

Lena blinked. “Ruby?”

Ruby collapsed into her lap with a sob. “You’re back,” she repeated until Lena tugged her upright again, worry etched into her features.

“What happened this time?” she asked as Ruby plopped down onto the floor at her feet.

“The usual. It was like you couldn’t see or hear me, but like maybe you could see or hear … something else…” Ruby sighed, running her hands through her long hair. She knew it sounded crazy. It sounded crazy every time over the past year that they’d explained it to a doctor or a specialist or a therapist. And they’d been to many. She had the medical bills to prove it. If it wasn’t for Aunt Millie leaving them the house and the small trust fund from their parents, they’d be out on the street by now. They’d had every possible test done and everything had come up normal.

Her sister, according to the medical community, was perfectly healthy.

Lena frowned. She didn’t remember anything. She never did.

She was getting worse. These episodes were coming on more and more frequently, and Ruby didn’t know what to do about it. Her aunt had never mentioned her episodes after they happened, and Ruby had convinced herself her aunt was just old and tired.

But Lena was young and vibrant. Or at least she used to be.

Lena pressed her fingers against her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how to stop it.” She shook her head, dropping her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry, Ruby.”

“Don’t be.” Ruby patted her sister’s knee through her fuzzy pink bathrobe. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s not your fault. We’ll figure it out.” It was the same every time. The same apologies, the same promise to figure it out. But Ruby still didn’t have any answers. “Come on, I brought you some food from the bar.”

She grabbed Lena’s hand and tugged her up. Her fingers were cold and clammy, and Ruby held them tight, warming them the best she could.

Downstairs, under the soft yellow light of the kitchen, Ruby studied her sister as they ate their reheated lasagna in silence. They sat at the kitchen table, just big enough for the three of them, when there were three of them. Now Millie’s chair sat empty.