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14
MADDOX
The beast wouldn’t let me shift back. I was trapped in this form, unable to assume control. Prowling the city at night, the beast couldn’t find any hint of a trail. It should have gone back to Addie, but lying in wait wasn’t as satisfying as an active hunt.
I pressed the idea. The beast shoved back.
The creature wasn’t going to allow me to go back and yell at her. It refused to allow me to say anything cruel, even though I’d been the one hurt by what’d happened earlier. The beast didn’t see my pain. It didn’t acknowledge how my autonomy kept getting undermined left and right.
The frustration of a trapped scream built deep inside me. I vibrated with the force of it, but I couldn’t let it out like this. However, my beast lifted his head to the sky and howled with all the sorrow of my own pain.
Maybe the creature did understand. If that was the case, then why were we still out here?
Let me go home…
Home?
The house back in the mountains wasn’t what I thought of when I asked to go home. My mind had been filled with Addie and her long, black hair always tied back into a braid. I’d been thinking of her gentle smile and nervous laugh. She’d grown bolder lately. When she’d threatened to make my life a living hell while we were meeting with Ryder, I’d been impressed with her nerve.
She never would have said anything like that back when I’d first met her. Together, we were both changing. Truth be told, I wanted to see what we could become.
That meant embracing this life.
I’d been avoiding it at all costs. I didn’t want to get sucked into this lawless world, a veritable Wild West where everyone thought they were their own judge and jury.
Addie
Vi hadher signature nuclear-rainbow energy drink in hand. Ness sipped her iced hazelnut mocha. I found myself lacking a staple beverage, like I didn’t have a personality unless there was something that I could define myself with.
Cerri pushed an iced dirty chai into my hands before gesturing for us all to leave. We stepped out of Bad Moon Café with one mission on our minds:
Ghost hunting.
This would have been cooler if we had some sort of technical gear. On all the shows I watched, the ghost hunters went in with voice recorders, EMF detectors, and even handmade gadgets to pick up on stray radio waves.
The only gadget we had in this situation was me.
And I’d been on the fritz lately. Okay, well, I didn’t think that I was the problem anymore. That didn’t mean this would be easy, though.
We piled into Vi’s Jeep and hung on for dear life as she barreled towards the sleepy mountain town. I looked back and wondered if Maddox would catch up. I still hadn’t heard from him, not since our argument in the abandoned parking lot.
He’d taken off as a way to punish me. At least, that’s what I assumed. I’d tried to call him several times until I heard the sound of his phone ringing inside his car. At first, I’d wanted to yell at him. He hadn’t even finished cleaning up the jam splattered all over my kitchen. Then, as time went on, I got more and more nervous.
Where was he? Had he gotten into a fight with that man? Was he hurt somewhere? If only I could find him, then I would be able to save him.
He would tell me that he didn’t need saving, though. Maddox was both proud and capable; he would never admit to needing my help.
Yet, he had once. Hadn’t he?
Maddox had done everything in his power to get me signed onto this case as a medium. That was as good as admitting that he needed help—my help, specifically.
And if he wouldn’t come back to me, then I would continue working without him. I had my girlfriends at my side. Together, we would get to the bottom of this.
I directed Vi to the rural back road where we’d found the severed hand. As expected, it was cordoned off with yellow caution tape, but there was no one around. The local police station had finished surveying the area. I wouldn’t be able to see what they’d found without Maddox, but I had other ways of continuing this search.
Ness chugged the last of her coffee, got out of the Jeep, and stretched before shifting. Her beast was a hound, so much smaller than Maddox’s wolf. Overhead, clouds began to gather. She looked up at them and scowled. Just as quickly as they’d appeared, the clouds scattered.
She was getting better at controlling the weather effects that followed her everywhere. We were all growing and evolving, faster than anyone ever expected. That’s what happened when the world hit us with everything it had.
