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He took another drink of his beer, then set the bottle aside. He turned toward me, gaze heavy as if he was preparing to unburden himself about something very serious.
And then a sharp howl split the air.
Connor tilted his head toward the sound, one of the most wolfish things I’d seen him do, frowning as he listened, interpreted.
Until the howl became a scream.
The beers were left behind, and we took off running.
FIVE
We ran across the resort toward the sound of voices, the wild blossoming of magic. The wind had picked up, that magic swirling farther, faster, in response.
Along the way, we passed what looked like the resort’s former main lodge, a dozen cabins, and a few piles of rubble that I guessed had once been buildings, but time or neglect had stripped them of the title.
Connor was right. The resort hadn’t been kept up. Paint left to peel. Lawns gone to dirt and scrubby weeds. Overturned and rusting picnic tables. You could see the bones of the resort behind the mess, but it would take time and care to carve the decay away again.
We saw no shifters until we reached what I guessed was the far edge of the property, given the thick treeline. A half dozen men and women stood near a woodpile that was surprisingly straight and tidy given the rest of the resort’s condition.
There was chatter—agitated, excited, confused—not unlike the magic in the air. And the voices went quiet when they realized someone had joined them—and realized who that someone was.
I wondered if that reaction bothered Connor. Not the pause, but the implicit acknowledgment that he was different. Pack, but different.
The monster shifted, wanting to touch the magic, wanting access to that power. I ignored it.
“Everything okay?” Connor asked.
A man stepped up to him, beefy and strong and nearly a foot taller than Connor. His skin was ruddy and freckled, his hair short, red, and spiky. His eyes were small, blue, and suspicious, his nose Roman in profile and knobby from being broken. “Who the fuck are you?”
Connor looked completely implacable. “I’ve gotten taller since I last saw you, Clive, but you should still recognize me.”
Clive’s eyes went wide, and he moved back a step as if to get a better view. “Keene? Holy shit, man.” He reached out, gripped Connor’s arm in one of his enormous hands. Connor returned the gesture. “My bad. It’s been too long.”
“A few years,” Connor agreed. “This is Elisa.”
The shifter nodded. If he recognized my face or my name—or realized that I was a vampire—it didn’t show on his face.
“What happened out here?” Connor asked. “We heard screaming.”
“One of our shifters, Beth, was attacked.”
He moved aside, gestured to a female shifter who sat on a small bench along the mulch path. She wore a T-shirt and shorts, and her skin was pale, her hair nearly as light. A set of crimson scratches stood out starkly across her cheeks. Bruises blossomed around puncture marks on her arms, and her lip was cut and bleeding.
Shifter blood was a powerful thing—full of magic—and the monster became more insistent. It stirred, curious. I was afraid to force it down too harshly, for fear that might make it fight back. And this wasn’t the time or place to let it go, especially when I wasn’t sure I’d be able to push it down again. Instead, I focused on staying calm, on breathing through the magic.
Two more shifters, both female, sat on either side of Beth. One was pulling gauze from a plastic first aid kit. She folded a mound, pressed it to Beth’s arm.
All three women wore strips of black fabric, like emblems of mourning, around their arms. For Paisley? I wondered.
There were footsteps behind us. We looked back, found Alexei had reached us. He gave me and Connor a silent nod.
“This is Alexei,” Connor said, and gave him the basics. “Who attacked her?”
Clive cleared his throat. “She said she was attacked by an animal out near the big woodpile.”
“An animal?” Connor asked.
“Something with fur,” Clive said. “Fangs, claws. That’s all we know so far. We just got here—me and my girl, Jae.” He pointed to the shifter with the gauze, who had pale skin, a fall of straight dark hair, and dark eyes.
