less than instructive purposes.
Then, he saw them. Five graves, even smaller than they’d appeared in the photograph. Colt dropped to his knees, feeling like the air around him was pushing him into the earth. He couldn’t breathe. It was horror and regret for not stopping it from happening and something else he didn’t understand, but it felt like it was crushing him all the same.
Something on the middle cross caught his eye. A glint in the sliver of moonlight peeking in through the leaves. Hanging on the right arm of the cross was a small, silver necklace. It was a puzzle piece with the word ‘friends’ engraved on the cheap metal. Colt hadn’t seen it in the photograph, but the photo wasn’t all that high-quality to begin with.
“Colt?” There was worry in the sheriff’s tone as he approached. The ghouls around Colt always acted wary around him when he betrayed the leftovers of his humanity. From a certain perspective, he understood. It had to be terrifying to be at the mercy of a creature with a human conscience and all the irrationality that came with it plus all the strength and rage of an Alpha.
“Where did this come from?” Colt demanded, holding up the necklace. “Is this one of your people’s idea of a joke?”
Roland frowned, taking the necklace. He let the dainty bauble dangle from his fingertips, squinting at it in the moonlight. “This wasn’t here before, and no. My men are professionals, through and through.”
“Then that means someone’s been here since you left,” Colt said, standing to search the forest around him. He couldn’t hear anything in the darkness other than the faint radio static of Roland’s team in the area.
“Get a team over to the site, I want squad cars on Junction, Redding and Sizemore. No one gets in or out,” Roland ordered into his radio.
Colt took off into the forest, unwilling to wait for backup. He felt his skin prickling as the shift wanted to come over him. He let his claws lengthen, and his second set of teeth came down.
Something rustled up ahead, and Colt took off after it like a cat on a mouse. He caught sight of a blur in the forest, but the sound of bubbling, childish laughter behind him a split second later made it clear he wasn’t on the right track. He spun around, but the laughter seemed to be coming from everywhere now.
It was in his head. What started out as joyous giggling turned to painful shrieks that drove into Colt’s eardrums like shards of glass, sending him to his knees. He cried out in pain and covered his ears, applying so much pressure to his head in an attempt to make the laughter stop that he felt like his skull was going to crack. The hot blood on his fingers was the first clue his claws were digging into his scalp.
“Colt!” Susan’s cry pierced the shrill, mocking laughter, and it ceased immediately.
Colt’s head was still foggy, and it ached badly enough that he would have happily eaten a bullet to make it stop if he’d had one that very moment. Flickers of images he didn’t recognize were making it hard to see the woman right in front of him. She groped his shoulders and his face, and he heard her calling him back, calling his name fearfully, but he couldn’t respond. The laughter had stopped, but it still felt like something else was inside his head. Something dark and twisted and wrong.
“Don’t touch him,” Susan snapped.
Colt wasn’t sure who she was talking to. She wouldn’t let him turn his head, forcing him to look at her. He was starting to be able to see her through the flickers. The scent of vanilla filled his nostrils, so smooth and rich the strength of it helped pull him back to reality.
“Sue?” he groaned, feeling like the fog around him was thinning.
“I’m here, sweetheart. It’s alright. Just breathe,” she coaxed, stroking his face.
“Your perfume,” he mumbled, slumping against her. She caught him, letting his head rest against her shoulder.
Susan stared down at him in confusion, still stroking his hair. “I’m not wearing any perfume, Colt.”
That was strange, he thought. The smell was getting stronger.
Right before he blacked out, it was all he could think about.
Chapter 9
When Colt woke up, he was in his bed back at the estate. There was light coming through the windows, but his body ached like he hadn’t moved for much longer than a single night. When