Starlight Web (Moonshadow Bay #1) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,58
he began to lope toward the building.
“Do you think he can find them?” Caitlin asked, her voice trembling.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope so, because what the hell are we going to do if he doesn’t?”
Twenty minutes later, Killian came racing back. I opened the back of his SUV when I saw him running full tilt, but he didn’t bother jumping in, just paused by the door, and the cloud of sparkling fog engulfed him again. We could see the outline of his body shifting—legs and arms transforming, muzzle vanishing as his head took form again. I heard him moan—shifting could be painful, from what I understood. The bones and flesh moving and changing shape wasn’t exactly just a twitch of the nose and boom…new form.
Killian was stark naked, but the look on his face caught my attention. “Call the police and an ambulance. Get them here as soon as possible while I get dressed. I found one of the men, I think, and he’s barely breathing. I couldn’t do anything for him in wolf form so I came right back.” He jumped in the back of the SUV as Caitlin pulled out her phone and called the police.
My stomach knotted, as I wondered who he had found—Tad or Hank? And if he only found one, where was the other?
The moment he was dressed again, standing in the snow, he turned to me. “Do not, under any circumstances, return to that building. I saw…things…coming out of it. Shadows and forms so twisted that I couldn’t tell what they were.”
“I think they’re all part of the same creature,” I said. “The entire building is alive. Whatever curse was placed on this land has seeped into the structure and taken it over.”
Caitlin was fretting. “I want to do something. I have to do something.”
I caught her arm. “You aren’t going anywhere. Not alone. You’d end up on the menu, too.” I paused. “When they get here, we can all go with them.”
“But—what if they get here too late?”
“There’s nothing we can do right now. We don’t even know what’s wrong.” I hated being the voice of reason.
“When’s Ari supposed to get here?” Killian asked.
“Five-thirty.” I glanced at my phone. It was four o’clock already. “I should call her and tell her to stay away—”
“Here they come!” Killian pointed to the driveway where an ambulance, a medic unit, and a cop car were rumbling down the road toward us. We hurried over to the emergency vehicles as they pulled to a stop.
I spied Millie Tuptin and waved her over. “Listen, you know Arabella and the homeless guy who died here? A member of my team is out there, and another is missing. Killian will lead us, but we need to move now or they may not survive.”
I was grateful she didn’t spend a lot of time questioning me. Instead, she motioned for the medics to join us.
Killian pointed toward the west side of the building. “I found him in the woods over to that side. He’s barely breathing.”
“Can we drive there?” the medic asked. “Is there room?”
Killian nodded. “Yes, there is.” He turned to us. “Get in my SUV. We’ll lead them.”
As Caitlin clambered into the back seat and I claimed shotgun, Killian started up the SUV and set off, driving over the snow-covered rough terrain. There was an access road to either side of the building, but it was clear that neither had been used for a long time. Bushes and roots had grown up around and through the roads, but they were still passable.
The medic unit, cop car, and ambulance followed us. Less than five minutes later, Killian pulled to a stop. A sense of dread swept over me. I turned to stare at the building. We were less than a hundred yards from the west side, and shadows were creeping out. In front of us, the tree line of the Mystic Wood was a mere hundred yards away.
As I looked around, trying to spot the body, Killian motioned to the medics and they followed him toward the thicket. Caitlin and I joined them. I had no desire to stay this close to the building while everybody else vanished into the woods.
Along the way, I explained to Millie what had happened and why we were here. “Conjure Ink was hired to scope out whether it’s safe for a real estate company to buy this plot of land, raze the building, and put up houses.”