The ghost lashed out at Maddox, but he listened to me and moved at the very last second. I turned and ran. Maddox loped along at my side while I struggled to keep my feet from tangling in my fear.
Only when we were out of that neighborhood and back on the main streets did I stop to catch my breath. While my chest heaved, my mind tumbled. Thoughts spun wildly inside my head. I stared back in the direction we’d come from.
I’d never seen anything like that before in my life. Murder victims came to me all the time. They were usually frustrated and angry. I’d never come across someone sowrongbefore. Whatever had happened to her, it was more than just homicide.
I made a mental note to talk to Bianca. There was a chance that the Pack’s back-pocket witch could tell me something I didn’t know. She dabbled in darker arts, making her a formidable force. We were lucky that she was on our side now.
Maddox looked up at me. I glanced up and down the street. There were too many human civilians for me to tell him what I’d seen. Even though I was playing the role of a medium who can speak to ghosts, I didn’t like the idea of being so open about it. Most humans were skeptics and would give me the stink-eye for even mentioning ghosts.
It made for painfully awkward conversations in public. Besides, I wanted to ask what scent he’d caught that led us to that woman.
“Can you, uh, go back to normal now?”
Maddox grumbled. He looked back in the direction we’d come from. Of course, he hadn’t seen anything. This odd traumatic experience was all mine.
Not for the first time, I felt entirely alone even though I was surrounded by people. Even those in my own community rarely understood what I was going through. The only other Reaper I’d met had tried to kill me. There hadn’t really been time to commiserate over our shared experiences while he was burying me alive.
I’d missed Maddox because he existed in my world. He was partially undead when he shifted. He could feel my arcana and use it to his advantage. However, he still couldn’t see the souls of the dead. He hadn’t felt himself sucked into the eyes of that dead woman. He didn’t have to gaze into the void where her heart had been.
I released Maddox’s leash and wrapped my arms around my middle. Death put a hand on my shoulder, as if in pity. I shrugged off the cool touch of the invisible force of nature. It was a concept, a thing that had no voice or body. It couldn’t comfort me the way I needed.
Maddox stared down at the leash on the ground. I said nothing, instead choosing to make my way back to his new SUV. He wasn’t a real dog that would run off without someone on the other end of his leash. I was confident that he would trot back to his alley and shift back so he could take me back home.
Maddox
Addie wasn’t quite right.I watched her retreat from me, in body and soul. My beast snarled at me and shoved me forward so I could follow her and keep her safe. The creature wasn’t paying attention. These paws weren’t going to help the situation.
I needed her in one piece, physically and emotionally, if we were going to make it through this case. If she snapped now, we would never find whoever was behind these murders. While it seemed like a selfish reason to protect someone, I couldn’t change the facts of this matter. I needed her to speak to the ghosts of those murdered. No one else could do that for me.
Instead of following her back to the SUV, I went to the alley, so I could shift back. Someone shouted that there was a dog on the loose. Distantly, I heard their footsteps as they tried to catch up to me before I could escape.
That meant I had to force this shift quickly. While my beast protested, I told the creature that I would be able to help Addie this way, and the beast relinquished its hold, allowing me to flow back into my human form.
A woman—a white woman with a bleeding heart for deranged animals, of course—ran into the alley just as I finished pulling my shirt back on. The woman recoiled then tried to peer around me.
“A-a-a dog came through here a second ago.” She narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her slender hips. “Was it yours? You really shouldn’t let your dogs run around off their leash in public. They could get hit by a car!”
I looked her up and down. She reminded me of Paige, with her short-cropped brown hair and piercing green eyes. The sight of this woman should have dredged up old feelings, but nothing happened. I waited for love and regret to come back and make me feel like the trash that I used to be.
Nothing happened.
“I don’t own a dog,” I told her as I shoved past her.
My thoughts turned to Addie, alone near the SUV. She was hurting from whatever had happened, and the longer I spent here with this stranger, the longer Addie had to deal with this on her own. I’d shifted, so I could help her, not so I could pick up ladies.
That last thought had a twinge of sarcasm attached to it, but to my surprise, the woman touched my arm to stop me. She looked up at me, her eyes going wide and innocent. It was a siren lure that they all learned at a young age. I thought that maybe she was doing it as a defense mechanism while alone with a strange man, but then she straightened her spine which drew my attention to her lifted breasts.
And I couldn’t have cared less.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen a dog? I could really use some help finding it before it gets hurt.”
“I have to go.” I shrugged off her touch.
Addie needed me.
I didn’t realize just how much of a magnet Addie was to me until I left the alley and saw her leaning against the SUV. She still had her arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes were downcast, distantly staring at the pavement beneath her feet. When she gripped the sides of her head and winced, I rushed forward without thinking.
“Hey, hey, it’s me.” I touched her hand to try to bring her back to the present moment.