I crossed a yard and paused, then slowly stepped over to the shadows in
the lee of a house. They were too black. Too deep. “Savannah? Are you
there?”
No response came, but I didn’t need one. I could hear her thundering
heartbeat and smell her fear.
“The thing is gone. You’re safe.” I stepped forward, but Savannah swept
out of the darkness, away from me and from her cousin. The shadows clung
to her, trailing her like a long black dress, moving softly in the glow of the
streetlights.
It was beautiful.
“I will never be safe.”
Her voice rang with anger, but I could tell it was covering for terror. I
sensed she wanted to run toward me, but she just kept moving away.
Casey came over and reached for her. “Hey, it’s going to be okay, Savy.”
She spun away. “No, it is not.”
He shrugged. “Look, the bug is dead, and we all lived. It’s nothing a belt
of whiskey can’t fix.”
“What do you know? Nothing,” she spat, maneuvering around us like
boxers in the ring. “Kahanov just invaded my dreams and made me sleepwalk
out here. Then he tried to feed me to a horror from the abyss. I am not
freaking okay, and I don’t think I’m ever going to sleep again.”
Shocked silence hung in the street.
He’d invaded her dreams?
That fucker. My body shook as I tried to repress my wolf, and my hands
and face ached as I held back the shift.
“Holy shit,” Casey murmured, eyes wide.
I wanted to go to Savannah, but I suspected the moment any of us took a
step forward, she would back away—she was on edge, a tiger against a wall.
Perhaps the others understood as well, because not one of us moved.
Finally, Savannah licked her lips. “Do any of you know what the hell that