Weariness sank deep into Rayanna's flesh, dragging her to slump lower on the driver's seat. She blinked and glanced back at the argument on the roadside. Though she strained to make out the voices, her cheek sagged against the headrest. The hum of the idling engine washed over them and swept her…
Weariness sank deep into Rayanna's flesh, dragging her to slump lower on the driver's seat. She blinked and glanced back at the argument on the roadside. Though she strained to make out the voices, her cheek sagged against the headrest. The hum of the idling engine washed over them and swept her…
The thinning fog drifted from the asphalt and puddled in the ditches on either side of the road. Ruddy paint scabbed a fading sign just ahead: Welcome to Beuteburg. "Beuteburg? Sounds like someone thought your town was beautiful." Rayanna eased her foot off the gas and glanced back at the slouched…
Rayanna crushed the gas pedal. The thuds of huge paws struck the trunk and their claws screamed against the cruiser's paint. After a quarter mile, the snarls and roaring barks faded into the distance behind them. Drifts of fog swept past the windows like phantoms as the squad car barreled through…
Rayanna jammed the key into the squad car's ignition. Grantham dove into the seat behind her as voracious snarls neared his doorway and overtook the waking engine's whine. She twisted to glance back. The officer croaked, "Go." Arms smeared in muck and blood, he slammed his door with a crunch and…
A current of rasped breath wove through the inky brush hemming the path. The hoarse panting rose to an eddy of low growls. Rayanna's throat squeezed her voice to a rodent-like whisper. "I hear it." A twig snapped within a few feet of the narrow trail. "What do we do?" The…
The leaves shivered around her in a faint breath of icy air. Rayanna drew the borrowed coat to a close around her chest, gathering its worn fabric in her fist. "Lethean?" Officer Bowery's flashlight beam bobbed over the uneven terrain ahead. "If you've got a better name for yourself, I'm listening."…
The earthy scent of oaken decay clung in the damp night air. Hints of a disturbing odor wafted through the brush. Dank, feral. Rayanna ducked under a low branch and shuffled downhill, skidding a bit on the moss and leaves underfoot. She nearly collided into the officer as he slowed his…
She wanted to jump to her feet and shove the old man. Call him crazy. Tell him he couldn't be more wrong. More than anything, she wanted to run. Rayanna darted a glance at the door--ten paces or so. Reeve let out a slow, throaty chuckle and turned the tip of…
A wisp of smoke curled from the fireplace and traced the storyteller's jawline. Reeve sucked his crooked teeth as he surveyed the writhing flames. "There's critters born tender as kittens. But earth's foul air can poison things. So a purr can't be trusted. At any moment, a sweet-sounding thing'll carve your…