Greasy strings of flesh clung to the utensil as Rayanna rested it against the edge of the pie tin. She inched the pungent stew across her lap, toward her knees. Raising her chin, she inhaled welcome pine smoke odors. "What's the story about these wolvish creatures?" As she eased her shoulders…
Steam and smoke slithered around the cauldron and hissed over the hearth. Reeve hooked his poker into the lid and removed it. He ladled marshy chunks into a pie tin. When he handed it to her with a flick of his wrist, its stiff lumps remained mudded to the center…
Silence compressed a million racing thoughts into each moment, until the shack's limited air space became too dense to breathe. "So..."Rayanna shifted in her chair. She pointed at a stack of newspapers next to Reeve's feet. "Do you get that delivered from the local press?" "This henhouse liner, here?" He snatched…
Bristly appendages stretched up over the table's edge in front of her. A spider emerged with them and Rayanna gasped. It skittered past the lantern and traced her host's forearm, resting on the table's surface. The man didn't flinch. "You got nerves strung higher'n cat gut on a fiddle. But are…
Bristly appendages stretched up over the table's edge in front of her. A spider emerged with them and Rayanna gasped. It skittered past the lantern and traced her host's forearm, resting on the table's surface. The man didn't flinch. "You got nerves strung higher'n cat gut on a fiddle. But are…
Rayanna leaned back from the table as the grisled stranger settled across from her. The lantern and rifle took up more than half of the meager space between them. As she pressed herself as far away as she could, the chair's gnarled branch spindles knuckled into her back. As he…
Rayanna recoiled from the gnarled stranger in the door way. Her fingers sank into coarse, thick fur as she crawled backward. At the groan of a floorboard, she froze. Narrowing his eyes, he clomped forth and extended the lantern. "You afraid of me?" Lips quivering, she searched the crooked furrows of…
The dank air clamped its chilling grip onto Rayanna's raw arms. She cast furtive glances into the rustling forest. And at him. He maintained a lead of no more than ten feet, every step of his boot hitting the earth with sure footing. Her own soles slid on the undulating, narrow…
Rayanna stiffened. Her breath froze. The lantern swung from the approaching stranger's outstretched hand, his face still obscured by the misty darkness. "I get a name or my Colt. Right. Now." Her lips fumbled. A gun barrel gleamed in the sickly green light. She stammered, "I-I'm lost. I-" "Name." A howl…
Smoke writhed at the edges of the flames on her makeshift torch. Coiling and uncoiling, the wisps spirited their way upward in errant directions. Rayanna blinked away the ghoulish tendrils stinging her eyes. On the half-decayed carpet of oak leaves, her damp boots skidded downhill a few steps . The outer…