Just like I knew I wasn’t the only different one anymore.
Not here in Haven. I was starting to wonder if different was the norm in this town.
My dad gave a firm nod. No questioning. No doubt. “Let’s go.”
The gravel crunched beneath my feet. We walked slowly and easily until we were covered by the woods, then once the eyes were off us, my dad said, “Don’t go in all the way, Anna, okay? Last time…”
Last time I’d been so locked on the girl that I’d raced right into the building, never seeing the danger. My dad had ordered me to stay in the car. He’d called for backup. But…
Caitlin had been calling to me. Lost, lost…
I licked my lips and remembered the taste of blood. “I won’t, Dad. I’ll pull back.” I hoped.
I advanced cautiously at first. I felt like I had a string around my waist, and someone was pulling me deeper into those woods. The more I walked, the faster my steps became. Faster. I jumped over fallen logs, twisted around trees.
Sissy had strayed far from the safety of her house when she’d gone into the woods. Far, far from her home.
She’d grown up here. She should’ve know better but—
But Sissy was lost.
Lost.
I ran now and my side burned and cold breaths heaved from my lungs. Closer, closer…the faster I ran, the more the pull jerked inside of me. Sissy wasn’t far now, she wasn’t—
“Pull back!” My dad’s yell as he grabbed my arm.
I stumbled to a stop. I’d done it again. Gone in too far, gotten hooked on the one who was lost.
His hold tightened, and he lightly shook me. “Baby, don’t you smell it?”
It?
Then the smell hit me. Heavy, thick, rotting. I covered my mouth even as my eyes widened in horrified understanding. I knew this smell.
I’d smelled death twice before.
Chapter Eight
I wrapped my arms around my body as my dad slipped forward. I didn’t want to see this. There were some images that just wouldn’t get out of your mind, and I realized this would be one of them.
“Sonofabitch.” My dad’s snarl, and I knew we’d found Sissy.
He stormed back toward me even as he yanked out his small radio. “Jon, dammit, yeah, I found her.”
I heard the crackle of static and the excited yell that came from Deputy Jon Parker.
But my dad cut him off. “Don’t tell the parents yet.” He exhaled and rubbed a hand over his face. “And get the ME out here.”
No more excited yell. Stark silence.
“Pull back the search teams,” my dad directed. “I’ll meet you all at base camp.”
“Yes, sir.” Deputy Jon’s muted answer.
I hugged myself tighter. I hadn’t found Sissy soon enough. Again. Another body on me. Another death on my conscience.
My dad lowered the radio and closed the distance between us. “You okay?”
I nodded.
“Liar.” But he said the word like it was an endearment.
He was right. I was a liar. “If I’d found her yesterday, she would have been—”
He shook his head. “From the looks of things, she’s been dead for a while. At least two days.” My dad knew dead bodies. He’d worked real close with the ME in Chicago on so many cases.
All that time. Sissy had been alone in the woods.
Don’t think about it. Don’t go there.
I cleared my throat. “So…F-Friday night?”
It was his turn to nod. “The ME will tell us for sure, but based on the lividity of the body, it looks that way.”
I didn’t want to know about lividity. I didn’t want Sissy to be dead. “What happened to her?”
He caught my arm and started leading me away from the scene. “Baby, you don’t want to know.”
I stopped walking. “I’m not a baby anymore.” I lifted my chin. “I was attacked by a wolf on Friday night. Sissy died on Friday night. I want to know—”
“Her throat was ripped out.” Flat, but his eyes burned with fury. “The size of those slashes, hell, yeah, I’m looking for an animal. One damn vicious beast.”
I swallowed. “She ran from the party, and she ran right into the wolf.”
The big, bad wolf that waited in the woods.
“No.” He pushed me forward again. “Not right from the party. Sissy was wearing a night gown.”
I blinked.
His gaze swept the woods and tension kept his jaw tight.
“A night gown?” I repeated slowly. But if she’d been wearing her gown, she’d gotten home safely. She'd made it back after the party.
Then she'd gone back into the dark woods.
“I want to know why the hell that girl was out in those woods.” We were walking faster now. My dad was nearly running, and I was tripping as I tried to keep up with him. “I want to know if she was alone.”