blood.
Gray raced around the truck to the driver’s side front wheel. Donna lay at an angle, pinned between the fender and the tree, her front paws, chest and head spared the crushing weight of the truck. She was dead. She was dead before the truck had stopped-God willing.
How long had he stood there? How much time passed? He wasn’t sure. Maybe if he’d snapped out of it quicker, reacted faster, maybe he could’ve gotten Donna’s body away before the police showed up. But once the first cop tripped and stumbled his way down the hill, it was too late. These people and their pretty little redheaded girl had altered his life irrevocably.
And now that pretty little redhead was poised to do it again.
“I’m not mad. I’m just curious.” Yeah. If she said it out loud a few more times maybe she’d actually believe it. After all, what other emotion would make her do something this stupid. And, Maizie had to admit, walking deep into the forest at dusk, full moon rising or not, was stupid. Really stupid.
But she had to talk to him. She wanted to know why Gray had waited twenty-one years to give Granny the locket. “Twenty-one years. That’s a long time to hold on to something that’s not yours. Not that I’m mad about it.”
She wasn’t-really. It was just an excuse. More than anything she wanted to know about where he’d found it. Granny told her Gray had been there at the accident. But she was so pleased with having the locket back she didn’t seem to care what his being there meant. He could answer questions no one else could.
What had he seen? What did he know? Had her parents said anything? Were they alive? Did he see the wolf that’d killed them? She had to know.
Anytime she’d asked those sorts of questions of Granny, or anyone else who might know, she’d gotten sad puppy-dog eyes staring back at her and no solid answers. “Just put it behind you, dear,” Granny would say. “It won’t bring them back. Consider yourself blessed that you can’t remember.”
This time she had a good excuse to broach the subject. She had a firsthand source to give her some answers. She wouldn’t settle for puppy-dog eyes and placating cliches. This time she’d get her answers and that, more than anything else, pushed her into the forest to a place she hadn’t been in years.
Maizie shined her flashlight off to the left. The path was clear, dirt covered, with tall weeds and brush kept at a distance. A small turn of her wrist to the right and the beam exposed a swath of low weeds cutting through the forest eight feet wide. Beneath were the remnants of a long-forgotten path. She could still see the twin ruts like old tire tracks through the weed stalks, though as far as she remembered there’d never been an actual road.
This path would lead to the housing subdivision, the place she’d once called home. She hoped it would also bring her closer to Gray’s secret mansion in the forest. She had to find it again. She had to find him.
Maizie steeled her nerves and started walking. Her legs parted the weeds with each step. Green seeds and sticky leaves clung to her sweat pants and left dark stripes of dew along the gray fabric on her thighs and knees. Her mind raced, constantly analyzing sounds, shadows and strange movements.
This was a stupid risk considering she’d come face to face with the big silver wolf once already. And she was pretty sure he’d chased her and Gray from the lake the other day. The wolf had been anything but deadly though. Of course his patient demeanor might’ve been dumb luck.
If she could just remember the path Gray had taken from the lake she wouldn’t have to wander around trying to find the house by accident. She should’ve waited ’til morning. But she wanted answers and she didn’t even care that she’d have to deal with his strange family. She’d already waited long enough.
Maizie had checked every map of the area she could find. Not one of them showed roads beyond the gravel driveway to the Wild Game Preserve. The forest was like a blank spot, the Bermuda Triangle of Pennsylvania.
This way, a straight path on foot, Maizie was convinced was faster. At least if she got lost she’d be in the right
Her pace quickened, though for no good reason she knew. It wasn’t full dark yet, but she used the flashlight to scan the woods as she went, first one side then the other. Some small part of her brain realized the flashlight kept her at a disadvantage. The bright beam pinpointed her location for anyone or anything that might be tracking her.
She kept walking, body tight, eyes darting back and forth, hoping to accidentally shine the light on any attackers before they leapt. The odds were slim but that didn’t stop her from hoping. The overgrown path traveled upward, and when she shined the light to her left she saw the tops of trees.
A better look made her realize the forest floor dropped off a few feet from the path. A fearless traveler venturing from the trail here could find themselves tumbling down a very steep, very long hillside. Maizie didn’t want to think about it. Careening down hillsides was something she knew too much about already, even if she couldn’t remember. She kept walking, resuming her flashlight scan to the right and left as the forest leveled off.
After more than an hour, full dark had fallen and above, the moon’s soft white light barely penetrated the forest’s thick canopy. Finally, Maizie strained to see a few small flickers of light through the trees up ahead.
“Wood Haven housing plan.” She exhaled the words. Relieved.
It had to be the quaint streetlights of the neighborhood. Maizie allowed a little smile despite the pinch of disappointment.
She hadn’t stumbled over Gray’s house as she’d hoped, but she’d made it through the woods without being gobbled up by any big bad wolves.
Believing civilization was less than five hundred feet away, her confidence returned. Her shoulders relaxed, flashlight aimed in front of her. She trusted she’d make it to the nearest street and hopefully a convenience store where she could call a cab.
Three steps and Maizie’s confidence evaporated with the rustle of movement off to her left. She froze, adrenaline tingles racing up her spine. She flicked the light to the left. A sapling and a cluster of tall ferns swayed. Had something brushed past them or were they moved by a breeze she only now noticed sifting through her hair?
Maizie dragged the light farther left, taking in all she could. There was nothing there but vegetation. She scanned the other way and found nothing out of the ordinary.
She forced a half laugh she didn’t feel. “Paranoid much?”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than another movement, this time on her right side, iced her to the bone. She swung the light, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was moving out there. Nothing.
She stared for several long minutes. Without moving her feet, she dragged the flashlight beam in a circle around her, her body twisting to cover as much area as possible.
She started to turn back and felt the familiar thrum of invisible fingers at the base of her neck.
The light swung fast in the direction she’d come and reflected off two glowing white eyes. “Oh shit!”
Her feet scrambled backward without benefit of thought or the shifting of balance to keep her upright. She landed hard on her ass, but didn’t hesitate for even a second. Flashlight forgotten, her hands and feet dug at the ground, crab-walking as fast as humanly possible.
Without the reflection of the light, white eyes turned blue in the cool darkness and fixed on her. Maizie couldn’t look away, didn’t dare or risk the animal’s inevitable attack catching her unaware. Somewhere in her brain a voice screamed
Watching those eyes, the same kind of wolf eyes from her childhood, the same frightening eyes from hundreds of nightmares and sleepless nights, meant she wasn’t watching where she was going. The hard smack of a tree against her head stopped all progress.
She dropped to her ass with an oath. For one slim heartbeat she closed her eyes, her hand going to her head on reflex. She snapped her eyes open again and found the haunting blue orbs were still watching her-only closer. She could see the full body of the wolf now, big, muscled and…honey-brown.
This wasn’t the same wolf Granny talked about. This wasn’t Maizie’s naughty silver wolf. This wasn’t even the wild beast that’d chased her the other night. This wolf was male and big, with a crazed look in his eyes.
The animal growled, its lips curling back from huge white teeth, its thick fur vibrating from the sound. Maizie
