Child of Fire

information on her or the Twenty Palace Society.

The reception area was empty. I rang the little bell on the counter. No one came. I rang again. I was all alone with the cracked plastic chairs and the slowly ticking clock.

I set the canvas bag on the floor. I’d seen the woman carry Annalise’s clipboard into the back, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t brought it out again. I leaned over the counter and searched. There was an outdated computer, a steaming cup of coffee, a small collection of Pez dispensers, and a big framed picture of some sort of picnic. There was no form clipboard.

I vaulted over the counter and shoved the chair under the desk. There were file drawers below, but I didn’t go for them yet. I figured that I’d have better odds in the back, and I had to do this quickly, before Annalise noticed the delay.

I laid my hand against the door. If there were metal tables and corpses on the other side of this door, I hoped they’d be covered with a nice, big cloth.

I pushed the door open.

The first thing I thought was: That body should be on a table, not the floor. Then I noticed a pool of blood slowly creeping toward me.

It was the morgue attendant, of course. Her throat was a raw, red mess, but her face looked utterly peaceful.

There were, indeed, tables in here. Two of them had sheet-covered bodies on top. I saw a phone on the wall and decided not to use it.

I couldn’t see the clipboard anywhere.

On a table in the corner of the room I saw a pile of dark blue clothes set beside a pair of shiny black shoes.

There was a holster and pistol on top of the pile. Cop clothes.

The blood had almost touched my shoe. I stepped back.

From somewhere in the room I heard a low growl.

CHAPTER TEN

I jumped backward, pulling the door behind me. I caught a glimpse of something large and low rushing at me. It struck the door hard, slamming it shut.

The door banged open again, and I fell backward onto the desk. The swinging door revealed a wolf, its hackles raised, teeth bared, red eyes glaring at me. This one was black, tinged with gray, and bigger than the reddish one I’d seen on the street. Or maybe it seemed that way because it was looking at me like I was lunch.

I snatched the steaming cup of coffee off the counter. The wolf moved toward me, and I threw the coffee, splashing some onto my hand. Damn, it was hot. The black liquid struck the creature across the face. It let out a high-pitched whine and drew back.

I rolled the chair forward, ramming the wolf while it was off balance and knocking it back into the morgue.

I grabbed the door handle. There was no lock on this side. I reached around and slammed my palm on the handle on the other side. Something clicked. I hoped it was a lock.

The wolf found its feet and twisted in my direction. I leaped backward, pulling the door behind me. I saw long white teeth straining toward me, and then the door was shut.

I vaulted back over the counter and landed on the canvas bag. I slipped and fell on my backside. Hard. Damn. I was going to be eaten alive because I was a clumsy idiot.

I grabbed the cloth bag, rolled to my feet, and rushed into the hall. I didn’t expect the locked door to hold for long, and I was pretty damn sure that was not an ordinary animal. In fact, I was pretty damn sure it was Emmett Dubois.

I could have run after Annalise, but the wolf might have followed me through a hospital filled with patients and staff. I wasn’t that ruthless yet. I wasn’t Annalise. I ran in the other direction, toward what I hoped was the parking lot behind the hospital.

I pushed through the double doors and sprinted down an empty hallway. There were no doors on either side, but there was a turn up ahead. I saw an exit sign and bluish light shining there. I ran faster.

I was halfway down the hall when I heard the double doors open behind me. Over my shoulder I saw the wolf padding toward me. Its teeth were bared and its tongue hung out. Its eyes glowed, for God’s sake, even in the harsh fluorescent lights.

The wolf paused about a third of the way down the hall. It seemed to be showing me more of its teeth. Was that a smile? What ever his doubts about me during my interview, I was running from him now. He’d called my bluff and he knew it.

I turned the corner, headed for the exit. The fire doors leading to the parking lot were right in front of me. They were chained shut.

I was trapped. Or, I was supposed to be trapped.

I took out my ghost knife and cut the chain. Its weight pulled it to the floor with a loud rattle. I pushed open one of the doors and slid the ghost knife through the other one, just beside the latch.

I heard the clatter of sharp nails on linoleum. The wolf was losing me, and he knew it. I slipped through the door and slammed it behind me, then slid the ghost knife through it right next to the latch.

The wolf rammed the push bar on the other side of the door. The latch mechanism I had just cut made a grinding noise but didn’t open. Thank God.

I backed away. The doors would hold for a little while, until Emmett finally hit them hard enough to bust the latch or decided to go back for his uniform and gun.