Page 9 of Dance With Death

“Like I care about offending shifters.”

“You should,” mumbles Leif.

“What?” Logan asks sharply.

“Nothing.”

“And where did this creature go?” I interrupt. “Did it enter the building? Pursue anybody?”

“No, but Helen was outside Darwin House with Zak, and they saw the thing running into the woods.” Cassie clutches at Annie. “First Holly disappears, then a were- uh… strange creature stalks humans.”

“Not the first time either,” Annie adds.

Good. Grief.

“And this hound always appears at night?” I ask scornfully. “And nobody gets close enough to the creature to examine it?”

“What did Mrs. Lorcan say about the mystery dog when you told her?” asks Rowan.

Cassie tips her chin. “That one of the teachers owns a Wolfhound that sometimes escapes staff quarters, and not to worry.”

“Well, then,” I say.

“Uh huh. The same vampire headmistress who denies the tiara is haunted!” adds Annie.

I take a calming breath and turn to Leif. “Have you heard past rumors of mysterious creatures roaming campus?”

“Yeah, but not recently.” He looks to Annie. “Rumors about mysterious paranormal events happen all the time. Especially around Halloween”

“Wild imaginings,” I say. “The spirit world does not exist.”

“Something is hunting us on campus!” says Annie, voice cracking. “I don’t believe that Holly is ill like Marci told me. The thing took her.”

I pivot to face Annie again. The curly-haired girl’s eyes are wide, pupils dilated as she convinces herself she’s in imminent danger.

“Holly left campus in the daytime,” I tell her. “You allege this creature only visits at night. Therefore, no, the imaginary wolf did not take Holly.”

“Then who did Holly leave with?” she demands.

“She wasn’t dragged away by a dog-like creature. I feel someone may’ve noticed such an odd sight,” I say evenly.

“You know something, freak,” interrupts Logan. “Not only about Holly, but about the other weird stuff on campus recently too.”

“Other weird ‘stuff’?”

“Ghosts of the students who died at the old academy,” says Cassie. “We hear them on the nights they haunt campus. Helen told us she saw something in the attics. A figure in the window wearing the old school uniform!”

“And do you have proof?” asks Rowan. “A photo?”

“We’ll get one soon,” says Cassie. “We’re watching every night.”

“Good grief,” I mutter to Rowan and Leif. “Why has nobody told me this?”

“Because it’s normally hysterical girls who’ve scared themselves with Ouija boards,” says Rowan pointedly.

Annie’s face sours. “If the academy doesn’t find and stop this thing looking for humans, there’ll be trouble. Someone else might die!”

Mr. Woodside pokes his head around the classroom doorway, with no indication that he heard the conversation despite the increasingly shrill volume. Without a word, he pulls the door open wider and gestures at his students to enter.

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