Page 45 of Shadow's End

As Aiden moved on, I dragged out my phone and took a quick photo so that I could ask Maelle if this was one of her people or not. Because if she was, then it was likely the rest were, too.

There was a bathroom next to the study, a toilet next to that, and at the end, before the hall turned right, a laundry. The door leading outside had been smashed off its hinges and lay in pieces on the floor.

Monty frowned. “They must have heard this thing enter, so why didn’t they run? None of this is making sense.”

“The other thing that’s not making sense is the position of her body,” I said. “If our monster came through this door, why was the woman running toward it rather than away? If she’s lying where she fell, then she was hit from behind, not in front.”

“It could be that we’re dealing with two killers.” Aiden said. “Let’s check the rest of the house, because the crew will be here soon.”

We moved on. The short hallway opened out to a kitchen-dining area, beyond which was a large, open living area. There were no bodies here. No smears of blood. Nothing to indicate anything monstrous had even passed through.

Another hallway lay opposite the kitchen, so we headed over. There were five doors along the corridor, along with what I presumed was a double closet about halfway down. The other doors led into bedrooms and all of them held bodies. There were five split between the first three bedrooms and one in the fourth. All of them had holes in their bodies.

But in the fifth … I sucked in a breath and retreated.

The fifth was an overly large bathroom that held God knew how many, because there was little more than bits of limbs, flesh, muscles, and bloody strings of intestines scattered all over the floor.

And obvious evidence that someone had rolled through the middle of it all.

“Whatever else might have been in this house,thatis evidence that one or more of our vamps also were,” I said, throat burning with the bile threatening to rise. “Maelle isn’t the only one who loves swimming in the remains of her victims. Marie and Jaqueline apparently do, too.”

Outside, sirens wailed, a sound that matched the scream in my head. It would get worse before this was all over. Much worse.

I gulped and backed away a little more. “I think I’ll head outside, get some fresh air, and check the outbuildings, just in case.”

Aiden’s swung around, his gaze studying me. He didn’t say to be careful, but the warning nevertheless glinted in his eyes.

I nodded at the silent request, then turned and got the hell out of there, leaping over the remnants of the laundry door and landing well past the two short steps leading out into the yard beyond. I stopped, rested my hands on my knees, and simply breathed deep in an effort to calm everything down. My stomach eventually settled, though the acidic taste remained in my throat. It wouldn’t take much for my stomach to rise again.

I pushed upright, took the booties off, then walked around to the front of the building to grab some water from the back of Aiden’s truck. He didn’t have it on ice, so it’d be warm, but right then, I didn’t particularly care.

An SUV stopped beside Aiden’s truck, and Mac climbed out of the passenger side. He had the typically rangy build of a werewolf, with brown skin and hair. His gaze swept me briefly but assessingly. “You’re looking rather peaked.”

I half smiled. “Peaked is such a polite way of saying I look like shit.”

He grinned, white teeth bright. “I am nothing if not polite. The boss inside?”

“Yeah, and so are a shit-ton of dead bodies.”

“Just what we need on such a glorious day like today.”

As he moved around to the back of the vehicle, Tala walked around the front and stopped beside me. She was about my height, with dark skin and silver-shot black hair. “Are we dealing with death by vampire or beastie?”

“A bit of both, unfortunately.”

“Never a good thing.” She glanced at me. “Congrats on the engagement, by the way.”

“Here I was thinking you’d be in the against camp.”

I couldn’t help the surprise in my voice, and she raised an eyebrow, amusement lurking in her dark eyes. “Just because I thought you might have been a con woman when you first appeared doesn’t mean I can’t also believe you and Aiden are good together. And what is good for him is also good for us, because that man was abearwhen you two split.”

I laughed. “So Jaz said.”

“Jaz probably understated it because she managed to be on patrol most of the time. I take it you’re remaining out here?”

“Thought I’d do a sweep of the van and the outbuildings to see if there’s anything untoward in them. My psi senses were getting a little overwhelmed by the bloodshed inside.”

She made a low, somewhat growly noise in the back of her throat. “The sooner we get rid of these damn vampires, the better. Andthatshould include Maelle, in my humble opinion.”

---