Page 60 of Signs and Wonders

Cameron rubbed the red marks on his wrists where he had been bound. “I’ll probably have nightmares and PTSD for the rest of my life, but I’m not badly hurt.”

Evan nodded. “I’ll have some spectacular bruises, but nothing that won’t heal. I could really use some dry clothes, though, since Swain tried to drown me. What about you?”

Seth remembered seeing shifter-Evan howl in pain and collapse with a knife in his back, a sight he knew he would never be able to scrub from his memories. With the shifter’s body gone in the cave-in, along with Swain, Seth’s gun, and the ritual chamber, no evidence remained.

“What about the ghosts?” Seth asked Travis. “They—and you—saved our asses.”

“They’re at peace,” Travis replied in a quiet voice, staring into the distance. “They are avenged, even if the rest of the world never knows the whole story.”

The four men trudged to their cars and inched down the mountain road, afraid the cave-in had spread or weakened the ground. Seth took the turn toward where the main resort building had been and held his breath, fearing what he would see.

Dozens of people milled at the foot of the driveway. Where the main lodge once stood at the top of the hill was now rubble and a gaping chasm.

“Travis!” Brent ran toward them when they got out of the vehicles. He clapped Travis on the shoulder, and they spoke with each other in quiet voices.

“Cam!” Tyler was steps behind Brent, searching for his boyfriend.

Drake looked up at their voices and grinned in relief from where he talked with the first responders who had just arrived on the scene.

Tyler swept Cameron into his arms, apparently no longer caring what strangers made of them. Cameron wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, clinging with all his strength. Evan took Seth’s hand.

“It’s done,” Evan said, as the crowd paid them no attention. “Let’s get out of here.”

13

EVAN

“We are definitely leaving town,”Tyler said. They had returned to Drake’s cabin to clean up and debrief, taking the evening to decompress.

“The sooner, the better,” Cameron replied. They sat together on the end of the couch, still holding hands. “Thank you all for coming after me. You put yourselves in a lot of danger.”

“It’s kinda what we do.” Evan glanced toward Seth, who was deep in conversation with Brent. Brent had already made a run to the motel to reclaim his laptop, just in case anyone traced them back to the attack on the Hub.

“What happened to the shifter from Lacey’s?” Tyler asked. The creature who had posed as Cameron was gone.

“I let him go.” They looked up to see Drake. “He had been forced to obey Swain. Now that Swain and his operation at the Hub are gone, he’s free. I told him to stay out of trouble and not come back.”

They took the opportunity to shower and change clothes, ridding themselves of the dust and dirt from the cave-in. Drake bustled in the kitchen, making a batch of spaghetti—quick, comforting, and filling. The smell of garlic and onions filled the small house, and now that they were done risking their lives, Evan’s stomach rumbled.

Partial bottles of whiskey sat on the table after a hearty toast to everyone’s survival and refills to soothe ragged nerves.

“We pulled all the fire alarms and set off the sprinklers,” Tyler recounted. “Then Brent and Drake got people to move far away from the buildings. I think Drake might have flashed his badge.”

“Brent’s vision.” Evan glanced at Brent, who nodded and then explained to the others.

Seth chuckled. “I imagine that would get people moving. Brent’s ex-FBI, so he can certainly do the ‘fed thing’ believably.”

Brent overheard Seth and flipped him the bird, although his grin softened the response.

“I understand,” Tyler said. “It’s like how people always know if you’re ex-military. It just shows.”

“Was everyone accounted for from the lodge?” Evan asked.

“As far as we could tell.” Tyler seemed to be holding together well, but Evan knew that the real test would come after everyone else had gone home and he had a chance to process what had happened. “Josh and Jennifer were counting heads. I think there were fewer guests than usual, which was a good thing.”

“If Swain intended to do his ritual on the full moon, having a smaller number of potential witnesses was smart,” Evan observed. “It just didn’t quite work out the way he planned.”

They stayed the night in the cabin as if everyone wordlessly agreed that they weren’t ready to part company just yet. Evan thought it was wise to lie low until they knew for certain that no one was looking for them, either from Swain’s team or local law enforcement.

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