Page 36 of Half Dead

“Is he going to perform ballet?” Cam asked.

He released a primal scream.

“Rock opera,” Cam amended.

“This can’t be good,” Gun murmured.

“What’s wrong with Lou?” someone asked.

“I didn’t realize he was a hunter,” another voice chimed in.

I was glad the chief and Officer Leo were gone because this guy was out of their league. I pushed through the gathering crowd to deal with him before anybody got hurt.

“Hey, Lou. I’m Lorelei. You doing okay, buddy?” I tried to catch his eye, but he kept jerking his head from side to side, as though in search of something or someone who wasn’t me.

“He’s already wild,” Gun said behind me. “What’s your plan? Inflict madness to see if it counteracts the natural insanity?”

“I’ve got an idea.” Camryn produced a tarot card from her sleeve and flicked the card at Lou; it skimmed his cheek and fluttered to the floor.

“Oops,” Cam said with a sheepish smile.

Despite the bad aim, Lou succumbed to the card’s magic and tipped forward, falling flat on his face.

“Does anybody have the number for Lou’s wife?” a voice shouted.

Gun clapped his cousin’s shoulder. “Well done. You saved a dive bar full of drunks.”

“I’m bummed Leo wasn’t here to see this.”

“Once in a blue moon, it’s okay to do something because it’s right and not because a hot guy might witness it.”

“This can’t be a coincidence,” I said.

Gun’s gaze flicked to me. “What do you mean?”

“The chief said someone else without a history of mental illness freaked out recently and was taken to a psychiatric hospital.”

“We don’t know that Lou doesn’t have a history of mental illness,” Camryn said.

“Lou’s a surgeon in the city,” a man said, as he passed by on his way to the exit.

An uneasy feeling inchwormed down my spine. “I need to talk to West.” The werewolf alpha would know what, if anything, had come through the crossroads recently. Maybe a creature came through that was misidentified or deemed harmless.

“It’s late,” Cam said.

“He’ll be awake.”

“No, I mean why not call him?”

I thought of Birdie’s comment about not trusting phonesat a time like this. “These conversations are best had in person.”

I was out the door and into the forest before they could insist on joining me. West wouldn’t take kindly to three of us showing up unannounced in the middle of the night. One of me was risky enough.

The forest was eerily silent as I traipsed through the woods. The moon was bright, albeit not quite full. The stars winked at me as though we were complicit in a secret. Like Chief Garcia, maybe they believed I was responsible for the wave of madness in Fairhaven.

The Arrowhead trailer park was quiet except for the occasional rustle of leaves and scampering of tiny feet. Light blazed in the window of West’s trailer. I loved it when my instincts were right.

I knocked gently on the door and followed up with a text to let him know it was me. I heard the sound of movement inside, and a minute later, the door opened a crack. West’s brown hair was rumpled and his chest bare. A pair of boxer shorts were his only item of clothing. I knew West was ripped, but damn.

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