Page 92 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

“Will it involve you trying to collect monster parts?” asked Craig.

She beamed. “Yes!”

“Then no,” he replied.

Her smile turned into a frown fast. “It was worth a try.”

Craig’s gaze slid to Jonathan. “I feel like I should put a poster up at the morgue with her picture on it, warning them about her. Maybe even stitch a return label in her clothing so they know to take her back to the Van Helsing estate if they come across her.”

Marcy squealed. “Yes! Warn them that if I don’t get some monster bits, then I can’t see how they’d work in a skin cream. And it’s always nice to be sure someone gets home safely. You’re so sweet and considerate. Thank you.”

“I almost feel bad for Bram right now,” said Craig. “Speaking of which, didn’t I hear that he banned you from being out and about without him?”

Marcy smiled again. “He worries. It’s adorable.”

ChapterTwenty-Eight

Willa

My head was stilla jumbled mess as I tried to stay out of everyone’s way as they discussed recent events that I’d not been part of or privy to. I felt like an outsider and had to admit that the closeness I’d once had with Astria seemed like a distant memory at the moment.

It’s been eighteen years, I reminded myself.

There would be time to catch up later when everything settled. For now, I needed to clear my head and regroup. I headed quietly down the hall toward the kitchen. My plan had been to go outside into the backyard and get some fresh air. I paused as I saw a door that I didn’t remember being there. It was next to the door that led to the basement, an area I used to avoid as much as possible, seeing as how the house had once been a funeral home.

I wracked my brain, trying to remember what had been where the new door was when I lived in the house. Nothing came to mind. In fact, if memory served, there hadn’t been enough wall space there for another door, let alone whatever it led to.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I went to it, opening it slowly, unsure what I might find. A small piece of me worried it might be some sort of demonic portal—or, at the very least, a one-way ticket on a bright white train.

“Been there. Done that,” I said softly with a snort.

Surprise filled me at the sight of what had been behind the mysterious door. It was a staircase. One that led upstairs.

I was a hundred percent sure there hadn’t been a secondary staircase in the home years ago. Had it been there all along, hidden behind a wall? Or had someone added it? If so, why did it look to be original to the house? And if they had the time and money to make a new staircase to match the home, why hadn’t they invested that income in something like a new roof or any number of other issues the old home had?

Giving in to the lure of knowing more, I headed up the stairs, wondering where they would dump out. I found another door and opened it. I was left standing in the upstairs hallway across from the bedroom I’d shared with Mina years ago.

Now I was positive something was off.

Across from the room used to be the door that ledupto the attic, not a staircase that headed down.

“What theTwilight Zoneis happening here?” I asked, only partially joking because my gut said this wasn’t normal. That something paranormal was at play. I just wasn’t sure what that something might be.

The smart choice would have been to hurry back downstairs and stay around people until I had a better idea of what was happening in the home. I’d lived through the unexplainable with it once, eighteen years ago. Did I really want to risk what might happen next? Would it whisk me off to another state or would it be another country? Or worse? Dump me in the bottom of the ocean? Drop me in the bowels of hell?

Apparently, all my years growing up around Mina when she’d lived for the thrill of a hunt had rubbed off on me because I found myself heading right for my old bedroom, to hell with the consequences.

I thrust the door open. My wolf pushed up enough that claws emerged from my fingertips. White fur sprouted on the lower half of my arms and my senses sharpened instantaneously. If something bad or threatening was in the room, I wanted to be ready to deal with it.

The days of me being a victim were long over. I was a badass middle-aged woman who could turn into a wolf. I wasn’t the same scared young woman I’d been years ago. Life had given me internal battle scars and the resolve to take on an army.

I entered only to find the room was empty. Not only that, but it was also exactly as it had been when Mina and I had last been in it. There was no dust, no cobwebs, no signs that anyone had disturbed anything. It was simply frozen in time. As if someone had snapped a photo, forever locking things as they had been.

I went for one of the two small desks in the room. On it was my old, tattered, and annotated copy ofDraculaand the gold pocket watch I’d ended up with after the Detroit incident. I’d thought they were lost to me forever.

A mass of emotions welled in me, spilling out and over me, leaving me breaking down in tears. I covered my mouth, trying to muffle the sound of my sobs as every single emotion I’d been suppressing for years flooded to the surface. I didn’t want Astria or the others to hear me.

My wolf, which was already ready for a fight, jumped at the chance to be free. I lurched back and stared down at my arms. They were completely covered in fur now.

---