Page 81 of Misfit Monsters
Raze frowns. “It looks likehis house did get attacked.”
He marches ahead of me and sniffs the area with a flick of his basilisk tongue. The shake of his head reveals his disappointment. “It was too long ago for the scent to linger. At least a few days.”
I swallow thickly. “Maybe the creatures didn’t come back after he told people in town about it.”
But where is Ted McGaffery himself?
I venture into the backyard. A chicken coop stands next to a fenced area where the birds must have been allowed to wander, but there’s nothing except scattered feathers on the grass now.
When I get closer, splotches of dark red stand out against the scuffed earth.
I hesitate. “I think whatever came through here, they ate his chickens.”
R.I.P., birdies.
Raze comes up beside me with a hint of a snarl. He motions to the patchy lawn next to the chicken coop. “They tore up the yard too.”
More clawed spots rake the soil between the patches of grass. I can’t restrain a shiver. These creatures had a major beef with the entire property.
Mirage and Jonah come around the other side of the house to join us. I point out the signs we’ve noticed.
Jonah’s eyes darken. “We don’t know for sure that shadowkind creatures did that.”
Mirage cocks his head. “Are there any mortal creatures that would try to tear down a house?”
Our team leader grimaces. “Not that I can think of.”
Hail steps out from between the trees, his gorgeous face unusually grim. “Some of the tree trunks near here have been battered with claws and maybe spikes. It doesn’t look natural to me.”
Jonah exhales in a rush. “We have to be careful, considering how the creatures came at us the last time we encountered them. Raze, can you make a wider circuit through the woods and see if you pick up any fresh scents? Shout if you get any indication that shadowkind might be nearby. The rest of us will take a look inside the house.”
Raze is the only one he trusts to be able to defend himself if there’s a sudden attack. I can’t argue with Jonah’s judgment, even if my heart gives a little squeeze watching the man I’ve come to adore lope off into the woods alone.
I follow the others into the unlocked house.
We wipe our shoes on the doormat and pad carefully through the rooms. Ted keeps his home tidy—a magazine lies on the living-room coffee table and a mug sits by the kitchen sink, but just about everything is in its place. Upstairs, his bed is made and his clothes hang neatly in the closet.
No monsters rampaged through here. I rub my arms against my rising apprehension. “It doesn’t look like there was a struggle.”
Hail scowls. “A human wouldn’t live out in the wilderness just to spend all his time inside his house. He must go out regularly. Maybe he’s taking a hike.”
But all kinds of things could happen to a human strolling around in the forest, even if there weren’t disturbed shadowkind roving around.
Raze’s gruff voice carries through the bedroom window. “Team! I’ve got something.”
He doesn’t sound worried, but I hustle out into the yard as quickly as my twinging feet will take me. Another holler brings us tramping through the woods east of the house.
Raze backtracks until he comes into view and waves for us to follow him. “I caught one fresher trail. Something passed by here earlier this morning—another of those strangeshadowkind scents.” He pauses. “Should we see where the creature went or where it came from?”
“Where it came from,” Jonah says immediately. “That’s what matters the most. And that’s the trail that’ll fade sooner.”
I smile more to raise everyone’s spirits than because I feel particularly upbeat. “That makes sense to me. Let’s get this mystery unraveled!”
As we set off through the forest, no one else helps break the silence. Raze sets as swift a pace as Jonah can keep up with on his human legs, and pretty soon I need to slip into the shadows so I can keep up.
Mirage is still bounding through the underbrush in the physical world, but Hail has shifted into his most ephemeral form too. I sense him through the darkness, his presence like a slightly brittle chill.
Despite my earlier resolve not to push the subject, I veer closer to him. There has to be some way to give last night’s conversation a better ending.
