Page 14 of Corbin
Had they heard her? Doubtful.
Staying out here would draw unwanted attention. She whispered, “I’m coming in. I’m a ...friend. Okay?”
Silence. What if she had arrived too late?
Using her shirt, she turned the handle on the door and pushed it slowly open. A heavier dose of foul smells bloomed inside. At this point, she had to deal with it. She didn’t want her fingers around her face again until she could scald the grime off them.
Stepping inside, she glanced around the half-dark room piled with rusted cans, a gross mattress, a rusty five-gallon metal bucket, one broken chair lying on its side, and eight banged-up boxes of clothes that would be better off burned than washed.Across the room, a door hung half open on what could be a bathroom.
It was black as night in there and silent.
The shifter scent had grown stronger in this room and was still fresh, but the owner of that smell might have recently left.
She closed the hallway door behind her. Had Lauren struck out on her own?
That would be dangerous for her and others.
A dirty window with broken panes allowed twilight to cast gray shadows across the room. Walls had been ripped away from the upright supports exposing electrical and plumbing.
On closer inspection, the drywall destruction appeared to have happened recently. Every piece she took in had a white chalky edge with no dust or dirt accumulation. Deep claw marks raked three feet down one still-standing section.
Had Lauren ...
A movement drew her around to face a crazed woman emerging from the dark room. Taller than Eirene and cadaver-thin, she walked like a zombie with dead eyes, coming at her with a broken chair leg she wielded like a stake.
Eirene held up her hands and whisper-shouted, “Stop!I’m here to help.”
If that was Lauren, her jaw moved with tight muscles. Her words came out raspy. “No more drugs! No more, you devil!” She swung to hit Eirene with the thick stick.
Drugs?Why hadn’t she been told about drugs?
Eirene dodged the strike and kept her hands up, hoping not to harm this woman. Lauren possessed shifter strength, and drugs could amplify that even for someone skinny and sick. Backing around the room and trying to stay out of striking range, Eirene stumbled over garbage.
The bony shifter snarled and jumped up on the five-gallon can as if to get a higher advantage, but the can wobbled, throwing her off-balance.
“Please stop, Lauren. Let’s talk. I’m here to help you.”
Lauren waved her arms in a frantic attempt to not fall. Her eyes were two tiny black dots. She was out of her mind. Catching her balance, she pulled the broken chair leg above her head in a motion to drive the sharp end forward as she lunged.
Thanks to years of dance lessons and her shifter speed, Eirene sidestepped smoothly.
Lauren landed on the floor, hit her knee, stumbled forward to half stand, then listed sideways. She grabbed at air to stop her fall.
Eirene waited to see if that was it or if she’d gain a second wind to attack again.
Lauren stumbled around, holding the stick in a clenched fist and howling like an animal in pain until she finally fell against the damaged wall.
“Shhhh!” Eirene caught her as she slid to the floor. She yanked the wood out of Lauren’s now loose grip and tossed it aside. “Listen to me. Please, Lauren. I’m a good person. I won’t harm you.”
Poor Lauren was too far gone to hear her. She grabbed her head. “Stop it. Stop. Stop. Stop killing me.” Her raw voice turned into a pleading squeak.
Eirene would help any female shifter she could, but she knew nothing about drugs other than the monsters who experimented on shifters. She’d heard those stories. Bending her knees, she dropped all the way down, ignoring what she sat on to hold Lauren against her. She no longer noticed the odors, only the woman shaking hard in her arms.
Lauren suddenly gripped her arm and lifted her head to look at Eirene with shocked eyes. “You’re not ... you’re nothim.”
“No, I’m not.” She didn’t need to know the name of the man who had put this pitiful shifter through hell. Not yet. She’d find out in due time.
Lauren’s lip trembled. Eyes drawn deep into the sockets, she looked much older than twenty-one. Her scrawny body tried to rock back and forth. “Save me. They’ll catch me again. I can’t go back.”
