Page 21 of Frost Wolf

He’s an okay guy. Karl was in my price range, not some hot, tattooed biker with great hair and incredible muscles who probably was married, gay, had a mistress, and turned into a fucking wolf during the full moon.

Karl leaned against the wall, his beady eyes locked on me.

“Did you find anything out about the bodies?” I asked.

To improve Aly’s mood, I asked Karl if I could tell her about the bodies. He even offered to show her, but she freaked out and said no. Instead, she winked at me when she thought he didn’t see her and offered to check on my patients. God, even Aly thinks Karl is a match for me. And she was right. I’m not a young woman anymore. And Karl is nice.

Well, toilet paper is nice too and useful, but I don’t want to date toilet paper.

“I want to go to the old mill tonight ” Karl said.

“To do what? Aren’t you too old for the parties the kids have there? Isn’t that where the victims were found.”

“Yes. Listen. I need to tell you something but promise you won’t laugh, and you’ll keep it to yourself.”

I made a serious gesture appropriate for a 4th grader—locking my lips with a key and throwing that imaginary key away.

Karl looked around the floor. It was quiet.

It’s a small-town hospital. We normally got appendicitis and simple surgical procedures. I liked that. It was simple, not like the ER in Chicago used to be. People would come to the hospital to get their gallbladders removed, or for minor surgery, and they would leave alive and healthy. No one else was around except Aly, who was probably listening to some podcast in one of the empty rooms.

“I believe the killer was not human,” Karl whispered.

“You already said it was an animal attack.”

“Well, no. Yes. Fuck. I mean…. Yana, you’ll think I’m crazy. I joined a few groups on the Internet where people tell the truth.”

I raised my eyebrows, doing my best to look shocked.

What could I say? I assume I know who killed those guys. He brought me flowers, KFC, and a new kitchen, and I don’t care if he’s guilty because I keep dreaming about him and must wipe off my drool each time I think of him.

I only nodded. “I’ll keep an open mind.”

“Okay, what do you know about the supernatural?”

I pushed a forced laugh.

“You’re shitting me now, Karl. You know I’m a fan of the show, and you are mocking me.’

“Have you ever heard of using a fact and making it look like a lie? Lying by telling the truth? What ifSupernaturaland all the others are just a way to help us prepare for what will come?”

“You don’t believe that.”

“I talked to people who know about werewolves. If there are werewolves out there, I need to find them. I need to hunt them.”

“Are you recording this? Are you trying to prank me?”

Despair sparkled in Karl’s eyes. “I’m going to the Old Mill tonight. And I will find proof. I have silver bullets. It wasn’t easy to find them, but eBay provides if you look hard enough.”

The idea of crazy Karl hunting Soren made my heart stop. I put my hand on Karl’s upper arm. He smiled.

“Take me with you, please,”

“Yana, this will be dangerous.”

“I feel safe with you.” I felt bile rising in my throat as I said that. Honestly, what did I expect?

“I am glad you aren’t laughing at me. I measured the bites. No animal I know of could break a man in half like that. Maybe a lion, but a lion would have other types of teeth marks. These are wolf bites, but the wolves must have been huge, like ponies.”

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