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Cassandra parked Deidre’s vehicle in a narrow shaded alley. Thick dense vines clung to the wooden slat fences on both sides of the alley, making the painted graffiti on the boards barely visible.
The sky was dark and deep with heavy, circulating storm clouds. Even though sunset was an hour or so away, it was as dark as nightfall. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Sparse, but large, raindrops clinked the windshield with such force the glass sounded like it might break any second.
Cassandra’s hands shook. Her stomach turned with nausea. Doug was dead because he had helped her with a simple errand, which made her question Jen’s true motive. It couldn’t just be jealousy. Jen was somehow linked to the conspiracy inside New Horizons, provided it was an actual conspiracy. But what else could it be?
“Alicia,” she whispered. “Where are you?”
Cassandra recalled Doctor Shelby’s gentle smile, the charisma that sweetened his voice, and wondered how such a man like Shelby could inwardly be so evil. How had she been fooled so easily? She knew.
She had allowed mental blinders to shield what she might have seen because she so desperately wanted a baby and truly wanted to believe that good people existed in the world somewhere. After divorcing Doug, who had been a man she never thought would let her down, she heard the gentleness in Shelby’s voice and witnessed the kindness of his demeanor and quickly latched onto her dream-come-true fantasy without hesitation. Focusing on the baby growing inside her allowed her to shunt the pain Doug had dealt by leaving.
Now that Alicia was gone and Doug had been killed, reality burst her dream bubble and exposed all the cracks that had been in the fantasy foundation she had settled her life upon.
She needed to escape Salem, but she refused to leave without Alicia.
Cassandra thought about Officer Parker’s argument with Reece. They were holding someone in the cemetery where the creatures had torn her pursuers to shreds. He was being kept inside the crypt.
The crypt?
In a town where she was alone and in danger, she knew what she had to do. She had to find this man and help him escape. Perhaps, since he knew too much, he might be able to help find Alicia. It was the least she could do, and possibly the only alternative she had left.
Cassandra took the penlight off the key ring and reluctantly left the safety of Deidre’s vehicle and stepped into the alley. Should she encounter Parker or any others pursuing her, she had to flee on foot.
A flash of lightning split the sky, which seemed to have slashed open the clouds and hurled rampaging torrents of raindrops downward. She pulled the hoodie over her head and walked in hurried strides down the alleyway. The hard raindrops were cold, making her shiver to the bone as her clothes captured the rain.
The clouds made the alley darker, made her feel somewhat shielded and hidden, but she’d be more comfortable once sunset passed and the night settled in. Of course, it painted a more horrifying thought of entering the cemetery alone, but she’d face the worst fate in the world if it meant she could save Alicia.
Creeping along back alleys and through the hedgerows, she moved stealthily until she came to the fenced cemetery. The cold rain soaked her. Her teeth chattered. She crossed the fence and with each step sloshed mud onto her sweatpants. Her running shoes sopped up the standing water. She hated when water squished between her toes. Should she be forced to run, the rubbing of her wet shoes and socks against her skin would cause her forming blisters to swell and rupture quicker.
The chill of night edged upon her as she blindly moved through the rows of gravestones. She wondered how she’d find the manor until a bright weaving burst of cloud-to-cloud lightning shimmered overhead, revealing the manor’s location at the highest point in the cemetery. When the lightning ceased, the gloomy clouds swallowed the world around her. Windblown mists skirted across the terrain, and she paused behind a massive gravestone, listening to the sounds around her.
In the darkness and with the surging storm, she’d never know if anyone or those strange creatures approached. She wiped water from her face and then looked across the cemetery, trying to detect any movement. She saw nothing except the solid, cold tombstones.
The last thing Cassandra needed was to run into Officer Parker. With the phony story he had given the media, she held no doubt that he’d kill her without question. He certainly wouldn’t give her the opportunity to surrender into his custody. Crossing his path meant death. She had to avoid him at all cost.
And if she failed to rescue the man inside the manor, her mission to find Alicia was over. She had already outweighed the odds against her by staying in Salem instead of leaving. She would be found eventually, and the streak of bad luck that paved her path meant she was running out of time.
Cassandra moved from gravestone to gravestone after each lightning strike faded. She crept closer to the manor and as best she could tell, she was the only living soul in the cemetery. Finally, after what seemed like hours, she reached the front wall.
Although the cemetery grounds were well kept and mowed, no grounds maintenance had cleared away the thick ivy and weeds that formed a micro-jungle around the aged manor. This seemed more a deterrent than a mere oversight by the owners. The appearance was meant to keep the curious away, and had she not been seeking the only person she hoped could help her, she’d have turned back.
Cassandra slipped her hand around the rusted doorknob, but she couldn’t turn it.
Locked.
Lightning flashed.
She peered through the dark window. All the furniture inside was draped with dusty, white sheets.
Cassandra edged around the building perimeter, looking for another door, and when she reached the one on the backside, she found that door locked also. Frustrated and almost ready to abandon her search, she nearly stumbled, but luckily steadied herself before falling face first through the open cellar door.
Her heart pounded. She knew she had to enter the cellar and didn’t like the idea at all. Even in full daylight, she’d have second thoughts about entering. Before she took a step, she listened for voices or approaching footsteps but heard nothing other than the distant thunder and the sluicing rain that ran off the roof and dug soft gullies in the earth.
Certain no one else was near, she took a deep breath, clicked on the penlight, and stepped down the earthen steps where the world became even darker, but at least she was out of the rain. But she wondered what she had traded the wet misery for.
***
Sheba left her tiny apartment above Officer Parker’s garage. She thought about Mitch and what she had done to him. He had been overly kind to her when they had met at the bus stop, and even though she had wanted to think him to be as sleazy as all the other men she had dated, she knew he wasn’t. His eyes were caring. He had compassion.
“What have I done?” she thought.
The rain slacked. The thunder and lightning was almost gone.
She loved the sweetness of the night air after a good rain.
Barefoot, Sheba sprinted down the sidewalk and wanted to release her human appearance and allow the beast inside its freedom, but she had to withhold that satisfaction. At least for a while. She wanted to see Mitch’s eyes again. Would he really help her?
He had read her well. All the things she resented him for saying were true. He had struck a nerve. She needed to acknowledge that to herself and confess it to him. But, after what she had done, there wasn’t any way she could fathom him wanting to help her now.
Regret for her overly ambitious need to please Alpha she decided she must convince Mitch that she was wrong and needed his help. After all, it was the only way to get Gloria released.
Sheba crossed the cemetery fence and stopped. She sniffed the air and detected the scent of another human. A female.
She immediately thought of the business card Mitch had handed her.
The Kat Gaddis Agency.
“No,” she whispered.
There wasn’t any chance that the people he worked for had reached Salem this quickly. But someone was here, and from the direction the wind blew, that person was near the manor. Sheba’s eyes narrowed, glinted with gold, and she growled as she sprinted across the cemetery. The change was coming whether she wanted it to or not. She couldn’t stop it, but she would kill anyone who tried to take Mitch from the crypt.