Page 45 of Winter’s Teeth

Chapter 21

With freezing cold acid racing through my veins, I turned and fled. I ran like something was after me. I ran like my ankle didn’t hurt. Like something was nipping at my heels and about to drag me back into the dark forest.

Bile burned in the back of my throat, vomit threatening to overcome me, despite my empty stomach. The back door of the cabin was closest, so I aimed for it, thinking I could throw up in the kitchen, then tell my friends what happened.

We had to get out of here.

We had to flee.

We had to call in the army or a SWAT team or something!

Turning the corner and reaching for the stair handle to propel me up to the cabin door faster, I crashed into someone solid, tall, and smelling comfortingly familiar, like pine and ice.

A tray of hot food clattered to the ground and splattered up one side of my pant leg.

Fox cursed. “There goes dinner... What the hell are you doing out—”

I crumpled against his chest, tears wracking my aching body.

He stiffened, but his arm slid instinctively around me. “What happened?” Concern edged his words, and I buried deeper against his chest to escape the horrifying images still swirling around at the forefront of my mind in shades of blood reds and bruised purples.

“Rae...” He kept his arm around me, and choosing to abandon dinner in the snow, he ushered me up the stairs and inside.

After setting me on the stool at the counter so I didn’t fall over, he turned away to lock the door and pull the curtains shut. Then he flicked on the overhead lights and grabbed my hands to rub warmth back into them. Calluses scraped against my knuckles, making me shiver with strange comfort.

“What is it? What did you see?”

I hiccupped and fought for the words through a burning throat. “They—Troopers—We called them after—The attack today—And I—Dead! Fox, they’re dead!”

Not just dead. Brutalized and mutilated.

I didn’t want to think how long they’d been alive for it, but at the very least, I hadn’t heard screams coming from the woods. My only comfort was that it might have been quick for them.

Fox’s brows pinched, eyes widening. “You called for help after something attacked you today?”

I nodded.

“And the help that came today... You just saw them dead?”

I nodded again, a whimper eking out of me.

Fox let out a heavy exhale, shaking his head as his black waves bobbed over his forehead. “This isn’t good, Rae. You and your friends need to get out of here. Get in your cars and drive home. Don’t come back. Don’t send anyone else. Please...”

He was stern, but his added manners sounded strained and desperate. Like he really didn’t want anything bad to happen to us. Like his stubbornness all along had been for my own good.

“But my sister...”

“You need to give up on that.”

“No!” I shoved him away and toppled off the barstool. Balling my shaking hands into fists at my sides, I screeched again, “No! I’m not leaving! I’m not giving up on her!”

Fox raked his hands through his hair, only for it to flop right back into place framing his forehead. “You’re really not giving me a choice here, are you?”

There was the slightest concession in his tone, like he was finally ready for something. Finally ready to let me have my way.

“No.” I stared at him hard and sure.

Fox sighed. “Fine. I’ll help you.”