RIVER (LOST CREEK SHIFTERS) Read online

  The sounds of howling took off down the street, and within seconds, it had gone quiet.

  Stacey clutched her hand to her chest and slowly slid up the wall, trying to see out of the window without moving her back from it. She could see that the driveway and the rest of the street was empty, and she finally sat up and let her eyes emerge over the top of the windowsill.

  Her trash can was still at the end of the driveway, but it had stopped rolling now. And she could see in the grass and right down the center of the concrete of her drive, large scratch marks. As if some incredible beast had clawed clean through it.

  “Oh my god, what the hell…” she whispered.

  Her eyes were wide, and she didn’t know what to think. Something had been out there… something had been up on her roof. And then something had chased it away.

  She had never heard noises like it before, and when she looked down at her hands, they were shaking. She reached up, without standing, and grabbed at the cord for the blinds and pulled it sharply so they came down with a crash.

  There was no way she was going to be going outside to get her trashcan. It could stay exactly where it was!

  She heard the sound of sizzling and then her smoke alarm started to blare through from the kitchen. When she looked up, she could see that the pan on the stove was overflowing and smoke was billowing up into the air as it singed away on the hot rings.

  “Oh, for fucks sake!” she wailed as she scrabbled along the floor on her hands and knees and tried to get into the kitchen without standing up. She didn’t know if anyone or anything was still out there, and the blinds in her kitchen were still wide open.

  She turned off the stove and pulled the pan off the ring, before she dove toward the windows and closed the blinds. Her heart was hammering on in her chest and she felt genuinely unnerved.

  “Should I call the police?” she asked herself.

  Her heart was showing no signs of slowing down, and now that she was up and back in the kitchen, she knew she still felt afraid.

  In fact, she was terrified.

  She ran over to the phone that was attached to the wall and pulled the receiver free. She dialed 911 and held it up to her ear.

  When the operator answered and asked her what was her emergency, she was still out of breath and didn’t know if she could speak properly without bursting into tears.

  “Send the police,” she said with a gasp. “I think I’ve just had a person on my roof, and some kind of animal, maybe a dog or a wolf has chased it away.”

  The operator went silent for a moment and then she heard her request a dispatch.

  Stacey sighed as she leaned against the wall and held her hand up to her heart so she could feel it beating. She had never known terror like it before, and in her own home too!

  “Officers are on their way,” the operator told her. “In the meantime, secure your home and don’t leave.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “I am not going anywhere!”

  She stayed on the line with the operator until the blue and red flashes from a cop car came shining through the sides of the blinds. She hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.

  She was safe.

  They had come for her.

  As she ran to the door, unlocked it and threw it open, she saw the look of shock on their faces too as they shone their torches down at the intense and massive claw marks that were deeply grooved into her lawn and driveway.

  “What the hell?” one of the cops said as he flashed his flashlight up the side of the cabin and toward the roof. “What on earth has been going on here?”

  Stacey sank down to her knees in the doorway and started to cry. She was so afraid; her emotions were finally taking her over.

  “I don’t know,” she gasped as a police officer came to stand beside her and helped her back to her feet.

  One helped her back inside, and the other went around the property with a flashlight and his gun raised, looking up at the roof and in all the forest land behind the cabin.

  Stacey sat on her couch and felt her legs trembling. She had no idea what on earth had happened, but her intuition was kicking in, and she felt as if she just knew it had something to do with what River, Esme, and Zeke had all been alluding to.

  They had told her that town wasn’t safe. They had told her to stay away from the bar. Esme, Zeke, and their newborn son were in hiding, and now something had been on the roof of Stacey’s house.

  She knew it wasn’t just a wild animal.

  There had been two things up there, and one of them had sounded like a screaming banshee.

  An evil entity sent straight up from hell.

  She shuddered again.

  She didn’t feel safe, and she knew there was no way she was going to be able to sleep there alone, but she had no one to turn to. She couldn’t call Esme and take trouble to her door, and she didn’t have any family she could run to and take safety with.

  She thought of River.

  She bit her lip and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to warm herself up and calm herself down at the same time.

  She wanted to call him. She certainly knew that if she did, she would feel safe.

  The police officer came back to the front door and shook his head.

  “I’ve checked over the entire property and back down toward the woodland,” he said breathlessly. “I can’t see anything out there, and there are no tracks.”

  Stacey felt the tears prick her eyes again, and as she sat on the couch, she brought her knees up to her chin. She wrapped her arms around them and hugged herself into a tight little ball.

  “What else can you do?” she asked quietly, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to get the answer she wanted.

  “Well,” one of the cops sighed. “Not a whole lot… there isn’t anybody here.”

  “But someone was,” Stacey said as she looked up and locked eyes with him. “Someone was here. And look at those markings on the driveway and on the lawn. None of that looks normal to me! Does it to you?”

  The police officer shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, he sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Do you have anyone you can call?” he asked her hopefully.

  Stacey rubbed her forehead and knew she didn’t have any other option. She didn’t want to appear as if she was needy, but she knew the only person she was going to feel safe with was the one she was supposed to be going on a date with in less than twenty-four hours.

  “Why don’t you come down to the station with us and have someone pick you up from there?” the second officer asked.

  Stacey looked at them both and wished there was more they could do, but she knew they weren’t going to give her anything. She nodded her head and rose to her feet.

  “We’ll secure the premises before we leave,” the first officer said. “And we can get someone over here in the morning to take another look at those marks. But the likelihood is that it was a wolf or a bear. We have a lot of animals out here on this mountain. I mean, don’t tell me you’ve never noticed?” he half-laughed, but Stacey just stared at him blankly. She knew it wasn’t just an animal. Something else had been out there that night. Something dark and dangerous.

  She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She just wanted to get the hell out of there and as far away from the memory as possible.

  She went upstairs and packed an overnight bag, and she slung it over her shoulder as she jogged back down her stairs and grabbed her keys. She ran out the front door and waited while the cops locked it for her and then they showed her the way to their car.

  She slid into the back and looked back at her idyllic little home that suddenly felt completely alien to her. She didn’t know how she was ever going to go back there again and be able to rest properly. It had frightened her so much, she just knew something bad had happened.

  She turned and looked back at the house over her shoulder as the cops pulled the car away and down to the end of the street, as they turned th
e corner and it began to disappear, she choked back tears again.

  She had never felt more vulnerable or more in need.

  And she knew there was only one person who could make it all right.

  At the station, the cops led her into a room and got a cup of coffee and a blanket. She sat there with it wrapped around her shoulders in the reception area, and she tried not to let her legs shake too much as she remembered what had happened.

  She seemed to recognize everyone who worked in there. Another one of the perils of living in a small town. She reached up and waved to the girl sitting at the welcome desk and then she sipped her drink.

  She had texted River.

  She knew he was working but she didn’t want to call and let her voice break on the phone to him. She just needed his advice, and she also needed to know what the hell was going on. There was only so much she could take. He had told her something was happening, and now she couldn’t ignore it any longer. She was going to have to know what was going on around town, and why her best friend was hiding away with a baby on the mountain.

  She drank her coffee and waited as the time ticked by.

  She looked up and saw that it was just past midnight and she wondered how busy the bar was. She would give anything to just be working instead of sitting there in the police station. She would love to be pouring drinks and making small talk with customers. The last thing she ever thought she would be doing when she had been given some time off was spending it freaked out and terrified in the Lost Creek Police Department.

  She heard the sound of footsteps running toward the doorway, and when she looked up and saw River come bursting through the door, he was out of breath and muddied.

  “Stacey,” he gasped as he came toward her.

  She got to her feet and the blanket fell from the shoulders. River rushed toward her and put his arm around her and looked at her deep in the eyes.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  She nodded and looked at him. His hands were filthy, and his nails were raggy and ripped. She swallowed hard and her heart beat faster.

  “What happened to you?” she asked him.

  He had a gash on the side of his temple and he shook his head as if he were silently pleading her to be quiet.

  She nodded her head and reached down for her overnight bag, and then River motioned toward the doorway and began to leave and head toward it. Stacey looked at the girl on reception and walked over to her cautiously.

  “Umm, my ride is here so I’m going to go,” she said nervously. “Shall I just call in the morning, or will the officers call me?”

  The girl was chewing gum and couldn’t have looked much more disinterested.

  “Erm, you call us, yeah?” she said as she popped a bubble and smiled sweetly.

  Stacey nodded her head and turned on her heel, and then she fled from the police department and went out into the parking lot to look for River.

  She saw him leaning up against the wall, smoking a cigarette and watching her with flickering, intense blue eyes.

  “What’s going on?” she asked him sternly as he took a step toward her and held out his hand.

  “Come with me,” he said. “And I’ll tell you everything.”

  The look in his eyes was sincere, and she knew she could trust him. So, she let her palm slip into his, and she let him pull her away from the police station and out into the night.

  8.

  They sat together on a bench in Middle Park, looking up at the bright, twinkling stars in the sky and huddling together for warmth.

  River’s hands were cut and bloodied, and she could see that the mud was cracking on his knuckles and that blood was seeping out from between the gaps. She swallowed hard, she had never liked the sight of blood, and this was something else.

  She could tell he had been hurt, but he was holding it all in.

  “Do you know what happened?” she asked him cautiously. “Do you know why I called for you and why I was with the police?”

  River hesitated for a moment, but then he slowly nodded his head and looked into her eyes.

  “What is going on?” she asked him again. “You can’t push me off this time. You can’t tell me half a story. You can’t just say to me, oh guess what there’s a bit of trouble and you may be one of the people in danger, but then neglect to fill me in on the rest. I know what happened tonight had something to do with whatever is going on, and I’m not prepared to be just cast aside as if I don’t need to know. I clearly need to know! I could have been attacked tonight!”

  River reached out and took her hand in his.

  “You’ll never be attacked,” he said sincerely. “Not while I’m around.”

  His eyes were so crystal blue she was sure the stars were reflecting in them. Every time she looked into them, she felt herself falling deeper and deeper.

  “What’s going on…” she whispered.

  River took one last drag on his smoke before he threw it on the ground and twisted his huge boot on top of it to put it out.

  “Come on,” he said. “Come and stay with me. It’s safe there.”

  She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. This was a man she had known for what could easily have been her whole life, but she had the feeling there was a big secret he was hiding. It was as if he had never told her one part of him, and she was on the verge of discovering why.

  “Tell me now,” she said to him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I want to know what I’m dealing with here.”

  River smiled at her cheekily, he clearly liked it when she gave him a bit of sass, and it made her smile too.

  “You’ve never heard about any of the history or legends that roam around town?” he asked her. “You’ve never heard anything about the wolves and the bears?”

  “Well, of course, I have,” she laughed. “There’s so many weird stories that have been going around this place for decades, but I’ve never actually listened to any of them.”

  “And what have you heard?” he asked her, as he held her gaze.

  Esme shrugged and tried to remember.

  “Just that our mountain has some crazy bear and wolf problem,” she laughed. “That they’re bigger than average. That they scare the shit out of people. It was the kind of story we were told in kindergarten to keep us safe. You know, oh don’t wander up onto the mountain or into the forest alone, there are wild wolves and bears in there and they eat little children like you…” she half laughed. “You know, like a fairy tale almost, a story to instill fear so we’re kept safe.”

  River nodded his head.

  “But what if it wasn’t just a story?” he asked her. “What if there was truth in it?”

  Stacey shrugged her shoulders.

  “Well, I know there is some truth in it,” she said. “I mean, come on, I have ears, I hear the wolves howling at night.”

  River nodded again. He turned his body to face her more and he looked sternly into her eyes.

  “The wolves,” he said in a hushed tone. “They’re not just ordinary wolves.”

  She searched his face for more, but he seemed to be holding back. As if he were afraid to tell her any more.

  “And?” she asked him sternly.

  “This town, it was built on something no one understands,” he said. “And we are all a part of it, whether we know we are or not.”

  Stacey felt her skin prickle again, but she didn’t know whether it was from anxiety or impatience. She felt as if she were trying to drag blood out of a stone.

  “It was me,” he said. “I was on the roof at your house tonight. I chased away whatever was up there, whatever had enchanted your trashcan and tried to lure you outside.”

  “What?” she asked him, her eyes wide and her heart pounding.

  “Enchanted? To lure me? What the actual fuck?”

  He took hold of her hand and held it tightly, and then he stared into her eyes so deeply, there was no way she could look away.

  “Liste
n to me,” he said. “What I’m about to tell you is going to sound crazy, but you need to let me finish and you need to listen to every word.”

  Stacey nodded her head slowly. She was ready to hear what he had to say, she was sick of being in the dark. She needed to know what was happening to her and her friends.

  “Okay,” he said as he took a deep breath and braced himself to begin. “Do you remember your grandfather?”

  Stacey smiled and cast her mind back. She did have a vague memory of the man she called Gramps, but they were fragmented and faded. He had died when she was very young, and even though her father had tried to keep his memory alive, when he had died, so had her last link to her past and her ancestors.

  “Your grandfather and my grandfather were friends,” he said. “Brothers, in fact.”

  “Brothers?” she asked with confusion.

  “Not by blood,” River said. “But by soul and by magic.”

  She felt her skin tighten again and her anxiety rise.

  “They fought alongside each other in an ancient war between two tribes. The bears and the wolves.” River stopped and swallowed. “It sounds crazy, but your grandfather was a shifter wolf.”

  “A what?” she asked him.

  “You must have heard the legends?” River asked her.

  “About the earlier settlers of the town? The ones that were men but could turn into wolves at night? Sure, of course, I’ve heard about it, but it’s just folklore. It’s just one of those crazy town history stories to make this place seem more interesting…”

  River slowly shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “It’s all true.”

  “True?” she snorted. “How the hell can this be true?”

  “Because it is, and it’s your family history,” he assured her. “Your grandfather and my grandfather, they were both in the same pack. The wolf pack that has been here in town and fought for control of it from the bears for generations.”