Dweller on the Threshold by Rinda Elliott Page B

rapidly cooling night air and rested my palm on a light pole. The metal was still warm from the sun and though it hurt my arm, I wrapped both hands around it as if to anchor myself to earth. I stared for a moment up at the full moon—a bright, beautiful beacon of reality in a sooty black sky. Cold pain tightened my chest—a combination of grief, shock and yeah, terror. I’d been tracking the monsters for more than ten years—had started as a teenager—and I’d never, ever, come across anything like what I’d fought in that blood-spattered hallway. I’d never seen so many people slaughtered without hesitation or thought, with such casual disregard.
    And, oh Goddess , I had never stood ankle-deep in ravaged remains with the metallic tang of death clogging my throat.
    The wounds in my arm and leg should have been enough of a reality check, but they burned funny—a creepy sort of scratching fire that felt as if live things were eating into my muscles. Blythe had swiped some towels from the hospital and wrapped my injuries—Elsa’s room still stinking of burned juniper and coriander from her larvae spell. We’d had to move quickly to avoid the cops and media. Neither Nikolos nor I could fade into a crowd easily.
    I needed more than towels. And I really, really hoped that faint smell of cooking flesh wasn’t coming from underneath the terrycloth.
    My stomach roiled as I looked at Nikolos, who stood quietly to my right next to Blythe, watching me. “I can’t believe they come through the bodies.”
    He nodded slowly, loose strands of silky midnight hair falling over his eyes. Something in that penetrating stare told me to get used to the knowledge—that I could do nothing to stop it. That unless I figured this out pretty damned quickly, Elsa would suffer the same fate.
      “No fucking demon is coming through my sister.” I snarled the words, fury forming a solid knot in my throat as I dropped my hands from the pole.
    “Then we have to move fast. Find the host.”
    “The host?”
      Another newspaper van swept past and screeched to a stop behind me. I glanced back to find the photographer already jumping out and clicking away at the panicked crowd milling outside the hospital.
    “Great. More vultures.”
    Nikolos touched my shoulder. “We need to leave.”
    I pulled out my cell phone and called Jed as we ran toward my Jeep. It rang only once before he barked into the phone.
    “What the hell happened and why did you leave before I got here?”
    I spotted yet another news vehicle and ducked between a couple of big Excursions. I hated trying to see around the things while driving, but they made a decent enough hiding place. Cradling the phone close, I held my palm up to keep Nikolos and Blythe from moving. “I’m trying to find out what’s going on and I can’t afford to get tied up with reporters. Or worse, cops. Sorry. But I need you to do something for me. Watch her, Jed.”
    “Why?”
      I could hear a cacophony of angry and panicked voices in the background. Somewhere in that noise, a child sobbed. The backs of my eyes burned. “I don’t have all the answers myself either.” I met Nikolos’s gaze. “But I’ll have them soon.”
    “There are some pretty wild stories circulating in here, Beri. Monsters and super-strong warriors—that kind of ridiculous shit.”
    Nikolos turned to look around the back of the Excursion. He nodded and I moved ahead again. “You’re a cop, Jed. You know that monsters really do exist.” We reached the Jeep and Blythe tapped on my arm. “Hold on a sec.”
      I put my hand over the phone and lifted an eyebrow.
    Blythe wore the hospital slaughter on her face like a neon banner. Mascara-tinged tear-tracks stood out on her too-pale cheeks and she kept blinking and staring into space, shock turning her big, blue eyes into pools of shimmering grief. She hadn’t taken the news of the female doctor’s death well. For that matter, neither had I. But I had more experience