Night Terrors: Savage Species, Book 1 by Jonathan Janz Page B

advantage of her, you have my permission to beat him to a pulp. Until then, how about that beer?”
    “Make it two,” Jesse said and followed him to the keg.
     
     
    He was drunk by noon.
    It snuck up on him, the way it always did now that he was no longer a college student. Somewhere between his third and fifth cup of beer, he’d begun to feel a pleasant tingle at the base of his neck. He’d joined Professor Clevenger, who turned out to be a horror movie buff, in a spirited debate about which was the best Evil Dead movie. But when he excused himself to refill his cup, he had to freeze, his arms held aloft, while the entire playground canted like a storm-tossed ship. For one terrible moment he was certain he would vomit all over the sand, and wouldn’t that be a great way to impress Emma? He closed his eyes to stop the world from tilting, and in the distance heard the rumble of thunder. Then, a soothing breeze began to waft over him, the storm front moving in. He opened his eyes to see that the sun had been obscured by an ominous wall of clouds, and though the sky at that moment was overcast, the farther east he gazed the darker the clouds grew.
    Jesse felt a flutter of apprehension. He turned and beheld Ruth, Clevenger’s mousy TA, surveying him from the shadows of the spruce trees. A flicker of anger passed through him, but after a moment he realized it was because he associated this woman with Greeley, the jackass who’d stolen Emma. He forced himself to relax, to not hold Ruth’s association with Greeley against her. Jesse smiled. When she realized he’d noticed her, Ruth straightened, and a hint of color rushed into her pasty face.
    “You must be Professor Clevenger’s assistant,” Jesse said, going over.
    “Ruth Cavanaugh,” she said. With a half-hearted smile, she added, “Sorry about the staring thing. I’m feeling kind of out of it today.”
    Jesse felt large standing next to the girl. He guessed she’d have a hard time breaking a hundred pounds. “Don’t you feel well?”
    “It’s the oddest thing.”
    She hugged herself, massaging the shoulders of her green shirt. Like her long black skirt, it was made from some thick material, which meant the girl should have been roasting in this heat. But Ruth shivered, hugged herself tighter.
    “Hey,” Jesse said, putting a hand on the back of her shoulder. “You okay?”
    At his touch she peered up at him with an odd, penetrating look that, had they not just met, Jesse would have taken for lust.
    Then the reticence bled back into her face. She looked away, said, “I’ve felt strange since last night. I went hiking in the bluffs…” She shook her head, laughed mirthlessly. “Stupid thing to do, I know. Going off by myself like that. But the caves…there were such interesting sounds in there. Such… emotions .”
    Jesse watched her uneasily. “What sort of sounds?”
    “It must have been a bat. Or a bunch of them. One minute I was standing before an immense tunnel. I shined my flashlight down its length, but it seemed to go on and on. Then I became aware of a sound. Then there were many sounds. The next thing I knew the cave was full of strange shapes—huge, monstrous shapes—and then I was lying on my back, this terrible stinging all over my chest.”
    Jesse hesitated. A brief image of the night before tickled uneasily at his memory. The black shape swooping over him by the river…the slow beat of vast wings…
    “Did something attack you?” he asked.
    “I don’t think so,” Emma said. “But I’ve had the most peculiar sensations and… thoughts since then. My dreams last night were full of…I haven’t had dreams like that since I was little.” Her eyes flitted upward. “It was like being a superhero.”
    Jesse waited for the rest of it, but Ruth had fallen silent.
    “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked.
    Her eyes, for the briefest of moments, held a glaze of mockery. Then it was gone. “I’m fine, Jesse. I just need