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Carson moved them to Wicked River, Alabama, nearly two years
ago to be closer to his family. Ryah had still yet to meet a one of
them. She had never even heard of the place and doubted it existed on
any map.
The residents of the small, sleepy town had seemed like a strange
lot. Within the first few months of working at the diner, she noticed
people were a lot more active after dark. Most customers ordered their
steaks rare. Gross, but not concrete evidence of anything amiss within
the city limits.
She also noticed people seemed to sniff a lot. They sniffed at
everything their food, themselves, each other, the air. They growled
when they were angry. Not the normal human sounds of agitation, but
low, feral sounds straight from Animal Planet.
Strange stories about the little creek south of town that shared its
name with the community circulated through the restaurant.
Supposedly, the stream ran red on the full moon, the water tainted in
blood. Ryah shivered at the image. She had yet to see it, never
venturing anywhere other than home or the diner, so she couldn t
confirm the legend.
The strangest thing had to be the wolf population. She had even
seen them roaming the shadows of the city during the nighttime.
While not overly educated, even she realized how odd it seemed for
so many different breeds to live within the same area. She had seen
gray, red, tan, silver, and black since her arrival. On the nights of the
full moon, the animal population seemed to double, while the humans
of Wicked River were all but nonexistent.
Asinine thoughts of sentient monsters chased themselves around
her overworked brain. An image of a huge black wolf with menacing
yellow eyes flashed behind her closed eyelids. The wolf stared back at
her, baring his fangs, saliva dripping from his snarling lips.
Ryah squeezed her eyes tighter, trying to hold on to the image, to
Keeper of the Light 47
follow the thread of remembrance back to its origin. Moving from the
creature s face, she travelled along its furry chest to the massive paws
resting on the faded and cracked yellow planks of&
Her eyes flew open, and she gasped aloud. The wolf crouched on
the porch where moments before her husband had stood, screaming
obscenities at her. Then with a loud yell that turned into a spine
tingling howl, his body had begun to melt and reform, the bones
crunching, and sick popping noises emanated from him as he
changed.
Ryah had screamed over and over until her throat became raw and
her voice died away into a hoarse cry. Then she had fainted.
Jumping down from her seat, she paced the tiny room, her hands
fisted in her hair. When she d awoken alone on the sofa that night,
she d naturally assumed she had dreamed the entire thing.  Carson,
Damon, Tate, Midge. She ticked them off aloud as she continued to
walk in circles. It followed logically Midge s partners, James and
Lydia, were shifters as well.
How had she not put the pieces together before? Perhaps she was
the only human in town. Now, she just had to figure out how she felt
about the knowledge. She believed in aliens, ghosts, poltergeists,
voodoo, and alternate planes of existence. She believed in God, Satan,
Heaven, Hell, and angels. So, why not demons? Why did she have so
much trouble wrapping her mind around vampires and lycans?
48 Gabrielle Evans
Chapter Six
Tate stomped about the house, snarling and grumbling.  Why
can t we go get her?
Damon groaned inwardly.  Put yourself in her place. Her entire
world has been turned upside down. Give her some time to work
through it. She s a smart, open-minded girl. She ll be back.
 It s been a fucking week! Tate came to a stop and glared.  So,
she s okay with Midge being a Gavolot, but not us? How is that
reasonable or fair, let alone make any sense?
 Midge is a little less intimidating than we are, love. Not to
mention, she didn t actually shift in front of Ryah. Seeing is
believing. It s a lot easier to pretend none of this is real when you
don t have a wolf staring you in the face.
 I want to see her, his mate answered flatly.
 Midge is watching after her. We can t make her accept us, Tate.
Tate looked as though he would argue, but his ringing cell phone
interrupted him. He dug it out of his pocket and stared at the display
in shock and excitement.  Hello? Ryah, honey, is that you?
Damon jumped up from his seat on the sofa and hurried over to
mate. He pressed his head close to Tate s, frowning at their zeta s
panicked whisper.
 Tate. Please, come. There s someone something, I don t
know just please come! Her voice rose until she practically shouted
the last word.
 Where are you, baby? Damon asked loudly.
 In the little apartment over the diner. Shit! Damon heard the
loud thump come over the line.  Hurry, please hurry!
Keeper of the Light 49
 Lock the door and hide, Tate said.  We re coming. Just hold on,
baby. We re coming.
* * * *
Ryah huddled inside the closet, trembling right down to her toes. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]