go anywhere alone in downtown Chicago, especially after dark.
As she entered the parking garage, she let out the breath she’d been holding and laughed. All that worry for nothing. She climbed the stairs to the second level and there, in the middle of the empty bay, stood her car, a shiny, creamy, pearl-white Audi, the heated leather seats beckoning to her.
As she dug in her purse for her keys, she heard it again. This time louder. The deep rumble of an animal’s growl sent shivers coursing down her spine.
It sounded as though it was coming from her car.
The growl burst into a roar, echoing off the concrete walls of the garage, so real and frightening she screamed and dropped her purse, keys and all, and ran back toward the stairs.
“No,” she cried, her heart in her throat, her breath catching on a sob. “No.”
Although hampered by high heels, she made it all the way to the bottom. As she turned toward the street, fifty feet away and still busy with traffic, something big and heavy slammed into her back, knocking her facedown on the concrete.
Too far from the traffic to be seen, she lay pinned beneath the weight of an animal, its heated breath sniffing at the back of her neck.
She whimpered, struggling to crawl from beneath it, her heart racing, her hands scuffed and bleeding. “Please...”
The creature’s nose nuzzled the line of her throat, then a long, hot, wet tongue snaked out and licked her skin.
She screamed, renewing her frantic fight to free herself from the faceless beast.
The animal roared again and sank its teeth into the back of her neck, shaking her viciously.
Her arms and legs went numb and she couldn’t move any part of her body, but her thoughts were clear and frightened beyond comprehension.
The creature dragged her from the garage into the shadows of an alley, pavement scraping her face. He stopped behind a stack of bound cardboard, dropped her to the ground and roared, the sound reverberating off the walls.
“Please...don’t kill me.”
* * *
Selene Chattox jerked awake, drenched in sweat, her heart racing.
Please...don’t kill me.
She snatched her cell phone from the nightstand and speed-dialed her sister, Deme.
“Yeah...what...who is this?” A loud banging noise was followed by a muttered curse. “Sorry, I dropped my phone. Selene? What’s wrong?” Her voice was hoarse, filled with the gravel of sleep.
“She’s dying.”
“Who’s dying?” All raspiness cleared, Deme’s words were clear and clipped.
“I don’t know.”
“Can you tell where?”
“In an alley.”
“Can you be more specific? Do you see anything else, a street sign, a building name, something?”
Selene inhaled, closed her eyes and let her mind drift back into the dream. Her cheek stung where the pavement had scraped against her skin in the nightmare—blessedly, the rest of her body felt no pain. Hot breath snorted down on her neck and Selene jerked out of the vision, her hand shaking so hard she could barely hold the cell phone to her ear. “I smelled water. She was in a parking garage, leaving the theater, when she was attacked. It dragged her into a nearby alley.”
“A theater near water...” Deme spoke to someone on the other end. “River or lake?”
“River.”
“The Civic Opera House on Wacker Drive?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m coming over. Cal’s calling Lieutenant Warner. We’ll have someone there in minutes.”
“Hurry,” Selene whispered. “It’s going to kill her.”
* * *
Wind blasted down the back alley as Gryphon Leone emerged from the Civic Opera House, wrapping his long cloak around him. The chill of fall had settled in far sooner than he’d expected. He sniffed the air, his keen sense of smell picking up on the delicate nuances of coming rain and the dampness of the river.
He’d waited until the other theatergoers had departed before leaving the shadows of his box. He arrived early and left late, valuing his anonymity and privacy. The fewer people he encountered, the better. Despite years of exercising his control, he didn’t trust himself with the people of the light and didn’t put himself in too many situations that required him to remain in the public eye for long.
With the rise of his business and philanthropic ventures, he feared his anonymity would soon be a blessing of the past.
He hurried toward the street, determined to return to his apartment at the base of his office building, a haven beneath the surface of the oldest part of downtown Chicago, before the rain came.
The scent captured him, bringing him to a sudden halt. He lifted his nose to the air, a low rumble rising in his throat.
Blood. Fresh blood and animal musk.
His apartment, and the need to return before the rain, slipped through his thoughts, forgotten as his inner animal pushed to the surface.
Gryph fought back, breathing deeply in and out until the growling abated and all that was left was the scent—blood, tantalizingly fresh, tainted by the musk of another animal and the accompanying stench of fear.
He wanted to turn and walk away, but he couldn’t, his feet moving of their own accord, closer to the source. Rounding a corner, he spied a parking garage and something dark staining the sidewalk near the stairs leading up.
The stain spread like someone had taken a large paintbrush and dragged it along the walkway, until the paint ran out at the entrance to an alley.
Go home. Return to your apartment. Don’t get involved.
Balthazar’s words echoed in his head, the old man’s warnings etched firmly in Gryph’s brain since as far back as he could remember.
Still, the trail begged to be followed. He’d go as far as the entrance to the alley, no farther.
Gryph crossed the street, keeping out of the inky liquid staining the concrete, and worked his way quietly to the entrance to the alley.
As he stepped into the opening, a bellow blasted against the brick walls, followed by a woman’s scream.
A huge shadow rose up from behind a stack of wooden pallets, the shape that of a giant wolf, rearing back on his hind legs.
Gryph’s beast exploded from inside, answering with a deeper, more ferocious roar, thundering into the alley, echoing against the brick walls. His skin and bones moved, spread and stretched as his physical form altered, expanding,
