Excerpt: Use of Power

It was when they were halfway to the bar that Teri realized something was wrong. Her head was starting to ache, and the night seemed eerily quiet for a neighbourhood near a bar at night. Shivering, she glanced up at Patterson, who looked tense.

"Something's out there. Something bad. Stay close," he hissed without looking at her, picking up his step slightly and shoving his good hand deep into his pocket. Teri matched pace, gesturing behind her to Kelly to move closer to them. The something wrong was coming closer, she could almost hear it now, like a heavy breathing. They moved into a pool of yellow streetlight near the opening to an alley, and that was when she smelled it.

It was the unmistakeable smell of blood. The one that had pervaded the backyard at Patterson's house after the incident. She froze, the horror of that moment coming back to her, and as though hypnotized, turned to look down the alley and walked a few steps down it, as though summoned. That was when she saw the blood as well. The sheer volume of it, spattered across the muddy alley, dripping from the walls and steaming as it poured down into the snow was unbelievable. The moonlight glinted off it, the dark turning the sight into some kind of black horror. She looked up at the full moon, and looking back down, she finally saw what her frozen mind had blanked out. The source of the blood.

The body was mangled beyond all recognition of species, she could tell that much even in the semi dark. The thing that was feeding on it looked up and snarled, brilliantly white teeth stained dark. It stepped over the body and moved to face her, maybe defending its meal, or forgetting it in the face of new prey.

This explains the mysterious dead bodies, thought Teri distractedly, her mind refusing to deal with the sight she was facing. It explains so much. Of course there'd be monsters. I mean, there's people like me and people like Evan who can start fires and that lady who can tell people what to do why shouldn't there be…

Werewolves.