When I showed them the footprint, the elf arrived.

  Logan whistled, and not the sweet melodious whistling he usually did. This whistle seemed to say, 'Uh oh, we're in trouble now.'

  "That's a mighty big varmint," Logan said.

  "It looks like it grabbed someone and dragged them into the forest," Vincent said. "I don’t see any indication that it came into town."

  "Could it have circled around and gone to the lodge?" I asked.

  "Something this size couldn't have fit inside," Vincent said.

  "Probably not," Logan said, "but we can try to find out. You up for it, partner?"

  "People did what happened up there," Vincent said. "The weapons are there. There’s evidence everywhere. There's no reason for Cassie to try to go back that far."

  "I don't think it's that far," Logan said. "All this had to have happened less than a day ago. Twenty-four hours, tops."

  "Where do you want me to start?" I asked.

  "Maybe we can get a look at the thing that—"

  "I would like to know who killed the people," Rider cut in.

  Logan tilted his head and looked at Rider. "What are you going to do when you find out what happened?"

  "I will know. That is enough," Rider said.

  "Are you going to be happy with whatever answer you get?" Logan asked.

  Rider looked at him in confusion, but there was anger built up as well. "Why would I be happy with an answer to this?"

  Vincent looked torn. "He means, are you going to feel any better for knowing?"

  "Nothing will make me feel better about this," Rider said.

  "So finding out is worth having Cass see what happened?" Vincent asked.

  "You don't have to answer that, Rider," I said. "Let's start around the lodge."

  On the way back, we found Renick reporting to Boone.

  "So far, we haven't found any other threats," Boone said as we approached.

  My mind was already on the task ahead. I hadn't seen inside the lodge yet, and I wasn't sure if that worked for me or against me.

  "What areas have been searched?" Logan asked, stopping to talk.

  "A short perimeter. Not far out yet. What did you all find?" Boone asked.

  Logan briefly told him.

  "Hold up," Boone said, stopping the rest of us from continuing. "We could use some more eyes out there. In this situation, it's better if we're in pairs. We have no way to know what's out there."

  "Well," Logan said, "we're about to try finding out. Vincent and Rider can meet up with Davis and Tolman, though."

  "That's a good idea," I said, trying to curb Vincent's protests. "Too many Paths around might make it harder."

  Vincent glared at me, but I tried not to notice.

  "Rider, do you want to meet up with Davis?" Logan asked.

  "Will it make it easier if I am not there?" Rider asked, looking at me.

  "I think so. Substantial Paths and ones with strong emotion could make it harder." And as a bonus, they won't see me if things go bad.

  "What are you doing?" Boone asked.

  "Cassie's going to try to rewind the day," Logan said.

  "I don't think I've seen that before," Boone said. "If you want, I can work with her."

  Vincent gave Logan a hard look. "I'm staying."

  Chapter Eleven

  Are Vincent's eyes getting darker?

  Logan looked like he was going to argue the point, but then changed his mind. "That's probably best. Rider and I will be able to hear what's going on in case there’s trouble. We’ll catch up with Davis and Tolman."

  I put a hand on my hip and glared at Vincent. He looked at me blankly, but I could sense his resolve.

  "Holler if you need us," Logan said.

  Boone turned towards us. "In that case, Renick and I are going to check the area around the river to see if we can find anything else."

  Renick winked at me and grinned. "Good luck, princess."

  They all took off in different directions.

  I rolled my eyes, but when I saw Vincent clench his hands, I grabbed his arm and tugged him gently away. "Come on."

  He didn't need any encouragement to walk with me.

  "That guy's an ass," Vincent said.

  "And he's going to be more of an ass if he knows it bothers you." I paused to think about what I’d said. "Well, maybe not to you, but leave him be."

  "You don't have to go in there," Vincent said.

  "It'll be good to know. The faster we find what we're looking for, the faster we can go home." After we walked a little farther, I realized I hadn't asked him his plans yet. "You are coming home with us, right?"

  He took my hand and squeezed it. "I am."

  Energy flowed between us. A tingling sensation rose up my arm. My own irritation and nervousness melted away and I could feel Vincent's Path get lighter.

  As much as I wanted to, I didn't complain when he pulled away.

  "I'm not sure where you should start," Vincent said as we approached the long building.

  "It all happened inside," I said. "Most of it, anyway. Otherwise, there would be blood out here too."

  Vincent winced.

  I looked at the building and wiped sweaty palms on my uniform, careful to avoid the blood.

  "I'll start outside." I was such a chicken.

  Looking around at the real world once again didn't lessen my anxiety, so I closed my eyes and plunged into the Path.

  When I opened my eyes to the shimmering world, I frowned. "There are dozens of Paths here."

  "Any of them look odd?" Vincent asked.

  "Not yet." The brightest of Paths had to be those of the team. My partners’ and Boone's I was familiar with. Our newest team members had odd Paths, but I knew that wasn't what we were looking for. I made a mental note to Read their Paths later to see if I could discover why they were so... uniform.

  I bypassed those and went to the older ones. "Logan's right, the Paths aren't that old. There’s dozens of them." Like peeling an onion, I went layer by layer. My heart twisted when I found the one that I was looking for, the werewolf.

  Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I twitched away, bumping into Vincent. While we were touching, Vincent's whole being reached out to me. Our energy wrapped around each other. All other thoughts beyond him were forgotten.

  He steadied me. “What’s wrong?”

  When he drew away, it was like losing the sun on a perfect day.

  “Nothing.” Sighing, I got back to work. "I'm going to look back."

  When I was younger, I couldn't go into the past of an area most of the time, because I didn't have the power to do so. After Vincent shattered my soul, I had the power, but no control. Now that I had power and control, it made things a little easier to move backwards.

  Sometimes.

  Pushing my way back to the werewolf’s Path was easy. It was almost as though it wanted to draw me in.

  The Path's flow appeared to slow and I began to see ghosted images of the past.

  "Doing okay?" Vincent asked.

  "They were running." I turned and looked back toward the town. "Not at first. The ones that reached here first were confused and kept looking back."

  As we stood outside the building, the past shadow of the door slammed open and shut dozens of time, but it was just villagers. They all seemed to belong there.

  "The people at the back of the rush were running hard by the time they got here." I reached out a hand and let it hover over one of the Paths. "They were scared." I looked back to the village. "No, those weren’t the last, there were others farther behind."

  Many of the people had been yelling, and the newcomers were no different, except they pushed one another. More than one person veered off and went into the woods. I gasped and pulled back, unnerved when I discovered the man that had rushed at me earlier. His past self approached at a dead run.

  An arm wrapped around my waist. Now that I was expecting it, I knew it was Vincent.

  "Maybe you should come back," he said.

  "The guy that we... saw earlier today. He was terrified. He ran inside like all the others."

  Taking a deep breath, I plunged in and opened the door to the lodge.

  The stench was almost unbearable and I gagged—not something you want to do around a crime scene. I covered my mouth and nose, trying to block out the worst of the smell.

  Seeing the room was a thousand times worse. The terrified people in the past stood in groups, shaking and trying to keep their fear at bay.

  Then there were the bodies in the present.

  The door in the past snapped closed; the man Tolman had shot barred it and then stepped back. The man gestured and yelled words in an unknown language while not taking his eyes off the wood holding back whatever unknown terror was outside.

  A shifting pattern in the Path caused me to move my attention from the scene to the Path itself.

  I jumped when something banged against the door in the past.

  "You should give me an update," Vincent said in equal parts annoyance and worry.

  "They're all inside and they blocked the door," I said dismissively. "His Path, though..." Quickly, I turned to look at the others. "Several Paths in fact. The people that came in last."

  "What about the Paths?" Vincent asked.

  As I watched, a dark purple cloud seemed to flow from the Path of their past to their Paths that ended in the room. The man in front of the door stiffened and he gripped his knife. I moved closer, held my hand over the man's Path, and felt as the cloud moved.

  "It's... I'm not sure," I admitted. "Something seemed to be affecting their Path. No... infecting them."

  The deep purple stopped moving. It found its target and it had surrounded the man.

  I blew out a deep breath, and making sure to keep my hand over my mouth and nose, I readied myself to touch the man's Path in order to feel what he felt.

  The man turned and looked me straight in the eye. I gasped and stepped back. It couldn't be me that he was looking at. That wasn't possible.

  For some reason that made me look around for the werewolf. She was on the balls of her feet, ready to run or fight.

  What could take down a werewolf?

  The man yelled a string of words and my attention snapped back to him. He lunged forward and raised the knife. I fumbled back and screamed when his knife met my skin. My arm screamed when the blade sliced through it.

  Chaos erupted around us.

  Vincent was the only thing that kept me from falling to the floor. The man went to strike again when someone else rushed at him. Everyone was fighting.

  No, most of the people were fighting.

  "The last of the people that came in, they're... they're… Screams of men, women, and children rang in my ears.

  Vincent hauled me to the door, but I couldn't look away. At first, I drew some hope that Rider's werewolf friend could help. She moved some children behind her and growled. Her form began to change, but then two of the men rushed at her. They wrestled her to the ground. She managed to slash open a throat, but one man was replaced with another.

  Someone stabbed her in the side. It only seemed to piss her off, which was good. Then, the man that had barred the door jumped on her and stabbed her. Not once or twice, but over and over and over.

  The vision blurred as I began to cry. So many tears came that they couldn't fall fast enough.

  Vincent turned me around and grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him. When I concentrated on his eyes, the screams seemed to die away. One by one, they winked out.

  "We're getting out of here," Vincent said.

  When he took my arm, I could feel him shaking, or maybe it was me. He went to the door and appeared to walk through it. He was gone.

  "What?" I cried. I banged on the door. Hands from outside pulled at me through the solid surface. "No, open the door!"

  Looking around behind me, I saw why silence fell. The man stood there, covered in blood, knife in hand, and he watched me.

  I tried to push off the bar of the door, but it wouldn't budge.

  The man yelled something at me.

  "Oh, shit," I said under my breath.

  I turned and faced him, ready to do what I could to defend myself. Trying to pull at his Path was like running my hands across a patch of oil in the ocean. As I tugged on it, I only wiped a little off the surface.

  Touching his Path, I felt his madness. It was as though I was stuck in this man's nightmare, or maybe I was causing it.

  The man yelled and ran forward. I tried to keep my hands loose, ready to grab him.

  Rider moved in front of me. He wrapped his arms around me and dragged me outside. As we went through the door, he staggered. The man’s screams still echoed in my mind when I opened my eyes, back in the present.

  "Drop it," Rider ordered.

  Taking a deep breath, I nodded. Not even looking around one last time, I closed my eyes and pushed the Path away.

  For one panicked minute, I thought it wasn't going to go away. It felt as though the Path was tugging me back.

  I'm the Reader, I told myself. I use the Path, not the other way around!

  The Path fell away and the world returned. Rider had leaned down, nose to nose with me. My legs threatened to give way, but he kept me on my feet, supporting my weight.

  He looked up and growled at something or someone, but I didn't see what it was.

  My heart was racing and my breathing was fast and shallow. When I stared back at the building, I shivered.

  Forcing my feet to stay under me, I stood mostly on my own strength. "Let's move away from here."

  I was surprised at how steady my voice sounded. I was also surprised that I could walk almost on my own. Getting away from that place was enough to keep me moving.

  Once we were closer to the huts, I stopped and leaned against a tree. I closed my eyes while trying to force the images out of my head—the children, men trying to retaliate, and Rider's friend fighting them until she went still.

  "What happened?" Boone sounded out of breath.

  Someone gently lifted my arm and I opened my eyes to see Rider twisting it this way and that.

  "We do not know," Rider said. He placed my arm where it had been before he picked it up. Then he began to circle me and the tree I was leaning against.

  "I'm pulling the others in," Boone said.

  "Don't," Vincent said. I could hear the attempt to restrain his anger. "The fewer people the better right now."

  "What can I do?" Boone asked.

  "Logan went to get a first-aid kit," Vincent said. "Where's the water?"

  "I'll get it," Boone said.

  Rider pulled me away from the tree, and although I wanted nothing more than collapse to the ground and sleep, I stood and watched him.

  He walked around behind me and then lifted my other arm. When he was done, he let me lean back against the tree. From there, I sank to the ground and shut my eyes again.

  "You're bleeding all over the place," Vincent said. "Take off your shirt and let's take a look."

  My eyes snapped open and I frowned at Vincent, but then realized he was talking to Rider.

  Rider looked around, trying to twist himself to see his back. He turned in a circle a few times in an effort to see.

  Vincent shook his head, but anyone could have seen the grin that seemed to lighten his spirit.

  I smiled. It lightened mine, too.

  Vincent stopped him after he circled the third time. "I'll find it for you."

  I let my mind float on the surface, ignoring everything that I had seen.

  "It is only a scratch," Rider said, but he took off his shirt anyway.

  Vincent inspected Rider's back. "If it was a scratch, it wouldn't be bleeding like this. Any idea what did it?"

  Rider glanced down at me, seeing that I was watching. "Was it those that are in the Path?"

  I shook my head and watched the two, trying to keep my mind blank.

  "What's in the Path?" Vincent asked.

  "You have missed a lot," Rider told him.

  "Catch me up."

  "I am sure she will let you know when there is time."

  That's Rider, ever the optimist.

  "You are frustrating," Vincent said.

  Rider laughed, then winced and clutched his back.

  I couldn't help but agree with Rider. Vincent calling others frustrating was an ironic thought.

  Then I noticed, really noticed the wound in Rider's back. "You've been stabbed." It came out as a plain statement as I tried to stamp down thoughts of what happened.

  He nodded. "It happened when I took you out of the building. I did not see where it came from, and you were the only living person in the room."

  I scrunched my eyes up at the reminder of the other kind of people in the room.

  Boone appeared. "Here's the water. What happened to you?"

  "He's been stabbed," Vincent said. "Put some water on this so I can clean it up."

  "It will heal soon," Rider said.

  "Who stabbed him?" Boone asked.

  Vincent's eyes darted to me and the back to Boone.

  I sighed. "He was stabbed by the man that Tolman shot earlier."

  Rider was the only one that didn't look at me as if I was crazy.

  "Here," Boone said, passing me the water. "I grabbed a protein bar."

  The idea of eating right now made my stomach churn.

  "You should lie down," Boone continued, "and maybe elevate your feet."

  "What?" I asked.

  "She's not in shock," Vincent said. "It was... Something went wrong."

  Vincent gave a quick rundown of things from his point of view. "It wasn't until she couldn't leave the building that I realized how bad it was."

  Logan arrived and took over for Vincent, dressing Rider's wound. Vincent sat down next to me and started to roll back my sleeve, but the cut was too high. Instead, I took off the outer shirt. I hadn't realized how hot I was until I was left in short sleeves.

  He took some antiseptic and carefully began to clean the cut. I winced at the sharp sting. The cut was shallow, which had to have been stupid luck.

  Or maybe... I looked around, but I saw no signs of leprechauns.