“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I wasn’t sleeping. I was listening to the birds. They’re out there, aren’t they? I hear the wings. They come first, you know.”
“Bridey, what are you talking about?”
“The birds come first. They foretell the fate of those who are blessed or damned, so that a soul may make peace with God.”
She was rambling, and he was worried that she was feverish, but she didn’t feel warm.
“Bridey, you’re scaring me.”
“Ah, Zach, I’d not scare ye. Don’t be worried, and don’t be sad. Few know their place in heaven or hell, but I’m one of the lucky ones, for I do know mine.”
“Bridey—”
“It’s sorry I am to be muttering on and on. I’ve a mind to sleep now, though, and you should get on to bed, too. We need you here, you know. Rested and well.”
He kissed her forehead again and returned to his own room.
But he couldn’t escape the echo of the wind that rushed against his ears like the laments of the damned, or the shrieking cries of the crows.
And all the while his mind whispered…
Banshee.
When she headed for bed that night, Kat was mad.
It was Amanda. Amanda was trying to kill her father, even though he didn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it. The woman was nothing but a monster who was able to put on airs because of his money. Why he didn’t see right through her was a complete mystery. Were all men, including her father, unable to combat the call of their hormones?
At least the cops were in on things now, thanks to Zach’s insistence…She didn’t know whether to hope that the latest incident was a case of some psycho with a grudge engaging in product tampering, putting the whole community at risk—and, if so, how coincidental—or that there was a monster living in their midst. There was simply no good answer for that one.
She brushed her teeth, washed her face, slipped into a pair of her most comforting flannel pajamas and lay down to sleep. Grinning, she hugged one of her favorite stuffed toys, a very lifelike collie her dad had bought for her years before.
She closed her eyes.
The old house creaked and groaned.
And she started to listen. Nervously.
She couldn’t help it. She knew that her father and Zach had taken to making absolutely certain that the doors were locked and the alarm was on, but still, she couldn’t help listening to every sound and wondering what it meant.
She strained her ears and heard the sounds of an old house settling.
But there was more. Wings.
A thick beating in the air, as if great dark wings were all around the house.
She lay there, telling herself to stop acting like a scared little kid. She lasted for a few minutes, and then it was suddenly too much.
She leaped up and stood still, listening.
She was scared, even terrified, but she had to know the truth. She felt ridiculous, as if she were a character in a horror movie, but this was her house and she was not going to let her fear control her. Besides, Zach was near, just a few doors down, and her father and Caer were downstairs.
No way was she going to count on Amanda for help, but Bridey was there, too.
Great. She could call on her ill great-aunt to come and be brave for her while she stood there, trembling, in her bare feet.
And what on earth was she afraid of, anyway?
The sound of wings in the night? Big deal.
She gave herself a mental shake and walked to her window, pulled open the drapes—and gasped.
Crows, or maybe ravens.
Scores of them.
They were perched on top of the cottage, on the garage, in the trees, everywhere around the house, and more were surging through the air like harbingers of evil. Birds. At night. In the dead of winter.
And that was all they were, she told herself. Birds. Just birds. What the hell did she care about birds?
She looked down at the ledge beneath her window and barely choked back a scream.
One of them was sitting on her ledge. Staring at her. With just one eye…. When it turned its head, she saw that it had lost the other.
So it stared at her, so close that it could have pecked at her if not for the glass between them.
She dropped the drape to shut out the sight of the bird, then found that her fear was not so easy to erase. She had a terrible picture of the bird suddenly slamming through the glass and attacking her, talons clawing at her face.
She thought about racing down the hall to Zach’s room. He was her friend. He would understand.
But she couldn’t do it. Zach had his own demons. Zach was falling for Caer.
Caer!
She could ask to spend the night in Caer’s room downstairs. She wouldn’t even have to admit that she was a coward; she could make some excuse about being worried about her father.
She stepped out into the hall with that plan in her mind, but then she saw Bridey’s door and found herself tiptoeing in that direction instead.
Bridey was sleeping, but she was such a tiny little thing that there was plenty of room for Kat to slide in right next to her.