Possessing the Witch

Brigid dug her smartphone out of her pocket and tapped the screen. “We know whatever attacked Amanda in the parking garage wasn’t human.”

“Right,” Deme agreed. “The scratches and bite marks could only have been a large animal.”

Brigid’s thumbs flying over the keypad, she continued talking with her head down. “Whoever entered the hospital and Amanda’s room was human. An animal would have certainly been noticed well before making it to her door.”

Deme nodded. “Undoubtedly.”

Brigid’s brows drew together. “At least human at the time he entered the hospital, killed the girl and escaped.”

“What do you mean?”

Brigid glanced up. “Amanda was attacked by an animal on the street.”

“Agreed,” Selene said. “Gryph said it was a wolf.”

“Though an animal supposedly attacked her, a human thought it important enough to finish her off, right?”

“Right.” Brigid glanced up. “I just got word that the surveillance video showed a man dressed in scrubs with a stolen ID entered her room with a chart. Walked right past the guard we had posted. It was shortly afterward that they found her and informed us.

“Unfortunately, before she died, the description she gave of her attacker was that of a lion with a man’s face.” Brigid laid a hand over Selene’s. “Honey, it’s a pretty damning eyewitness account.”

“On the video, what did the man look like?” Selene demanded.

Brigid shook her head. “Couldn’t tell from the video. He was wearing a surgical mask.”

“Gryph said it was a wolf that attacked Amanda in the alley, and I believe him. I don’t know who the man was who came in the hospital to kill her, but it wasn’t Gryph.”

“He could have left your apartment right after you did, come to the hospital, waited for us to leave Amanda’s room and sneaked in to kill her.”

“I’m telling you, he wouldn’t have killed her,” Selene insisted.

“If he didn’t come to the hospital to kill her, why did he leave your apartment and make a run for it? Why not hang around and tell his side of the story?”

“With a description circulating on the television, knowing I’d seen him like...like that, he had to feel like it was run, or be sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.”

“If it was a wolf, we could have a lot more shifters in the city than any of us can imagine. If they can look human, there’s no telling who they are or where we should look to find them.” Brigid tipped her head toward the man seated at the table beside them, and she leaned close to whisper, “The guy in the seat beside you could be a shifter and we’d never know until he shifted in front of us.”

Deme and Selene both looked left at the same time. The man had lifted a large hoagie to his lips and was just about to take a bite when their gazes met.

He frowned, the frown turning into a glare as he turned his chair, put his back to them and bit into the sandwich.

“Who would know more?”

“We could go to a library and research the news reports,” Deme offered. “Or check through the police files of all the reports passed to the special investigations team.”

“Or we can go to Byron Crownover.” Brigid shoved her phone across the table, the screen displaying an internet page identifying strange and unusual happenings in Chicago.

“Who is Byron Crownover?” Selene leaned over the screen and read the title—Chicago’s Secret Inhabitants. “What’s this about?”

“We’ve had loads of calls about strange happenings reported to the police department, from sightings of pumas on the streets to a huge bird flying past the Willis Tower with the wings of a hawk and the face and body of a man.”

Deme snorted. “Sounds like the people who report being abducted by alien creatures.”

“I know.” Brigid leaned forward. “But we know from our experience battling the Chimera beneath the Colyer-Fenton College campus, that otherkin exist.”

Selene shivered. She and her sisters had nearly been killed trying to save Aurai, the youngest, from the creature who’d taken up residence in the tunnels deep beneath the city.

“Question is—” Deme leaned closer to the phone “—what kind of shifters and how many live here in the city?”

“We need to contact Byron. He’s the area expert, although some suspect he’s a kook. But if he’s got statistics on where the sightings occur most often, that might narrow our search down to a specific location.”

Deme pushed her chair back. “Let’s talk to Byron. Where do we find him?”

“He’s an anthropology professor at Colyer-Fenton College.”

Selene’s lips twisted. “Why does that not surprise me?”

“Haven’t we suffered enough at that place?” Deme asked.

“I’m just glad Aurai is finished with her studies there. The place still gives me the creeps.” Selene’s badass sister Brigid shivered.