Bitten by Darkness Read Free Page B

to acknowledge,
lifting his face to the night sky.
    He was
home.
     
     

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Sienna
stood over the dead girl's body, feeling nothing. Maybe feeling a little upset
that she felt nothing. She stared at the strange angle of her neck. She stared
at the tears in the girl’s skin where the creature had ripped to get to her
jugular. Police swarmed around her, their radios squawking disrespectfully.
When someone put a hand on her shoulder, she had to fight herself so she didn't
flinch away. Or attack.
    “Sienna,
come on, there's nothing you can do for her,” Linda's dad said, tugging on her
elbow.
    Sienna
sighed, heavily. She could smell the blood on the air. So much blood . She glanced away
from him, to the east. The sunrise had just crept over the horizon, though the trees
were too dense here in the woods to shed any light on the scene, not that it
mattered. The place was lit up like high noon at an airport. The FBI had hauled
in generators and big lights. Forensic experts were combing the trees for
fiber. She knew they wouldn't find a damn thing.
    “They're
wasting their time,” she said, turning to Linda's father.
    Ted
rubbed his eyes. “Yeah.”
    “Why do
they even bother?” Sienna glanced at the men rolling the girl into a bag.
    “You know
why.”
    She shook
her head. “It's pointless.” She walked over to one of the FBI's all-terrain
vehicles and leaned on it. It was a miracle they'd managed to get up the rocky
trail at all. “How's Linda?” It was quieter here. She could actually hear some
birds beginning their morning gossip.
    Ted shook
his head. “I'm not sure she's going to remember much.”
    Sienna
grimaced. “That's probably a good thing.”
    He looked
at her, his bald head and face strangely intent. “Why aren't you upset?”
    Sienna
wondered what to tell him. I always knew there were monsters. My mother
warned me. And, oh yeah, by the way, I don't think I'm completely human. She nearly laughed out loud, had to work hard to suppress the urge. That
would go over real well. Instead of speaking, she shrugged.
    Ted
looked away, uneasy. He sensed her unspoken thoughts—she knew he did. Somehow.
    “They've
taken your statement. You were the last one. Let's get Linda and the boys home,” he finally said.
    She
nodded. “It shouldn't take more than an hour to hike back down to the
trailhead.”
    He smiled
tiredly and put a hand to her shoulder. A scream pierced the air. They stared
at each other for a split second then ran for the trees.
    “That was
Linda,” Sienna said, pounding along the dirt path. “When did she wander off?”
    “I don't
know. I left her with Officer Martin while I sat with you during your
statement. John and Dillon were with her, too.”
    “Shit.”
Sienna ran harder. Ted gave her a look that said be careful as she
pulled ahead of him. When she ran into the small clearing where they'd set up
camp, she found Linda being cradled by John while a strange man stood over
them, staring into the trees, fists clenched. Dillon crouched by his brother,
trying to hand Linda a tissue. She was crying.
    “Linda!”
Sienna hurried over. “What happened? Are you okay?”
    Ted
staggered into the campsite, breathing heavy. “Don't move!”
    Sienna
glanced up, eyes widening. He had a gun pointed at the stranger. She hadn't
even considered him a threat. Somehow, he'd completely slipped past her stranger,
danger radar.
    “Ted?”
    He
ignored her. “Step away from them slowly.”
    The man
deliberately relaxed his hands and turned around. Sienna gasped. How had she
thought he was no threat? He was huge. He has to be over six feet tall. He wore jeans and a grey t-shirt that did nothing to hide the muscularity of
his body. The only thing that softened his looks was the jet-black hair that
fell softly over his face. As she stared at him, he slowly reached up and
brushed it out of his pale grey eyes. She'd never seen eyes like that on anyone
before. They were so light they almost