Believe by Glynis Rankin (best short books to read txt) 📕

can swim with the little fishes before putting him in the face of a shark.” Manx knew he’d drowned.

 “Report to me after medical is finished with you.” Barton turned and walked away.  Dismissing the agent without a word.

“We got another one Boss!” An agent yelled from the opened door of a van.

“Where?”

 Manx watched Barton jog over to the van while his team worked on the Werewolf creature Pauli Keys. He sighed and walked over to the medic van. He’d washed out of the ISBI.

Chapter One

                                                 The Witness

 

“Oh Shit! There’s so much blood!”

Sara Doe gasped at the sight of the mangled, bloody bodies lying on the floor. Thick, rich crimson had spattered across the modest kitchen of the Elton's home, in odd shapes and designs. That mimicked the wet finger paintings of a child.

 “Nell!” She rushed to her foster mother’s side, gagging at the putrid smell emitting from her open wounds.   The stench caused Sara to shiver.  Queasiness, forced her to swallow hard. “Dear God!”

Thick clots of blood caked Nell’s thin blond hair and pooled around her head.  It ran from a face frozen in fright with pupils starin, absent of sight. Sara made herself look at the gaping hole seeping blood from her foster mother’s carcass void of organs.

Still hopeful, she reached out with a shaky hand to touch Nell’s body. She brought her hand away fast from the lifeless flesh, that gave her goose bumps and an unwanted chill down her spine. “Jesus!”

  Sara stopped just short of putting her hands to her mouth. “Oh Shit!”

She rushed to her feet, wiping the sticky mess on her already smeared and tattered jeans. When she looked again, they’re still stained. “Ewww!” 

Frighten, she wiped her hands again, but it was no use.

Sara ran from the room, avoiding the pools of congealed blood that littered the kitchen. She felt their creepy blind stares on her back as she entered the laundry room.

 She kicked off her tennis shoes and removed her clothes, dumping them in a large garbage bag before washing up at the large sink with a towel. Sara scrubbed until the towel came away clean. Then she cleaned her snickers before throwing the towel in the bag too.   I’ll burn them later.

Sara searched the hamper for clothes. She found a pair of day old black jeans, a black tee-shirt with a mustard stain on the front and her favorite black hoodie with the white angel wings on back.

After dressing, Sara knew she had to come up with a plan. She gathered up the bag and shoes to return to the kitchen, but as soon as she crossed the threshold Sara heard the first screeching sounds of sirens.

 “Shit, the police!”

 She didn’t have time to freak.  Sara slipped into her shoes, grabbed a knife from the cutting board and did the only thing she could do, she ran from the house to hide.

Chapter Two

Xavier Burgot ran through the narrow streets as the sun moved further behind the horizon.  The traffic on the south side of the city was thin as cars began to turn on their headlights. There’s few pedestrians to be bumped and dodged making it easy for him to weave in and out of the oncoming traffic.

“I’m right behind you!” Rocco Alverza laughed, giving chase.

Xavier knew the city; as a wolf in the night, he ran its length many times just for fun. He made a hard turn through a shade filled alleyway. In the fast disappearing sunlight, the shadows pooled around him as if a dark fabric dropping from the sky.

  Xavier loved to run, loved the flow of wind against his face and tousling his hair. He liked to see buildings and people moving past him in a blur.  He loved the feeling of the blacktop under his feet. But he yearned for was the openness of an ever present distance horizon.

The two frisky friends taunted each other as if pups. A few street kids tried kicking around a soccer ball thought they’d run with the older boys. “Wanna play?” one of them asked.

“Sure kid.” Rocco slowed to show them a few tricks. “Check this out!”

 While Rocco showcased his poor skills, Xavier’s senses caught a whiff of something that compelled him to keep running.

The nose of a werewolf can sniff out anything including emotion.  Xavier caught a trace of fear and something else.  An unusual aroma that he’s never encountered. The interesting scent forced him to discover its origin.

 A hypnotic, piquant odor filled his senses, called to his animal nature and deep primitive desires. The volatile fragrances drew him like a powerful magnet, he couldn’t resist.

This fragrance wasn’t something meant to be shared, it was his and his alone.

  “Later kids, wait up Xavier!” Rocco dashed after his friend.

Xavier neared the busy intersection caught off guard. He stopped fast. It allowed Rocco to catch up with him.

“Wow, you smell that?” Rocco uttered with understandable strain. They weren't dogs having to sniff around to track a scent. They have a higher level of recognition and can detect a scent from miles away.  This particular odor filled the air with its sharpness. “Oh man!”

The fresh, pungent scent of carrion filled them with a yearning to wolf out. The boys looked seventeen, but they weren’t new wolves with little control over their desires.  They’ve been werewolves for over a century, hunted for the community and helped new werewolves to control their wolf.

Blood hunger wasn’t Xavier’s problem.

 The rich, exotic aroma he'd pursued fused with the overpowering scent. The combination of fear, blood, and death was a dangerous concoction. It meant only one thing.

 “There’s been a murder!” Rocco proclaimed.

Chapter Three

“An Amber Alert!”  Captain Albertson barked into the phone. “Wash is that necessary?”

 “Best judgment here Cap,” Homicide Detective Wash replied. “The girl’s fifteen; she’s at risk for either bodily harm or she could be dead too.”

  Albertson sighed. “Are we sure she’s not out with friends? We don’t want more attention drawn there unless we have too.”

“This is my best judgment based on the evidence.” A flash of the murder room crossed his mind.  In his twenty years on the force and fifteen in homicide, Wash’s never seen so much carnage. 

 “She might’ve run Cap, but what if she didn’t.  A victim, hostage, whatever the case, we need to find her to take her out of the equation.”

 “Agreed, but try to keep a low profile. This is Lincoln Park; we don’t want it getting away from us.”

“Understood.” Wash stared at the young police officer standing beside his city issue

The first on the scene was Officer Wilburn. He’s long, lean and handsome, perhaps too handsome for law enforcement. There’s a glimmer in his eyes that’s shouting he’s fresh out the academy and eager to get his hands dirty.  He’d ask the officer to hang around, there seemed something seemed off.  Wash wanted to go over his report again.

  “Alright, I’ll get her description out to the proper channels.” Albertson drew him back to the conversation. “But get it done Wash.”

“Yes sir.”

Wash placed the phone on his belt.  “Run it by me again Officer.”

“Mrs. Booken.” Wilburn pointed across the street where an officer stood talking with a woman dressed in a pink gown. Even in the dark Wash saw her bewilderment. “She called 911 at 2012 complaining about the noise.”

“What kind of noise?”

“Shouting mostly, she’s called before concerning their fun.”  His smile left as soon as it appeared.

“Okay.” Wash made an entry in his notebook. “Go on.”

“While she’s on the phone with dispatch, she heard multiple gunshots.”

“Does she know how many?”

“No Detective.”

“What time was this?”

  He looked through his notes. “2027, I got here five minutes later.”

“What did you see?”

“I waited until my partner got here a few minutes later. We checked around the house first. The place’s quiet and dark except for a light coming from the open kitchen door in the back. We went inside, saw the slaughter and called it in after doing a quick search.”

“Did you see or hear anything once you entered the house, think?”

Wilburn focused for a moment. “Nothing Detective, like I said, we did a quick search of the house and secured the scene until you guys arrived.”

That’s the same report he gave earlier at the walk-through so what’s nagging at him, Wash pondered? The academy taught a recruit to give the fact and never volunteer information.

 “Got something you want to add?”

The officer’s handsome face broke in a concentrating frown. “I don’t think so.” He focused a moment longer before the light bulb moment. “Oh! The girl’s bedroom.”

“What about it?”

“The door was closed.”

Wash narrowed his eyes. “Closed, are you sure?”

Wilburn nodded. “At first we thought that the perpetrator hid inside. But when we went to search, we didn’t find anyone.”

Wash didn’t like this one bit. “Why would her bedroom door be closed?  If she ran, it would be open.” He thought aloud.

 Wilburn frown deepened. “You think she went out of the window?”

“What window?”

Chapter Four