Wolf Pact: A Wolf Pact Novel by Melissa de La Cruz Read Free Book Online

retired only a few weeks earlier. He was a tall, handsome older gentleman, deeply suntanned and courteous. His wife, the woman who’d let them inside, offered them cookies and tea, led them to a cozy room where they sat on flowered cushions. “So you guys are from New York, huh?” he asked, settling into his lounger. “Writers, they tell me.” He sounded skeptical.
    “Yes,” Janesaid brightly. “But don’t worry; we don’t work for the insurance company. We’re writing a book about spontaneous combustion.” It was the cover story they’d agreed on: they were researchers, writing a book about fire disasters. They hoped that knowing they were in the presence of academics, of writers, would put people at ease and would loosen their tongues. Everyone liked feeling important.
    “We’re here to ask about the fire out in Hunting Valley the other week,” Bliss said.
    He nodded. “Yep, that one. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. We couldn’t put it out—not until every last bit of that place was burned to the ground, except the door, of course. When we got there, the walls were still standing but the door was locked from the inside, which happens, but when we hit it with the ram, it just wouldn’t budge. The thing was wood, but it felt like steel. We couldn’t break it. We couldn’t get inside at all.”
    “Can you tell us again how the fire was started?”
    “From the burn trailer it looked as if it had sprung around the house, all at once.” He took a bite from a cookie and looked pensive. “Talk about spontaneous combustion. Water seemed to feed the flames instead of putting them out, and the smoke had a different odor. Weird.”
    “Like what?” Bliss asked.
    “Pungent and strong,as if hell itself was burning.” He frowned.
    “There were eyewitness reports that they heard screaming … but you found no survivors?” Bliss asked.
    He shook his head. “None.”
    “But the howling—” Bliss argued.
    “Coyotes, most likely, there are some around the area,” he said gruffly.
    “Coyotes who walk upright? Right here it says someone saw great ‘wolflike’ silhouettes in the windows …” She held the printout in front of him but he dismissed it.
    “People have vivid imaginations,” he said, looking uncomfortable.
    Bliss was disappointed; other than the Heart of Stone, she had been hoping to discover something more about the fire, something that could be a real clue to the hounds’ whereabouts. She and Jane began to gather their things when the fire chief coughed and looked guiltily at them.
    “Well,there was something,” he said finally. He lit his pipe and the room filled with the sweet smell of tobacco.
    Bliss and Jane exchanged looks, but neither of them said anything.
    “We found something.” He squirmed in his seat. “It’s … difficult to talk about.”
    Bliss sat back down and leaned forward. “Tell us. You can tell us.”
    “Actually, not something … but someone. A girl.” He closed his eyes, wincing at the memory. “The house burned right to the ground, piles of ashes everywhere—great mounds of it—you saw. It was a few days after the fire was out—me and my boys were doing cleanup when we saw her … a girl, buried under the ashes. Naked, covered in blood and dust. We thought she was dead.”
    “But she’s not?” Bliss asked, hope thrumming in her chest. This was something—a beginning—a clue at last.
    He shook his head. “Nope. She was breathing.”
    “Who was she?”
    “Don’t know. We had her checked out at the hospital … and it was the oddest thing … they said she was completely unharmed. No signs of physical injury, not one bruise, not one cut, not one burn. Just—covered in ashes. Ashes and blood.” He took a puff from his pipe.
    Hehitched his pants, put down his pipe in the ashtray, stood, and left the room. When he came back after a few minutes, he was holding a notebook. It was covered in soot. “We also found this.” He handed it to Bliss.