HAVEN ✓

Thirty-Six

"Is that...?" The words dry up in my throat at the sight of the pale, lanky creature being dragged into the observation room.

"Fascinating, isn't it? A hundred milliamps and the thing is out cold." I feel Dr. Tabb's gaze shift to me. "I take it you don't see them inside that wall of yours, do you? Electrified palisades seem to work just as well."

"You're bringing it inside?" I force my tongue to work. "One of them almost killed us on the way here!" I feel my throat closing up, panic driving needles into my head. I felt safe in Perseca, but now they have let the enemy in.

"I don't like this." Luke's voice blankets me as he crosses the room to stand by my side, as if he could restore some of the crumbling ground beneath my footing. "They are adapting. Expanding their territory. Behaving differently. It is too dangerous to harbor one here."

Dr. Tabb whips out her pencil and scribbles furiously on her clipboard. "Different, how? Please elaborate."

Luke and I exchange a glance and I shrug nervously. He then explains how we stumbled upon a lone Skinwalker the night of the storm, and the encounter with them at the waterfall.

"They have never frequented that area in the past." Luke's fists are balled at his side. "Because of my mistake, we could have been killed."

I swallow. We almost were.

"Wait, back up," Dr. Tabb waves frantically. "How did you escape the cavern? You were cornered."

"I was," I interject. "The Skinwalker cut me off from Luke but—"

"Yes, yes! That's just it! Why would it do that? Why wouldn't it just go straight for the juicy meal right in front of it? Why the behavioral change?" Dr. Tabb punctuates her words with a tap on my nose with her eraser.

I have no answer, but it seems she already has it figured out. Her heels click as she strides to the window, watching as her colleagues lock the unconscious Skinwalker in the room, barred door sealing its fate.

"They are a social, communal species. Like the macaques, and just like we humans." Dr. Tabb is writing as she speaks, the scratch of her pencil gnawing on my frayed nerves. "They look out for one another. Which perfectly explains its behavior in the cave."

Rhett turns to me, awe painting his face. "By putting itself between you and Luke, it was protecting you... because you share DNA, they recognize you as one of their own."

My ears are ringing.

I am one of them.

Before I can gather the letters and words to form a coherent reply, the room is filled with a deafening SCREEEECH!

The Skinwalker is awake. And it is angry. Unnaturally long fingers slap against the glass wall as if it could knock through it. Its mouth, lined with razor-sharp teeth, is unhinged in a solemn wail.

Heart lurching, I stumble backward, nearly tripping over Luke. The monster just keeps banging on the wall and howling and it's too much for me. I squeeze my eyes shut and cover my ears with my hands, hoping, praying that it will stop. That it's not real. Over and over and over I recite the words in my head.

The feeling of warm arms engulfing me fractures my inner panic. I reluctantly crack an eye open to see that I am swiftly being led out of the room by none other than Luke, Rhett following closely behind. Dr. Tabb does not join us.

I don't uncover my ears until we are outside surrounded by fresh air. Luke gently sits me down on a bench carved out of a pine log, his hands rubbing up and down my arms, the physical touch positively distracting. "Breathe, Sophie," he soothes.