Or rather, one girl did.
She struggled to right herself, her whole body suddenly alien. Claws raked at the carpet. A tail whacked her in the face.
Hertail.
She had atail. Heart hammering with excitement, she twisted, trying to inspect her new shape. She had tawny fur, and four paws, and?—
No wings.
“What… happened?” said a faint voice. Her sister sat up stiffly, one hand pressed against the center of her chest. “Where—how?—?”
Her twin caught sight of her. For a moment she only stared, eyes widening. They were no longer the rich gold they’d always been, but a bright, shocking yellow.
“Oh,” her twin whispered. “It worked.”
CHAPTER 1
Special Agent Shan Zhao of the Federal Bureau of Shifter Affairs—a seasoned operative, with over a decade of experience in matters of supernatural security—stared down at the dossier for his latest assignment.
“Ghosts,” he said flatly.
His supervisor Min-Seo shrugged, one leg dangling over the arm of her executive chair. “That’s what the witnesses claim to have seen.”
“And these reported ghost sightings occurred at a…” Shan checked the file again, in the vain hope that he’d somehow misread the location. “Summer camp.”
“Camp Thunderbird.” Min-Seo plucked a lollipop from the glass bowl on her desk, unwrapping it as she spoke. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the place already.”
Shan had not forgotten the place. Unfortunately. He had in fact been trying very hard to forget it.
Or rather, to forget someone.
He kept his expression carefully neutral. “To clarify. You want me to investigate an unsettling presence lurking in the woods near the summer camp. With the only eye-witnesseswho claim to have seen this unknown threat being the local shifter children.”
Min-Seo stuck the lollipop in her mouth. “Yep.”
Shan gave her a level look through his sunglasses. “And you believeghostsare the most plausible explanation?”
“I didn’t say it was the most plausible explanation,” Min-Seo said somewhat indistinctly. “Just a potential one. And it’s not the first weird sighting in that area. Remember the reports from the local sheriff?”
“I already investigated those.”
And it would have been so much better if I hadn’t.
“Yes, yes, I read your report, such as it was.” Min-Seo waved a hand dismissively. “No evidence of shifter involvement or threat to our kind, outside our jurisdiction. But this new casecomesfrom shifters. And Camp Thunderbird is a sensitive location. We can’t take any risks when it comes to the safety of shifter kids.”
That was true. Normally, he would have accepted the assignment without question, no matter how trivial it might seem. Over the course of his career, he’d handled more than a few cases that had turned out to be far more significant than they’d first appeared.
Yes,his monster hissed. He could feel it pacing at the bottom of his soul, pressing against the bars of his self-control.Go. Stalk. Hunt. Feast.
He leafed through the briefing again, scanning the sparse lines of print for any chance of escape. “This evidence would not seem to justify a full investigation.”
“Normally, I’d agree with you.” Min-Seo shrugged, lollipop tucked into one cheek. “But it’s not my call. This landed on my desk flagged Top Priority. Seems someone important has a personal interest in Camp Thunderbird. It’s all a bit political.”
Shan rubbed his forehead with a gloved thumb. “Are any other agents available?”
“You’re the one who’s familiar with the area. And with your talent, you should be able to get to the bottom of this in a fraction of the time it would take anyone else.” Min-Seo raised her eyebrows at him. “What’s the problem? It’s not like you’re busy with anything else right now.”
That was also true. Unfortunately.
