Like she was looking for something in particular.
Or someone.
When she made a beeline for a small group of people huddled in an alcove, he realized that must be who she was searching for.
“Trevor, I want you to meet Ada Hawkins and her daughter, Nicole,” Jenna said, handing takeout containers to the two dark-haired women, then distributing more to the other people gathered there before flashing him a smile. “You wouldn’t know it by looking at them, but they’re some of the nicest zombies you’ll ever meet.”
He reached out to shake the women’s hands but then did a double take when Jenna’s words finally registered.Zombies. Ada and Nicole didn’t smell dead.
“Um…what?”
Ada laughed at the expression on his face, the lines around her gray eyes becoming more pronounced. “Jenna helped us get a job on the set of one of the TV series she works on a few months ago. The first roles we had were as zombie extras. The director liked us so much that she brought us back for other parts. It turns out that being a monster pays pretty good.”
“I only wish I could find enough work to get you and Nicole into a better living situation,” Jenna said sadly.
Ada took Jenna’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You’re doing more than enough for us, hon. We’re okay. If we can keep working and saving all our money, we should be able to find a place to live by next year. Maybe even get Nicole signed up for some of those college classes you mentioned.”
Trevor listened as Jenna discussed other extra roles Ada and her daughter might be right for as well as second-set directors she wanted to introduce them to, even a few apartment complexes they might want to look at when they felt they had enough money saved up for a deposit.
It wasn’t long before the other unhoused people gathered around them. Jenna knew each of them by name, and from the way she asked how they were feeling, if they were eating enough, and if they were staying warm at night, it was obvious she truly cared about all of them.
Trevor was talking to Nicole about what it was like being an extra on a TV show when he noticed Jenna and Ada move off to the side a few feet away from where he and the rest of the group were standing. Jenna leaned in close and whispered something to the older woman, who immediately nodded. With his keen werewolf hearing, Trevor could easily have eavesdropped on the conversation but didn’t. Then he saw Jenna throw a covert glance over her shoulder, peeking his way without trying to make it look like she was. That was a guilty look if he’d ever seen one.
“Aaron saw one a few nights ago two streets over in the alley off Winston across from the Mission,” he heard Ada say to Jenna, her tone full of fear. “The thing tried to grab Rubi. It would have gotten her, too, if she hadn’t beat it off with that old, rusty walker of hers.”
“Crap,” Jenna said. “Is Rubi okay?”
“Yeah. She’s still shaken up, though,” Ada said. “She can probably give you some more information if you want to talk to her.”
Jenna nodded. “Thanks. I’ll talk to her before we leave.”
Before Trevor could figure out what to make of all that, Jenna was already heading back over to him, a smile on her face. She picked up the cardboard box that was on the ground beside him, which still had three takeout containers in it.
“There are a few other people I want to visit tonight, including an older woman I’m worried about,” she said, gazing up at him with an expression that was so innocent Trevor had to wonder if maybe he was wrong about something else going on here. “Just to make sure they get something to eat tonight. You don’t mind, do you?”
“No problem,” Trevor said, taking the box from her hands even as he decided he was definitely being played. While Jenna might care about the people living on Skid Row, she clearly had another motive for being here. He just didn’t know what.
He wasn’t shocked when Jenna led him to Winston Street and then continued into the back alleys near some kind of unhoused mission. He liked to think she simply wanted to check on the older woman like she claimed, but he got the feeling there was more to it than that.
Rubi was easy to find and impossible to miss. At least eighty years old with an aura of bustling energy about her, Trevor could easily imagine the woman beating on some attacker with the rusty metal walker she shambled around with. Jenna had introduced him, then handed Rubi all three of the takeout containers. She was in the middle of asking how Rubi was doing after thebit of troubleshe’d had recently when a loud scream echoed through the alleys behind them.
Trevor immediately went into SWAT mode.
“Stay here,” he said firmly to Jenna.
Not waiting for a reply, he turned and ran toward the sound. As he moved, his nose and ears began working overtime, pinpointing the source of the noise even among all the twisting and turning alleyways. He’d barely made it a block before realizing Jenna was following him.
Because of course she was.
The instinct to slide to a stop and tell Jenna to go back where it was safe was damn near impossible to resist. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to even seriously consider the action, since the next turn in the alley brought them both face-to-face with the woman screaming…and the thing dragging her across the asphalt like a she was a child’s toy.
The creature’s scent hit him even as Trevor attempted to comprehend what he was seeing. A combination of old dirt and oily musk, it was nearly overpowering to his sensitive nose. He’d never smelled anything like it. Probably because the creature was like nothing he’d ever seen before.
The thing stopped in its tracks, snapping its head around in Trevor’s direction. It was maybe three feet tall—though it was difficult to be sure since it was hunched over. Trevor thought at first it was some kind of large baboon that had escaped from the zoo, but then he got a good look at the creature’s thick shoulders, arms, and thighs. It wasalso pale and almost completely hairless except for a few wisps along its chest and belly. Nope, definitely not a baboon.
Trevor was still trying to figure out the best way to free the woman when the creature let out a possessive hiss and clamped its claw-tipped fingers around her lower leg even tighter. The woman, who couldn’t be more than two or three years older than Jenna, fought like mad—kicking and punching at any part of the thing she could reach—and the creature didn’t like it.
It snarled, lips peeling back to show canine fangs that were terrifyingly long for a creature of its size. It yanked on the woman’s leg, like he was trying to tell her to shut up and stop fussing.
