Zane grabs her around the waist and pulls her close and says something to her that I can’t hear. This is all too much. “I really have to go. Are you going to take care of this, or do I call it in...or what?” I ask.
“We’ll take care of it,” Slater says.
“Okay.” I look over at Evie one more time, but she’s completely distraught. I don’t want to leave her, but I have to.
“Tessa,” Slater says, stepping into my path.
“I can’t; I have to go. You have to deal with...that.” I step around him and keep walking. I walk as fast as my shaky legs will carry me. I don’t look back. I make it to my next check-in in record time, do a quick check, and then scan my phone before moving on to the next one. I jump at every little noise, and I can’t handle the quiet. Part of me wishes Slater was still here with me, even if it was just to tease me about being scared of a mouse. My thoughts sober when I think of him, but I don’t allow myself to think about what happened tonight. I refuse to let my mind go there. When I finish my check-ins, I head back to the shack to sit behind the screens for a while. The first screen I check when I sit behind the desk is the camera that faces the South end behind the dorms. I sigh in relief when I see the particular area we were in is a blind spot.
“How’d it go out there tonight?” I jump in my seat and hit my knee on the desk. “Whoa, sorry.”
I take a breath and turn to Hayes. “Hayes. You startled me.”
He watches me carefully. “Are you okay, Tessa? You look really pale.”
“No. I’m fine. I mean, probably a little sleep deprived, but who isn’t that works on security, right? You’re probably tired too, right, Hayes?”
He frowns. “You’re acting weird. You sure everything’s okay?”
“Peachy,” I say with a bright smile.
Just then, Steven comes in. “Tessa, you were late for a few of your check-ins. I know we sent you out of your way. Everything good out there?”
I face Steven, who’s in charge of the entire night shift. He’s a senior and takes his job very seriously. “Everything was good. Yeah, it just took me out of my path. But all’s well.”
I feel Hayes’s eyes on me, but I don’t look over at him. Steven studies my face. “Something happened.”
“Yep,” Hayes says from right beside me. “She’s acting weird.”
“I am not.”
Hayes puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re a terrible liar.”
“I’m not lying.” But that time, even I felt the lie. It’s true; I’ve always been a terrible liar. It’s always made my older brother laugh and given everyone in my family an edge when we play bluffing games. I can never get my face to portray what I want it to.
Steven disappears, and I’m hoping that’s the end of it. But he’s back a moment later. “I’m going to check it out.”
“I’m coming too,” Hayes says, grabbing his jacket.
“Guys, wait.” I scramble after them. “There’s nothing to check out. Guys!” I scramble to find my phone, so I can text Slater to get out of that area. Panic grips me when I can’t find it. “No.” I must have dropped it in the mess. Now, I have no way to warn Slater and Zane. Some instinctual side of me may not understand what all went down tonight, but I know that it’s not going to be good if the security guys find out about it. I race after Steven and Hayes. “Guys, wait!” But they’re already gone. I shove through the door and run after them. I catch up to them, huffing and puffing.
“Where’s your coat?” Hayes asks. I have no idea, and that’s literally the least of my worries right now. “Tess, whatever it is, we can take care of it,” Hayes says with a frown. “You don’t have to come with.”
“I will, so I can prove to you that there’s nothing out there,” I say stubbornly. I hurry to catch up with Steven, and Hayes does as well.
“Here.” Before I realize what he’s doing, he drops his coat around my shoulders.
“Oh, I’m fine. You don’t need—”
“You’re shivering, Tessa. Just wear the coat.”
I don’t argue. My mind is racing, trying to figure out an explanation to what happened tonight. Maybe I can tell them it was a rabid dog. I’m scared Slater and Zane are going to be there, and this is going to get them into trouble. I mean, Slater turned into a wolf and fought that thing. So obviously, something is going on. A shiver runs through me as I think about the moment he jumped and turned into a wolf. I push those thoughts into the far recesses of my mind. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing. I mean I’m certainly tired enough. I can’t even begin to process what I saw, and I refuse to. It takes a little while to get across campus. The closer we get, the faster my heart starts beating until I can’t hear anything over the rushing sound in my ears. I even try to walk slower at times to slow them down, but they just keep plowing ahead. I swear Steven lives for this kind of thing. He looks excited, while I can hardly breathe because I’m so terrified. As soon as the area comes into view, I scan it with my eyes, trying to see if I can see anything. But it’s too dark, and we’re too far away for me to see anything. I keep my eyes trained on the area, but I see nothing. There is no movement, as far as I can tell. The guys are combing the area, and I stay behind them. When we get to the area that it all went down, I can barely breathe.
Hayes turns back to me. “Hey, you good?”
I force a smile. “I’m good. I told you there was nothing here.”
He stares down at me and puts a hand on my shoulder, the same thing he did earlier. Only this time, when he does, there’s a soft growl. My entire body locks up, and I freeze. I don’t meet his eyes, wondering if he heard it. “Tessa.”
