A pocket of yellowish haze hung low over the sidewalks.
She’d never seen a fog like that.
Sirens screeched on the east side of downtown.
For a city that normally bustled with nightlife at nine in the evening, downtown roadways were eerily empty. She stopped at a cross street, just short of entering the fog that was translucent enough to see through.
The sulfuric stench burned her nose.
Reaching out empathically, she encountered hostility unlike anything human. Her beast stirred, interested in the battle.
That was new and something she needed to avoid.
She snatched her senses away from the misty cloud and searched for another route.
A new patch of fog had begun filling in the street behind her, floating her way.
Trapped.
Her palms were damp. That fog was not natural.
Could she hold her breath and drive fast enough through the yellow cloud in front of her and reach clear air without shifting into her beast form?
If I sit here another minute I’m not going to have a choice.
Sucking in a deep breath, she rolled on her throttle and raced ahead but slowed when visibility dropped to ten feet in front of her. She couldn’t risk hitting a pedestrian, with so little line-of-sight distance.
Fifty feet into the fog she started seeing fallen bodies, no . . . pieces of bodies. What had attacked them?
Across the street on her left, a teenage boy wearing a hoodie and carrying a backpack rushed along in the same direction Evalle rode. A woman in a business suit walked just as quickly toward him, both obviously in a hurry to get through the fog. But when the woman reached the boy, the woman slowed as they almost passed each other and swung her briefcase, knocking the kid sideways.
Evalle’s lungs were crying for air, but she hit her brakes. She’d have to breathe if she got involved in that fight.
The kid jumped up and shoved the woman against the granite wall of the building along the sidewalk.
Crud.
Shoving down her bike stand, Evalle yanked off her helmet and gasped for air. Sulfur burned her throat. Her beast sent a tremble through her body. Before she could dismount, the woman had coldcocked the teenager.
As Evalle rushed over, the woman just walked away casually, as if she’d only stopped to ask directions of a passing stranger. When Evalle reached the young man he turned out to be in his early twenties.
She coughed from the sickening sulfuric air and bent down to give the kid a hand, asking, “You okay?”
He shoved up and swung a fist at her.
She caught his arm. “Whoa. Stop it.”
“Screw you. Get your hand off me or I’ll kill you.” He swung another punch she knocked away. His eyes were crazy wild.
She let him go with a shove to create space between them.
This fog was affecting humans.
Her first thought had been to warn him to stay away from the fog, but this guy was out of his mind. Instead, she pulled her glasses off and let him have a look at something really scary.
His eyes practically popped out of his head. He turned and ran.
Any other time she’d protect her nonhuman identity, but with this kind of insanity going on no one was going to believe him if he told them about glowing green eyes.
