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When he reaches for the knob, the door flies open, clipping him. The man barrels in and grabs Henry by the shirtfront, both of them skidding backward. I race for them, trying to intervene, but Henry has already gotten free, and the man’s punch skims me instead.

“What the hell?” Caleb shouts.

Henry steadies me while both Caleb and Noemi stand between us and the man.

“We opened the door,” Noemi says. “We let you—”

She stops, and she’s staring at the door. Her voice rises to a squeak. “What is that?”

I see only a pale shape in the darkness, and then Henry is flying across the room, slamming the door and locking it. He leans against it, but outside, everything is quiet.

“What did you see?” Caleb asks Noemi.

“I—I don’t know. It looked like a person. Only—only—”

“It wasn’t a fucking person,” the man snarls.

“A dog maybe?” Caleb says as he tugs Noemi farther from the door.

“It’s not stray dogs,” the man snaps. “You knew that. You knew there was something worse out there, and you let me leave.”

“They did try to stop you,” the bartender says mildly. “Dare I ask what happened to my bike?”

The man lunges at him with a roar. Both Henry and Caleb pull him away as the bartender doesn’t even flinch.

“You said you’re hurt,” I say.

The man jabs a finger at his leg. “Obviously.”

It’s actually hard to tell. His trousers are ripped, and there’s a dark patch that could be blood but the fabric is also soaked with rain and splattered with mud.

Then he yanks up the pant leg to show a bite mark, the gashes torn and bleeding.

“That looks like a dog bite,” Henry says.

“It was not a fucking dog. It was a monster.”

“Monsters?” the bartender says. “Are you sure you don’t want a drink? You seem a little stressed. Car accidents can do that to people.”

The man lunges at him again, with Henry pulling him back.

“Can you not?” I murmur to the bartender, who shrugs and gives me an impish smirk.

“Let me take a look at that leg,” Henry says.

“He’s a paramedic,” Noemi pipes up.

“Good for him,” the man mutters. “Now stay the fuck away from me. All of you. First person who touches me goes out that door at the end of my foot.”

“Excuse me?” Caleb says.

Henry raises a hand to the younger man, warning him not to escalate this. Then he says to the newcomer, “I understand you’re in shock, but you are not going to speak to us like that. We didn’t mean to lock you out, and we opened the door as soon as we realized you were there. We did warn you about the dogs.”

“It was not a fucking—”

“And if you saw something that wasn’t a dog, then I’m not arguing.”

“You sanctimonious—”