Chapter 30

“What attacked him?” Joan asked even as she grabbed a bottle of clear liquid from one of a multitude of shelves and began to douse a clean cloth in it.

“Werewolf,” Archer said matter-of-factually.

To my astonishment, Grandma Joan didn’t even blink at the answer. Instead, she turned to lean over Mathew and said to Archer, “Remove the bandaging so I can take a look.”

I stepped back to allow Archer to get a better vantage point and watched as he began to unwrap Zoe’s blood-soaked cardigan from Mathew’s chest.

“Goodness!” Joan paused for only a moment when she saw the wounds. Her face became pale, but she held onto a professional facade as she began to dab at the wounds with the cloth she’d soaked. As she did, the strong smell of alcohol hit my nostrils. Mixed with the irony scent of blood, it threatened to make me gag.

“Bri, why don’t you go and wait upstairs?” Archer suggested as if he sensed my sudden need to puke.