HECTOR BAYES

Kalden had been standing over the puddle of inky black when I’d burst into the room, the creature turning to ink only seconds before my eyes could pick out what it was.

“What the fuck is going on?” I growled, hooking a claw over the stunned man’s shoulders with my eyes trained on the girl sitting, spread out beneath him.

Something struck me as very wrong as I closed the distance between us and put my arms around the slightly shivering girl.

Smiling. Nola had been smiling.

“It just, I think it came from outside. But how did it get up the walls?” Kalden whispered distractedly, seeming at...