“You probably are a little crazy,” Paige agreed. “But you must also be something else to have made it this far. Gerald wouldn’t have sent you to me unless he saw some spark in you.”
“I barely even knew the guy.”
“Exactly! You barely even knew him, but you still made a promise to him and you kept it. Plenty of people do the first part, but not many bother with the rest. Let me ask you something,” Paige said as she turned off of I–290. “What did the rest of those people do when that thing attacked?”
“And that’s another thing! What the hell is a Full Blood?”
“We’ll get to that later. Just answer the question.”
“They screamed,” Cole replied. “They ran. They died. There was a whole lot of the last one going around.”
Paige nodded and ran the tip of her tongue along her upper lip. “And what did you do?”
“Not much. I tried to get some of those people out of there. I tried to help Gerald or find Brad, but I wound up getting my ass knocked against a wall.”
“You tried to fight,” she said emphatically. Pointing a finger at him, she added, “You tried to fight even though you had no clue what you were up against and you had no weapon to use against it. You tried to help those people, and when it was all over, you made a promise to a dying man and went through a whole lot of craziness to see it through. That’s extraordinary, Cole.”
Although he’d been ready to fire back with something else, he didn’t quite know how to respond when she looked at him with genuine admiration. “Uh…thanks?”
“What did Brad and Gerald do when the thing attacked?”
“I don’t even know. All I do know is that they were the only ones to even scratch it. They saved my life.”
“That’s right,” she said while patting the bundle resting on Cole’s knee. “And because you brought this knife back, we’ll be able to make that sacrifice worthwhile.”
No matter how many gruesome images filled Cole’s mind, he couldn’t be diverted from the fact that Paige’s hand was in his lap. Sure, there might have been some steel wrapped in a plastic bag and cotton rags separating her from the rest of him, but he could feel the warmth of her touch all the way through those things. Looking up at her, he raised his eyebrows and smirked.
“Good Lord,” Paige grumbled as she took her hand back. “I thought you were supposed to be traumatized.”
“I am, but I’m not dead.”
Paige shook her hand while weaving between two cars that had the nerve to uphold the speed limit and replied, “I can fix that real quick.”
“So tell me about the Full Blood,” Cole said, as a way to steer the conversation out of the weeds. “Was Gerald after that thing?”
“We don’t know for certain it was a Full Blood yet,” Paige declared. “But they sure as hell weren’t in Canada for that. Full Bloods are smart, though, and somehow this one must have found them before they could prepare for it.”
Cole looked out the window to watch as more of Chicago flew by. He pulled in a deep breath and let it out through his nose.
“You seem to be taking all of this pretty well,” Paige said. “Better than Brad did, anyway.”
“Let me guess. You were all chasing ghosts together or maybe trying to snap a picture of Bigfoot?”
“What?” Paige said as a scowl settled upon her face.
“That phone number,” Cole said. “You know…Stu? MEG Branch 40?”
Paige nodded and her scowl disappeared. “Oh! The MEG guys. We just use those guys for communications and the occasional high-tech thingie.”
“High-tech thingie? You keep talking like that and you’ll ruin that tough exterior you’re trying to maintain.”
Paige glanced over at him with a cute smirk that made her nose crinkle. By now some more of her hair had slipped from where it was tied in the back so it could dangle on either side of her face. In the glow from the cars and streetlights that rushed past the window, a light brown hue could be seen amid the strands of black. “It’s a long story, but the MEG guys investigate hauntings and demons and other crap like that all over the country.”
“Ghosts don’t rank as high as monsters, huh?” Cole chuckled.
Shrugging impassively, Paige continued. “The ectological group crossed our paths a few times after one of the founders nearly got killed by a Half Breed in western Nebraska.”
“A Half Breed?”
“More about that later,” she said while quickly waving away the questions Cole was about to ask. “Anyway, MEG’s already got an international system set up to communicate with all their members and branches. Since they spend most of their time videotaping haunted houses or trying to talk to static, nobody really watches them too closely in any official way.”
“And anyone who might listen in on their networks wouldn’t be too surprised to hear talk about a monster attack?” Cole asked.
“Bingo,” Paige replied with a snap of her fingers. “They’re really nice, but they get a bit too anxious sometimes. Whenever we run across something that’s not too dangerous, we hand it over to MEG and they put it on a T-shirt or sell it to some kook on eBay. We get our own little section of their network and help with the technical stuff, and they get exclusives that no other paranormal club or tabloid would ever dream of. Everybody’s happy.”
“Yeah,” Cole grumbled as he looked out the window at scenery that appeared to be worsening with every block. “Everybody’s real happy. I understand Gerald wasn’t your husband, but you don’t seem too broken up about him or Brad dying.”
“Dying sure beats the alternative.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that the thing you saw in Canada wasn’t the only thing out there.”
Cole gripped the door with one hand and the dash with the other. “Holy shit! There’s one of those things out here? We’re heading toward it?”
“No,” she said impatiently. “There are all kinds of different shapeshifters, just like there are all kinds of other supernatural things out roaming around.”
“Like what?” he asked uneasily.
Twisting her mouth in a shape that drifted from a frown to a wince and back again, she replied, “It’s actually easier for you to see for yourself. I’m taking you to meet someone who will answer some questions I have. Get a good look at him. Ask him anything you like. He’s a doctor, so he likes explaining things, but also look and tell me if you saw anyone else like him up in that cabin.”
“How will I know if anyone looked like him?”
“You’ll need a comparison. That’s why you’re with me now.” Glancing over to his side of the car, Paige added, “You’re quick.”
Watching the city roll past his window, Cole waited for more of an explanation. When he didn’t get it, he gritted his teeth and let out an exasperated sigh. The more he stewed, the more Paige seemed to enjoy it. Finally, he snapped. “So what else are we talking about? Zombies? Vampires? Trolls? Hit me with it.”
Paige raised an eyebrow. “Two out of three ain’t bad, but you only get to see one tonight.”
“What?”
Ignoring his question, she turned onto a dirty street that was populated with dirty men and women dressed in next to nothing. Junkies twitched in the alleys and car stereos thumped their bass lines into the cool breezes blowing in from Lake Michigan. “We’re here,” she said. “Stay quiet and follow my lead. If anything happens to me, you get behind this wheel and…oh, what the hell is this?”
Before Cole could say another word, Paige stopped the car. She rolled down the window and within a few seconds a woman with smooth skin the color of lightly creamed coffee approached her. She was a thin, wiry Latina wearing a tattered denim miniskirt and a bright red halter top beneath a jacket that looked as if it had been made from a very unfortunate poodle. When she bent down to lean against Paige’s window, the Latina pressed her pert breasts together in a move that had been honed to perfection.