Read Online Predator by Janice Gable Bashman - Free Book Online Page B

they headed over to the haunted house. Moans and groans piped through the outdoor speakers. They pushed through the door and were met with cackles, and laughs, and screams. Fog everywhere. Dim yellow lights leading the way.
    Three steps in, a bloodied zombie popped up from behind a gravestone on Bree’s right; another quickly followed on the left; two more behind her. The zombies shuffled closer and closer, forcing Bree and Liam to move farther into the haunted house.
    At the end of the passageway, the zombies dropped out of sight, and a door slammed shut behind Bree and Liam, plunging them into darkness. Far ahead a faint red glow was the only source of light. From out of the near pitch black, sets of bright yellow eyes appeared and then disappeared. Dozens of them. First on one side and then the other. They were all around her. The eyes kept moving, appearing and disappearing, never revealing their positions for longer than a second or two.
    To Bree the eyes didn’t feel like any simple haunted house effect. It was as if the eyes belonged to Kelsi. The bog body. The mysterious woman at the bog. And the person in green outside Doolin’s. Unknown eyes demanding so much of her.
    A sick wail pierced the air, shot through her, and whisked away her power to speak. She fished for Liam’s hand and laced her fingers through his. Holding on tightly, Bree took a tentative step and then another. The eyes moved closer and closer together until they formed a wall around Bree and Liam. Bree moved a few paces forward and the eyes moved with her, narrowing the space between them.
    Just when it seemed the eyes were within Bree’s reach, a blast of cold air hit the back of her neck. Bree screamed and Liam jumped. She spun around and wrenched Liam’s arm in the process, but she couldn’t see much of anything in the dark, not a hint of movement or a shadow or a zombie.
    A bang at the back of the room startled Bree. She turned to see a group of rowdy kids pushing past the door and into the space. The kid in the lead must have caught sight of the yellow eyes because he froze all of a sudden, and the guy behind him plowed into his back.
    Liam chuckled. “Let’s go,” he said and pulled Bree with him.
    A door in front of them flew open. They stepped through it, left the kids behind, and entered a room filled with giant bloodied beasts at least twice Bree’s size. The beasts were ugly and scary and huge. They had distorted faces and long hands and held an assortment of weapons straight out of a sci-fi movie. They lumbered toward Bree and Liam like they meant business.
    Laughing and holding hands, Bree raced with Liam through the rest of the haunted house. The last room was dark, empty, and silent. They passed through it without waiting to see what would happen. When they pushed back outside, the sights and sounds of the carnival assaulted Bree’s senses.
    “That was fun,” Liam said. “Did you like it?”
    She didn’t tell him how deeply the events of the past few days had rattled her and how creepy goings-on were becoming a bit too real in her life. Instead Bree nodded. “Yeah, it was great.”

Chapter Twenty
     
    It took four long days to get the results they so desperately wanted. When Bree and her dad heard Conor yell that the DNA results were ready, her dad pushed off of his stool so quickly it rolled across the floor and smashed into a table behind him. He rushed out of the lab.
    Bree followed her dad down the hall. He headed straight for the sequencer and studied the results without saying a word. Bree searched her dad’s face for clues, but it was as readable as a rock.
    She looked over at Liam. He fiddled with a pen, and when his eyes settled on hers, she knew he was as eager to hear the results as much she was.
    “Well?” Bree said, thinking it would be so cool if her dad confirmed she had discovered a lycanthrope hand. She’d go on “Good Morning America” and be in all the papers and on the news; everyone at school