Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(46)

thrill of seeing Miranda chased away the bad aroma. A few nurses sat typing at movable work desks. He spotted Agent Jankowski standing in the

hall, his phone to his ear, a scowl on his lips.

“What is it?” Perry asked.

He hung up. “They took Tabitha Evans up for an emergency MRI on the sixth floor about ten minutes ago. Agent Farrell went with her. The nurse

came by and I asked how long it would take. She didn’t think one was ordered. She’s checking on it. But Farrell isn’t answering his phone.

Reception is shit here, but I don’t like it.”

“Me, neither.” Perry’s gaze shifted to the door. “You sure Miranda’s okay?” He took a step toward the door.

“Yeah, her parents are still here.”

He stopped. Mr. and Mrs. Kane weren’t Perry fans.

“I’ll check on Farrell,” Perry said.

He got off the elevator on the sixth floor. Empty silence greeted him. The lights were dim. Was anyone even on the floor?

Moving with caution, he heard a faint noise. A moan. Considering he was in the hospital, it shouldn’t alarm him. It did.

This floor didn’t seem to be used for patient rooms—just offices and labs.

His first instinct was to prepare himself to shift. Problem was that shifting in a public place should be a last resort. Breathing in deeply,

he cut his eyes left then right, listening.

Only the silence rained down.

A sign marked RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT pointed down the empty hall. He continued that way, following another sign and turning, purposely keeping

his footfalls as quiet as possible.

The moan came again. He tracked the sound to a waiting room. An empty gurney was left in the middle of the room, the sheet dangled off the

mattress to the floor. Had they brought Tabitha down on that?

On the counter, a note hung: PLEASE SIGN IN.

He edged over and looked at the clipboard. No one was signed in.

A door led the way to the back. Another note hung there. PLEASE WAIT TO BE CALLED BACK.

He couldn’t wait.

He pushed his way in, the door creaked, as if needing a squirt of oil. Then it swooshed closed. Darkness rushed at him. He blinked to help his

vision adjust.

Pausing, he felt it again. Something was wrong.

A dangerous kind of wrong.

He reached for his phone, but he heard another sound. The distinctive moan of someone hurting.

Someone needing help.

His next step was met with a fist to his face. Slammed against a wall, pain exploded behind his right eye. Unable to stop it, his blood started

to fizz. The need to morph, to protect himself, made his skin tingle. He inhaled deeply. The vision of a lion, strong, hungry, and mad, filled

his mind. He gritted his teeth to stop the shift from happening.

Stiffening his shoulders, he forced himself to rely on his physical strength. Something he’d worked on. Something he should be able to count

on.

He heard movement and spotted a figure coming at him.

He swung his fist, made contact, and heard the person hit the ground. He didn’t stay down long, but after he sprung to his feet, he collapsed

against the wall.

“Kinda hurts, doesn’t it?” Perry said. Ready for round two, he fisted his hands, ignoring that his knuckles now throbbed in rhythm with his

eye.

Trying to focus on the shadowy figure, he took another step. Time to end this. But Perry tripped over something … or someone. Someone lying

dead still on the floor. He pushed up, his palms slid on a thick substance on the floor. The coppery scent of blood filled his nose.

Another moan told Perry his reason for falling was still alive. The door he’d seconds ago entered whooshed open and closed. Perry bounced up

to give chase, but the person losing blood caught Perry’s ankle and yanked him back. The slick sticky blood on the ground added to his second

fall.

“Let go!” Perry demanded, not knowing if the person was friend or foe.

When the demand wasn’t met and he could hear the jerk who’d hit him running away, Perry kicked his foot to lose the hold. The shoe connected

with something solid. Another moan escaped. If he was friend not foe, Perry would apologize, but not now.

He bolted up and shot out the door.

The need to shift rose again. He fought it.

He shot through the waiting room, his heart thump-thumping against his chest, then stopped. Looking both left and right, he saw no one. The

elevator down the hall to his right dinged as if opening. He started toward it, but then a whoosh of another door closing echoed down the hall

to the left.

He shot left, guessing that someone escaping would choose a faster route than the elevator.

At the end of the hall was a door, still shifting back and forth. He entered another black room. Only this time the sound of traffic below

filled the darkness. His gaze darted around. Seeing no one, he walked to the window. His feet crunched on shards of glass.

Someone had broken the window. Had they jumped out? Perry hadn’t heard it break. Perhaps it had been broken earlier.

He recalled he was on the sixth floor. No human could jump.

Unsure, he shifted his gaze up, down, left, right. Only empty shadows hid in the corners. He blinked, his right eye throbbed, and his hand hurt