The Hotel – 26

I think I must have passed out from terror and shock because the next thing I knew Edwin was kneeling beside me as I lay on the snowy ground. "I told you that you should have stayed at the hotel," he said softly.

"That didn't happen. It couldn't have," I managed to say.

He nodded. "I can understand why you feel that way, but it did. Henry's a shifter." He paused, looking at the others. "We all are."

"Like hell! This is…is some sort of bad nightmare. I'll wake up back in bed, wondering what I ate to…" My words petered out when the wolf that had come with Orville suddenly transformed into Logan.

"It's not a nightmare," Logan said. "We truly are shifters. Sort of like in the movies—" he chuckled, "—only better."

"Edwin," I whimpered. "Tell me I'm seeing things."

"I wish I could," he replied, putting one arm around me to help me sit up. Standing was not an option quite yet. I was too shaken.

"There's no such thing as shifters," I whispered. "Next thing you know, you'll be telling me there really was a Dracula."

"Some people believe Vlad the Impaler was him—or the vampire who was basis for the story at least," Orville replied.

I took a deep breath, trying to believe—everything. "You, too?" I asked Edwin.

He nodded. "I was the wolf you and your friends saw the first evening you were here."

"What about…?" I hesitated. "Is Vern one? And Logan's wife and daughter?" I looked at Logan.

"Yes," Logan replied. He chuckled. "It runs in the family, so to speak, so Brenda definitely is a shifter."

"Oh…hell."

"You probably don't want to know this," Orville said, smiling wryly. "The town? It's all shifters. A safe haven for us, so to speak."

Something occurred to me just then. "That's why you were able to find Tessa even though she was well hidden," I said to Henry. "You sniffed her out."

"Yes. It took me longer than it should have, because of the snow, but I did."

"Then you should be able to scent whoever put her there."

Edwin shook his head. "Any traces of them are gone, no thanks to the weather."

"So you have no idea who killed her." I couldn't believe I was asking a group of… "Are you a pack?"

"Those of us connected to the hotel are," Edwin replied. "Orville and some of the townspeople form another pack. The rest of them are, excuse the rather trite expression, lone wolves who came to us seeking a safe haven."