Paranormal Hunter Chapter 2

“It’s alright, Carter,” Janine reassured me from her spot in the clearing. “I won’t be frightened… I’ve read up on werepanthers enough to know what they look like.”

Was this another trick? For all I knew, Janine was with the same group of people that had just captured me, and she was trying to lure me out so she could finish me off.

As if she’d even stand a chance.

I’d just torn through ten guys like they were made of wet toilet paper. Even if this woman wanted to hurt me, she was probably one-hundred and twenty pounds sopping wet and didn’t look to be armed.

I wasn’t afraid of her.

At the same time, something deep down in my very core told me there was nothing to worry about. Like this little voice in the back of my mind that told me Janine wasn’t a threat. It was the same little voice that had been screaming at me to escape the whole time I was tied down.

Listening to it before seemed to work out pretty damn well, so I supposed it would work out again.

I let out a deep, powerful sigh as I stood from my crouched position, and then I cautiously lumbered through the bushes and out into the clearing.

Janine’s brown eyes grew as wide as her glasses when she saw me approaching. Her hands crossed over her busty chest as she held herself tightly, and her lips pursed together as she stared up at my head. Even though she was trying to put on a tough face, her hands seemed to be trembling against her inner elbows, and her body was so tensed up I was afraid her muscles were going to snap like overstrained rubber bands.

I honestly couldn’t blame her. I didn’t know exactly what I had become, but I sure as hell knew it wasn’t something you saw every day walking down the streets of Cincinnati.

Maybe I could calm her down by reaffirming it was me… If I could even communicate at all.

“J-Janine?” I finally managed to ask. “Janine Beckett?”

Even from my perspective, my voice sounded completely different. It was much deeper, with a hint of a growl that rolled off my tongue with each word I uttered. It also felt like it came from down in the pit of my stomach, rather than through my throat or vocal chords like normal.

I honestly didn’t know how she was still standing there.

If I’d seen a giant furry monster with claws step out of the bushes and say my name, I would have been gone before they even got to the second syllable.

However, Janine had the complete opposite reaction. Her thin lips twisted into a large grin, and she tilted her head to the side as she blinked in disbelief.

“So they can talk…” the redhead mused. “I knew Gottinger’s theory was total bullshit.”

“I-I’m very confused,” I grumbled, and my voice continued to sound like gravel in a coffee grinder. “What am I? Where am I? Why are you here?”

“We can talk about that in a minute.” Janine shook her head. “I’m guessing those men who snatched you up earlier are all dead?”

My stomach twisted into a knot at her words.

“How did you know about them?” I growled, and she took a step back with a gasp.

“I saw you get captured!” the archaeology student said as she froze in place. “I promise, that’s all that happened. I saw you over by the steps eating your lunch, and then you passed out. I watched those OLG members snatch up your body, so I followed them out here-- Which was not an easy task, by the way. So… You’re welcome.”

“OLG?” I tilted my head curiously. “What in the fuck is an OLG?”

“It’s an acronym for the Ordo Lunae Deus, or the ‘Order of the Lunar God’ in English,” Janine explained as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “They’re very, very bad news. They have been around all throughout history. And they’ve been watching--”

Suddenly, without any sort of warning, a sharp twinge flared in my stomach and caused me to double over in pain. I grabbed my stomach as I fell to my knees and let out a snarl, and then I slammed my right paw into the ground.

“W-What’s happening to me?” I demanded.

“You’re changing back,” Janine said with excitement in her voice. “How lucky am I, huh? I don’t think anybody’s ever seen a werepanther transform back and live to talk about it.”

Wow. So lucky.

My muscles felt like they were being crushed inside of my flesh as my arms and legs began to constrict back down to their original size. My razor-sharp canines started to shrink with a burning sensation as well, and the hair all over my body thinned until it was back to the point where it was barely noticeable.

“Ughhh,” I groaned as I curled up into the fetal position, and then I realized I could now feel the wet, squishy mud against my bare skin.

I was fucking naked.

In front of the hottest girl in my school.

All of the animalistic, instinctual rage and adrenaline that had coursed through my body evaporated like smoke, and all of the sudden, I was nerdy, naked Carter Hatfield again.

This was like a freaking nightmare.

“I’m sorry!” I gasped in my human voice as I threw my hands down over my exposed manhood. “I totally didn’t know I wasn’t gonna have my clothes!”

“It’s alright,” Janine giggled awkwardly as her face turned beet red, and she shielded her eyes with her hand. “I kinda wondered if that would be the case.”

“Well, fuck,” I sighed as I pulled myself to my feet and then dove behind a tree for cover. “I can’t just be standing around in the forest naked. I’ll have mosquito bites in places I didn’t even know existed.”

“You’re in luck,” Janine noted as she reached up and began to unbutton her shirt. “I’ve got an idea.”

“Uhhhhh, I don’t think you getting naked too is gonna help the situation,” I blurted out, and then I facepalmed.

I had to be the only guy to have ever encouraged Janine Beckett to keep her clothes on.

“I’m wearing a sports bra underneath here,” the redhead promised. “You can tie my shirt around your waist until we get back to the car. If anybody comes across us on the way, we can just tell them we’re joggers out for an evening run.”

“In the summer, in Cincy?” I laughed with a hint of hysteria. “You’d get carried away by all the bugs. I appreciate it, though.”

Here I was, naked in front of an undressing Janine Beckett, with blood still speckled across my body, and I was trying to joke about mosquitoes.

What had happened to my life?

Then my existentialism was derailed as I watched Janine remove her green top. As she slid it over her shoulders, the archaeology student revealed the silver and gray camouflage sports bra underneath. It clung to her perfect breasts like a second skin, and its curved neckline plunged down so far that Janine’s cleavage was almost on full display. Her pale stomach was perfectly toned, with a cute little outie belly button right underneath the line of her sports bra.

Damn. I was really glad she couldn’t see me right now, because I was worried I was gonna start pitching a tent.

Metaphorically anyway. Because of the no pants dilema.

When I looked down at my naked body, I made another startling discovery.

My wounds were gone. During the scuffle with all of the robed men, I had been stabbed at least twice. Yet, my skin was still in perfect shape. I didn’t even have any bruises from the transformation or even the blood of any of the men I’d killed.

Shit. I didn’t know what they’d drugged me with, but it must have been some good stuff.

“Here,” Janice muttered as she walked over to the tree and held out the shirt. “I know it’s not much, but at least you can tie it around your waist and hide your- stuff.”

“I’m gonna be the hottest soccer mom this side of Ohio,” I joked weakly before I tugged the shirt out of her hands.

I heard Janice let out an amused chuckle as I wrapped the loose shirt around the back of my waist. I positioned the buttons so they were against my outer right thigh and then haphazardly buttoned every other one. The garment fit about as good as an old, stretched out leather glove, but it got the job done. Between the loose fabric around my bottom and the darkness of the night, at least nobody was gonna see my junk. I took a step out from behind my cover and adjusted the shirt one last time before I faced Janine.

“Now,” the woman said as she placed her hands on her hips. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are a bunch of dead guys not too far from here, right? Men who were brutally slaughtered?”

“What are you getting at?” I questioned as I narrowed my eyes. “And why the hell did I change back? And what is the OLG?”

“We can talk about this later.” Janine turned and motioned for me to follow her. “I heard a bunch of blood curdling murder-screams coming out of the forest, and I’m sure other people did, too. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want me or my car to be seen fleeing a crime scene.”

“Speaking of witnesses,” I gulped as I patted my naked body for effect. “My wallet, keys, and phone are all back there--”

“No, they aren’t.” Janine shook her head. “Those men emptied your pockets before they threw you in the van. This is an ancient mystic cult that has survived for thousands of years… They’re not stupid enough to leave their victim’s evidence on his body.”

“Where did they put it all, then?” I raised an eyebrow and adjusted the buttons on my side. “Back in the van?”

“They threw your stuff in the Ohio River,” Janine sighed. “I would have tried to stop them, but it would have blown my cover.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I reassured her. “I’d much rather buy a new phone and order some new credit cards and licenses than get you dragged into this and killed.”

“You aren’t dragging me into this.” The archaeology student shrugged. “I’m the one who followed you here. Now let’s get going.”

As drop-dead gorgeous as Janine Beckett was, I was still a bit weirded out over the fact she’d been watching me. But for how long, and how intensely?

Was she just keeping an eye on me in the middle of our classes? Or was she actually like, following me back to the dorms at night and watching me sleep? I knew she’d been observing me when I was abducted. Did that mean she kept eyes on me twenty-four seven? Surely, this lady had to sleep sometime.

I didn’t know whether or not to be honored, turned on, or freaked out. Ever since I was a middle schooler, I’d dreamed of catching the eye of the hottest girl in my school. Now I had it, and I was starting to understand the phrase “careful what you wish for.”

Still, I was completely in the dark about everything that just happened. Even at this point I wasn’t sure if I’d actually seen what I had, or if it was all some sort of hallucination brought on by the drugs I’d been slipped.

Either way, I knewthe abduction was real. I knew those men back there had been real, and I knew Janine was real.

How did they all fit together, though? Finding the answer was gonna take a bit more investigation.

And the only way I was going to learn anything was by going with the stalker woman.

“Fair enough,” I admitted. “But you’re going to answer all my questions. Because I have a fuck ton.”

“I’ll answer what I can,” Janine agreed. “But I think you’re gonna be disappointed when you find out I don’t have all the information you want to hear.”

Given that I had about zero info about my sudden panther-ness, literally anything would help.

“Awww, come on,” I chuckled as we moved through the woods. “You’re Janine Beckett. You always knew the answers in our classes.”

The two of us had never directly spoken before, but I remembered Janine from several of our mutual classes. And, in every single one, she caught the eye of every single guy around her.

Yet, she never seemed to care. Janine was always laser-focused on the lecturer or slides at the front of the room, and she always had a notebook in front of her that she wrote in at like, a thousand words per minute. She was always dressed for success in a cute yet professional top and either leggings or jeans, with a ponytail held up high above her head. Every now and then, a few strands of her strawberry red hair would slip out of the scrunchie and hang down the side of her face as she focused. It was fucking adorable.

Fuck. Who was the stalker, again?

I never in a million years thought Janine would have noticed me, let alone know my name and actively want to be around me.

Yet here I was.

“Those were all fields of study that had been around for centuries and were widely accepted by the academic body,” the redhead muttered. “Believe it or not, it’s very difficult to find peer-reviewed material and universally-accepted theories within para-archaeology.”

“Is that what you’re studying?” I continued to make conversation as I held one hand on the shirt at my waist and kept my head on a swivel. “I know we had like, four anthropology classes together.”

“One archaeology, two anthropology, and three history,” Janine corrected. “Plus intro to psychology and marketing one-oh-one.”

“But who’s counting?” I snorted, but something inside me preened at the idea she kept track.

We pressed on for about ten more minutes, until we finally emerged out of the forest into a small parking lot. A single charcoal-colored Pontiac Grand Prix sat off to the far side of the lot, and its hue made it nearly impossible to distinguish from the darkness around it.

“That would be me.” Janine smirked as she pulled out a set of keys on a black and gold lanyard and clicked the “unlock” button. “Jump in.”

I strode over to the passenger side of the vehicle, pulled it open, and slid down into the dark fabric seats. As I clicked my belt, Janine slipped in behind the wheel and inserted the keys.

The woman turned the key with a sudden twist, which caused the vehicle to turn over a few times.

“Ugh… this old thing. Now is not the time to be a bitch. Come on…” She let out a frustrated sigh before she took a deep breath and tried again. This time, the car turned over three times before finally, it sputtered to life. Janine killed all of her lights as she tossed it into reverse, and then she pulled out onto the main road.

We drove in silence for a few minutes, and my mind raced with things to say. But what do you say to the hottest girl in your class who just saw you turn into a werepanther? I was stumped on that one, but eventually the silence became too much, and I cleared my throat.

“Sooooo…” I trailed off as I looked out the window for any sign of witnesses. “Where exactly are we going? And please tell me that, wherever it is, they have clothes.”

“We can stop by the Walmart in Fairfield,” Janine conceded. “I think that’s the only one that’s twenty-four hours around here.”

“We’re all the way over in Fairfield?” I whistled. “They went really far out of their way to kill me.”

It was only about a ten minute drive to the store, so we got there in no time at all. Janine pulled the car into one of the parking spaces before she killed the engine and looked over at me with a chuckle.

“Is there anything in particular you want me to get?” she asked. “Also, what sizes?”

“I’m not really picky,” I admitted. “I’ll wear just about anything besides jean shorts. Or those tie-dye shirts with the animals on them. Other than that, go with your gut. Large shirt and size thirty-four pants.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in with me?” The redhead raised an eyebrow and smirked. “I know you’re in nothing but a loosely-wrapped toga right now, but it’s Walmart. They’re not going to say anything.”

“I think this is a little much,” I argued. “Even for a one in the morning Walmart run.”

“So, a pair of jean shorts and a tie-dye wolf shirt.” Janine winked as she popped open her door. “Got it.”

The archaeology student slid out of the vehicle and then strutted toward the entrance of the store. Meanwhile, I just sat there with my mind racing a mile a minute.

Since when was I a werepanther? And why did those men even want to kill me in the first place? I’d never met any of them before in my life. The thing that chilled me to the bone, though, was the thought of my transformation.

What the fuck triggered it, and what turned me back?

The last thing I needed on my plate right now was an uncontrollable condition where I could accidentally hulk out and murder people at any second.

I sat there mulling over my thoughts until Janine returned to the car with two plastic bags in her hands. She tossed open the driver’s side door before she jumped into the Grand Prix, and then the redhead tossed one of the bags into my lap.

“Oh thank God,” I said through a sigh of relief as I dug through the bag. “I thought you were serious about the wolf shirt.”

“They didn’t have one,” Janine admitted. “Though there was this great purple tie-dye tee with a jaguar on it… I thought it’d be fitting.”

“That’s alright.” I shook my head and pulled out the clothes. “This is perfect.”

Inside the bag were some very cheap, generic-branded clothes. There was a pair of green and blue plaid boxer shorts, a plain gray henley shirt, a pack of socks, some dad style Newbalance-looking shoes, and a pair of blue jeans with a belt. I awkwardly slid the boxers onto my body underneath Janine’s shirt, which I then unfastened from my waist and tossed into her back seat. I then proceeded to slip into the jeans, belt, and the henley before I pulled on my socks and slid the shoes over my feet.

“Thanks, Janine,” I sighed once I was all done. “I feel a million times better now.”

“I also got us a couple of energy drinks,” the redhead noted. “I wasn’t sure if you were a Red Bull kinda guy, or if you liked Monster or NOS.”

“As long as it does the trick, I don’t care,” I said. “What do we need drinks for, though?”

“You said you had a bunch of questions,” Janine explained. “If you want me to try and answer any of them, we’re gonna be awake for a while longer. Plus, I figured we’d need to stop by the school library the second it opens so I can show you all the awesome research that’s been done on your condition. And maybe to find some additional answers I haven’t even looked for yet.”

“Hold on, hold on…” I shook my head and held my hands up. “Let’s take a step back here. I appreciate all the help you’ve given me so far, Janine, but what the hell? Like… we’ve never even spoken to each other before, and now suddenly the hottest woman in school is following me around at midnight and offering to drive me everywhere?”

“You think I’m the hottest girl at school?” Janine whispered as she looked down at the floor.

I felt all the blood in my body rush to my face, and I instantly cleared my throat awkwardly.

“Don’t, uh, dodge the question,” I said as I tried to change the subject. “Why did you follow those cult members, and how in the fuck did you know I was a werecat?”

“Werepanther,” the redhead corrected. “And I followed you because it was the right thing to do.”

“Ohhhhhhh, no.” I clicked my tongue. “Literally anybody else in that situation would have called the police or screamed for help. Why did you follow them out into the woods, alone?”

“B-Because…” Janine trailed off and sighed. “I wanted to see if my theories were true.”

“Your theories?” I raised an eyebrow as she pulled out of the parking lot. “About me being a werecat or nightpanther or whatever you called me back there?”

“Exactly,” the archaeology student confirmed. “I’ve noticed a lot of things about you, Carter… Things that made me suspicious.”

“So, what?” I grumbled. “You were seriously stalking me?”

The hottest girl in my college had been watching me for god knows how long, and yet she never had the courtesy to even say “hello.” The most interaction the two of us had before tonight was when I accidentally bumped into her and scuffled away while muttering “sorry” under my breath.

“I wouldn’t call it ‘stalking’ per say.” Janine made air quotes. “Think of it more as observing. It’s not like I was memorizing your class schedule or following you back to your dorms or anything. I was just paying extra close attention to you during our classes together, or whenever we’d run into each other on campus.”

“Paying extra attention, huh?” I chuckled. “What exactly were you paying attention to? I mean… I may have been a bit under the weather recently, but I don’t think there were any major signs I was gonna turn into a giant murder cat.”

“Then you weren’t paying enough attention.” Janine smiled. “There are plenty of signs you are one of Baast’s chosen. Your emerald green eyes and jet black hair, for example…. Then there’s the fact you have the literal Mark of Baast on your left shoulder.”

“Mark of-- What?” I shook my head as I tried to wrap my mind around what she was saying. “Are you talking about my birthmark?”

“It’s not a birthmark,” the redhead corrected. “It’s a brand. A brand bestowed upon you by the Goddess Baast when you were still in your mother’s womb.”

“It’s a birthmark…” I trailed off.

“Roll up your sleeve,” Janine sighed. “I’ll show you how I know.”

I just rolled my eyes as I rolled up the left sleeve of my shirt to reveal my arm. It looked about the same as always, pale flesh with a small birthmark about three inches down. The birthmark was the same as it’d always been, a circle of dark red, raised flesh with an ovular white slit in the center and a few strips of white scar tissue that spiderwebbed around the edges.

“Okay,” I admitted. “Maybe I kinda understand how you could see a pattern here.”

“There is definitely a pattern,” the woman explained as she placed her index finger against my flesh. “In Egyptian Mythology, Baast is always depicted as wearing a crimson sun atop her crown. Hence, the red circle on your arm. And that slit at the center? That’s Baast’s pupil.”

“What about the other white strips?” I questioned, though I was still a bit skeptical. “Are those some sort of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics?”

“Not exactly,” she chuckled. “Here’s where it starts to get more complicated… You see, the going theory is those smaller white lines are different on every werepanther, though they indicate certain attributes. For example, do you see how that line at the top right curves down and connects with the one coming up from the opposite side? It means you are a boy.”

“I think I could have figured that one out without mystical markings,” I snickered.

“Of course you could have.” Janine shrugged. “It’s just a correlation. If we found another male werepanther out there in the wild, he would have those exact same lines at the top right and left. If we met a female one, though, those lines wouldn’t be present. It’s kind of like reading tea leaves. They’re different on every single werepanther, but they all have a symbolic meaning to their pattern.”

“Damn.” I whistled. “You’ve really looked into this, haven’t you?”

“I love the paranormal,” Janine said with a smirk. “Most of my professors think I’m a nutcase for it, but they’ll see… Once I write my Doctorate thesis on my experiences with a real-life werepanther? Then we’ll see who’s laughing.”

“Uhhhhhh.” I held up a finger. “I don’t think that paper’s going to have the same impact you think it will. Even if I were to go along with it, which I haven’t even agreed to, by the way… Nobody’s going to actually believe I’m a werepanther. Hell, I’m not even sure I believe what happened back there.”

“That was about as real as you can get, Carter,” Janine explained. “Unless you think those cultists you killed were all just Oscar-worthy actors who could really sell a death scene.”

“I watched their heads explode on their bodies.” I shuddered. “No amount of acting is that good.”

“Exactly.” Janine nodded. “I saw you, Carter, and you saw yourself. You transformed into a werepanther, and then you transformed back into your human form.”

“Okay, Miss Werepanther expert,” I said as I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“W-What do you mean, ‘why?’” the redhead sputtered.

“Why did I turn into a werepanther,” I elaborated. “And why did I turn back?”

“I… I don’t know,” Janine sighed.

“I thought you were the expert on this stuff!”

“I love the paranormal and the occult,” the archaeology student confirmed. “But most of my knowledge of werepanthers is limited to the research I’ve done since I suspected you were one. So maybe like, two months? That’s why I want to show you these books in the library.”

“Okay, okay,” I conceded and rubbed at my face. “Two months is still a lot of time. Tell me what you know about my condition.”

“It’s a fairly complex subject,” Janine admitted. “I really want to take you to the library so I can show—”

“Just give me like an elevator pitch to start,” I said.

“Okay. There are very few paranormal scholars who have actually met a werepanther in the flesh and lived to tell the tale. Everybody else just has second and third-hand accounts, as well as the Occult mythology and history that surrounds the legend for those who shift with the power of Baast. Like I said, I really want to take you to the library so—”

“Tell me more about Baast,” I said with a frown. “She’s the Egyptian goddess of fertility and warfare, right?”

“Fertility, warfare, protection, music, pregnancy, and ointments,” the redhead clarified. “Basically, there are stories dating back to prehistoric times that speak of men and women who could transform into human-animal hybrids. In Ancient Egypt, though, people started to associate the transformations with the various gods and goddesses. There were whispers all around Ancient Egypt of humans who could turn into cobras, eagles, crocodiles, and, of course, cats.”

“If I recall correctly, there were also stories about how one god tricked another god into sparing all of humanity by replacing blood with beer,” I reminded the woman. “A lot of crazy shit goes on in ancient mythology.”

“But nothing backed up by the research.” Janine shook her head. “There was this priest named Beb, who kept a journal about all the strange occurrences that went on in his village. He claimed his village had several protectors who took on the form of a cat, and he started to notice several of his fellow villagers had markings that sounded an awful lot like the one you have, Carter.”

“Then why isn’t this more common knowledge?” I asked. “If I was him, I would be sharing my theories with anybody who would listen.”

“He did,” Janine continued. “Until they found his eviscerated body floating down the Nile and his home completely destroyed.”

“Fuck,” I gulped. “Some protectors they were.”

“Put yourselves in their shoes,” Janine prompted. “The Ancient Egyptians would have killed all of those men and women if they truly believed they were shapeshifters. In fact, if I do end up writing this thesis of mine, I think I’m going to keep your name anonymous. The last thing I want to do is put a target on your back.”

Gee, thanks.

“Let’s say for a second I believe you,” I began. “Let’s say everything that happened back there wasn’t some sort of horrific fever dream or hallucination I had from the drugs those guys slipped to me… Why would Baast select random people like me to wear her mark?”

“That’s what I’m still trying to figure out,” Janine said as her lips twisted into a frown. “Like I said, I don’t have all the answers. Right now I’ve mainly focused on finding references to your condition and learning as much as I can about Baast and her occult.”

“What about the OLG?” I pressed the redhead. “You seemed to know an awful lot about the Order of the Lunar God.”

“What kind of a pararchaeologist would I be if I didn’t know about the OLG?” Janine snorted. “They’re only the most famous Khonsu-worshipping cult in the history of the world.”

“Only,” I snarked. “Unfortunately, I’m more of a military and political history kinda guy. You’re gonna have to fill me in on the details about the OLG.”

“Hold on to your butt.” Janine grinned. “Because I could talk about those guys for hours.”

For the next twenty minutes of the trip, Janine went into a full-on detailed lecture about the Order of the Lunar God and everything they’d done. She talked about how it was rumored they were behind the murder of King Tut, as well as several other mysterious deaths throuhought history. She explained how, in the modern day, they were obsessed with occult objects and the paranormal, and how they even went so far as to summon ancient spirits and demons into our world to do their bidding. Janine also claimed members of the OLG had infiltrated the highest tiers of society, from politics to academia to the military and even the stock market.

It honestly felt like I was listening to a conspiracy theorist podcast the entire trip.

“So, what the hell do these people want?” I finally asked when there was a lull in the conversation. “They’ve got their tentacles in just about everything, but what’s their end game?”

“The same end game as most cults,” Janine sighed. “They want ultimate power. Their official charter states they wish to ‘bask the world in the wondrous moonlight of Khonsu,’ but it doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines.”

“So, what does that have to do with me?” I shook my head. “Or my condition?”

“Well,” Janine said with a half-smile. “It’s pretty obvious they wanted you dead.”

“What gave that away?” I retorted. “The fact they tried to cut out my heart with a dagger? Or maybe the fact they mentioned how this wasn’t their first time doing it?”

“Really?” Janine’s eyes lit up with intrigue. “They’ve sacrificed other people like you before?”

“That’s what they made it sound like.” I shrugged. “I heard them talking about how they knew my powers hadn’t come in yet, which would make it easier to kill me. And I remember one of them talking about a botched sacrifice attempt in another city.”

“So, their sacrifices aren’t random…” Janine gasped. “They’re specifically targeting werepanthers. Or maybe were-creatures of any sort. I don’t know, but I’m super excited to find out more!”

“I’m glad you are,” I grumbled as I rubbed the back of my head. “Because I could go the rest of my life without transforming ever again. That hurt like a bitch.”

“You’re going to have to transform again, Carter,” Janine warned. “There’s no way we can test out your powers if we don’t get you back into your werepanther form.”

“Easy now, Janine,” I said with a frown. “I’m not a guinea pig.”

“I know that,” the redhead reaffirmed. “But you can’t be naive enough to think more members of the OLG won’t be coming. When they do, you’re going to need to be prepared. And the only way to do that is by figuring out the extent of your abilities, and how you can harness them to your will.”

“And so you can observe the whole process,” I teased. “For your paper.”

“If you’re so inclined,” Janine giggled.

Honestly, I was still half in shock from the events that had just transpired. Half of my brain thought it had all been a bad nightmare, but the other half reminded me of the scent of metallic blood and the sensation of getting splattered with brain matter. Plus, the pain of getting stabbed. The wounds may have gone away when I transformed back into a human, but I still vividly remember the feeling of the warm steel as it plunged into my flesh.

Either way, Janine was right. Even if this was all in my head or even if her theories were completely full of shit, more of those guys would be back.

The least I could do was humor her, and try to squeeze out a little bit more information about the Order of the Lunar God while I had such a valuable resource at my disposal.

“Fine,” I finally agreed. “I’ll let you observe me for your thesis. But only under one condition.”

“Anything!” Janine grinned.

“You help me find out more about my condition,” I explained. “I want to know it all, and I want to know how to keep it from happening again.”

“Carter, Carter, Carter.” The redhead clicked her tongue. “There is no stopping it. Now that your powers have manifested, things can never go back to normal. You’re going to have this condition for the rest of your life. And, if you’re not careful, that life won’t be very much longer.”

“That’s why I’ve got you by my side,” I reassured Janine. “What do you suggest we do about it?”

“The same thing I always do when I have questions,” Janine said with a smile. “We go to the library and start to do research!”

“It’s the middle of the night,” I noted as I pointed to the display on her radio. “We’ve still got hours before it actually opens.”

“Not if you’ve got the connections I’ve got.” Janine winked. “I’m in there so often, the librarians will do pretty much anything for me short of giving me a key to the building.”

“I thought you were already the expert on all this shit?” I chuckled as I rubbed the back of my neck. “Can’t you just tell me everything I need to know?”

“I don’t know everything…” the sweet redhead trailed off. “Especially about werepanthers. My studies have mostly only dabbled in cryptozoology, but the occult? Ohhhhh, man I know so much about the occult. Especially the big organizations like the OLG.”

“The fuck is the OLG?” I asked with a huff.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Janine giggled. “I always like to see the reaction on peoples’ faces when they realize my theories and knowledge is actually based on real-life research, and not a bunch of conspiracy videos on Youtube. It’s going to be great! I can’t wait to show you!”

“Really,” I said as I tried again. “You can just tell me. We don’t need to go to the library.”

“Don’t worry about it, Carter,” Janine promised. “It’s no big deal getting into the library at this time of night. Just trust me on this. It will be worth it. You’ll see. Please trust me.”

It was hard to trust anyone at a time like this, but when I saw the joy that flitted behind Janine’s beautiful brown eyes, I couldn’t say no.

At worst, I was stuck in a library after-hours with no supervision with the hottest girl in school while she showed me her hobby, so I wasn’t about to complain.

As we continued our drive, I couldn’t help but think back on everything we’d discussed.

No matter what happened, I knew there was some strange shit going down in southwestern Ohio.

Some strange, deadly shit.

Shit that, like it or not, I had just been thrown straight into.