Free To Walk the Night by E. S. Moore Page B

near leaning against each other and shut off the engine. A trash bin stood about halfway down the alley, blocking off the other side. It smelled heavily of decomposition and death. Either a dozen animals had crawled in there and died, or someone was using the bin as a dumping place for bodies.
    I wasn’t interested in finding out which.
    I walked the Honda as close to the trash bin as I dared. It was well concealed in the shadows. As long as someone didn’t walk into the alley, they wouldn’t see it sitting there.
    Crickets chirruped, another owl hooted, but otherwise nothing seemed to move. There was a rattle above as the wind blew through a broken shutter hanging from a boarded-over window. Other than the usual sounds of the night, it was pretty quiet.
    I walked slowly out of the alley, keeping my eyes peeled for a glimpse of my unseen watcher. I could still feel their eyes on me, but no matter which way I looked, I could see no hint that anyone was there. It was unsettling.
    There wasn’t much else I could do now but go on. I would need to go deeper into the ruined portion of the campus to get to the Den. It wasn’t a thrilling prospect, but it could be far worse. If the streets had been crowded, it would have been far harder to spot a threat. Here, where no one else roamed the sidewalks, any movement at all could be deemed dangerous.
    I strode down the cracked sidewalk, my footfalls echoing eerily off the empty-seeming buildings. I kept my head held high as if I had every right in being there. To show weakness was to invite attack. Any wolves that might be lurking in the dark would go for easy prey first. I could only hope they took my confident stride, the glimmer of my weapons against leather, as a sign of someone not to be fucked with.
    Although there were numerous flickering shadows that all but screamed watchers, no one leaped out at me. I was actually pretty surprised. In a place like this, a lone woman would have been mauled to death before taking a handful of steps. Either I was extremely lucky or the Luna Cult had a tighter hold here than I would have thought possible. I doubted my swagger would really stop a band of wolves from trying to eat me.
    The ruined buildings eventually gave way to an empty green. At the far end of the green stood what was supposedly the Luna Cult Den. The grounds were in just as bad shape as the rest of the campus. But without all the decrepit buildings shedding their stone all over the place, it didn’t look nearly as menacing. Through a copse of trees to my left I could see a small lake, its water shimmering in the moonlight. It must have been a beautiful place at one time.
    I made my way down the empty expanse. I felt horribly exposed, but there was nothing I could do about it. The walkway branched off in a few places, but I kept to the path that led straight to the large building at the end.
    If I knew my history right, the place had once been a library. It looked huge from the outside, a crumbling stone and brick monument of a time long passed. It might have been white once, but now it was more of a parchment yellow. Large windows dominated the front of the building, and the feeling of being watched increased a hundredfold.
    My pace slowed as I neared. If this was indeed the Den, then I should have seen someone by now. A guard should have come out to stop me. They knew I would be coming at some point. Someone should have been there to lead the way.
    Hell, I should have at least spotted a few signs that people had been here at all; but as far as I could tell, I was alone. There were no signs of life in any of the windows, no flutter of a ratty curtain, nothing. The building looked utterly abandoned.
    Warily, I took the large marble stairs, my hands itching to draw my weapons. There was a feeling to the place that set the hairs on the back of my neck to prickling. And those damn eyes were still on me, watching.
    I stopped at the double doors and considered what to do. I could