Link by Link by Elle Beaumont

Author:Elle Beaumont
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Midnight Tide Publishing

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* * *

“Auntie Hadley!” Katie tried and failed to look properly scandalized. “That’s a dollar in the swear jar.”

“Oops. Don’t tell your dad, and I’ll put in five. Deal?”

Her niece’s smile was a little too smug. “Deal.”

* * *

* * *

The monster opened its maw. Jacob flinched back, bracing himself for pain. Instead, a white fog emerged. It wrapped around his head, thick with the scent of sandalwood and sage. It sank into his skin. Jacob’s eyes rolled up into his head.

His awareness slowly prickled. Jacob groaned.

The sound was wrong in his throat, as if his vocal chords were wrapped in steel wool. The sound rumbled in his chest. He opened his eyes. The world looked wrong, far too large, the edges sharper, the colors strange and surreal. Jacob lifted his hand to wipe his eyes—or he tried to. His body pitched sideways as paws went out from under him.

Paws? Jacob peered down at his body with a growing sense of horror. He scrabbled back, fur dragging over the pavement as his paws slid over the cold, snow-slick stones. Thoughts collided, his mind spinning in useless circles as he looked over his gray tiger-striped body, his short fur matted and dirty from the street. Jacob mewled, shuffling back and forth as he tried to make unfamiliar muscles do what he wanted them to do. It took him several minutes to stand up on his shaky legs.

Slowly, he got a rough sense of his surroundings, deep in a trash-strewn alley. He stumbled toward the sidewalk, appalled by the weakness in his limbs. His belly ached for food. He’d never felt hunger like this, nor the terrible sensation of fleas that crawled under his matted fur. He could feel the things moving on his skin, biting him, but no matter how he scratched at himself, he couldn’t get rid of them.

Jacob walked out onto the sidewalk. He needed help. Somebody had to help him.

A woman in high heels walked by.

‘Help me, please, help me, I’m human,’ he called to her, but she held a hand over her nose and walked faster. This behavior quickly became a pattern as people rushed past or outright ignored him. Why did nobody see him? Why did nobody hear him?

A little girl tried to pet him until her mother yelped and nudged him away with her boot. “Don’t touch him, honey, he’s gross.”

But worse still was the dog. Jacob barely registered the snarl and warning call from the dog’s owner before the slobbering beast charged at him. Jacob scrambled back with a frightened hiss, the dog nipping and chasing him until he dove back into the alley, wedging his body between two trash cans as the dog’s idiotic owner finally wrestled him back on his leash. Even after they were gone, Jacob stayed where he was, too scared to move. How had this happened to him? Why had this happened to him? He wasn’t a bad person. Compared to the rest of his family, he was nearly a saint.

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