Chapter 15

"Tell me again what you say you saw?!" asked Dr. White shocked. This was the first time anyone had any information on the deaths.

Dusty had gotten the girls up as he headed to Dr. White's room. It was on the second floor of where they were staying.

Dr. White came down to view the room then he sent word to Dr. Carmichael that there was another attack and he took everyone to his office, and while he waited Dusty covered what he saw again.

"Like I said, it was a wolf made of fire. But nothing I did would let me hit it, nothing I did affected it. But he was able to kill the guy I was with," said Dusty with a haunted look.

"Russell. Russell was his name. That was who you were with," said Dr. White.

"Russell seemed to be its target. He went right for him and tore out his throat," said Dusty as he stared at nothing still.

"Dusty are you ok?" asked Suzan with a surprising amount of kindness.

She went to hold him, but Lori who was closer got there first and quickly pulled his head over to her shoulder while she rubbed his hair. Dusty didn't even seem to notice as he stared straight ahead.

Suzan's face flashed annoyance before it went back to a neutral expression.

Slowly Dusty pulled away from Lori to sit up as he thought back to what happened.

"He came through the outside wall. We heard the screams of the men next door and as we went to investigate what was happening to them he came through the walls. He seemed to be looking for something, and then he suddenly went for Russell," said Dusty slowly.

"But why were you in his room?" asked Dr. White cautiously.

"We were discussing a ... uh ... friend situation that had come up and I needed him to understand why it wasn't a good idea that it bothered me," said Dusty quietly as he blushed.

Suzan suddenly broke out in a wide grin, but quickly removed it from her face before anyone could see it.

"You don't believe I had anything to do with his death do you?" asked Dusty suddenly nervous while looking over at Dr. White.

"No this had been going on for about a year. Well before any of you showed up. We just have a bit more information to work with this time, that's all," said Dr. White trying to reassure Dusty.

"But I wonder why he didn't attack you too?" asked Marie with a furrowed brow. "It seems strange to leave a witness behind when none had existed before."

"I was wondering about that as well. It didn't seem to be attacking for food because it left behind a fresh kill. It just seemed to only be there to kill Russell and his men. So why didn't it just kill you too? Not that I'm not happy you're still alive," said Rachel with a blush to her face.

"What about the fourth man? Is he ok?" asked Suzan out of the blue.

Dusty suddenly looked annoyed at her and then looked quickly away.

Suzan smiled widely again to herself.

She asked because she was truly concerned about another death, but she really liked the reaction by Dusty as well.

"But if it was made of fire and you couldn't hit it, then that suggests magic was involved. But if it just passes through the wall, then it wasn't an attack that was stored in the walls of the room like I thought before," said Lori suddenly.

As they all were lost in thought Dr. Carmichael came in.

"What's this I hear about another set of deaths? I hear Dusty here found the bodies? I'm really glad that Steven was at least spared," said Dr. Carmichael.

Dusty looked at Dr. Carmichael weirdly for a moment.

"No Dusty was there during the attack. He came to report it after he escaped," said Marie

Dr. Carmichael appeared shocked.

"You were in the room while he was killed? What happened?" asked Dr. Carmichael suddenly.

Dusty recounted what happened again to him.

"So you don't know what it was but you saw this wolf of flame as you called it kill Russell?" asked Dr. Carmichael.

"Yeah, but I'm still at a loss for why. It didn't make sense why it didn't attack me, but I'm really glad it didn't. I couldn't even hit it with the chair and when I tried a fireball on it, it just absorbed it," said Dusty.

"YOU WHAT!" said Dr. Carmichael.

"What?" asked Dusty.

As he looked up he realized that everyone was staring at him.

The girls had a stricken "oh no he didn't just giveaway our secret" look on their face, the men had a "what did he say" look on theirs.

"It appears I can do magic, but I only know a single spell. And that one spell was absorbed by the wolf," said Dusty slowly looking from person to person.

"Young man you left that out of your story," said Dr. White disapprovingly.

"Because it didn't matter. Look if I had affected it somehow I would have told you, but it was just one more thing that didn't work, like when I swatted at it with a chair," said Dusty.

He didn't know everyone could be so touchy about magic around here.

"So what circles do you know?" asked Dr. Carmichael watching Dusty.

"What's a circle?" asked Dusty truly curious.

He was never going to understand what people are talking about around here.

"He doesn't understand how magic works so he can't answer that. We just discovered on our trip here he had the potential. He's never been tested so he doesn't really know anything yet," said Lori smoothly, while smiling sweetly and looking Dr. Carmichael in the eyes.

Dr. Carmichael took on a stupid look on his face and just nodded at Lori.

Dusty was sure that Lori was learning way too fast how to handle men, and it was all his fault it seemed.

"So uh, what are your plans now? Are you planning on leaving as well?" asked Dr. White nervously.

"No. We signed on to do a job and now we're going to do it," said Mari grimly.

Surprisingly everyone in her group just nodded as she spoke.

"But we will need a larger room. I think the group will all stay in one room now," said Suzan slowly.

She was watching Dusty out of the side of her eye, and was relived that he didn't object. She wouldn't want him to get killed out of stupid macho pride.

"Of course, of course. And thank you for seeing the job through. We'll pay you double over what we have agreed too. Don't object, it's the least we can do for you helping us," said Dr. White when Marie looked to argue.