“Carrie?”Her eyes flew open. “Brendan?” Her voice trembled with shock. Where was the bear? Where was the monster that had fought it?Brendan pulled her into a fierce embrace. “Carrie! Are you all right? Are you hurt?” He grasped her by her shoulders and held her at arms’ length, scouring her body and dirt-smeared clothing for any signs of damage.“W—what?” Her clothes were filthy, she realised, and her T-shirt had been torn nearly to tatters.“The bear,” Brendan said. “Did it hurt you?” He tightened his grip on her arms.“No,” Carrie replied. “You got here just in time.” He bore the evidence of combat—wildly tousled hair, blood- and dirt-streaked skin and a feral glimmer that lingered in his eyes. Suddenly, it wasn’t so hard to imagine he’d made those fierce sounds. “How did you know?”Brendan’s eyes caught the moonlight, and for a moment they flashed bright red. “I didn’t. I’d heard you calling, then you stopped abruptly,” he said. “So I started running.”So he had been the second beast raging through the dark forest.
