The One Who Eats Monsters (Wind and Shadow, #1)

by Casey Matthews

she knew the Great Spirit had hated them for her. And it hated better than she ever could, cleaner and hotter, and for the first time in her life Aina felt no fear, because the most dangerous thing in the world had already decided in her favor.

Ryn has an aggressive form of reactive attachment disorder. She doesn’t socialize with anyone unless she trusts them, and she trusts so few people it’s less a circle than a straight line connecting her and me. To conspire, you have to talk to people. Ryn doesn’t do that. If she beat your man up, it wasn’t because she turned on her buddy. It was probably because he tried to rape someone. That, actually, does sound like Ryn.”

“Okay. CliffsNotes version: Ryn’s the strangest case I’ve ever seen. Her brain isn’t human. I’d bet good money that if you put her into an MRI, the neuroscientist would reach for the whisky in his drawer five seconds later. He wouldn’t even have words to define what he saw. “A concert pianist came to Sacred Oaks a month into Ryn’s stay. She was rapt because she’d never seen a piano before. Three days later, I caught her playing Beethoven in the rec room. Flawlessly. She’s never done it since. She came in with broken English and no reading, writing, or math, and now she nearly has her GED. It wasn’t until she was under 24-hour observation that we realized she only sleeps one day a month—and always on the new moon. All day and all night, like she’s hibernating. “Then on the full moon, she’s half crazy. Tried to have a session with her once on the day of the full moon and she couldn’t focus on anything. Kept telling me it was the moon distracting her. Ended up taking three coins on my table and spinning them. Never seen anything like it.” “Never seen someone spin a few coins on a table?” “Not one on top of the other, no.” “And she still doesn’t… understand people?” “Not at all,” Victoria groused. “She learns quickly—even the mechanics of language—but she only understands facial expressions in the most clinical sense. Can’t lie, doesn’t grok money or manners or the basics of friendship, love, or even family. She’s atomized, and on some level… I question whether she wants to le...

“Jesus,” Mark whispered. “Never even touched the first guy. Just looked at him. Whatever those sunglasses are covering, it’s got to be disturbing. Scars maybe. Whatever it was, it must have told him the truth.” “What truth?” “Everything was smoothly executed, right down to the way she caught Denise and transferred her to your daughter. There’s economy in every step. She’s a veteran.” “You mean a soldier?” “She’s fought. Who for, and why? Hard to say. But she knows how to hurt people in ways you don’t learn in a studio. Her backhand nailed a nerve in the big one’s jaw—broke it, too, I’d say. Maneuvered his body in the other guy’s way, blocked his advance. And then her leap—it’s fast. I wouldn’t have seen it coming; it’s an ambush maneuver. She pinned his shoulders, seized his hair in one fist, and delivered ten, twelve full-impact blows in less than a second. No one I’ve met can do that—not with that speed and force—and I’ve met guys I wouldn’t take on without a SWAT team. That knee at the end? She’s got either near-perfect peripheral vision or a spatial awareness most fighters would kill for.”

“Vampires.” She frowned, leaning closer. “I don’t know that word, but if something drank your blood, I would get it back for you.”

Ryn Miller, Master of flirting!

“You have many names, though none pleasant. Erynis—the implacable one. Adrasteia—the one from whom there’s no escape. Nemesis? Yes, that has a certain foreboding ring, doesn’t it? Let’s not forget Lailah—pretty. At least to the tongue. Not so pretty for those who crossed you.”