The Shuddering

asked.
    April shook her head.
    “I’ll take some,” Sawyer said.
    “A beer?” Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow at his sister. When she made a face at him he jutted out his bottom lip and batted his lashes.
    “I thought you only drank blood, Vlad.”
    “Blood and beer,” Ryan clarified.
    “You’re going to get fat. That stuff is full of carbs.”
    “ Blood is full of carbs?”
    “Beer, genius.”
    “Chocolate cake, though…” he countered.
    “Shut up,” she told him, gathering up Lauren’s cake plate on her way to the kitchen.
    “What?” Ryan blinked, feigning offense. “That’s the second time I’ve been told to shut up in a thirty-second span. When did we all get so hostile?”
    Jane wrinkled her nose at him and stepped out of the room. There was a crack of pool balls a second later. Lauren shrieked, apparently under attack yet again.
    The plates clanged against the counter as Jane left them beside the sink, grabbing the kettle off the stove. Holding it beneath the tap, she peered at Oona. The dog was sitting at attention in front of the kitchen door, seemingly staring at her own reflection in the glass without moving a muscle.
    “Are you okay, Oona?” she asked, but the husky didn’t respond to her name. “Do you need to go out?” It was a question Oona knew well, one that usually resulted in excited tail wagging. But again, the dog did nothing. It was almost as though she hadn’t heard Jane at all. Placing the teapot back on the stove, Jane turned on a burner and slid dirty plates onto the dishwasher’s bottom rack. Concerned, she approached the kitchen door to squat next to her brother’s pet, placing a hand on the dog’s back.
    Oona reeled back, her teeth bared, and Jane jerked her hand away, her heart thudding in her throat. She fell backward, putting distance between herself and the growling dog by pushing away with her feet. She could hear Ryan in the hallway. He yelled Oona’s name and she immediately backed down, ducking her head in guilt.
    “What the hell just happened?” he asked as he came into the kitchen, extending a hand to his sister while his eyes remained on his dog.
    “I don’t know,” Jane replied, her voice shaking, unable to help the tears from springing to her eyes. Ever since she was a kid, she’d cry when she was scared or angry, as though processing an excess of emotion at once was too much for her to handle.
    “Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine,” she insisted. “Just freaked out. I thought she wanted to go outside, and then she just turned on me.”
    Ryan crouched in front of the husky, catching her by the snout so he could look her in the eyes, then snapped his fingers and pointed her out of the kitchen. Oona bowed her head and slunk away, utterly harmless in her stance.
    “I just scared her,” Jane confessed, her gaze snagging on Sawyer, who was now standing in the mouth of the hallway, a concerned look veiling his features.
    A second later Oona was barking in the living room—a less-than-friendly snarl that rumbled from the depth of her throat.
    “What the fuck ?” Ryan stomped across the room. Jane clasped her hands together, steadying their tremor as she offered Sawyer an embarrassed smile.
    “Are you all right?” he asked softly. Jane nodded, waving her hand as if dismissing the whole thing. Sawyer took a step closer, his fingers sweeping across her hand before he retracted his touch, startled by Lauren’s voice behind them.
    “Um, guys?” Lauren stepped into the kitchen with an expression Jane couldn’t read. “I think I know why Oona’s flipping out. There’s something outside. April just saw something out the window.”
    The four of them made a beeline back to the game room. April stood next to the couch, her arms wrapped around her waist, her nose an inch from the glass. Oona leaped onto the sofa, growling beneath her breath before expelling another bark.
    “What was it?” Ryan asked, flipping the light switch next to the outside door. The light illuminated a plain concrete slab; nothing but a barbecue grill and a couple of loungers folded up against the side of the house.
    “Deer,” April said. “Something was chasing them.”
    “A wolf?” Sawyer asked, giving Ryan a questioning glance.
    “Could be.” Ryan shrugged, but April shook her head in response.
    “It looked big.”
    The group stared at one another for a long moment, then turned to look out the window again. Oona whined and jumped off the couch, stopping in