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When all the vaarden and shift into so with ar in the breeze She spoke without raising her voice, her tones heavy noith an accent I didn’t recognize "It has been many years since I heard the call of the Bubo bubo," she said She looked up at the tree, her face bright in the scant ht "I know not if you are real, or prophecy, or the s of an old, old sinner" She shook her head slowly, her predator eyes on h I was raptor, and afraid of little, I wanted to lift wings and fly far away My flight feathers shivered and my taloned feet danced on the limb "If you are prophecy, if you are the breath of God on my stained and darkened soul, then know this, and take iveness We still search for absolution"

When I didn’t raceful her skirts scarcely swayed She shut and barred the door I watched as she doused all lights but one, a single flaraveyard I lifted rounds, seeking currents to gain altitude

I banked and soared over the nonchapel, ready to fly ho I canted once ned to spot the s to see or hear Katie Instead, aof the grave The rogue

He closed the wood door to the crypt and pushed shut the wrought-iron gate protecting it, his movements uneven, almost human slow His feet were bare and filthy, his hands sticklike, skeletal His clothes were ratty and torn, ill fitting, not the sae in the pit behind the sha over his face, obscuring it But I knew hiait, and the set of his bony shoulders He didn’t move like any vamp I knew I soared silently past, so I could read the clan naue tripped and swayed across the grassy ground to the Clan Pellissier vault He fell against the barred doors and gripped the theht His actions grew frantic, his fingers beating the locks, clawing past the iron bars into the door, his face pressed against the ry ani, as he smelled the mixed vaer than his rot

He slaainst the bars and pushed aith a final clang Furious, he lurched to the nonchapel I circled tighter, watching His fingers brightened with heat and gray sparkles of power An energy signature I recognized I circled down fast, watching as claws grew on his fingers, hooked and curved, longer than Beast’s He was shape-shifting

Crap This thing wasn’t a rogue vaht This was indeed a liver-eater

CHAPTER 19

I’ deeply, a wet, hacking sound, faht sky And he spottedfangs curving froone furry, a tawny pelt covering his face and ar Claws larger than Beast’s by far His shift stopped there, as if he had control enough to shift only partway Or one, leaving the ht, stunned Watching, I hesitated an instant Missed an air current, an uprising thers fluttered uselessly I started to spin and reached out ings and taloned feet, spreading ht as the earth rose fast

Below h with a clawed hand An iht the air and rotated er The rogue’s claws scraped throughaltitude, and screaue landed on all fours The back of his coat ripped with a dry, rasping tear, golden fur spilling out, a long and ragged mane, his back striped The stones of a nearby crypt exploded, breaking with a crack and ru from stone The front door of the nonchapel opened Sabina stepped out

I screaet back inside But ue roared, a sound not hu fros Dove at his nape Hit with killing force Sla crack Raked his scalp with talons He stumbled, shook himself I toppled to the side Narrowly evaded his claws Shoulders rotating, I shot back into the sky

He leaped at the priestess I dove, but I couldn’t help Not against this creature, not in this form, maybe not in human form I hadn’t understood, but Beast had known No ue vaend A creature of black , I saw Sabina pull so from behind her back Raise it aloft It was a wood cross Held in gloved hands Light blazed from the cross The creature roared, ju cat’s pain, like a wo away, a paw over his eyes He raced away, his body shifting as he sprinted He went four-footed, his clothes ripping away A black-tipped mane writhed out Another crypt exploded, stone shrapnel flying Sabertooth lionafraid of a cross like a va direction, ainst the air as if I pushed it away On the nonchapel porch, Sabina dropped the cross and wrapped her ar herself She s fully extended The reek of seared flesh and leather polluted the air

She took a breath and shouted, "Prophecy!" Claws an inch long extended froloves, constructed to leave the tips of her fingers exposed, like driving gloves or golf gloves, incongruous with the nunlike dress I wanted to stay, to see that she was okay Foolish desire for a va the black-ic skinwalker, as repulsed by a cross

He raced across the graveyard, between crypts and into the woods I flew higher, found a currenthim There was no way for him to lose me, not in this form My eyes could follow a h the woods, looking often into the sky, at hts going both directions, running with vamp speed toward a well-lit area, a cul-de-sac where security lights shone, cars and trucks were parked in the street, and the s barked Others took up the warning, a raucous chorus One house had s open, a television laugh track spilling into the dark, screen flickering The rogue burst froh a half-openinto the house

Through the , I heard snarls, a choked cry He’s killing so the I screae Dove Swooped close But I was in the air, in winged form I couldn’t help And I couldn’t shift back into hu to take mass from, and even if I could risk it, I had left too arden

A wo away I screa the sky and the air and the liver-eater I heard thu, and then the sound of water falling A shoater hitting tile, thudding into a body for a long ti tightly, I circled higher, watching Nothing ed Helpless, I soared, current to current The air cooled A stor flickered on the dome of the sky Clouds dimmed the stars Daas near And still I flew

A door slammed A man walked fros and plu jeans and a T-shirt and an unfaht an updraft, not sure what his presence ot into a car Cranked it up, and drove onto the adjoining street I followed long enough to place where I here the house was, inthe east sky

If I e back until sunset Conflicted, struggling with arden where I had lefton the tops out, tail feathers wide Talons on the rocks, scritching rough and rasping I put a talon on the nugget And thought about Jane Yellowrock Human Scarred Female Earthbound Mass to mass, stone to stone

I pulled the memory of her snake to the surface I melted into it Into her Rock ruasped Fell onto the breaking boulder It split wide Dued rocks turound, staring at the sky I oozy, not sure what had happened, re only that I had been Bubo bubo Hadn’t I? I looked down, proving to myself that I was hurowled I took up the gold nugget and placed the necklace over an to sing A striped yellow cat walked along the fence between Katie’s place and arden hadn’t been so lucky The top one had been reduced to rubble, its largest chunk less than half the size of the original, the sit was dangerous But so far, I had coet