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Chapter 9

"What did you do?" Jessie whispered

The clearing ith blood There were body parts all over the place The very air was still, not a twitter from the birds

I had a hard tiht It reminded me of home

I flinched and turned my back

No, not hohts The bodies had been human

Here the blood had dried to brown beneath theto be afraid of No similarity at all

No reason to hyperventilate

"Leigh?"

"I shot them That's all"

"Then what happened?"

I forced ht botheredstrength itI'd often wished I could kill the, had

I inched closer My foot squished in the blood-drenched grass I gri to be a little hard to e

I continued around the circle, observing, cataloging, for all the good it did me I knew there'd been nine dead wolves But now it didn't appear as if there was enough left to make one

"What happened last night?"

Jessie continued to speak softly I understood the need The clearing was a haunted place Soht I could feel it, and she could, too

Quickly I told her about the hunt, leaving out the reason I'd been driven to kill, leaving out s were on a need-to-know basis, and she didn't need to know

However, when I got to the part about the broolf, she interrupted me "Are you sure he was a olf?"

"Of course Why?"

"I just wondered how real wolves react to olves"

"They don't like them"

"Enough to do this?" She jerked a thumb at the mess

I frowned "No Real wolves usually turn tail and run They sense olves aren't like thes, but dumb isn't one of them"

"Do you think the broolf did this?"

I considered the idea That the olf had killed another was strange enough I found it hard to believe he would go berserk and eat nine of his own kind, but anything was possible This was, after all, a olf

"He could have"

"Why didn't you kill him?" Jessie asked

I'd been asking ht I only had one excuse, and in the light of day, in the light of e'd found in the clearing, it didn't sound very convincing, but I told her anyway

"Your boyfriend said maybe they want us to kill them"

"You couldn't remember that before you played out your Terminator fantasy?"

I shrugged "Oops"

Jessie snorted I think she was starting to like me

It took us the better part of the afternoon to erase the evidence of whatever had happened in the clearing

The J-S accelerant got the fire going despite the round Jessie and I rass or lush trees

As aited for the last of the embers to die, Jessie spoke "He ate them"

Since she was stating the obvious, I didn't bother to answer

"This is too weird forweird - "

"Werewolves are weird by definition"

"True But they have their behavior patterns, saht be human on one side of the moon, but on the other they're animals, and animals that behave unpredictably mean trouble"

She'd get no argument from me

"We need to talk to Will"

"Maybe you do, but I think I can e a few more hours without him"

"Funnier and funnier," she muttered as she headed back toward the bar

There were already cars in the parking lot e eold mine," I observed "What's the attraction?"

"Can't say"

"And you thought this would be a good place for me to stay why?"

Jessie shrugged "You hunt at night, so the noise won't bother you It's quiet during the day, when you sleep, and so busy, no one's going to notice you co If they do, they'll be too drunk to care Or at least drunk enough to easily convince they didn't see anything at all"

Though I hated to admit it, she'd chosen well

As we got in her car, Cowboy got out of his, a huge Cadillac that appeared too big for his body But then ouldn't? He limped toward the door

I hadn't noticed a liht

"Who's that?" Jessie asked

"Cowboy"

"So that's Cowboy" She watched him until he disappeared inside "He's on my watch list"

1 blinked "Of olves?"

"Troublemakers I have to at least pretend to perform the job I was hired for"

She started the car and perforht us around the back of the tavern My gaze was captured by Damien's cabin, then by a flicker of white in the trees behind it

He ee, and leaned against the corner of the building

Our eyes htened as my belly danced with an excite trouble if the ot me all hot and bothered I needed to be very, very careful about how I handled Daerald and my inexplicable lust for him

Jessie hit the gas and took off down Good Road at a steady clip My teeth clicked together, narrowly ue as she flew over an incline I forced my mind away from Damien, not an easy task, and back to our stalled conversation