Hit List(26)

“I’ll bet money they were newbies, the newly turned lycanthropes. They can be just animals.”

“You’re telling me that what I saw in class isn’t what they are, that they’re more people than monsters?”

“Newman, I live with two shapeshifters. Do you really think I could do that if they tried to kill me every time they changed form?”

He frowned harder. “So that rumor is true?”

“Some of the rumors are true, most aren’t, but that’s true. Trust me, the men that I love have never tried to hurt me in any form.”

“So this shapeshifter from last night should be like a person in a fur suit,” he said.

I shook my head. “Not what I said.”

“You’re saying on one hand they’re just furry people and on the other that the dogs are so afraid of them they won’t track them. You can’t have it both ways, Marshal Blake; either they’re monsters or they’re people.”

“Tell that to the BTK killer,” I said. “He was a churchgoer, raised two kids, married, and resisted the urge to kill for decades. He was a person, but he was a monster, too.”

“But dogs will track a serial killer,” Newman said.

Edward tried. “Newman, it’s a good idea, but if he was even partially shapeshifted, and he had to be to hurt Marshal Karlton, then the dogs will be too afraid to track him. Did you ask for dogs trained on tracking shapeshifters?”

“I asked for the best dog we had nearby.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter; the chance of having a shifter-trained dog is almost nil. It’s a seriously specialized training.”

“Why?” Newman asked.

I was already tired of him asking that. “Because, Newman, shapeshifters, even the nice legal citizens, don’t like training dogs designed to be able to hunt them down so people can kill them on sight.”

Newman blinked at me. “I don’t understand.”

I was tired of it, and him. “I know you don’t.”

“Explain it to me, then.”

“I don’t think I can. Some things you just have to learn in the field.”

“I’m a fast learner,” he said, and he sounded a little defiant.

“I hope so, Newman, I really hope so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Great, I’d behaved myself and he was still getting upset with me. “It means that I had to watch last night while this shifter tortured and sliced up Marshal Karlton. He used her as a human shield so I couldn’t shoot him, and then he moved faster than any shapeshifter I’ve ever seen. All I could do was hold pressure on her wounds and try to keep her from bleeding to death and pray that moving her so I could keep her from bleeding out hadn’t just injured her spine and crippled her for life. It didn’t, thank God, but I didn’t know that last night, and a whole spine does no damn good if you bleed to death first.” I was up in his face as I finished, and though the closest to glaring into his face I could get was the middle of his chest, he flinched and backed away from me.

I just turned and walked away. My anger crawled over me and through me. The beasts in their hidden place inside me swirled so that I had a moment where things twisted, a hint of the claws to come pawing at my gut. It made me hesitate as I walked.

Edward called, “You okay?”

“Sure, yeah, fine.” I kept walking, but I needed to feed the ardeur. I probably needed to feed before we started tracking the shapeshifter, but since the dog wasn’t going to track it, I had time. I also had an idea. I’d go visit the local weretigers and see if they’d tell me things they wouldn’t tell the other marshals. They probably would, and I knew one of them would. Alex was the son of the local clan queen, my lover, and my red tiger to call. I’d tell the other marshals I was trying to gather information, and I would, but it was a booty call. A booty call to keep me from being torn apart by my beasts.





11




RABORN STOPPED US on the way to the car. “Where are you two going?”

“To see if I can find a clue,” I said.

“So you’ll miss the hunt just because they wouldn’t give you the warrant ?” he said.

“We’ll be back for the hunt,” Edward said, and went around to the driver’s side of the car, which left me with Raborn. Perfect.

“I heard a lot of rumors about you, Blake, but I never heard that you’d leave before the monster was dead. Everyone said you were tough.”

“I am tough,” I said. “You let the dogs do their best, but they won’t find these things, not today, not just with dogs.”