Jessie drew her .44 a millisecond ahead of Leigh's Glock. They leveled the barrels on my face. A gun for each nostril. How poetic.
I wanted to duck, but I knew them too well. They'd shoot first, say oops later.
I don't think Damien meant to give me up. He was in shock.
And why wouldn't he be? Who would guess that the most feared werewolf hunter on the planet kept his very own werewolf close at hand?
Not me, if I hadn't been the werewolf in question.
"Everybody calm down," Will murmured.
I'd always liked him.
"Hold on, Leigh." This was Damien. "She isn't - "
"What?" Leigh's blue eyes narrowed. "Human? We got that."
"No. I mean yes. Hell." He sent me an apologetic glance, then tried to inch between me and the guns. I elbowed him back.
"Ah, ah, ah," Leigh warned. "No sudden moves."
Damien stopped pushing me, and I stepped in front of him, putting myself closer to the weapons. Leigh lifted her brows, and her eyes warmed just a little.
"She's not like the others," Damien continued. "When I said she was like me, I meant it. She's different, too."
"Does Mandenauer know?" Jessie blurted.
"Of course," I said.
"As if we'll believe anything you have to say."
"You're the one who asked. Call Edward. Believe him."
Everyone went silent. They knew as well as I did that if Edward didn't know I was a werewolf before, and he found out now, he'd blow my brains out faster than I could say "Have mercy."
"Call him," Jessie ordered.
Amazingly, Leigh did so without argument. Two minutes later, she disconnected her cell call to Edward.
"Well?" Jessie demanded when Leigh just stared at me.
"He says we should leave her alone."
"He understands she turns furry under the moon?"
"Edward agreed with Damien. She's different, too."
After another moment's hesitation, Jessie put away her gun.
I felt no more at ease without the weapons staring me in the face, probably because four pairs of eyes were.
"Is there somewhere we can talk?" I asked.
I still wore only a T-shirt and sweatpants, and the November night wasn't any warmer in Wisconsin than it had been in Montana. Without my fur, I was freezing.
"We've rented a house next to the cop shop," Leigh said. "We can go there."
"Where did Edward take Nic?"
"Mandenauer has a room over the antiques store," Jessie told me. "I'm sure he feels right at home there."
I peered at the buildings lining the street and knew without being told which was his. Windows at the front, so he could watch the town; I'd bet there were also windows at the back, so he could observe whatever came out of the woods. A second-story room is always the best choice for both offense and defense.
As we continued toward the rental property I was struck by the silence. No dogs barked. Not a baby cried. There wasn't a single light in any of the houses or the businesses.
"Too quiet," I murmured.
Leigh cast a quick glance over her shoulder. The expression on her face caused a shiver of premonition to dance down my spine. I imagined an empty town, a very full forest.
"No one's been bitten," Will said.
"Then - "
"What are we doing here?" Jessie interrupted. "We'll get to that."
We reached a large log house at the end of the street. The porch was a bit rickety, but other than that the place seemed sturdy enough. After digging a key from her jeans, Jessie unlocked the front door, snapped on the lights. We blinked in the electric glare.
Jessie motioned me inside. As I inched past her she plastered her shoulders to the door, insuring we didn't touch, even by accident. I tried not to let that bother me, but it did. I'd always been lonely, but since no one knew of my affliction but Edward, the cringing in my presence had been kept to a minimum.
We took seats in the small living room, and more staring ensued. Jessie, never a patient woman, was the first to speak. "Talk, Doctor, or I'll make you."
She was getting on my nerves. "I'd like to see you try."
Jessie came to her feet and so did I. Though we were the same height, she probably had ten pounds on me. Nevertheless, I knew who would win a physical fight. If only she didn't have that gun filled with silver.
Will grabbed her hand before she could draw the weapon. Leigh put herself between us, and Damien reached out to halt my mad rush. But right before his hand touched me, he snatched it back.
The movement made me pause, remembering why I'd kept my secret all these years. If Damien couldn't handle what I was, how could I expect anyone to? Especially anyone like Nic.
If I told him the truth, he'd think me insane. If I showed him, he'd find me both hideous and terrifying.
Better he hated me for a selfish, unloving bitch than that.
Defeated, I collapsed in my chair. "What do you want to know?"
The others sat. At first no one spoke, then they all spoke at once.
"Who?" Jessie asked.
"When?" That was Damien.
"How?" murmured Will.
Leigh merely said, "Why?"
I looked at her. "Why what?"
"Why haven't you been able to cure yourself?"
Since my antidote had cured Leigh, but not Damien, she'd called and harassed me continuously. She'd often been rude, crude, condescending. I'd put up with it because I understood her smart mouth and habitual snarl were rooted in fear.
If I couldn't cure Damien, no one could.
"It's not for lack of trying," I said.
The room went momentarily silent, until Will broke the ice. "Who bit you?" he clarified. "Where? When?"
"I wasn't bitten."
All four of them glanced at one another, then back at me.
"Maybe you should start at the beginning," Will said.
I took a deep breath and a moment to think. I'd never told anyone my story before.
"When werewolves touch in human form we feel each other's power and the demon that sleeps inside of us." I glanced at Damien. "But I don't have a demon, and neither do you."
"I had one," he murmured. "At first."
Damien had been like all the rest, until he'd run afoul of an Ozark Mountain magic woman. He'd been blessed to lose the demon and cursed to remember all that he'd done while having it.
"You're working for the good guys now," Leigh told him. "You're making up for all that you did."
"I can't make up for that. There isn't enough time on this earth."
Leigh lifted her eyes to mine over the top of his head. I could read her thoughts loud and clear.
Fix him, she begged, as she had a hundred times before.
"Get on with the story, Doc," Jessie urged. "We don't have all night."
My story wouldn't take that long, since it was relatively simple.
"I wasn't bitten," I said. "My mother was."