I winced and glanced around the clearing. " Shh," I snapped.
Her eyebrows lifted. "Who do you think's going to hear me? The raccoons?"
"There was a man - " I frowned. "Didn't you see him?"
"No. You were talking to yourself when I got here."
"I was not. There was a man." I waved my hand. "He was wearing pants."
"Always a good choice."
"But nothing else."
"Even better. The last time I met a naked man in the forest it was the start of something big."
"He wasn't naked. Completely."
The woman shrugged. "Too bad. Where'd he go?"
"I don't know."
"You're sure there was a man?"
Was I? Yes. Definitely. I hadn't lost my mind since... I'd found it the last time.
"He said his name was Damien Fitzgerald. Don't you know him?"
"Can't say that I do. But then Mandenauer and I just got here last week. From what you're telling me, he sounds like a prime candidate for the fanged and furry club."
Finally I heard what she'd said, what she'd been saying. She knew about the Juger-Suchers, the werewolves, Edward. The guy I was supposed to train had just turned into a girl. "You're..."
"Jessie McQuade. And you must be Leigh, my trainer."
I scowled. We'd see about that. I could think of few things I'd like to do less than teach this spectacularly competent woman all my tricks.
"You are Leigh," she said.
I grunted.
She took that as a yes. "Mandenauer is waiting at my place. Follow me."
Without so much as a by-your-leave, she kicked apart the remnants of the fire and stomped on the cinders. Then she marched back in the direction I'd come.
My gaze scanned the clearing, but there was no sign of the half-naked man. I even hurried to the place I'd last seen him and crouched in the leaves to examine the ground for a footprint. But the earth was hard and he'd been wearing... hardly anything.
A wolf howled near enough to make me jump, far enough away so that I followed Jessie at a walk instead of a run. I wasn't going to let her, or them, know just how spooked I was.
Had there been a man named Damien? Probably.
Was he merely a man? Or had he been more? I might never know that for sure.
Jessie's place was an apartment located in a small complex adjacent to the sheriff's office. I parked beside the squad car and followed her up the flight of stairs to the second floor.
"Are you really a cop?" I asked. "Or is this just pretend?"
"I'm a cop."
She didn't elaborate and irritation flared again. Jessie got to do her chosen job while she saved the world.
I got to pretend I was a warden and earn the scorn of every community.
But I couldn't exactly be a werewolf hunter and a kindergarten teacher. The very thought was ludicrous.
The door sprang open before she could touch it, and a tall, emaciated silhouette spread across the hall floor.
"Edward," I murmured.
Jessie cast me a quick, surprised glance, and I realized I'd said his name aloud in a delighted voice that didn't belong to me. I couldn't afford attachments, not even to him, so I straightened my shoulders, cleared my throat, and stuck out my hand. "Good to see you, sir."
"Jeez, why don't you click your heels and salute," Jessie muttered, pushing past him.
Edward Mandenauer was as unlikely a leader of an elite monster-hunting unit as could be imagined.
Cadaverous thin, he owned every one of his eighty-plus years. But he could still pull the trigger, and he'd killed more monsters than anyone, even me. I admired him. More than I would ever say.
"Why did you not come directly to me, Leigh?" Edward stepped back so I could enter the apartment.
"I'm here."
"You took a detour."
"How did you know?" I scowled. "How did she find me?"
"Your car was abandoned in town. Jessie ran the license plate, then tracked you into the woods."
My interest was piqued. Tracking had never been my strong suit. I wasn't patient enough. Jessie had to be very good to have found me as quickly as she had in the thickness of a forest that must be as strange to her as it was to me.
"From the look of the bonfire," Jessie tattled, "she's already started blasting away."
"That's my job," I snapped.
"This is my town."
"Girls, girls," Mandenauer admonished.
"Don't call me a girl," Jessie and I said at the same time.
We glanced at each other, scowled, and turned away. Mandenauer sighed. "You need to work together.
There is something odd happening in Crow Valley."
That got my attention. "Odder than werewolves?"
"To be sure. Did you make note of the name of this fair city?"
Crow Valley. I hadn't thought about it. Stupid me.
For reasons unknown to science, wolves allow crows to scavenge from their kills. Some naturalists believe that the birds fly ahead, locate suitable prey, then circle back and lead the wolves to it. In gratitude, or perhaps as payment for services rendered, the wolves don't chase the crows off the corpses.
Whether this is true or not is anyone's guess. But the fact remains, where there are a lot of one, there are a lot of the other. Wolves feel at home around crows. Werewolves appear to as well.
"The wolves in this area have always been abundant, but they increased in number recently."
"And you know this how?"
He just gave me one of his stares. Edward knew everything.
"When the sheriff in this town left - "
"Left or was eaten?"
"Not eaten. Not this time. The odd occurrences with the wolves disturbed him. He called the authorities with his tall tales, and I was notified. I convinced him to take a leave of absence, then gave Jessie his job."
You think there are a lot of conspiracies in the government? You don't even know about the ones Edward is involved with. Any odd report - unexplained events, wolves run amok, monstrosities wandering over hill and dale - the information is forwarded to Edward and he sends a Juger-Sucher to determine what needs to be done, then do it.