Part 15 (1/2)

Sasha shook her head and extended her palm. ”Let me shake your hand, Colonel.”

He stared at her hand for a moment.

”I need to feel your aura, your vibe. It's sort of a wolf thing.”

Complying, he nervously shook her hand.

”You're clean, sir. A little weary, but clean.”

”And that guy wasn't?”

Sasha shook her head. ”Not completely . . . but it wasn't Were contagion. Truthfully, I've never directly felt anything like it in my life.”

This was the part of her job that she hated most, the aftermath forensics. A cloud of flies took to the air as she covered her nose and plowed through the swarm. Louisiana in July was no joke. Heat and death roiled the acid in her empty stomach, and she was glad that she only had half a cup of coffee in it.

Thick sulfur stench a.s.saulted her nose as she stooped down to look at the claw marks on an arm and hand that was still attached to a camera. Carefully lifting the tissue by the open gashes along the bicep, she took a section of loose flesh off the limb with a pair of tweezers, dropped it on a petri dish, and covered it with the lid.

”Mark this claw tear sample,” she said to the soldier beside her. ”Watch where you step, it's gruesome out here. s.h.i.+p that on dry ice to Doctor Xavier Holland at NORAD.”

The soldier nodded and extended the cooler for her with his eyes watering from the fumes.

”Just one more, and then you guys can bag 'em and tag 'em,” she said. ”I need a bite site for saliva.”

Sasha stood and allowed her gaze to scan the ground, looking for a gouged body part. But everything that she saw seemed as though giant claws had raked it. The torn-off limbs clearly had been removed by powerful swipes. So had most of the guttings. Then she spotted a crushed skull that had been shorn from the body and walked over to it.

The person's face was crushed flat as though each side of the head had been held in a vise-like grip. Brains had exploded out of the back; the eyes had obviously burst from their sockets given the sudden pressure. But to actually get the head off the shoulders required huge fangs.

Hurrying to the gruesome task, Sasha called over her a.s.sistant and got another lab evidence dish and several swabs. Green, slimy goo mixed with blackening blood stuck to the long swab and came away from the bite site in a tar-like string. Her a.s.sistant turned away and finally tossed his cookies.

”Sorry, ma'am,” he said, panting and covering his mouth and nose with his forearm.

”Not a problem, soldier,” Sasha said, stripping off her latex gloves and dropping them in the cooler with the last sample. ”Just as long as you missed a body and didn't upchuck in the cooler, it's all good.”

Fresh air never felt so good. She didn't care that it was close to ninety-eight degrees or that the humidity was probably 102; she just needed the downwind scents of the true outdoors to clean the filth out of her sinuses.

Every so often, Sasha leaned her head out of the Humvee window and took a deep breath. It would have been easier to shadow-jump, but after what she'd seen, she was bone-weary. A little normal human companions.h.i.+p, even by way of a silent MP, was better than going into the misty darkness alone.

She gave her driver the location of Lawrence DeWitt's apartment and jumped out of the vehicle when it came to a full stop on the street.

”Wait here,” she told him. ”I'll be ten minutes, tops.”

It seemed like a simple thing. She just wanted to check on the kid and ask him a few more questions. But when she came out of his closet, for a moment all she could do was stand there.

Blood and flesh were everywhere. Sulfur reeked so thickly in the room that it made her eyes water until she gagged. It was as though something had exploded DeWitt. A lone eyeball stared up at her from the rug. Green gook mixed with fat, muscle, bone, and flesh covered the walls and furniture, splattered his television and computer screens. The kitchen cabinets and counter were sprayed, and every few feet she could see chunks of flesh embedded in the blood-soaked rug.

”s.h.i.+t. . .” Sasha backed into the closet and came out in the alley to begin casing the building for signs of how the attacker had gotten in.

If it was Were, it could have just crashed through the door, a wall, or a window, but the building was intact, just as DeWitt's doors and windows seemed to be. He was fortified against Vampires, since her little visit, unless he'd foolishly opened the door for onea”which was very, very possible. But she'd never seen Vampires off somebody like this. Then again, they might have thought he and his crew had opened Ariel Beauchamp's coffin to daylight and been really p.i.s.sed. Plus, he had ratted them out on cell phone video, which she'd sent over the airwaves to Winter's. ”d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n!”

With a knife in her conscience, she walked back to the military vehicle. ”Let the colonel know there's been another killing. One civilian, male, ID: Lawrence De-Witt. No need for a body bag, just an evidence cooler and a wet vac.”

Elder Vlad opened his eyes in his lair and chuckled as his fangs lengthened. He breathed in deeply and then closed his eyes again, sending his thoughts to Cerridwen.

Have you watched the news, love?

She opened her eyes as her fingers curled around the icy armrests of her throne. ”Yes,” she murmured. ”The butcherings leave nothing to the imagination. The humans are now fully engaged, I suspect.”

Yes . . . you and I now have our wolf hunt. All that is left now is to bring it all to a vote.

Hunter sat before his grandfather, listening to his slow post-trance speech pattern while trying to understand the ancient wisdom embedded in the parables and images he conveyed.

”There is a twin evil slithering in the darkness. Two souls inside the same body . . . one is but a faint wisp of lifea”the other ferocious.” Silver Hawk drew a labored breath, and Hunter placed a hand on his shoulder.

”Grandfather, you must rest. How deeply did you go into the shadow lands for this information?”

Bear Shadow and Crow Shadow glanced at each other when the elderly shaman didn't respond.

”He was in at least twenty-four hours without relenting,” Bear Shadow confided. ”There were times he seemed to be fighting something or wrestling something.”

”Grandfather . .. why didn't you call me to you in the shadow lands? You went through the demon doors, didn't you!”

Hunted squatted down before his grandfather, who was seated on the cabin sofa.

”I am old; my life force is to be used for the future generations, not to cling to this world as though I am unaware that there is another side.”

Hunter closed his eyes and hugged his grandfather for a moment before coming to sit beside him.

”I had to go in and seal the breach,” Silver Hawk said in a rasp. ”The sigils against each spirit in our clan that the Unseelie left from the earlier wara”it weakened the veil between the worlds. The shadow lands were in peril. Something got out and had a grudge against the way of the wolf. This thing that is trapped cannot go back into our shadow lands or slither through by way of the demon doors. It is trapped in the world of the humans hence it will continue feeding until it is destroyed.”

Hunter pulled out his cell phone and showed him the image of Amy Chen that Shogun had given them all. ”This girl, is she carrying the demon you speak of?”

Silver Hawk shook his head no. ”She is the whisper of life and Light battling within her own body against a ferocious predator within. Her parents' prayers are keeping her light alive ... but this other thing is stronger than what lies within her.”

”Esmeralda, Esmeralda, please open the door!”

The locks to the town house quickly turned, and the witch opened the door for Sir Rodney, hustling him inside.

”This is a quiet neighborhood, Rodney, I've nevera””

”Have you been watching the news?”

”No. Why?”