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was real power. The night suddenly seemed full of life. Snuffling. Yipping. Tiny movements all around us.
I was some great guardian for Eric, huh? I'd let him sweep me over here. We were about to be
discovered by a vampire-blood drinking Were witch, and who knows what all else, and I didn't even
have Jason's shotgun. I put my arms around Eric and hugged him in apology.
"Sorry," I whispered, as tiny as a bee would whisper. But then I felt something brush against us,
something large and furry, while I was hearing Mark's wolfy sounds from a few feet away on the other
side of the tree. I bit my lip hard to keep from giving a yip myself.
Listening intently, I became sure there were more than two animals. I would have given almost anything
for a floodlight. From maybe ten yards away came a short, sharp bark. Another wolf? A plain old dog, in
the wrong place at the wrong time?
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Suddenly, Eric left me. One minute, he was pressing me against the tree in the pitch-black dark, and the
next minute, cold air hit me from top to bottom (so much for my holding on to his wrists). I flung my arms
out, trying to discover where he was, and touched only air. Had he just stepped away so he could
investigate what was happening? Had he decided to join in?
Though my hands didn't encounter any vampires, something big and warm pressed against my legs. I
used my fingers to better purpose by reaching down to explore the animal. I touched lots of fur: a pair of
upright ears, a long muzzle, a warm tongue. I tried to move, to step away from the oak, but the dog
(wolf?) wouldn't let me. Though it was smaller than I and weighed less, it leaned against me with such
pressure that there was no way I could move. When I listened to what was going on in the darkness a
lot of growling and snarling I decided I was actually pretty glad about that. I sank to my knees and put
one arm across the canine's back. It licked my face.
I heard a chorus of howls, which rose eerily into the cold night. The hair on my neck stood up, and I
buried my face in the neck fur of my companion and prayed. Suddenly, over all the lesser noises, there
was a howl of pain and a series of yips.
I heard a car start up, and headlights cut cones into the night. My side of the tree was away from the
light, but I could see that I was huddled by a dog, not a wolf. Then the lights moved and gravel sprayed
from Bill's driveway as the car reversed. There was a moment's pause, I presumed while the driver
shifted into drive, and then the car screeched and I heard it going at high speed down the hill to the
turnoff onto Hummingbird Road. There was a terrible thud and a high shrieking sound that made my heart
hammer even harder. It was the sound of a pain a dog makes when it's been hit by a car.
"Oh, Jesus," I said miserably, and clutched my furry friend. I thought of something I could do to help,
now that it seemed the witches had left.
I got up and ran for the front door of Bill's house before the dog could stop me. I pulled my keys out of
my pocket as I ran. They'd been in my hand when Eric had seized me at my back door, and I'd stuffed
them into my coat, where a handkerchief had kept them from jingling. I felt around for the lock, counted
my keys until I arrived at Bill's the third on the ring and opened his front door. I reached in and
flipped the outside light switch, and abruptly the yard was illuminated.
It was full of wolves.
I didn't know how scared I should be. Pretty scared, I guessed. I was just assuming both of the Were
witches had been in the car. What if one of them was among the wolves present? And where was my
vampire?
That question got answered almost immediately. There was a sort ofwhump as Eric landed in the yard.
"I followed them to the road, but they went too fast for me there," he said, grinning at me as if we'd been
playing a game.
A dog a collie went up to Eric, looked up at his face, and growled.
"Shoo," Eric said, making an imperious gesture with his hand.
My boss trotted over to me and sat against my legs again. Even in the darkness, I had suspected that my
guardian was Sam. The first time I'd encountered him in this transformation, I'd thought he was a stray,
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and I'd named him Dean, after a man I knew with the same eye color. Now it was a habit to call him
Dean when he went on four legs. I sat on Bill's front steps and the collie cuddled against me. I said, "You
are one great dog." He wagged his tail. The wolves were sniffing Eric, who was standing stock-still.
A big wolf trotted over to me, the biggest wolf I'd ever seen. Weres turn into large wolves, I guess; I
haven't seen that many. Living in Louisiana, I've never seen a standard wolf at all. This Were was almost
pure black, which I thought was unusual. The rest of the wolves were more silvery, except for one that
was smaller and reddish.
The wolf gripped my coat sleeve with its long white teeth and tugged. I rose immediately and went over
to the spot where most of the other wolves were milling. We were at the outer edge of the light, so I
hadn't noticed the cluster right away. There was blood on the ground, and in the middle of the spreading
pool lay a young dark-haired woman. She was naked.
She was obviously and terribly injured.
Her legs were broken, and maybe one arm.
"Go get my car," I told Eric, in the kind of voice that has to be obeyed.
I tossed him my keys, and he took to the air again. In one available corner of my brain, I hoped that he
remembered how to drive. I'd noted that though he'd forgotten his personal history, his modern skills
were apparently intact.
I was trying not to think about the poor injured girl right in front of me. The wolves circled and paced,
whining. Then the big black one raised his head to the dark sky and howled again. This was a signal to all
the others, who did the same thing. I glanced back to be sure that Dean was keeping away, since he was
the outsider. I wasn't sure how much human personality was left after these two-natured people
transformed, and I didn't want anything to happen to him. He was sitting on the small porch, out of the
way, his eyes fixed on me.
I was the only creature with opposable thumbs on the scene, and I was suddenly aware that that gave
me a lot of responsibility.
First thing to check? Breathing. Yes, she was! She had a pulse. I was no paramedic, but it didn't seem
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