Hunter s Moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,36

I meant, what did he do about Hector?"

Oh. "He used all the 7-5 resources to search for him, but we never found a trace."

"Which doesn't mean much."

"No."

Hector could be anywhere, using any name, doing anything he wanted. There was a certain freedom to being dead on paper.

"Do you know where he came from? How old he was? Who made him?"

The answers to any of those questions could help pinpoint where a werewolf might hide, who he might hang with. Sadly, I knew the answers to none of them in relation to Hector Menendez.

"I didn't know he was a werewolf until I saw him - "

I broke off as a vivid image flashed through my brain. My little sister, Jimmy, Mama. Hector's blue eyes shining from the face of a white wolf.

"Hey!" Jessie grabbed my hand, squeezed hard enough to make me wince. "I thought you were going to pass out there for a second."

I straightened and pulled away. I'd done enough fainting for one lifetime. "I'm fine," I snapped.

"Sure you are."

Being irritated with Jessie helped me focus on the here and now instead of my past. Which was probably why she was being so annoying. Or maybe she just came by it naturally. Like me.

"Hector told me he was from Texas. Corpus Christi. He sold drugs."

Her eyes widened. "Dealer?"

"Pharmaceutical rep."

Jessie turned a startled laugh into a cough. "And none of that was true?"

"None of it."

I'd met him in a restaurant where I'd gone for dinner with my parents. He'd been sitting in the bar alone, listening to music - Norah Jones, I think. Funny what you remember about one of the most important moments of your life.

He was tall and handsome; his dark skin and hair, combined with his light eyes and a well-trimmed goatee, gave him an exotic appearance. To little Miss Kansas and her white-bread, perfect life, Hector had been danger and desire all rolled into one.

I'd gone out with him a few times - secretly, of course. I'd been young, foolish, captivated, for a little while. Hector was quick to take insult - both real and imagined. He had a short temper and very little tolerance for anyone who was different from himself. An odd trait in a man named Menendez.

"You haven't heard from him since?"

I hesitated. "He called me at the hospital."

"How did he manage that?"

"I don't know. I may have imagined the calls."

As I'd imagined so many things.

"What did he say?"

I didn't want to remember all that Hector had told me - his plans, our future, his obsession.

"Nothing important."

She eyed me for a long moment, then let it go. "Why would he be here? Why now?"

I'd had the same thoughts. That Jessie had them, too, helped. I relaxed just a little. "I don't know," I admitted.

"I'll keep my eyes open. A guy like that shouldn't be hard to spot in a town like this."

She was right. And if I saw him first I wasn't going to wait around to see the whites of his eyes. I doubted Jessie would, either. The very thought made me feel stronger, more in control, safer.

"There's one more thing." I paused, then forced myself to blurt, "He has a tattoo."

Jessie lifted a brow. "Not a good thing to leave out, Leigh. A tattoo of what?"

"Pentagram."

She frowned. "Isn't that supposed to be protection against a werewolf?"

Surprise, surprise. Jessie didn't know everything.

"Not exactly. A pentagram is a five-pointed star. Some believe it's evil; others believe it's good."

"What do you think?"

Since the only time I'd ever seen one was as a tattoo on Hector's chest, I kind of thought the pentagram was Satan's tool.

"Supposedly, depending upon how the star is positioned, it can summon the powers of light or the powers of darkness."

"I guess we know which one Hector was after."

"Yeah."

"So where was this tattoo?"

I tapped a finger between my breasts.

Jessie's mouth fell open. I glanced away. I didn't need to explain how I'd seen Hector's chest. I'm sure she could figure it out.

"I doubt I'll get a good look at a stranger's breastbone," she remarked.

I doubted she would, either, but I'd told her all I knew.

Now we had to figure out if he was slinking around town. Knowing Hector, we wouldn't see him until it was too late.

"I ran an Internet search on cannibals."

"Excuse me?" Jessie's rapid change of subject left me blinking. "On what?"

"You heard me." She shoved some papers across the desk. "Will said the original Weendigo was a man who ate human flesh."

"That's just a legend."

"So are werewolves."

She