Hunter s Moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,62

didn't I?

Finally he shook his head. "Can't say that I have."

"Positive?" Jessie asked.

"I'm good with faces. Fellow like that would stand out."

I let out the breath I'd been holding. Now what?

"Why don't you ask around?" Jessie said.

"Sure." Elwood put the photo into his pocket. "Whad he do?"

"Nothing. Yet."

The old man shrugged and left.

Jessie turned to me. "He's got more contacts than I do. He'll check with the owners of the cabins in the woods and on the lakes. If Hector's anywhere near here, Elwood will hear about it."

I didn't like leaving the search to someone I didn't know, but if Jessie trusted the man, I discovered that I did, too.

All three of us knelt next to the dead wolves. They'd been killed, violently. Throats torn out, bite marks on the bodies. But they hadn't been eaten.

Had the man and his pet disturbed the Weendigo before he could accomplish his mission? I had a hard time believing a being that didn't flinch at cannibalism in both human and werewolf form would mind killing an intruder and his puppy dog. So what had happened here?

"You said the brown werewolf killed another one," Will murmured. "He didn't eat him."

"Not while I was there."

"So maybe one is killing, the other is eating."

"We thought about that," I said. "But I don't recall two wolves in the power eater legend."

"If the white wolf is the most powerful, and getting stronger with every bit of power he eats, he could already be controlling the others."

"But does it work if one wolf kills and a second eats? Doesn't one have to kill, then eat, to capture the power?"

"I'll have to read my notes," Will said, "but I don't remember anything that specific. Using the locals to help him would make sense. He needs to reach a hundred."

"If he's powerful enough to control the others, if he's the ultimate werewolf, how are we going to stop him?"

Jessie asked. "What if silver doesn't work on the power eater the way it works on everyone else?"

Will scowled. "That would suck."

I had to agree.
Chapter 25
"We need to make an appointment with Cora," Will said.

"An appointment?" Jessie asked. "She's that busy?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Call her then."

Will undipped his cell phone from his belt. "No service. Again."

Jessie glanced at her phone and growled. Sometimes cell service was lost this deep in the woods.

"Why don't you two go on," I said. "I'll finish up here."

Jessie frowned. "This is my job - "

"Is it? I thought it was mine."

"You two could arm wrestle for it," Will suggested.

I'd tangled with Jessie once. In a fair fight, she could kill me. A dirty fight was another matter. But I'm sure a dirty fight - as in mud wrestling - was just what Will had in mind.

"I'll pass."

"Me, too." Jessie considered for a moment, then gave in. "Fine, Duchess, you burn the fanged and furry; we'll go back to town and set up an appointment with the voodoo priestess."

"Grand medicine spirit woman," Will said. "Eighth level."

"Whatever."

"Jess, she's old and very well respected. You have to behave."

Jessie looked at me. "Don't I know how to behave?"

I glanced at Will. "Am I supposed to answer that?"

"No. Give us a call," he glanced at his cell, then hooked it back on his belt, "when you get to your place.

Maybe we can see Cora today."

He took Jessie's arm and tugged her back the way we'd come. Amazingly, she went without argument.

Probably figured they'd have time for a quickie - I glanced at the three wolves - maybe even a longie, before I was finished.

I dragged them into the center of the clearing, as far away from trees and bushes as I was able to get, added accelerant, then pulled out a match. I'd done this so many times, I wasn't really paying attention.

Instead, my gaze drifted to the forest, absently watching the flicker of Jessie's and Will's clothing fade away.

I struck the match, and a sudden flash between me and them made me freeze. I stared in horror at what appeared to be stealthily moving white fur. I couldn't take my eyes off the sight or figure out what it might mean.

Then the match burned down to my fingertip and the pain caused me to curse, then drop it on the ground.

I stomped the flame into oblivion and glanced back in the same direction.

The flash of white was still there.

I lifted my face to the sky. The sun shone brightly in the middle of the day, though the rays did not penetrate into the