fists against the werewolf’s sides, driving both arrows between its ribs. Somehow, Waggoner’s muscles were strong enough to flip the Half Breed onto its side and pound both arrows into its chest cavity. Paige finished it off with a stabbing blow from her machete that cut straight up into its heart. When she pulled the weapon out, there were enough barbs protruding from the sides of the machete to pull a sizable portion of the creature’s innards out along with it.
“Come in,” Kawosa said as he tapped a button on the phone. “And don’t worry. There isn’t—”
Before he could finish, Paige rushed forward to look inside the room. A second Half Breed sat on the other side of the doorway, looking even more tortured by its inability to move.
Swinging his feet down from the desk, Kawosa leaned forward in his chair and clasped his hands. Long stringy hair hung on either side of his face, plastered to his forehead and parted like a curtain to reveal angular features that looked as if they’d been drawn onto him with chalk. Studying her carefully, he said, “There isn’t another Half Breed guarding that door.”
“I’m looking straight at it,” she said with what little bit of confidence she could dredge up.
“No. Your partner did away with the only guard I posted. There wasn’t enough time for me to find another. There is no other Half Breed guarding that door.”
Even though she could see for herself that Kawosa was lying, his words were still tunneling into her brain. Paige kept her eyes focused on the second Half Breed, holding onto its image as if it was about to fade from her sight. And no matter how hard she tried, that’s exactly what it did.
The Half Breed strained against its instinct to run and destroy.
Paige fought to keep hold of the knowledge and vision that set her apart from every other schmuck who didn’t know any better than to believe monsters didn’t exist.
None of that struggling helped either one of them.
The Half Breed remained where it was, and Paige’s sight was clouded until she saw nothing but empty floor space where the bestial guard had been.
Kawosa allowed his fingers to slide together so he could clasp his hands. Although he was still watching the door, he relaxed when Paige’s gaze wandered away from where it had been anchored a moment ago. “So, Skinner, how did you find me?”
Unsure whether she could sneak a bluff past Kawosa, she told him, “There’s a distinct lack of authority figures around here for a town being overrun by werewolves. This seemed like a good place to look for an explanation.”
Kawosa’s features might have shifted, but not so a mortal’s eyes would notice. “That makes sense.”
“They’ll still come, you know.”
“Who will?”
In the hallway behind her, Waggoner was just finishing with the Half Breed that had jumped him and took no notice of the one still by the door. He held his ground to catch his breath in a series of wheezing gasps.
“The military,” Paige said. “The police. Local gun nuts. More of us. It doesn’t matter. What you’re doing here won’t go unnoticed for long. The Full Bloods in New Mexico are already cleared out, and if we can’t do the same here tonight, you’ll get obliterated by some good old-fashioned American firepower sooner or later.”
“I thought you Skinners shunned the spotlight. Isn’t that why your Dr. Lancroft had me caged in a dungeon beneath a basement for all those years?” Kawosa studied Waggoner’s sweaty face and tensed muscular frame as if the man was pressed between glass slides beneath a microscope. “So the wildness truly is inside you,” he mused.
“You’re damn right it is,” Waggoner said while holding out a bloody arrow to point at the shapeshifter. “And you’re about to get a taste of it firsthand.”
“What wildness?” Paige asked.
Almost immediately Waggoner moved forward. He’d already forgotten about the prone Half Breed at his feet and had his sights set upon the scrawny man sitting next to a phone that blinked wildly with incoming calls. Paige stretched out an arm to prevent him from getting past her, which prompted him to push against her as if he didn’t even realize there was something in his way.
“The same wildness my kin are feeling,” Kawosa said while observing Waggoner’s frustration. “It’s the spark inside those of you who find yourselves in the role of warrior, whether that be soldier, Skinner, criminal, or beast. Surely you’ve known humans who’ve tried to pick