day. The bodies were pools of filth and bones. Even the rats who came to eat the bodies had died.”
“Were the bodies green?”
“No. They were white, bubbling, like—” He paused, thinking of something I might relate to. “Like vinegar and baking soda.”
“So. Similar symptoms, but not exact.”
He gave a single nod and his black hair slid forward with a quiet swish. “Not exact, which is why I have not mentioned it until now.”
“When was this?”
After a too-long pause, he said, “Nineteen oh two.”
“I saw something white running in the pasture before I found Adrian’s Hell dead. At first I thought it was a white-headed human. Then I decided it was a white-tailed deer.”
“But now you question that conclusion?”
“Yes. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“I will shift to a St. Bernard and see if I can catch the scent of a human.”
“Why a St. Bernard? A bloodhound would have a better sense of smell.”
My eyes had fully adjusted to the night and I saw the flash of teeth as FireWind smiled. Amusement lightened his voice when he said, “Because of Einstein.”
“What?” I asked, startled.
“The equation E equals mc squared was suggested by that scientist. It is an equation that suggests energy and mass are interchangeable with each other, and it seems to explain skinwalker magic. The most I have ever weighed in my long life is two hundred and fifteen pounds. Therefore, I need an animal that is two hundred pounds and more in weight to shift into, but not greatly more or greatly less.” He opened several packs of stinky commercial jerky and dropped them on the ground. “Keep watch for a few minutes while I shift and then go into the house while I work.”
FireWind, my skinwalker boss, took off his shirt, folded it, and placed it on the car hood. He slipped off his shoes. Belatedly I realized he was stripping in order to change shape. There wasn’t time to drive away, so I quickly turned my back and closed my eyes. I heard the soft shush of cloth on skin and the swishing of grasses, but I didn’t open my eyes until long after I heard FireWind walk into the pasture. I glanced at the pile of clothes and FireWind’s shoes on the hood of my car. Oh yes. Naked.
I might be in love with a were-creature, and he and the other local weres might strip and change shape on my land three nights a month, but I had never watched. Naked human bodies were not something I ever watched.
“Yes,” I whispered to myself. “I am a prude, through and through.”
I texted the others that FireWind was shifting to search for a possible intruder and that we were both safe. From the grass came odd sounds, cracking and snapping, and then silence that went on too long. About ten minutes later, a St. Bernard dog trotted out of the pasture, a bone in his teeth. He rose up on his hind legs, dropped the bone, and nosed an empty one-day gobag near his clothes and shoes. He looked me, at the bag and clothes, and back at me.
“You want me to pack the bone and your clothes into the bag?”
The big dog gave a slow nod and dropped to all fours, gobbling up the jerky without chewing.
“You coulda put your clothes in it yourself, you know.” He didn’t respond, just kept eating jerky. I tucked the shoes into an expandable pouch on the side. Careful not to touch his undies, and feeling silly about my reactions, I packed the clothes into the bag, on top of a collection of bones, teeth, and what looked like animal claws inside, each with a drilled hole inserted with a steel ring for hanging on a necklace. The big boss carries around a stack of animal bones in his gobag.
Of course he does. He’s a skinwalker. Right. I put the bone he had carried in his teeth on top of the clothes.
FireWind looked at the house and back to me. He clearly expected me to follow his orders and go to the house.
I held up the bag. “Leave this here or at the house?”
He looked at the passenger seat of my car. And back to me. I placed the bag on the seat. “I’ll leave the door unlocked,” I said. The big dog nodded at me, trotted into the pasture with a swish of grasses, and vanished.
Shaking my head at all the strange things that were stomping around in my