“But they don’t look like werewolves. They don’t even look like they can stand up.”
“They sleep during the day,” Paige replied. “When the sun’s out, they shift back into this form. If they get worked up, they can shift into their wolf form. They almost always change at night, and full moons are the worst.”
“When do they turn back into people?”
Paige slowly shook her head. “After they change the first time, they never change back into people. I don’t like the looks of this.”
“Tell me about it,” he grunted. “They look like big rats that were shaved by a cheese grater.”
“There should be more of them. Walter was right. That den’s big enough for three or four more of those things.”
“Three or four
After nodding a few times, Paige crawled away from the edge of the pit. “Half Breeds like cramped spaces and don’t pick large dens unless they’ve got the numbers to fill them. The rest must be out somewhere. If they were too far away to get back here when the sun came up, they probably dug in wherever they wound up to sleep through the day.”
“Can you find them?”
She shook her head. “Only if I got real lucky. Half Breeds can run a long ways in a short amount of time.”
“What about Lake Koshkong or whatever that place was that Walter mentioned?” Cole asked. “You think they’re there?”
“Could be. This looks like it’s probably their main den, so they’ll all wind up back here. The bad news is that they may have picked this place for another reason.”
“Like what?”
Paige shrugged as she backed away from the opening and got to her feet. “They could be sticking close to whatever is acting as the alpha for that group.”
“Is there any good news?”
“The good news is that we’ve got some time to get you your weapon.”
Cole practically jumped to his feet as he followed her down the side of the heap. “I really can use that rifle. I could also carry that Blood Blade. After all, I did carry the thing all the way from Canada.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” she said. “Pick out a stick.”
After all the walking, climbing, and crawling he’d been doing, Cole was sweating beneath the layers of discount clothing he’d bundled around himself. He scratched at a spot where wool scraped against damp skin and grunted, “Huh?”
Leading the way toward the edge of the grounds, Paige said, “You heard me. Pick out a stick. It’s going to be something you use for a weapon, so make sure it’s a good one.”
“Didn’t you bring the Tactical Rifle?”
“You need a stick.”
Cole looked around as if he expected a camera crew to jump out and start laughing at the dumbfounded expression on his face. All he saw was a lot of brown, swaying grass and a few clusters of rocks scattered throughout the fields that went on for miles before reaching the interstate to the west. The pile of rubble was still where he’d left it, and the mansion was beyond that. “I don’t get it.”
Paige pulled in a deep breath, bent at the waist and pulled out the twin clubs that she kept sheathed on the sides of her boots. “Here’s what I picked when I was in your spot. You’ve seen us fight with these. You’re going to need your own.”
The expression on his face shifted from dumbfounded to terrified. “Please don’t tell me I’m going to fight this werewolf with a stick.”
“You’ve come this far, Cole. Think about when you saw Gerald fight that Full Blood. Think about when you saw me fight that thing in the diner. You want to know how to bring these creatures down? I’m going to show you. You’ve been lucky so far, but if you don’t get trained real quick, you’re going to be real dead. I honestly don’t want that to happen. Shapeshifters and even Nymar can take a hell of a lot of damage from gunfire. Sometimes, the biggest guns out there don’t do jack. Skinners may have only developed one weapon for themselves, but it works really well. Just trust me and pick out something so we can get started.”
Cole’s eyes wandered toward the trees to the south and the pile that had already gathered at the base of those trunks. Before he could take one step in that direction, he was interrupted.
“Actually, dead wood won’t work for this,” Paige said. “The process only works on something with a bit of life left in it. It’s got to be freshly cut or uprooted for it to be any good.”
Suddenly, he felt something swell up inside of him that made him turn away from her and shout, “This is fucking crazy!” Shooting a glance toward the pit, he bit his tongue and listened for any trace of the ugly things at the bottom of that hole. All he heard was the wind. “I can’t do this,” he said in a measured, quieter tone. “I thought I could, but I guess…I’m just not…I’m just…I’m just some asshole who designs video games for a living and scratches my ass on the weekends. I don’t
Paige listened and her brown eyes watched him with gentle interest. Her face seemed softer than ever before. When she reached out for him, her movements settled his uneasiness before her fingers had fully wrapped around his wrists. Once she had him, she held onto both of his arms and pulled him closer so she was certain to keep his attention.
“Listen to me, Cole,” she said. “You’re the ninth person I’ve tried to train since I’ve been accepted as a Skinner. Two of those others are out there doing their part right now. The other six ran away crying when they got a look at what they were supposed to be hunting.”
“Yeah, right,” he grumbled.
Her grip on his wrists tightened and her eyebrows shifted just enough to show the first traces of a glare. “Crying, Cole. Some screamed. Some sobbed. Some just ran. You’ve had plenty of chances to run, but you haven’t. You’ve done the best you could with what you had, and to be honest, you haven’t had much.”
“Gee. Thanks.”
Although she smiled a bit, she didn’t loose any of her intensity. “This is going to sound a little corny,” she continued, “but there is such a thing as a warrior’s spirit. It’s in legends from all over the world and it separates the people who stand and fight from the ones who run and hide or sit and watch. It’s nothing supernatural. It’s just something that some people have and some don’t.”
Cole finally did look away from her and toward the nearby patch of trees as he said, “A lot of my friends joined the military after high school. A few joined the Navy and one wound up in the Air Force, but one became a Marine. No…he
“Warrior’s spirit,” Paige said.
“You’re right,” Cole said with a nod. “That does sound corny.”
More clouds had rolled in, making the sky look more like something that would get under his fingernails if he reached up and scratched it. Either he’d stopped thinking of his apartment and job back home, or he’d just lost the last strands of common sense that had clung to his brain for so long. Whatever it was, he felt confident enough to take Paige’s face in his hands and kiss her the way he’d been planning for far too long.
Her lips were soft and just moist enough to glide over his mouth as he settled in to a comfortable spot. Once his head was tilted just the right way and he’d pulled in another breath, he leaned in closer and slipped his hands through Paige’s hair. As the kiss wore on, she melted against him. His hands wandered down to settle on her hips, allowing him to feel the muscles tensing beneath her clothes. Standing on tiptoe, she finally allowed herself to lean back into the arms that were now wrapped around her.
“There’s a Half Breed out here, you know,” she whispered while Cole’s lips wandered from her mouth to her chin and then to her neck.
“Yeah,” he said as he nibbled a spot just beneath her ear. “Two of them.”
“They’re werewolves. Really fast and really…” She had to pause as Cole hit a spot that took away her next breath. Finally, she was able to say, “…and really mean.”
“I bet they are.”
Tightening her grip on him, she started to unbutton the front of his shirt. Once she had it open, she slipped her
