she wanted him to go. He seemed completely unaffected, but did go with her, though not without turning to glower at me.
Unsurprisingly, there were no further questions, so we broke for lunch.
I didn’t enjoy my food. Nobody spoke to me while I was in the buffet line, even though I was right behind a woman I’d traded iPhone apps with over breakfast, and when I went looking for a table, every chair was suddenly filled or saved for somebody else.
Eventually I found an empty table, and sat to choke down my lunch. Had I been human, I probably would have lost my appetite, but shunned or not, I was still a werewolf. Nonetheless, I only toyed with my second dessert, and looked up happily when I noticed somebody was standing next to me. The pleasure didn’t last long. It was that damned ghost. At least he’d changed back to his non-gross form.
“Fattening yourself up for the vampire?” he asked.
“Who are you calling fat, tubby?”
He sucked in his gut or performed some sort of ectoplasmic trick to make it look as if he had. “I want to talk to you.”
Since nobody else was lining up to chat, I said, “Pull up a seat.”
He glared at me.
“Sorry.” I pulled a chair out for him, and he floated into it as if actually sitting.
“Listen,” he said, “maybe I came on too strong before, but you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Vampires are vicious killing machines.”
“And how many vampires have you met?”
“I’ve never
“People get murdered every day, and nobody blames all humans. So is it too bizarre to accept that some vampires are nice?”
“How many vampires have
“Just one,” I admitted.
“And that makes you an expert?”
“I don’t claim to be, unlike some people.” I got up, and when Captain Bob followed me, I said, “What are you doing?”
“Sticking around until I can talk some sense into you.” He grinned. “Call it a haunting.”
The day could not get any better. “Do you mind if I go to the little werewolves’ room by myself?”
“Go ahead—I’ll wait.”
And he did. When I came out of the restroom, he followed me to the auditorium and sat down in the empty chair next to mine. Since nobody had taught exorcism, I knew of no way to get rid of a ghost and had to settle for ignoring him.
The afternoon session was a lot drier than the morning ones. Apparently Dr. Hogencamp and her late husband had researched all kinds of supernatural bloodlines, not just werewolves, and had investigated whether witches’ power was inherited and why some people became ghosts after death. Their conclusion was that supernaturals had something extra in their genetic makeup, which she referred to as the “arcane gene.”
She got more technical after that, talking recessives and dominants and trauma-induced phantomization, which apparently meant that a person who died horrifically had a better chance of becoming a ghost. After the first hour, I zoned out and started playing solitaire on my iPad. Only I couldn’t even enjoy that because Captain Bob kept pointing to cards to show me what I should play. Nor could I doze off because every time I shut my eyes, the ghost noisily cleared his throat, which both woke me up and left me wondering what he had in his throat to clear.
Finally the session ended, and we went to dinner. It was just a quick bite because it was the night of the full moon. Unlike in the movies, werewolves can Change anytime, and into any number of forms. I personally can’t manage anything that isn’t canine, but before I’d become lupine non grata, I’d heard a funny story about a kid who Changed into a reindeer. Technically, we don’t even have to Change on the full moon, except the first time. But it is traditional, so the seminar’s activities included a fun run through the resort’s extensive grounds.
After a cozy dinner alone with Captain Bob, I ducked into the bathroom, waited until the ghost was momentarily distracted, then snuck off to my cabin to Change. I usually run as a dog to avoid arousing fear, loathing, and wildlife control officers, but this time I went with a classic wolf. It’s good for all seasons, it’s slimming, and I’d be able to blend in with the other wolves.
That was the plan, anyway. Except that when I joined the wolves frolicking on the front lawn, it took about three minutes for the captain to figure out which wolf was me—I wasn’t sure if it was a ghostly talent or if another wolf squealed. Either way, as soon as he latched on to me, the other wolves found other places to be.
I ran into the forest as fast as I could, but Captain Bob had no problem keeping up, and when I ducked between trees and through underbrush, he went through it all as if it weren’t there. Or as if he weren’t there. Basically he sucked the fun out of the run, so after a frustrating hour, I decided it was time to give up.
Since the last thing I wanted was to lead him to my cabin, I doubled back twice and shifted forms three times to be reasonably sure I was safe. Once I was again among the two-legged and dressed I called David, and tried to convince both of us that I was having a good time.
After I hung up the phone, I tried to decide if I should go to bed and skip the buffet, go to the buffet and eat so much food that there wouldn’t be enough to go around, or just pack up and go home. I hadn’t made up my mind when there was a knock on the door. At first I was afraid it was Captain Bob, but I then remembered that he couldn’t touch anything and opened the door to find Dr. Hogencamp.
“Hi.”
“Joyce, isn’t it? I don’t know if you remember me from today’s presentations, but—”
“It’s not a session I’m likely to forget.”
“I suppose not. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you.”
“Sure, come on in.”
This was the closest I’d been to the woman. She had a sturdy build and tight gray curls, and she was wearing glasses, which was unusual for a werewolf. The Change cleaned up a lot of health issues, which is part of why we live so much longer than humans. Now that I noticed it, she didn’t smell like a werewolf, either.
“Dr. Hogencamp—”
“Call me Angie.”
“I’m probably being inexcusably rude, Angie, but I don’t know the proper way to ask this. What are you?”
“Just human.”
“Isn’t that against the rules?” One of the first things that had been impressed upon me when I was Changed was the importance of keeping the existence of werewolves secret. American society was still coming to terms with gays and lesbians—throwing werewolves into the mix would have been a bad idea.
“I’m in a unique position. My husband, Carl, and I were bitten by a rogue, just as you were, and the local pack found us and told us about werewolves and the other supernatural beings. But only Carl Changed. We didn’t understand why and that led us to discover the arcane gene. We found that Carl had an incomplete penetrant.”
“That sounds painful.”
“An incomplete penetrant of the arcane gene. He barely survived the Change.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t have the gene at all. Still, I can continue the research, even now that Carl has passed away.”
I wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone, so didn’t know if I should express sympathy or not, so I went with a noncommittal nod.
“I imagine you noticed that in my discussion of the arcane gene, I didn’t mention vampires.”
I hadn’t, actually—I’d been too busy wondering if I could use an electric fan to try to blow Captain Bob away.
“The fact is,” Angie said, “I don’t know much about vampires. Nobody does, except presumably other vampires.”
“You could ask Captain Bob. He seems to know it all.”
“I’m sorry about that. I had no idea he would take your living arrangements so personally.” She did look
