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height at night. No, he would find her while she slept and
drag her into the sunlight and watch as she burned slowly
before his eyes. He smiled at the prospect.
But he couldn't allow himself the luxury of thinking about
the future and his revenge for too long. He had tonight to
think about. And the next night, and the night after that.
* * * *
The Vampire-Empress was happy. She knew she had to
find a distraction and she found one closer to home than she
needed when she stretched out her mind and searched. She
needed something to distract Jean's mind, at least for a short
time, and Ray would be the perfect distraction. She had
known Ray a very long time. He had paid her a large sum of
money to help him psychically control his blood lust. She had
taught many of his kind.
"Poor baby," she thought with a smile. He never realized
that she could easily take away what he had given him. He
was a perfect pawn in their game. Jean had received
notification about the animal attack from an emergency e-
mail account he kept, so that Renee could contact him in an
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emergency. "Animal attack, Destin, Florida. Contact P.
already onsite. Call me. R.
Jean knew the import of the message and knew he had to
respond. The chance that this was unrelated to his current
case was remote. He had to investigate this case. With any
luck, it should be a quick hunt. He considered what to do with
the women.
Taking them along had certain dangers. The monster they
would be hunting was clever, powerful and ruthless. But
leaving them here, without his protection, would make them
vulnerable to Angelique. That could be what she wanted to
draw him away from them to make either a physical or
perhaps psychic attack. He sat with both of them an
explained this to them.
"Well, I said I could prove myself to you. I thought that my
actions would do that. That I would show I was trustworthy.
But if I show you a werewolf, I think that would prove to you
both once and for all that I'm telling you the truth."
"I suppose." Was all Kit could say.
"I'm coming with you." Ginger said in her even manner
that seemed to set a standard for the other two, time and
again. "Not because I need proof, but because I feel safer
when I am with you."
While the women packed, Jean prepared his tools. Two
shotguns; one pump, one double barreled, both twelve gauge
and sawed off.. Two rifles; one Winchester thirty ought thirty
lever action, and one three-oh-eight bolt action, both with
scopes. Five ten millimeter double action semiautomatic
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pistols, all with laser sights. All the weapons were loaded with
silver ammunition.
On the flight down he gave each of his companions a pistol
and a showed them how they worked. He also showed them
how to use the shotguns. It was unlikely they would be in a
position to need the rifles, so he didn't bother with
them.****"If this is a werewolf, and we are pretty certain
that it is, then you need to know some things about it. Unlike
a vampire, we have to hunt this monster at night. There is no
way we can tell if someone is a werewolf by day, and we
won't risk killing an innocent on a suspicion.
"The werewolf is powerful and clever, but not smart in its
wolf form. It will look very much like a large dog, and will act
mostly on instinct. It will either fight or flee. It can appear on
any night, not just a full moon, and most have control over
their transformation. That is they can hold it off for periods at
a time. One they transform, only daylight, or death will
change them back. And once a lust over takes them, they will
be compelled to transform for any number of nights in a row.
It can be as little as three nights, or as long as a month.
Though werewolves who are that powerless against their
blood lust tend to live long.
"We suspect that this werewolf is very old and very smart
in his human form. I suspect that Angelique has somehow
drawn him out in order to draw me off. Either to draw me
away from the computer, from Atlanta, or from you. I have
no way of knowing.
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Kit noticed the sun had set while they were speaking. She
could only wonder what had become of her life in the last
week.
* * * *
Ray watched the sun set from a secluded part of a national
park. He was naked and his clothing were stashed under a
green tarp. It was not too far away from the first kill, but far [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]