Start | Chapter Thirteen Part Three | Index | Chapter Fourteen Part Two

“Anna’s fever has broken already,” Tanya told David when he arrived at her place early the next morning. “How was the party.”

“Interesting,” he offered after a moment. “Informative. Emma was there.” He hesitated for a moment. “And Sarah’s employer is a vampire. Oh and she knows about us being hunters.” He frowned at his cousin. “What do you mean already?”

“Ha! I knew that Meredith had illicit contacts!” She grinned wolfishly then added quietly. “Werewolf fevers usually last a couple of days, Dave. Hers lasted less than a day. It’s probably nothing but it’s a little worrying.”

“Oh, okay,” he said because he sensed that he would not understand why even if he asked. Then he did a double take. “Wait a minute what’s Sal’s employer got to do with Meredith?”

“Oh, she got Sal that job,” Tanya shrugged. “Of course Sal is an even more illicit contact than he is for her.”

“Er…” David looked at her as his mind raced through what she had said. “She said that vampire Ian had been saying he had proof that there was a werewolf among the werewolf hunters.” He blinked a few times. “Sal’s a werewolf hunter? He was talking about Sal?”

“Yes, if it makes you feel any better about killing him you may well have saved Sal’s life. And she’s a very good one actually given our innate ability to see each other’s eye colour. She’s currently trying to find out who killed your father. It’s looking more and more like Ian’s hunting partner.”

“How is that safe? I mean I know you said that you could use a silver knife with preperation, but they do testing randomly.” He paused. “Oh wait, her superior does the test doesn’t she?”

She nodded. “And she’s kind enough to use a non-silver needle most times and warn her when she can’t. I’ve warned Sal that someone is on to her and I am sure Merry has done the same. She’s taking precautions against silver. Then again the entire pack has been since Uncle Marty died.”

“That’s good then.” He chewed at his lip. “I hope she’ll be safe. So this sort of crazy behaviour is typical of pre-change werewolves?”

“To a degree. Sal was traumatised by what happened to Martin and Anna had someone messing with her head, but we all go slightly wonky for a few months before we change. Sal was worse than Anna, actually. She was unconsciously forcing herself not to shift for nearly two years after her fever – which probably some kind of record. That really throws you off the rails. In an odd way it was good that she found an outlet in werewolf hunting. Though it did mean we all had to be really careful around her before she finally first shifted and found out the truth about what happened. She was bloody lucky Merry is such a liberal though.”

“And what was that about your eyes?” he asked.

Tanya gave a smile. “Dave, what colour are my eyes?”

“A really weird shade of Amber,” he replied. “Sal’s and Anna’s as well, which is weird and now I know obviously related to your being werewolves but hardly something a werewolf would notice… what’s wrong?” This last was because she was staring at him with wide eyes.

“Most humans can’t see our eyes, their minds just fill in a normal colour. Hell even pre-change werewolves can’t see our real eye colour. How long have you been able to see this?”

“I’ve always been able to. It just never came up.” He paused and scowled at that. “Which is kind of odd in an of itself.”

“Psychics can sometimes see our eyes,” she said dubiously. “It’s my best guess on Merry’s ability to recognise us on sight, and it might explain why those renegades attacked her. But unless you’ve been psychic for longer than anyone realised that can’t explain this.”

“That doesn’t seem likely,” he said. “I only recently started getting the flashes of stuff.”

“I am going to have to ask Daniel what he makes of this when I see him. Nineteen’s a bit old but your psychic abilities could be a symptom of something else.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I’d really like to ask Liam as well but that would mean explaining more to him than I am really ready to at the moment.”

“What do you mean something else?” David asked.

“You could be fey or something similar. It’s not unknown in our family,” she said. “But fey usually emerge at about the same age werewolves do.”

“And you’d discuss this with a fairy hunter?”David asked incredulously. “I mean what if I am one? I don’t think I am, but-”

“Heh, Liam’s okay,” she reassured him. “He and his little mob take the line of don’t kill it unless it’s actually evil and admit that not everything they come across is. The generic branch always has. But if I asked him I’d have to explain about being a werewolf. I think that he had be cool with it, since he’s insinuated that he agrees with Merry and me, but I don’t want to risk my neck on that until think becomes know. He walks a very fine line since most of the council don’t like the idea that anything supernatural might not be a threat.”

“And who’s Daniel?” he asked.

“You know Daniel,” she said dryly. “he’s my cousin on my mother’s side. I am sure that you remember him. He used to the play in the treehouse with us when we were kids.” She paused and grinned. “he’s also the pack’s healer and knows a lot about this sort of thing. I’ve asked him over to talk about Anna.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember him. Just how much of our family are werewolves?” he asked wryly.

“About half,” she said. “So how was Emma?”

“She looked hungry but refused to bite me because I didn’t trust her,” he said.

Tanya snorted. “Yeah, that sounds like Emma all right.”

“She wants us to give her a chance to prove that she isn’t evil.”

“I think that’s a fair enough request, don’t you?” Tanya said. “Now why don’t you go and check on Anna. She’s still asleep but should be waking up soon. I’ll make us breakfast.”

Start | Chapter Thirteen Part Three | Index | Chapter Fourteen Part Two