The others gathered in the kitchen. Ben took me to the bathroom.
“Jesus, look at you,” he said when he turned on the light.
I whimpered. I didn’t want to look. I turned away from the mirror.
“Should we take you to a hospital or something?”
“No, it’ll be okay. I’ve had worse.” Brave words.
We had to cut away my shirt and bra. My chest and shoulders had a dozen puncture wounds where the skin-walker had dug in her claws again and again. My right arm was shredded. This was where she’d bitten and worried, and dozens of slashes and tooth marks streaked the flesh. I stood over the sink while Ben sponged me off. The blood had spattered on my face and hair as well. I’d have to stay in the shower for a week to get clean.
“I should have done something,” Ben murmured. “I should have helped.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. We’d both have ended up like this. That thing—I was frozen. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. Just like Cormac said.” Just like those cows. They couldn’t run, they couldn’t struggle. She’d slaughtered them at her leisure.
“When does this rapid healing start?”
“It should have started already.” All the wounds still oozed and hurt like hell.
He shook his head absently, dabbing away fresh blood. “You have a first-aid kit? I think we’re going to have to tape some of this up. You have something you can wear?”
“I think there’s a button-up shirt in the closet. I ought to be able to get that on without crying.” I was still propped up against the sink, afraid to move because I knew it would hurt.
Ben regarded me a moment, and then had the gall to smile. “For someone who says she doesn’t like to get mixed up in the middle of things, you sure have a way of getting mixed up in the middle of things.” He kissed my lips and left on his errand. That made me feel better. Heck, it was almost like I’d planned it: Ben was doing great now that he had someone else to worry about. I’d have to keep that in mind.
He came back with a flannel shirt, and I sent him back for something else. I didn’t want to think about bits of flannel mixed with cuts scabbing over.
By the time we emerged back into the kitchen, Alice, Joe, and Tony were chatting. If not happily, at least cordially. Like they might actually come out of this as friends. Tony was pouring hot water from a kettle into mugs. His tea smelled rich, warm, soothing—just like he promised. I identified chamomile twined in with scents I didn’t recognize.
Tony said, “You just don’t seem like the kind of person who’d be into animal sacrifice.”
“Well… I’m not. It was all roadkill Joe and Avery picked up. We added blood from the butcher shop to make it look fresh. The only thing I did, really, was fix it so nobody saw or heard them placing the things.”
Of all the… Before I could say something snotty, Tony continued. “That explains a lot. It didn’t work, she didn’t leave, because you weren’t willing to make the sacrifice yourself, to spill the blood. You weren’t willing to take that onto yourself to get what you wanted.”
Softly, she said, “Not like that girl out there.”
After a moment of silence, I took the opportunity to bust in on the group. “I spend all that money in your store, and you still didn’t want me sticking around?”
Alice’s face puckered like she was going to start crying and I regretted my cattiness. She really hadn’t known what she was doing, had she?
“Oh, Kitty, I was just scared. We all were. We didn’t know. You hear stories, and you think the worst. We were just trying to keep the town safe, surely you can understand that.”
“So… the last couple full moons. Did you notice anything different? Could you tell that a werewolf was living in the neighborhood?” A law-abiding werewolf who made very, very sure that she didn’t cause trouble.
“No, I didn’t notice.”
Joe said, “That’s because we spent the night locked in the house with all the lights on.”
“And the days I shape-shifted that weren’t on the full moon—you didn’t notice then, did you?”
They both looked at me. Alice said, “You turn into a wolf on other days, too?”
Even Ben looked at me sharply. I wasn’t supposed to shape-shift on other nights. He knew I wasn’t supposed to do that. Now what kind of role model was I?
“Whenever I want.”
“I didn’t know that,” Alice said softly.