Blood Trail

angle."

    "Not really. It still goes from the corner down. ..."

    "Down the wrong way," her brother interrupted.

    "Does not!"

    "Does so!"

    They both had lips and fingers stained with berry juices and Vicki marveled at how easily they could switch from adults to children and back again. She'd decided on the drive back from Mr. Kleinbein's - who had parted from her with a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" adjuration to keep her eyes open - not to tell them about the local belief that they were nudists. She hadn't quite decided whether or nor she was going to mention it to their Uncle Stuart; mostly because she doubted he'd care.

    "You've got to bring the crossroads up here!"

    "Do not."

    "Do so!"

    "It doesn't matter," Vicki told them, stopping the argument cold. The wer, she'd realized while watching them draw the neighborhood on a bald patch of lawn, had very little sense of mapping. Although they probably knew every bush and every fence post on their own territory, the dimensions Peter had drawn were not the dimensions Vicki remembered. She frowned and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "As near as I can tell, here's the tree. And here's where I ended up coming out of the woods."

    "But why didn't you just follow your back trail?" Rose asked, still confused on that point despite explanations.

    Vicki sighed. The wer also had a little trouble dealing with the concept of getting lost.

    Before they could reopen the subject of noses, a small black head shoved itself under Vicki's hand as Shadow crept forward, trying to get a better look at what was going on.

    Peter grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him back. "Get out of there you, you'll mess it up."

    "No, it's all right." Vicki stood, dusting off the seat of her shorts. The grass on the lawn was sparse and bare dusty patches were common. "I think I've seen as much as I can here." She should be inside making phone calls; this really wasn't helping.

    Shadow squirmed in his cousin's grasp and, when Peter released him, turned into a very excited small boy. "Show Vicki your trick, Peter!"

    Under his tan, Peter turned a little red. "I don't think she wants to see it, kiddo."

    "Yes she does!" Daniel bounced over to Vicki. "You do, don't you?"

    She didn't, but how could she say no in the face of such determined enthusiasm? "Sure I do."

    He bounced back over to Peter. "See!"

    Peter sighed and surrendered. "All right,"he reached out and tugged at the lock of hair falling into Daniel's eyes. "Go and get it."

    Barking shrilly, Shadow raced off to the front of the house.

    "Is he talking when he does that?" Vicki wondered aloud.

    "Not really." Rose's ears pricked forward toward the sound. "Fur-form noises are kind of emoting out loud."

    "So Shadow's barking translates into 'Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy'?"

    The twins looked at each other and laughed. "Close enough," Rose admitted.

    Shadow raced back silently, but only, Vicki suspected, because the huge yellow frisbee he carried made barking impossible. He dropped it at Peter's feet - it looked more than a little chewed - and sat back, panting expectantly.

    Peter skimmed out of his shorts and scooped up the plastic disk. "You ready?" he asked.

    The entire back end of Shadow's body wagged.

    Looking not unlike an ancient Greek discus thrower, Peter whipped the frisbee into the air.
    Shadow took off after it and a heartbeat later so did Storm. Muscles rippling under his russet coat, he raced past the smaller wer, drew his hindquarters under and flung himself into the air, jaws spread, ready to clamp his teeth down on the rim of the disk.

    Only to have it snatched out of his grasp by a larger black wer who hit the ground running with both Storm and Shadow in hot pursuit.

    Rose giggled, thrust her sundress into Vicki's hands and Cloud took off after them. They raced around the yard for a moment or two then, working as a team, Cloud and Storm cut the larger wer off and jumped it. Shadow, still barking whenever he managed to find a spare breath, threw himself on the mix of tumbling bodies.

    A moment later, Nadine looked up out of the pile of multicolored fur, tossed the frisbee to one side and grinned at Vicki. "So, you about ready for lunch?"

    "We found tracks, not five hundred yards from the house." The words were almost an unintelligible growl. The silence that followed them took only a few seconds to fill with answering anger.

    Nadine crossed the kitchen and clutched at her mate's arm. "Whose?" she