Blood Trail

demanded. "Whose tracks?"

    "We don't know."

    "But the scent. ..."

    "Garlic. The trail reeks of nothing but garlic."

    "How old?" Peter wanted to know.

    "Twelve hours. Maybe a little more. Maybe a little less." Stuart's hair was up and he couldn't remain still, pacing back and forth with jerky steps.

    If Ebon had been shot from that tree in the woods, as all evidence seemed to suggest he had, five hundred yards and twelve hours meant the assassin had come within range of the house sometime last night.

    "Maybe you'd all better stay at a hotel, in town, until this is over," Vicki suggested, knowing even as the words left her mouth what the reaction was going to be.

    "No!" Stuart snapped, turning on her. "This is our territory and we will defend it!"

    "He's not after your territory," Vicki pointed out, her own voice rising. "He's after your lives!
    Take them out of his range, just for a time. It's the only sensible thing to do!"

    "We will not run."

    "But if he can get that close, you can't protect yourselves from him."

    Stuart's eyes narrowed and his words were nearly lost in his snarl. "It will not happen again."

    "How do you propose to stop it?" This was worse than arguing with Celluci.

    "We will guard. ..."

    "You haven't been guarding!"

    "He has not been on our territory before!"

    Vicki took a deep breath. This was getting nowhere fast. "At least send the children away."

    "NO!"

    Stuart's response was explosive and Vicki turned to Nadine for help. Surely she'd understand the necessity of sending the children to safety.

    "The children must stay within the safety of the pack." Nadine held a solemn looking Daniel very tightly, one hand stroking his hair. Daniel, in turn, held tight to his mother.

    "This coward with a gun does not run this pack." Stuart yanked his chair out from the table and threw himself down on it. "And his actions will not rule this pack. We will live as we live." He jabbed his finger at Vicki. "You will find him!"

    He wasn't angry at her, Vicki realized, but at himself, at his perceived failure to protect his family. Even so, the heat of his gaze forced her to look away. "I will find him," she said, trying not to resent the strength of his rage. Let's just hope I find him in time.

    Lunch began as an assault; meat ripped and torn between gleaming teeth, an obvious surrogate for an enemy's throat. Fortunately for Vicki's piece of mind, things calmed down fairly quickly, the wer - especially the younger wer - being incapable of sustaining a mood for any length of time when distracted by the more immediate concerns of who forgot to take the butter out of the fridge and just where exactly was the salt.

    The entire family ate in human form, more or less in human style.

    "It makes it easier on the kids when they go back to school," Nadine explained, putting Daniel's fork into his hand and suggesting that he use it.

    The cold mutton accompanying the salad was greasy and not particularly palatable, but Vicki was so relieved it was cooked that she ate it gladly.

    "Ms. Nelson went to see Carl Biehn this morning," Peter announced suddenly.

    "Carl Biehn?" Donald glanced over at Stuart, whose ears had gone back again, then at Vicki.
    "Why?"

    "It's important I talk to the neighbors," Vicki explained, shooting a look of her own at the dominant male. "I need to know what they might have seen."

    "He hasn't been around here for years," Nadine said emphatically. "Not since Stuart ran him off for frightening the girls. Jennifer had nightmares about his God for months."

    Stuart snorted. "God. He wouldn't know a real God if it bit him on the butt. Old fool's a grasseater."

    Vicki blinked. "What?"

    "Vegetarian," Rose translated.

    "Did he tell you that?"

    "Didn't have to." Stuart cracked a bone and sucked out the marrow. "He smells like a grasseater."

    Donald tossed a heel of bread onto the table and dusted his hands off against his bare thighs.
    "He stopped me in town once and pointed out the evils of giving life to animals only to kill them."

    "He did it to me once too but I pointed out that killing animals was easier than eating them alive." Peter tossed a radish up into the air, caught it between his teeth, and crunched down with the maximum possible noise.

    "Like majorly gross, Peter!" Jennifer made a disgusted face at her cousin, who only grinned and continued devouring his lunch.

    "You don't think it's old man Biehn, do you, Vicki?" Rose asked quietly, pitching her voice under the