Blood Trail

hurt to say it anymore. Maybe she was in shock. "I was in the BMW."
    She dug out her ID and passed it over.

    "You were driving?"

    "No, Peter was."

    "It's your car?"

    "No, a friend's. He lent it to us for the day. When Peter tried to stop for the light, the brakes had gone. We couldn't stop." She waved a hand at the truck. "He didn't have a chance of missing us."

    "Right out in front of me," the driver of the truck agreed, swiping at the blood on his cheek.
    "Not even fifty klicks on this baby. And the whole front end'll have to be repainted." He sighed deeply, his belly rising and falling. "The wife is going to have my ass."

    "They were working earlier?"

    "We stopped just down the road without any ..." The world slid a little sideways. "... trouble."

    "I think you'd better sit down." The constable's hand was around her elbow.

    "I'm fine," Vicki protested.

    He smiled slightly. "You've got a purple lump the size of a goose egg on your temple.
    Offhand, I'd say you're not quite fine."

    She touched her temple lightly and brilliant white stars shot inward from her fingertips. All of a sudden, it hurt. A lot. Her whole body hurt. And she had no memory of how or when it had happened. "I'm getting too old for this shit," she muttered, letting the constable lead her to the side of the road.

    "Tell me about it." He lowered her gently to the curb. "You just sit there for a minute. We'll have the ambulance people take a look at you."

    Everything appeared to be about six inches beside where it should be. "I think," she said slowly. "That might not be a bad idea. The ownership, insurance, everything, is in the glove compartment."

    He nodded and headed for the car. Vicki stopped keeping track of things for a while.

    When the ambulance attendants suggested she go to the hospital, she didn't put up much of a fight, only pulled Dr. Dixon's phone number from the depths of her bag, asked that he be called immediately, and insisted on Rose and Peter coming with her. The police, who had soon recognized the family resemblance between the twins and one of their own people, overruled the protests of the attendants and helped all three of them into the back of the ambulance.

    "We're not charging you with anything," the older constable told her, handing up the tow truck driver's card, "but we will be checking with the mechanics about those brakes. This is the garage he's taking the car to."

    Vicki nodded carefully and stowed the card in her bag.

    As the ambulance pulled away, the tow truck driver looked down at the wreck of the BMW
    and shook his head. "Good thing they weren't driving domestic."

    "Storm. Storm!"

    Storm gave Cloud one last frenzied lick and looked up at Dr. Dixon. "Go into the kitchen and get me a glass of water, please." Vicki made a motion to rise out of her chair, but the old man waved her back. "No, I want Storm to go. Run the water good and cold. If there's ice in the freezer, you'd better use it."

    Nails clicking against the hardwood, Storm left the room. The sound continued down the hall and then stopped. Vicki assumed he'd changed. Cloud, her fur stuck up in damp spikes from Storm's tongue, shook herself briskly then lay her head down on her front paws and closed her eyes.

    Dr. Dixon sighed. "She's getting too close," he said softly to Vicki, "and her twin's beginning to sense it."

    Vicki frowned. "She's getting too close to what?"

    "Her first heat. I imagine he'll be sent away as soon as this trouble's over. I only hope it isn't too late."

    "Too late?" Vicki echoed, remembering Nadine had spoken of Cloud's first heat on Saturday morning.

    "Usually it happens in late September, early October, that way if there's a pregnancy, the baby, or babies, will be born in early summer, ensuring a good food supply for the last few months of gestation and the first few months of life." He chuckled. "The wer aren't born with teeth, but they come up damn soon after. Of course, all this meant more when they lived solely by hunting, but the basic biology still rules. Thank God the baby's changes are tied to the mother's for the first couple of years."

    Vicki dropped her hand on the old man's arm. The hospital had cleared her of any damage except a nasty bump but her head hurt and she knew she was missing something. "Dr. Dixon, what the hell are you talking about?"

    "Huh?" He turned to look at her and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm old, I forgot you've only known the wer for a short time." His voice took on a