Blood Trail

and make sure he and the twins stay there. Storm stay in fur-form; your ear is still bleeding. Tag, get some clothes on."

    Tag? Vicki repeated silently as Stuart scooped up a pair of sweatpants. Stuart's fur-form name is Tag?

    "Colin," Nadine continued, closing the hall door behind Cloud and Shadow, "you follow them into town in case he needs blood. Vicki, could you go in the ambulance? If he wakes up. ..."

    "No problem."

    She'd told the others and asked Vicki - Henry noted the distinction with some amusement.

    As the paramedics carried Donald out on the stretcher, Celluci grabbed Vicki's arm and pulled her to one side.

    "I'm going to follow you in. We have to talk."

    "I'll be looking forward to it."

    "Good." He drew his lips back off his teeth in a parody of a smile. No one in the room, vampire or wer, could have done it better.

Eleven
    "Because the hospital has to report gunshot wounds, you should know that."

    Colin glanced over at Barry and the two Ontario Provincial Police constables standing talking by the nurses' station. "You said it was a ricochet."

    Vicki rolled her eyes. "Colin. ..."

    "Okay, sorry. It's just, well, what am I going to tell them?"

    "You aren't going to tell them anything." She smothered a yawn with her fist. "I am. Trust me.
    I've been at this longer than you have, I know the things a police department wants to hear and the way they want to hear them."

    "Vicki." Celluci leaned forward and tapped her on the shoulder. "I hate to burst your bubble, but you are quite possibly the worst liar I know."

    She turned to face him, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Lie to the police? I wouldn't think of it. Every word out of my mouth is going to be the truth."

    "So there's been someone taking potshots out of those woods for a while now?"

    "Well, I'm not sure three shots counts as potshots, Constable."

    "Still should've been reported, ma'am. If someone's firing a hunting rifle out in the conservation area we'd like to know about it."

    "The family figured it was just because Arthur Fortrin was out of town," Colin put in.

    Given a little direction, Colin was remarkably good at half-truths. But then, he'd have to be, Vicki realized. All things considered.

    The OPP constable looked dubious. "I don't think the absence of one game warden's going to make much difference. And you should've known better." He snapped his occurrence book shut. "Tell your family next time they hear a shot, to call us immediately. Maybe we can spot the guy's car."

    "I'll tell them. ..." Colin shrugged.

    "Yeah, I know, but will they listen." The constable sighed and glanced over at Vicki. He didn't think much of a Toronto private detective messing around in his neck of the woods, although her police background did lend credibility. His warning to be careful died in his throat when he caught her eye. She looked like a person who could take care of herself - and anything else that crossed her path. "So," he turned back to Colin, "this have anything to do with your Aunt Sylvia leaving?"

    Colin snorted. "Well, she did say it was the last straw."

    "Didn't she head up to the Yukon?"

    "Yeah, her brother, my Uncle Robert, has a place just outside Whitehorse. She said it was getting too crowded around here."

    "Your Uncle Jason just took off too, didn't he?"

    "Yeah, Father accused Aunt Sylvia of starting an exodus and threatened to lock Peter, Rose, and I in the house until things calmed down."

    "Well, frankly I was surprised he stayed around as long as he did. Man needs a place of his own." The OPP constable poked Colin in the ribs with his pen. "When'll you be moving out?"

    "When I feel suicidal enough to live on my own cooking."

    Both men laughed and the conversation turned to a general discussion of food.

    Vicki realized that the wer were perhaps not as isolated as she'd originally thought. Colin leaving the farm and taking a job had brought them to the attention of the police if nothing else. Fortunately, the police tended to take care of their own. As for the shooting; she knew there wasn't much the OPP could do. She could only hope that a few extra patrols up and around the area would give her time to find this psycho before anyone else got killed. The wer would just have to recognize their higher visibility and be more careful when they changed for a while. It seemed a small price to pay.

    "... anyway, Donald's fine. The hospital released him into Dr. Dixon's care - that's one persuasive old man - and