Page 72 of Broken Moon

I raced through the house,looking for a bedroom, and I found some women’s clothing in one of the closets.A t-shirt, a long, black coat, and a pair of pants that were two sizes toolarge. They were also too short, but my boots had survived the shift. I’d tuckthe pantlegs into them, and maybe…

Maybe no one would notice I wasno longer wearing my own clothes.

In a few short minutes, I wasfully dressed and both Lucy and Rick were stirring. My energy had dwindled,changing instead into an exhaustion so deep that I wasn’t sure I could get upoff the floor. It was going to take me awhile to get used to the insane andmassive transformations.

And we still weren’t done. Notby a long shot. I rushed to the kitchen and dampened some towels, then hurriedback to lift Lucy’s shirt and press the towels to her cut. I had a feeling thatwhatever was going on inside her would be much worse than the cut I’d given herto save her life.

I brushed her hair back. “Luce?Are you okay?” I didn’t glance at the detective when I heard him groan and getto his feet, but from the corner of my eye I saw him sway and put a handagainst the wall to steady himself. “How are you doing, Rick?”

“I’ll be all right. Lucy?”

“I cut her, and she needs tosee a doctor. There’ll be too many questions if I call 911—but she can heal inthe—in Shadowfield’s clinic. The doctor who treated me will take care of her.”

“What’s going on in thatplace?” But he didn’t sound like he really wanted to know. Just like with thePocket, any community that minded its own business and didn’t bleed outsidetheir boundaries would not be looked at too hard by law enforcement.

Lucy’s eyelids fluttered andfinally, she opened her eyes. “He saw Marcy Davenport in a basement prison,”she said immediately, her voice soft but strong. She struggled to sit up, herhand holding the towels against her ribs, and I put an arm along her back andhelped her. “The man who’s holding her built three cells down there. Marcyisn’t the only girl he has taken.” She shuddered and blinked rapidly to keep tearsfrom spilling. “But she’s the only one still alive. The others are buried inhis back yard.”

“Where,Lucy,” thedetective asked. I was just noticing that he wasn’t wearing his radio, and Iunderstood at once that because of what had happened with Beth, he was likelytaking a few days off.

He’d call in for backup once wefound Marcy’s location, and would tell them he’d found her because of ananonymous tip, just like he always did. Tonight, the Pocket was going to be inserious upheaval and overrun with law enforcement and news vans. It wasn’toften anyone braved the town, but when they did, they made sure there wereenough of them to scare the residents and gangs into behaving. Still, therewould be trouble.

“Tall house,” Lucy said, “witha purple door.”

I glanced at Rick as he blewout a hard breath and put his hand to the back of his head. He wasn’t doingwell, and likely had one hell of a concussion, but he’d see this thing through.He wouldn’t leave until the young girl had been found and rescued.

“Lucy,” I said gently, “we’regoing to need more than that.” Falton was a small village, true, but thatdidn’t mean a purple door wasn’t going to be difficult to find. Unless…

I stood abruptly. “I’ll be backin a few minutes.”

Rick frowned and started towardme. “What?”

“I’m going to find someone wholives here and ask him which house has a purple door,” I told him.

“You are not going out therealone,” he said, crossing his arms, and that was the moment I knew he hadn’tseen my wolf. Or if he had, he’d believe it was a figment of his concussedimagination, especially since we’d just been talking about wolves.

I smiled at him, but my liptrembled. “I’ll be okay, Rick. I’ll be back with an address. You know howstrong I am.”

“You’re not stronger than agroup of men or a gun,” he said grimly. “I’ll go find someone.”

“Wait,” Lucy said, before wecould get into an argument about who was going to go kick someone’s ass untilthey told us about a purple door. “Iroquois. I saw Iroquois.”

The detective and I stared ateach other, our brows knitted. Then his eyes cleared and he reached for hiscell phone. “Hang on.” He tapped on his screen a few times, then gave me asmile that was both rare and startling. “It’s a street name. I doubt there’smore than one purple door on Iroquois.” He began to swipe and tap his phonescreen and while he searched for the house, I turned my attention to Lucy.

“I’m sorry I had to cut you,” Itold her.

She closed her eyes, flinchingas she pressed the towel to her bleeding ribs. “I know you had to, Kait. I’mshocked I didn’t get hurt a lot worse.”

“Yeah,” I said a little grimly.“So am I. When you’ve been patched up and are feeling better, we’re going tosit down and have a long talk.”

But she lifted her chin. “I’mpart of the team, and a necessary one. I wasn’t given my gift for no reason,though I have to admit that until I met you and Rick, I wanted to just ignoreit all. But now, I can help, Kait. I can finally help. You understand?”

I really did. I sighed. “Okay.”

Her eyes widened. “Just likethat?”

I grinned. “You put yourself inextreme danger to save a girl’s life. So yes. Just like that.”

She took my hand. “I don’tremember anything about getting cut. I was lost inside the demon’s mind.” Hereyes were steady, and I didn’t detect a lie in her words. Miraculously, itappeared as though neither she nor the detective had seen my wolf. Then shefrowned. “Why are you wearing different clothes?”