Page 59 of Bad Medicine

“Itdoes,”he snarled,his voice low. “For a while, it does. And when you will be honest withyourself, you’ll admit that my punishing these fucking assholes is not the onlyreason you want me dead. You hate me because you fear me.” He gave a harshlaugh and clenched his fists. “I’ve lived with that hatred my whole life. But whatI am, Kait—it’s not my fault. You can’t persecute me because I’m not a type ofsupernatural you’re comfortable with.”

He left, then, disappearinginto the shadows. I could only stand there, torn between pity and anger andmaybe a tiny drop of shame, and watch him go.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

“Call the search off,” I toldJared. “Sam’s gone.”

He stared down at me, his faceunreadable, when I told him that Sam had shifted into Shane and had walked withme through Shadowfield.

“He was right here in front ofme,” he said.

I nodded. “There’s probablysome truth to the belief that dogs react badly to a shapeshifter—but it’s notwhile the shapeshifter is in someone else’s form.”

I walked with him, finally, towhere Sam had left his latest victim. Jared had posted a guard to keep people awayfrom the area, and the detective was on his way to Shadowfield. I dreadedlooking at another murdered female, but Iwouldlook at her.

I needed the reminder thatthough I might pity the child Sam had been, he was no longer that little boy,and I had to stop him. The only way to stop him was to capture him and give himto the council.

As though he’d read mythoughts, Jared murmured, “How are we going to find and kill a shapeshifter whocan look like anyone he chooses?”

“We’re not,” I said, caressingmy demon blade. “I am.”

He dropped his stare to myblade. “It’s not just the blade that will kill the enemy,” he told me. “It’sthe woman who wields it. Have more faith in yourself and less in your weapon,Kait. In the end, that’s all you’ll need.”

I straightened my spine andsmiled at him. “NotallI’ll need,” I murmured.

Then we were standing in frontof Sam’s latest victim, who was no longer hanging in the tree but lyingsprawled on the cold ground. “Who took her down?” I bellowed.

“No one,” the guard told me.“The body had been secured by a length of paracord.” He cleared his throat. “Byher ankle.”

Sam would have been in a hurry.And as I’d known it would do, viewing her slashed, brutalized body intensifiedmy anger and disgust and weakened my pity. “Damn you, Shapeshifter,” Iwhispered.

The victim looked to be in herlate twenties, early thirties, the ends of her long, light-blonde hair red fromthe blood that had soaked into it. Sam had gone at her in what was surely amindless rage, his usual somewhat careful kill cuts changing into a chaotic andmuddy mess of deep stab wounds.

He was losing control.

I stood there until thedetective arrived, my stare frozen on the body. It was difficult to believethat the frenzied and out-of-control person who’d released so much fury uponthe small woman could possibly have been the same calm, pain-filled soul I’dspoken with not twenty minutes earlier.

Rick stood beside me for a fewminutes, quiet as he surveyed the body. “I’ll have to bring in some people,” hesaid, finally. I didn’t know if he was talking to me or to Jared, but we bothnodded.

“People are going to wonder whyhe brought her to Shadowfield,” I murmured.

He shook his head. “He’sleaving bodies all over. People just want it to end. They’re not going to beconcerned with Shadowfield. You need to catch this asshole, Kait.”

I looked at him. “I will. Letme know when you find out who she is. And,” I added, “what poor little boy thisone tortured.” I sighed and ran my hand over my face, exhaustion catching up tome. I needed sleep. I’d killed the Stone Moon alpha a little after dawn, and myhigh from that kill had long since fled.

“Shit,” I whispered, suddenlyunable to breathe. I leaned forward, my hands on my knees, and both Jared andRick put a hand on me and peered into my face.

“What’s wrong?” Rick asked.

Jared didn’t need to ask. “She killedthe Stone Moon alpha this morning,” he said. “It’s catching up to her.”

I straightened, a littleuncomfortable, and caught the flare of horror in the detective’s eyes. He’dknown I was going after Adam, of course, but to have someonetellinghim—andin such a casual way—that basically I’d just committed a murder…

He was a cop, after all.

But he gained controlimmediately and gave me his cop’s face. Empty, blank, emotionless. He squeezedmy arm, gently, then stepped away. “Go get some rest, Kait. I’ll take care ofthis.”

But there was somethingdifferent in his eyes when he looked at me. Maybe before, he’d seen me as awoman. Now he saw me as a wolf.