Marks holstered his handgun, tucked Cormac's rifle under his arm, and pulled out the handcuffs. Cormac handled it like he'd done this before.
"Don't talk until I get there," Ben said.
"Yeah, I know the drill." Handcuffed now, he went with Marks to his patrol car without argument.
"Joe, Alice, watch the body. Don't let anyone touch anything until the coroner gets here. Nobody leave until I get your statements," Marks said. The two were clinging to each other. Quick glances told that they'd heard him, but they didn't move.
I felt like I'd landed in a bad episode of some prime-time police show. Dead body, unlikely circumstances, too much drama.
"You want to go inside and get cleaned up?" Ben said.
I supposed I ought to. I felt like I'd been through a shredder. "Yeah. Should you go with Cormac?"
He looked after the pair, uncertain, his lips pressed together. "As soon as you're okay."
He helped me to my feet. My shoulders were stiff, and blood covered the front of my shirt. Another T-shirt ruined.
Tony had withdrawn, holding himself apart, hands folded in front of him. The candles had all gone out. I hadn't noticed how dark the clearing had become.
"That thing cut you," he said. "You're cursed. You're both cursed." He nodded after Cormac.
"Story of my life," I said. "Any recommendations?"
"A man can only meddle so much. Sometimes you just have to let things run their course."
That was the sort of thing people said when they had no idea what to do next. "Thanks," I muttered.
"I don't think you understand. That magic, the trade one must make to become a skinwalker—it's terrible. It's supposed to be too terrible to think about. But she did it, clearly. She sacrificed someone in her own family to work the blood magic." He held himself stiffly, the horror clear in his manner.
"I'm already a werewolf," I said. "So what are these cuts going to turn me into?"
Tony shrugged. "God knows. I tell you, though, this isn't over."
Well, no silver for him. I knew better than to ask how much worse this could get.
I started toward the cabin, wincing. I had to lean on Ben, because my whole body felt like glass on the verge of shattering.
Joe's words startled me because he spoke so seldom. "I can't believe you're all right. I thought you were dead. You ought to be dead after that."
"If I wasn't a werewolf, I would be dead." I still couldn't see how bad it was. My whole front was dark and shining with blood.
So much for the ritual of peacemaking. This situation had ramped up to a whole new level of surreal and fright-ening. I probably should have just left town. None of this would have happened.
I didn't want everyone to leave feeling like this.
"Do you guys want to come inside for some coffee? Or I might have some tea somewhere." Or a bottle of whiskey.
Joe and Alice exchanged a glance. Alice nodded, and the two of them approached.
"You, too," I said to Tony. "If you can stand being so close to someone who's as badly cursed as I am."
Tony hesitated for such a long time I thought he was going to refuse. That I was so tainted he really couldn't stand being near me, even though he'd declared me "not evil" earlier that day. I couldn't believe this was still the same day.
Then he said, "I have some tea. It should help. It helps to drink it when you've had a fright."
It certainly couldn't hurt, I hoped.
"Okay," I said, and he went to his truck.
The others gathered in the kitchen. Ben took me to the bathroom.
"Jesus, look at you," he said when he turned on the light.
I whimpered. I didn't want to look. I turned away from the mirror.
"Should we take you to a hospital or something?"
"No, it'll be okay. I've had worse." Brave words.
We had to cut away my shirt and bra. My chest and shoulders had a dozen puncture wounds where the skinwalker had dug in her claws again and again. My right arm was shredded. This was where she'd bitten and worried, and dozens of slashes and tooth marks streaked the flesh. I stood over the sink while Ben sponged me off. The blood had spattered on my face and hair as well. I'd have to stay in the shower for a week to get clean.
"I should have done something," Ben murmured. "I should have helped."
"I'm glad you didn't. We'd both have ended up like this. That thing—I was frozen. I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything. Just like Cormac said." Just like those cows. They couldn't run, they couldn't struggle. She'd slaughtered them at her leisure.
"When does this rapid healing start?"
"It should have started already." All the wounds still oozed and hurt like hell.
He shook his head absently, dabbing away fresh blood. "You have a first-aid kit? I think we're going to have to tape some of this up. You have something you can wear?"
"I think there's a button-up shirt in the closet. I ought to be able to get that on without crying." I was still propped up against the sink, afraid to move because I knew it would hurt.
Ben regarded me a moment, and then had the gall to smile. "For someone who says she doesn't like to get mixed up in the middle of things, you sure have a way of getting mixed up in the middle of things." He kissed my lips and left on his errand. That made me feel better. Heck, it was almost like I'd planned it: Ben was doing great now that he had someone else to worry about. I'd have to keep that in mind.
He came back with a flannel shirt, and I sent him back for something else. I didn't want to think about bits of flannel mixed with cuts scabbing over.
By the time we emerged back into the kitchen, Alice, Joe, and Tony were chatting. If not happily, at least cordially. Like they might actually come out of this as friends. Tony was pouring hot water from a kettle into mugs. His tea smelled rich, warm, soothing—just like he promised. I identified chamomile twined in with scents I didn't recognize.
Tony said, "You just don't seem like the kind of person who'd be into animal sacrifice."
"Well… I'm not. It was all roadkill Joe and Avery picked up. We added blood from the butcher shop to make it look fresh. The only thing I did, really, was fix it so nobody saw or heard them placing the things."
Of all the… Before I could say something snotty, Tony continued. "That explains a lot. It didn't work, she didn't leave, because you weren't willing to make the sacrifice yourself, to spill the blood. You weren't willing to take that onto yourself to get what you wanted."
Softly, she said, "Not like that girl out there."
After a moment of silence, I took the opportunity to bust in on the group. "I spend all that money in your store, and you still didn't want me sticking around?"
Alice's face puckered like she was going to start crying and I regretted my cattiness. She really hadn't known what she was doing, had she?
"Oh, Kitty, I was just scared. We all were. We didn't know. You hear stories, and you think the worst. We were just trying to keep the town safe, surely you can understand that."
"So… the last couple full moons. Did you notice anything different? Could you tell that a werewolf was living in the neighborhood?" A law-abiding werewolf who made very, very sure that she didn't cause trouble.
"No, I didn't notice."
Joe said, "That's because we spent the night locked in the house with all the lights on."
"And the days I shape-shifted that weren't on the full moon—you didn't notice then, did you?"
They both looked at me. Alice said, "You turn into a wolf on other days, too?"
Even Ben looked at me sharply. I wasn't supposed to shape-shift on other nights. He knew I wasn't supposed to do that. Now what kind of role model was I?
"Whenever I want."
"I didn't know that," Alice said softly.