Daring The Moon. Sherrill Quinn

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СКАЧАТЬ she said, “I’m so sorry. I thought he might be a little clingy, but that ‘you’re Irish’ potshot was below the belt. I had no idea he’d be so obnoxious.”

      “Aye, he is at that. I can see why you stopped seein’ him. He’s a prick.”

      She couldn’t disagree. “Now you know why I asked you to be my date tonight.” She started to say more, but something from the corner of her eye caught her attention.

      A blur of movement, a brief shifting of shadows.

      Taite gasped and turned her head to look deeper into the blackness of the desert night.

      “What is it?” Declan leaned forward, peering around her.

      She held her breath, her gaze searching the dark. Another movement, a hulking dark shape moving within the deeper shadows…God, it couldn’t be.

      Not another wolf.

      “Let’s just get in the car.” She hurried the last few feet and waited impatiently for him to unlock the Mustang. As soon as she heard the lock click up, she yanked open the door and climbed in.

      Declan got in the driver’s side and slowly pulled the door closed. “What’s wrong with you? You’re jumpier than a spooked cat.”

      “I thought I saw something.”

      He started the car. When he flipped on the headlights, the beam shone onto a large wolf standing in front of the vehicle.

      “Oh, my God.” Taite clutched his shoulder. “Look!”

      The wolf lifted its lips in a snarl and laid its ears flat against its head. One ear was white-tipped. With a chunk missing from its outer edge.

      Her skin went cold. “That’s the same wolf.”

      “Oh, come on, darlin’. How could it be?”

      “I’m telling you, it’s the same one.” As she stared at it, her mind told her it couldn’t possibly be the same wolf—yet what were the odds of two wolves having that same ear?

      The animal stretched, its rump in the air. Shadows playing tricks, it seemed to elongate and grow larger. It stood upright, as tall as a man yet with the head and body of a wolf.

      Taite cried out. “We need to go. Now.” As the last word left her mouth, the wolf-man charged the car, his furry form lit by the headlights. She screamed and smacked Declan in the shoulder. “Go. Gogogogogo!”

      “Son of a bitch.” Declan jammed the gearshift in reverse and punched the gas, pealing backward down the road. He increased their speed until they’d put some distance between the car and the wolf creature. Then Declan pressed down on the clutch, hit the brakes, and twisted the wheel, turning them neatly in a 180-degree turn.

      She bit back another scream and grabbed the grip bar at the top of the door with one hand, the edge of the bucket seat with the other, and held on.

      Letting up on the brake, Declan downshifted and pressed the accelerator. The powerful V-8 engine roared, and the car shot forward, easily outdistancing the creature.

      He kept checking his rearview mirror, his eyes narrowed, his mouth held in a grim line. “Wanna tell me just what the fuck that was?”

      “What do you think it was?” Taite slowly loosened her fingers from around the grip and wrestled with the seatbelt, finally getting it hooked in place. She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to rein in her scattered thoughts. That thing hadn’t been natural. It was more than a wolf.

      She didn’t even want to say it out loud.

      Declan glanced at her then ran his hand through his dark hair. “What I think it was, darlin’, was somethin’ it couldn’t be.” He slowed the car and made the turn to put them on Arizona Highway 77 heading north. Accelerating again, he took the car back up to cruising speed.

      Taite drew in a deep breath through her nose and let it puff out from between pursed lips. “It was. You know it was. We didn’t have that much to drink.”

      He didn’t respond right away. She glanced at him, met his gaze, then looked out the passenger window.

      “You’re sayin’ it was a werewolf.” He apparently had no problems naming the thing aloud, though disbelief colored his tone.

      She couldn’t blame him. She had a hard time with it, too. “I’m saying it was a werewolf. God, I feel silly saying it out loud.” She sighed. “But you saw it. It was a werewolf.”

      To her surprise, Declan didn’t try to rationalize what they’d seen. He glanced at her again, his gaze considering. He looked back onto the winding road. She studied him, blinking tiredly at the fierce look of concentration he wore. Several minutes later, she rested her head against the headrest and closed her eyes, letting the quietness of the car lull her.

      After several miles, he broke the comfortable silence between them. “I may know someone who can help.”

      “Help with what?” Taite twisted in her seat to face him more fully.

      He frowned at her. “With your werewolf problem.”

      She blinked. “I have a werewolf problem?”

      His sigh was loud in the confines of the car. “You said the wolf in town had a white-tipped ear with a piece missin’. This wolf had a white-tipped ear with a piece missin’.” He glanced at her. “Seems to me it’s the same wolf, and he’s trackin’ you.”

      She hadn’t wanted to think past the fact that she’d seen a wolf twice in as many days and that the second time it had turned into something more than a wolf. But something told her that Declan was probably right. “So now I have a stalker and a werewolf after me? Great. That’s just great.”

      “Ryder might be able to help.”

      “Ryder?”

      “Ryder Merrick. He’s an old friend of mine from university. He’s a writer—”

      “A writer?” Taite snorted. “How the hell can a writer help me?”

      He shot a dark look her way. “If you’ll let me finish, darlin’, I’ll tell you.” When she shrugged, he went on. “He’s quite a successful horror novelist. I believe the amount of research he’s done for his books can give us the information we need to fight this monster.”

      “We? Who’s we, Kemo Sabe?” She arched a brow at him, the comfort she felt in his presence alleviating her fear somewhat. For the moment, anyway.

      He grinned, a flash of white teeth in the darkened interior of the car. “Listen, Ryder is way out off the coast of Cornwall, lass.”

      “Cornwall? You want me to go to Cornwall?”

      “Well, hell, Taite. It’s not like I’m askin’ you to go to the middle of the Amazon jungle where civilization hasn’t yet encroached.” He threw her a quick glance. “He has a small island—Phelan’s Keep—that’s part of the Isles of Scilly. It’s an isolated place northwest of St. Mary’s.”

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