Dead Heat (Taz Bell Book 1) Read online

  "When innocent lives are at stake, those lives should be more important than someone's 'right to privacy,'" I said, just about quoting. "Yes, I know how George feels about things like that, and in this situation I agree with him. Is that water in that second pitcher?"

  "Without ice," Freemont said with a nod, no longer smiling. "And it's been standing long enough to be considered room temperature. You should have told me sooner that you can't tolerate cold water on this kind of day."

  On this kind of day. Freemont had noticed months earlier that I didn't drink coffee on the day of the full moon, so he'd tried ordering water for me from room service in whatever hotel or motel we were in. He'd just never discussed the arrangement because he knew how much I hated "this kind of day."

  "Yes, I should have told you sooner, so the mistake was mine and not yours," I stated, reaching for the pitcher and a glass. "You happen to be my guardian angel, so stop feeling guilty about not being able to read my mind. I've always hated the smell of guilt."

  "Guilt has its own scent?" he asked, letting himself be diverted by curiosity. "I didn't know that. Your being able to detect it must come in handy."

  "Not really," I disagreed as I filled the glass with water. "A lot of people suffer from feelings of guilt about something, not necessarily the thing you happen to be investigating. If you're with someone who has a badge and you run across a group of people like that, telling one guilt from another can be hard. Did Allen give you the directions I asked him for?"

  "He certainly did," Freemont agreed, his expression now neutral. "There's a … preserve of sorts set up in one section of woods that's kept stocked with deer, an area that's meant to be used only on the day - the night - it's needed. Having an arrangement like that has become standard in the Southern states, Detective Allen told me."

  I took a long drink of water before nodding, the faint dread I'd felt disappearing. Just once I'd found myself in a place that had no accommodation for shapeshifters at all, and the time hadn't been pleasant.

  "Detective Allen also said he was sorry he missed seeing you again," Freemont went on as he messed with refilling his coffee cup rather than look at me. "He seemed … impressed with the way you kept from encouraging his interest when he didn't know everything about you. He thinks you're very honorable, and he's looking forward to telling you so."

  Instead of commenting I drank more water. If Detective Granger Allen was looking forward to telling me how much he admired my sense of honor, he had no idea how foolish he was being. Hadn't anyone ever explained the difference to him between being honorable and being ashamed…?

  Freemont made a couple of other casual comments after that, but when I didn't uphold my end of the conversation he finally went back to his book. Every passing minute made it harder and harder for me to just sit in one place, pretending that I couldn't feel the coming dark - and the soon-to-rise moon. The dryness in my mouth was an almost constant thing in spite of all the water I drank, and then the time came when the thought of one more swallow of water was completely beyond me. When I put the glass down, Freemont closed his book again.

  "We should get going soon, so you might want to get ready," he said, the words and his expression very neutral. "I know you want to be at the woods by dusk."

  It was all I could do not to get to my feet so fast that I knocked over the chair. I needed to be on the way to the woods, but I'd been refusing to let the need control me. Now I could give in to the feeling just a little, and the relief was exquisite.

  Back in my bedroom, I got out the light blue sweat suit I wore at times like this. The pants had an elastic waist and the jacket was a pull-on with short sleeves, all of it easy and quick to get into and out of. I stripped down and got into the sweat suit, then took out the darker blue deck shoes that completed the outfit. The canvas deck shoes were made so that you slid your feet into them, no laces or anything used to hold them closed. Once the shoes were on I went back out to the sitting room, where Freemont was ready and waiting for me.

  If anyone noticed us going out to the car, I was in no condition to notice them. Freemont drove, of course, and I spent my time staring at the clock on the dashboard. I'd left my watch behind, naturally, but the car clock did the job I needed it to. Moonrise was scheduled for 7:50, but just to be on the safe side I wanted to be at the woods by no later than 7:30.

  It was actually almost 7:40 before Freemont pulled over to the side of the road. I was out the door as soon as the car stopped, and out of the clothes and shoes about fifteen seconds later. I'd thrown everything onto the seat I'd left, and I took another five seconds to lean inside.

  "I'll see you in the morning, but right now you have to get out of here," I said to Freemont. "Go!"

  As soon as I slammed the door closed, Freemont turned the car and drove back the way we'd come. It wasn't safe for any human to be in this area right now, not even with a car around him, and Freemont knew that. He'd cut it much too close, and tomorrow I'd have to talk to him about that.

  But right now there was only one thing to think about, only one thing demanding all my attention. I trotted through the dusk the short way into the trees, all my senses spread out and sharper than they usually were. I could smell the trees and the grass, but even beyond that I knew there were living beings moving through the woods. At another time and place I would have said the other beings were human, but here and now…

  Here and now the other shapeshifters were waiting for the same thing I was, the sweat on their bodies just as heavy as it was on mine. We were all aware of the three herds of deer not far away, knowing we'd soon be hunting those deer and eating them. My mouth tried to water as I moved through the trees, but the dryness refused to let it happen. A familiar pressure was beginning to build, wiping away the awareness of everything including my being stark naked.

  I moved another few feet deeper into the woods, stopping with my hand against a tree trunk, but what kind of tree it was I had no idea. I was a city girl, someone who'd never gotten into the communing-with-nature kick, but some parts of that had changed. I needed to be where I was, in a place where I could hunt safely, not on a city street where the hunt would take down humans instead of deer. I was dying of thirst, but not for water. For something thicker with an almost magic pull to it…

  And then I was on my hands and knees, head hanging low as that pressure really began to get bad. My head spun in a horribly familiar way, thoughts going jumbled before - it began.

  That awful pressure was crumbling me, melting me down as it leaned harder and harder on every inch of my body. Fear arose as I felt myself changing, a change I couldn't stop in spite of the terror it brought. I was being torn apart in the direction I usually went, but it suddenly came to me that this time I had to go in the other direction. I couldn't quite remember why I had to go in the other direction, but knowing it - and demanding it - was enough. The change shifted in the proper direction, and then -

  And then I was a lot shorter than I had been, ready to stand on four legs instead of two. My body was covered by a pelt instead of skin, a tan pelt that was shorter-haired than that other form. I shook myself hard as my thoughts steadied down and fear disappeared, eager anticipation covering everything else.

  Or almost everything else. Distantly I knew why I'd chosen as I had, a choice no one else I'd ever heard about seemed to have. The attack that had killed George and almost killed me had had more than a few shapeshifters participating, not all of them the same kind of animal. It wasn't usual for people with different animal forms to band together, but that gang had had wolves and leopards and hyenas and panthers as members. And a cougar. More wolves than anything else, but only one cougar, and she had been right up front with the wolves.

  Which could be why I now had the choice of becoming a wolf or a cougar. I could shift into the form of either one, and usually I stayed with the wolf form. This time, though… I scented the air in all directions, and sure enough, way off in the trees to the left, I located a wolf that had
a trace of Eric Wellman to his pelt. Somehow I'd known he would shift into wolf form, and the last thing I wanted was to be the same kind of animal. Wolves were usually monogamous, and once they mated…

  But different animals didn't mate, at least not canine and feline animals. If I hadn't had a choice of forms I would have had to go elsewhere than the designated shapeshifter area, but I did have the choice. And not only that, Eric would be able to tell that he and I weren't the same kind of animal. That would certainly convince him to stay away from me, now in the woods and later in the real world.

  The real world. Even as I thought those words I laughed to myself, my new form knowing things didn't get any more real than this. I could feel the ground under my pads as I headed for the largest deer herd, the herd that most of the feline shifters were going for. We didn't share as well as the wolves did, so we needed more deer than they did.

  The night was alive with the scent of a million things, but most of those things were blotted out by the fear of the deer when they realized they were being hunted. There were dozens of catlike hunters circling the herd of deer, so most of the deer didn't even know which way to go. I was downwind of the herd, which made it a good idea to move forward really low and slow, a wide grin exposing my fangs to the lovely night air. One of the deer at least was certain to bolt my way, and when it did…

  When the deer that had designated itself as mine began to race toward me I was ready. I could see my prey clearly, as though it were light out instead of dark, a good-sized buck that set me drooling even as I sprang. The terrified buck screamed as I took him down, but not for long. My fangs tore his throat out, and then I was slaking my awful thirst in his heavily pumping blood. My claws, sharper than what I had as a wolf, flexed in and out of the body as I drank, showing the extreme pleasure flowing through me.

  There were screams and snarls sounding all through the woods as I tore into the body of the buck and began to feed on his sweet flesh. The first mouthful was absolute heaven, what I'd been craving forever, and the second was just as good. A few yards away another deer went down under the attack of a different predator, a male puma who did just as I'd done. As soon as the deer was dead he began to feed, but he didn't watch me as closely as I watched him. I didn't snarl or scream to warn him off my kill because he had one of his own, but even as I fed I kept my attention on him to make sure he didn't decide that two kills were better than one.

  And because of that I saw something really strange. A leopard crawled out of the bushes not far from the puma, a male leopard who seemed to be trying to avoid the puma's notice. The leopard belly-crawled to the throat of the deer while the puma fed on his kill's innards. The leopard began to lap up some of the spilled blood, then managed to get a single mouthful of flesh from the deer's ruined throat. At that point the puma noticed that his kill was being stolen, and he didn't hesitate. With a scream of rage he jumped on the leopard, and the fight was on.

  And then the fight was off again. The leopard started to fight back, but an instant later he was screaming and struggling to get away, not to defend himself or win. The puma was so startled that he hesitated, and that allowed the leopard to scramble up and race off into the dark. I was so surprised that I stopped eating for a minute. I'd never seen a fight go that way during the full moon, and the puma looked to be just as surprised.

  But the lure of warm blood and flesh was too strong to distract us for long. I was already back to eating when the puma returned to where he'd been, but this time he didn't immerse himself in feeding. I could tell that the puma gave some of his attention to the surrounding woods, making sure that the panther didn't sneak up on him again.

  When I'd stuffed myself with every scrap of meat and blood I could hold, I moved a short way away from my kill and lay down to begin washing. I wasn't likely to want more of the buck later, not once the body had cooled, but I still felt the least bit possessive. I licked my claws clean of all traces of blood, and by then the puma had finished feeding and had moved off into the woods. He'd caught the scent of a female puma just as I had, and now that he'd seen to the first of his needs he would probably try to see to another.

  As soon as the puma was well away, that leopard snuck out of the shadows again and fell on the carcass the puma had left. The best parts of the deer were gone and the body had already begun to cool, but the leopard fed frantically, as if his life were at stake. I had no idea why the leopard hadn't taken a kill of his own, and I also didn't know why the puma hadn't peed on the deer carcass to make it inedible for anyone else. I just felt the heavy fear rolling off the leopard in waves, a terror so strong that if I hadn't been stuffed to the gills I probably would have had to attack the leopard.

  But the after-hunt lethargy had a strong-enough hold on me that the idea of a fight wasn't in the least attractive. What I wanted was a catnap, and once I'd digested what I'd eaten I'd be more than ready to go looking for some exercise. There were usually a few shapeshifters around who just had to prove how strong and dominant they were. Those were the ones I liked to pick a fight with, just to show them how pushing-around felt from the other side.

  I curled up with one eye open, so to speak, letting my mind float off into the mists of sleep. I came awake instantly when the leopard took a step in my direction, a hesitant step that said he was testing to see if I really were asleep. When he saw my fangs and heard my hiss he turned tail and ran, just as he had with the puma. If I'd been completely asleep he might have tried to take advantage of me, but he wasn't up to facing me with my eyes wide open.

  Closing that one eye again let me go back to the mists and the floating, the distant thought coming with me that I'd never seen so cowardly a predator. The thought merged with the mists, floated for a long while, then seemed to center on a memory. It was a very old memory, of a time long ago, but it wasn't mine. I caught a glimpse of a man who turned into a cougar at the full moon, a man who enjoyed everything about being a shapeshifter. He'd lived in the distant past and he'd known a cowardly shapeshifter, and just as the details of his life were about to flood into me I forced myself awake.

  Standing up and shaking hard got rid of the ghosts of those memories. This wasn't the first time I'd almost seen the lives of others, and I didn't want to see those lives. It was enough that I had to live with my own memories; taking on what others had gone through wasn't something I'd ever allow to happen. I'd been left with very few choices in my life; giving away what I didn't have to was out of the question.

  The nap I'd taken had gotten rid of the lethargy, so I moved off through the woods to find where the other shapeshifters had gathered. Most of them should also have finished with their naps, and would soon get on with showing how brave they were. Having fangs and claws made some former humans think they could get away with anything they cared to do, and my version of that entertainment was to show them how wrong they were. It might or might not save their lives at some future time, but it definitely saved some trouble for those who weren't trying to prove anything.

  There was a small clearing not far from where I'd taken down the buck, and about eight of the feline shifters had appropriated places in a loose circle. One of them was the puma who had fed a short distance away from me, and he lay beside that female puma he'd gone looking for earlier. The two looked to still be napping, as were some of the others in the circle. I chose my own piece of grass to lie down on, and then I just waited.

  It wasn't very long before others of the feline shifters began to drift into the clearing. Or at least to the fringes of the clearing, where they found places of their own to lie down. Then one appeared who didn't lie down, a black panther who stalked into the center of the clearing before he began to look around. To say the chip on his shoulder was as large and bright as a neon sign would be to minimize his attitude, and then he spotted what he'd been looking for.

  The panther showed his fangs in a wide grin, and then he began to move toward the pumas. Challenging the male puma and then besting him would add insult to inj
ury, so to speak, and it was perfectly obvious that that was what the panther intended. He was going to make the puma look small in the eyes of his female while having his fun, but the plan didn't work out the way it was supposed to.

  The male puma got to his feet as the panther approached, and as soon as he was attacked he immediately fought back. The snarls and screams mingled as the two cats tried to tear each other apart, and then it was the panther who was trying to disengage. The two cats were pretty much the same size, but the puma ignored any wounds he was given and concentrated on giving back even more than he got. The panther didn't like that, not when his sort preferred those who were easy to walk over, so he was trying to change his mind about the fight. I'd gotten to my feet when they'd first come together, but it looked like I'd have nothing to do.

  And then something happened that sent shock through everyone in the area. Just as the panther scrambled back and away from the puma, another attacker came at the puma from an unexpected direction. Something with wings and scales instead of feathers dived at the puma, its scream of challenge enough to freeze the blood in the veins of a demon. It was a harpy that attacked the puma, a medium-sized harpy as those things go, and every cat in the clearing turned and ran.

  All but the puma, of course, and me. The puma was caught by the harpy's talons, and I was too outraged to do more than charge forward. When you're as hard to kill as a harpy is, you have no right to act as if you're just offering a fair fight. Alone, the puma didn't have a chance against the harpy, but maybe with some help…

  I launched myself at the harpy's back in the same way I'd taken down the buck, but knew better than to expect the same result. The harpy would not go down screaming in fear, so as soon as I closed with it I used claws and fangs to do as much damage as possible. I bit at the harpy's back where her wing met her shoulder, the scales there a lot smaller and softer than elsewhere on her body.