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"Once I was a wolf, I wanted to make more like me. I was so tired of being alone. "
"You haven't been alone," Mal said. "You've been with people who loved you. "
"No one was like me. I was a snake among mammals. You know I never had sex until I was a wolf?"
Too much information! I wanted to slap my hands over my ears.
"Not Josh. "
"No. He was too much of a pig to give the gift of eternal life. I was walking along; he stopped his car, picked me up. I told him I lived down a deserted deadend road. . . I would have made him like me, but he grabbed me before I could change and tried to - " Her eyes darkened.
"I know," I said, sympathetic for a moment.
"I shifted and I killed him; then I drank his blood to make certain he'd never rise again. "
My sympathy didn't last very long. Josh hadn't deserved that, although there'd been times I'd imagined much worse.
Sabina scowled at Mal. "Once you put an end to my curse by doing what you have to do, then I can be a wolf whenever I want to. "
"Why would you want to be a wolf?" I asked.
"I'm tired of being weak. I want to run free and have everyone fear me. "
"But your arm - "
"What about it?"
"I didn't think becoming a werewolf would cure it. "
"So I limp a little. I'm still so much stronger than any human. " She tossed the rune one last time into the air, then slid it into her pocket.
" 'Beware the devil who is a shape-shifter,'" I murmured. "Edana meant you. She showed me the wolf in her crystal ball, but it was too small to recognize the eyes. "
Although it had held up its paw, I'd figured the thing was hunting. It never occurred to me the wolf might have a crippled appendage - in both forms.
"I knew she was up to something. Crazy old bat. "
"Pot. Kettle," I pointed out.
"Sticks and stones. " Sabina started for the door. "Pretty soon I'll have everything I want, and you'll be dead. "
I cast a wary glance at Mal. He was breathing heavily. Sweat rolled down his face as he fought the battle with himself.
"I'll just leave you two alone. I really don't want to watch. " Her eyes met mine. "I liked you, Claire. You were nice to me. "
"Then let me out of here!"
"I didn't like you that much," she said, and opened the door.
Moonlight spilled in. The silver flash washed over her face, and she breathed it in like ambrosia.
"When the Earth completely blocks the sun's light from the moon, he'll shift. " She turned back, and though her face lay in shadow, her eyes glowed. "The legends say that as he drinks the life of the one who made him beneath the hidden moon, he'll return to the form he once knew, and the curse will be broken. "
"I didn't make him. "
"Close enough. "
Sabina reached into her pocket and removed the rune; then as she slipped out of her clothes, she chanted in the language of the Rom. When she was completely naked, she lifted the talisman, and the fading glow of the moon shimmered over her like a waterfall. She fell in a heap.
