Hidden Moon (Nightcreature 7)

I handed her the copy of the anthropologist's e-mail. We sat at the table, and when she was done reading, she handed it to me. "I'm not Romanian. "

"I've seen you coming out of the woods twice dressed in a white robe and nothing else. "

"I'm Cherokee. I like to commune with nature. "

"Why don't I believe that?"

Her lips tilted. "Yesterday you were arguing with me about the existence of werewolves, today you think I am one?"

"I saw that wolf with Balthazar's eyes. Seeing goes a long way toward believing. "

"Well, until you see me sprout a tail and fangs, would you mind not shooting me?"

"I wouldn't have shot you," I said.

"Damn straight, with the safety on. "

I should have known she'd notice that.

"What's with the dead toad?" I asked.

"He was Gramma's. "

"How old is that thing?"

Her green eyes met mine over her second cup of coffee. "You don't want to know. " She took a sip, then set the mug down, revealing a slash of dirt across her wrist.

"What happened?"

She turned her hand over; it was filthy. "I fell. "

Grace had been voted least likely to fall in high school. Grace was. . . graceful, almost freakishly so.

She lifted one foot onto her knee. The sole was scratched. "I should know better than to walk around in the woods barefoot. Stepped on a stone. Winced, tripped. Bam. " She spread her hands. Both of them were in need of a good scrubbing.

"You should get cleaned up. "

"I will. Then we'll head to the camp. " She studied me for a minute. "I've been thinking that maybe silver doesn't hurt them at all. "

"Sure hurt Balthazar. "

"If that was a silver bullet. "

"From Doc's eyewitness testimony, I'd say that was a silver bullet. "

"What if silver doesn't hurt them in human form?"

I thought about Mal's earring, the testing Grace had done of the Gypsies. "That could be a problem. "

"Or maybe our culprit is superwerewolf," Grace continued. "Able to resist silver, wolfsbane, and pentagrams. "

At my curious glance she continued. "I did a little research, too. Wolfsbane, or monskshood, is said to driv

e off werewolves. Which makes sense because it's extremely poisonous. "

"And the pentagram?"

"There are quite a few different beliefs about those. A few state that the symbol will repel a werewolf like a crucifix repels a vampire. "