Hidden Moon (Nightcreature 7)

"I think he's saying that his friends were bitten by wolves, then they healed their wounds and became wolves themselves," Grace said, as if she were reciting the Miranda warning. "Is that right?"

"That's right," the doctor agreed. Then he pulled a shiny scalpel from his bag and stabbed Josh in the chest.

I gave a little shriek and stumbled back. Grace took a step forward, hand on her weapon, but she didn't draw it. Instead, she laid her other hand on Doc Bill's shoulder. "What the hell?" she asked quietly.

"I've been carrying that scalpel around for sixty years," he explained. "Pure silver. "

"That'll kill them?"

"Yep. "

"What them are you talking about?" I asked.

"What kills on four legs, then disposes of the corpse on two?" Doc asked.

"A man and his dog?"

"Claire," Grace said quietly. "You know what he means. "

I did? Maybe. But I didn't want to say so.

Doc had no such problem. "They say Hitler ordered a werewolf army," he murmured. "And Mengele gave him one. "

"Mengele," I repeated. "Isn't that the guy - ?"

"They called him the Angel of Death. He experimented on those incarcerated in the camps. "

We'd heard about the camps before. From Malachi.

From the expression on Grace's face, she remembered that, too.

I couldn't help it; a laugh escaped me, just one. "This is insane. "

I waited fo

r Grace to agree with me. Instead, she and the doc exchanged a glance that made me the outsider.

"It's not?" I asked.

Grace let her hand slip from her gun as the doctor removed his pure silver scalpel from the body.

"Every culture has a shape-shifter legend," Grace said.

"Legends are make-believe. "

"Not always. Sometimes they're the only way to pass on the truth. "

"You believe this?" I demanded.

"I've been considering a lot of strange things since our mauled tourist jumped out a hospital window and disappeared. "

That had bothered me, too, but I hadn't made the leap to werewolf.

"There's also the little matter of the swastika at the scene," Grace pointed out.

I'd forgotten about that. In light of Doc's revelations, I liked the finding of that rune less now than I'd liked it then.

"You found a swastika?" Doc Bill asked.