Thunder Moon (Nightcreature 8)

I

could care less how I looked. I’d been told a hundred and one times I was beautiful and exotic. What I wanted to be was average, normal, loved, but it wasn’t going to happen.

“Since you lost consciousness for a minute,” he continued, “you’re probably concussed.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Because?”

“I’ve got brothers.”

“Ah, then you know the drill.”

I did, if I could only remember, which, come to think of it, was a symptom of a concussion.

He must have seen my confusion, because he kept talking. “If you start to throw up, get to a doctor. Have someone wake you once in the night.”

I snorted, which made my head and nose scream. The only someone at my place was me. Not that I’d be getting any sleep tonight anyway.

“Ice for your face,” he finished.

The wind picked up and slapped a hank of his hair across his eyes. He lifted a hand and shoved it back. A stray shaft of moonlight sparked off his ring. I couldn’t tell if the circlet was silver or gold.

He turned his head as if he’d heard something and a single, thin braid swung free, tangled with a feather of some kind. In the slight gray light his profile revealed a sharp blade of a nose and a slash of cheekbones any model would kill for.

This guy was as Indian as I was.

Had he walked out of the past? Was he a ghost? An immortal? How hard had I hit my head?

“Let me help you stand,” he said.

I wanted to lie there a while longer, but a flash of red and blue lit the sky, and beneath me the ground vibrated with the roll of tires approaching from the direction he’d been staring. How had he sensed the car before I had?

I managed to gain my feet. My rescuer let me go, and I was pleased when I didn’t fall down.

The squad came over the hill. I lifted an arm, but Cal was already pulling over in front of my mangled vehicle.

He jumped out, ran over. “You okay, Grace?”

“So he says.” I waved my hand toward the stranger.

Cal’s face creased. “So who says?”

I turned to ask the man’s name, but no one was there.

Chapter 3

“You’re starting to worry me,” Cal said.

“I’m starting to worry myself.”

I strode to the edge of the trees. Too much grass to distinguish any footprints. I found small areas of indentation, but with the rain they could have been from anything.

First the disappearing wolf and then the disappearing man. Were they connected?

“Yeah.”

“Grace?”