Her Werewolf Hero by Michele Hauf Page A

Above.”
    â€œBeneath and Above?”
    â€œYou call them Heaven and Hell. And somewhere in between all that is Purgatory.”
    She pressed her fingers over her heart.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he offered. “I didn’t want you to find out about me in such a manner. I didn’t think it would come to this. I was to retrieve a heart and be gone. Kizzy, this mission is everything I never expected. It’s become a tactical nightmare, and I must constantly be on the defense. I usually go into such missions fully armed and prepared to fight all the random creatures that might come at me. But I’m fresh out of salt bullets. A blade would have proven ineffectual, as would have my stake. So the shift was necessary.”
    â€œSalt bullets. That’s so Sam and Dean.”
    â€œSam and—? Should I ask?”
    â€œThey’re characters on a TV show about demon hunters.”
    â€œI am nothing like the fiction you read or watch. This is real life, Kisanthra. What I do is dangerous, and it kills me that you’ve been dragged into the middle of such a violent situation.”
    She nodded, and her fingers crept forward to touch his. She slid them into his grasp, and they held a loose clutch. “This adds a whole new dimension to our friendship forged by pie,” she said.
    â€œThat it does.”
    â€œAnd I don’t know if that’s good, bad or ugly.”
    â€œYou haven’t run screaming yet.”
    â€œI may still be a little out of it from fainting. Let me get my bearings and—where’s my camera?”
    He pointed to the floor before her seat. “Please, tell me you didn’t snap any pictures of me or the wraith?”
    She closed her eyes and squinted.
    â€œKisanth—”
    â€œKizzy. Please?”
    â€œKizzy. You have to erase them.”
    â€œI’m sure none will turn out. It was pitch-black. My shutter speed was not adjusted for night photos. I saw only silhouettes battling it out like King Kong versus Godzilla. Except I don’t think you’re as hairy as King Kong. And really, you’re not overly hairy now. Not like the guy in school—uh, that’s stupid. Sorry.”
    Bron rubbed his brow, sensing a headache. But it wasn’t a physical feeling, more the regret he would endure in attempting to break the damned camera. Her livelihood. Which could very well contain his secret.
    â€œSo it’s not a full moon thing?” she asked.
    â€œI can shift whenever I choose. But on the eve of the full moon it is a necessary call to shift to my werewolf shape. And the night before and after the full moon things are, well...my werewolf wants out, but I can control it with specific, uh...actions.”
    â€œLike what kind of actions?”
    â€œI think I’ve said enough for now. I want to get you home and have a better look at your wounds, if you’ll allow.”
    â€œI don’t want to go home. Bron, if they are still following me, I don’t want to lead any creature to my front door. The apartment I’m renting is smack-dab in the middle of town. Businesses line the street below. Can we go to another motel? Just for tonight?”
    â€œYou’re right. I had thought to test things, but now I know you’re still being followed. Why they are still following you is beyond me. For what reason? I destroyed the tracking device.”
    â€œHere’s an idea. Maybe, instead of killing whatever next comes at me, you asked it why?”
    He met her hopeful gaze. She had a way of stating the obvious without making him feel like a fool for not thinking of it in the first place. Of course, questioning the attacker made sense. But wraiths hadn’t speech. So he hoped the next one was a vampire. Those bastards he could handle. That was, if there was to be a next one. By all the gods, he prayed there would not be.
    He shifted into Drive, then rolled down the road.
    â€œI think we were about five