Forbidden by Armstrong Kelley

Author:Armstrong, Kelley [Armstrong, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: werewolves, paranormal romance, fantasy, urban fantasy, Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2012-12-13T05:00:00+00:00

Eleven

I got outside the police station before I took a sip of the coffee. It tasted like roasted tree bark. I prepared to dump it into the snow.

“Uh-uh,” Clay said. “We’ve got a long night. You’re going to need that.”

He was right. The best time to investigate this list was while it was dark enough to skulk around. And before the local cops tackled the list themselves. While I was reasonably sure we didn’t have a man-eating werewolf here, it was a possibility.

Even if it was another supernatural, I couldn’t just walk away. I was the werewolf delegate to the interracial council, and one of our duties is to guard against exposure threats of any kind. I don’t do a lot of that—handling werewolves is quite enough, and the others are happy to leave me to that. But if this turned out to be a witch or a sorcerer conducting human sacrifice, I needed to find the culprit before the police did.

So I choked down half the coffee as fast as I could manage. We were heading toward the motel when a woman’s voice called, “You there!”

We turned to see Mrs. Rivera bearing down on us while her husband scrambled from their parked car.

“Maria!” he called.

We waited until she planted herself in front of us. “I saw you at the police station. Then I remembered someone said it was a couple of strangers who found the body. A young couple.”

We weren’t that young. In fact, we were probably older than she was. True, with a werewolf’s slow aging, we looked in our thirties, but I wouldn’t call that “young.” I wasn’t arguing, though.

“Yes, it was us,” I said. “We were hiking—”

“Maria.” It was the other man from the station, the one in the football jacket. He came up beside her and lowered his voice. “They just found the body. They didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Of course they didn’t,” she snapped. “They only arrived today. I’m not a fool. I just wanted to ask if it could be him.”

She held out a photo of a teenage boy. He was heavy-set and soft, and probably looked younger than he was. I would have guessed thirteen, but he wore a football uniform, so he had to be in high school.

I stared at the photo. He was grinning at the camera. He looked so happy. So proud of that uniform. So young. So damned young. When had he disappeared? How had he disappeared?

“You recognize him,” she whispered.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” I looked up at her. “He looks very happy. I’m so sorry.”

The man took the photo. “And I’m sorry,” he said to me. “We’re all very upset, as you can imagine. This…discovery has only brought it all back.” He held out his free hand, first to Clay, who had to be nudged to shake it, then to me. “Tom Hanlon. I’m a teacher up at the high school. I coach the football team.”

I introduced us.

“We’ll let you get on with your night,” he said, putting an arm around Mrs.

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