Skinners: Blood Blade by Marcus Pelegrimas

Author:Marcus Pelegrimas
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-07-03T17:00:00+00:00

At the desk, Cole spoke to a perky little man with bad skin, a worse toupee, and a surprisingly genuine smile. When he told him he was checking out, the clerk asked if everything was okay and then offered him a complimentary muffin. The clerk threw a mild fit when he got the phone call from the maid he’d sent to check on the room, but quickly calmed down after Cole handed over enough cash to settle the entire account. On his way out, Cole took his complimentary muffin, then ducked back inside to snag a second one.

Twenty minutes later he and Paige were headed north on I–94. Paige was doing the driving while munching happily on the treat Cole had brought her. She looked so happy that, if her mouth wasn’t stuffed full at the moment, she might have been ready to sing.

“Wha ki id di?”

“Did you actually form words just now or was that some sort of code?” Cole asked.

Chewing up the rest of the muffin and wiping the crumbs from her chin, she said, “What kind is this? The muffin?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. One of the dark, healthy looking ones.”

“Damn, that was good.” Reaching for the coffee she’d bought at a gas station, Paige sipped from the foam cup, blew on it, and then sipped again.

As he watched her, Cole couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a morning person. Strike one.”

“Not a morning person, but I do like breakfast,” she amended.

“Now that you’re done stuffing your face, how about we pull over to get me some clothes? I think these are about to start walking on their own.”

She shook her head while taking another pull from her coffee, which resulted in dripping enough to produce a nice, dark stain on her shirt. “Not yet. There’s an outlet mall near the state line,” she said while swiping at the spilled brew. “We’ll stop there.”

“Like you’re so strapped for cash. What about that bundle you showed me at the hotel?”

“Those are funds to be used when necessary,” she said, as if quoting from a manual. “And before you ask, they come from a pool made by other Skinners and any number of fine people who feel they owe it to us to keep us properly outfitted.”

“So, you save someone’s ass from a werewolf and they chip in for the cause?”

“Pretty much.”

“I guess that makes sense. So, what’s a Mongrel?”

“They’re shapeshifters,” Paige explained. “But not werewolves. Werewolves turn into wolves, or something along those lines. Mongrels turn into everything else.”

“Like what?”

Paige shrugged, and rolled down the window to let a breeze rush through the car that felt just as capable of separating flesh from bone as the subject of the conversation. “I’ve seen some cats and foxes,” she said casually. “One or two bears. Those are very tough, by the way. Snakes, lizards…”

Cole started laughing, and wrapped his hands around his foam coffee cup. “It was a real question, Paige. No need for the bullshit.”

“I’m serious!” Holding up her hand to tick off her fingers, she added, “Leopards, tigers…but I haven’t seen all of these myself.

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