Page 13 of Under the Moonlight

“Thank you. We were more like acquaintances, but she was great. She didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

“Nobody does,” he murmured.

Desperate to get off the subject she smiled and reached into her purse. “Buy you a beer?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

She released her wallet and hiked the strap of her purse higher onto her shoulder. “Right, you said you were meeting friends. What do they look like? Maybe I’ve seen them.”

“One’s a woman about five foot nine with red hair and hazel eyes and the other is a tall Native American man with a tribal tattoo on his left bicep.”

Greer cocked her head, amused. “That’s a pretty clinical description. Funny, I don’t know about the tat, but Jill’s talking to a guy that sounds like your friend.”

Xander whipped away from her, turning his head frantically. “Where?”

“Well, they were right…” she trailed off when she realized that they had disappeared. “Crap, I lost her. Damn it, this is so typical. I told her not to run off without telling me…hey, where are you going?”

Xander was pushing his way toward the front of Howlers roughly, knocking people aside. Greer followed behind, apologizing to the disgruntled patrons.

When she finally caught him at the entrance, she cried, “Xander, what is going on?”

He didn’t answer as he launched out the door. Once she was outside, she stepped through a cloud of cigarette smoke before she saw him rounding the corner. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to a stop, but he just dragged her along.

“You’re scaring me! I thought the guy was your friend?”

“I lied, okay? He’s a bad man and if we don’t find Jill, there’s going to be another dead body in the morning.”

“What?” she choked.

He looked like he was going to say more, but a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the night.

Greer’s whole body went cold as ice. It was Jill.

10

Xander rushed toward the sound, wishing he could shield Greer from what she was about to see. He didn’t have time to fight her. Not if he wanted to save her friend.

Besides, she was safer with him than standing out front or going back inside. Dakota could easily be waiting to get her alone just to punish him.

To his surprise, they came around the back to find Jill stumbling toward them. Her jacket hung off one arm and her hand gripped her exposed shoulder. The golden light over the back door illuminated her pale complexion, and wide, shocked eyes.

“Jill,” Greer cried, racing passed him to her friend. She put her arm around Jill’s waist, rattling off questions rapidly. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I…” Jill winced, as though it hurt to talk. Xander smelled the blood before he saw it oozing beneath her hand, trailing down her collarbone. The light blue halter top she wore had dark trails down her chest where the blood ran.

He tipped his head up and took a deep breath. Along with the bitter, metallic scent of blood was the familiar musk of Pax.

“Jill, the man that attacked you…did he change?” he asked.

Jill turned his way, her expression completely befuddled. “Changed? Into what?”

“An animal?” he said.

Greer gasped, while Jill shook her head. “I…I didn’t see. He was behind me and then, I felt this excruciating pain. It was awful.”

“Do you know where he went?” he insisted.

Jill’s voice was clogged with fear, it was permeating the air around her. “No, I screamed and he took off into the dark.”

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