Read Charlotte Boyett-Compo- Wyndsheer for Free Online Page B

come down to get help. Considering it’s been four days now since you found the wreckage and we ain’t heard from him, that tells me he ain’t seen hide nor hair of her.”
    “You think he knows about the crash?” Hobart inquired.
    “Mister, don’t nothing happen on this side of mountain that he ain’t aware of,” Spence answered. “Now across Aonair Ridge, that’s another matter. I ain’t never known him to go trekking over that way.”
    “That ain’t to say he hasn’t,” Deputy Tolliver commented. “And he’ll be the best one to take you there since he can read tracks and signs like the rest of his kind.”
    “His kind?” Wendt asked, pouncing on the statement.
    “Mac is a Lycant,” Spence said softly, lips twitching as he waited for the reaction to his revelation.
    “Oh, hell,” Hobart grumbled.
    “And you people tolerate him living near you?” Wendt demanded.
    “He don’t bother us and we leave him the hell alone,” the sheriff said.
    “Is he a full-blood?” Hobart queried, glancing at Wendt.
    “He is,” Spence said then leaned forward in his chair. “You still want us to run up that flag?”
    Wendt narrowed his eyes. “Yeah. I’ve got a box of silver bullets in the trunk of my car with the bastard’s name on them if he tries something with us!”
    The sheriff and his deputy laughed and shook their heads then Spence ordered Tolliver to have Mrs. Beaufort hoist the signal.
    “You find what I said funny?” Wendt sneered after the deputy left the room.
    Sheriff Spence got to his feet and hitched up his gun belt. He reached for his hat before he spoke. “Let me give you a bit of advice, Agent Wendt,” he said, staring the other man in the eye. “You may have had contact with others of his kind, but I would venture to say you’ve never encountered a full-blooded Lycant warrior and that is precisely what Mac is. You go popping him with one of your magic bullets and all you’re gonna do is piss him off and believe me when I tell you that you really don’t want to do that.”
    “I’m not afraid of a damned Lycant,” Wendt stated.
    The sheriff’s smile was nasty. “You ain’t met Jamie MacGivern.”
    Wendt snorted. “Let’s go, Jake.”
    Once out of the sheriff’s hearing, Wendt ordered his partner to find out everything he could about James MacGivern.
    “See if he was ever brought in for conditioning,” Wendt stressed.
    Hobart released a long breath. “We’d better hope he was.”
    * * * *
    “He’s gonna be madder than a cornered wolverine if he comes down here and there ain’t no money waiting for him,” Elspeth Beaufort complained to Tolliver. “You best go tell Ollie to have his wrinkled ass handy to explain to Mac why I put that flag up.”
    “The sheriff will handle it, Elspeth,” Tolliver assured her.
    “I’m just saying,” Elspeth told him with a sniff. “He’s gonna be ticked.”
    “Mac ain’t gonna be happy when them government men ask him to guide ‘em to the other side of the Ridge, anyway,” Tolliver suggested.
    The old woman waved a dismissive hand. “That there woman they’re looking for done went over the ledge and won’t ever be found,” Elspeth put in. “Mac’ll tell ‘em the same.”
    Tolliver reached for a package of cookies then dug into his pocket for his money, shelling the coins out on the counter where they made a hollow plinking sound on the top. “Well, we won’t have to worry ‘bout it until tomorrow, even if he sees the flag today.”
    “You tell Ollie to be here bright and early!” Elspeth ordered.
    The old woman pulled her heavy wool sweater around her frail shoulders and watched the deputy saunter out of her general store. She walked to the window and looked out at the gray, gloomy day that threatened to erupt into even more rain. The environs around the little town at the base of Mount Piseog were nothing more than bogs as it was, the lone paved street covered with mud from the continual slides flowing down from