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don’t think you broke anything.”
    â€œJas!” Cora slapped her hands on her legs in frustration. “He’s not a poor man; he’s a vampire!”
    â€œSo? That’s no reason to go braining him with a fire extinguisher. Avery? Can you hear me?”
    â€œHe’s a bloodsucker ! A naked bloodsucker! Everyone knows those are the worst kind!”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous.” I pushed a lock of his hair away from the blood. Avery moaned again, turning his face into my leg as he swore softly.
    â€œDon’t you understand, Jas? He drinks people’s blood!”
    â€œYou were absolutely fine with him when you thought he was a werejaguar,” I pointed out.
    â€œThat’s different!”
    â€œOh really? How?”
    She blinked at me. “He’s . . . deadly.”
    â€œI’m deadly in any form,” Avery said, touching his wound and wincing. “Bloody hell, woman. What did you hit me with?”
    â€œYou don’t want to know,” I told him, helping him sit up. I had to admit I didn’t at all mind the silky sensation of his naked back against my hands. “How do you feel?”
    â€œThat’s it. I give up. He’s clearly got you under his sway, or lure, or whatever it is vampires do. There’s no hope for you now,” Cora said, slumping down the wall to sit on the floor. “Next you’ll be eating bugs and calling him master.”
    â€œIt’s called a thrall, and we don’t do that,” Avery told her, squinting at the blood on his fingers.
    â€œYou don’t?” she asked.
    â€œNo.” He gave me a long look; then one side of his mouth quirked up. “Although you can call me master if you like.”

Chapter 3
    â€œI still don’t think this is a good idea.”
    â€œI know you don’t, Cora. But if you can think of another way to explain to Allison and Jo and the other ladies why the jaguar they all saw has disappeared, leaving Avery in its place, then I’m all ears. Because frankly, I barely believe what happened myself—speaking of which, I think we deserve extra bonus points for not running around screaming with our hands waving in the air—and I just don’t think I’m up to the explanations needed that would convince five other people of what really happened.”
    â€œHrmph.” She glared at the tall figure of a man as he emerged from the small room that served as a hospital for the cats in residence. Luckily, the vet who came by twice a week was male, and if he was heavier and shorter than Avery, at least his emergency clothing fit well enough for Avery to leave the building. “I don’t trust him, not one little bit.”
    â€œLife’s a bitch,” I said absently as I tucked my tranquilizing gun back into its holster.
    â€œJas!”
    I paused with my hand on the knob of the back door, surprised by the vehemence in her voice. “What?”
    â€œHe’s a vampire !” she hissed, glancing over her shoulder at Avery as he walked toward us. Somehow, he’d acquired a baseball cap and a beat-up leather jacket that had clearly seen better days.
    â€œSo?”
    â€œJust a little bit ago you were telling me they didn’t exist.”
    â€œClearly I was wrong. I mean, you can’t deny the evidence, Cora. What we have here is a shape-shifting vampire, which I gather is fairly rare.”
    â€œWhat’s rare?” Avery asked as he stopped next to us. He slipped into the coat and pulled the brim of the hat low on his forehead.
    â€œYou are.”
    He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I guess I am. I can’t think of any other Moravian who’s also a therion.”
    â€œA what, now?” I asked, glaring at my sister as she glared at Avery.
    â€œTherion.” He gave me an odd look. “Someone who can change their shape at will to that of an animal.”
    â€œIs there such a thing as a