Free The Lunatic Cafe (ab-4) by Laurell Hamilton

how to explain it. In this area Dolph was the civvie. He didn't know the lingo. "A curse is like the ultimate act of will. You just gather all your power, magic, whatever, and focus it on one person. You will them to be cursed. You always do it in person, so they know it's been done. Some theories think it takes the victim's belief to make a curse work. I'm not sure I buy that."
    "Are witches the only people that can curse people?"
    "Occasionally somebody will run afoul of a fairy. One of the old Daoine sidhe, but you'd have to be in Europe for that. England, Ireland, parts of Scotland. In this country it'd be a witch."
    "So a shapeshifter, but we don't know what kind or even how they got to be a shapeshifter."
    "Not from a few marks and tracks, no."
    "If you saw the shifter face-to-face could you tell what kind they were?"
    "What animal?" I asked.
    "Yeah."
    "Nope."
    "Could you tell if they'd been cursed or if it was a disease?"
    "Nope."
    He just looked at me. "You're usually better than this."
    "I'm better with the dead, Dolph. Give me a vamp or a zombie and I'll tell you their Social Security number. Some of that is natural talent, but a lot of it is practice. I haven't had as much experience with shapeshifters."
    "What questions can you answer?"
    "Ask and find out," I said.
    "You think this is a brand-new shapeshifter?" Dolph asked.
    "Nope."
    "Why not?"
    "The first time you change on the night of the full moon. It's too early for a brand-new shifter. But it could be a second, or third month, but ... "
    "But what?"
    "If this is still a lycanthrope that can't control itself, that kills indiscriminately, it should still be here. Hunting us."
    Dolph glanced out into the darkness. He held his notebook and pen in one hand, right hand free for his gun. The movement was automatic.
    "Don't sweat it, Dolph. If it was going to eat more people, it would have taken Williams or the deputies."
    His gaze searched the darkness, then came back to me. "So the shapeshifter could control itself?"
    "I think so."
    "Then why kill the man?"
    I shrugged. "Why does anyone kill? Lust, greed, rage."
    "The animal form used as a murder weapon then," Dolph said.
    "Yeah."
    "Is it still in animal form?"
    "This was done by a half-and-half form, sort of a wolfman."
    "A werewolf."
    I shook my head. "I can't tell what sort of animal it is. The wolfman was just an example. It could be any sort of mammal."
    "Just a mammal?"
    "These wounds, yeah. I know there are avian weres, but they don't do this sort of damage."
    "So werebirds?"
    "Yeah, but that's not what did this."
    "Any guesses?"
    I squatted beside the body, stared at it. Willed it to tell me its secrets. Three nights from hence, when the soul had finally flown far away, I might have tried to raise the man and ask what did this. But his throat was gone. Even the dead can't talk without the proper equipment.
    "Why did Titus think it was a bear kill?" I asked.
    Dolph thought about that for a minute. "I don't know."
    "Let's ask him."
    Dolph nodded. "Be my guest." He sounded just a wee bit sarcastic. If I'd been arguing with the sheriff for hours, I'd have been a large chunk o' sarcastic.
    "Come on, Dolph. We can't know less than we do right now."
    "If Titus has any say in it, we might."
    "Do you want me to ask him or not?"
    "Ask."
    I called up to the waiting men. "Sheriff Titus."
    He looked down at me. He'd gotten out a cigarette but hadn't lit it yet. He paused with a lighter halfway to his mouth. "You want something, Ms. Blake?" The cigarette bobbed in his lips as he spoke.
    "Why do you think this is a bear attack?"
    He snapped the lid on his lighter, and took the unlit cig out of his mouth with the same hand. "Why do you want to know?"
    I wanted to say, just answer the damn question, but I didn't. Brownie point for me. "Just curious."
    "It wasn't a mountain lion. A cat would have used its claws more. Scratched him up some."
    "Why not a wolf?"
    "Pack animal. Looks like only one animal to me."
    I had to agree