Free Tainted Trail by Wen Spencer Page A

are in you now, out, there won’t be more?”
    â€œMaybe. I don’t think so. This rarely happens, and I told you how the Pack handles it.”
    â€œI am not killing you!” Max growled, undoing his cuffsand rolling up his sleeves. “It took me weeks to get over the nightmares from killing Hex’s Gets disguised as you! I can’t do it! Don’t even ask!”
    Ukiah managed a smile. “I wasn’t going to. I don’t like being dead.”
    â€œGood.” Max looked up to scan the surrounding woods. “Kraynak! Kraynak!”
    â€œHe’s here too?”
    The big policeman came scrambling out of the underbrush. He had his service pistol in hand. “What is it?”
    â€œOne of Ukiah’s weirdnesses just turned deadly. We’ve got to cut him open, now.”
    â€œYou’re kidding.” Kraynak went pale.
    â€œNo. I need your help. You’ve brought Bonnie along?”
    â€œOf course.” Kraynak slid up the leg of his jeans and undid a knife sheath. He handed knife and sheath to Max. “I sharpened her before we left Pittsburgh.”
    â€œGood.” Max considered Ukiah and shook his head. “Oh, kid, I don’t know if I can do this.”
    â€œI can’t do it myself,” Ukiah said.
    â€œI’m not doing it,” Kraynak added. “Deal with hacked-apart dead bodies? No problem! Observe autopsies? No problem! Cut open a living person? No way! I faint at the sight of live blood. I pass out every time they run us through drug testing.”
    â€œFor a homicide detective,” Ukiah observed, “you’re a wimp.”
    Kraynak gave him a craggy smile. “I’m just too sensitive of a guy.”
    â€œOkay.” Max took a deep breath. “I’ll do it. Do you have any idea where I should cut?”
    Ukiah closed his eyes and focused tight on his body. “Here.”
    â€œKraynak, hold him still and don’t faint.”
    â€œI just won’t look.” Kraynak stated, becoming sober. He put his weight on Ukiah’s shoulders and, true to word, looked away.
    Ukiah couldn’t look either. He watched clouds raceacross the sky. There was a sharp, thin pain across his stomach. He bit his lip against the pain.
    Max suddenly jerked backward and started to curse. Tiny warm wet feet raced up Ukiah’s bare chest. “Shit, that scared me! Kraynak, don’t you dare look and faint! That’s one.”
    Ukiah risked a glance at his chest. One bloody mouse sat on his sternum, trying to clean itself. “My life is so weird.”
    â€œYou can say that again,” Max muttered. “How many do you think are in you?”
    Ukiah watched the clouds again. “Five in all, I think.”
    Max slipped fingers into the cut and there was deep hard pain as he tugged free a squirming ball of matted fur. “I didn’t think I’d have so much trouble catching the suckers.”
    â€œAnd they like you.”
    â€œWhat the hell are you talking about?” Kraynak asked. “They who?”
    â€œDon’t look!” Max snapped. “I’ll explain later.”
    So much for Kraynak not knowing that he wasn’t human.
    Another deep pain and Ukiah couldn’t keep the scream in. It pressed against his lips until it forced its way out. He managed to keep it a low, guttural howl. His body fought to escape and Kraynak shifted to trap his whole upper body to the rocky ground. Another wrench of pain and a third soggy mouse joined the first two. Ukiah went limp and panting with the momentary relief.
    â€œHang in there,” Max murmured. “Just two more.”
    As if letting the first scream out opened a channel, he couldn’t resist the next one at all. The agony started and immediately he started to whimper. The whimper built to a long howl of pain. Finally the pain stopped and Max deposited the bloody mouse onto his chest.
    â€œI can’t find the last one.