Free Blood of a Werewolf by T. Lynne Tolles

like living in someone else’s house,” Rowan responded.
    “So, do all four of us want to go to Ireland to look into this or do we want to have someone hang here as a look out?”   Blake asked.
    “Well, doesn’t that depend on work for you guys?   Blake, are you working? I know Devon said that he was working on a project in Mountain View,” Darby pointed out.
    “Good point,” Devon said. “Presently I’m ahead of schedule, so that gives us a little room to breathe and the project is due to end in three weeks, or at least my portion of it.   I have about another week of testing and debugging, but I don’t see that there are any huge hurdles to jump.   What about you, Blake? Darby? Rowan?”
    “I’m on summer break till September,” answered Rowan.  
    “As long as I can do payroll twice a month and check in, Allison can do everything.   She’s been begging me to take a vacation for months, so it’s doable for me,” Darby said.
    “I finished my project weeks ago and I haven’t had any nibbles on anything new for at least 2 months,” said Blake.
    “Then it’s wide open; if we all want to go, we can, but we can easily opt out too.   Well, let’s leave that one open for now and figure out who goes later,” Devon concluded.
    “Darby told Blake about our family cabin in Clear Lake too, so if for any reason we need to make a quick get away, that is there as an option,” Rowan announced.
    “That is a nice bonus if things get too heated at home,” Blake said.
    “What if we just went to Terrence Paine and asked him what the problem was? I mean sometimes the simplest route is the best,” Rowan asked.  
    “It’s a good point, but our parents have died, Devon was shot last night and almost died, and Max is dead.   Once Paine finds out Max is dead he’ll be wanting revenge,” Blake answered.
    “But it might be smart to snoop around in his hometown to see if there is more to this threat than we think.   As far as you know, there is only Paine and his two thugs. What if Paine has combined forces with some other slayer? Or maybe there is more to the vendetta than we think?   I say a trip to Maine may be in order.   The last thing Paine would expect is our going to him,” Darby argued.
    “So Darby, why don’t you go to Maine, and just blast Paine and his cronies with that trick you used last night?” Blake asked.
    Rowan looked surprised and Darby, disappointed. “I wish it were that easy, Blake. You know I would if I could, especially if it would keep you and your brother from harm, but like I said last night, I don’t know how I did it,” she said.
    “What did you do to him, Darby?” asked Rowan.
    “I killed him,” she said rather ashamed.  
    “Now that is not entirely true.   You blew him backwards 30 feet or so, but you didn’t aim for the tree.   You merely were defending Devon, who couldn’t defend himself,” Blake added.
    “Either way, he’s dead because I threw him.   But if the same thing happened again, I probably would react the same.   I just wanted him to stop hurting Devon.   Going back to your question, Rowan, I don’t know how it happened.   I was standing there, Devon wounded at my feet.   Shock, I think, put everything into slow motion. Then the sadness was overwhelming. The thought of losing Devon was unbearable, and then pure anger washed over me.   Everything that had ever made me mad seemed to form some kind of force and I put up my hand to stop him from coming any closer and he went flying.   That’s all I know,” Darby said to her sister.
    “Wow, I would have liked to have seen that,” Rowan said.
    Devon interjected, “Speaking of what happened, maybe you two have something you should tell us! Like this power you were talking about, and this little pouch of goodies in my pocket. Darby, you had told me that you came from a line of witches, but you didn’t say that you practiced or had any powers.” He pulled out the velvet pouch of healing