Free In a Dark Embrace by Simone Bern Page B

course there’s magic in other parts of the world—aboriginal shamans, India mystics and so on—but it’s different and I know very little about those forms of magic. Rough guess a couple thousand European-type witches in the world.”
    He was quiet for a minute. “From what I know there are maybe two hundred werewolves.”
    “Wow. Not a lot.”
    “No. We don’t tend to multiply. Don’t breed well apparently and if a werewolf has one son that’s about it. Hard to have multiple children when you have to pretty much steal the kid away. And that’s getting harder to do these days.”
    “Why steal the children?”
    “Because the women don’t know they’ve been sleeping with a werewolf. If she gets pregnant and the baby is a boy the father takes the kid and runs. Can’t have boys growing up untrained, can’t train them if they are with their unsuspecting mothers so…” He shrugged.
    It sounded ugly. She wondered how many boys on the missing children posters were werewolves. “We’re pretty secretive about our existence too but our families know.”
    “Probably easier to tell a man you’re a witch than to tell a woman you’re a werewolf. Don’t figure you have guys running away in terror quite as often. Not the same risk either. These days you’re almost in vogue. People calling themselves Wiccan all over the place. Werewolves, on the other hand, still have a bad rep.”
    “That’s true. It would be horrid if someone sold your story to one of those tabloids.” She paused then asked, “You ever told anyone else?”
    “No. My dad beat the facts of werewolf life into me pretty hard. As a kid I knew that if I told anyone our secret he’d kill them. As an adult I knew he was right. Too dangerous to trust anyone with this. Craziest damn thing I ever did was reveal myself to you. I figured you’d probably run away screaming once you put the wolf and me together. But what could you really say about some guy you only saw in the dark?”
    Lee chuckled. “I’ve got good night vision. I saw plenty.” Then she turned serious. “Your dad, have you told him about me?”
    “No.” Jeremy noticed her discomfort and put an arm around her. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he and the others know they’ll have me to contend with if they try anything.”
    “That’s so comforting, Jeremy.” She couldn’t help the dripping sarcasm in her voice. “Could you also let them know that if I sense a werewolf nearby who hasn’t been properly introduced I’ll act first and ask questions later?”
    “Sure but, ah…what would you do?”
    “Depends where I am. Out in the woods I’ve got a few options—one of which was the statue spell I almost used on you. In the city it’s harder because there are always people around. As soon as he touches me I’ll have him, of course. But I know how fast you are and I’d prefer to get the situation under control before then. I’ve been thinking about a spell that might serve but it needs more work.”
    “What do you mean ‘as soon as he touches you’?”
    Lee groaned inwardly that she’d let that slip. It was true confession time. “Physical contact allows me to invade another person’s mind. I can read your mind as well as mess with it. Much, much more powerful stuff than that little bit of panic I fed you the other day.”
    He stiffened and drew his arm away. “Holy shit.” Jeremy stared at her. “You’ve read my mind?”
    “I only did it once, when you first touched me in the park. Just to make sure you weren’t some serial killer or something. I didn’t go below the surface thoughts, never touched your memories. And I won’t either. I don’t like reading minds.”
    “So you can do it but you won’t. And I’m supposed to believe that?”
    She sighed. “I’ve had plenty of opportunity, haven’t I? Do I seem to know all your secrets, Jeremy? Do you think I could pretend that I’m only just getting to know you when I’d already ransacked your