The wharf was below them, the boats bobbing quietly. The ocean was calm and glassy. Silver moonlight
gave the scene a postcard look. Ye Olde Quaint Marina, Rashel thought.
She loped to the front again. "Stay behind me all of you." She added to Daphne, "I'll show you what I'm good at."
A few feet of rocks and sand and she was on the wharf. Eyes on the shack, knife ready, she moved
silently. She wanted to take care of the werewolf without noise, if possible.
Then a dark shape came hustling out of the shack into the moonlight. It took one look at Rashel and
threw back its head to howl.
Chapter 13
Rashel knew she had to stop the guard before he could make a sound. The vampires' mansion was on
the farther cliffs, overlooking open sea rather than the harbor, and the music ought to help drown outside
noises-but the greatest danger was still that they would be heard before the girls could get away.
She launched herself at the werewolf, throwing a front snap kick to his chest. She could hear the air
whoosh out as he fell backward. Good. No breath for howling. She landed with both knees on top of him.
"This is silver," she hissed, pressing the blade against his throat. "Don't make a noise or I'll use it."
He glared at her. He had shaggy hair and eyes that were already half-animal.
"Is there anybody on the boats?" When he didn't answer, she pressed the silver knife harder. "Is there?"
He snarled a breathless "No." His teeth were turning, too, spiking and lengthening.
"Don't change-" Rashel began, but at that moment he decided to throw her off. He heaved once,
violently.
A snap of her wrist would have plunged the silver blade into his throat even as she fell. Instead Rashel
rolled backward in a somersault, tucking in her head and ending up on her right knee. Then, as the
werewolf jumped at her, she slammed the sheathed knife upward against his jaw.
He fell back unconscious.
Too bad, I wanted to ask him about the client. Rashel looked shoreward, to see that Daphne, Annelise,
and Nyala were on the pier with her. They were each holding a rock or a piece of wood broken from the
jagged pilings of the wharf.
They were going to help me, Rashel thought. She felt oddly warmed by it.
"Okay," she said rapidly. "Annelise and Keiko, with me. Everybody else, stay. Daphne, keep watch."
In a matter of minutes she and the boating girls had checked the boats and found two with features they
thought they could handle... and with fuel. Anne-lise had removed a couple of crucial engine pieces out
of the others.
"Took out the impellers and the solenoids," she told Rashel mysteriously, holding out a grimy hand.
"Good. Let's set them adrift. Everybody else, get yourself on a boat. Find a place to sit fast and sit
down." Rashel moved to the back of the group where Fayth had her arms around a couple of the girls
who looked scared of setting out on the dark ocean. "Come on, people." She meant to herd them in front
of her like chickens.
That was when it happened.
Rashel had an instant's warning-the faint crunch of sand on rock behind her. And then something hit her
with incredible force in the middle of the back. It knocked her down and sent her knife flying.
Worse, it sent her mind reeling in shock. She hadn't been prepared. That instant's warning hadn't been
enough-because she had already lost zanshin.
She no longer had the gift of continuing mind. She had lost her single purpose. In the old days she'd been
fixed on one thing-to kill the Night People. There had been no hesitation, no confusion.
But now... she'd already faltered twice tonight, knocking the werewolves unconscious instead of killing
them. She was confused, uncertain. And, as a result, unprepared.
And now I'm dead, she thought. Her numbed mind was desperately trying to recover and come up with
a strategy.
But there was a wild snarling in her ear and a trail of hot pain down her back. Animal claws. There was
a wolf on top of her.
Rudi had gotten loose.
Rashel gathered herself and bucked to throw the wolf off. He slipped and she tried to roll out from under
him, arms up to keep her throat protected. The werewolf was too heavy-and too angry. He scrambled
over her rolling body like a lumberjack on a log. His snarling muzzle kept darting for her throat in quick
lunges. Rashel could see his bushy coat standing on end.
She felt fire across her ribs-his claws had torn through her shirt. She ignored it. Her one thought was to
keep him away from her throat. Keeping an elbow up, she reached for the knife with her other hand.
No good. She hadn't rolled far enough. Her fingertips just missed the hilt.
And Rudi the wolf was right in her face. All she could see were sharp wet teeth, black gums, and blazing
yellow eyes. Her face was misted with hot canine breath.
Every snap of those jaws made a hollow glunk. Rashel only had one option left-to block each lunge as it
came. But she couldn't keep that up forever. She was already tiring.
It's over, she thought. The girls who might have helped her-Daphne and Nyala and Annelise were at the
far end of the wharf or on the boats. The other girls were undoubtedly too scared even to try. Rashel was
alone, and she was going to die very soon. My own stupid fault, she thought dimly. Her arms were
shaking and bloodied. She was getting weaker fast. And the wolf knew.
Even as she thought it, she missed a block.
Her arm slipped sideways. Her throat was exposed. In slow motion she saw the jaws of the wolf
opening wide, driving toward her. She saw the triumph in those yellow eyes. She knew, with a curious