Shepherd's Moon Read Free Page B

down to Fifth, then head north to Washington over to Third,” he continued to ramble off his intended route, talking more to himself than to me.
    “Christ, Billy,” I mumbled when he had finished his monologue. “I don’t care how you get here, just get here.”
    When it came to an operation like this, he was always the precise one. That worked just fine for me. I tried not to occupy myself with too many details — it was one more reason I kept people like Billy nearby. That and the fact that he could become a coyote on command.
    “Any sign of our dead man walking?” His voice erupted into static as a sudden gust of wind rushed through the air.
    I shook my head before again reminding myself that even my high-tech toys wouldn’t be able to pick up head movements. “Nada. What’s going on out there?”
    “Nothing but an old man doing something very questionable in an alley.”
    “Which alley?”
    “Not yours,” he said, his husky laugh breaking over the radio and sending warm shivers down my spine. “Hold tight. I’m almost on you.”
    I could hear the rumble of his classic silver Mustang Fastback moments before I saw it pass by the opposite end of my alley. The car looked as old as it was, but he’d modified the engine so much over the years that it could outperform any of the newest models without even straining the motor. I knew that unless he sensed I was in trouble, he would circle the area and attempt to use his own internal radar to find me rather than honing in on the signal from my GPS.
    Unlike me, Billy hates technology…
    While Billy has great instincts, it was my technological toys that had finally narrowed down our prey’s favorite hunting regions. It hadn’t been easy, but by using GPS and satellites to narrow down his drop zones, we were finally able to triangulate on the next most likely kill location. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association charts provided us the means to anticipate his hunting times. Advanced climate science came in handy when tracking the preternatural and NOAA was the best in the business.
    But none of that would do any good if Azrael didn’t cooperate by showing up. Especially tonight.
    No matter how the wind shifted, I couldn’t lock down the scent of the Newborn we pursued. The fury of the approaching storm made tracking impossible, which was the only reason I was still standing around in an alley. The moment I caught the Flyer’s scent, the wind would shift and the scent was lost.
    The second I stepped forward, a chill ran through me, forcing the hair on my arms to stand up straight. Glancing around, I noticed that the wind had stopped. Whether it was a natural occurrence or something more menacing, I couldn’t tell. This particular area of town had become known for its residents’ use of witchcraft, and although there were very few true witches in the world powerful enough to influence the weather, it wasn’t unheard of.
    Rubbing my hands over my arms, I dismissed it as a weather anomaly, putting the thought of witchcraft out of my head. The likelihood of a witch powerful enough to control the weather in this area was astronomically small. And really, I didn’t want to think about the possibility. Despite dealing with preternatural creatures both at home and work, witches tended to scare me a little…
    It was only seven o’clock, and other than the black cat, the man on the phone, and an occasional vehicle passing by, I hadn’t seen anything moving in the past two hours. While the storm provided plenty of reason to avoid being outdoors, dusk had not yet provided enough darkness for me to find any real cover. But now the darkness was settling in, thick and stormy looking.
    The cat was back now, circling my legs and meowing so softly I had to strain to hear her. I took the opportunity to quickly access the animal’s senses and sniffed the air, still not picking up on anything too out of place.
    Weird…
    A thunderclap was followed by a bright strobe of