Long Shadows: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 2 Read Online Free Page A

fallen hard for the wizard who got me into this mess to begin with. Peter Bowman had snared me with a glance of his ice-blue eyes—probably why I’d only dated brown-eyed guys since.
    “No one’s heard anything about him,” Matthew said, following my gaze. He’d been with us that morning, and although I had long ago forgiven him for calling me to come up here, neither of us had forgotten. He’d said at the time that Peter Bowman was the good brother, the town lawyer, and Leo Bowman—now Joanie’s lover—the screw-up. It turns out everyone had had that one backwards except Joanie, who had sensed Peter’s tendencies from the first glance. After the Wolfsbane Manor incident, Peter had disappeared with his wife and kid, and Leo, realizing how dangerous his brother could be, went after him. He’d lost the trail and had come back to rebuild and claim Joanie.
    No one came back for me.
    “I guess that’s good and bad. It means he hasn’t hurt anyone else.”
    “Not that we know of. So let’s get back to you. Why are you up here? Joanie said you and she only hunt as spirit wolves occasionally when you happen to run into each other.”
    I stirred lemon into my tea with the straw as I tried to sort out my thoughts. “Things have gotten very strange in Little Rock,” I said. “Have you seen Kyra lately?”
    He shook his head. “No, she stopped hunting with us around the end of December, and none of us have seen her since. I’ve driven by her parents’ old place, and it looks deserted.”
    I explained about how someone was impersonating me and talking to my clients, and about Paul’s lunch invitation and phone calls.
    “That is, indeed, very strange,” Matthew said. “Are you sure he was talking about you?”
    “Pretty sure. His attitude toward me the past few days has been suspicious. Did Kyra act any differently on your last hunt?”
    He looked out of the window. “Maybe a little. She seemed distracted.”
    Our food had arrived, and I took a big bite of my sandwich. “I forget how good the food up here is,” I mumbled once I swallowed.
    He laughed. “I wouldn’t think you city girls’d be so impressed. It’s just simple fare for us country folks.”
    “Sometimes simple is better.” I looked at my sandwich and fries. I didn’t tell Matthew about the fuchsia wizard mystery because all I had were dreams and hunches, which weren’t enough to build any kind of case or even to know where to start. Actually, I did know where to start—with the intriguing Doctor Fortuna, who definitely had something fishy, or should I say fuchsia, about him. That was another reason I was up here: Joanie had amassed quite the collection of books on shapeshifters and magic, and she had been a research professional before the Incident, as we called it. If there was something in there that applied to the other mysteries, she would know how to find it.
    “That may be true, but be careful. You’re different from the rest of us, so it’s not surprising someone has singled you out.”
    I looked at him, startled. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
    He fidgeted with his straw wrapper, which he’d curled into a corkscrew. “I got a phone call a few weeks ago asking about our pack. The person said they were from the government, and they were following up on the Cabal-Hippocrates scandal. I don’t remember much of the conversation, but they asked about you in particular.”
    “Why me?” But I knew the answer.
    “You were turned by magic, not a viral vector. Someone is curious about you because of it.”
    “Was it a man or a woman?”
    “That’s the other disturbing part of the phone call. I admit my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but I don’t remember as much of it as I should. I don’t even remember the gender of the caller, only that there was some sort of accent.”
    “Why didn’t you call or email me and tell me?”
    “That’s the other thing.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I would