Binding: Book Two of the Moon Wolf Saga by Carol Wolf Page A

large indeed. She shrank back, gasping again. “Do you mean to tell me,” I said, low in my throat, “that you do this to folks all the time?”
    “No—no, that's not what I meant. I meant—”
    “Oh,” I was tired, which made me slow. I realized, “Baz couldn’t get his out. He's not two-natured. He's just changed. Who changed him?”
    “Sarah. My aunt, Sarah. She's always been able to do that.”
    “That woman can change people into animals?”
    “And animals into other animals.” Elaine got a little reminiscent smile on her face. “It's fun.”
    “Fun?”
    Her smiled faded. “It can be fun.”
    “Who else has she done it to?”
    “Did you see her horse?”
    “The old bay in the barn?”
    For a moment she had a trace of a grin. “Aunt Sarah tells everyone her ex just walked out on her. And he did. In a way.”
    “And you help her with this?”
    “No, no, I just treat them.”
    “Who put these in me?” My wrist and my ankle still hurt, badly. You don’t want to be lame, if you’re a wolf. You really, really don’t. As my anger rose, I began to grow.
    It took her a moment, her fear peaking again strong enough for me to smell it in my human form. She curled back against the door and almost wailed, “I did. I wanted to help get the demon— for Cecil.” She added, “I’m sorry.” But that wasn’t enough. “Oh, God. It's all fucked up now.”
    It isn’t usual to change form without deciding to, but I found myself staring at her through my yellow wolf eyes, my butt crunched up against the door as I took up more than half of the cab. Elaine crouched down against the door with a cry, turning away from me, warding me with her hand. I contemplated the sheen of sweat on her neck. I though how easily I could pierce the the cartilege of her throat with my teeth, how the blood would stream, and that it would taste good. If I killed her, I would be certain that she never hurt me again. Or I could at least bite her a little. I could hurt her the way she hurt me.
    I changed back. It took her a few moments to stop crying in fear, and sit up again to look at me. I held out the bandana. “Did you make these things?”
    “No, God, no. I don’t have any magic. I’m just a vet.”
    “An evil vet. Just what I need. So, who does make these things?” I lifted up one of the little hooks. I could still feel the tingle. Whatever it was, it was still working.
    “I don’t know if I should tell you.”
    “Listen, evil vet, I just spent five days locked in a cage. If you don’t want to be the one to pay for that, tell me who is.”
    She lifted her hands. “All right. I can’t tell you his name.”
    “You can’t?
    “He's a metallurgist. He teaches metalwork at Pasadena City College. Holly—my sister Holly knows him.”
    Something was cockeyed about what she was telling me, but in the shape I was in, I wasn’t sharp enough to figure it out. I wrapped up the silver hooks, the wire and bracelets in the bandana, and put them in my pocket. Pasadena was not that big. I was going to find that guy.
    Elaine said, “There really was a demon, though. Wasn’t there?”
    I looked out into the darkness. Shapes of bushes and a few trees were silhouetted against the sky. In the back of my throat I still remembered the scent of Richard in his wolf form. I remembered him running in my tracks, fighting by my side. The demon had played me in every possible way, and wooing me in wolf form was just one of his wiles. But it was still real. He had been there. “He's gone,” I told her.
    “Can you get him back?”
    “He's not coming back. Look, if you don’t believe in your Cecil guy, why do you want the demon anyway?”
    “Holly says that with the demon, Cecil thinks he can bring us peace on earth in our time.” She looked at me, and her glasses glinted again. “I think that's worth a try, don’t you? Even if Cecil is a king-sized, asswinding jerk.”
    I tried to imagine Richard instructing a great-souled leader of