Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton Page A

and the fact that he carried a few extra pounds gave him some weight to back it up. He seemed to try to fill the room with his physical presence as if he were a much larger man than he was, or maybe his pissy attitude just seemed to take up more space.
    “How did you know it was claws that cut Karlton if you didn’t see them?”
    “Once I felt multiple wounds, I knew it had to be. If he’d used a blade, I’d have seen his arm moving as he drew it out to stab her again. His arm was stationary. He never had the range of movement to use a knife like that. Claws come out like switchblades; just hold them against the skin and they stab.”
    “Only if they shift form first,” Raborn said.
    “I told you, the really powerful lycanthropes can shift just their hands, so it’s just claws springing out.”
    “That’s not possible. They have to shift into at least wolfman form to have claws.”
    “I never said it was a werewolf, Raborn.”
    “ Wolfman is what we call all the shapeshifters in half-man form, Anita,” Edward said. He was trying to use his Ted voice, but there was too much of the real Edward leaking through, so it came out cold.
    “He was covered head to toe,” Marshal Tilford said. “He could have been in wolfman form.”
    I glanced at Tilford. He was about the same height as Edward and Lorenzo; we were having an average height day on the crime scene, at least for the men. Tilford’s hair, what little there was of it, was cut very short and close to his head. He was carrying a little more weight around the middle than Raborn, which meant if he didn’t hit the gym soon he’d fail his physical retest. The preternatural branch had to test with the HRU, Hostage Rescue Unit, which was the marshals’ equivalent of SWAT. But it was a new requirement since an investigation late last year had ended with fault laid on lack of physical fitness on the officer’s part as a major contributing factor to his injuries and the deaths of two civilians.
    I must have looked at him too long, or maybe my anger at Raborn was still in my eyes, because Tilford said, “Hey, I’m just saying what I saw.”
    “He was too human-shaped even under the costume. If he’d been in half-man form, there would have been differences in his legs, his arms; the shape isn’t perfectly human even covered up like that,” I said.
    “And how would you know that?” Raborn asked.
    I gave him glare for glare. “Experience.”
    “I’ll just bet you have experience with wolfmen.” His voice was low and angry, and disdainful.
    I don’t know what I would have said, but Lorenzo broke in and said, “The news crews are filming us. Maybe stepping inside Marshal Forrester and Tilford’s room would be a good idea?” He smiled while he said it, kept his voice mild and placating. He was trying to smooth things down. Good someone was.
    “Blake here likes publicity, don’t you, Blake?” Raborn asked.
    I started to say something, but Edward touched my shoulder. It was enough. I shut up and went into the open door of their room. Everybody else followed. Edward shut the door behind us.
    “What changes in his body would have been there if he’d been in wolfman form?” Tilford asked.
    “The legs are sort of longer, but crooked, almost like the knee joint is wrong, and the femur and tibia are both longer. The mask wouldn’t have fit that flat to his face. There’s more muzzle, for lack of a better word.”
    Tilford nodded, as if he were filing it all away for later use. I hoped he was. We needed more of the marshals to know as much as possible about what we hunted. Lorenzo was actually writing it down in a little notebook.
    “You should give a lecture next time we have training. This would be good stuff to know out in the field,” Tilford said.
    “I’m always happy to share information,” I said.
    “Well, aren’t you just the center of attention anytime a roomful of men shows up,” Raborn said.
    “Jealous?” I asked.
    “Of what, the