Moon Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page B

reached out for her in these last nights before the change.
    In the quiet, she could hear the sea throwing itself against the cliffs, and knew if she walked there this close to the change, she would need no light to guide her. Her night vision, always sharp since the attack, grew stronger yet as the moon waxed.
    The perfume of the water came to her, salty and cool. She ached, everything about her that was human ached that there was no one beside her, no one to share the quiet and beauty of the night.
    She stood alone, whether it was here on the porch, on the cliffs, deep in the woods, she was in a cage. And she had searched for the key for eleven long years.
    Why shouldn’t she be allowed to feel love when it came like an arrow in the heart? Why must she be denied the pain and burn and joy of it?
    Whatever she was thirty-six days a year, all the other days, all the other nights, she was a woman.
    Standing alone, she heard the flight of wings—the hunter—deep in the woods. And the sudden scream—the hunted—as talons pierced flesh.
    And on the simple porch of her quiet house, she scented the blood. Fresh and warm.
    Could all but taste it.

Chapter 4
    â€œY OU ’ LL still be a guy,” Gabe assured the cocker-terrier mix as he prepared for surgery. “Balls don’t make the man.”
    He imagined if his current patient could talk, the response would be: Yeah? Hand me that scalpel, doc, and let’s try that theory out on you.
    â€œMight seem a little barbaric from your standpoint, but believe me, it’s all for the best.”
    He used warm water blankets to offset any chance of hypothermia. The pup was young, barely eight weeks, and there were risks and benefits of neutering this early. Pediatric tissues were friable and needed to be handled very carefully, but the youth of the patient made precise hemostasis easy.
    After he’d prepared the field, he made his midline incision.
    He worked precisely, his hands deft and practiced. He had Michelle Grant on his surgery CD player, figuring it would soothe the puppy, unconscious or not. He kept an eye on the puppy’s respiration as he operated, then began to close.
    â€œNot so bad, right?” he murmured. “Didn’t take long, and you won’t miss them.”
    When he was done, he made notes on his chart and had his surgical assistant prep for the next patient. While a fresh drape and pads were being put into place, and instruments laid out, Gabe stayed with the pup in recovery.
    The patient woke quickly, with a little tail wag when he saw Gabe.
    â€œEileen?” He poked his head out into the waiting room. “Call Frankie’s mom and tell her he came through fine. We’ll keep him here until about noon, then he’s good to go.”
    Barring emergencies, Gabe scheduled surgeries from seven to eleven one morning a week. Most of his patients would be ambulatory and able to go home to their family before the end of office hours. Some might need to be monitored.
    It wasn’t unusual for him to spend the night after surgery in his office.
    At noon, he scarfed up some of the sweet and sour chicken Eileen had ordered for him, eating at his desk while he went over charts and made follow-up calls about patients.
    And thought, when he had two minutes to spare, about Simone.
    What was there about her? She had a fascinating look. Not really beautiful, certainly not in the classic sense, not with so many angles. At the same time all those points and planes gave her face a sharp and vital look.
    He liked the way she looked in jeans and boots and the way her shirt had been frayed at the collar and cuffs. How she smelled like her kitchen, like some strange, secret garden.
    Then there was that smile, slow and reluctant to bloom. It made him want to tease it out of her as often as possible.
    Whatever it was, when he was around her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
    She was a little cool, or shy. He hadn’t