“Don’t worry.” My voice was almost a squeak. “They always leak. That’s why I carry them in this old truck. They’ve stained the bottom of it red.”

Relief crashed through me when he ceased his explorations and returned to my window.

“And you’re driving around this late because you couldn’t sleep?” There was a knowing curl to his mouth. His gaze took in my tight top and disheveled hair. “You think I’m going to believe that?”

The innuendo was blatant and I almost lost my cool. He thought I’d been out sleeping around. An unspoken accusation hung between us, nearly twenty-three years in the making. Just like your mother, aren’t you? It wasn’t easy being illegitimate in a town so small, people still held that against you. In today’s society, you wouldn’t think it mattered, but Licking Falls, Ohio, had its own set of standards. They were archaic at best.

With great effort I restrained my anger. My humanity tended to shed like a disposable skin when I got angry.

“Could we just keep this between us, Sheriff?” Back to the guileless blinking of my eyes. It had worked on the dead guy, anyway. “Promise I won’t do it again.”

He fingered his belt as he considered me. His large belly strained against the fabric of his shirt, but I refrained from comments about his girth or the fact that he smelled like beer. Finally he smiled, exposing a crooked front tooth.

“Go home, Catherine Crawfield, and get that taillight fixed.”

“Yes, sir!”

Giddy with my reprieve, I revved up the truck and drove off. That had been close. I’d have to be more careful next time.

People complained about having deadbeat fathers or skeletons in their family’s closets. For me, both were really true. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I hadn’t always known what I was. My mother, the only other person in on the secret, didn’t tell me until I was sixteen. I grew up with abilities other children didn’t have, but when I asked her about them, she’d get angry and tell me not to talk about it. I learned to keep things to myself and hide my differences. To everyone else, I was just weird. Friendless. Liked to wander around at strange hours and had odd pale skin. Even my grandparents didn’t know what was in me, but then again, neither did those I hunted.