Haventon Born (The Haventon Chronicles Book One)

Haventon Born Chapter Fourteen

"Anna's fever has broken already," Tanya told David when he arrived at her place early the next morning. "How was the party?"

"Interesting," he said after a moment. "Informative. Emma was there." He hesitated for a moment. "And Sarah's employer is a vampire. Oh, and she knows about us being hunters." He frowned at his cousin. "What do you mean already?"

"Hah! I knew that Meredith had illicit contacts!" She grinned wolfishly, then added quietly, "Werewolf fevers usually last a couple of days, Dave. Hers lasted less than a day. It's probably nothing, but it's a little worrying."

"Oh, okay," he said because he sensed that he would not understand why even if he asked. Then he did a double take. "Wait a minute, what's Sal's employer got to do with Meredith?"

"Oh, she got Sal that job." Tanya shrugged. "Of course Sal is an even more illicit contact than he is for her."

"Er..." David looked at her as his mind raced through what she had said. "She said that vampire Ian had been saying he had proof that there was a werewolf among the werewolf hunters." He blinked a few times. "Sal's a werewolf hunter? He was talking about Sal?"

"Yes, if it makes you feel any better about killing him, you may well have saved Sal's life. And she's a very good one actually, given our innate ability to see each other's eye colour. She's currently trying to find out who killed your father. It's looking more and more like Ian's hunting partner."

"How is that safe? I mean I know you said that you could use a silver knife with preparation, but they do testing randomly." He paused. "Oh wait, Meredith does the test, doesn't she?"

She nodded. "And she's kind enough to use a non-silver needle most times and warn her when she can't. I've warned Sal that someone is on to her and I'm sure Merry has done the same. She's taking precautions against silver. Then again, the entire pack has been since Uncle Mark died."

"That's good then." He chewed at his lip. "I hope she'll be safe. So this sort of crazy behaviour is typical of pre-change werewolves?"

"To a degree. Sal was traumatised by what happened to Martin, and Anna had someone messing with her head, but we all go slightly wonky for a few months before we change. Sal was worse than Anna, actually. She was unconsciously forcing herself not to shift for nearly two years after her fever – which is probably some kind of record. That really throws you off the rails. In an odd way, it was good that she found an outlet in werewolf hunting. Though it did mean we all had to be really careful around her before she finally first shifted and found out the truth about what happened. She was bloody lucky Merry is such a liberal, though."

"And what was that about your eyes?" he asked.

Tanya gave a smile. "Dave, what colour are my eyes?"

"A really weird shade of amber," he replied. "Sal's and Anna's as well, which is weird and now I know obviously related to your being werewolves but hardly something a werewolf would notice...what's wrong?" This last question was because she was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Most humans can't see our eyes, their minds just fill in a normal colour. Hell, even pre-change werewolves can't see our real eye colour. How long have you been able to see this?"

"I've always been able to. It just never came up." He paused and scowled at that. "Which is kind of odd in of itself."

"Psychics can sometimes see our eyes," she said. "It's my best guess on Merry's ability to recognise us on sight, and it might explain why those renegades attacked her. But unless you've been psychic for longer than anyone realised that can't explain this."