Wednesday Snippet - there could still be a murder...

Happy Hump Day! I spent this past weekend working on the first round edits for IN COLD BLOOD, and it turns out I'm just as anxious editing it as I was writing it. Basically I won't be happy until it's published and I can't actually do anything with it anymore. But as is often the case when editing, I keep finding bits that make me smile for various reasons, and that is always a good sign, I reckon.

So in that spirit, my Wednesday Snipping this week is a bit that made me smile. Enjoy!

As much as pop culture got muddled with myth, some things were always true, just as much for wolves as humans. Some people were simply more dominant than others. Gibbs’ laid-back, clownish persona was all gone now as he pinned the woman down with both his body and his eyes. Phoebe would have caved already, if she’d even had it in her to resist. The woman, whatever her mental state might be, was not so easily dominated. But after what felt like an age, she slumped, stopped fighting, and went still.

Gibbs released her. “Think she just passed out,” he said to one of the paramedics.

The man cautiously released the woman’s arm and checked her pulse, then tilted her head back. And, sure enough, the woman’s eyes were closed, her breathing ragged but deep. “For now,” he said. “Ideally we should get her straight to hospital and into a safe room. She needs a toxicology test.”

“Aye.” Gibbs lifted a lock of the woman’s hair away from her shoulder. He let out a low whistle. “Spooky, come and take a look at this.”

Phoebe edged closer. If the woman came around suddenly, she had a feeling there could still be a murder. She hovered behind Gibbs until she realized what he was showing her. Then she couldn’t help herself. She leaned down and touched the wound with shaking fingers.

It was a bite, a nasty, gaping wound in the shoulder. A tear, not the neat, tiny bites she’d seen on human victims. The skin around the bite was yellowish-green. The bleeding had stopped, but from the sheer amount of it caked on the woman’s skin and dried in her hair, she’d bled for a long time.

The human victims hadn’t had a speck of blood on or around them. Phoebe drew back. “I don’t think she’s part of the pattern,” she said.