Maureen "Muffy" Douglas knelt down and examined the mutilated, naked body. It had once been a woman, but now its face and torso had been ripped and torn as if by some savage animal.
With gloved hands, Muffy spread the corpse's legs, checked around and inside its vulva. There were telltale signs of semen.
Muffy sighed heavily and rose to her feet. This was the fourth body that would be found in this condition in the last three months.
The police called it the work of a serial killer, even named the murderer "The Shredder" because of the way the body looked---its skin sliced and shredded in strips apparently by some sharp instrument.
But Muffy knew better.
It looked like the work of an animal because it was the work of an animal. And its instruments were claws and fangs.
That this was the work of a werewolf, Muffy didn't doubt. That it was also the work of Weylin Stone, she knew for certain. The condition in which the bodies had been found told her that. They'd all had sex with Stone before he Changed and savagely slaughtered them.
Pleasure and pain. That was Stone's modus operandi.
It had been that way even before he became---what he was now.
They'd been in love three years ago and they recognized a need for each other. Muffy liked to receive pain, Stone more than gladly gave it.
Not excessive pain, mind you. Just enough to make ordinary sex a little more erotic. Like the time Stone tied her naked and spread-eagled to the floor, blindfolded her, then slowly massaged her clit with one hand while, with the other, he dripped hot candle wax on her breasts and nipples as she bucked in the throes of an orgasm.
Or the time she dressed up and pretended to be a schoolgirl. Stone played a teacher and whacked a cane across her bare ass while she frigged herself to another luscious cum.
Something stirred inside Muffy's gut, strong yearning sensations, and she knew what it was---she wanted him again. She realized she was jealous of these other women who had been fucked by him. She wanted to be pleasured by him again.
But the murders---
She shook her head. No, that wasn't right.
She took out her cell phone, dialed a number. Waited for someone to respond, then said, "Yes, I'd like to report a murder..."
Muffy had always found the bodies first. That hadn't been hard to do. She knew what Stone looked for in a woman, knew the places he liked to pick them up, and the places where he always took them. Yet he always managed to stay one step ahead of her.
Until tonight.
This new body was a fresh kill, which meant Stone would still be somewhere in the area. She searched the ground for prints and heard, in the distance, the wail of police sirens.
She glanced up and around at the deserted warehouses that surrounded her. This was where Stone liked to bring the girls, this was where the bodies had been found---but never in a pattern that allowed the police to form some sort of prediction as to when or where he would strike again.
Couples wanting privacy where they could indulge their fantasies often frequented the warehouses. Stone and she had often come here several times before...well, before he Changed.
Muffy never really understood how the Change had touched Stone. And it was after he Changed that they broke apart. He told her he never wanted to see her again. Muffy heard something from the dark recesses of a doorway. She stared into the shadows, and then saw the wan features of Stone's face, pasty gray in the moonlight, his mouth stained with the blood of his victim.
"Hello, Muffy," he said.
"It's been a long time," she commented. "I---had to see you again."
"Too long..." Stone grinned at her, opened the door behind him and motioned for her to enter.
She followed him in, closed the door.
The moon glowed ominously through several broken windows above them both.
Stone held Muffy's gaze for a long moment before he said, "Take your clothes off."
Muffy didn't move, only stared at him.
His right hand flew up, slapped her hard across the cheek, jerking her head sideways.
