Wake of Vultures (The Shadow, #1)

by Lila Bowen

When she spun back around, she was surprised to find that the fool hadn’t fallen or died or done anything helpful to her cause.

Mam and Pap weren’t up, of course. They gave the sun time to stretch and get cozy before they stopped snoring.

drink from the men, and they leave, thinking they have been pleasured, that they have bought me.” She leaned back on an elegant elbow. “But they are offering themselves to me. I drink their strength. For a woman, it is the ultimate revenge.”

“Bullets, girl?” With a powerful retch, the bird vomited up a flattened chunk of metal. “Damn things tickle.”

He inclined his head. If they’d been keeping score, she’d won a point. “Names are just skins to wear for a while. Dan’ll do.”

What the Sam Hill business do you got being a coyote, Dan?”

“Religion and legend aren’t always the same thing. The Comanche follow no gods. But there are legends, like Pia Mupitsi. Among our kind—monsters, as my brother calls us—it’s said that a shadow will rise to fight evil. But ‘Shadow’ is said as a name, as an unstoppable force. The Shadow moves among us but cannot be found, cannot be sensed. It can see us, find us, track us. And destroy us. The Shadow is a hunter. A weapon. A new kind of monster.”

Just because you’ve been told your entire life that you’re nothing does not mean you are nothing. The wolf doesn’t care what the sheep think.”

“Your heart is not a rock that stands unchanging. It’s like water. It flows, it moves, it allows neither boulders nor canyons to stand in its way. It hardens and softens and expands to fill new spaces. You are still becoming yourself. And you have a lot to learn.”