Brightwater Blood

Ok, obviously I'm behind, lets just say I've read WAY more books than I've posted about :) So time to play catchup!

Brightwater Blood by Shona Husk is a novella about a werelion who is sent to investigate a pair of sisters who use magic. Reports have come in that the sisters are using their magic to kill men by sucking out their life energy over the phone. The sisters are the last of the Brightwater shamanic bloodline. Their mother died when she was under investigation for misusing her magic and it is assumed the sisters are following in her footsteps. When Lachlan arrives at the scene he finds one of the sisters dead inside a growing ring of death surrounding the house the sisters live in.

When Dayna arrives home to find her sister's body and a lion she shoots the lion. When the lion becomes a man she confines him in a circle of protection, one of the very few pieces of magic she can perform. She doesn't understand why her and her sister are under investigation since they had both sworn to give up magic after their mother's death.

This is a nice novella which lays the groundwork for a relationship between Lachlan and Dayna. In spite of the brevity, Ms. Husk builds a believable paranormal world with rules that must be obeyed. With a novella set in an unknown environment it is easy to tell rather than show the reader what is going on, but Ms. Husk avoids that trap and weaves a nice tale about building trust.