Tara found herself tensing as she slowly came to the realization that she was selling wolfsbane.  Not only was this woman lying through her teeth, but she was after Alex.  She told herself that she was angry because he had helped them escape the wolves, but a part of her knew that there was a glimmer of something else that was making her temper flare.<br/><br/>Her chin rose slightly and her fingers curled inside the oversized sleeves of her robes.  She heard Valerianna speak, and she said nearly everything Tara would have had she spoken first.  Her eyes flicked to Vlad as he disappeared and then back to the sheriff.<br/><br/>Honestly, Tara didn't know what she was going to say until she said it, "Alex Grayson had nothing to do with the wolves or the burned bridge, and maybe it's you and the stench of wolfsbane that is driving people away from this city.  I've known these people longer than you've been around and none of them, no matter how country bred or grain fed, are dumb enough not to know a bold faced lie when they hear it<em>Sherrif</em>."<br/><br/>Tara felt good, that was a nice release of her normal self, but it was a risk.  Hey hands trembled slightly, in differing parts from fury, adrenaline, and show.  She flushed, barely maintaining her nun cover.  She could honestly pass as a desperate holy woman who had been pushed to her limit as she stood trembling, her eyes only on the woman who had threatened the man she was beginning to have uncommon feelings for.  Uncommon for her anyway.