Hunter's Trail (A Scarlett Bernard Novel) (10 page)

“Nova wolves are slaves to biology,” he said matter-of-factly. “Which includes the natural, evolutionary drive to procreate, and to lead. A nova wolf wants to become a breeding male.”

“That’s all?” Jesse asked. His eyes were on the road, but a furrow had appeared between his eyebrows. “This is a werewolf that wants to have babies?”

“Werewolves can’t procreate the old-fashioned way.” Will grimaced again, this time with his teeth showing. “Nova wolves want to create more werewolves. Emphasis on
create
. A nova wolf doesn’t want to join a pack or take over a pack. All it can think about, all it can do, is try to make its own pack.”

I finally understood. “So you think the person who killed those two women is an indestructible, supernaturally fast and strong apex predator that’s specifically targeting humans,” I summarized.

Will sighed, and I turned all the way around in my seat to squint at him. He looked tired, and older than I’d ever seen before. “Yes,” he said simply.

Jesse and I looked at each other. “If this was Scooby-Doo, one of us would say ‘gulp,’” I pointed out.

Jesse made a face at me. “Gulp.”

Chapter 13

We hit the canyon road and began winding down toward the freeway. Jesse and Will were both silent, but there was a weight to it, like you could just hear everyone in the van
thinking
.

Will had said that werewolves behave more or less like ordinary wolves with magical enhancements. I’d never really thought of it in those terms before, but it made sense. I’d taken a lot of biology classes in high school, back when I was hoping to become a veterinarian, and I knew a little bit about wolf behavior. Wolves generally don’t attack people, not unless they’re truly cornered or starving to death. Basically, unless there are no other options. And I knew that werewolves have no particular interest in attacking humans, either. Eli had once mentioned that the one time the LA pack had encountered humans during the full moon, Will had directed his wolves away from the trespassing campers without an incident. That was part of why the Old World was able to stay hidden: werewolves in wolf form just weren’t the bloodthirsty, slavering meat fiends bent on eating people that you see in the movies. In their wolf form, they rarely attacked humans, and therefore rarely killed or changed anyone.

So a big, indestructible wolf that specifically hunted humans was a nightmare. And because so few people change when they’ve been bitten nowadays, it wasn’t much better than a serial killer. “Why women?” I wondered aloud, breaking the silence that had fallen over the van. “Does he think males will challenge his dominance?”

“No again,” Will answered tensely. “Remember, he wants to procreate. He wants to be the male half of the dominant couple, even if they can’t reproduce sexually.”

“So he’s trying to make a mate.” I finished, catching on. “Holy crap, it’s
Frankenstein
.”

“You mean Frankenstein’s creature,” Jesse corrected me primly. “‘Frankenstein’ was the name of the doctor who created it.”

“No, I mean
Frankenstein,
the work of literature,” I retorted. “The title. We’re in
Frankenstein,
meaning the title.”

“Kids!” Will barked. “Can we get back to the point?”

“Sorry,” Jesse muttered.

“What happens if he gets what he wants?” I asked. “If he builds a pack?”

“Wolf packs are territorial,” Will reported. “When he’s got his own, he’ll come after mine. Not to recruit.”

“To kill,” Jesse stated grimly.

There was another long silence in the van. We’d gotten off the freeway, and Jesse rolled down his window, letting the chilly city air surge into the van. It smelled like Dumpsters and Chinese food and car exhaust.

My city.

It’s easy to forget, especially given the last few months, that when it comes to the Old World, LA is supposed to be this oasis of peace. Although certain events or people might intrude on the status quo, compared to most places we have a very unique and somewhat delicate balance. No single supernatural faction runs the city, not even the vampires. But if Will were ousted, if the werewolf pack were obliterated and a new, psychotic alpha stepped in, that balance would be destroyed. Dashiell would have to start interfering with pack business more, just to keep their actions hidden. I doubted the nova would take kindly to vampire interference, and the conflict would escalate. There would be fighting. Soon people who have no business fighting would have to go to war. The peace would fall.

Plu
s . . .
Will was kind of my friend. At the very least, I didn’t want him to die.

“I get that he wants to grow his pack,” Jesse said suddenly. The sounds of traffic streamed through the open window, and he had to shout a little for us to hear. “But why the two different methods? He ate part of one woman, scratched up the othe
r . . .
”

I turned my head and shoulders to look back at Will, who nodded as if he’d been expecting that question. “I think he’s experimenting. I’ve seen attempts to change someone before, successful and unsuccessful, but I’ve never seen anything this calculating and cold. It’s jus
t . . .
”

“Nuts?” I volunteered.

“Scientific,” he corrected me grimly.

“Hang on,” Jesse insisted. “We need to go back to the part where we’ve got two bodies, two nights in a row, both attacked by werewolves. You said they can’t change that often, so is there more than one nova? Could it be something else, lik
e . . .
I don’t know, a group of random werewolves experimenting with magic, or a werewolf serial killer, something like that?”

“It’s possible,” Will admitted. Jesse took an on-ramp, and the sudden shift jostled the werewolf, forcing him to tilt sideways and catch himself on the van’s carpeted floor. When he recovered, Will added, “But I think perhaps he kidnapped both women at different times, restrained them, and changed. Then he tried the two different methods.”

“It just took Kathryn Wong longer to die,” I whispered. Goose bumps suddenly broke out on my arms, and it had nothing to do with the air from Jesse’s window. “Oh, God,” I whispered, so softly that neither man looked at me. I wouldn’t have known how to speak if they had.

I’d done it. The LA werewolf pack had been dealt a huge blow when Caroline, the sigma, was killed. And then I’d made everything so much worse by taking away the pack’s beta and stirring up rumors and animosity, making everyone doubt Will. I was the one who’d made the pack unstable, creating an opening in the pack’s magic for the nova to waltz into town and start killing women. “It’s my fault,” I said, realizing too late that I was speaking out loud.

Jesse’s eyebrows furrowed with confusion, but Will had been looking at me in the dim light, and he had seen the moment when I understood what I had done. He gave me a tired little nod of acknowledgment that said,
I know. You didn’t mean to. But now we’re screwed.

Tears stung my eyes, and I swiped at them with the back of my hand. I turned my head to stare out the window, not wanting the two men to see me cry. After Olivia had killed my parents, I’d blamed myself for a long time. But I had been wrong then. It wasn’t like I’d made a series of bad decisions or mistakes that had led to Olivia deciding she needed to become my new mommy after dispensing with the old one. I had just
been there
, and she’d decided to take me, and I had no more responsibility in the matter than an apple does when it gets blown off a tree. I finally understood all that now, after I’d seen Olivia again and realized just how batshit crazy she really was.

But this was different from that, and different from Eli feeling responsible for what he’d done after he’d eaten the wolfberry. My actions—my
choices
—had made the pack unstable and crippled Will’s magic, leaving it vulnerable to bad behavior and the nova wolf. I had deprived Lydia of the pack’s beta and driven Anastasia to a desperate rage that legitimately frightened me. I had carelessly opened a door that I didn’t understand and fucked around with a system that was ancient, complex, and delicate. And I had done it on a
whim
, out of pity for a situation I couldn’t even comprehend.

When the van stopped a few minutes later, I didn’t move. “Scarlett,” Jesse said sharply, sounding exasperated, and I realized that this wasn’t the first time he’d said my name. I jerked my eyes to him. “This is the place, right?” he asked, in a tone that said,
Get it together
.

“What? Yeah,” I said shakily. We were at Artie’s studio. I told Jesse to unlock the gate and pull the van around back, and he complied without another word. That was fine with me. I wasn’t in a talking mood at that point, anyway.

“Scarlett,” Will said quietly, and I turned to look back at him. “Why don’t you and I take the remains inside. Detective Cruz can stay here and keep an eye on the van.”

I nodded gratefully. I wasn’t sure if Will was trying to spare Jesse from having to physically destroy the remains, or if he was just trying to keep the worst of our disposal methods from the police. Either way, I was glad to spare Jesse the sight of Kathryn Wong’s body being shoved into the furnace. Jesse didn’t comment, which I took as agreement.

Will carried the body bag, I held the doors, and we got the body into the furnace without incident. I thought about saying something as Kathryn Wong’s body went into the furnace. If Will hadn’t been there with me, I might have.

When we got back to the car, Jesse wouldn’t meet my eyes. I didn’t blame him. All three of us were subdued and quiet on the way back to Will’s.

Finally Will spoke into the terse silence. “I’ll call a pack meeting for tomorrow night to try to get things stabilized. What do you two need to hunt the nova?”

I looked at Jesse, who said promptly, “We need a roster of all the pack members.”

Will’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t just go around interrogating the pack,” he objected. “That won’t exactly help them trust me again.”

“Tough shit,” Jesse said shortly.

“Jesse!” I hissed.

He looked at me. “I’m past being polite, Scarlett. One of them made a monster. He has to answer for it.”

The alpha looked between us for a long moment, and then nodded reluctantly. “All right. Talk to the pack,” he said quietly. “But Scarlett can’t go.”

I understood, but Jesse looked puzzled. “They all hate me right now,” I explained. “They think I have a cure and I’m keeping it from them.”

“Isn’t tha
t . . .
sort of true?” Jesse asked, not unkindly.

It stung anyway, and I worked to keep my face straight. “Yes. But Will’s right. I can’t go rubbing their faces in it.”

Jesse looked uneasy, and I realized he was a little afraid to track down the werewolves without me around to negate them. I understood, but there wasn’t really anything to be done, and finally he nodded in agreement. “If we’re going to split up,” he said slowly, “You can at least make yourself useful.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“If I’m getting this, there are two ways to stop the nova,” he said, glancing at Will. “Either we find out who made him, or we find out how he’s choosing his victims.”

“You want me to go talk to the victims’ families?” I blurted out, my eyes wide.

Jesse nodded. “You can start with Leah Rhodes’s roommate and go from there. I’ll help you come up with a cover story and give you some questions.”

“What if—I don’t know if I can—” I sputtered. I had interviewed people without Jesse before, but only Old World people. Talking to civilians had always been Jesse’s purview, not mine.

“You’ll do fine,” Jesse said curtly. “You’ve done two major police investigations already. You can handle this.”

Not wanting to freak out any further in front of Will, I just nodded.

We arrived back at the alpha’s house. I had been a touch nervous that there would be flashing police cars waiting for us when we arrived, but the nova wolf hadn’t called the police the night before, and he hadn’t called them tonight. Whatever was going on, he was keeping it in the Old World for now.

Will went inside to get a pack roster for Jesse, who carried my duffel bag to the van for me and loaded it in the side door. When the door clicked shut, I asked, “While we wait, do you want to talk about those interviews tomorrow?”

“No,” he said without hesitating. “I jus
t . . .
need some space, Scarlett. I’ll go in and get the list from Will, and call you first thing in the morning.” He abruptly turned on his heel and marched toward Will’s front door, leaving me standing there with my mouth ajar.

I’d seen Jesse mad, distraught, and worried before, often at me, but I’d never seen him be cold. Maybe he was regretting taking the deal with Dashiell. Or maybe he just didn’t want to be my partner anymore.
Focus, Scarlett
,
I chided myself. Jesse was going to do what he was going to do; there was no use worrying about it.

No matter how many times I told myself that, the nagging fears stayed with me the whole way home.

It was nearly eleven when I parked the White Whale in the structure near Molly’s house and limped my way to the back door. My leg felt far away, as if the big lump of pain that had wound itself around my knee like a tentacle was actually separating it from me. I wanted nothing more than to go to bed with several ice packs and some of the good drugs. As I rounded Molly’s decorative shrubbery, however, I saw a small figure with shoulder-length blonde hair huddled on the concrete step leading to the doorway, arms hugging her knees, her head turned away so one ear was resting on her legs. I tensed, gripping my cane hard like I might use it for a weapon, but took a few cautious steps forward—and felt her hit my radius. Not a werewolf, not a vampire. It was like my radius had been thrust into a prism.

Another null.

She felt it when I did, and the blonde bob tilted up to meet my eyes. “Corry?” I asked incredulously.

Chapter 14

“Scarlett!” The teenager’s face broke into a beautiful grin I’d never seen on her face before, and she jumped up and ran for me, throwing her arms around my shoulders. Her momentum rocked me back a step onto my bad leg, but I ignored it, shifting my weight to my left instead. I was smiling stupidly, and to my great annoyance, I realized I was blinking back tears. “It’s so good to see you!” Corry said into my hair.

“Yeah.” I released her and leaned back, swiping my eyes as quickly as I could. The pain from my knee, which had been at a low running-refrigerator hum before, now roared into focus, and I fought to keep it off my face. “You too. Come on, let’s get inside.” I had a dozen questions, but was anxious to get her out of sight first. I didn’t think any of Will’s pack had found Molly’s house, but I didn’t want to wait around to find out. If anyone saw Corry her
e . . .

Corrine “Corry” Tanger was a fifteen-year-old null whom I’d met the previous fall. A teacher at her school had sexually assaulted her, and then blackmailed her by threatening to tell her dad, a Pentecostal minister. Corry had felt like she didn’t have any other options, so when a psychotic guy with a yearning to kill vampires offered to get the teacher off her back in exchange for helping him cleanse LA of the supernatura
l . . .
she had gotten all turned around.

I’d done what I could to help her, but then I had told Corry I couldn’t see her anymore. Nulls are ridiculously rare, and there are creatures in the Old World who would happily commit murder to get one for their own personal use, especially a young, impressionable teenager with a history of moral flexibility. I’m protected in Los Angeles because of my job, but if anyone else found out about Corry, she’d be fair game. The girl was “in the closet” to the Old World, and I had made it my personal mission to let her stay there.

And here she was, on my doorstep. I wanted to scold her, but I was just so frickin’ happy to see her I didn’t know what to do.

“Your leg!” Corry cried as we started for the door. “Oh my gosh, what happened? I’m so sorry—I didn’t mean to hurt it!”

I waved it off. “It’s no big deal; almost healed anyway,” I lied. I unlocked the door and led her inside, through the back hallway and into the living room. “Um, sit anywhere you want. I’ll take the couch, if you don’t mind. Do you want something to drink, or I could make a sandwic
h . . .
” I wasn’t used to being a hostess, and I realized that I was babbling.

“Oh, no, here—” Corry ran to the two armchairs, grabbing throw pillows, which she propped under my knee. “I could get you some ice or something,” she added hurriedly. There was a pause, and then we both broke into nervous laughter.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Corry said, crossing the living room to perch on the edge of an armchair. “In some ways, I feel like we’re family, like I’ve known you forever. And then I remember that I don’t know your favorite color, or band, or if you have brothers or sisters, o
r . . .
” Her voice trailed off, and she gave an embarrassed shrug. “You know. Anything.”

“It is weird,” I agreed. “And we can talk about all that stuff, but first I need to know how you found me, and why you’re here. Are you in trouble?”

Corry frowned, her slightly over-plucked eyebrows furrowing. “Not that I know of. No, I was just, like, worried about you. You sounded so freaked out when I talked to you before Christmas. I called you a bunch of times, but your phone was dead or something.” Her eyes lifted to meet mine. “You didn’t get my messages?”

I winced. My former cell phone had been lost after I went into the coma—I didn’t really know what had happened, but it had something to do with getting everyone’s car where it was supposed to be and moving my unconscious body back to Molly’s without the police noticing. Nobody had thought to look for or replace the phone until a day or two after I woke up, and if there was a way to get old messages onto the new phone, I had no idea how. I’m not exactly what you’d call “tech savvy.” “I’m sorry,” I said simply. “I didn’t.”

She bit her lip, nodding, and I realized how worried she’d been. Corry had been through so much, and she’d been that concerned about
me
. I changed the subject so I wouldn’t start misting up. Reputation to maintain and all that. “How did you find out where I live?” I asked

Corry gave a little shrug. “I didn’t know how else to find you, so this morning I called Will. He told me where you live.” Tentative smile. Will had neglected to mention Corry’s call, but I couldn’t really blame him for forgetting. “I took, like, three buses. I tried to call first, but my phone’s been crappy lately.”

I groaned inwardly. “Corry, honey, you’re fifteen. You can’t take the Metro by yourself at night; it isn’t safe.”

“I’m fine,” she said defensively.

I leaned forward so I could look her in the eye. “Where does your mother think you are right now?” I asked gently.

Corry blushed red, her fingers twisting together in her lap. “She thinks I’m at my dad’s place.”

That surprised me. “Your mom and da
d . . .
they split up?”

Corry nodded, suddenly seeming to shrink in on herself. “My mom found out abou
t . . .
about my teacher. She told my dad. He kinda freaked out.” I winced again. And as if she hadn’t been through enough already, now she had to go through all the emotional turmoil of her parents’ divorce.

“How did your mom find out?” I asked.

“I told her.” Corry swallowed. “My therapist thought I should. My mom took it really well, considering.” Tiny smile. “And when my dad flipped, she had my back.” I saw her eyes fill, and I wished I could rush over and hug her, but my stupid leg was such a dead weight, it might as well have been part of the couch. “I’m at a different school now, and my dad moved ou
t . . .
” Another shrug. “It’s a lot of change, but it’s better than lying all the time, hiding.”

“I’m very proud of you,” I said softly. She nodded and looked away with a little smile. I took a deep breath. “But you’re right, Corry: no more lies.” I leaned to one side, so I could pull my cell phone out of my pocket. I tossed it to her, and she caught it automatically, a questioning look on her face. “Call your mother,” I ordered. “Tell her where you are, and that I’ll drive you home.”

Corry seemed like she was about to protest, but after a long look at my face, she sighed and nodded. I stayed where I was on the couch while Corry stepped into the hallway. I heard snatches of her side of the conversation—her mom was doing most of the talking—and finally she slumped back into the room, holding the phone out. “She wants to talk to you,” Corry said unhappily.

Yeeps. I really didn’t want to actually talk to an authority figure. I wasn’t, like, one of the adults or anything. But in for a penn
y . . .
I took the phone. “Mrs. Tanger?”

“Ellen, please,” said a cultured, tired voice on the other end of the phone. I’d met Corry’s mom very briefly, but I hadn’t even known her first name until that moment. “Anyone who houses my runaway daughter gets to call me Ellen.”

“I’m sorry,” I said to Ellen Tanger. “I’m glad to see her, but I wish the circumstances were different.”

Corry’s mother gave a very ladylike little snort. “As do I. Did she tell you that she was grounded?”

I glanced at Corry, who had returned to her seat and folded her arms across her chest defensively. “No, she didn’t,” I said carefully.

“I didn’t think so.” There was a long, staticky noise as Ellen Tanger sighed into the phone. “This isn’t the first time she’s snuck out, Miss Bernard.”

“Scarlett,” I said automatically. “Anyone who trusts me with their runaway daughter gets to call me Scarlett.”

“Scarlett, then,” she said, ignoring the lame joke. “I kept thinking that with a new school, a ne
w . . .
family arrangement, this behavior would stop.” There was a little catch in her voice, and when she spoke again, it was with desperation. “I’m sorry that Corry invited you into our problems, bu
t . . .
what am I supposed to do? What did
your
mother do?”

There was no reason for that to sting, but it did. “My mother is dead,” I said quietly.

Corry’s mother sucked in a breath. “Was i
t . . .
one of
them
?” she asked fearfully.

O
h . . .
crapnuggets. I met Corry’s eyes. As if she’d heard her mother, she looked away guiltily. Corry had told her mom about the Old World. That was understandable, but very, very bad.

Corry was technically part of the Old World, so she was allowed to know anything I wanted to tell her about how things work. Her mother, however, was purely human, and if Dashiell found out a human kne
w . . .
he’d most likely kill her. We had to make sure Dashiell didn’t find out. I added that to my mental list of impossible things to do.

I took a deep breath and processed the question. Had vampires killed my mother? “No, it wasn’t one of them,” I answered, hoping I sounded at least a little reassuring.
It was one of us
,
I added silently
.
Olivia had been a null when she’d killed my mom and dad. But Ellen Tanger didn’t need to know that.

I promised her that I would bring Corry home after we’d talked for a bit, and hung up my phone. When I looked back at Corry, her arms were still crossed over her chest. “You see what I’m dealing with?” she said petulantly.

I put the phone back in my pocket. “You told her about vampires,” I said carefully.

Her arms uncrossed as she balled her hands into fists. “I had to!” she said defensively. “She had all these questions, and—”

I held up a hand, “It’s done, Corry. I’m not going to yell at you. But do you understand that you may have put her in danger?”

Her eyes widened. “N
o . . .
I mean, I knew I wasn’t supposed to say anything, bu
t . . .
” she swallowed hard. “Is sh
e . . .
what’s gonna happen?”

I thought that over for a moment. It was too late to press Ellen’s mind—erasing memory only works shortly after the event in question, and she’d obviously known for a while. “I gotta think about it,” I said at last. “For now just tell your mom she can’t ever talk about knowing, even in front of me. Even in front of you. You never know who’s listening.”

Subdued, Corry nodded. “And you’ve got to give her a break, kid,” I added. “She just found out that a whole world of magic exists, and everyone in it wants a piece of her little girl. She is balls-out terrified.” Corry shrugged noncommittally. Her face was creased down in something resembling a pout. I repressed a sigh. This wasn’t exactly what I needed right now.

“She said you’ve been sneaking out at night,” I ventured. The girl reached one hand up to play with a little bead necklace, not meeting my eyes again. “Any particular reason?”

A beat passed, and then Corry looked right at me, pain in her eyes. “I’m not a child,” she burst out. “Not anymore. If I want to go out, I should be able to.”

“Where do you go?” I asked mildly.

She looked surprised for a moment, her hand going still at her throat. “I just walk,” she said hesitantly. “To the movies, or a bookstore. There’s a coffee shop that’s open late; sometimes I go there. I jus
t . . .
don’t want to be alone,” she confessed. “But I don’t want to be with anyone wh
o . . .
knows
.”

Well, shit. Once again, I felt woefully inadequate. I wanted to help her, but I was not a frickin’ family therapist. There were layers of anguish here, and I had no idea how to peel them back for Corry. I considered telling her to talk to her actual therapist, but that seemed dismissive. “Have you told your mom that?” I said carefully.

The girl’s face clouded over again. “She doesn’t get it,” Corry muttered. “Not like you.”

Ah. I saw where this was going. Corry had cast me as the rebellious mother-alternative folk hero. Jesse and I had rescued her once, and now she thought I could save her again. I wished it were true.

She was right about one thing, though—she and I were connected. I knew, in a simple, calm kind of way, that I would die before I let her get hurt again, and that she needed to stay far away from me. “Corry, I wish I could say that things have calmed down for me now, but that’s not how it is. My life is dangerous. And after everything you’ve been through, the last thing in the world I want is for you to get hurt.”

Corry took a deep breath, meeting my eyes, and when she spoke again her voice shook, like she was delivering a speech she’d practiced. “About that,” she began. “I know what you said, and I get it. But a lot has been going on for me, and I feel like there’s this whole othe
r . . .
there’s this part of my lif
e . . .
” She waved one wrist in a frantic circle, searching for the right words. “It’s like having your back turned to the ocean, you know? It’s just big and vast and I don’t understand any of it, and I’m way overwhelmed.” Her hands, which had been fidgeting in her lap again, suddenly stilled. “I need you, Scarlett,” she said quietly. “I know you’ve been trying to protect me by keeping me out of it, but I need to know how to protect myself. I
can’t
get blindsided again. I want in.”

I stared at her. Well. Goddammit.