Hunter's Trail (A Scarlett Bernard Novel) (7 page)

“That is scary as shit.”

“Yup.” Will held out a hand, and Jesse took it, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.

“Suddenly I really miss Scarlett,” Jesse noted.

“Well,” the werewolf said, with exaggerated patience, “go get her then.”

Chapter 9

Dr. Noring insisted I take some more pain pills, and by the time she’d finished fiddling with my knee, I wasn’t exactly inclined to argue. The pills made me sleepy, though, so I decided to haul myself upstairs and go to bed for real.

It was the best sleep I’d had since first waking up with the knee injury. I was pretty sure the pills were the only thing keeping me from dreaming about the dead girl I’d destroyed, and I was pathetically grateful for it.

I was awakened hours later by an excessively cheerful vampire bouncing on the foot of my bed. “Ow,” I complained sleepily. “You’re trampling my bad knee.”

“No, I’m no-ot,” Molly sang. I opened my eyes. The clock beside me read 5:15, just after sunset. Geez. Apparently I’d been tired.

Molly was grinning like she’d just pulled off a heist. She wore her most pedestrian pajamas: a simple organic T-shirt and light flannel pants that I privately thought had been tailored. “You look happy,” I observed. “Kick some werewolf ass, did we?”

“Damn right,” Molly said smugly, in a weird foreign accent that I recognized. A couple of days earlier I’d talked her into watching
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
with me. “
Man
those guys can heal like nobody’s business,” she added in her normal voice. “Faster than us, even.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You didn’t actually hurt them, did you?”

“Me?” Molly fluttered her eyelashes innocently, then grinned again. “Nah, cuts and scrapes only. I just kept knocking them down while they were trying to change. It was
hilarious
.” Her face lit up as she recalled. “The bitch got madder and madder, she was stomping her little foot like a three-year-old, and she was stark naked the whole time!” She chortled, mimicking Anastasia’s petulant expression.

My spirits sank suddenly. “Go easy on Anastasia,” I said quietly. “She’s been through a lot.”

Molly snorted. “Maybe she has, but that doesn’t give her the right to go all cray-cray on my girl.” She reached over to tousle my hair, which was hanging loose down my back. And down my front, and sticking up in the ai
r . . .
I’d been asleep for a while.

“Stop it!” I protested, jerking my head away. “And nobody says cray-cray.”

“It was meant ironically,” Molly said loftily. “Besides, she totally was. Scarlett, she thought you had a
cure
! I mean, yeah, being near you is nice and all, but if that’s her deal, why not just send her friend to stalk you or whatever?”

“Will has a rule against it.”

She arched an eyebrow skeptically. “But kidnapping is cool?”

I sighed. “I don’t know, Molls. I don’t think Anastasia’s really thinking straight anymore.”

Molly’s face turned serious. “Uh—they don’t know where we live, do they?”

“No,” I said, thinking it over. “I don’t see how they would. Eli and Will both know, I think, but I can’t see them telling anyone, especially since Will warned the wolves to stay away from me. Do you know anybody Old World who would tell them if they asked?”

“Nope,” Molly replied. “Most of the vampires don’t even know where I live, and the ones that do would never tell the dogs.
And
,” she added, “the deed isn’t in my current name, so I don’t think anyone could find us the old-fashioned way.”

I always think it’s funny when vampires refer to anything as the “old-fashioned way.” I yawned. “We should be good then.”

“What are you going to do next?” Molly inquired.

I knew she was referring to the complicated situation of my job and the murder, since apparently I was back to work. But I sidestepped her question, saying simply, “I need to shower.”

Molly had gone to a drugstore and purchased one of those handles that sticks to the wall of shower stalls, so I could at least shower without anyone having to help me, but keeping one hand on the handle at all times made everything take forever. When I finally hobbled back to my room, I brushed out my damp hair and tied it up, then dressed in a hunter-green pullover and the only jeans I owned that were baggy enough to go over my knee brace. Thank you, boyfriend style. I see your value now.

I made my way downstairs, where Molly insisted that we go to the store for supplies so we could retry the sushi rolls ourselves. I knew she was trying to distract me on purpose, but I gratefully allowed myself to be pulled along by her single-minded enthusiasm. I didn’t want to think about the dead woman, or Eli, or the werewolves who had jumped us at Will’s house.

After a laborious trip to Trader Joe’s, where I essentially turned a cart into a giant scooter, Molly and I made sticky rice in her countertop rice-maker and started spreading supplies all over her small kitchen table. The project escalated, as Molly’s projects usually do, until by nine thirty we were eating raw cucumbers and cleaning up a literal explosion of sticky rice.

So when the doorbell rang, I was completely unprepared for it.

Molly and I both froze, staring at each other over the table. She moved first, announcing, “I’ll get it!” and trotting off toward the front door before I could respond.

“Dammit, Molly, wait!” I called, exasperated. I grabbed my cane from where it was leaning against the table and hauled myself up to follow her, saying, “At least let me feel if it’s something Old World first, okay?”

“Oh, right,” Molly said, stopping suddenly. If I’d been moving at a normal speed I would have run right into her. “Good idea.” She gestured grandly toward the entryway and intoned, “After you.”

I hobbled to the front door, concentrating on my radius until I was satisfied that whoever was out there was definitely human. I went on tiptoes to look in the peephole—and saw Detective Jesse Cruz waiting patiently on the front step.

“Oh,” I breathed, rocking back on my heels.

“Who is it?” Molly asked curiously.

“Shh! It’s Jesse,” I whispered distractedly. “I thought he didn’t know I was in town.” I stared at the door, uncertain. I hadn’t prepared a lie to explain my knee.

Before I could come to a decision, Jesse yelled through the door. “Scarlett, I just came from your boss’s house. I know everything.”

I opened the door. And whatever I was about to say fell out of my brain as Jesse just looked at me for a moment, a small smile on his face. “Hi,” he said softly, the smile widening into a grin.

I always forget how beautiful Jesse is. I don’t mean beautiful in an androgynous sense—he’s very male, with an athletic, muscular build that looks like he came by it honestly, rather than having his body designed by a personal trainer at a fancy gym, which you see a lot this town. I mean “beautiful” the way you’d call a sculpture or a painting beautiful. Jesse looks like he was deliberately, lovingly crafted by an experienced artist who prefers natural fibers and earth tones. Which is a lot of words, so it’s simpler to just think of him as beautiful. I realized I was grinning back at him.

“Hi,” I said back. We just stood there for a second.

I could feel Molly looking back and forth between the two of us. “Aren’t you guys happy to see each other,” she observed, her tone amused. “Say, I think I’ll go clean up the kitchen.” I heard her walk away, but my eyes seemed to be stuck on Jesse. Then I remembered what I’d been doing and looked down at my clothes. Rice was stuck all over my shirt, and there were a few drops of soy sauce on my jeans. “Sorry, I wasn’t really expecting you.” I looked back up, puzzled. “Wait, you were at Dashiell’s?”

“Yeah, they summoned me after work,” he replied.

“They?”

“Dashiell, Beatrice, and Will. We should talk.”

“Right.” I looked around helplessly. We couldn’t talk near Molly—if Dashiell really had told Jesse what was going on, then he knew more than she did. And I’d promised Will I wouldn’t tell anyone else about changing Eli. “Um, we better go up to my room.”

“Can you make it up there?” Jesse said dubiously. I followed his gaze down to the cane in my hand. I had forgotten about it while I was staring at him like an idiot.

“Oh. Yeah. It just takes a while.”

I gestured for Jesse to go up the stairs first. It would have been smarter to go in front of him so he could catch me if I fell, but baggy jeans or not, I vainly didn’t want him staring at my swollen leg as I limped up the stairs in front of him. I trailed him into my bedroom, where he doubled back to shut the door behind me. That put our faces about six inches apart and suddenly my small bedroom seemed even smaller than usual. He grinned at me again, white teeth flashing as his eyes crinkled. “I’m going to hug you now,” he announced.

I laughed in surprise as he swept me into his arms. I hugged him back enjoying his familiar scent of Armani cologne and oranges. “I was worried,” he said simply. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He leaned back to study my face, and I thought for a second that he might kiss me. And it shamed me, because I wanted him to.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out instead.

“For what?” he asked, puzzled.

“I didn’t know that they pressed you. I wasn’t a part of that decision.”

He sighed and released me, taking a step back. “I know. You were unconscious.”

Oh. “They told you about that, huh?” So they had told him about Eli. Awkward.

He nodded. “And, although I don’t like it, with everything else that’s going on right now I think the fact that vampires pressed me last week is the least of our concerns.”

I was starting to list back and forth, so I stumped over to the bed and sat down, shoving pillows under my right knee. Jesse had that look on his face, like he wanted to help me, but he also knew me well enough by now not to ask. I pointed to the folding chair leaning against the wall by the door and said, “You’d better fill me in on what you know.”

His smile faded and then disappeared entirely. It was as though he was going from being just Jesse to being a cop by increments. “So you don’t accidentally give me more information than I’m supposed to have?”

Ouch. “I guess I deserved that,” I said, trying to keep my voice level.

Jesse’s jaw stayed clenched for another second, and then he shrugged. “Sorry, that was an overreaction. Being around those guys just makes me suspect every word I hear.”

“Welcome to my world,” I said without thinking, and for a brief moment we shared a rueful smile. He was definitely in my world now, though I hadn’t exactly welcomed him at first.

Then Jesse’s face hardened. “Well, I know you changed Eli back to a human, permanently. And Ariadne, last fall.” There was a note of professional coolness in his voice and I winced. I had been under orders to keep Ariadne’s status to myself. But if I was being honest, I’d also preferred to keep it a secret. It had been easier to just not think about it, especially after Olivia surfaced.

“What was it like?” Jesse asked, softening a little. “Making someone human again?”

“The first time, it was awful,” I admitted, remembering the sensation. “It was lik
e . . .
I don’t know, weight lifting without a spotter. But the second time, with El
i . . .
” I closed my eyes, struggling for words. “It was like I held the edges of my radius with one part of me, and with another part, I called his magic.” I opened my eyes. “I collected it to me, and then I let the magic go.” My knee throbbed suddenly, like it wanted to remind me that nothing came for free, especially magical cures.

“Wow,” Jesse said, in a tone that suggested he had no idea how else to respond.

“Yeah.”

“Could you do it again?” he asked.

“I have no idea. Not for a while, probably. Will got me a doctor, and she doesn’t know if the seizure I had was because of the drug, or the stress, or the coma, or changing Eli. If I try again, I might have another seizure, o
r . . .
you know, die.” I shrugged. “Or I could be completely fine.”

Jesse had a very thoughtful look on his face, but he didn’t say anything else. I couldn’t get a handle on his mood and it was starting to make me nervous, so I changed the subject, asking him to fill me in on his evening.

He walked me through his solo visit to Dashiell’s house, from when Hayne picked him up to when Hayne drove him back. My mouth dropped open when he got to the part about Dashiell flattening him. The thing is, when someone from the Old World gets in my radius, I get a sense of how much power they have, and Dashiell had always
felt
strong—but for obvious reasons I hadn’t ever seen him actually throw his power around. I’d always thought of Dashiell the way cashiers probably picture a really controlling bank president. The fact that he could do that to someone wasn’t really surprising, but it was scary as hell.

After I got over that, I realized I’d breezed past the important part of the story. “Wait, so you took Dashiell’s deal?”

Jesse flinched. “You sound surprised.”

“No, I jus
t . . .
I mean, are you okay with that?” I asked, very carefully. Who says I can’t learn diplomacy, I ask you. “I mean, helping me with crime scenes?”

“No,” he admitted. “It seems like the lesser evil at this point, but it’s not really sitting right with me, either.” He wasn’t meeting my eyes, and his shoulders were stiff, his expression troubled. “Maybe we’ll manage to catch the guy before he kills again, and I won’t have t
o . . .
you know.” He glanced at my face and then looked away again.

“I’m sorry,” I said lamely, and Jesse gave me a tight nod in acknowledgment. That explained why he was being so weird—happy to see me one minute, resentful the next. I wanted to lean over and hug him, to tell him that it was going to be okay and he was doing the right thing by helping me. And in theory, I even believed that. The Old World had to stay hidden, period, and what I do is necessary for that. But I also understood that Jesse had just crossed a line he’d never imagined himself even touching, so I just changed the subject. “S
o . . .
where do we start?”