Trail of Dead (35 page)

“The head,” Jesse yelled at me. “You have to rub his forehead—” His voice cut off in a strangled yelp. Olivia had bitten him on the forearm.

That sounded ridiculous, but I wasn’t exactly suffering from an abundance of planning. Before the golem could do anything else I
wrenched
my left arm with everything I had, feeling it almost pull out of the socket. I felt the wet clay give a little, gritted my teeth, and did it again. I heard myself scream with the pain, but I managed to slip my left hand free. I reached up, pushed the scrub cap backward off the golem’s head—and could just make out a
word carved into its forehead. My name. I flailed my arm, throwing the golem and myself off-balance as I tried to avoid his grasp. We began to tip backward as I scrubbed furiously at the writing with the heel of my hand. Suddenly all I could think of was Erin, and the way the heavy clay and the weight of the magic had crushed her. My back hit the ground—tilted to the side a bit rather than straight on, thank God—and I had one second to brace myself to be crushed. Instead, though, a few hundred pounds of loose wet clay crumbled gently around me, filling in the spaces between my limbs, coating my hair and face. The golem was dead.

I found myself in a pile of mud just as the water from the sprinklers trickled into a drip. There was a metallic thud, and I turned to see Jesse pulling Olivia’s arms behind her back in the classic handcuffing-a-suspect position you see on television. She was facing me, and her expression was terrifying: wild-eyed and hungry. She actually lunged in my direction, but Jesse was ready for it and caught her weight easily.

“Settle down,” he said sternly. To me, he said, “Scarlett, are you hurt?”

“Not as much as I will be when this morphine wears off,” I said truthfully.

Jesse frowned. “Morphine?”

I shrugged. “Long story. Mallory?”

“Dead.”

“Did you…”

Jesse shook his head. “I took off the amulet, and then I tried to just knock her out, but it was like her body had just…emptied.”

“Kirsten would probably know why,” I said. “Maybe she OD’d on magic or something.”

“You’re mine,” Olivia snarled at me, completely unaware that we had been talking. Spittle flew from her mouth as she spoke. “Wherever you go, whatever happens to me, you will always be mine. I made you.”

Without being particularly conscious of it, I had started wriggling my way out of the pile of clay and backward, away from Olivia. “I’ve got her,” Jesse assured me. “Just stay close enough to keep her human.”

That got through my momentary panic, and I stopped backing away. Jesse glanced around for a moment, and then frog-marched Olivia a couple of feet to an examination room with a long metal handle on the door, shaped roughly like a staple. He did something quickly with the handcuffs, and when he stepped back Olivia’s hands were cuffed together in front of her, through the door handle.

Jesse slumped down to the floor a few feet away, leaning against the wall. He looked as tired and beat-up as I felt, which was quite an accomplishment. I was campaigning pretty hard for most fucked-up looking.

“What do we do with her now?” I asked.

Jesse sighed, looking miserable. “I have no idea. She should go to prison, but a human prison can’t hold her. Dashiell said I should call him when I caught her, and he’s probably on his way here anyway. But he’s just going to kill her.”

Olivia suddenly went half-limp, clutching the door handle like it was the only thing keeping her out of deep water. She was still staring at me, but her eyes had gone baby-deer soft, and tears began to slide down her cheeks. She slid down to the floor, letting herself dangle helplessly from the cuffs. “Scarlett, you won’t let them kill me, will you? After everything we’ve been through together? Everything I taught you?”

I looked at Jesse for a long, foggy moment that felt siphoned off from the rest of the night’s timeline. And then I finally understood. If he turned Olivia over to Dashiell, in his own eyes, Jesse would be killing her. He’d be haunted forever, knowing that he’d compromised his deepest beliefs about order and justice and let a murderer die lawlessly. And in that way, Jesse would become another one of her victims.

I was not going to let that happen. I lifted Will’s revolver, which I’d retrieved from my back as I scrambled away from the pile of clay. And I shot Olivia twice in the chest.

It was
loud
. I dropped the gun and squeezed my eyes shut, listening to the ringing in my ears. I hadn’t looked at Jesse, and I was afraid to open my eyes and do so. I knew exactly what expression was going to be on his face—shock and disappointment that I’d let him down, that I’d demonstrated my complete lack of morals, ethics, or character yet again. I’d seen it before, and I didn’t even blame him, really. I just…wasn’t ready.

I don’t know how much time passed, but eventually I could hear again. The only sound in the room was a slow drip-dripping of water, probably coming from sprinkler heads. Then I felt a warm hand touch mine, and I opened my eyes. Jesse was crouched in front of me, turning my hand over to press a wad of paper towels into my palm. “They’re wet,” he said softly, “but they’ll work.”

I lifted my hands. They were shaking. “I—can you—”Jesse nodded and began wiping clay and blood from my face. I shivered with cold, wincing a couple of times when he found one of my new bruises.

“Why did you do that?” Jesse asked me quietly. “Why shoot her?”

I shrugged. “Bitch deserved to die. Dashiell was going to do it anyway, so I figured I might as well have the privilege.” My teeth chattered as I spoke. When had it gotten so cold?

Jesse sat back on his heels and studied my face. “You’re lying,” he said simply. “You did it for me.”

“Pshaw,” I said scornfully. “That doesn’t sound like me at
all
—” And I stopped talking then, because he was kissing me. His lips were warm, and as he pulled me into his lap I discovered that the rest of him was too. He smoothed my wet hair from my face,
and I moved past the surprise and kissed him back with a hunger that would have scared me if I was anywhere in the vicinity of my right mind.

Chills spread through my chest, but I wasn’t cold anymore. The kiss went on and on. I couldn’t get enough of him. Our first kiss, on Molly’s porch, had been like a bubble bursting, tension breaking into passion. This was something else, though. This was…connection.

Then I heard a familiar voice behind us. “I believe the word you humans use is
ahem
.”

We broke apart, gasping for breath. Dashiell stood in the same doorway Jesse had come through, leaning against the doorframe and looking amused. Goddamn vampires. I scooted off Jesse’s lap, trying to keep the embarrassment off my face.

“Hey,” I managed.

Dashiell raised his eyebrows. “I found a dead witch in the hallway. Would that be Mallory?”

“Yes,” Jesse said. He climbed to his feet, putting one hand against the wall to steady himself.

“Ah.” Dashiell came forward and looked down at Olivia’s body. It hadn’t yet rotted the way a vampire corpse usually does as it dies. She had been human when I’d shot her, and died as a human. We all go back to human in the end. Dashiell looked at Jesse. “I see you managed to take care of Olivia.”

Jesse opened his mouth, but I spoke first. “Yes.” I stood up shakily. Dashiell didn’t need to know that it had been me. He’d respect Jesse more if he thought Jesse was secretly ruthless. “I can get her to my furnace guy, if someone can help me load her in…” I realized I didn’t have my van and stopped short, uncertain of what to do. I felt myself swaying.

“Scarlett,” Dashiell said, the amused tone back in his voice. “You’re about to pass out, and you look like you just crawled out of the grave during a downpour. I think you can have the rest of
the night off.” He looked around, taking in the clinic with a newly focused eye. “Consider this one on me.”

“That’s nice,” I said, a little loopy, and sagged against a counter.

“Detective Cruz, I trust you can get her out of here?” Dashiell asked. Jesse nodded and came over to put my arm around his shoulders. He walked me down the hall without another word to my boss.

There was no sign of the witch’s body in the hall, so Dashiell must have already put it in a car. We paused briefly so Jesse could put his shoes back on, and then began plodding forward again. “You can’t drive like this, you know,” Jesse said in my ear.

“Of course I can,” I protested. Then I stopped in my tracks. “Jesse, the Transruah…if Dashiell gets it, it could start this whole big thing—”

“It’s okay,” he said. He reached into his jacket pocket and showed me the little piece of Jerusalem stone on its leather cord.

I turned it over in my hands, shocked. I must have shorted it out when Jesse had come in to help me fight Olivia and the golem, but I hadn’t even felt it. “Jesse, you brought it too close to me. You shorted it out.”

“I know,” he said, taking it gently and putting it back in his pocket. “I made the decision. I’ll take the responsibility.” He grinned. “Or I’ll just tell Kirsten it was unavoidable, and she’ll have to understand.”

My mouth was working like a fish’s. “It was too powerful, Scarlett,” he said gravely. “I’ll return the book and the amulet tomorrow, and the witches can keep them as historical artifacts. But no one should have that much power. Think what would have happened if Olivia and Mallory had made it to Kirsten.”

I shuddered and nodded. I wasn’t really opposed to shorting out the Transruah, I was just…surprised. It was a bold move.

We made it outside, finally. Jesse took my keys and went around the side of the building to pull Eli’s truck up so I wouldn’t have to walk any farther. As soon as he was gone, though, I stuck my head
back inside the building. “Dashiell?” I called. There was a flash of vampire speed, and then Dashiell hit my radius and walked toward me casually.

“Yes?” he inquired.

I took a deep breath. “There’s someone I still need to talk to. I need an address, and I would
appreciate
”—I chose my words carefully—“if I could get it from you, no questions asked.”

“Whose address?”

I told him. “Just to talk, right?” he asked warily.

I nodded. “I swear.”

He met my eyes for a long moment, judging, and gave me the address.

It took almost ten minutes to convince Jesse I was well enough to drive. But we had two cars at the clinic, and Jesse still had to go back in for the Book of Mirrors, and…what can I say, I whined my way into it. Finally Jesse reached over to hand me back the keys. As I took them, he leaned forward and kissed me on the mouth, gently. “I’ll call you tomorrow; we’ll figure out getting the cars back,” he told me, and I just nodded.

Jesse watched Scarlett pull away, making sure that the truck’s headlights were on and it was moving in a straight line. When she was finally out of sight, he trudged back into the clinic.

He headed for the desk he’d climbed on to hide the Book of Mirrors. It would only take a moment to retrieve the book from the ceiling tile. He would turn the book and the dead amulet over to Runa the next day. She’d know what to do with them.

Before he climbed up, though, Jesse sat down on the desk, intending to rest for just one second. He knew if he thought too hard about the events of the day, much less the last few days, his brain would melt into a puddle. Only a few days ago, Scarlett had been out of the picture, Runa had been his girlfriend, and his biggest problem was that his dream job wasn’t quite as challenging as he’d wanted. And now…he shook his head, trying to clear it.

Then, too tired to look for him, Jesse simply called, “Dashiell?”

The vampire was suddenly
there
. “
Dios
,” Jesse muttered, grabbing his heart. “I had forgotten about that.”

“Did you need something else, Detective?” the vampire asked politely, but Jesse thought he saw a twinkle in Dashiell’s eye. Maybe startling humans was just the kind of thing that never got old. Or something.

“We need to talk,” Jesse said.

“What about?”

“Your system,” Jesse said frankly. “This way that you have, of covering up crimes and crime scenes and then getting the police to cover what Scarlett misses. It’s not working for me.”

A look of annoyance flickered on Dashiell’s face. “Continue,” he said shortly.

“Right now, you’re trying to have it both ways,” Jesse began. “You’re trying to work outside the law but also use the law—including me—in illegal ways, whenever you think it’s useful. What I’d like to discuss is the possibility of streamlining this a little more. I think there may be a way that the police force can be involved in Old World crimes without you having to press a lot of minds or bribe anyone.”

Dashiell stared at him for a long moment, and Jesse fought the instinct to look away, to protect himself from having his mind pressed. After Scarlett left he had found one of the vampire amulets in Kirsten’s car, and he was prepared for that eventuality. But let Dashiell think that Jesse was just brave enough to face him.

They stayed like that for a long moment, until the amusement left the vampire’s face and he tilted his head slightly, as if considering Jesse for the first time.

“I’m listening,” Dashiell said at last.

I stopped at Molly’s house for a quick shower and to get dressed in a clean T-shirt and jeans. I was now delighted that I hadn’t been able to wear my favorite canvas jacket to Kirsten’s party. It greeted me, whole and unstained, from the back of a chair, where I happily shrugged it on. The T-shirt and boxers I’d taken off went directly in the garbage can, but I was sorry I had to throw away the boots, an old birthday gift from my mom. At least Molly would have fun making me shop for new ones. While I was thinking of it, I called and left her a voice mail to let her know it was safe to come home.

I followed Dashiell’s directions all the way east to the Palisades, until I found a tiny stretch of beach with a small house that faced the ocean. It was after two in the morning, but I knocked hard on the back door and then went over to lean against the porch railing to wait, giving him time to get dressed and come out. I felt, rather than saw, when the man came up to lean against the railing next to me.