Hunter's Trail

“I agree,” Will said darkly. He sounded like he was barely controlling his temper.

“What is she doing?” I asked.

“Nothing. She’s leaning against what I assume is her car, glaring at the door to Hair of the Dog. She knows I can’t attack her in the middle of Pico Boulevard.”

“She’s going to follow you,” Jesse said quietly, and I finally caught on. We’d taken the bargest away from Corbett, so she was simply going straight for Will. Either she’d try to kill him, or follow him to the pack.

“Why?” I asked. “What’s she going to do against a whole pack of werewolves with no bargest?”

“She’s still a witch, Scarlett. We have no idea what she’s capable of on her own,” Will said grimly. “And if she has access to a gun and a lot of silver bullets . . .”

“I thought these douchebags were all about the hunt,” I complained. “That’s gotta be cheating.” I looked at Jesse. “Can you arrest her for loitering or something?”

Jesse considered it for a second and shook his head. “We’d have to leave her at a police station, and like Will said, we have no idea what she can do as a witch. She could hurt a lot of cops.”

There was silence for a few minutes.

“We could just, like . . . kidnap her,” I volunteered. “Jesse and I could come down and bring her into the bar. You could leave her in the back room or something.”

“Because tying her up and leaving her worked so well last time,” Jesse interjected. “We can’t stay with her, Scarlett, we have to go after the nova.”

“And we can’t kill her either,” Will sighed. “The Luparii in France would have kittens.”

I wished I were in the driver’s seat so I could pound my head against the steering wheel. “Well, shit. I have one other idea, but I have to check on a few things. Will, we need to call you back.” I hung up the phone before either he or Jesse could respond.

Jesse looked at me, a little incredulous. “Tell me you have a plan,” he stated.

“You know . . . I think I might. I don’t like it, but it might be our best option.”

On the surface it was simple enough: we needed to kill the nova wolf first, then go to Will’s to deal with the pack. But we’d need a lot of outside help, and Jesse would have to make a few more moral compromises. I wasn’t sure how he’d respond to that.

To my surprise, though, Jesse got on board almost immediately. “With one condition,” he intoned. “When this is over, we’ll finish that conversation I started.”

The conversation about getting the hell out of LA and starting over somewhere else. I took a deep breath and nodded. “We’ll finish it,” I promised, meeting his eyes.

It took almost two more hours for us to get everything ready, which included updating Will and Kirsten and Jesse talking to Noah about what we needed. The last thing Jesse did before we left was check his gun, making sure the silver bullets were still loaded. Then he looked at me. “You ready?” he asked me, snapping it into his holster.

I shrugged. “As I’ll ever be.”

Impulsively, he stepped forward and wrapped me in his arms for a hug. “You’re doing the right thing.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck, breathing in his familiar scent. “No,” I corrected. “I’m doing the best thing. Doesn’t make it right. Now let’s go before I come to my senses.”

The sky was already beginning to darken when we left Jesse’s parents’ house at 4:30 with Shadow in tow. I don’t know if she was just picking up on the tension in the air, or if she could actually sense the full moon, but she seemed to know something was happening—she was even more alert than before, her head up and her feet stepping lightly as her head swung from side to side looking for new dangers. By 4:45, Jesse was piloting my van up the winding road at Griffith Park. We only had fifteen minutes before the sun went down, which was when we figured Henry Remus would change and get in position. The moon was supposed to rise at 5:52 exactly, at which point any werewolves who hadn’t already changed would be forced into it by magic.

We were counting on the fact that Henry Remus didn’t know who we were or what I could do. If we were wrong about that, and he had had the foresight to, say, plant a gun somewhere in the park, we were screwed.

As soon as we passed the park gate, I closed my eyes and focused hard on my radius. Finding the edges of it was getting easier and easier; whatever had thrown off my inner equilibrium seemed to be finally wearing off now, and my senses were attuned. I could feel the bargest six feet behind me, curled politely on the floor of the van, waiting for orders. But there was nothing else Old World in my range, even when I extended it.

“Anything?” Jesse said quietly, trying not to startle me.

Shaking my head, I opened my eyes. “No, but he could be anywhere in the park at this point. If, you know, we’re even right about this being the right place.”

“We’re right,” Jesse said firmly. I couldn’t tell if he really believed it or was just trying to reassure me, but I was grateful either way. “Do you want to drive around the park awhile, see if you can feel him?”

I considered the idea. “Nah,” I said finally. “There are a ton of places to park here, and they’re going to change any minute. When they do, they won’t need to stick to the trails. Better to wait for him to come to us.” If that’s even what he’ll do, I added in my head.