Hunter's Trail

He glanced at Scarlett as he said it, and Jesse thought he saw a flash of something on her face—fear. But she just shook her head.

Hayne answered Dashiell’s door wearing the same polo shirt and chinos he’d worn on Jesse’s last visit, this time with a Desert Eagle strapped in the holster on his shoulder. Jesse had always considered that particular handgun too ostentatious to take seriously, but Hayne was large enough to make it seem completely rational. When he greeted Scarlett and Jesse he had the same neutral expression Jesse had seen before, but there was something about his tone and posture that seemed . . . troubled.

“What the hell’s going on?” Scarlett said bluntly, and Jesse felt a rush of appreciation. Will and Dashiell might be frequently cryptic, but at least his partner didn’t play games.

“I don’t know, exactly. But I do know that Mr. Carling wants you to go wake Dashiell and Beatrice,” Hayne said simply.

Jesse was surprised, but Scarlett’s expression merely tightened, and he realized she’d been expecting this. “You know I can’t do that,” Scarlett said levelly. Her eyes were locked on Hayne. “He’ll kill me.”

“Why?” Jesse asked, focusing on her. “Is it really that big of a deal?”

“Why don’t you two come inside,” Hayne said smoothly. “We can talk in the living room. Will should be here any second.”

Slowly, so Scarlett could keep up on her bad leg, Hayne led them into the same room from earlier, the one with the glass doors that led out onto the patio. Jesse was really starting to hate this room.

Nobody sat down. When the door closed behind them, Hayne began, “To answer your question, Detective, it is a very big deal. Dashiell is very . . . private.”

Scarlett snorted, turning to face Jesse. “It’s a power thing,” she said simply. “A cardinal vampire couldn’t allow a simple human like me to choose when he lives and dies. At least, not without some kind of fatal gesture to swat me back down to my place.” She turned her head to glare at Hayne. “I’m not going to do it.”

“Yes, you will.” The new voice came from just outside the door. Will twitched as he stepped into the room, and Jesse realized he’d hit Scarlett’s radius. The werewolf was dressed in khaki pants and a simple button-down that hid the hard muscle Jesse had seen the night before. His eyes were wild, searching the room like he expected ninjas to jump out and attack.

Jesse took an instinctive step closer to Scarlett.

She crossed her arms again. “No, I won’t,” she said stubbornly. “Why do you need to talk to him so badly? What can’t wait until sunset?”

“The jaws,” Jesse guessed, watching Will closely. “It’s got something to do with the werewolf’s jaws.”

Will pulled at his hair, which was already sticking up. Usually he was blandly handsome in a forgettable, Disney Channel dad kind of way, but even this close to Scarlett, he looked practically feral. “They have to know,” he muttered. “She met them before, she said, and he has to know they’re here.”

Scarlett gave the alpha a worried look, her brow furrowed with distress. She glanced at Jesse. He hated the expression on her face, like she was right on the brink of panic. “Will’s gone bye-bye, Scarlett,” he said solemnly. “What have you got?”

She flashed him a grin that pierced his heart. Before she could speak, though, the doorbell rang, a long series of notes that echoed through the house. Will said, “That’ll be Kirsten.”

Hayne looked surprised, and a little uncomfortable, and Jesse remembered that Hayne and Kirsten had been married once. What did Kirsten have to do with any of this? Scarlett looked as confused as he felt, like they were watching a disc that had skipped.

If the bigger man was upset about his ex-wife’s arrival, though, he kept it to himself, leaving the room to answer the door without a word.

Will wheeled on Scarlett. “You need to do it,” he said firmly. “You have to wake him up.”

Scarlett shook her head. “You know I can’t do that. He’s forbidden it.”

Jesse had never heard Scarlett use the word “forbidden” before, but it sure sounded like something Dashiell would say. “Hold on,” Jesse jumped in, stepping between the two of them. “Scarlett has worked for you guys for years. This has to have come up before, right? That you might get in a jam and need to bend the rules?”

“You were with me on the two worst situations I’ve ever seen,” Scarlett said, with a little more control in her voice. “And I don’t think we even discussed it.”

“Things were never this time-sensitive,” Will objected. He bared his teeth, adding, “I’m your employer too, you know. Anything Dashiell can do to you, I can do just as easily.”

“Hey!” Jesse began, stepping forward, but just then Kirsten walked through the doorway with Hayne at her heels. The semi-official leader of the city’s witch population was a blonde woman in her mid-thirties, wearing a tiered wool skirt, tall boots, and a white sweater with sleeves long enough to cover the second knuckles on each hand. The sweater made Kirsten look feminine and angelic, but Jesse knew better than to underestimate her. He’d seen some of the things she could do with magic.

Kirsten took one glance around the room and made a beeline for Will. “What on earth is going on?” she demanded.

His eyes latched on to her with sudden desperation. “They’re here, Kirsten,” he said, anguished. “The Luparii came to town.”