Hunter's Trail

“I can put out feelers among my people,” Kirsten volunteered finally. “As far as I know, none of them have crossed paths with the Luparii, but it’s worth asking.”

“Beatrice, Dashiell, is there anyone else you can ask for more information?” Jesse asked.

Dashiell gave him a hard look. “No one who is awake during the daytime,” he said frostily.

Jesse winced and shot me an apologetic look. I gave him a tiny shrug. The news about the Luparii seemed to have downgraded Dashiell’s reaction from homicidal to grouchy. I could live with grouchy.

“But after the sun sets, I will begin contacting people in France,” Dashiell relented. “I will see if the Luparii will speak to me.”

“Why?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

Dashiell’s regal face soured, and Beatrice answered for him. “To ask them to retract the scout,” she said softly.

I made a little bleep of surprise, but managed to stifle any further comment. I had sort of expected Dashiell to declare war on the Luparii scout for coming into his city, but I realized that that wouldn’t really be his style. Beatrice and Dashiell wanted to be smart and look after LA more than they wanted revenge on the Luparii. Will flashed her a grateful look, but Beatrice’s eyes were on Dashiell. She took his hand.

“Will, what about your wolves?” Jesse said quickly, obviously trying to change the subject before Dashiell remembered he was furious with us. “Do any of them know anyone—”

“Wait,” Will said suddenly, turning to face us. His face flushed with sudden excitement. “I know who you can ask. We have someone who’s run into the Luparii before.”

“One of your wolves?” Kirsten asked, looking puzzled.

“No,” Will answered. He met my eyes. “Scarlett’s doctor.”

The plan came together quickly after that. Hayne would take Dashiell and Beatrice down to their . . . well, if ever there was a good time for the word lair, this would be it. Dashiell would call me for an update after the sun set. Kirsten and Will were both extremely motivated to stop the Luparii, for different reasons, so they would go home and start calling their people on the off chance that someone had more information. Will also wanted to warn all of his wolves not to change—they weren’t really supposed to anyway, but with the Luparii scout in town, it could be fatal.

And Jesse and I would go talk to the good doctor, who was more likely to talk to me than Will, who had an adversarial relationship with her, or Kirsten, who she didn’t know. “After you talk to her, get back to finding the nova,” Dashiell said firmly, looking at Jesse and me as though one of us might actually protest. Jesse had helped me climb out of the overstuffed chair, and we were standing in the doorway as the “meeting” was breaking up, waiting for Beatrice to finish having a quiet word with Kirsten. “Let us work on the Luparii,” Dashiell finished.

“There’s something else,” Jesse said as he shrugged into his jacket. Dashiell arched an eyebrow at him. “You said if I took this case I would have your support and authority.”

“I did,” Dashiell said coolly.

“But that was when the only official crimes were two missing women.” Jesse shook his head. “The case has expanded into the normal world, and now it’s intersecting with an official LAPD homicide investigation. Working on this during my time off isn’t going to cut it anymore. I need to be able to do this as a cop, not just as an investigator.”

“What exactly are you suggesting?” Dashiell asked.

Jesse jutted out his chin, and I winced. Don’t say anything stupid, I begged him silently. He wasn’t looking at me, though. “I’m suggesting you use some of that pull with the department you’re always bragging about and get me assigned to the murders, officially,” he said levelly. “Maybe Homicide Special puts in a request for a little extra manpower, or maybe my station decides to loan me out as a floater to Hollenbeck. I don’t care how you do it. But I need jurisdiction over the whole city, and I need to be able to use my badge when I ask questions.”

He met Dashiell’s eyes boldly, and we both looked at the vampire, waiting for him to react. Behind Dashiell, Beatrice heard the silence and broke off whatever she was saying. The concern on her face made me nervous. If I had to, I could just throw myself backward, get out of Dashiell’s radius maybe, except my stupid knee would slow me down . . .

But after a moment a tiny smirk appeared on Dashiell’s face. “Well done, Detective,” he said approvingly. “You’re beginning to understand how to work in and outside of the system at the same time.” My shoulders slumped in relief, although Jesse kept a straight face. “Give me a moment,” Dashiell continued. He took a couple of steps back toward the couch, pulling a cell phone from his shorts pocket.

While he was on the phone, Will came up to us, already holding his car keys. “Let me know if you two need anything else from me,” he said tightly. “I need to go make calls.”

He started to move past us, but I reached out and snagged his sleeve. “Will,” I said softly, to show that there were no hard feelings about our argument, “be careful, okay? If the Luparii found Drew and Terrence, they may know who you are too.”

The alpha werewolf went still. “I’ll take that into account,” he said quietly. I nodded, and he left.

A few minutes later Dashiell returned, looking a little smug. “It’s done,” he said to Jesse. “You’re a—what was the word you used? A floater. You’re being loaned to Homicide Special to do some footwork on some missing persons cases that may or may not be related to the homicides. Now go find the good doctor.”