Hunter's Trail

So I walked her through the whole thing: the confrontation with Olivia, waking up to Will, getting called back to work, the nova, the investigation with Jesse. She told me about being assigned to the Evergreen crime scene and calling Jesse, after which I picked up the story again. By the time I got to the Luparii, we had moved into the living room, drinking coffee that she’d made. Apparently the coffee Molly bought was already vegan.

I told her everything, except for the parts having to do with changing Eli back into a human. Will had told me to keep that a secret, and it was the least I could do for him. And besides, it wasn’t really connected to the mess with the nova, not anymore.

“So Jesse’s still making calls, but I don’t know how we’re going to find the nova,” I summed up. “And the full moon is tomorrow night.”

Runa sat back in her chair, looking thoughtful. “And you don’t know where the nova is,” she said slowly. “But you think you know where he’s going to be.”

“Right. But even if Jesse’s right, Griffith is too big, and the Luparii scout is still out there too.”

“Hmm.” Runa stared off into space for a moment, considering. “And I suppose it wouldn’t do any good for you and Jesse to split up and go after the nova and the scout separately.”

I shook my head. “Jesse’s a good cop, but he can’t go up against a witch with a lethal dog-monster, or a werewolf in a big natural area.” Griffith wasn’t a clear field where you could see anything coming; it was a dense tangle of brushes, trees, and rocky outcroppings. A werewolf would have no trouble getting the jump on a human, with or without silver bullets.

Sighing, I pushed hair away from my face. I’d taken out my ponytail so I could rest my head comfortably on the couch. “It’d be different if we could track the nova somehow, or know exactly where he’s going to park his car and change. Then we could get him in my radius, let Jesse subdue him, and problem solved.”

A slow smile was spreading over Runa’s gorgeous face. “What?” I asked, confused. “What’d I say?”

Runa leaned forward. “You think you need to find the nova, but technically that’s not true. You just need something that can find him.”

“Isn’t that splitting hairs?” I asked doubtfully.

Then I got it.

I grinned at the gorgeous witch, suddenly fully appreciating what Jesse had seen in her. “Runa Vore, you clever minx.”

Chapter 39

Jesse was having a long night.

He’d finished all the phone calls, including doubling back on the people who hadn’t answered the first time, by just after ten. It was mostly a fruitless effort. The more he pressed, the less anyone seemed to know about Henry Remus. The guy was a ghost, one very lost soul in a whole city of them.

The last two on his list were Esmé Welch and Corbin Hurd, the werewolves. Hurd wasn’t home, and a quick text to Will revealed that he had a business meeting in Santa Barbara and wouldn’t be back until the following afternoon. Esmé wasn’t home either, but Scarlett had said she was picking up a few shifts at Will’s bar, and Jesse managed to get a hold of her there. When she answered he could tell she’d picked up the office extension, just based on the lack of bar sounds in the background.

He explained who he was and why he needed to ask her about Remus, and there was a long, pregnant pause. “Esmé?” he said cautiously. “Are you still there?”

“It was totally an accident!” she burst out.

“What was an accident?”

“Corbin and I were chatting a few months back, while we were waiting for the PAW meeting to start,” Esmé said, and now Jesse could hear tears in her voice. “And we were just talking about our weekend plans, you know, and some of the latest pack drama, and there was this guy, he’d overheard the whole thing, and we said . . .” She took a gulping breath.

“Let me guess,” Jesse interrupted. “You talked about being werewolves, and changing in between moons.”

“I didn’t see him,” Esmé wailed. “Then he was running away, and I was gonna call the vampires, you know, like you’re supposed to, but nobody remembered his name and nothing bad happened and I just kind of . . . forgot about it. I mean, who would believe a story about werewolves?”

Said the werewolf. Jesse managed to refrain from banging his head on the door frame. “What exactly were you guys talking about?”

There was another long silence. “Esmé, I can come down there, pitch a big fit, and demand some answers, right in front of Will. Or you can just tell me what I need to know right now and save us both the trouble.”

“There—there’s this place,” she whispered into the phone. “Up by the Sequoias. It’s like a three-hour drive, no chance of running into Will or any of the other pack members. Every month, on the new moon, some of the pack goes up there.”

“What about you, Esmé?”

“I went once,” she mumbled. “But I was too scared of disobeying Will. It wasn’t even any fun.”

Jesse sighed. Well, at least they knew how Remus had found out about the werewolves. Only a guy who desperately wanted to believe in wolves would overhear that conversation and think it was actually true.

“Why did you run out of the October meeting?” Jesse asked.

“How did you—”

“Esmé,” he said tiredly, “maybe you should just assume I know everything, and tell me the truth.”