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Hunter's Trail (A Scarlett Bernard Novel)

Page 32

by Melissa F. Olson


  Step by step, the three of them crept forward on the wide path, until they finally reached the big circular picnic area. “Anything?” Jesse said quietly to Scarlett, who just shook her head. She reached down and scratched behind the bargest’s ears, which Shadow accepted graciously. She’d been fairly calm since they’d left the condo, but this was the most focused and purposeful she’d been since they had first seen her. It was like finally releasing a fish back in the water. Shadow knew what they were doing, and she was in her element.

  “Maybe we’re too early?” Scarlett suggested. “It’s only five; maybe he’s waiting to change until the moon rises.”

  “Or maybe we’re in the completely wrong part of the city,” Jesse sighed.

  “What do you want to do?” she asked, looking at him expectantly.

  “I guess we wait.”

  They perched on top of a picnic table covered in red graffiti, legs resting on its benches—except for Scarlett’s bad leg, which she’d stretched out along the table next to herself. The bargest, calmed by Scarlett’s radius, lay curled up under the picnic table bench too. “At least he won’t be able to see Shadow as well in the dark,” Scarlett remarked. “So we don’t have to worry about her size scaring him off.”

  “I guess so,” Jesse said doubtfully. “But this close to you, does she have any chance of smelling the werewolf magic anyway?”

  “Nah, but it’s okay,” she said, patting his arm. “I’m the perfect nova wolf trap. He tries to sneak up on us poor unsuspecting humans, and bam!” She snapped her fingers. “Suddenly he’s just another naked crazy guy.”

  Jesse laughed. They looked out over the city lights in silence for a while with their backs to the wide path, enjoying the view. He was having a hard time gauging Scarlett’s mood: she seemed sort of introspective and pensive, but maybe she was just trying to anticipate the nova’s next move. His arm and shoulders touched Scarlett’s, and he felt it when a shiver passed through her. “Cold?” he asked, putting his arm around her.

  She nodded. “You know what the Native Americans call the full moon in January?” she asked idly.

  “What?”

  “Wolf Moon. True story.” She turned her head and went still, looking at him in the dim light from the Observatory street and the city lights themselves. They each had a flashlight stashed in pockets, but had planned to leave them off for the moment in order to make themselves more enticing prey. Slowly, Scarlett raised the hand farthest from him, lifting it to his face. Her fingers were cool as she laid her palm flat against his cheek, cupping the side of his face from his eyebrow down to his mouth. Keeping his eyes on hers, Jesse turned his head very slightly so he could kiss her fingers.

  Scarlett slid her fingers up into his hair, closing the distance between their mouths. She kissed him tentatively at first, then with increasing need. Jesse returned the kiss with enthusiasm. He still held the bargest’s leash in his right hand, but his grip on it loosened as Scarlett’s tongue dipped into his mouth.

  After a few minutes, Scarlett pulled back, and her eyes were shining. “What was that?” Jesse said, half to himself, half to her.

  “That . . . was a thank-you,” she whispered.

  “For what?”

  “For the offer.”

  Jesse stared at her a beat before he understood. And then his heart dropped. “I take it you’re not accepting,” he said huskily.

  “I . . . ,” she began, but then with a single sharp tug and no sound at all, the bargest’s leash was jerked out of his hand. Jesse yelped with pain as it was dragged off his wrist, and suddenly, the bargest was free, darting down the bridle path into the darkness.

  “Shadow!” Scarlett shouted. Jesse tried the bargest’s French name. But she had vanished.

  “Did you feel someone?” he demanded, jumping off the bench.

  “No, no! I don’t understand why . . .” Scarlett’s eyes moved back and forth frantically as she thought. “The smell!” she cried. “I’m a space in the smell!”

  In a flash, Jesse understood. The nova wolf had no way of knowing what Scarlett was—but even before he reached her radius, he would notice that he couldn’t smell her. The absence of proof was proof itself. The nova might not know what she was, but he would certainly know something was off.

  Scarlett climbed down from the picnic bench like she was going to follow the bargest, but neither of them had any idea where it had gone. By unspoken agreement, they both froze, listening. There was a short, cut-off growl and the sound of bushy plants being trampled. Then silence. “Lights,” Jesse said brusquely. They both dug out their flashlights and switched them on. It would make them an easy target to the nova wolf, Jesse knew, but they were an easy target anyway. They both flashed the beams around the mouth of the bridle path, but aside from some disturbed dirt, there was no sign of the bargest.

  “Maybe she just went after a rabbit or something,” Scarlett said anxiously.

  Jesse shook his head. “She’s too well trained to be distracted by a rabbit.” He flashed his beam on Scarlett’s stomach, so the edges of it would illuminate her face. She was looking doubtfully at the bridle path.

  “That’s really steep,” she ventured. “I’m not sure I can make it down there with my knee. Or, if I do make it down there, I’m not sure I can make it back up.”

  “Wait here. I’ll see what’s going on, and if we really need you down there, you can slide down on your butt.” She nodded. Scarlett looked so vulnerable, and he wanted to tell her to be careful or to go wait in the car. Then he reminded himself that she was far more protected from the nova wolf than he’d ever be.

  Jesse held his flashlight with his left hand, using it to support his aching right arm as it held up his weapon. He picked his way down the steep rocky path, which wound around like an infinity knot before leading down into the depths of the park. There was a lot of brush along the path, ranging from knee-high tumbleweeds to wide, stubby trees as tall as Jesse. It was surprisingly dark and felt strangely claustrophobic, especially considering the size of the park. He was very aware of his breathing, which seemed painfully loud and obvious.

  In front of him, somewhere behind the biggest tree he could see, Jesse heard a pained canine yelp and a series of scuffling sounds. He circled the tree as fast as he could, the flashlight bobbing wildly as he worked to keep his footing. “Where . . . ?” he breathed, and Jesse caught a brief glimpse of motion even as he moved the flashlight past it. He jerked the light back and saw what it had been: the bargest, frozen with its feet planted and its enormous jaws pinning the neck of a limp werewolf to the ground. The werewolf in its jaws was a deep cloudy gray, smaller than the ones he’d seen before. The werewolf wasn’t moving, and at first he thought the nova was already dead. Jesse stepped closer, cautiously, and saw its chest heaving up and down. The acrid scent of urine stung his nostrils, and Jesse realized the nova wolf had wet itself.

  It was a spooky tableau, mostly because both creatures were just staring at him now, silent and unmoving. It was the least doglike thing either of them had done.

  He swallowed, mind racing. Of course. Scarlett had said the Luparii would need to use the bargest, which meant they’d need to train it . . . which meant they’d need to teach it restraint. They were trained to kill werewolves on command.

  It was waiting for his command.

  Jesse did know the French words for “kill it,” because his French teacher in high school had been afraid of spiders. But if he gave the command, he was killing a defenseless creature, one who had surrendered and posed no threat to him. It wasn’t the same as shooting the nova wolf in a fight, and Jesse found himself unable to force the words out of his mouth.

  Sensing his hesitation, the nova wolf reared up in a sudden burst of strength, trying to flip itself free, but the bargest let out a low growl and pressed down harder, suppressing the nova easily. The wolf yelped with pain again. It has to be done, Jesse reminded himself. He remembered Kate and Samantha and Ruanna, the women who’d done n
othing to deserve the brutality that this monster had shown them. Jesse needed to get justice for those women. He took a deep breath and said, “Tuez-le.”

  His words were drowned out by the sound of Scarlett screaming behind him.

  Chapter 46

  I stood just before the drop-off to the bridle trail, listening as hard as I could for sounds from below. I wanted to yell down to Jesse, make sure he was okay, but I was afraid to spook the nova wolf—or the bargest. What if I yelled at a crucial moment and distracted one of them? If Jesse was actually in danger, there’d be more noise, wouldn’t there?

  I was focused entirely on the bridle path area, feeling useless, with fear tightening the knots in my stomach. Then I suddenly realized that I was alone, and exposed, and injured, in the dark. It seemed as though Kirsten’s Humans-Go-Home spell had turned the area into an isolated bubble, with just the nova wolf, Jesse, and me.

  I heard a tiny noise behind me. I couldn’t even identify it, it was so soft. A branch breaking? A scuffle in the dirt? But I turned around slowly, flashlight beam bouncing around the clearing. There was nothing there. In the distance, I saw car lights coming down from the Observatory, people leaving for the night, and I told myself I’d just heard a car sound.

  And yet . . . something felt wrong. I moved the flashlight beam through the clearing one more time, intending to turn around and yell for Jesse when I was sure it was okay. On the second pass, though, I saw a bright flash of something under one of the picnic tables. Twin glowing spots, menacing in the shadows.

  Eye shine. Like you see in wolves.

  I kept the flashlight moving, trying to hide my discovery, but it was too late. The werewolf crept out from under the table, growling. It started to advance on me.

  It was clearly expecting me to try to run, probably figuring I’d be easy prey with the cane. It looked momentarily confused, however, when I started limping straight for it. That confusion, of course, was increased exponentially when I finally took the last step needed to get it in my radius.

  I’ve changed werewolves before, and they each react a little differently. Some, like Will, roll with the change. Some freeze, some even start shaking from the sudden absence of magic. The wolf in front of me, however, simply dropped, like a rock in a pond. I hurried closer, wanting to keep him in range, and stopped when I was four feet away, keeping the flashlight beam on the werewolf.

  It was a him; that was obvious. He was naked, curled in the fetal position, shock on his face. I limped a couple of steps sideways so I could see his face—it was Henry Remus.

  But if Remus was here . . . I opened my mouth to yell at Jesse, but something must have clicked in Remus’s brain, because suddenly he had scrambled to his feet and was diving for me with mad fury on his face. He moved like humans never do: not trying to catch himself or keep his balance, not adjusting his movement for the moment we inevitably collided. He simply hurled himself at me, clumsy and desperate.

  Under normal circumstances I could have dodged him easily, but even when I ignored the pain in my knee, I couldn’t move fast enough. I stumbled backward and tripped on the leg of a nearby picnic table, starting my own fall even as Henry Remus barreled into me.

  We hit the ground hard, and the back of my head rammed the packed dirt like I was trying to dig a frickin’ hole with it. It wasn’t exactly the same spot where I’d struck my head two weeks earlier, but it was damn close, and nausea and dizziness were suddenly tugging at my attention like impatient toddlers. My cane slid away in the dirt.

  On top of me, Henry Remus had recovered and leaned upright, his foul breath on my face. “You again,” he hissed from inches away. “What are you?” My flashlight had skittered away when we collided, but it pointed more or less toward my feet.

  I really wanted to come out with something like “your worst nightmare,” but I was busy remembering where my limbs were. Remus pushed himself off the ground and straddled me, grabbing my shoulders and shaking them. “What . . . are . . . you?” he whispered.

  Instead of answering, I opened my mouth and screamed. It wasn’t tactical or anything. It was just that I was so scrambled by vertigo that it was the only sound I felt capable of producing. I drew breath to scream again, and Henry Remus leaned down on me, his grimy hand smothering my mouth, his elbows touching the ground as he rested his naked weight on my upper body. I struggled then, but I might as well have been pushing against a downpour of rain. Finally I wrenched my mouth open just enough to bite down on the skin of his hand as hard as I could. It tasted horrible, but it worked.

  “Ow!” Remus cried, sitting up without getting off me, cradling his hand to his chest. He gave me a wounded look. “Why did you do that?”

  “Seriously?” I panted, sucking in air. I wiped at my mouth with the back of my sleeve. Ick.

  There were footsteps behind me, and suddenly I heard the glorious sound of Jesse’s gun as he took the safety off. “Police,” Jesse said, his voice scary-calm. He began circling around us, trying to position himself to see my face. “Get off of her.”

  “What?” Remus said, looking suddenly baffled. He didn’t move. “Why are you guys doing this to me?”

  Jesse was close enough to see me now, and even in the darkness he and I exchanged a confused look. “Are you . . . whining at us?” Jesse said in disbelief.

  Remus’s face twitched distractedly. “I’m trying to do something great here,” he protested. “Why can’t you people see that?” He turned his head to glare down at me. “And you . . . why are you taking him away from me?”

  “Taking who?” I asked, confused.

  “Brother Wolf,” Remus said reverentially. “He speaks to me. He wants me to kill, to eat, to fuck, to create.” He leaned forward, giving me a look at his flashing eyes, filled with madness. I could feel his erection on my stomach, and I almost threw up on him. “Don’t you see how that’s bigger than you?” he whispered.

  “Jesse?” I said nervously. I really, really wanted the crazy naked person to get off me now.

  “Enough,” Jesse barked at Remus. “Get off her. Slowly.”

  “You disappointment me,” Remus whispered to me, like we were co-conspirators. He leaned forward to put his hands on the ground by my head, making like he was going to push off the ground and stand up. But then in a quick, scary motion, he tangled his fingers in my hair and rolled my body sideways as he swung a leg over me, forcing me in between himself and Jesse’s gun. I cried out with pain as my hair and knee were wrenched. We were kneeling, and he very slowly forced me to my feet. It took every ounce of self-control I had left to keep from screaming at the pain.

  Remus held me between him and Jesse, who looked anguished and uncertain. “Drop the gun and kick it away!” Remus sang gaily, delighted with the turn of events. Jesse didn’t move, and Remus pulled his fingers out of my hair and grabbed my chin instead. The other arm wrapped around my shoulders and chest, pinning me to him. “I can break her neck,” he mused to Jesse. “I mean, I’m pretty sure. Never actually broken a neck before. But how hard can it be?” I could hear the interest in his voice. Jesse must have too, because he dropped the gun. Before I could protest he had kicked it off into the darkness.

  At least my hands were now free. I dug my right hand in my jacket pocket. Seeing the motion, Jesse tried to keep Remus talking. “And who’s with you?” Jesse asked, his voice tense but steady. “Who’s the gray wolf?”

  Remus went alert, looking anxiously at Jesse. “That is our mate,” he informed him, his hot breath on my neck. He took his free hand off my chin—it felt like he was leaving a greasy film behind—and wrapped it around my waist instead. I suddenly could feel his fingers worming under the waistband of my pants, pressing into my skin. It wasn’t sexual, exactly, but intimate, like he was digging for warmth. Ick, ick, ick . . . I focused on breathing, trying not to panic. You can take a hundred showers when this is over, Scarlett.

  “I picked her and Brother Wolf transformed her. She is ours now.” I couldn’t see Remus’s
face while I was being employed as his human shield, but I saw Jesse react to Remus’s expression with revulsion. “Where is she?” Remus asked Jesse, plain curiosity in his voice, like he couldn’t find one of his shoes. “Have you done something to her?” He sighed elaborately. “I hope not. We went through such trouble to make her. Most of the potentials were too weak.” He tilted his head, as if listening to an inner voice. “Although that’s true, number five tasted . . . interesting.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Jesse said casually. Very slowly, I started to ease the Taser out of my pocket.

  “Oh, yes. But now we have our mate. Brother Wolf tells her what to do, and she must listen,” Remus giggled, as though he hadn’t heard Jesse at all. “We own her.”

  Holy shit, this guy was nuts. We’d miscalculated, thinking that it would be a while before he could control Lizzy Thompkins as her alpha. But Henry Remus wasn’t a normal alpha werewolf; he was a sick, twisted imitation. And Lizzy was in thrall. “She’s fine,” Jesse said reassuringly, keeping his voice level. “She’s hanging out on the path back there with a friend of mine.”

  Shadow. I’d almost forgotten about Shadow. I looked at Jesse questioningly, but he was focused on Remus, not wanting to give anything away.

  I made a show of squirming, like I was uncomfortable, to cover up the movement it took to get the Taser in position with my thumb on the trigger. Remus gave me a little shake to keep me still. He was . . . ah, God, he was sniffing my hair.

 

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