Back at Jayne’s house, she raced to her room. By the time she unzipped the small black bag, her hands were shaking. As she filled the syringe her fingers trembled. To hit a vein without making a bloody mess, she had to really concentrate and will her hand to stay steady. It worked, and moments later she felt her body respond to the flow of what she always thought of as magic coursing through her body. This is what set her apart from those she hunted.
When she walked into the living room five minutes later, color back in her cheeks and her hands no longer trembling, Kyle, Ava, and Jayne were waiting for her. It wasn’t just her appearance that had improved, but her control was back as well.
“Better?” Jayne’s eyes searched hers, and she thought she detected a note of concern. It was nice to have someone care.
“Much.” That was an understatement. It would be difficult to explain to anyone who wasn’t a were what it was like to be at the mercy of the beast and what it meant to have control over it.
“What’s our next course of action?” Kyle was looking at her expectantly. She already liked this young man who had one hand on death and the other on the joy of life. A higher power knew what it was doing when it bestowed his particular gift, for he had exactly the right temperament to be able to shoulder the responsibility that came with it and not dip into the pool of despair. Touching the dead as he could do might easily drag a lesser man down. Lily knew that Kyle would have a long and successful career with the Jägers. It was a win for him and a win for the Jägers.
To answer his question, her next course of action required the cover of darkness. The full moon was only two nights away, and she needed to scout in wolf form before it made its appearance. They had all been exhausted last night when they returned from the body dump sites, and though she would have preferred to do this last night, at the time she felt it a better decision to rest. Given this morning’s tragedy, it had been the right decision. Tonight was a different story. It was imperative to get out there and to discover as much as she could as quickly as she could. The fact that darkness wouldn’t fall for another few hours was frustrating. She was ready to go now.
She looked at Jayne. “Where are the bodies?”
For a second Jayne looked confused, and then her expression cleared. “Our victims?”
Lily nodded. “Yes.”
“One was cremated, one was buried, and the third is still at the morgue.”
Darkness might be some hours out, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still work their magic while they waited. “Good. Kyle, you’re up again. Are you ready?”
He nodded and his eyes were bright and alert. Senn wasn’t wrong about this guy. He was smart and quick. She had no doubt he was already following her unspoken game plan. “I was born ready, boss.”
*
Kyle had been ready to charge out the door when Lily laid out what she wanted him to do, but Ava had held up her hand, and his forward momentum was halted. Not just his either. Everyone stopped and looked at her. Explaining her unease, she’d asked them to wait while she cast a protection spell around Jayne’s house. At first he’d wanted to blow her off and get going. After all, she’d already helped Tess transition, and that was the important thing, given what had happened here. Glancing at Lily, he could tell by her expression that she hadn’t wanted to wait around either. Still, nobody argued with Ava. Instinctively he thought each of them realized she was right when they gave it a few to think it through. It was worth taking a minute or two to let her do this correctly.
The delay hadn’t taken very long. Ava had done her thing, and when she was finished, he had to admit that standing inside the circle of protection she’d cast around the house did, in fact, make him feel safer. Whatever was happening around here had the feel of something much bigger than the small community, and it didn’t hurt at all to make certain things were as safe as possible. If Ava’s magic could do that, then it made sense to take the time to do it.
Now after they’d covered the short distance to the coroner’s office and were standing next to the stainless gurney where the body of Cheryl Tisdale was laid out, his pulse was racing and his heart beating rapidly. It was hard to look at what she’d become, but he forced his gaze to stay steady. The ravages of the attack she suffered had drastically altered her appearance. Despite that he could tell she was once a very lovely young woman. To think about what had happened to her made him sad. It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right.
He couldn’t undo the harm done to her, but he could help stop the monster that put her in the morgue and do his best to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else. Being a Jägers hunter meant he would spend the rest of his life face-to-face with this kind of violence. It also meant he would use what God had given him to bring justice for Cheryl and those like her. He didn’t take that responsibility lightly.
Picking up the residue from a death scene was one thing. What he was going to do here was far more intense and personal. Normally it felt as though he and the dead merged their minds and bodies. People often talked about necromancers as the ones who could raise the dead and bring them, at least momentarily, back to life. That wasn’t the way it was for him. No, instead of them coming back to life, it was more like he joined them in death. The experience usually left him drained and vaguely uneasy.
But it was what he did and why the Jägers had recruited him. It gave his life purpose, and no matter how it affected him personally, it was something he could never turn away from. Like right now. He’d rather be anywhere else besides in this sterile, echoing room staring down at the body of a murder victim. Cheryl’s face was white and crisscrossed with red slashes that made her appear as though she were wearing a Halloween mask. Her eyelids were closed, her pale lips parted just slightly. He wanted to leave her in peace and couldn’t.
Lily put a hand on his shoulder, and he appreciated the reassuring gesture. The gentle acknowledgment that he wasn’t in this alone meant a great deal. He was ready. Slowly Kyle reached out and took Cheryl’s lifeless hand. The moment her fingers curled around his, he was in.
“Who are you?” Cheryl’s voice was soft, sweet. Her face was still pale but no longer marred by the cuts and bruises inflicted upon her by her killer. She stood in a meadow bathed in sunlight, her eyes wide with wonder. As he’d thought when he first glimpsed her face, she was a lovely young woman.
“I’m a friend.”
“I can’t get away,” she said as tears filled her eyes. “She’ll find me.”
Kyle reached out and took hold of her hands. They were cold even though they were both standing in sunlight. “Who will find you?”
“Her.” Her voice trembled.
He turned his head and, as was always the case, they were alone. It was as if he shared this dimension solely with the dead. “Can you tell me who she is?”
Tears spilling down her cheeks, Cheryl shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t see her face.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Her eyes met Kyle’s, and though she was clearly frightened, she seemed to draw strength from him. “I went out for a run, even though it was close to getting dark. I got home from work late, but I’m training for a race so I had to get my miles in. Besides, it’s Colville and nothing ever happens here. I can run anywhere and still be safe.”
“Okay.” He encouraged her. “You went out for a run and it was getting dark. What happened next?”
“It was getting pretty dark by the time I was finishing up my miles, and I decided to take a shortcut on the way back. I do it all the time, and nothing ever happens except for this time. Something came up behind me fast, and I thought maybe it was another runner, but when I turned around to take a look, I swear it was a huge dog. It hit me hard in the back and knocked me to the ground. I couldn’t get my breath.” Her voice grew high and tight while her body began to shake violently.
He continued to hold her hands. “I’ve got you, Cheryl. You don’t have to be afraid. No one can hurt you anymore. I pro
mise.”
Her head turned side to side as if she was searching for danger, her hands trembling in his. “They might still be here. We need to hide.”
“No one is here. It’s just you and me. You’re safe. Tell me about the dog.” He wasn’t going to let her know it was no dog that hit her.
Her hands shook even more. “It was big and it just started biting me. The pain was awful and it wouldn’t stop until…”
He hated to put her through this, and if it wasn’t critical, he wouldn’t. “Until what?”
“Until the woman showed up and yelled at the dog. It must have run off because it was suddenly gone, and it was only me and the woman. I begged her to help me. I was bleeding really bad, and I knew I was going to die if she didn’t get me to the hospital. Then she picked me up like I weighed nothing, and I thought she was going to help me, but she didn’t.”
He stroked her hands, hoping he could give her a sense of calm and safety. “Just a few minutes more, Cheryl. Tell me what she did to you. Please.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. At first she didn’t say anything, and he thought perhaps he was losing her. Then she said softly, “She carried me for a while, and then she dropped me on the ground. It was funny, you know, because I watched her walk away, and even though by then I knew I was dying, I wasn’t thinking about me anymore. I kept wondering why she was out in the middle of the woods naked.”
“You don’t know who she is?”
Cheryl shook her head. “I’ve never seen her before. You won’t let her hurt me anymore, will you?”
Kyle pulled her close and hugged her. “No one will ever hurt you again. You have my word. Now I need you to do one more thing for me.” He held her out at arm’s length. “Can you do that?”
“Yes.” She appeared very calm now. The tremors in her body were fading away by the second. It was time to let her go.
“Do you see the light?”
Her eyes went somewhere beyond him, and her whole body shifted. “I see it and it’s beautiful.”
“You need to go to the light. Others are waiting for you, and there you’ll be safe forever.”
“She can’t go there?” Her eyes darted to his.
“No.” He touched her cheek gently. “She will never walk into the light. I promise you that.”
Cheryl smiled as she stepped to his right. “Thank you,” she said as she passed him. A moment later she was gone. His heart felt sad and happy all at the same time.
Chapter Seventeen
Jayne had been intrigued watching Kyle last night and expected more of the same when they reached the morgue. This was very different. She’d heard stories about necromancers and how they could raise the dead, get them to talk. It hadn’t happened last night, and from what she could see right now, it wasn’t happening here either, even when there was a body right in front of him.
Not exactly, anyway. No raising, no talking bodies. Something, however, was going on with Kyle. He’d taken Cheryl’s lifeless hand in his, and though she noticed nothing out of the ordinary happen when he’d done it, he suddenly went stone still. In fact, he almost seemed to quiver, as if he was getting ready to disappear. His body had a translucence about it that could be a trick of the fluorescent lighting in the room or perhaps something quite different.
She felt like she should be doing something, except she didn’t have the first clue what that might be, and so she simply waited. After a few minutes, Kyle once more changed and became solid again. Had to be an odd trick of the light—because really it couldn’t be anything else, right? His eyes, which had been closed, snapped opened, and his expression was one of infinite sadness.
“Well,” she said. If she was going to be stuck with this crew, it was time to come up with something that would get them moving forward. “Did you get through to her?”
He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I did.” His voice echoed the depth of emotion she could see in his face. “She was scared big-time and said it was a huge dog that knocked her down and ripped her up.”
“No dog would do that.” Jayne pointed to the woman’s body. The severity of the injuries were far beyond anything she’d ever witnessed when a dog was involved, and she’d seen enough dog bites to know the difference.
“I think we’ve already established that,” Lily added in a soothing voice as she laid a hand on Jayne’s arm. “It was the werewolf.”
“You’re right, of course.” Jayne sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just so damned frustrated.”
“As are we,” Lily added as she patted Jayne’s arm and then turned to Kyle. “Go on, Kyle. What did you learn?”
He pressed his lips together before saying, “Unfortunately, not a lot. The dog hit her, inflicted the mortal wounds, and then a mysterious woman showed up. This stranger yelled at what Cheryl thought was the dog that attacked her. It was the woman who carried her to where you found her body. She’d never seen her before.”
“So we’ve accomplished nothing.” To say her frustration level was sky-high was stating the obvious far too simply. She was not happy about their coming here in the first place, yet she’d let her resistance slide as she spent more time around them, especially Lily. She had a sense they were not here seeking glory for themselves or for the odd order of hunters they belonged to, but because they truly wanted to help. Through the years she’d been around enough attention hounds to know the difference. Still, she hoped for much more from them and much quicker. They weren’t getting anywhere that she could tell, and instead things were sliding downhill fast. What had happened this morning had her feeling pressured.
Kyle shook his head. “I wouldn’t say ‘nothing.’ Not at all because, you see, I sent her on her way, and that’s something.”
“Sent her on her way?” What the hell did that mean, and how the hell was it helping this investigation? The truth? It wasn’t helping anything, and her initial inclination toward all of this being stupid was more than likely correct.
Kyle nodded, and if her tone of voice offended him, he didn’t let on. “She was stuck here, grounded for some reason. Maybe she was waiting for me. Sometimes that happens. It’s like the universe knows that we have to talk before they can move on, and so it holds them until I can reach them. Anyway, after we talked, I guided her to the place she was supposed to go, and now no one will ever be able to hurt her again.”
“You sent her to heaven?”
“Or whatever you choose to call it, yeah. It’s part of what I do.”
“Okay, whatever, but how does that help us earthbound people?”
“It doesn’t do anything for those of us still living,” Lily broke in. “It’s the balancing of the karmic scales for Cheryl.”
“Karma, great.” She didn’t care about balancing anything. She wanted to stop this damn werewolf. Oh, crap, where did that come from? When did she buy into the werewolf theory?
“Jayne,” Lily said firmly. “This was not a bust.”
“Of course it is.” From her standpoint, she didn’t hear anything useful out of what he’d told them.
“No. We learned something important from Cheryl. She lived here all her life, right?”
Jayne nodded and stuck her hands in her pockets. “Yes.” Whatever that had to do with a so-called werewolf.
“She didn’t know the woman who reprimanded the wolf, and that gives us a good clue to follow up on. Even if Cheryl wasn’t friends with everybody in town, would it be fair to say she’d recognize pretty much everyone who lives here?”
All of a sudden Jayne got where Lily was going with this, and she experienced the first flash of hope since they arrived. “It would indeed.”
“Then we’re on the lookout for a stranger in town.”
Her thought exactly, and she knew just who to ask about stranger sightings, but before she could even reach for her phone to make the call, her cell began to ring. She grabbed it and put it to her ear. “Quarles.”
“Hey, Sheriff, it’s Jeni.”
&nbs
p; “What’s up?” Jennifer Amen was the local librarian, and Jayne knew her pretty well even though Jeni had been three years behind her in school. “I’m checking to see if you’ve had any luck locating Willa.”
Willa was Jeni’s younger cousin. Developmentally challenged, Willa was a bright soul who was loved by everyone in town. While her skills were limited, she held a job as a bagger at the local grocery store. She even had her own small apartment in town, giving her a bit of independence, though between Jeni and Willa’s parents, they maintained a close eye on her.
“What do you mean, located Willa?” No one had called her to say that Willa was missing.
“She didn’t show up for work yesterday or today.”
A bad feeling started to knot up in her stomach. Willa wasn’t a no-show kind of person. In fact, keeping to a strict routine was what gave Willa the courage to live and work on her own. She wouldn’t miss a shift, let alone two.
A flash of irritation made her words sharp. “Why didn’t you call this in?” They should have been following up on Willa when she missed her first shift.
For a moment there was a pause. “I did call it in.”
“What do you mean you did? This is the first I’m hearing of this.”
“I talked to Dana yesterday when the store called and said Willa wasn’t there. We checked her apartment because we thought maybe she was sick, except she wasn’t at home either. That’s when I called and talked to Dana.”
Son of a bitch. Why in the hell hadn’t Dana put a missing persons case in? It was true that for a normal person it would take longer than a single missed shift to sound the alarm, but with someone like Willa it was a completely different story. When she was late, someone should have been checking on her. They should have been checking on her.
“I’m not at my office, Jeni. Let me get back to the station and I’ll call you with an update.” She needed to talk to her people right away and find out what the fuck happened and why this had fallen through the cracks. Someone was going to get their ass chewed.
She Wolf Page 14
