"So this is all about winning me? Bulls.h.i.t."
"You don"t think you"re worth it? I thought your self-esteem was higher than that."
"My IQ is higher than that. This isn"t about me. It never has been. It"s about you and Clay. You think he has me, so you want me. Your motivation is as complex as that of a two-year-old seeing another kid with a shiny toy. You want it."
"You underestimate yourself."
"No, I don"t underestimate how much you hate him. What happened? Did he always get the bigger slice of birthday cake?"
"He made my life h.e.l.l. Him and Tonto over there." Daniel glared toward Nick. "Poor little Clay. He has problems. He"s had a tough life. You should be nice to him. You should make friends with him. That"s all I ever heard. All they saw was a cute little runt of a wolf cub. He bared his teeth and they thought it was cute. He ordered us around like a miniature Napoleon and they thought it was cute. Well, it wasn"t cute from where I was standing. It was-"
I held up my hand. "You"re ranting."
"What?"
"Just wanted to let you know. You"re ranting. It"s kinda ugly. Next thing you know, you"ll be laying out your plans for world domination. That"s what all villains do after they rant about their motivation. I was hoping you"d be different."
Daniel took a swig of coffee, then shook his head and gave a small laugh. "Well, you"ve put me in my place. You"ve always been good at that. You say bark and I say how loud."
"I say let Clay go . . ."
Daniel made a face. "And I say why bother? Okay, there"s a limit to my obedience training. I won"t let him go just because you want it, Elena. You could pout and bat your eyes and plead and, while I"d find that d.a.m.ned arousing, it wouldn"t make me release him. I"ll make you the same exchange offer I made to Jeremy. You for Clay."
"Why?"
"I already told you."
"Because I"m so d.a.m.ned irresistible. Uh-huh. Give me a better explanation or I"m out of here."
Daniel was silent for a moment, then leaned forward. "Have you ever thought of starting your own Pack? Not recruiting a bunch of half-wit mutts, but creating a dynasty? We aren"t immortal, Elena, but there is a way to ensure our immortality."
"I really hope you"re not implying what I think you"re implying."
"Children, Elena. A new breed of werewolves. Not half-werewolf, half-human, but complete werewolves, inheriting the genes from both parents. Perfect werewolves."
"Wow. You really do want to rule the world."
"I"m serious."
"Seriously crazy. Sorry, but this womb isn"t for sale or rent."
"Not even for the price of a life? Clay"s life?"
I pulled back and pretended to think about it. Time to call his bluff.
"So I agree to go with you and you"ll release him?"
"Right. Only, I"m not just going to trust you to come with me and stay with me, so let"s get that straight right off. I"ve got a place I plan to take you, someplace suitably remote and secure. You"ll be confined. Something like the cage at Stonehaven, but far more luxurious. You give me what I want, everything I want, and you won"t be in there very long. Once I"ve convinced you that I"m the better choice, I"ll let you out. If you try to run, I"ll put you back in."
"Gee, doesn"t that sound tempting."
"I"m being honest, Elena. It"s an exchange. His captivity for yours."
I pretended to think about it, staring out the window. Then I turned back to Daniel. "Here"s my condition. I want to see him released. You"ll do it in broad daylight and in a public place. I"ll be there with you to watch it happen. Once he"s free, I"m yours."
"That"s not how it works. Once you"re mine, he"s free."
"You have no intention of letting him go," I said. "That"s what I thought."
I got to my feet, turned, and walked out of the coffee shop. Both Nick and Daniel hurried after me. When I got to the car, Daniel"s hand shot out and held the door shut.
"You"ve seen the photos, haven"t you?" he asked.
I stopped, but didn"t turn around.
"I know you"ve seen the photos," Daniel continued. "You"ve seen what kind of shape he"s in. You"ve seen that it"s getting worse. How much longer do you think he can hold out?"
I turned around slowly. I turned and I saw Daniel"s face and I saw the satisfaction in his eyes and I lost it. For the past half hour, I"d been struggling not to think about Clay. As I"d talked to Daniel, I"d fought not to remember that he was the one holding Clay captive, that he"d drugged him and beaten him until there was scarcely an inch of skin left unmarked. I"d concentrated on talking to Daniel as I"d talked to him a hundred times before, as it if was just another message I was conveying from Jeremy telling him to shape up or face punishment. I"d really, really, really tried to forget what was actually happening. But when he stood there and threatened Clay, I couldn"t pretend anymore. The rage inside me bubbled over before I could rein it back.
I grabbed him by the shirtfront and threw him against my car so hard the driver"s window shattered into a million bits of safety gla.s.s.
"You sniveling hyena." I pressed myself against him until our faces were only inches apart. "You kidnap him with a hypodermic needle. You chain him up so you can beat him. But that"s not good enough. You have to drug him first. You have to make absolutely certain he can"t even summon the strength to spit in your face. Then you beat him. Did it feel good? Did it make you feel like a man, beating your enemy to a pulp when he can"t lift a finger to fight back? You"re not a man and you"re not a wolf. You"re a hyena, a bottom-feeding coward. If you lay another hand on him, I"ll do something to you that will make that ear bite look like a paper cut. And if you kill him, I swear to G.o.d and the devil and anyone who will listen, if you kill him, I will hunt you down. I will find you and I will inflict on you every torture I can imagine. I"ll blind you and I"ll castrate you and I"ll burn you. But I won"t kill you. I won"t let you die. I"ll put you in h.e.l.l and I"ll make you live there for the rest of your life."
I threw Daniel aside. He stumbled, recovered, and turned to face me. His mouth opened, closed, opened again, but he couldn"t seem to think of a suitable reply, so he settled for turning on his heel and stamping back into the coffee shop, where it looked as if every one of the dozen customers had suddenly taken a window seat. As I looked away I heard a low whistle and turned to see Marsten leaning against the back of the car.
"The b.i.t.c.h is back," Marsten said. "Well, well. This might get interesting."
"Go to h.e.l.l," I snarled.
I threw open the car door, got in, and started it up as Nick jumped into the pa.s.senger side. The Camaro roared from the parking spot, tires squealing. I didn"t look at the speedometer the whole way back to Stonehaven.
I"d been right about one thing. The time for games was over.
Regression
I left Stonehaven after everyone had gone to bed. I dressed in the dark, jumped out my window, then rolled my car a half mile down the road before starting it. I hadn"t told Nick my plans. He was better off not knowing.
I"d gone to my room early and spent the evening in bed, thinking. My meeting with Daniel had been a mistake. By refusing his offer, I"d only made things worse. Jeremy had been buying time for Clay. I"d stolen it away. To fix things, I had to act now.
For several hours that evening, I"d tried mentally contacting Clay. Of course it didn"t work. I wasn"t even sure how to do it, but I"d held out some small hope that our connection might be enough. Maybe it would have been, but it was like demanding special effort from a muscle I"d ignored for too long. Nothing happened. When I couldn"t get into Clay"s mind, I decided to work on getting into the minds of the mutts who held him captive. Get into their minds figuratively, I mean. If I put myself in their position and tried to imagine what they"d be feeling or thinking, maybe I could find a weakness. Daniel and Marsten were easy to understand. I knew what they wanted and I knew how they operated. Marsten wouldn"t leave any openings for me to slip through. Daniel"s weakness was his obsession with Clay and with me. I could work on that, contact him again and try reeling him in with lies and smiles, but it would take time and I didn"t have time. That left the new mutts. Here I was on unfamiliar ground. They weren"t werewolves, I reminded myself. Not real ones. So how could I get inside their heads?
For the longest time, I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, overwhelmed by the impossibility of understanding these two. Then it came to me. They weren"t werewolves, but they were human. I"d been human. I was still trying to be human. Why couldn"t I get into their heads? All I had to do was strip away my wolf side, something I"d been trying to do for years already. Yet there was more to understanding these killers than that. I couldn"t be the sort of human I"d been trying to be-even-tempered, pa.s.sive, and caring. I had to be what I had been before.
Every defense mechanism in my brain threw up barriers at the thought. Be what I"d been before Clay bit me? But I"d been even-tempered, pa.s.sive, caring. Clay had changed that. Before him, I was different, I wasn"t like this. this. That"s what I wanted to believe, but I knew it wasn"t true. I"d always had the capacity for violence. Clay had seen that. The child-werewolf looked at the child victim and saw a soul mate, someone who understood what it was like to grow up alienated, our odd behavior scrutinized by adults and mocked by children. By the age of seven Clay was a full werewolf with an inherent capacity for violence and a temper to match. By the same age my foster families had taught me how to hate, developing my own capacity for violence, though I"d been better at hiding it, turning it inward and struggling to show the world the pa.s.sive little girl it expected to see. It was time I confronted that. Clay didn"t make me the way I was. He only gave me an outlet for the anger and the hate. I had to go back there, back to the mistrust and the hatred and the impotence and the rage, most of all the rage, against everyone who had wronged me. There I"d find the mind of a killer, a human killer. That"s what I wanted to believe, but I knew it wasn"t true. I"d always had the capacity for violence. Clay had seen that. The child-werewolf looked at the child victim and saw a soul mate, someone who understood what it was like to grow up alienated, our odd behavior scrutinized by adults and mocked by children. By the age of seven Clay was a full werewolf with an inherent capacity for violence and a temper to match. By the same age my foster families had taught me how to hate, developing my own capacity for violence, though I"d been better at hiding it, turning it inward and struggling to show the world the pa.s.sive little girl it expected to see. It was time I confronted that. Clay didn"t make me the way I was. He only gave me an outlet for the anger and the hate. I had to go back there, back to the mistrust and the hatred and the impotence and the rage, most of all the rage, against everyone who had wronged me. There I"d find the mind of a killer, a human killer.
LeBlanc hated women. Maybe he"d been mistreated by his mother or laughed at by girls in school or maybe he had such low self-esteem that he needed to feel superior to some group of people and chose women instead of blacks or Jews. If it was self-esteem, I could use that. But to find the truth, I"d need to research his life, looking for some road sign to his psychopathology. Again, I didn"t have time.
What about Victor Olson? I started to dismiss the idea without a second thought. After all, I"d never even met the man. But did I need to? I pulled the two Internet article printouts from my dresser drawer and studied them. What did they tell me about Olson? He was a stalker. A compulsive stalker. In one article, he"d admitted to going out every night to watch his victims sleep, said that seeing their peaceful sleeping faces relaxed him and helped his insomnia. Would becoming a werewolf cure that compulsion or that insomnia? Of course not. Which meant there was a very good chance Olson hadn"t abandoned his old patterns, that he was still watching young girls sleep, here in BearValley.
I"d left Stonehaven to find Olson. The articles said he targeted girls from middle-cla.s.s homes. I a.s.sumed he"d be looking for single-story homes, so he could peek through a first-floor window. There were only two such subdivisions in BearValley. All I had to do was cruise the streets and sniff him out.
After driving around BearValley for over an hour, I began to realize how big a task this was. Sure, there were only two subdivisions, but each contained a dozen or more streets with at least a hundred homes. I only had several hours before dawn. To cover as much ground as possible, I drove slowly with all the windows down-except the smashed driver"s window, which was now permanently down. Sometimes the wind favored me. Mostly it didn"t and the only thing I smelled was the musty interior of my little-used car. Making matters worse, the police were out in full force, still looking for a killer. They were pulling over every car out that late that night, so I spent as much time avoiding them as looking for Olson. After two hours, I finished both subdivisions. No sign of Olson. For all I knew, he wasn"t even out that night.
I was circling the second subdivision one last time when I saw a lone car in the parking lot of a convenience store, now conveniently closed for the night. As I pa.s.sed, I noticed the rental sticker on the car"s back b.u.mper. Of course. If the mutts weren"t hiding in town, Olson would need transportation to Bear Valley. I swung my car down a side road, parked and got out. I didn"t even make it halfway to the convenience store when I caught the scent of an unfamiliar werewolf.
I jogged around the corner and stopped short. A heavyset, middle-aged man in a windbreaker walked along the sidewalk, less than twenty feet from the corner. Fortunately, Olson had his back to me. He was heading toward his car. I hurried back around the corner and ran for my car. He drove by as I was turning the car around in a driveway. Keeping my headlights out, I followed.
As we drove out of Bear Valley, my heart pounded. I was right. They were staying in the countryside. Olson would lead me right to them. We"d been heading northwest for almost twenty minutes when Olson turned into an overgrown drive carved into deep forest. He stopped the car past the edge of the woods. I was about to enact part two of my plan when I realized Olson wasn"t getting out of his car. Staying well back, I killed the engine and waited. Ten minutes pa.s.sed. I could see the outline of his head in the car. I leaned over, carefully opened my pa.s.senger door, and slipped into a ditch.
I crept to the end of the drive. The forest was black. Even when my eyes adjusted, I could see no sign of a house. As I turned back toward Olson"s car, I saw that the driveway went nowhere. It was only a turnaround or a one-car parking spot for a nature trail beyond. I moved into the woods and snuck closer to the car. When I was parallel to the driver"s side, I stopped and squinted through the darkness. Olson"s head was resting against the headrest. His eyes were closed. Asleep. I briefly wondered why, but the question was irrelevant. Maybe he couldn"t sleep near the others. Or maybe he liked to be alone after his spying trips. It didn"t matter. Victor Olson wasn"t leading me back to Clay. At least not tonight. But I couldn"t wait until morning. Come morning, Jeremy would know I was gone. The Pack would be looking for me. Even if I managed to elude them for another day, that would be another twenty-four hours for Daniel to kill Clay. And what if Olson wasn"t just taking a break from the mutts? What if he wasn"t ever going back to them? He knew where Clay was. I had to know-tonight.
A plan formed in my head as I watched Olson sleep. Even as I contemplated it, I rebelled at the thought. I hesitated, then forced myself forward out of the trees before I could change my mind. I crept to the side of the car, then pulled my fist back and smashed the driver"s side window. Even as Olson was bolting awake, I was reaching through the window. I jerked the seat belt. It slid through my fingers as it tightened around him. He snapped his head back, away from my hand, but I was already reaching past him. Leaning into the car, I grabbed the seat belt buckle, twisting the metal and breaking the plastic, jamming the buckle closed. Then I pulled my head out of the car.
Olson whipped his head around, following my hand as it moved past him. He looked up at me. For a moment, he just stared, fixing me with the wide eyes of a coward bracing for the first blow. Even as I stepped away, he flinched. When he realized I was backing off, his brow furrowed, then his eyes lit up with a flash of malevolent cunning and he started to smile. Keeping his eyes on me, he lowered his right hand to the seat belt lock. He pushed the release b.u.t.ton, but nothing happened. Realizing what I"d done, he grabbed the seat belt strap and yanked, but it was locked tight against his chest.
I knew what I had to do, but again I hesitated. Could I do it? Thoughts of Jose Carter flashed in my brain. This was different, I told myself. This wasn"t some human con man, but a killer. Still, what I was about to do was beyond what I"d done to Carter. Way beyond. This was Clay"s territory. Could I do it? Detach myself from my feelings and do it? Olson"s a killer, I told myself. More than a killer. A sick pervert who"d preyed on little girls, little girls like the one I"d been so many lifetimes ago. I closed my eyes and concentrated, feeling the serpent of anger whiplashing through my body.
Olson struggled against the seat belt, but it held, the fabric made to withstand more punishment than even a werewolf could deal out. I ignored him and focused all my energy into my left hand. It started to throb, then twist, the pain shooting up my arm. I opened my eyes and watched. When my hand was half changed, I stopped. With my right hand, I reached into the car and grabbed Olson"s right wrist. I slashed it with the claws on my left. He screamed, a high-pitched rabbity squeal. A red line opened on the underside of his wrist. Blood gushed. I grabbed his left hand and did the same. He screamed again and squirmed wildly. Blood sprayed the steering wheel and dashboard.
"Moving will only make it worse," I said, keeping my voice calm and willing my hand back to normal. "If you want the bleeding to slow down, hold your hands up."
"Wh-wh-?"
"Why? Why am I doing this? Or why am I telling you how to slow it down? I shouldn"t need to answer the first. Obviously you know who I am. That"s answer enough. As for the second, I"m not trying to kill you. I just want information. If you give it to me, I"ll undo the seat belt. You can bind your wrists and probably have time to get to the hospital. If you don"t tell me what I want to know, you"ll be killing yourself."
"Wh-" Olson gulped. "What do you wa-want to know?"
"Again, I shouldn"t have to answer that. But since you might be going into shock and not thinking too clearly, I"ll humor you. Where"s Clayton?"
I won"t report the rest of the conversation. Olson was in no shape to bargain or argue and he knew it. As I expected, he didn"t give a d.a.m.n about the others. Only his own life mattered. He told me everything I needed to know and more, babbling madly as if every word he spoke would improve his chance of survival.
When he was done, I left him sitting in his car. I thought about undoing the seat belt and giving him a fighting chance to escape. After all, I"d promised him that. I"d never reneged on a deal before. Then I thought of all the girls he"d victimized and imagined all the times he"d made promises to them, promising not to hurt them, promising never to do it again. He hadn"t kept his promises. Why should I?
I walked away and left Victor Olson to bleed to death in the forest.
Confrontation
I stopped at a gas station and called Stohehaven. The first two times, the machine picked up. On the third round, Nick answered. He was half asleep and I had to repeat myself twice before he clued in that I wasn"t somewhere in the house. No one had noticed my disappearing act yet. I gave him instructions and had him write them down then read them back to me. By then, he had finally realized what I was saying and what I planned to do. I hung up when he started yelling.
Ten minutes later, I was knocking on the front door of the mutts" hideaway. It was a rundown cottage set so far back in the woods that no light penetrated the canopy of trees. As I stood on the front step, I listened for the rustle of the wind or the chirping of crickets, but heard nothing. The silence and the dark were complete.
Several minutes pa.s.sed without a response. I knocked again. More minutes ticked by, but I didn"t doubt Olson"s directions. This was the right place. I could feel Clay here.
I pounded on the door. Finally the barest shimmer of light shone from between heavy front drapes. Footsteps sounded on a wooden plank floor. I looked down at the door handle and saw it was broken. Above it was a hole and fresh splinters where a dead bolt had been. Did I really expect the mutts to buy or rent a cottage when they could break into one? How stupid I"d been. How much time I"d wasted.
The door opened. I glanced up. It took a second to recognize the man standing there was Karl Marsten, partly because of the dim lighting and partly because of his attire. He wore only pajama bottoms, his bare chest showing muscles and battle scars normally hidden by expensive shirts. He squinted and blinked at me, then swore under his breath and quickstepped out the door, closing it behind him.
"What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?" he said in a whispery growl.
I looked around him at the closed door. "Afraid I"ll wake up your wife?"
"My-?" He glanced over his shoulder at the door, then turned back to me, his scowl smoothed over, studied nonchalance firmly back in place. "I"m sure this is a wonderful plan, Elena, but I really must advise against it. If you go in there, you"ll leave in chains or a body bag. Neither would suit you."
"So you came out here to warn me? Wow, chivalry isn"t dead after all."
"You know me better than that. I see an opportunity, I take advantage of it."
"So you"ll let me leave in return for . . . ?"
"What I came for." His eyes glittered, something hard piercing the sangfroid. "Territory. Promise me that and I"ll let you go. I"ll leave, too. One less "mutt" for the Pack to worry about."
"To h.e.l.l with the others?"
"Daniel would do the same to me. I didn"t hear my name being bandied about in that deal he offered you at the coffee shop."
I shook my head. "It doesn"t matter. I"m not leaving."
I reached around him for the door handle. Marsten grabbed my wrist, squeezing hard enough to bruise.
"Don"t be stupid, Elena. You"re not getting him out that way."
"What way?" Daniel"s voice was smooth and cool as he swung open the door. He met Marsten"s eyes. "What way, Karl?"
"Sleeping soundly enough, Danny-boy? Christ, the whole Pack could be howling on your doorstep before you woke up." Marsten threw Daniel a contemptuous look and pushed me into the cabin. "It"s an ambush, you moron. Elena wouldn"t show up alone. Get your flunky out there searching the woods. Make himself useful for once."
I don"t know if Daniel argued. I was too busy picking myself up off the floor after a shove from Marsten that sent me flying across the room. Before I could recover, Marsten had a knee on my back and had pinned me to the floor. I expected to be tied up. I wasn"t. Maybe Marsten didn"t think I posed enough of a threat. Moments later, footsteps sounded behind me. I smelled LeBlanc join Daniel and Marsten.
"Olson"s gone," Daniel said.
"Gone for good, I would a.s.sume," Marsten said. "How else did you think she found us? It"s a great loss for the cause, though. One never knows when a kiddie raper would come in handy."
"He had other-" Daniel began, then snapped his mouth shut. "Thomas, outside. Look for the others."
The front door slammed behind LeBlanc.