In Will’s pack, the sigma is Caroline Brooks, a petite, competent pixie who also happens to be Will’s personal secretary and office manager at the bar he owns. Bringing Caroline along meant two things: first, it indicated that Will was there on business, requiring her aid, and second, it was a quiet gesture that he was not afraid of Dashiell. Protecting the sigma is vital in werewolf packs, and bringing her along meant that Will didn’t see Dashiell as a threat. Or that Will was powerful enough to bring his weakest member into the heart of the vampire world and keep her safe. I wondered how Caroline felt about being used for symbolism.
The three of them gave Dash a casual, but respectful, greeting as they came through the door. Will came over and ruffled my hair, which I tolerated even though I’d have to redo it later. Except for all the muscle, Will looks like the average suburban dad in any sitcom. He looks to be in his late thirties, but werewolves age more slowly than humans, so who knows. He treats me with fond detachment, like an entertaining but ultimately expendable younger cousin. Caroline bent to give me a hug, whispering, “It’ll be okay,” into my ear. Eli didn’t say anything, just looked at me with his sad puppy eyes.
Okay, fine. I probably should have left a note.
The wolves trooped down the courtyard to Dashiell, where Will took the seat to Dashiell’s right. Then Eli sat on his right, and Caroline took the chair beside him. I suddenly felt as if I were on trial.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” I said to Will.
He shrugged, raising his voice so I could hear. “It was a last-minute thing. But this affects all of us, so I thought I’d show in person.”
“What about Kirsten?” I asked, a little bluntly.
Dashiell and Will exchanged an amused look without answering me. They think that Kirsten is kind of a joke. They do business with her, but neither of them is all that impressed by witches. I personally think underestimating Kirsten is a mistake, but nobody asks me. I’m just the janitor.
I decided to take the initiative. “Okay, look, I know this is about last night. I know I screwed up. But I’m handling things with this cop.”
“We know,” Dashiell said. “But Will and I have discussed it, and we feel that the time has come for you to take on...help.”
Will’s voice was gentler. “She’s been dead for almost six months, Scarlett. And she wasn’t able to work for a long time before that.”
He was referring to my mentor, Olivia. She was the only other null I’d met, and had trained me on crime scene cleanup. Then she and I were partners for four years before cancer took her life. You can be completely bulletproof when it comes to spells and vampire bites, but not even nulls get a free pass from the big C.
Supernaturally insignificant or not, LA is at least a two-person area for cleanup, and every single person on the patio knew that I should have swallowed my feelings and found a replacement for Olivia the day I took over from her. At the time, though, I’d just been through a horrible shock. Besides, I was in no place to trust a new partner, after what I’d been through with the first one. Everything I’d had, really, was because of Olivia.
And everything I had lost, too.
I set my jaw stubbornly. I get crabby when I’m clearly in the wrong. “You can’t just put an ad for a null on Craigslist. There are, what, five or six of us in the world? We don’t exactly have an employment office.”
“We know,” Will said patiently. “But in all likelihood, there are more of you than that. It’s just hard for nulls to find out what they are.” This is true. Most likely, plenty of nulls live and die without discovering their ability. “Besides,” Will continued, “you don’t absolutely have to be a null to do the work that you do.”
Crap. There went my best excuse.
“It just helps. And it’s safer.”
“So here is what we’ll do,” Dashiell said. “I have put out some feelers, trying to track down another null. If that proves too difficult, we will perhaps try one of the witches.” Vampires can’t really do my job, since a) they get distracted by blood, and b) they’re dead during the day. I do get the occasional daytime crime scene. “In the meantime, though, Will has graciously offered one of his wolves to help you. You will begin training him immediately.”
“One of the wolves? That’s not a good...” I started, but then swallowed it. These two are my bosses, I reminded myself. I didn’t really have a choice here, and protesting would just make me look whiny and unprofessional. Olivia wouldn’t have liked that, I thought sourly. I looked over at Will. “Who is it?” I felt a fleeting hope that he had nominated Caroline.
But Will and Caroline both glanced over to Eli. Oh, no. Shit, shit, shit. My one-night stand—well, okay, three-night stand—could not be my apprentice. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” I said carefully, without looking at Eli. Nobody needed to know that we’d slept together. I was not about to turn this into a supernatural telenovela.
“Is there a problem with Eli that we should know about?” Will asked pleasantly.
“No—”
“Then I think he’s the perfect candidate. Obviously his schedule can be flexible.” Since, you know, Will is his boss.
“But will he be all right around dead bodies?” I asked, trying not to sound desperate. “He’ll be working by himself eventually, and I’m told the smell can be very distracting.”
“Eli used to be a paramedic,” Will replied easily. This was news to me, though I’d never really considered Eli’s life before he changed. “He says he’ll be fine.”
Was this Eli’s suggestion? Did Will already know about Eli and me? Maybe. Will didn’t miss much. But he might have just not cared, or maybe he was playing a deeper game here, trying to get me to actively participate in the search for nulls. Crafty Will. He looks like a church deacon, but I’ve long suspected he could be ruthless if he needed to. I was definitely going to have to get to the bottom of who had put Eli’s hat in the ring, but that could wait. For now I just had to suck it up.
“Sounds good,” I managed, and the mood in the courtyard relaxed just a little.