My city.
It’s easy to forget, especially given the last few months, that when it comes to the Old World, LA is supposed to be this oasis of peace. Although certain events or people might intrude on the status quo, compared to most places we have a very unique and somewhat delicate balance. No single supernatural faction runs the city, not even the vampires. But if Will were ousted, if the werewolf pack were obliterated and a new, psychotic alpha stepped in, that balance would be destroyed. Dashiell would have to start interfering with pack business more, just to keep their actions hidden. I doubted the nova would take kindly to vampire interference, and the conflict would escalate. There would be fighting. Soon people who have no business fighting would have to go to war. The peace would fall.
Plus . . . Will was kind of my friend. At the very least, I didn’t want him to die.
“I get that he wants to grow his pack,” Jesse said suddenly. The sounds of traffic streamed through the open window, and he had to shout a little for us to hear. “But why the two different methods? He ate part of one woman, scratched up the other . . .”
I turned my head and shoulders to look back at Will, who nodded as if he’d been expecting that question. “I think he’s experimenting. I’ve seen attempts to change someone before, successful and unsuccessful, but I’ve never seen anything this calculating and cold. It’s just . . .”
“Nuts?” I volunteered.
“Scientific,” he corrected me grimly.
“Hang on,” Jesse insisted. “We need to go back to the part where we’ve got two bodies, two nights in a row, both attacked by werewolves. You said they can’t change that often, so is there more than one nova? Could it be something else, like . . . I don’t know, a group of random werewolves experimenting with magic, or a werewolf serial killer, something like that?”
“It’s possible,” Will admitted. Jesse took an on-ramp, and the sudden shift jostled the werewolf, forcing him to tilt sideways and catch himself on the van’s carpeted floor. When he recovered, Will added, “But I think perhaps he kidnapped both women at different times, restrained them, and changed. Then he tried the two different methods.”
“It just took Kathryn Wong longer to die,” I whispered. Goose bumps suddenly broke out on my arms, and it had nothing to do with the air from Jesse’s window. “Oh, God,” I whispered, so softly that neither man looked at me. I wouldn’t have known how to speak if they had.
I’d done it. The LA werewolf pack had been dealt a huge blow when Caroline, the sigma, was killed. And then I’d made everything so much worse by taking away the pack’s beta and stirring up rumors and animosity, making everyone doubt Will. I was the one who’d made the pack unstable, creating an opening in the pack’s magic for the nova to waltz into town and start killing women. “It’s my fault,” I said, realizing too late that I was speaking out loud.
Jesse’s eyebrows furrowed with confusion, but Will had been looking at me in the dim light, and he had seen the moment when I understood what I had done. He gave me a tired little nod of acknowledgment that said, I know. You didn’t mean to. But now we’re screwed.
Tears stung my eyes, and I swiped at them with the back of my hand. I turned my head to stare out the window, not wanting the two men to see me cry. After Olivia had killed my parents, I’d blamed myself for a long time. But I had been wrong then. It wasn’t like I’d made a series of bad decisions or mistakes that had led to Olivia deciding she needed to become my new mommy after dispensing with the old one. I had just been there, and she’d decided to take me, and I had no more responsibility in the matter than an apple does when it gets blown off a tree. I finally understood all that now, after I’d seen Olivia again and realized just how batshit crazy she really was.
But this was different from that, and different from Eli feeling responsible for what he’d done after he’d eaten the wolfberry. My actions—my choices—had made the pack unstable and crippled Will’s magic, leaving it vulnerable to bad behavior and the nova wolf. I had deprived Lydia of the pack’s beta and driven Anastasia to a desperate rage that legitimately frightened me. I had carelessly opened a door that I didn’t understand and fucked around with a system that was ancient, complex, and delicate. And I had done it on a whim, out of pity for a situation I couldn’t even comprehend.
When the van stopped a few minutes later, I didn’t move. “Scarlett,” Jesse said sharply, sounding exasperated, and I realized that this wasn’t the first time he’d said my name. I jerked my eyes to him. “This is the place, right?” he asked, in a tone that said, Get it together.
“What? Yeah,” I said shakily. We were at Artie’s studio. I told Jesse to unlock the gate and pull the van around back, and he complied without another word. That was fine with me. I wasn’t in a talking mood at that point, anyway.
“Scarlett,” Will said quietly, and I turned to look back at him. “Why don’t you and I take the remains inside. Detective Cruz can stay here and keep an eye on the van.”
I nodded gratefully. I wasn’t sure if Will was trying to spare Jesse from having to physically destroy the remains, or if he was just trying to keep the worst of our disposal methods from the police. Either way, I was glad to spare Jesse the sight of Kathryn Wong’s body being shoved into the furnace. Jesse didn’t comment, which I took as agreement.
Will carried the body bag, I held the doors, and we got the body into the furnace without incident. I thought about saying something as Kathryn Wong’s body went into the furnace. If Will hadn’t been there with me, I might have.