There was a long silence on the line. “Kirsten?” I asked uncertainly.
“I’m here.” She sighed. “It’s a good plan, Scarlett—bold, but good—but I don’t think I can help you.”
“What?” I said, surprised. Of the three Old World leaders, Kirsten is the only one I would peg as a team player. “Why not?”
“The Luparii,” she explained. “Witches have heard half a millenium’s worth of stories about Luparii boogeymen. I doubt you could find a single one of them willing to mess with their property.”
I remembered what she’d said at the meeting, that the Luparii were like an ex-con relative you avoided. “What about you?” I asked. “You’re not afraid, right?”
“It’s not that,” she said reluctantly. “I’d be willing to go up against them on my own, but everything I do can reflect back on the witches. If they find out a witch in LA crossed them, it’s not just me they’ll come after. It’s all of us.”
“Isn’t there anything you can do?” I asked in a small voice. My plan had seemed solid only a few minutes ago, but now the thought of pissing off the Luparii was starting to scare me too.
“Perhaps . . . ,” Kirsten said thoughtfully. “You think the nova wolf is going to camp out in a specific part of the park?”
“Yeah.” I explained the path leading into the picnic area.
“Okay. That could work,” she said to herself. To me, Kirsten began, “There is a minor hex we use sometimes for big gatherings, or if we’re working a spell that has to be done in an area accessed by the public. The younger witches call it the Humans-Go-Home. It makes anyone with no ties to magic have a sudden, overwhelming desire to return home.”
“So it’s not just a clever name,” I said, straight-faced. Beside me, Jesse snickered.
“No.” Kirsten went on, “I can wait at the road, and once you and Detective Cruz are in the clearing, I can cast a Humans-Go-Home on the mouth of the pathway. It won’t affect the werewolf, but anyone else should stay away from that spot.”
“That’d be great,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. It was a good idea, but I’d been hoping for . . . I don’t know, a promise to storm the park in droves or something.
“Just remember, Scarlett, that when you get close to the spell it’ll dissolve again, so you can’t leave that area once you’re in,” she cautioned.
“Pee before we leave the house. Got it.”
I hung up and explained the idea to Jesse, who was a fan. Before either of us could even get off the table, though, my phone began playing “Werewolves of London.” I frowned. I had spoken to Will less than two hours ago. Picking up the phone again, I said, “Hey, Will.”
“Scarlett,” he said in a tight voice. I could hear noise from the bar behind him. “Describe the Luparii scout to me again.” It was not a request.
“Uh . . .” I glanced at Jesse, then held my phone away from my face and put it on speaker. “She’s maybe six feet tall, dark-blonde hair, slim.”
Jesse added, “Hey, it’s Cruz. Her name is Petra Corbett. She was wearing a black pantsuit when we saw her.”
Will sighed heavily into the phone. “I was afraid you would say that.”
Jesse and I exchanged a glance. “Why?” I asked.
“Because she’s standing on the sidewalk in front of my bar.”
Chapter 44
“Of course she is,” I said harshly. I really wanted to kick something. It couldn’t just be okay for ten minutes, could it? “How the fuck did she get out of that bathroom?” And had she brought more than one black pantsuit, or was she wearing the one with the urine stains? Okay, that part maybe wasn’t relevant.
Jesse shrugged and said, “She might have access to magic you don’t know about, or she’s got a handler or partner in LA. Or maybe she had scissors in the bathroom. It doesn’t really matter at this point.”
“I agree,” Will said darkly. He sounded like he was barely controlling his temper.
“What is she doing?” I asked.
“Nothing. She’s leaning against what I assume is her car, glaring at the door to Hair of the Dog. She knows I can’t attack her in the middle of Pico Boulevard.”
“She’s going to follow you,” Jesse said quietly, and I finally caught on. We’d taken the bargest away from Corbett, so she was simply going straight for Will. Either she’d try to kill him, or follow him to the pack.
“Why?” I asked. “What’s she going to do against a whole pack of werewolves with no bargest?”
“She’s still a witch, Scarlett. We have no idea what she’s capable of on her own,” Will said grimly. “And if she has access to a gun and a lot of silver bullets . . .”
“I thought these douchebags were all about the hunt,” I complained. “That’s gotta be cheating.” I looked at Jesse. “Can you arrest her for loitering or something?”
Jesse considered it for a second and shook his head. “We’d have to leave her at a police station, and like Will said, we have no idea what she can do as a witch. She could hurt a lot of cops.”
There was silence for a few minutes.
“We could just, like . . . kidnap her,” I volunteered. “Jesse and I could come down and bring her into the bar. You could leave her in the back room or something.”
“Because tying her up and leaving her worked so well last time,” Jesse interjected. “We can’t stay with her, Scarlett, we have to go after the nova.”
“And we can’t kill her either,” Will sighed. “The Luparii in France would have kittens.”
I wished I were in the driver’s seat so I could pound my head against the steering wheel. “Well, shit. I have one other idea, but I have to check on a few things. Will, we need to call you back.” I hung up the phone before either he or Jesse could respond.
Jesse looked at me, a little incredulous. “Tell me you have a plan,” he stated.