“You know . . . I think I might. I don’t like it, but it might be our best option.”
On the surface it was simple enough: we needed to kill the nova wolf first, then go to Will’s to deal with the pack. But we’d need a lot of outside help, and Jesse would have to make a few more moral compromises. I wasn’t sure how he’d respond to that.
To my surprise, though, Jesse got on board almost immediately. “With one condition,” he intoned. “When this is over, we’ll finish that conversation I started.”
The conversation about getting the hell out of LA and starting over somewhere else. I took a deep breath and nodded. “We’ll finish it,” I promised, meeting his eyes.
It took almost two more hours for us to get everything ready, which included updating Will and Kirsten and Jesse talking to Noah about what we needed. The last thing Jesse did before we left was check his gun, making sure the silver bullets were still loaded. Then he looked at me. “You ready?” he asked me, snapping it into his holster.
I shrugged. “As I’ll ever be.”
Impulsively, he stepped forward and wrapped me in his arms for a hug. “You’re doing the right thing.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, breathing in his familiar scent. “No,” I corrected. “I’m doing the best thing. Doesn’t make it right. Now let’s go before I come to my senses.”
The sky was already beginning to darken when we left Jesse’s parents’ house at 4:30 with Shadow in tow. I don’t know if she was just picking up on the tension in the air, or if she could actually sense the full moon, but she seemed to know something was happening—she was even more alert than before, her head up and her feet stepping lightly as her head swung from side to side looking for new dangers. By 4:45, Jesse was piloting my van up the winding road at Griffith Park. We only had fifteen minutes before the sun went down, which was when we figured Henry Remus would change and get in position. The moon was supposed to rise at 5:52 exactly, at which point any werewolves who hadn’t already changed would be forced into it by magic.
We were counting on the fact that Henry Remus didn’t know who we were or what I could do. If we were wrong about that, and he had had the foresight to, say, plant a gun somewhere in the park, we were screwed.
As soon as we passed the park gate, I closed my eyes and focused hard on my radius. Finding the edges of it was getting easier and easier; whatever had thrown off my inner equilibrium seemed to be finally wearing off now, and my senses were attuned. I could feel the bargest six feet behind me, curled politely on the floor of the van, waiting for orders. But there was nothing else Old World in my range, even when I extended it.
“Anything?” Jesse said quietly, trying not to startle me.
Shaking my head, I opened my eyes. “No, but he could be anywhere in the park at this point. If, you know, we’re even right about this being the right place.”
“We’re right,” Jesse said firmly. I couldn’t tell if he really believed it or was just trying to reassure me, but I was grateful either way. “Do you want to drive around the park awhile, see if you can feel him?”
I considered the idea. “Nah,” I said finally. “There are a ton of places to park here, and they’re going to change any minute. When they do, they won’t need to stick to the trails. Better to wait for him to come to us.” If that’s even what he’ll do, I added in my head.
Jesse nodded. “I’ll head toward the Observatory.”
I didn’t respond. Doubts about this plan were eroding whatever half-assed, caffeine-fueled confidence I’d had in it. We thought we could predict what Henry Remus would do, but that was based on . . . what? A place that his mother thought he may have remembered from his childhood? It was so tenuous. The guy could still be in any park in the city; hell, any open area, really.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I read the new text with a grateful sigh. “They’re all set up at Will’s,” I said to Jesse. “She took the bait.”
His shoulders relaxed a little. “Good,” he said. “Then it’s just the nova left.”
When we reached Observatory Drive, I caught a quick, dim glimpse of the wide path Jesse had shown me in the photographs, before he drove right on past like we were going straight to the Observatory. There was a long line of cars parked on the side of the road already, and I spotted Kirsten’s vehicle among them. I gave it a little wave, just in case she was still inside.
Jesse pulled the van over to park behind a big gray SUV with stickers of a little stick family decorating the back window. It was almost five. “Should we head for the scenic overlook,” I asked, “or wait a bit first?”
“Let’s go to the outlook,” Jesse answered. “I’ll take Shadow.” We were counting on the bargest to be able to move swiftly where I couldn’t, and to catch the nova wolf if it somehow managed to evade my radius.
He got out of the van, and a moment later the back door opened so Shadow could hop out. I turned in my seat to see her stretching her long limbs in the dying daylight. She yawned, displaying those terrifying fangs again.
“And here we go,” I whispered.
Chapter 45