“He attacked you?”
“I was the only one alive. He saw me and he reacted.”
“Oh my God.”
“I was able to subdue him—finally—he’s a lot younger and a lot stronger than I am, but once I did, I explained what happened. And who was responsible. Nicco was enraged. He wanted revenge.” Sampson shrugged almost imperceptibly. “The young ones always think revenge is best—an eye for an eye, you know?”
I nodded. “So?”
“So, Nicco and I left Alaska. We traveled together until I could figure out what to do. When I did”—he smiled, but it was humorless—“Nicco wasn’t too happy about it.”
“What did you decide to do?”
“Hide deeper. Disappear all over again.”
“I take it that wasn’t what Nicco was thinking.”
Sampson shook his head. “He wanted vengeance. Pure and simple. He wanted the werewolf hunters to suffer the way our den did. He called me weak and old; he called me a coward for not going after them. And maybe Nicco’s right. Maybe I am a coward. Maybe I am weak. But Sophie, I never wanted this.” He held out his palms and the desperation cracked his voice. “I never wanted any of this.”
I remember Sampson telling me the story of his second birth. The way he’d been bitten, how he could feel the power racing through his veins and feel his whole body shaking, changing, absorbing the legend—the curse—of the werewolf. He hadn’t sought it. He hadn’t wanted it. But it had taken hold inside him, it rooted, and there was no way to kill the beast without killing the man.
“So what did Nicco do?”
Mr. Sampson swallowed slowly as if the very effort hurt. He looked at me, his eyes suddenly clouded and dark. “I think you know.”
I sucked in a heavy breath and licked my lips. “Then you have to help me. We have to stop him.”
Sampson shook his head. “I’ve been trying to. I don’t—I can’t find him. It’s like he’s gone completely off the grid.”
“That’s why Feng and Xian can’t find him. You’re number one on their list, but they act like they don’t even know he exists.”
“I think so. So I guess I can take some solace in the fact that he’s safe from them.”
Anger roared through me. “If Nicco is responsible for all of this, he shouldn’t be safe. Not from anyone.”
Sampson looked as though he was going to challenge me, but seeing the fire glowing in my eyes, he thought better of it. “I didn’t think he ever wanted to hurt anyone.”
“Yeah, well, he did.”
I trudged back to my apartment in a foggy daze. There was someone else. Sampson had lied to me. Sampson had known that this person, this Nicco, was responsible all along, and had kept it a secret. This time, I couldn’t keep the tears from streaming over my cheeks. Whether they were from anger, disappointment, sadness, or exhaustion, I couldn’t be sure, but I walked into my own apartment, cut through the living room without saying a thing to Nina or Vlad, and crawled into my bed. I tried to brush everything off and fall asleep. I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t the catalyst for all this destruction.
After what seemed like hours I gave up trying to sleep and padded into the living room, where Nina was perched in front of the television, eerily illuminated by the silver glow, telephone pressed to her ear.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
She held up a single finger. “But do I still get the free gift with purchase with that?” she was saying. “Because I called while there were still seventeen left. It’s not my fault you didn’t answer the phone. Operators were supposed to be standing by.”
I edged around her and dug my cell phone out of my purse, then headed back to my bedroom, speed-dialing Alex as I walked. I sat in my bed, listening to his phone ring.
“One,” I whispered in the darkness. “Two . . .”
“Grace?” His voice was gravelly and I could hear the mattress shift under his weight.
“Were you asleep?”
“What else would I be doing at four a.m.?”
“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Take an Ambien.”
I let his grouchiness roll off me, chalking it up to sleep deprivation. “I have some information about the case.”
There was a beat of silence, and when Alex spoke again all the sleep had gone out of his voice. “What kind of information?”
I crossed the room and pushed my door shut, cutting off Nina who was now demanding free shipping in the living room. “There is another wolf in town.”
“Another wolf?”
“A wolf. A werewolf.”
“That’s not news, Lawson. We saw the wolf, remember?”
“Yeah, but—” I stopped short, biting my words. I couldn’t tell Alex that Nicco was not Sampson. I couldn’t mention Sampson at all until I could prove his innocence. “Um, Dixon confirmed it. He thought we should know.”
“I appreciate the heads-up, Lawson.”
“Sorry to have woken you.”
I sat in the darkness, phone pressed to my ear, listening to the dial tone and feeling exceptionally confused and alone.