Lizzy sat up and sidled away from me. “I can smell the change in you,” she said mournfully. “You’re disgusted, and I don’t blame you. I’m disgusted too. But my body … my body keeps telling me to come back here, to this place where I can smell my friends’ death all around me …because that’s where he was.” After a moment she laid her head down on the ground, and her whole body went slack.
There were other things I could ask her about Sam’s last moments, but I couldn’t bear it. Tears were already spilling down my cheeks and I had to focus to control my breathing. Jesse looked like he wanted to say something, or maybe touch me, but I shook my head. I’d asked, hadn’t I? I’d wanted to know. No, I’d demanded to know. Now I had to live with the knowledge.
After a few more minutes, Lizzy’s breathing slowed. I didn’t think she was sleeping, just … spent. Nearly catatonic. I nodded at Jesse, who went over and picked her up like she was a child. She settled her head against on his shoulder and mumbled something.
“We’re going to take you home,” he told her. He tilted his head so I would follow him out. I didn’t need to be told—I couldn’t get away from here fast enough.
“Don’t have a home anymore,” Lizzy muttered. “Just different cages.” I winced.
When we left the shed, Scarlett immediately backed away. True to her word, she’d stayed close in case we needed her. Now, she hovered about twenty feet away, clearly worried about Lizzy but unable to do much more than wring her hands. Part of me wanted her to run over and give Lizzy some respite from her emotional agony—her sickness. But maybe it was crueler to give her relief that wouldn’t last.
There were only three cars in the lot: Scarlett’s van, Jesse’s sedan, and a nondescript Toyota. Astrid was leaning against the side of the car, having returned from her walk. She glared at each of us in turn as if daring us to remark on her absence. No one did. She opened the back door of the Toyota, then watched with her arms folded defiantly across her chest as Cruz laid Lizzy across the backseat.
When she was settled Astrid went to the trunk and pulled out a rough blanket, passing it to Jesse so he could drape it over the woman’s nude form. “Nice, huh?” Astrid asked, watching him. “Did you get the whole show?”
“As much as we could stomach,” Cruz said with a glance my way.
“Why is she like this?” I asked the other werewolf.
She gave me a look, like I was being thick on purpose and she didn’t like it. “Um, because she’s a werewolf? There’s a reason why they call it a curse.”
“But you’re a werewolf,” I said disbelievingly. “She’s, like … damaged.”
A bitter smile quirked up one side of her mouth. “Don’t be fooled, lady. We’re all damaged. That’s what werewolf magic does to you. Some of us just wear it better than others.”
I shuddered. Back home, Quinn talked about werewolf magic like it was just another branch of the Old World, but this … this was repulsive. Henry Remus was a monster, and he’d turned what was left of this poor woman into a monster too.
“What will happen to her?” I asked.
She shrugged. “My shift with her ends tonight. Tomorrow she’s some other pack member’s problem.” Astrid stomped over to the driver’s door, practically snarling. She seemed so upset, but I didn’t get the sense that it was with us, or even with Lizzy. With herself? Remus? I didn’t know, but I was done asking questions.
When the two werewolves pulled away, Scarlett came up to stand beside Cruz and me. I felt the little loosening again, the sense of decreased pressure I always felt around my niece. It was beginning to annoy me, coming from her. “I’m sorry, Lex,” Cruz said, still watching the Toyota’s taillights disappear. “About Sam.”
I shook my head. Be careful what you wish for. Sam had said I deserved to know the truth, that a werewolf was responsible for her murder. But I hadn’t stopped there. I’d wanted the whole truth, and now I couldn’t stop seeing images of my sister’s body, her beautiful, perfect body, which had been home not just to her soul, but to Charlie’s, being mauled. Bite by bite. My fists clenched. I turned to face the others.
“The bodies weren’t lost, were they?” I asked. “You had them all along.”
Scarlett and Cruz exchanged a fleeting look that managed to communicate something very complicated. Then Scarlett nodded at me. “I couldn’t risk the LAPD finding evidence of werewolves,” she explained. “That’s my job.”
“I understand,” I said quietly. “I get why you had to do it. But I want my sister. I want to take her home and bury her.”
“That’s impossible,” Scarlett said.
“I know, you don’t want the cops to run tests, but I’ll find a way around that. I can claim religion, maybe.” Hell, I would get Quinn out here to press the coroner if I had to. “Remus is dead, so it’s not like they’ll be in a hurry to double-check her for more evidence.”
“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said in a clear, professional voice, the kind that doctors use to break bad news to the thousandth patient of the day. “That’s not possible. I incinerated the body.”
My jaw dropped open. I looked at Cruz, but he was staring abashedly at the ground in front of his toes. “You … incinerated … my sister.”
Scarlett didn’t look away. “In a furnace,” she said simply. “It’s what I do.”
I punched her in her stupid face.
9. Jesse
Jesse saw the blow coming and tried to get in between the two women, but he only managed to sort of awkwardly bump into Lex, forcing her to stagger a little so that the punch lost some of its force. It wasn’t enough: Scarlett was knocked onto her ass. Blood trickled from her lip. Before any of them could react, Jesse heard a pounding from behind them: frantic, rhythmic, like something being thrown up against a wall. He turned just in time to see Shadow explode through the shattered safety window in Scarlett’s van.
“Now you’ve done it,” Scarlett said. She just sounded weary.
A furious bargest in action was a sight to behold. Shadow had been created to kill, and as she shot across the small parking lot, she looked like a black wave of unstoppable, inevitable, instant death. Jesse took one step forward, but he spared a second to glance at Scarlett, who seemed unruffled. She trusted Shadow not to actually hurt anyone, so he did too.
The bargest’s rage seemed to soften as soon as she hit Scarlett’s radius, though she continued on her course toward Lex. To her credit, the witch didn’t run or even move. She put her hands in her pockets and gazed downward, and Jesse realized she had some experience with unstable dogs. Shadow planted her feet a few feet away from Lex, and what little fur she had stood up in anger as she growled and snapped. “No, Shadow,” Scarlett said soothingly. “I kind of deserved that. Don’t eat her. Lex, could you please sit down near me?”
Calmly, but with an astonished look on her face, Lex went over to Scarlett and lowered herself onto the grass next to the null, trying to look nonthreatening. The two of them sat there for a moment while Shadow’s head whipped between them, and Jesse almost laughed. They looked so much like two chagrined students in detention, with Shadow as the mean teacher in charge. He folded his arms across his chest, watching.
“I can’t believe you just disposed of my sister,” Lex muttered to Scarlett, with one eye on the angry bargest. “Like she was nothing. Like she was garbage.” Her voice was wavering, and Jesse realized she was trying not to cry.
“I told you,” Scarlett said stubbornly, “it’s my job.”
“Some job you’ve got,” Lex snapped, and the bargest snarled at her, advancing. Lex pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them—she had no way of knowing it, but this was one of Scarlett’s gestures, and the bargest backed off again. “And everyone thinks I’m a monster,” Lex mumbled.
Jesse didn’t actually expect a reaction from Scarlett, but to his surprise she went still. A tear ran down her cheek before she swiped it away. Sensing her mistress’s mood, the bargest settled onto the ground in front of Scarle
tt and shoved her head under Scarlett’s hand.
When the null spoke, she sounded as young and lost as Jesse had ever heard her. “If I don’t, who will?” Scarlett whispered. “If I don’t do these horrible things, they’ll force them on Corry or Eli, or some other innocent. It’s not too late for them.”
Jesse blinked then, wanting to go to her, knowing he couldn’t.
Realizing what she’d just implied, Scarlett’s face hardened. “I’m sorry that Remus killed your sister before we could stop him. I’m sorry for your loss,” she said to Lex. “But if you’re waiting for me to apologize for what I did, it’s not gonna happen.”
Lex stood, easing herself to her feet so the bargest wouldn’t be alarmed. “I’ll keep my end of the bargain,” she said stiffly. “I’ll be gone by sunset. If somebody can take care of my rental car, I’ll go straight to the airport from here.”
Scarlett nodded. “I’ll get someone from Dashiell’s team to handle it.”
Lex tilted her head in acknowledgment. She looked up at the sky for a moment, eyes squinting to take in the top of the palm trees that speckled the school’s landscaping. “And I hope I never come back,” she added, mostly to herself. And with that, she started toward the parking lot, already pulling out her phone.
Jesse heard himself say, “I’ll give you a ride.” Lex paused, looking surprised, then nodded her thanks. She went and got her duffel bag out of Scarlett’s car and walked over to Jesse’s. He beeped the remote to unlock it so she could climb in. Before he followed, Jesse squatted in front of Scarlett. “You okay?” he asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.
She nodded, her eyes cast down, lost in thought. He wondered if she was seeing bodies going into a furnace. He certainly was. Jesse started to pull back, but she reached up and squeezed his hand where it lay. “She’s not wrong, is she?” Scarlett asked conversationally.
“No, she’s not,” he said. “But neither are you. And punishing yourself for what happened won’t solve anything.”
Her bright green eyes lifted to him in surprise, then narrowed. “You’re one to talk. How’s the new job, Jesse?”
He flinched. Stood up to leave. “See you around.”
“Yeah?” Scarlett said, hope in her voice.
Jesse paused, considered it. Shrugged. “Maybe. Yeah.”
The drive to the airport was silent and heady, like a black cloud had squeezed into the car with them. Jesse pulled over at the Frontier terminal and put the car in park. “Are you all right?” he asked Lex.
Her face was impassive. The soldier again. “I will be.” Without another word, she got out of the car, hoisted her duffel bag, and began walking toward the airport entrance. Jesse almost put the car back in drive, but he remembered himself just in time. “Lex, wait!” he yelled through the open window. She paused and turned back, a question on her face. He grabbed the bag from the glove compartment and followed her onto the sidewalk.
“I have something for you,” he rushed to say. “Almost forgot.” He thrust the little evidence bag toward her, and Lex accepted it with a frown before turning it over and opening the seal. She reached in and pulled out a shiny silver Rolex. Lex turned it over in her hands, exposing an inscription on the back. Congratulations, college graduate! We love you–Mom and Dad.
“This was Sam’s,” she murmured, then looked up at him. “How did you get this?”
“She left it for us,” he said gently. “Remus drugged her so she wouldn’t fight back, but she still had the sense to take it off and drop it outside the shed, so we’d know she’d been there. Your sister was smart. If Remus had been a normal man the LAPD could’ve arrested, this evidence alone would have helped us convict him.”
She nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. “But how did you get it?”
“Called in an old favor. The case is very closed, so they’ll eventually return all the evidence to the proper owners. But they’re backlogged. I just thought … while you were in town …” he drifted off, feeling suddenly embarrassed. To his surprise, she stepped forward and threw her arms around him, hugging him close. Her shampoo smelled like evergreen trees and she was surprisingly solid with muscle. Jesse returned the hug, and for just a second he had that feeling again, like he’d helped someone. Done something good.
Lex stepped back, smiling with embarrassment. “Err … sorry. And thank you.” She clutched the watch to her chest. “I’ll get this to Charlie.” She hesitated for a moment, then added, “Would you tell Scarlett I’m sorry for hitting her?”
“Of course. And … try not to judge her too harshly, okay?” Jesse said tentatively. “I know what we did was awful, but I swear, we were respectful to Sam. And the others.”
She nodded. “What I do for the Old World isn’t all that different, it was just … easier to be upset with her than with Lizzy.” She shuddered. “Thank God we don’t have werewolves in Boulder.”
As he drove out of the LAX traffic juggernaut, Jesse felt exhausted—and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d made a mistake with Lex. He should have corrected her, made her see that not all werewolves were evil any more than all professional football players were womanizers. There was something a little ominous about her attitude, and he had a feeling the next werewolf who crossed her path might pay for it. Then again, he thought, werewolf PR wasn’t his job.
Of course, that thought only reminded him of his actual job. Jesse sighed, and headed back to work.
End info
You have just finished Malediction: An Old World Story by Melissa F. Olson. Ready for what follows?
CLICK HERE TO PREORDER BOUNDARY LINES
Or begin the first Scarlett Bernard novel and get caught up with the LA Old World.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE DEAD SPOTS
About the Author
Melissa Olson was raised in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and studied film and literature at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After graduation, and a brief stint bouncing around the Hollywood studio system, Melissa landed in Madison, WI, where she eventually acquired a master's degree from UW-Milwaukee, a husband, a mortgage, two kids, and two comically oversized dogs, not at all in that order. She loves Madison, but still dreams of the food in LA. Literally. There are dreams.
Follow Melissa for the latest information on book releases and to meet up with other fans:
“The Scarlett Letter” newsletter – always with exclusive book content!
Facebook
Website
Twitter
Buy on Amazon
Malediction: An Old World Story Page 6