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
Jesse felt like they were so far out on a limb, he could no longer even see the tree trunk.
He bent his left arm so Scarlett could take it, and with the bargest’s leash in his right hand, they started down the wide path toward the picnic area. The park was almost completely dark now, and although Jesse could make out a dim buzz of light and sound up the road next to the Observatory, the path itself was deserted. They were deep in the park now, well above the city, and soon the quiet began to unnerve him. With each step on the path, Jesse was half expecting the nova wolf to leap out of the shadowed hillside on his left, straight onto his shoulders, breaking his neck. Suddenly, Scarlett’s plan was feeling more and more idiotic. What the hell was he doing out here? He had no idea what the bargest would do even if it did scent a werewolf. For all he knew, the stupid thing wouldn’t move until he gave it a command in French. He glanced at Scarlett, who looked just as nervous. She gave him an encouraging nod, and they kept going. “Don’t turn around,” she whispered, “but I just saw Kirsten heading toward the path, so we shouldn’t be getting any humans this way.”
Step by step, the three of them crept forward on the wide path, until they finally reached the big circular picnic area. “Anything?” Jesse said quietly to Scarlett, who just shook her head. She reached down and scratched behind the bargest’s ears, which Shadow accepted graciously. She’d been fairly calm since they’d left the condo, but this was the most focused and purposeful she’d been since they had first seen her. It was like finally releasing a fish back in the water. Shadow knew what they were doing, and she was in her element.
“Maybe we’re too early?” Scarlett suggested. “It’s only five; maybe he’s waiting to change until the moon rises.”
“Or maybe we’re in the completely wrong part of the city,” Jesse sighed.
“What do you want to do?” she asked, looking at him expectantly.
“I guess we wait.”
They perched on top of a picnic table covered in red graffiti, legs resting on its benches—except for Scarlett’s bad leg, which she’d stretched out along the table next to herself. The bargest, calmed by Scarlett’s radius, lay curled up under the picnic table bench too. “At least he won’t be able to see Shadow as well in the dark,” Scarlett remarked. “So we don’t have to worry about her size scaring him off.”
“I guess so,” Jesse said doubtfully. “But this close to you, does she have any chance of smelling the werewolf magic anyway?”
“Nah, but it’s okay,” she said, patting his arm. “I’m the perfect nova wolf trap. He tries to sneak up on us poor unsuspecting humans, and bam!” She snapped her fingers. “Suddenly he’s just another naked crazy guy.”
Jesse laughed. They looked out over the city lights in silence for a while with their backs to the wide path, enjoying the view. He was having a hard time gauging Scarlett’s mood: she seemed sort of introspective and pensive, but maybe she was just trying to anticipate the nova’s next move. His arm and shoulders touched Scarlett’s, and he felt it when a shiver passed through her. “Cold?” he asked, putting his arm around her.
She nodded. “You know what the Native Americans call the full moon in January?” she asked idly.
“What?”
“Wolf Moon. True story.” She turned her head and went still, looking at him in the dim light from the Observatory street and the city lights themselves. They each had a flashlight stashed in pockets, but had planned to leave them off for the moment in order to make themselves more enticing prey. Slowly, Scarlett raised the hand farthest from him, lifting it to his face. Her fingers were cool as she laid her palm flat against his cheek, cupping the side of his face from his eyebrow down to his mouth. Keeping his eyes on hers, Jesse turned his head very slightly so he could kiss her fingers.