“Malcolm,” he murmured.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he snapped, with more impatience than he intended.
“Sorry, but it’s been twenty years since you’ve been near him,” she said. “And you expected to smell him here, so—”
“Werewolves don’t forget Pack scents.” Nick walked to the building on the left. “He was on the roof. He jumped her. Then …” He followed Tina’s scent back to the road.
“He took her that way.” Vanessa pointed the direction they’d come.
Nick shook his head. “I only smell Tina.”
“She escaped?”
“No, he let her go.”
Vanessa walked back to the road and looked down it. “That’s not possible. She would have called as soon as she found a pay phone.”
“He didn’t release her. He let her run so he could chase.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s his idea of fun.”
7. NICK
Malcolm had let Tina run because it amused him, but Nick knew it was more than simple sport. Presumably there was no place nearby he’d deemed suitable to hold her and it had saved Malcolm the hassle of transporting her out of this neighborhood. It might be empty here, but there was life a few blocks over. Also, a quick capture lacked challenge.
As a trained agent, Tina wouldn’t flee to the authorities. With her ego, she’d be cursing herself for getting jumped. Also, Malcolm wouldn’t simply have released her—he’d have allowed her to “escape,” so she’d think she bested him. That would give her confidence. She’d want to repair her failure. To turn the tables and catch him. And all the while, he’d be herding her.
The trails confirmed Nick’s guess. They’d converge and separate, and he could see Malcolm driving her along a preordained path, one that funneled Tina where he wanted her to go, giving her few options to divert from the path and driving her back onto it when she did.
Vanessa watched his back in silence as he tracked. He considered Changing to wolf form, but the trail was clear enough.
Too clear? That was the question.
Had Malcolm laid this trail for someone to follow? The only person who could follow it was a werewolf, and Malcolm wouldn’t suspect that one of the Pack had sent Tina after him. Werewolves didn’t hire outsiders to do their dirty work. He’d presume Tina was from the Nasts, so he just hadn’t worried about hiding his scent trail. Still, Nick kept an eye—and an ear—on his surroundings.
Eventually the trail led to an empty building, abandoned so long that it was impossible to tell what it had been. Maybe a small factory or even a school—a two-story rectangular box without a window left intact.
Nick glanced around the neighborhood. Not really a neighborhood so much as a piece of land with buildings on it, some homes, some commercial, some occupied, some not. At this hour, it was silent. He took one last listen and then led Vanessa through a doorway.
Inside, the only light came from the moon shining through broken windows.
“Can you see?” Nick whispered to Vanessa.
“Not well.”
He gave her credit for admitting it. “Stay close. If you can’t see me in front of you, let me know. I’d rather not use flashlights if we can help it.”
“If I need to, I have this.” She lifted her fingers and they started to glow.
“Then use it,” he whispered. “Better than tripping in the dark and making noise.”
“I know.”
There was no annoyance in her voice, but he murmured an apology nonetheless.
Even inside, Nick couldn’t tell what purpose the building had once served. Anything that could leave a hint had been stripped. It was all empty rooms. Well, not really empty—there was plenty of junk, but most of it seemed to have been brought in by squatters over the years.
Now, though, he could hear no signs of life. When he passed one room, he caught the scent of a corpse. A recent one. Human. Male. He smelled blood, too.
As they passed the room, Vanessa lit up her fingers and waved them inside, illuminating a corpse, sitting up, throat ripped out.
“Werewolf?” she whispered.
Nick didn’t answer right away. It was a classic werewolf kill, which made him slow to reply. It’s not easy to tear out someone’s throat when you’re in human form, so there was a moment where he wondered if it could be an animal’s work. But then he caught the scent, and when he moved closer, he found a few dark hairs caught in the man’s ripped flesh. Wolf fur. Malcolm had Changed form and cleared the building, scaring out those who would run and killing those who wouldn’t.
When Nick told Vanessa, she gazed down at the body. Not horrified but disgusted. Thoughtful too, before she turned to him and said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
She nodded at the body and then waved around the building, and he knew what she meant. Sorry that she’d thought he was exaggerating. Sorry that she’d underestimated Malcolm.
“Let’s find Tina,” he said.
She nodded and followed him out of the room.
They found a second body. A girl. Maybe seventeen. A street kid. She lay on her back, long sleeves ripped as if she’d tried to protect her throat as the wolf leapt on her. That death hit harder, and it took a moment to move on. When they did, Nick heard the whisper of fabric on concrete, so faint he thought he’d imagined it until he made Vanessa stop moving and he caught the noise again. It sounded like something being dragged across the concrete floor.
He followed the sound. They were on the second floor and the noise seemed to come from the middle. When he approached, his arm shot out to stop Vanessa. He motioned for her to light her fingers. She did and looked around. Ahead, part of the floor was missing, and they could see down to the first level … where a body lay in the middle of the room.
“Tina,” Vanessa whispered.
Nick caught her before she could move closer to the hole. She leaned and strained to see better.
Tina lay on her stomach. Drag marks led to a blood pool ten feet behind her.
“Is she …?” Vanessa asked.
He was about to say he couldn’t tell when Tina moved, one arm slowly reaching out as she propelled herself forward. That was the sound he’d heard—Tina dragging herself toward the door.
Vanessa exhaled. She started forward, but this time caught herself.
“It’s a trap, isn’t it?” Vanessa whispered.
Nick nodded.
“But we can’t leave.” She straightened. “I have an agent down. That’s my priority, above my own safety.”
She looked over, as if expecting him to argue. He didn’t. If it was a Pack brother, he’d do the same. He waved her back to the hall, where they could come up with a plan.
8. VANESSA
Leaving Tina was one of the hardest things Vanessa had ever done. Even if she knew she wasn’t abandoning her, that’s what it felt like. Her agent—her friend—was lying in her own blood, badly injured, and Vanessa had walked away.
She’d screwed up here worse than she ever had before. It didn’t matter if Rhys had refused to let Nick take over. It didn’t matter if Vanessa had warned Tina off and called Jayne in to assist. She did not accept excuses from her team and she would not make excuses for herself. Whatever had happened to Tina—whatever was happening now—it was Vanessa’s fault.