Trail of Dead (Scarlett Bernard #2)(72)

“Olivia.”

He nodded, bitterness on his face. He checked another pulse, shook his head again. “It hit Caroline first. She started screaming, and I saw the change take her. Usually I can control their wolves, help them stay in human form if they start to lose it before the full moon. But with the wolfberry…I was helpless.”

“And then Eli…” I prompted.

Will nodded. “And then Eli,” he said grimly. “He’s strong, and he fought it, harder than I’ve ever seen anyone who wasn’t an alpha. But in the end I think that made it worse.” He shook his head. “When he finally went, there was no sense to him. Just…madness.

“Caroline’s wolf knocked a bunch of shit off the walls, glasses off the bar. She bit a woman, but then she made for the exit. She wanted to get out, into the wild. I’d gotten my gun by then, but I was between the two of them.” He shrugged miserably. “I couldn’t let her leave, and I couldn’t follow her while Eli was here killing people. So I shot her.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t shoot Eli too,” I said without thinking.

His smile was wry and a little sheepish. “I tried to. I got off four shots. I think I grazed his pelt once. He’s so damned fast.” Will shook his head. “I had him cornered when you came in. That was going to be the killing shot.”

He looked down at the woman in front of him. “This one’s alive,” he said. She was small and Asian, with a vine tattoo snaking its way along the outside of one arm. She had been curled into a ball behind a couple of barstools, maybe trying to hide. Will bent to look closer at the woman’s face, and his shoulders relaxed a few inches. “She’s Anastasia’s girlfriend. I don’t remember her name, though.”

“Lydia,” I said.

“That’s right.” He looked down at her like he was memorizing her face. “At least she won’t be alone.”

“She’s going to change?”

Will nodded. “She’s the one that Caroline bit on her way to the door. Her wounds are closing fast. She’s starting the process.” There was a lot he wasn’t saying in those words. For some years now, the werewolves and vampires have had trouble reproducing. Sometimes the process still worked, but much more often the victim simply died. If Lydia’s wounds were closing, she was going to be one of the few new wolves who survived. That didn’t exactly make her lucky, though. It takes three excruciating days for a werewolf to fully transform. But, like Will had said, at least the girl wouldn’t be alone in it.

“The other three?” I asked, nodding at the other bodies. Will shook his head. Dead.

Will went to the door and called Anastasia to come in. She looked at her fallen girlfriend and burst into tears, dropping to her knees to cradle Lydia in her lap. I looked away. Will spoke softly to Ana for a few minutes, until they both stood up and Will lifted Lydia into his arms.

“I’m going to put them in the janitorial room to give them some privacy,” he told me in a low voice. He carried Lydia past me, not even shifting his grip when he lost his werewolf strength in my radius, and down the hall to the tiny room across from his office. I’d peeked in there once and knew the room held only cleaning supplies, a heavy-duty safe, and a single cot where Will let the werewolves camp out every now and then, when one of them needed a place.

After a couple of minutes, Will returned and slumped against the bar.

“What about Eli?” I asked, looking back at the unconscious man beside me. His chest was rising and falling, but he hadn’t so much as shifted his position since I’d gotten close to him. I concentrated on him for a moment, feeling out at him with whatever it is that makes me what I am. I blinked in surprise. “He feels wrong. Twisted and sick.”

Will rubbed his face. “Physically, he’s going to be fine. The wolfberry won’t hurt him in human form. The pack knows a doctor, in Orange County. I called him right after I called you. He has a…well, it isn’t really an antidote, but it’s a sedative designed for werewolves. It’ll knock Eli out until the wolfberry leaves his system.”

“You don’t keep it here?” I nodded toward the woman who was still collapsed at the bar. “Like that sedative?”

He shook his head, with some bitterness. “He won’t let me. It’s…well, let’s say it’s a controlled substance. A lot of the ingredients aren’t legal.”

It sounded like there was a story behind all that, but I was in no mood to ask for it. “Is Eli going to wake up before the doctor gets here?”

Will eyed the man on the floor. “I would think so. I’m not exactly sure what made him pass out, unless it was just the shock of changing so fast after all those other changes.” His gaze moved over to me. “Um, Scarlett…”

“What?” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

“You look like a horror movie,” Will said simply. I looked down at myself. My hands were fine, except for the cuts on my left finger pads. But every other part of my body was coated with blood. My bare arms were covered with scratches from the glass, some of which was still in my skin. The bulletproof vest had protected most of my middle, but it was riddled with little holes where larger bits of glass had punctured the Kevlar. My jeans were the same. Will was right—I looked like I’d barely survived an encounter with Freddy Krueger.