Her groans and whimpers grew louder, and she began to thrash on the asphalt. Her spine bowed, and her legs kicked wildly.
“She’s shifting,” Bishop warned. “Don’t get too close.”
“Yes, Mom.” I eased back slowly, so as not to provoke her when she was most vulnerable. “Will she survive?”
The change for wargs was bone-snapping agony, unlike the sanitized magical gwyllgi transformations. It took a long time, and it was a show of faith on her part that she allowed herself to be vulnerable in the presence of fellow predators. That made up my mind for me. She must know me from somewhere.
During the Bonnie Diaz debacle, I had met several pack members of the alphas I interviewed. I had passed out a lot of cards too. Their animal halves weren’t inclined to trust paper, so I had a bad feeling I could guess who was about to be revealed to us.
“Gayle.” I padded closer. “Can you hear me?”
Her shallow breaths weren’t promising, neither was the amount of exposed bone.
“Help…” she exhaled softly, “…me.”
“We’ve got medics on the way.” I knelt beside her. “Who did this?”
“He killed…them.” A sob hitched her chest. “All…of them.”
“Deric?” Ice spread down my spine when she confirmed it, but I fought through the instinctive recoil. “The females in quarantine?”
“The…pack.” A shudder rippled through her limbs. “Gone.”
Bishop caught my eye, and he shook his head, but I refused to believe that she was beyond saving.
“You did good.” I stroked her hair, aware of the comfort wargs found in touch. “You told us, and we’ll go handle it. You can rest now. The medics will be here in a minute, and we’ll get you help.”
“Too late.” Gayle lowered her eyelids, her dark lashes matted with blood. “Make the coven…pay.”
The pain tightening her body released her in death, and she relaxed with an almost relieved sigh.
Grief and rage twisted through me, most of it self-directed. I had let her slip through my fingers. I called once to check in on her, and when she didn’t answer, I let it go. Forgot about it. Forgot about her.
I should have remembered. I should have tried harder. I should have…been enough for her.
But I wasn’t, and the mental voice that sounded so much like my mother promised I never would be.
The medics arrived and called her time of death.
Who to call? Who to notify? Who was left?
The cleaners were en route to pick up the body, they told me, but they had other calls on the board.
They left Gayle alone and growing cold on the pavement, and so I stayed with her.
I might have held vigil there all night if a familiar presence hadn’t enveloped me.
Midas held me where I stood, and his scent brought me back to myself. I’m not sure how long I was gone, but I must have spaced out if Bishop had time to call in backup before I broke out of my haze.
“Deric did this,” I told Midas. “That’s what she said.” I leaned into him. “She had a crush on him, and he killed her.”
Tension ran through Midas where his body pressed against mine, and he rested his chin on top of my head.
“Either he bought more Faete,” he murmured, “or there were delayed side effects from his first hit.”
“I can’t keep shutting down like this.” I forced myself to let him go. “I have to prove—”
“—you can do your job?”
“Yes,” I snarled. “Linus would—”
“—mourn in private. That you show your grief isn’t a weakness.”
“Are you going to let me complete a sentence?”
He waited, eyebrows raised, but I was out of steam. I hated when people turned my favorite tricks around on me.
“We need to confirm Gayle’s story first.” Bishop sat and took Gayle’s limp hand. “I’ll wait with her.”
Vision liquid, I bent and hugged him around the neck. “Thanks.”
“Midas is right.” He patted my hand. “Linus showed no emotion, and it worked for him. Your passion is what draws people to you. It’s what makes people trust you. Don’t smother that spark. It’s got to light your way for a long time to come.”
Wiping my face with my hands, I left him with Gayle and arranged for a ride to Mendelsohn territory.
Having been out there more than a few times, I knew it for a long trip. Impossibly long for someone in Gayle’s condition. Yet she had done it. Somehow, against all odds, she had reached me.
“I’m coming with you,” Midas said, and I didn’t have the heart to fight him.