Page 64 of Triumph of the Wolf
Without letting him make another attempt at foisting the money on me, I waved and jogged toward Rue.
With my future uncertain, maybe I was a fool not to take every coin, dollar, andpostage reimbursementoffered, but I felt guilty that Izzy had been captured because of me. Okay, she wouldn’t have been captured if she hadn’t been hereharassingme, but still. It was hard not to feel that I had, all those years ago when I’d lost it with Raoul, set in motion the events that had led to her being taken. I might never stop feeling guilty over Raoul’s death. Some regrets accompanied one to the grave.
“He’s helping Duncan load up the van for the storming of an enemy lair we’re hoping to find today,” I told Rue when I reached her.
“Here.” She handed me the vial. “I trust you can instruct him on its use. Tell him that I put the invoice under the windshield wiper of his vehicle. If you are taking him to assail an enemy lair, I must insist that he pay for the elixir before you leave.”
“He’s the wealthy son of the wealthy family who owns this place.” I waved to encompass all of Sylvan Serenity. “He’s good for it.”
“His credit worthiness is not my concern. That he mightdiebefore paying the debt is.”
“Ah. I guess that’s valid.”
“Certainly. Did you know that an entirepackof werewolves came through here this morning?”
“That was my family.”
“How dreadful. And there’s been a young one lurking around the area for more than a week.” Rue peered into the woods. “When I moved from the urban core of the city to this suburb, I expected life to be quieter and calmer.”
“It hasn’t been? I haven’t noticed any graffiti on your door here. Werewolves rarely carry cans of spray paint when in their lupine forms.”
“Yes, but the power of their auras is distracting when they cruise through. It interferes with my reading.”
“Your life sounds difficult.”
“It’s very often fraught.”
Duncan hopped out of his van, met my gaze, and waved. Were they ready to head off? Was I?
No, I thought, but I waved back, acknowledging that I would join them.
“I’ll let Bolin know about the invoice,” I told Rue before heading toward the van.
Duncan looked past me and into the woods, but if Lykos was out there, I couldn’t sense him. He’d either been scared away by Ivan, or he was off to enact some plan to kill Duncan.
I shook my head grimly, hoping the kid wouldn’t show up at Abrams’s Seattle compound. Duncan’s determination to befriend him—befatherhim?—made me think he’d already started caring about what happened to Lykos. As someone who’d battled a loved one and won, I could attest to how that was as bad as losing.
21
I gaveDuncan an address downtown near the Space Needle, though I had no idea where our real destination was. What the vision had given me… hadn’t been a spot that existed. I’d been positive of that even before my internet map search.
Whether that garden was symbolic or an enlarged version of a yard or park that did exist, I didn’t know. My hope was that if we started in the area the vision had shown, Bolin would be able to take the elixir and guide us to Jasmine. He was in the back of the van now, fretting about her and asking every five minutes if he should swallow it yet.
“Are you going to open that?” Duncan pointed to Ivan’s envelope on the dash as we navigated traffic on I-5.
“No. I tried to reject it.” I didn’t even know where the envelope had come from. It had simply been in the van after I’d accepted the elixir from Rue.
“So, I should have objected when MacGregor slipped it in through my open window?” Duncan asked.
“Yes. I would have.”
“He said he owed you postage money. The envelope looked rather thick for that, but Bolin and I were busy stuffing a fewitems under the bed, table, and into already-full cabinets, and I didn’t think much of it.”
“Ivan’s trying to reward me for returning his bracelet.”
“Oh, well that’s acceptable, isn’t it? Wedidhave to battle poison-vapor-exhaling robot bugs in order to get that. You’re deserving of a reward.”
“We were there anyway. For other reasons.” I pointed at him.
