Dashiell finally broke the silence. “So we’re talking about a boundary witch and a vampire working together,” he said in a hushed voice. “The vampire must have fed those four girls his blood a day beforehand, say by pressing them . . .”
“Then the boundary witch was waiting for Molly when she woke up for the night,” Kirsten finished.
Scarlett was nodding. “The mystery vampire probably even helped Molly press the girls to stay still, since I don’t think she could have done all twelve at once by herself. My guess is that the bad guys never intended to take all twelve,” she added. “They wanted Molly to take the fall for some of it.”
“It’s kind of slick, if you think about it,” Will said mildly.
Jesse was inclined to agree, but Kirsten glared at the alpha werewolf. “Slick? Think about all the families. One way or another, those girls are never coming home.”
Will raised his hands, defensive. “I wasn’t trying to be glib, Kirsten. But you almost have to admire it, from a strategic perspective. Molly is framed and the girls are turned, all in one move. While we’re already distracted by the Trials.”
Kirsten just glared at him and turned to Scarlett. “Did they know about Louisa?” she demanded. “That she was a Friend?”
“I honestly don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. No offense, Kirsten, but killing a Friend of the Witches would make you that much more likely to condemn Molly, and fast.”
Kirsten’s face clouded over, and Jesse found himself stepping in. “She’s right,” he said. He looked at the three Old World leaders. “Anyone can see that the quickest way to distract you guys is to threaten one of your own. Or threaten exposure,” he added, looking at Dashiell.
“That’s not the only threat, I’m afraid,” Dashiell said. “If there’s a powerful boundary witch running around our city, she can press any of my vampires.”
Scarlett was staring at him. “So you believe me?” she said.
He nodded. “I’m still not happy about how you handled this, but yes. I believe you about the girls.”
“Then you should let Molly go,” she pushed. “It wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t stop herself.”
Dashiell got up and wandered a few feet away, toward the coffee machine. He filled a Styrofoam cup, returned to his seat, and took a tiny sip, making a face. The expression was so incongruous with his usual demeanor that Jesse and Scarlett both stared at him. “Good heavens,” he sputtered. “I do not remember coffee tasting like this.”
Scarlett looked determined to stay on track. “Molly is okay, isn’t she?”
“Of course.” He gave her an injured look. “I wouldn’t kill her without a trial, not even if she had committed these murders with a song in her heart.”
“Then you need to let her go,” Scarlett insisted. “She didn’t do this.”
“He can’t,” Will said abruptly. Everyone turned to look at him. “I’m sorry, Scarlett, but right now, the people who did this think they’ve won. They’re probably holed up somewhere within the city limits, waiting for the girls to turn before they move them.” He looked at Dashiell. “Am I right?”
The vampire nodded. “It’s difficult to move vampires,” he said. “But much harder to move a lot of corpses whose faces are all over the news.”
Will turned back to the null. “So we’ve got a few days before they can flee town. During that time, they need to think that they’ve won, which means Molly has to stay where she is.”
Scarlett looked unconvinced. She couldn’t see the big picture while her friend was in danger. “If they know you’re on to them, they can find another way to distract you,” Jesse said quietly. “Like eating people in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard.”
“It’s much worse than that, actually,” Dashiell said. His voice was as calm as ever, but his face had darkened. “The vampire is dangerous to humans, of course, and to the weaker members of our community. But a boundary witch could make my own vampires do anything, including killing one of us.”
That little revelation struck Jesse like a gut punch, but Scarlett wouldn’t be deterred. “If you’re saying we need to leave Molly where she is to buy time,” she said slowly, “I understand that. But it’s not like she’s joined the witness protection program. You’re suggesting we put her on trial for murder.”
“Think of the damage these two could do in the city,” Dashiell pressed. “If the boundary witch can convince any of your witches she’s in the right, or if either of them can manipulate the werewolves . . .”
“I love my pack, but it wouldn’t be all that difficult to convince some of them to act against one of the other groups,” Will said in a subdued voice. “And several of them hate Molly. If you were to let her go, they would think she was getting away with murder.”
“Can’t you control them?” Scarlett asked, not unkindly.
Will’s expression was pensive and a little sad. “At what cost? You saw what happened the last time they lost faith in me. If I give them orders they don’t understand, they’ll obey me out of fear. And once I open that particular door, it’s very difficult to get it closed again.”
“Above all,” Dashiell said, in the tone that was kind of scary even as a human, “we have to maintain appearances. It’s likely that the vampire and boundary witch are watching us for signs that we’re not buying Molly as the perpetrator. It has to appear that we condemn Molly, we don’t believe Scarlett, and the Trials are proceeding just as planned.”
Jesse’s eyes immediately turned to Scarlett, who was sitting up straighter in her chair. “At what cost?” she said, echoing Will’s words. Her eyes were narrowed at the vampire. “How far are you gonna let this go?”
“Hang on,” Will said. He pointed to Kirsten, Dashiell, and himself. “We need to keep up appearances,” he said. “But the two of you don’t. Scarlett needs to be at the table when the Trials begin, but no one is monitoring her activities until then.”
“Or yours,” Dashiell said, making eye contact with Jesse. “If you find the people doing this, we can expose them.”
Scarlett and Kirsten began talking at the same time, but Jesse held Dashiell’s gaze. “You want me to work for you?” he said, barely managing to keep his tone civil. “Because that’s worked out so well in the past.”
“You’re damn right it has,” Dashiell countered. “Your work with Scarlett has saved lives, both within the Old World and without. Just because we don’t see eye to eye doesn’t mean I underestimate your value as an investigator.”
Now it was Jesse who stood up and paced away from the group. Despite his resolution to help Molly, he had a hard time with the idea of working for Dashiell and the others in any sort of official capacity. They hadn’t betrayed him, exactly, but he’d lost everything the last time. It was hard not to feel like Charlie Brown with the football.
Scarlett stood up and came over to him. The others could probably still hear them, but they had the grace to start a quiet conversation amongst themselves, giving Jesse and Scarlett the semblance of privacy.
She touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Jesse blew out a breath. “This just got real for me, I guess.”
She studied his face. “Nothing has changed,” she said after a moment. “You’re still making a decision to help someone who can’t help herself. It’s just officially sanctioned.” She gestured back toward the group. “Look, the rest of them see Molly as collateral damage—if she lives, fine. If she dies, fine. I could really use another person who cares about saving a life.”
“I don’t know, Scar.”
“Jesse, no one expects you to do this for free. What do you want? Money? I’m sure Dashiell could—”
“I don’t need money,” he interrupted, holding up a hand. “I’ve already cashed in on this Old World shit once; I’ve got no desire to do it again.”