“Thank you, Paloma,” Kirsten said. “Will you join us? We could use your expertise.”
Paloma bowed her head. “I’m not sure how useful I’ll be,” she said. “But I will do my best.”
After that, it was a matter of getting everyone the park’s address and telling them to head down there immediately with whatever weapons they could carry . . . except for two of Dashiell’s vampires, who were out trying to press a noted veterinarian who worked with the LA Zoo to get some serious tranquilizer.
The idea was simple: if the witches of the Wild Hunt could only see the supernatural, we could draw them to wherever we wanted by gathering all of LA’s remaining supernaturals in one place. Instead of riding through the city lopping the heads off witches and werewolves who might be trying to hide or run, they would be drawn to the hunting ground we’d chosen.
It sounded easy in theory, but Kirsten and Dashiell, especially, had a hard time persuading their people to come be . . . well, bait wasn’t quite the right word, but it was probably the closest one. We needed to reach critical mass, and only by threatening and cajoling were the leaders able to convince everyone to join in. Dashiell could have ordered his vampires to come, since they’d all sworn loyalty to him to be allowed to live in his city, but he couldn’t do it over the phone, and he said that soldiers who were being forced to fight were not the kind of soldiers anyone wanted.
Happily, convincing other people to join us had been Will, Kirsten, and Dashiell’s problem, not mine. In the end, I think the tipping point was that those who refused would be taking their own kind of risk: after all, a werewolf on his own would still be vulnerable to the Wild Hunt.
I went down to the park with the first wave of people—including Jesse and Shadow, of course—because I needed to get inside the territory so Kirsten could set the humans-go-away spell.
She had offered to give Jesse a witch bag, which would have protected him from the spell, but he’d shaken his head firmly. “Then I couldn’t go near Scarlett,” he’d pointed out, taking my hand. “Where she goes, I go.”
Kirsten had looked from him to our joined hands, to my face, which was turning red. She’d given us a wide, sunny smile. “About damned time,” she’d said.
Dashiell must have called his contacts at the LAPD or the Highway Patrol, because Jesse raced the truck down the freeway doing nearly ninety, and we weren’t the only ones.
As soon as we arrived, I could see why Paloma had chosen this particular park. It was sort of wedge shaped, with one edge formed by busy Slauson Avenue, and the other by the river. The park itself formed the curved part of the wedge, enclosed (mostly) by an iron fence. That made me hopeful: many of the legends suggested that the Wild Hunt riders weren’t able to pass through iron. It was worth a shot, at least.
Speaking of which, Jesse had two guns in hip holsters, and he’d convinced me to take his Glock, which I’d put into a small-of-the-back holster. Under that I had my knife belt, and under that, the bulletproof vest. I felt bulky as hell, and I couldn’t see how the Luparii would be able to carry guns anyway—spectral guns?—but I wanted to be prepared. And as much as I disliked the things, I wasn’t at all opposed to bringing guns to a sword fight.
Shadow was trotting along on my other side, and I sort of wanted the three of us to start walking in slow motion; we were so obviously ready for a fight. We jog-walked into the center of the park, surveying the territory. “How do you want to do this?” Jesse asked me.
“Humans-go-away spell starting on the other side of that bridge,” I said, pointing. “And closing off this section of Slauson Avenue.”
“That includes the bridge.” He grimaced. “It’s gonna piss people off.”
I sent him a sweet smile. “What’s the point of having city officials in your pocket if you’re not gonna take them out and mess with them once in a while?”
“What about the riverbed itself?” he said. “Are we closing off a section?”
I shook my head. “They might be able to feel the spell, or they might bring humans along for the specific purpose of feeling out traps. Let’s close the bike path, but leave the riverbed open.” That gave me another idea. “We should actually get a couple of human servants to hang out in the riverbed, a quarter mile in either direction. Like spotters.” I could ask Dashiell to get some of the human servants on it.
“I thought humans couldn’t see the Wild Hunt,” Jesse commented.
“Not the hunters, but if the Wild Hunt includes bargests, they should be able to see them.” I didn’t know about the horses.
I turned around. “The residential area is going to be a bigger problem.” There weren’t a ton of houses facing the park, but there were some. “Kirsten can set another humans-go-away, but when the vampires start arriving we should still have them go door-to-door.”
“Agreed.”
With that, there was not much else I could do except stay away from the edges of where Kirsten was planning to set spells. Jesse hurried off to talk to the people who were arriving, and I sat down on a bench in the middle of the park. Shadow jumped up on the bench beside me, causing it to quake, but when it didn’t collapse, she lay down, allowing me to lean on her like a pillow.
Within the next half hour, Kirsten—and the big group of chanting witches following her around—had almost finished setting spells on the edges of our target area, and the vampires were clearing the neighboring homes. Everyone in this part of Long Beach was going to have a sudden desire to go to the movies, or a bar, or whatever the vampires felt like telling them.
Meanwhile, the wolves—except for Will—were in wolf form, prowling around the edges of the territory. They were bouncing around a little, and I figured they must be excited about this additional chance to change into their wolf forms, when it wasn’t the full moon. They steered clear of me, and vice versa. Mostly this was so I didn’t turn them human again, but I also didn’t want to tempt Shadow by dangling werewolves in front of her nose. Okay, fine: my ex-boyfriend Eli had turned furry so he could lead them, and I was pathetically grateful to stay away from him.
Jesse came over and plopped down on the bench next to me. “Kirsten needs me near you now,” he said. “She’s going to make sure there aren’t any humans still in the area.”
I nodded, lifted my head off Shadow, and turned to face him. “I wish we had some of that ointment Rhys mentioned,” I said. “It would be really helpful if you could see the Hunt, too.”
He shrugged. “There just wasn’t enough time.” He had draped one arm along the back of the bench, and now he lifted his hand to smooth back my hair. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. Tired, but okay.”
A beat, and then he said, “How are you doing . . . about earlier?”
I squirmed, still surveying all the activity in the park. “Um. On that matter, I would say I am doing exceptional.”
“No regrets?” he said, and I stopped watching the witch crowd and turned to find him studying me.
“No regrets,” I said softly. He gave me a quick, chaste kiss, and then it was back to waiting. Everything took a lot longer than I’d anticipated—but then, there was no sign of the Luparii yet. I only hoped their prep was taking as long as ours.
I felt a vampire hit my radius, and Dashiell nodded to us as he and Beatrice sat on a nearby bench. A few minutes later, Kirsten and Hayne sat down, hands clutched together. Will appeared out of the shadows and loomed against a nearby tree. His eyes were red. “You okay?” I asked. He had been late to arrive because he’d been talking to Sashi.
He just gave me a look. In a low voice, he said, “You should have told me.”
There was no reason for that to sting, but it did. “It wasn’t mine to tell.”
Will just shook his head and stared into the darkness, like he was too angry to even look at me. I decided to shut up.
We sat there like that for a few more minutes, just waiting. It occurred to me that this had never happened before, the seven of us together in one place at the same time. Usually it was smarter to divide your resources—and Dashiell himself rarely joined in a fight. Actually, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure this group had ever faced a straightforward fight before.