Kiss Of The Wolf Part 9

"You just admitted that Chad tried to kill you. You can't go out in this state."

He grimaced and pushed himself up on his elbows, tensing his lower body to rise. "All I have to do is Change, and the rest of me will heal."

"Can you change now?"

The muscles in his face locked in concentration. He let out a long, slow breath. "Not yet."

"Then you've got two choices-stay here and recuperate until you can change, or take your own personal physician with you."

He shook his head, jaw set, but she could see she'd already won. "If I don't take you with me, you'll probably go after Chad yourself." He shifted his legs toward the edge of the bed. "We'll go back to the houseboat first, in case Tris has returned."

"That makes sense. Hold on, there." She bent to work her arm under Remy's shoulders and helped him sit. No one touching him now would ever believe that he'd been the victim of vehicular a.s.sault a few hours ago. She didn't quite believe what had happened in the three days since she'd arrived in Grand Marais.

It wasn't the discovery of werewolves that most amazed her, or even getting mixed up in murder. It was the simple fact that she had, improbably and miraculously, fallen in love. And love gave her the courage to face whatever lay ahead of them.

Checking to make sure that Gussie was still securely in her room-thank G.o.d the woman slept like the dead-Dana quickly a.s.sembled a small pack of supplies she'd prepared for further excursions into the swamp, including several energy bars and a powerful flashlight. She dashed off a brief note, informing her great-aunt that she'd gone for an early-morning walk and might not be back until afternoon.

On her way to her room she stopped at the piano to touch the photograph of Sally's smiling image.

If you can hear me, Sally-help me find the truth. Help me give the living peace and lay your memory to rest.

Dana felt Sally's spirit beside her as she helped Remy dress in his stained clothes, took him to the Lexus and drove to the dock where he kept his motor-boat. By the time they cast off, Remy was moving without apparent discomfort, though she had a feeling he would conceal any lingering pain from her. He'd made himself very vulnerable in her room and now seemed bent on making up for it by remaining as distant as possible.

She'd almost told him she loved him. What if she had? He wasn't ready to hear those words. She didn't know if he ever would be. Even if all they had together was a one-night stand, she was fully committed to her course.

The bayou was dark as pitch, but Remy found his way unerringly to the houseboat. A single light burned on the deck. Remy bounded up the ramp and disappeared into the cabin. Another light came on in the kitchen.

As soon as Dana entered the cabin she knew Tristan wasn't there. Remy's face was stony.

"Tris was here," he said. "Sometime within the past hour. I should still be able to pick up his trail."

"If he came back, shouldn't we wait for him here? He was probably looking for you."

"No. Something's wrong. I can feel it." He leaned heavily on the kitchen table and dropped his head between his shoulders. "You won't be able to keep up with me, Dana."

"You mean that you intend to leave me behind."

"I'm sorry." He began to unb.u.t.ton his shirt. "I can travel much faster as a wolf, following Tris's scent." He paused and met her gaze. "I want you safe. Stay here. Please."

That stiff but heartfelt request made it very difficult for Dana not to promise. "What choice do I have, other than to return to town?"

His mouth relaxed. "That's my chere amie." He dropped his shirt over the chair and started on his jeans. "If I don't come back in a few hours... "

"Don't worry about me. Concentrate on finding Tristan. Keep safe."

"You ought to know by now how tricky it is to get rid of a werewolf."

"That's what I'm counting on."

He finished undressing, and Dana was aware of a strange self-consciousness between them, as if they hadn't shared a bed and dangerous secrets. She stepped around the table and laid her palms on his chest. Goodbyes were as inappropriate now as the yearning to feel that magnificent body entwined with hers.

She kissed him instead. Remy returned the kiss with banked ferocity, pulling her hard against him, and then let her go. He was out the door before she recovered her balance.

Dana ran out onto the deck just in time to see the wolf bound away into the umber dawn. She sank down against the wall and watched the mist rise, lit from within as if by some spectral fire.

A man came up the path from the swamp, hands tucked in his belt. Dana jumped to her feet. She knew him; Detective Landry, who had the unfortunate tendency to show up when he was least wanted.

"h.e.l.lo," she called out, as if she had nothing to hide. "Can I help you?"

Landry touched his hat. "Ma'am," he said. "I'd like to speak with Remy Arceneaux."

"I'm sorry. He isn't here at the moment." She went halfway down the ramp and smiled at Landry with as much ingenuousness as she could muster. "Can I take a message?"

Landry shared Remy's disconcerting talent for the unblinking stare. "Do you know where he's gone?"

"I'm afraid not. He left just before dawn."

"I see. You wouldn't happen to know anything about a hit-and-run incident earlier this morning?"

Dana froze. "Was someone hurt?"

He sighed and shifted his weight onto one hip. His hands remained near his belt. "Mrs. Daigle overheard

you and Remy discussing coming out to the swamp. The two of you were seen leaving town a couple of hours ago, in your car. I think you know more than you're letting on."

Apparently Gussie wasn't quite the heavy sleeper Dana had believed.

"Is it a crime in Louisiana to go for a drive with someone of the opposite s.e.x?" "Only if your intent is obstruction of justice." Landry started up the ramp, and Dana retreated to the cabin doorway. "I think it's time that you and I were straight with each other, Doctor. I know Tristan Arceneaux is missing, and Remy's been looking for him. I know someone tried to hurt Remy early this morning. I know he was with you afterward. And I think you know exactly what he is."

Chapter 12.

Dana ignored her pounding heart. "Am I under investigation, Detective?"

"Dr. St. Cyr, I'm on your side, as much as I can be. You're Sally's cousin. That's why I've been keeping an eye on you. There are still plenty of folks around here who would jump to conclusions if they knew Remy and Tristan are loups-garou." His brow wrinkled in concern. "Here, maybe you'd better sit down."

A chair would have been welcome, but Dana managed to stay on her feet. "You... know?"

"Yes." His expression was entirely serious. "That's why I've come to talk to Remy. This has gone far enough."

"I don't understand."

"I've a.s.sumed you're not stupid, Doctor, and I'd appreciate the same courtesy. If I thought you were in any real danger from Remy, I'd have kept you away from him. I'm guessing that he told you about Sally and the rumors surrounding Tristan. You met Chad Lacoste, and you know what he tried to do to Remy. You've been wise not to trust him."

Dana released her breath. "You suspect Chad in Sally's disappearance? Why haven't you arrested him?"

"I can't expect you to understand the complexities of the situation, but I do expect your cooperation."

"You warned Tristan away from town, as if he were a criminal."

"Until this matter is resolved, it's my duty to protect him like any other citizen. If Remy's in trouble-"

"It's Chad you should be pursuing, not Remy."

Landry's gaze hardened. "Did it ever occur to you that Remy might go after Chad?"

It hadn't. She'd convinced herself that Remy and Tristan couldn't be involved in Sally's presumed death, but Remy had every reason to hate Chad.

"He's looking for his brother," she said firmly. "That's all that matters to him right now."

"I hope you're right, because Chad isn't anywhere I can find him, and there are just a few too many people missing for my comfort."

"All I can tell you is that Remy went into the swamp. If I knew where, I'd be with him right now."

"That I can well believe." Landry favored her with a wry smile and glanced down the path. "It will be to Remy's advantage if I can-" He stopped, tilted his head and frowned. "I have a call, Doctor. I strongly advise you to go home and wait. I'll be in touch."

Without another word he returned the way he had come. Dana waited a few minutes and followed him down the path. She heard the distant growl of a car's engine and then only the natural sounds of early morning.

She suspected that Detective Landry had been distracted from his pursuit of Remy, which was all to the good. But she faced the same dilemma as before: stuck here like some nineteenth-century soldier's wife waiting for her man to come home.

Waiting around simply wasn't in her nature. She ran back into the cabin, retrieved her pack and took the path away from the houseboat. Of course, there was no sign of Remy's pa.s.sage; she doubted that even a skilled wildlife tracker could follow him.

Only a little way, she told herself. It's better than doing nothing. She knew she could get as far as the place Chad had left her that first day, where Remy had rescued her. Perhaps, if she were very lucky, some other clue might come to her by then.

Half a mile into her trek she stumbled upon a minor miracle. Someone had neatly tied a bit of red cloth to a branch at the point where the path dwindled into several narrow tracks. It might have been some other hiker who'd left the sign, but there weren't many intruders near Arceneaux land. Remy certainly wouldn't have left them for her to follow.

Tristan might. He trusted her, and she was prepared to grasp at even the most fragile hope. She took the indicated track.

It wasn't an easy way. Soon Dana gave up brushing leaves and twigs from her hair and clothing, focusing all attention on finding the next marker. She discovered it draped from the upright, broken branch of a rotting log.

Someone had left these markers, and it wasn't Remy. Tristan had been back to the houseboat; surely he'd left them deliberately. And that meant he wanted to be found.

Dana offered up a prayer and broke into a run.

No one, to Remy's knowledge, had ever compared the speed of a true wolf to that of a loup-garou. But Remy ran faster than he ever had in his life, racing into the swamp with ears p.r.i.c.ked and nose alert for the trail he must find.

It led him to the edge of a nameless pond where Tristan's bare feet had sunk into the mud. That was where he found the strip of red cloth. Remy paused only to confirm that it belonged to Tristan, and then he leaped across the water and settled into a tireless lope. He remembered the way; he had come this path five years ago, when he had found Tristan whispering words of death.

Sally's death. A murder left unconfirmed because the body had never been found.

The body. Remy redoubled his pace, paws flying over the ground from ridge to slough and over the next rise. He knew, with a certainty deeper than logic, where Tristan had gone, and why.

Tristan knew where to find the body.

Tris didn't kill Sally. He did not. So Remy told himself, over and over again, but the words brought no consolation.

At least Dana is safe.

The rising sun bled pink into the sky above the cypresses, renewing Remy's urgency. Birds clattered from their sleeping places as he pa.s.sed, and a gator sank under the surface of the black water with an indignant slap of its tail. The scent he pursued grew stronger, and then overwhelming.

Tristan. And he was not alone.

Remy skidded to a halt behind the last intervening thicket at the edge of a thigh-deep slough. On the opposite bank knelt Tristan with Chad Lacoste behind him, one hand resting on Tris's shoulder with brotherly solicitude. At Tristan's feet, beside a waterlogged stump, lay the skeletal remains of a human being.

Wisps of rotted cloth and rope still dripped from the bones, but it wasn't that which caught Remy's attention. Tangled among the cervical vertebrae near the skull was a chain, discolored from its long tenure under the water. Hung from the chain was a silver ring set with a stone that still, after all these years, swallowed the dim light and sparkled like sweet memories.

Maman's ring, given to Tris on his eighteenth birthday, just before she died. He had put it on a necklace and never taken it off...until around the time Sally vanished. He'd said he didn't know how or where he had lost it.

Now Sally's corpse, what remained of it, wore the necklace in silent accusation. Tears ran down Tristan's face, though he made no sound. He lifted his hand as if to reach for the pendant. His fingers trembled.

"What more proof do you need?" Chad asked with nauseating gentleness. "You knew exactly where to find the body. How could you know that, Tristan, unless you were here when Sally died?"

A howl of rage built in Remy's throat, but he swallowed it back. Wait. Listen. Chad had tried to kill Remy; he wouldn't hesitate to hurt Tristan as well if he were provoked. It wasn't an accident that he was here. Either he'd followed Tris or come to this place on his own. What happened in the next few minutes might solve all the mysteries and set Tris free.

Or it might condemn him utterly.

"You'll feel so much better when you admit it, Tristan," Chad said. "You loved Sally. So did I. You owe it to her to tell the truth."

Tristan squeezed his eyes shut. "I... don't remember."

"You don't want to remember. I understand. But things will never be right until you clear your conscience." Chad leaned closer, patting Tristan's arm. "It's so simple. All you have to do is turn yourself in. I'll make sure you get a fair hearing. I know a few good doctors who might even be able to get you a lighter sentence. After all, you couldn't have known what you were doing, could you?"

"Please," Tristan whispered.

Remy gathered his haunches for a leap. His muscles screamed with the need to launch himself at Chad, take him by the throat, choke and rend and tear- "Let me help you," Chad murmured. "You had an argument with Sally. You used your hunting knife to kill her, didn't you? You were afraid someone would find the body, so you wedged Sally under this sunken log and tied her up with rope so the bones wouldn't fall apart or be moved by the current."

Submerged. Remy ground his teeth. That was why he'd never been able to find the body; the scent had been masked by water. A werewolf might think of such a precaution.

"You made yourself forget," Chad went on. "Until today. Then you came here, because in your heart you knew it had to end once and for all. You brought Sally up into the light."

"I... found her."

"And you can't hide it anymore. Everyone in Grand Marais saw you wearing that ring constantly after graduation. I saw it around Sally's neck the day before she died-you gave it to her. And here it is."

"Yes," Tristan wept. "Yes."