advice from the other detectives around her.
For a moment, Jannalynn’s face looked blank. She hadn’t thought of a motive, at least not a simple one. Then she said, “Kym stole my wal et from my purse, and when I tracked her down and made her give it back, she disrespected me. I … have a bad temper, and she said some stuff that made me sick. I lost it. I have to go now. But I don’t want anyone else blamed for something I did.”
And Alcide hung up. “We’l hope that wil clear Eric. That’s our responsibility,” he said, and nodded at Eric, who nodded back.
Jannalynn made her face hard and looked around, but I noticed she didn’t actual y meet anyone’s eyes. Even mine.
“How’d she get these sleazebal s to help her?” Roy asked, jerking his head at the kneeling prisoners. He’d definitely been prepped.
“She promised them membership in the pack when she became packleader,” Alcide told the Weres. “Van is a convicted rapist. Coco burned her own family, father and two brothers, in their home. Laidlaw, though not convicted in a human court, was thrown out of his own pack in West Virginia for attacking a human child during his moon time. This is why I had turned them down for the Long Tooth pack. But Jannalynn would admit these people to run with us. And they did her bidding.”
There was a long silence. Neither Van, nor Plump (Coco), nor Laidlaw denied the charges against them. They didn’t try to justify themselves, which was pretty damn impressive.
“What do you think we should do with the rogues?” Roy asked when the silence had lasted long enough.
“What crimes did they commit
“They abducted Warren and imprisoned him at Jannalynn’s family home. They didn’t feed him and left him in an attic room without air-conditioning or any means of relief from the heat. He almost died as a result. They abducted Sookie and were taking her to their own place, and we can only imagine what they would have done with her there. Those actions were at the behest of Jannalynn.”
“And she held out the promise of admission to the pack upon your death.” The young woman sounded like she was thinking hard. “Those are bad things to do, but in fact Warren lived, and Sookie was rescued by the pack. Jannalynn won’t be your successor, and they won’t join the pack.”
“This is al true,” Alcide said.
“So they acted about like you’d expect rogues to act,” the young woman persisted.
“Yes. Not lone wolves,” Alcide explained for the benefit of the youngest Weres present. “But rogues, who’ve been turned down for pack membership, maybe by more than one pack.”
“And what about Kandace?” the young woman said, pointing to the short-haired rogue.
“Kandace told us what was happening because she didn’t want to be a part of it,” Alcide said. “So we’re going to put her membership to the vote in a month. After people have time to get to know her.”
There was a general round of nodding, kind of guarded. Kandace might have told on the other rogues because it was the right thing to do, or she might be a natural snitch. Getting to talk to her on an individual basis was the best course.
“I think we should let these rogues go,” cal ed an older man. “Blackbal them from ever being a pack member anywhere. Put out the word.”
Van closed his eyes. I couldn’t tel if he was feeling relief or misery. Coco was crying; Laidlaw spat on the ground. Not smooth when people were deciding your life or death.
In the end, they were released. It was unceremonious. Roy untied them and said, “Git.”
Eric looked away to hide his appal ed reaction to such a lack of ritual. Laidlaw took off toward the east, running awkwardly because of his bandaged shoulder. Coco and Van went north. In a moment they were out of sight, and that was the end of the rogues, as far as the Long Tooth pack went.
Jannalynn remained. Responding to a gesture from Alcide, Roy untied her hands and she stood to her unimpressive height, rubbing her wrists and stretching.
Mustapha stood to face her on the sanded vol eybal area.
“I wil kil you,” he said in his deep voice. He was not even wearing the dark glasses.
“Try, jungle bunny,” Jannalynn said, and held out her hand. She got a sword, too, handed to her by Roy. I was a little surprised; execution seemed more in order than the right to fight. But nobody had asked me.
She was trying to make Mustapha angrier with her insult, but the epithet didn’t have any effect on him whatsoever. Some of the pack looked disgusted. The rest looked … like people waiting for a sporting event to begin. I looked up at Eric, who seemed interested, nothing more. Suddenly, I felt like punching him. This woman had talked a desperate stripper into drinking fairy blood and seducing a vampire, both dangerous processes with unknown outcomes. Kym might have been reckless enough to risk her own death, but that didn’t make Jannalynn’s scheming any less pernicious, or the pain I’d felt as a result any more bearable.
I thought she deserved to die for what she’d done to Sam alone. His face was rigid with the effort of holding in his feelings. My heart hurt for him.
The two combatants circled each other for a moment, and suddenly Jannalynn executed one of her flying leaps, hoping to come down on top of Mustapha. The lone wolf pivoted, and his sword blocked hers. She went spinning to the ground, but she was up in a second and back on the attack.
Mustapha had told me he wasn’t sure he could win a fight with Jannalynn, and for a few seconds she had the advantage. Not only did she hack away at him—this wasn’t fencing, not like Robin Hood—but she shrieked, she screamed, she did everything she could to confuse and distract her opponent.
I noticed that she was working gradual y closer to the edge of the sand. Closer to Alcide and Sam.
She might be a Were, but some intents were so strong I couldn’t miss them.
