The old Indian smiled. He flared brightly and then faded into nothing but sparks. Then he was gone.
“Wow, is that what happens when they pass on?” I asked blinking in an attempt to remove the afterimage from my sight.
“Sometimes, not always,” Gail said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
We walked together back to her van and I knelt to pick up Javier’s body.
Gail opened the side doors and reached inside to retrieve a plastic storage box. Removing the lid, she unpacked a black plastic body bag. Working expertly, she flipped open the plastic and spread it on the van’s floor. She motioned me forward and I laid Javier’s body gingerly on the plastic. Blood still dripped from his clothing and it slowly pooled on the plastic. Gail pulled the sides together and zipped up the bag.
I started to ask her why she carried body bags but then I realized that I really didn’t want to know.
“Marta, you want me to staple those wounds?” Gail asked.
Marta turned in the passenger seat. She glanced at the body bag and then nodded. “Thanks for taking care of Javier.” She choked on the last words but got them out.
“It’s the least we can do for a fellow hunter. Jesse, could you drive while I get started with Marta. I don’t want to be here if someone called the cops.”
“Sure, Gail. Marta, I’m real sorry about Javier,” I added.
Marta nodded at me, but I could see she was barely keeping it together.
Gail climbed in and I shut the doors behind her. I went around to the driver’s door. Getting in, I retrieved the keys from under the floor mat and started the engine. I shifted into drive and pulled forward. The gate had a sensor that automatically opened it when a vehicle approached from the house side of the drive. I pulled through and immediately spotted the Morenos’ truck where I’d seen them park it earlier. I pulled to the side of the road behind it and put the transmission in park.
Turning, I saw Gail was finishing up with Marta’s wounds.
“What now?” I asked.
Marta looked at me and then back at Gail. “I saw you change. You’re one of them.”
Gail frowned. She glanced at me and I could see her resignation. She had told me other hunters would come after her if they learned of her condition. She wiped a torn sleeve across her bloody face. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“When?”
“A few weeks ago, I think it was Montgomery that bit me.”
“Then you knew there would be weres here tonight?” Marta asked. Her voice had grown cold.
“No, not at all. We had no idea who he was. Weird coincidence is all. Montgomery had a ring that could force the change on werewolves outside the full moon. It also let him control them and even let him maintain his consciousness when he was in wolf form.”
“That’s possible?” Marta asked.
“I pretty obviously changed tonight. You know as well as I that someone recently bitten can’t change except under the full moon. I had no idea he had a ring that could do that. When we went to put him down, he used the ring to force the change on me. If not for that, we could have handled him without Nichols and Robbins being killed.” Gail’s voice turned pleading. “We just didn’t know about Montgomery or the ring.”
I placed a hand on Marta’s shoulder. “Inamorata, you know I would have warned you if I’d known. Don’t you?”
She stared at me for a long moment and gradually nodded. “I’d never believe you’d let me walk into a trap.”
Marta turned back to Gail. “Now what?”
“That’s up to you. He’s your brother,” Gail said.
“You know that’s not what I meant. Are you going to do the right thing?”
Gail glanced at me.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“She wants to know if I’m going to kill myself or let her do it for me,” Gail said.
“You can’t be serious,” I said.
Marta looked at me. “I’m sorry, Jesse, but that’s what has to be done.”
“I told you, Jesse,” Gail said.
“Oh, hell no! I don’t care what is normal among you hunters, no one is killing my partner including herself. Marta, we already made it through a full moon without Gail changing. She still wouldn’t have changed if it weren’t for this ring,” I said holding up my hand.
“She didn’t change?” Marta asked. “How did you manage that?”
“With silver,” I said. “If you put enough silver against the skin, the creature is kept at bay. We proved it could be done, Marta. Give us a chance.”
Marta shook her head. “Sooner or later, you’ll slip up, and then she either rips out your throat or changes you into another of her kind. You can’t guarantee that you can always repeat what you did once.”
“But now we have the ring and those armbands,” I said.
Marta glanced back at Gail and eyed the silver bands around her wrists. They were loose on her and the broken ends of the chain dangled free.
“What do those do?”
“They can keep a werewolf prisoner. Put them on and they negate everything about a werewolf. They even force the change back to human.”
“But I saw you change,” Marta said.
“That last bastard broke the chain,” Gail snarled. “I still wouldn’t have changed if he hadn’t been wearing that ring.”
Marta stared at Gail for a minute without speaking and then she turned to me. “Amoroso, for you I will keep Gail’s secret, but if I ever find you let her get loose—”
“I won’t.”
“Then your secret will remain our secret.”
“Thank you, Marta,” Gail said.
Marta glanced at Javier’s body and shivered. “Could you keep Javier until tomorrow night? I’ll make the arrangements tomorrow and text you a location.”
“Certainly. I am so sorry about your loss,” Gail said.
Marta nodded and opened the side door. She slid out and I watched her
