“That’s all it would take?” Treviano asked.
“Pretty much. Drive-by sniffing is a thing,” Caeco said. “Even if this guy stays indoors, houses breathe, and his scent will flow out of it.”
“I could go right now!” Kristin said, which prompted a round of no from her mother, the chief, and Jetta.
“Your body is really stressed right now,” Jetta said. “But the thing about werewolves is that they bounce back really fast. A good night’s sleep in your own bed along with more of your mom’s great cooking and you’ll be ready for anything.”
Outside, a car door slammed and suddenly a big blonde man was entering the house at almost a dead run. “Kristin?” he called as he barreled in.
Kristin said something to him in Icelandic and he enveloped her in his arms.
“I got here as fast as I could. After talking to you this morning, Agent Jensen, I was more hopeful than in days, so I kept my schedule to a minimum. You found her. You found my baby.”
She hugged him back fiercely and suddenly he groaned. Immediately she let go and he drew in a deep breath. “Wow, that’s some hug,” he said, only half kidding. Immediately she looked to Jetta, who smiled and nodded.
“Sorry, Daddy,” she said.
He frowned and then started to shake his head but Caeco interrupted. “Your daughter has been through a great deal, Mr. Bjornsson. Her ordeal actually began in Iceland on your family’s last visit. That bite she received was from a werewolf, not a dog. It infected her with the LV virus and thankfully it didn’t kill her, but… she’s now a werewolf too.”
His tanned face blanched at her words, his eyes going wide with first alarm and then anger. He said something vehement in Icelandic, most likely a curse, based on the shocked reaction of his wife and daughter.
“Do you know the werewolf who bit her, Mr. Bjornsson?” Caeco asked.
He stared at her, frowning, then shook his head. “Not directly, but I can guess why she was bitten and who might have arranged it,” he said. “It is outside the…jurisdiction? Jurisdiction of your FBI.”
“Maybe, but not outside the jurisdiction of the supernatural world. Deliberately spreading LV is a high crime pretty much everywhere on the planet. It will have to be looked into,” Caeco said.
“By who?” he demanded.
She turned and looked at the Suttons. Mack scratched his head. “Probably the Coven,” he said.
“You will tell them?” Vilhelm Bjornsson demanded.
“I already have,” the Bluetooth speaker on a nearby credenza said.
“That’s the Omega computer, Vilhelm,” Chief Kent said. “It seems to pay a lot of attention to whatever these three do.”
“Correct,” the speaker said. “The Elders of the Coven have been informed. They will send someone to look into it.”
“I don’t really care about that. What about Kristin?”
“She survived her first Change and stayed in wolf form through her second full moon. But she’ll need help when the next one rolls around,” Caeco said.
“I have informed ather and Stacia of this situation. Stacia will be contacting you, Kristin Vilhelmsdottir, sometime today,” Omega said.
“Stacia Reynolds will be calling me?” Kristin exclaimed, then turned to Marika, whose expression matched her own disbelief.
“Actually, that’s really good,” Jetta said. “She’s a strong Alpha and she’ll do a better job teaching you than any other Alpha we know.”
“Yeah, she helped a deputy who got bit during that incident in Fetter, Maine,” Mack said. “Devany has adjusted really well. Same with Holly, who got bit in Las Vegas, and that girl has some serious anger issues.”
“We can talk more about all this later,” Caeco said. “We’ll leave you three alone and continue our investigation. But we could really use your help tomorrow.”
“Now wait a moment. We just got her back!” her father said.
“Dad, this is something I can do to help those boys,” Kristin said. Her eyes went a little yellow and Jetta instantly clapped her hands once, loudly, startling everyone.
“Gotta watch your temper, Kristin,” she said. “Reacting from anger or fear right now, at this stage, is very, very dangerous. Werewolves have volatile tempers, and you’ll have to learn to control yours. And also, extreme emotions can trigger a Change.”
The girl looked stricken, her eyes tearing up. Jetta reached over and patted her knee. “Look, being a were is going to be different and difficult. But you survived not just the virus, but your first Change and a month on your own. That’s freaking amazing. You’re going to be a great werewolf. Just relax, eat lots, and rest. Tomorrow we’ll talk some more. Just try and stay… even. Okay?”
The teenager nodded and Jetta smiled at her again, then stood up. Vilhelm showed them to the door. “I want to know more about what happened to my daughter,” he said to all four of them. “I would speak with you about it at a later time… perhaps tomorrow?”
“We will talk to you tomorrow,” Caeco said, the last to step out.
They made it to the cars before the next shoe dropped.
“Chief, you should know that a reporter from Portland has bribed an individual on the coroner’s staff. They are preparing to break a report that the boys were killed by a werewolf. You may wish to get out ahead of it,” Omega said from Mack’s cell phone.
“Damn it!” he said.
“Hey, you found the missing girl, solved the werewolf problem, and have a lead on the murderer,” Caeco said. “Hold a press conference and announce that.”
“You all did those things,” he said, frowning.
“In conjunction with you and your excellent department,” Caeco said. “I will be updating my boss, but by all means deliver your news.”
“Excellent advice, Chief Clark Kent,” Omega said. “I will surveil the residents of Stonegate Road to watch for any reactions to your conference. It is possible that it may flush our quarry into the open.”
“Don’t you need to guard the world or something?” Kent asked. “Why is he helping us?” he asked the other three.
“Never mind that… your first name is
