Prowlers: Wild Things Read Free Page B

track Olivia down. She just disappeared, Winter. I couldn't turn to anyone else."
    Bill's tone was almost reverent. Jack had never heard him speak that way to anyone before. Though Bill had told Lao that Winter owed him, clearly, it seemed he was not about to remind the other Prowler of that debt.
    Winter barely acknowledged Bill's words. Instead he focused on Jack, who forced himself not to squirm under the intensity of that scrutiny.
    "You really killed Tanzer?"
    Tanzer . The leader of a vicious pack that had ranged up and down the eastern seaboard slaughtering humans with abandon. It had been many months ago now, but the memory was still fresh.
    Jack nodded. "Not alone, but yeah, I killed him."
    "And you took out the sanctuary up in Vermont?"
    Again, Jack inclined his head, but more slowly this time, less willing to lay claim to that particular feat.
    Winter laughed softly. "I wonder how long your luck is going to hold out, Jack. Jack the Giant-Killer."
    The dark-skinned man's eyes were almost mesmerizing. Much as he wanted to tear his gaze away, though, Jack would not. A dozen retorts came to mind but he kept his teeth clamped down on all of them and simply stared back at him expectantly.
    At last, Winter looked away, turned his focus on Bill.
    "Guillaume, I owe you my life," Winter said kindly, almost sadly. "And when I had an opportunity to save your sister's, I failed in that. No matter how far I wander or how many people whisper about me, I will never forget that. You have never called upon me before because you did not want to."
    Bill began to protest but Winter waved his words away.
    "I understand. Truly, I do. I walk a line between this underground world and the surviving packs and yet somehow I stay alive. Somehow." He smiled, and there were a thousand secrets in the lines of his face. "But you should know that you could call upon me forever and my debt would not be paid. Claudia's death is a dark cloud upon my heart, just as it is upon yours."
    Winter paused, glanced at Jack, and then looked to Bill again.
    "When her mother died and she realized her father was not going to ever behave toward her the way a father should, Olivia stayed for quite some time with your mother's pack in Quebec. In April of last year she simply left without a word. Weeks later she turned up in New York. She made friends in the underground quickly enough, and word from the wild there is that she wanted to make it in the music business. She played clubs, met all the right people, joined that scene.
    "Six months ago she disappeared. Whispers in the wild say something went bad with the music thing, but I think that's just a cover."
    Bill stared at Winter as though at a loss for words.
    Jack wasn't. "Why?" he asked.
    Winter shot him a questioning glance.
    "I mean why do you think that?"
    The thin Prowler tapped his fingers in time with the music again and when he spoke again, it was to both of them.
    "Jasmine," Winter said calmly.
    "Shit," Jack whispered. Jasmine had been Tanzer's mate, one of the few survivors from the pack he and his friends had destroyed. He knew that she had had a vendetta against them ever since.
    "Jasmine has gathered a new pack in Manhattan," Winter continued. "She hired Dallas to kill both of you and your loved ones. Dallas was concerned for Olivia. Jasmine told him she might be able to help him locate the girl. Maybe that was just blowing smoke, hoping to guarantee his allegiance. But what if it wasn't?"
    "Then Jasmine knows where she is," Jack replied. "No disrespect intended, but we knew that already. It isn't like Jasmine's just going to tell us."
    At his side, Bill shuddered. Jack glanced at his friend and saw that the big man had covered his face with his hands. He ran his fingers through his beard and then turned to Jack.
    "You're missing the point. Just like I missed the point. What Winter's saying is that he thinks Jasmine has Olivia. Took her on purpose, an insurance against me."
    Winter nodded slowly,