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Luciana. She wanted to kill Luciana. “We don’t know. I don’t even know where to start looking. All I know is that she’s got more than enough power to do whatever she wants, and… She’s made life complicated for us. It’s not like we can just pop out and look for her. Not now.”
“But we have to go after her,” Raphael said. “She can’t get away with what she’s done. She’s murdered everyone we know.” He gripped the back of the couch. “I don’t know what’s happened to her, but if she can do that, then she’s not the Luciana we knew. She’s pure evil.”
I nodded. “I agree. All I know is that we’re stuck here. The alphas are trying to decide what to do next, and until then—I guess we wait.”
Shane nodded, and I looked at Beth. A steady stream of tears ran down her face, but she wasn’t looking at anything. More than any of them, she was the one who seemed utterly broken by this.
“Is she okay?”
Shane squeezed her. “We’ll take care of her.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
“Don’t. This isn’t your fault. There’s nothing for to apologize for. Luciana did this, and we’ll make her pay.” His words were so final that I couldn’t do anything but nod.
“She will. I think we’re all agreed on that.”
Claudia wiped her face, and cleared her throat. “What did you do with the bodies?”
I blinked as I tried find a way to answer Claudia’s question that wouldn’t upset her more. “I think they were burned at the compound.”
“No. I mean of Elsa. And Yvonne. Tiffany. They weren’t at the compound.”
“I—” I wasn’t sure. We’d run off so quickly. “I don’t know.” I turned to Dastien, who was leaning against his kitchen counter.
“I think Dr. Gonzales has them. I don’t think she’s done anything yet.”
“I want to see them.”
Shane nodded. “Me, too.”
“We should all go,” Raphael said as he stepped toward the door.
“I should warn you. They don’t… They look…”
“How bad?” Lucas said.
“I couldn’t really look at them.” I squeeze my eyes closed for a second as the image of Elsa on the floor of the library came to mind.
“Adrian?” Dastien said.
“Yeah.” He stood up from where he was sitting—at the foot of Dastien’s bed.
“Can you take them to see Dr. Gonzales?”
“Sure. Of course.” Even he seemed a little pale. He moved slower than normal as he opened the door.
Claudia pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry, too. This had to be so hard for you.”
I huffed. “Me? No. I really am so sorry. If I knew—if there was something I could’ve done—I would’ve.”
“I know. Me, too. I feel like this is my fault. I didn’t do enough. If I’d moved against her sooner…” She stepped back. “But we can’t know that. We could’ve done everything right and still gotten to this same place. So we have to keep moving forward. I’m going to see to my friends’ bodies, and then we can look at what I brought back from Peru.”
I nodded. “Whatever you need. I’m here.”
“I’ll call you,” she said. Lucas followed her out of the room, giving us a small nod, before closing the door behind them.
I melted down to the couch. They’d only been here for a couple hours, but it felt like years. It was like I’d been hit by an emotional eighteen-wheeler. Even if Shane and Claudia said it wasn’t my fault that this had happened, it felt like at least some of the blame fell to me. If I hadn’t ended up with the pack, if I had been with the coven, maybe I could’ve prevented all this.
