Xavier leaned forward. “Sarcasm aside, you don’t need a guy like that, Elena. Maybe you think you do-only female werewolf and all that-but hell, I’ve seen what you can do-tied to a chair, up against a male werewolf. You can do that, you don’t need some f**king psychopath like Clayton Danvers-”

He stopped, noticing my gaze.

“He’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?” Xavier murmured.

“Uh-huh.”

Xavier tilted his head back, saw Clay and disappeared. He reappeared on the opposite bench, pressed up against me. I looked over at him, eyebrow raised. He swore under his breath and teleported to the far end of the other bench. Then he stood and turned to Clay.

“You must be-”

“The f**king psychopath,” Clay said.

“Er, right, but I meant that in the most respectful way. Believe me, I have the utmost regard for, uh…”

“Raging lunatics,” I said.

Xavier shot me a glare.

“Oh, sit down,” I said. “He didn’t bring his chain saw.”

Clay circled the table and slid in next to me. Xavier waited until he’d sat, then took his original place across from me.

“Clay, this is Xavier, Evanidus half-demon. Specialty? You just got a little demonstration of that.”

“A pretty damned indiscreet demonstration,” Clay said, shooting a look over at the playground.

“No one saw,” Xavier said. “And even if they did, they’ve already explained it away. Humans only see what they expect to see. I bet you guys could change into wolves right here and you’d have twenty parents grabbing their cell phones-not phoning CNN to report a werewolf sighting, but calling the Humane Society to pick up a couple of really big dogs that are definitely violating the leash laws.”

“Speaking of violating leash laws, you do know where David Hargrave is, right? And he’ll still be there when we arrive?”

“He should be. If he bolts, it won’t be because I tipped him off. And if he does bolt, I’ll get you a new location or you don’t owe me a thing. This guy killed three women. I say you’re welcome to him. I may not be the most moral guy, but with something like that, I’ll gladly turn him in to the proper authorities. Which, in this case, would be you guys.”

Clay snorted. “How long have you known where he was before your sense of civic duty kicked in?”

“Let me guess,” I said. “Just long enough to find something you could ask for in return. Don’t give me the wounded look. We want Hargrave. What do you want?”

Xavier eased back in his seat. “You guys ever hear of the From Hell letter?”

“No, and from the sounds of it, I’m not sure I want to.”

Clay said, “If this is some kind of demon thing, we’re not interested. The werewolves don’t getinvolved in-”

“It’s nothing demonic. It’s just a letter. Supposedly sent by Jack the Ripper to the police. At some point over the next hundred years, it went missing.”

I frowned. “You want us to find-?”

“Oh, I know where it is. It was never really missing. Not to our side of the world, that is.”

When Clay and I glanced at one another, Xavier rolled his eyes. “Our side. The supernatural side. You guys rejoined the council; that puts werewolves back in the middle of the whole supernatural community. Didn’t you get your membership cards?”

“About this letter,” I said.

“All the Jack the Ripper files were sealed up for a hundred years. When they were opened in the eighties, the From Hell letter was missing. Not surprising, considering it was stolen back in the twenties. The theft was commissioned by a sorcerer.”

“Why? Is it magical?”

“Nah. The only way of getting it was with supernatural aid, so it stayed on our side of the line. But just think-that letter could tell us the true identity of Jack the Ripper, and some rich spellcasting son of a bitch is hoarding it for himself. Disgraceful. We are about to rectify that.”

I glanced at Clay. “Not liking the sound of that ‘we.’ ”

“Me neither,” Clay said.

“I hope you aren’t going to ask us to steal that letter-”

“You can’t steal stolen goods. What I’m asking is for you to right a very old wrong.”

“And return it to the London Police. Gee, that’s mighty big of you, Xavier.” I turned to Clay. “See, there is a sense of civic duty there after all.”

“Ha-ha. I’m passing it on to a buyer, yes, but he wants to have it analyzed by a team of DNA experts so the world can know once and for all the identity of Jack the Ripper.”

“Damn,” I murmured. “That is a righteous cause. Now we can finally catch that murdering bastard and lock him up in prison where he belongs.”

Before Xavier could open his mouth, I continued. “What’s the guy looking for: a book deal or a movie deal?”

Xavier hesitated, then said, “Book…and probably movie eventually, but he’s investing over a hundred thousand dollars in this crusade-”

“In return for a book deal that I’m sure will net him a pittance.”

I glanced at Clay. He shrugged. He was right. As offensive as I found this guy’s reason for wanting the letter, it wasn’t doing anyone any good where it was now. And we needed to find David Hargrave before he went on another killing spree.

“Why us?” Clay said. “You can teleport through walls.” He met Xavier’s gaze. “Unless there’s a reason you want someone else to do it.”