Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation (30 page)

Her blood seemed to follow her heart and abandon her body, and her vision swam. Maybe he was only keeping her alive to present to the Vulke Alpha as a trophy of war. Or maybe they would try to force her to help them to further mutate
Languorem luporum
. Willing back tears, Evelyn forced herself to speak through a tightening throat. “Who? No sorry, not a doctor. My name’s Kim, Kim Panders.”

Consternation took over Nicolas’s features. “Why do you lie to me?”

“I-I’m not lying. I don’t even know what’s going on here.”

Nicolas shook his head. “There is no time for this. They will be missing me, and looking for you. I have other…duties. Not now, but later.” Nicolas then rattled off ten numbers and repeated them.

His words and the numbers made no sense to Evelyn, just swirled about chaotically in her head.
A phone number?
She remained silent.

“You will want to head that way. Follow the ravine.” Nicolas pointed to Evelyn’s right and Evelyn’s head moved to follow his arm in that direction, but then he stepped towards her and she snapped back to face him. As his eyes caught hers in a fierce gaze, he reached towards her, palm outstretched. “You were so beautiful.”

Tensing, Evelyn searched for madness in Nicolas’s eyes, but found only yearning. She wasn’t sure which was more unsettling. Then he dropped his arms and staggered a few paces away in the opposite direction from where he’d guided her. The shock of his behavior and words kept Evelyn rooted to the ground.

“Go now.”

The pleading in Nicolas’s voice stirred compassion in Evelyn’s empty chest, but her logical brain prodded her feet and she sidestepped away from him, trying to keep him in view. She was ten feet away when he glanced over his shoulder.

“Wait!”

Evelyn paused, though part of her was screaming for her to run. Time halted as they stared at one another.

“Power bars.” Nicolas then took off running away from her.

“Power bars,” Evelyn whispered as she watched him disappear into the trees. Then turning, she ran in the opposite direction, limping heavily on her injured leg.

*

Two hours later, after slogging through the damp, black remains of a once beautiful band of forest, Evelyn reached the road they’d driven in on. Miraculously, the fire had left this area untouched, though it was now deserted. Once lined with automobiles, only three remained, and none were the Ford Explorer that Roberto had gifted them. Relief welled up in Evelyn’s chest and pushed out of her mouth in a sob.

“Thank God, thank God.” David had survived and made it out.

Rushing forward, Evelyn winced at the renewed pain in her leg, but she ignored it. She yanked open the door of a Jeep and was inside and starting the car before it hit her that she’d been in the vehicle before.

“No! Oh, Bill, no!”

Hot tears washed soot down Evelyn’s cheeks as she remembered the kind, older Amaruq who’d ferried them across Lake Huron into Canada and then loaned them his grandson’s Jeep on their way to meet the Scribe for the first time. This was that Jeep, and that could only mean…
Maybe he’s just been injured… unable to drive?
Evelyn knew she was grasping, but unwilling to face the truth she clung to the hopeful idea. Sobbing, she ineptly put the car in reverse and turned it around. It was a stick shift and even though it would have been much easier taking one of the automatics… it was
Bill’s
Jeep; Evelyn couldn’t abandon it. Plus, having to focus so hard on driving took Evelyn’s mind off…everything else.

*

David woke to a gentle humming and the sensation of a cool cloth dabbing his face. Everything was warm, soft, and too good to be true, like his mother holding him as a child after a nightmare.

“Evie?”

The humming ceased.

“Shhhh. Easy now.”

Lifting his leaden eyelids, a fuzzy blond face came into focus.
Kim.
Gently pulling a strand of damp hair away from his eyes, she smiled down at him. David smiled back then instantly felt guilty, and let his eyes fall away from Kim.
Am I already done grieving for Evelyn?
The thought felt like a demon tearing holes in his chest, but he wrestled with it.
I can still feel happy that Kim’s alive. There’s nothing wrong with that.
He flicked his eyes back up to look at her.

“Are you okay?”

Kim held her smile. “I’ve been worse.”

As David shifted to prop himself up and get a better look at their surroundings, soreness mingled with exhaustion made his muscles shake. His stomach groaned with hunger. Kim helped adjust the pillows so that he was sitting up. They were in a small, spartan bedroom with yellow walls, bare hardwood floors, a single white dresser, and a green, straight-backed chair in which, Kim was sitting, leaning over to avoid the discomfort of the high back.

“Where are we?”

“Safehouse.”

David wanted numbers. He wanted to know how high the casualties were, if they had evidence that the Vulke had sabotaged the fight, and if they’d heard from the other packs, but he didn’t want to ask Kim these things. Most of all he didn’t want to ask her about Evelyn, if they’d found…he needed to know, but it wasn’t fair to Kim.

“Clem here?”

Kim shook her head. “No, he and a few others have gone to check on their families. Some have gone back to the woods with search and rescue teams. There are still some unaccounted for and they’ve rounded up a couple of strays already.”

Unaccounted for.
David cleared his throat. “What about Roberto?”

“He’s downstairs. Been on the phone mostly. I…I didn’t ask, but I don’t think that things…well, he doesn’t look happy.”

Unable to wait any longer, David pulled back the covers and maneuvered his legs to hang off the edge of the bed. Noticing that he was wearing dry, black sweatpants, he wondered who had changed his clothes for him, and thought he saw Kim blush as she stood to help him up.

“I need to talk to Roberto.”

Ducking under his arm to support David, Kim put her other arm around David’s waist. “I can go get him.”

“Thanks, but I need to move.”

Kim’s smile vacated her face and was replaced by a more serious, somber expression. David attempted to coax it back with a touch of humor.

“Plus, I’m hoping that downstairs is where the kitchen is. I could really use some chow.”

The strained smile his words elicited told him that he hadn’t managed actual humor, but that Kim appreciated his efforts.

“I’ll see what I can scrounge up.”

49

Fifteen minutes later David sat at a modest kitchen table in front of an empty plate and an empty glass waiting for Roberto to get off the phone. Kim sat across from him, silently sipping from a bottle of water. Other Wahya and Amaruq occasionally visited the kitchen, but no one spoke much. It was too soon after the disaster to have much to say, but furtive glances his way gave at least one bit of information away. They hadn’t found Evelyn. Eventually a Wahya named Jackson sat down at the table with them.

“Roberto wants us outta here by tonight. You feeling up for traveling?”

“Tonight? What about the search and rescue efforts? I want to go back out.”

Jackson shook his head. “Sorry. The Wahya are in good with local law enforcement up here, but not good enough for them to see a lot of new faces. Besides there are enough human searchers that we have to keep the number of us Wolfkin low. Can’t risk it. Roberto wants us all to disperse. He’s afraid the Vulke may try to find us up here, finish the job. He doesn’t want us clustered.”

“No I do not.” Roberto appeared in the doorway, his cellphone finally cleaved from his ear.

David wanted to scream at him,
What the hell happened?
But instead he took in a long breath and reined in his emotions. “What happened?”

Roberto squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What we know is this: the helicopter was never signaled but the pilot saw the blaze begin not too far from our gathering point, dropped the deer carcasses, radioed in the fire, and then retreated.”

“Do you think the Vulke set the fire? Sabotaged the fight?”

Roberto opened his eyes. “I doubt that very much. First, it is not their way. Second, their advantage right now is numbers, so why would they risk decreasing their own troops with something as non-discriminating as a fire?”

“Maybe because they see the strays as disposable and easily replaceable?”

Roberto shook his head. “No, we have intelligence that the strays have been trained…in a manner of speaking. I do not believe that the Vulke would throw away those efforts so carelessly.”

David blinked. “Intelligence? You mean from strays we’ve captured since yesterday?”

Roberto cleared his throat. “Not exactly. We have known for some time that the Vulke had training facilities where they were keeping the strays, torturing them, and forcing them to fight one another in human form.”

David jumped from his chair knocking it over backwards. “And you didn’t tell us!”

Next to him, Kim flinched and spilled her water.

Roberto met David’s eye in a steely gaze. “And what would that have accomplished? It would only have confused the stray issue even further. I made the decision to withhold that information in order to save the lives of as many strays as possible, and make the packs more comfortable with your distraction plan. The strays are innocent victims, no matter
what
they have been forced to do.”

Breaking eye contact, David bit his tongue. Roberto was right. They knew that the strays were new to being Wolfkin, undisciplined, and therefore a danger. The fact that the Vulke had honed the aspects that made them a danger really changed nothing, but might tempt the packs to kill them instead of trying to rescue them. Forcing himself to relax, he turned, picked up his chair, and sat back down.

“Casualties?”

“Nine confirmed on our side, and twenty-two Vulke, mostly strays. Many of them panicked when the fire started and well…didn’t make it out. We were lucky. Several packs didn’t fare as well. The—”

“Sire?” A voice came from the front room behind Roberto. He glanced over his shoulder.

“Jim just radioed. There’s a car coming. Looks like it could be Bill’s Jeep.”

Even with just half his face visible, David spotted Roberto’s deep frown. “Bill is dead.”

David heard the distinct sound of a shotgun being cocked, and turned to Kim. “I think you should go back upstairs.”

“Do you really think that the Vulke would drive up so obvious for an ambush if they knew we were here?” Jackson asked.

Roberto’s face was tight. “I am not sure what this is, but we should not take anything for granted. David, please take Kim upstairs.”

Standing, David crossed his arms. “I’m not hiding.”

“Almost here!”

Roberto rolled his eyes and bared his teeth. “Fine. Jackson, please.”

Jackson rose, nodded to Roberto, and then motioned for Kim to walk ahead of him. As she passed, she squeezed David’s shoulder. “Be careful.”

She and Jackson disappeared through the doorway and creaked up the stairs.

“Brian, you are in front with David. I will take the back. David, in that drawer there is a gun. Please tell me you know how to use it.”

Following Roberto’s finger, David found the right drawer and palmed the gun. “I do.”

“Good.”

Roberto motioned him into the front room then stalked down a hallway towards the back of the house. Brian, positioned just to the side and under a large front window behind a worn couch, gestured for David to take up position next to the door. Easing up to peer out of the corner of the window, the other man held a walkie-talkie to his lips.

“Car’s stopped. One person getting out driver’s side.” He paused, squinted. “Holy hell, that looks like…can’t be.” Wide-eyed, he glanced over at David.

“Who? Who is it?”

Before Brian could answer, banging on the door right next to David’s head made his heart gallop into his mouth.

“Hello? Please? Is anyone still here?”

Though the voice was muffled by the door, David would have recognized it anywhere. Scrambling to undo the locks and unlatch the chain, he slung the door open, and there she was, covered in soot and ash, hair like a rodent’s nest, wearing half-burned jeans, and with a pair of mangled sweatpants tied around her upper body. David blinked and his head swam as if in a dream. He wanted to draw her close and never let go, he wanted to tell her that she was never allowed to make him think that she was dead again, he wanted to forbid her from fighting in a battle like this ever again, but he found himself suddenly petrified, unable to move or speak.

“David?”

The sound of his name on her lips broke through his stone shell.

“Evie?” David thrust his arms around her and pulled her into the house, shutting the door on anything that might take her away from him again. “What happened? Where have you been? You…you were right behind us…” His voice hitched and caught painfully in his throat.

“I…it’s a long story, but please, I’m so hungry, and…” Her voice broke into a sob.

“Shhhh, it’s alright now. You’re safe. Here, sit on the couch, I’ll get you something to eat.”

Evelyn sat, but the sobs didn’t stop. Glancing up at a bewildered Brian, David pointed at the stairs.

“Go get her a blanket!”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Brian headed up the stairs, reporting into the walkie again. “All clear. It’s…it’s the
doctor
. She made it.”

50

Everything after arriving at the safe-house and seeing David’s face was a blur. Evelyn’s medical brain registered that she was in shock, but was unable to bring the rest of her mind back to a functioning state. She ate, though what she ate, she couldn’t recall. Then she remembered being carried upstairs and placed in a bed. Sleep.

Evelyn awoke to angry voices trickling up from the main floor and permeating the bedroom door. She was still exhausted, but at least the gnawing hunger in her belly had been sated. Lying there, not wanting to face the reality of what had happened, she wished for the oblivion of sleep to return, but instead of sleep came memories. Flashes of the fighting, the fire, and the Vulke cycled through her brain like jumbled clips from a horror film, forcing Evelyn to open her eyes. As she stared at the slanted sunbeams on the ceiling and tried not to think, the voices got louder and were underscored by the creaking and groaning of the stairs until they sounded like they were right outside the door.