Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation (31 page)

“She needs to rest!”

“We need to leave this place. We have already lingered here too long.”

“You don’t really think that the Vulke are still here, that they’re looking for us? So what’s the rush?”

“I will not go over the reasons again with you. This is what is happening. Do not make me—“

“Make you what, Roberto?”

“David, I am aware that this is an emotional time. But you need to think rationally. Staying would put Evelyn at risk much more than transporting her. Surely you must see that.”

“Oh, don’t act like this is for her sake. This is so you don’t have to deal with the locals, so you can run away from all this and get back to your comfy suite at the casino.”

“David, Roberto’s right. Evie’ll be fine. She’s tough. And maybe not the Vulke, but strays could still be on the loose. We won’t go far, just a couple of hours south. I’ll go wake her.”

Kim’s voice stood out in the storm of testosterone, and Evelyn heard the door open and shut softly. As the other woman’s face came into view, Evelyn was struck by how different it looked. Her normally bright eyes were dulled and ringed in black circles, and her cheeks, typically bubbling with cheer, were sunken. Evelyn didn’t want to know what horrible recent news had so crushed Kim’s spirits.

“Oh, you’re awake.” Kim’s smile didn’t touch her eyes. “How are you feeling?”

Evelyn wanted to tell Kim the truth, that she felt like hell and that hearing about what had happened and who had died last night might push her over the edge of sanity. “Better…We’re leaving?”

Kim nodded. “Now that the official battle is over and things went…so poorly. Roberto wants us to spread out, says we’ll regroup later.”

“But David doesn’t want to go?”

Kim shook her head. “He’s worried about you, and doesn’t think staying in the safe-house one more night is a big deal.”

More images flashed through Evelyn’s mind: blood, glassy eyes. She smelled smoke. “No, we should go. Get some distance. Try to…”
put ourselves back together
“…regroup.”

Reluctantly Evelyn drew back the quilt and blankets. Her ruined and makeshift clothes had been replaced with clean sweats.

“Do you need help?” Shuffling forwards, Kim closed the gap between them.

“Sure, thanks.”

Evelyn held onto Kim’s arm as she stood and tested her injured leg. The skin around her knee was tight, and it was still stiff and painful, but the leg held her weight. Trying not to limp, she let Kim lead her to the door and then down the stairs. Below, on the main floor, Evelyn watched the hustle and bustle of bodies going back and forth, including Roberto, but when they reached the bottom she spotted David brooding on the couch. Upon noticing her, he rose instantly and came to her side.

“Kim said she was going to wake you, but I didn’t know she’d bring you downstairs. I would’ve helped.”

“It’s okay, I’m fine. Really.”

“Well, here,” he said, attempting to get one of Evelyn’s arms around his shoulders, “Let’s get you over to the couch. I still have to go get the car.”

Evelyn gently placed her hand on David’s chest, rejecting his aid. “That’s okay, I want to help pack up or whatever.”

Roberto entered the living room from the kitchen.

“Roberto, what can I do to help?”

Roberto eyed her then smiled briefly. “There are perishable food items that I would like packed up. Some of it can also be loaded into the Jeep, if Kim would like to help too.”

Kim nodded. Evelyn frowned. “Will someone get it back to…Christian?”

Confusion fell over Roberto’s face.

“Bill’s grandson, not a werewolf,” David clarified.

Roberto nodded once. “Eventually.”

David scowled at him and turned back to Evelyn. “You’re sure you’re up for this?”

Evelyn sighed. “I’m fine now. Please go get the car.”

David caught her gaze and held it, his eyes hard. “I’ll be right back.”

As Evelyn watched him leave, a fine, but needle-sharp pain stabbed into her heart.
He’ll be fine
, she told herself.
It’s over. For now.

*

After Evelyn had rearranged the contents of the cooler for the third time, Kim touched her shoulder. “Evie, I don’t think that they care about separating the meats from the cheeses at this point.”

Evelyn put down the package of salami she’d been sorting. “Right. I just—”

“Trying to take your mind off it. I know. Been trying to do that all day.”

“Evelyn.” Roberto motioned to her from the doorway of the kitchen, and Kim gave her shoulder a squeeze as Evelyn rose to follow him. Leading her to the back of the cabin and onto a sun porch, he closed the door behind him and gestured for her to sit in one of the wicker chairs. Taking a seat opposite her, he placed his hands underneath his chin and scrutinized her before speaking. “Evelyn, I wish to tell you something that I want you to keep to yourself, and by that I mean, I wish you not to tell even the other members of your pack. Can you promise me that?”

Evelyn frowned. “Why can’t I tell David?”

Roberto sat back in the chair. “I fear that David’s emotions may get the better of him in this matter. I need someone more cool-headed. Someone I can trust to be logical and discrete.”

Evelyn considered Roberto’s words. “Okay, shoot.”

“I believe there is a traitor amongst us.”

Evelyn’s insides crumbled. “What?”

“While I do believe that the fire last night was set intentionally, I do not believe that the Vulke set it. Judging by the spread and the direction of the wind, it started on our side of the battlefield.”

Trying to swallow a lump that had formed in her throat, Evelyn shook her head. “Why tell me?”

“I do not believe that the traitor’s actions were as successful as they had hoped. We took only nine casualties on our side—“

“Who? Clem?”

“Evelyn, there isn’t time for this, David will return soon.”

Refusing to back down, Evelyn spoke through clenched teeth. “Who?”

Roberto glanced at the door, then back to Evelyn. “Four Amaruq including Bill. Not Clem. An older Wahya from California, one from Florida, one from Vermont, and two security guards from the casino. There.”

Evelyn sagged in the chair, the relief that she didn’t know any of the dead other than Bill welling up guilt in her gut.

“Now, as I said, I do not believe that the traitor fulfilled their purpose last night, therefore I believe that we will see more sabotage from them. That is one of the reasons I want us to disperse. It will be more difficult for them to affect many of us at once if we go our separate ways for now. But I need people I trust to know what is going on, and to look for signs, for suspicious behavior. I need you to trust your instincts. I am going to do the best I can to look into this, but this is a delicate time, and the last thing that we need is unfounded suspicion causing people to act rashly.”

Evelyn nodded as she took in what Roberto was saying. “Do you think that they’ll try to kill me?”

“I’ve taken great pains to hide your location from even our allies, but everyone knows that you are working on the virus now, so it is possible that they could trace you through the lab.” Roberto’s normally impassive face softened. “There is only so much that I can do to protect you now.”

A sad smile graced Evelyn’s lips. “I know.” She rose. “I should get back. David might get suspicious.”

Roberto’s face was stern once more. “You can tell him that we were discussing how you managed to escape the fire on your own last night and why you didn’t rendezvous with the rest of us until now.”

Evelyn froze.

“You will tell me all about it later, yes?”

Evelyn was sure that was exactly what she didn’t want to do, especially in light of the conversation they just had. Without facing Roberto, she took a deep breath, willed her limbs to loosen, and continued on to the door. “Of course.”

51

The exodus from the safe-house was a whirlwind and, before she knew it, Evelyn was back in the SUV with David and Kim, only this time heading south and without Clem. Sitting alone behind David and Kim, the car felt very empty to Evelyn, and though still exhausted, sleep eluded her. Unable to take the silence and staring at the passing scenery any longer, Evelyn finally gave in to her curiosity.

“Do we know anything about the other battles? Did Roberto say anything?”

David cleared his throat.

Kim turned around in her seat to face Evelyn. “He told us some things. Not all good news, but not all bad.”

“Okay. Bad news first.”

Kim nodded. “Well, the Ulv refused to try David’s plan. Said it wasn’t in keeping with Wolfkin traditions or something, and…and we haven’t heard anything from them since the last night, and…”

“Roberto thinks that they’re all dead or captured.” David finished.

Evelyn looked down at her lap. She wasn’t close with any of the other Ulv pack members and Sara was dead, yet knowing that Sara’s pack might be gone opened up an empty, aching place in Evelyn’s heart. Swallowing, she hoped that Kim had started with the worst news first. “What else?”

 “Um, the Lupoluis?” Kim sniffed and glanced at David for confirmation. He bobbed his head. “And the Merrigang refused to fight.”

“What happened to them?”

Kim wouldn’t meet Evelyn’s eye. “Well, nothing happened to the Merrigang, at least not that we know of. The Vulke didn’t call them out and Roberto doesn’t think that anything happened in Australia or New Zealand or around there. He wanted them to go to Europe and help fight, but they wouldn’t. They said now that the Council was gone, politics meant nothing to them. Roberto was furious, but he couldn’t do anything.”

Evelyn wasn’t terribly surprised by this, having met the Merrigang Alpha, Jim. He’d told Evelyn that members of his pack became Wolfkin to bond with nature and go back to their animal roots. They only interacted with other packs on the Wolfkin Council’s insistence, had no interest in a cure, and might even feel that what the Vulke were doing was a good thing.

“And the Lupoluis?”

David cut in before Kim had a chance to speak. “Those artist morons let themselves be slaughtered.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, just stood there while the strays tore them apart.”

Once the initial shock wore off, Evelyn remembered her encounters with one of the Lupoluis at the Council manor house and could see how Evagio and his other eccentric pack members would see this as a magnificently tragic end.

Kim attempted to downplay the horror. “But Roberto never expected them to fight, so…”

“Anything else?”

“Well, the Anubis Pack and the Chon seemed to have sided with the Vulke again—“

“But that’s not surprising because they did before.”

Kim nodded. “But the Alonso also sound like they’ve sided with the Vulke too.”

“The pack in South America? But I thought that the Wahya were on good terms with them.”

David sighed. “They were until you and I showed up and stirred things up. They got mad about a second pack in the U.S. and then I guess a bunch of old grievances came to the surface again, or something. Roberto acted like he wasn’t that concerned about it, so I think that he’s
really
concerned about it.”

Evelyn refused to state the obvious, but she couldn’t stop herself from thinking it.
We are so screwed.
“Maybe I should have asked for the good news first.”

David sniffed. “Not too much of that.”

Kim broke in. “But there is some. There were no other fires or other disasters that we know of, and most of the other packs at least tried some variation of David’s plan. Oh, and the battle in the British Isles was almost a total victory,” Kim raised the corners of her mouth in a facsimile of a smile, “and we all lived, and Clem too…and Madeline…and Roberto…and…and Caroline.”

Kim was trying so hard to lift Evelyn’s spirits that Evelyn couldn’t help but give the girl some encouragement. “You’re right, Kim. Things could’ve been a lot worse.” Her mind raced back to the Vulke Wolfkin rescuing her from the falling tree, and then not killing her later when they were both human again.
Much worse.

*

They could have made it back to Lansing by nightfall, especially with the way that David was driving, but instead took a detour along East 72 into the Huron National Forest. Citing that they’d all been through a highly emotional and traumatic ordeal, Roberto had suggested that they choose as sparsely populated an area as possible for the change that night. Evelyn’s concern for David’s mental state had increased ten-fold when he hadn’t argued with Roberto, though if he had argued, she would have brought up Kim’s Wolfkin immaturity as an excuse to follow Roberto’s recommendation.

When they found a deserted trail-head, they ate an early dinner, comprised of safe-house comestibles, at the car, opening the doors to a warm, though overcast, evening. Each lost in their own thoughts, they sat silently. Evelyn wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell David about her bizarre experience with the Vulke, and definitely didn’t want to tell Kim. The whole thing was just so crazy and still raw in her mind. She didn’t know what to make of the encounter, and just thinking of it was making her sick to her stomach, but when her mind wasn’t preoccupied with the battle and the fire, her thoughts turned to the conversation with Roberto about a possible traitor in their midst. This she was dying to tell David, even if his reaction might not be helpful to the situation. Evelyn could see him flipping out, and the truth was that they just didn’t know enough members of the Wahya or Amaruq to have any idea who the traitor might be, so the information would only frustrate David.

“Kim said that Roberto took you aside earlier.”

“Huh?” Evelyn glanced from a pale and wide-eyed Kim to David, all frown and knitted brows.

“What did he want?”

Avoiding making eye-contact, Evelyn tried to come up with something plausible that wasn’t the truth and wasn’t the lie that she was supposed to tell him, which in truth, she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him.

“Was it about me? Is Roberto concerned about my attitude?”

Pursing her lips to stifle a sigh of relief that David had given her an easy out, Evelyn nodded. “You know how he is. He’s so focused on the bigger picture, the greater good, that he can’t see individuals and individual emotion, or at least can’t see how it’s relevant. He just told me that he doesn’t want your emotions to get in the way of what’s best for everyone.”