Page 65 of Wolfgang

So he wasn’t fazed by the vampire part. Either he’d put it together himself or the sick fucker who’d turned him had already told him.

The kid took a step closer to the pond. “Doctor.”

“Me?” Eric pointed to himself like an idiot. Another small nod. “Um, yeah. We can—we can be doctors.”

Was this going to be some sort of “we can still be all we can be” moment?You can be a doctor, a nurse, a psychopath with inherited wealth.

But then the kid said the worst possible thing, holding his mangy squirrel tight. “You can fix me.”

Oh. Oh shit. Eric stepped closer before he could stop himself, rubbing a hand over his face. “No, buddy, I can’t. I’m so sorry. It’s…permanent. The change.”

The disappointment on that young face was like a knife to the chest. Eric should have lied, right? Wolfe would have lied, would have reassured him with false promises to get him somewhere safe. But Eric couldn’t bear to give this poor, filthy kid fake hope.

The little guy’s eyes welled up like he was going to cry, but all he did was nod again. “That’s what he said too.”

“The one who did this to you?”Give me a name, kid. We’ll rip his head off for you.

“No.” The child cocked his head, studying Eric through his messy hair. “The voice. Do you have it too? My imaginary friend.”

Was he talking about his beast? He must have been, right?

Eric debated taking another step forward but in the end chose to stay where he was. “Yeah. Mine only talks sometimes though. Real limited vocabulary. But my—my partner talks to his a lot.”

“Hard to think sometimes. Hard to talk. Always growling.” The kid held his hands in claws like a cartoon monster, the squirrel swaying in his grasp. “Always hungry.”

“Yeah, that sounds pretty…rough.”

Then they were staring at each other, and Eric had no fucking idea what to do next. Where did he go from here? Find out where he was from? Offer to help him get another squirrel? Offer to find and kill the fucker who’d done this to him?

The kid grasped the squirrel in both hands. “I hurt Mama.”

Jesus Christ. Eric was not equipped for this. He tried to keep his voice calm and level. “Did you—is your mama…is she still alive?”

“Yes. I—I stopped. Ran.” The kid was twisting the squirrel in his hands. The tiny head popped right off. “I’m really fast.”

“Yeah, you are. I couldn’t catch you; that’s for sure.” Eric tried his best not to look at the newly decapitated body in the kid’s hold. “How’d you know to go to blood banks? And the hospitals? You must be really smart, huh?”

“Mama was a…phlegmologist?”

Eric racked his brain for what that could be. “A phlebotomist? She drew blood from people?”

“Yeah.” The kid gave him the smallest, most hesitant smile. “Phlegmbolomist.”

“That’s great. That’s a really cool job.” Jesus fuck, he sounded like an idiot. Eric had never been good with kids. There was a reason he hadn’t gone into pediatrics. “So do you, uh, wanna come back with me? I can help get you food, and you could have a bath?” At the kid’s frown, Eric tried again. “Or a shower?”

The kid looked down at his clothes, at his bloody hands. “Dirty.”

“Yeah, I bet you’ve been really roughing it, huh?”

The little guy seemed to be thinking about it, cocking his head and looking Eric over, as if to search for hidden motives. But then he started tensing again.

Shit, he was going to run for sure. Of course he was. He’d been turned by some random vampire who smelled just like Eric—likeblood—and now here Eric had been stalking him in the woods, talking about bringing him home and bathing him?

Eric prepared himself for another chase, but faster than he could process—faster than the kid could process either—there was Wolfe, right behind the little vampire, one arm wrapped around his throat.

“Well, what do we have here?”

twenty

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