Page 95 of A Wolf's Wound
Therehastobesome way I can stall Brian.That’s my only hope of attacking him: keep him off-balance long enough that I can figure out an opening, and then rush him.It’s not much of a plan, but it’s all I’ve got right now.
Maybe it’s just because I’m panicking, but I swear Brian is looking more out of control with each passing minute.I need to figure out a way to stop all of this before he really loses it.
“Well!”Brian says, clapping his hands together so loudly that I inadvertently tense up.“I think we’ve had enough conversation for a while.Time to move on to something else.”He chuckles to himself.I don’t even want to know what he thinks is funny.I get the feeling the humor will be lost on me.
“No!”I blurt out.“Um, I’d like to hear more.You clearly put a lot of thought and energy into all of this.I’d love to hear more details.”
“Really,” Brian says suspiciously.
“Honestly, I would,” I say as sincerely as possible.
I must sound more sincere than I feel, because Brian looks pleased.“Sure, Ryder.Ask away.What do you want to know?”
“Well, the councilman,” I say.“That one didn’t seem to fit into the rest of the pattern.You really kept us guessing with him.”
Brian looks pleased.“I did?That’s funny.”
“Oh yeah?Why?”
“I was trying something out with him,” Brian says.“Let’s call it a little experiment.I had a hypothesis and he was my guinea pig, so to speak.”
My blood runs cold.“What kind of experiment were you trying?”
“All of the great scientists had their failures, of course,” Brian continues, as if he hadn’t heard me.“Einstein, Tesla, Edison.All of them were wrong a lot.”
“Of course, that’s how you learn,” I say encouragingly.
“Exactly!I was still learning,” he says, nodding vigorously.“I’d practiced and tinkered plenty in my lab, but I knew until I tried this out for real, I’d never make any progress.”
“What did you try?”
“It was just random that it happened to be the councilman,” Brian goes on.I don’t know if he’s ignoring me or so deep in his own head that he really didn’t hear me.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.I mean, I wasn’t trying to go for someone with any kind of profile.Or someone connected to your family.Although in Stonehaven, that’s kind of hard to find.”
“I guess.”I shrug.
“Oh, it is, man.You guys are everywhere!”Brian chuckles.“Anyway, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.”
Brian grins at his choice of words, and I feel even more uneasy.Whatever grip he had on sanity appears to be weakening by the second.
“So, you just found him?”I ask.
“But, dude, it really messed up his nervous system.I wasnotexpecting that.It was so gnarly!”
“I can imagine,” I say weakly.
“Yeah, I had no idea things would go the way they did.The guy ended up clawing himself to death.Can you believe that?He was bleeding from his eyes and his mouth.I didn’t even know someone could bleed from their eyes.”
“That sounds really painful.”
“It probably was.”Brian shrugs.“He wasn’t really making a lot of sense, though, so maybe it actually felt good!”He laughs, and my skin crawls, both at the mental image and at Brian’s apparent glee at what he’s done.
“But don’t worry, Ryder.After that little experiment went sideways, I didn’t try it again.I didn’t want to hurt more shifters,” Brian says.
“Hey, that’s good.”I try to sound positive.“That’s really decent of you, man.Good idea.”
