Page 34 of Wolf Bane
“On a Saturday?”she asked, brows arching in surprise.“You’re dedicated.”
I grinned tightly.“More like scared spitless.”
ChapterEight
Mariska was still sleeping fitfully when I swung by to check on her after leaving Gina Perrin.Mal wasn’t doing much better himself.
“You should try to sleep while she’s down,” I said quietly, watching as Mariska tossed and turned on the narrow sofa, Smith curled at her feet and bearing the floppage with doggy grace.“Isn’t that what they tell parents, anyway?Rest while they rest?”
“Parents of babies,” he muttered.“And it’s bullshit then, too.I can’t sleep while she’s like this.I’ve never seen her this ill before, Landry.What if?—”
“She’s going to get better,” I said firmly.“That’s all there is to it.”At his incredulous, annoyed look, I offered a small smile.“I take an unconventional approach to medicine.Healing through determined statements of belief.”
Mal shook his head, the barest ghost of a smile on his lips.“If I could tell her to shake it off, I would.The one good thing is I got her to have some plain toast after you left, and a cup of weak tea.It’s stayed down.”
Rummaging in my bag, I found my prescription pad and wrote him out a scrip for an anti-nausea medication that was suitable for someone her age and size.“This should help.I sayshouldbecause, well, frankly, as far as I know Mariska is the only one in the world who is half lab-induced were-person and half shifter.This is generally well tolerated though so…”
He nodded again.“Waltrip is gonna stop by tonight, when he’s back from Fort Worth.I can have him pick it up on his way.”
“I thought he was out of town on business for longer than that,” I said, only half-lying.Waltrip hadn’t mentioned a specific length of time, just that he’d talk to me on Tuesday after he got done with his court appearance.
Mal froze for just a second, but it was obvious enough for me to notice.“Um.Guess he’s done early.”
“I was hoping to talk to him about what’s going on,” I said, glancing into the living room to make sure Mariska was still asleep and not listening in.Boo raised his head and gave a softwuffas if to tell us to mind our own business, he’s got it under control.“He’s got his real job and all that, but there’s some stuff going on I really need help parsing out here.Tyler… Tyler might have found a connection to the current shitball and Garrow.”
The choked sound Mal made was loud in the quiet house, making Mariska stir and mutter in her restless sleep.
“Now,” I said carefully, leaning against the kitchen doorjamb as Mal turned to fuss over Mariska, “I have two avenues I can choose from.I can nod my head and sayWaltrip’s a good friend, huh,and we can natter about how he’s helped you out over the past few months and both of us politely ignore the way we all met.Or I can be aggressive about things and point out that I think you and Waltrip are hiding something, and you’re acting awfully guilty for a guy who doesn’t know what he’s up to, and he’s acting awfully shifty for someone just going about his daily life.”
“He’s a private investigator,” Mal said staunchly.“He’s got a lot of cases to deal with, and it’s not like he can just tell us everything, you know?We don’t get his schedule.”The buzz of his phone broke into the conversation and Mal visibly relaxed, grabbing it from the countertop.“It’s one of Mariska’s classmates’ parents,” he said, accepting the call.
I wandered to the living room to give him the illusion of privacy even though, between my hearing and the size of the house, I could hear everything he was saying even though he kept his voice low.Mariska’s fever seemed to be holding steady, according to the little handheld forehead monitor Mal had brought out earlier.It was still within a few tenths of a degree from what it’d been the last time I’d checked.Her stentorious breathing filled the room, too loud for such small lungs I thought.Gently, I brushed her sweaty hair back from her face.Mariska bared her teeth in a week grimace, a tiny growl rising in her throat before she sank deeper into sleep.
“Jenny Garza’s mom’s the head of the phone tree for Mariska’s class,” Mal said softly, coming to stand beside me.“She said there’s some nasty bug going around, but only Mariska, Tomas, and Jenny have been hit so hard.”He glanced at me in the dim room and shook his head slightly.“Tomas and Jenny are entirely human, as far as I know.The other shifters in the area and a handful of weres have made sure I know who’s who and what’s what, either because they want to be welcoming or make sure we stay away from their pure-blooded little families.”
Mariska shifted, making a displeased little noise as she pushed herself onto her elbows.Mal bent to help her up and she coughed, glaring up at both of us as if this were our fault.“Jenny’s a shifter.She has to be.She’s super fast, and she’s strong enough to do a whole pull up.”
“Hon, that’s now how it works,” Mal said, smiling softly down at her.“Just because someone is stronger than other kids your age doesn’t mean they’re a shifter like you.”
“Dad.”She sighed, seven going on seventeen in the attitude department.“I swear, Jenny’s a shifter!She smells like me!”As if to demonstrate, she took a big breath in through her nose and snorted.“But not.Like… I smell like a coyote shifter.She smells… smaller?Like something little?”Mariska tried to sit up, but Mal gently pressed her back down.“Maybe like a mole or something?No, those aren’t fast… Maybe a mouse?”
“Or like a little girl who plays in the dirt with my little girl,” Mal said, smoothing her sweaty bangs back from her face.“Think you could drink some water?”
“ButDad, sheis!She runs real fast and?—”
“And I know you love hanging out with the shifter kids in Berryville, but not every kid is a shifter or a were, Mari.”He sighed, an old argument from the sound of things.“I promise when you’re better, I’ll call Elias’ mom for a playdate, okay?And you two can run around on four paws all you’d like.”
It had been a bit of a trick for Mal to find shifters open to letting Mariska into their social circle.Partially because he wasn’t a shifter himself but also because it was known in the were and shifter communities that he was friends with me and therefore had ties to the weres in a big way, whether he liked it or not.Ethan had tried to explain the enmity between the two groups to me before, but it all sounded ridiculous.Weres had, for generations, considered shifters to be a poor imitation—who’d want to change into a deer or a bobcat when you could be awolf?—and shifters had considered weres, well, bullies.It was deeper than that, and apparently the younger generations weren’t as tied to this idea ofwere good, shifter trash, but it was still threaded through the communities.Mariska would likely never be invited to play with any were kids in the Belmarais clan, no matter how Ethan leaned on the parents.And any were kids weren’t likely to have weekend play dates with shifter kids.Not because the kids didn’t want to, but because the parents were still dragging archaic hierarchies around their necks.
Mariska grizzled and accepted the glass of ice water from Mal, but it was just a background blur for me as something started to percolate into being.How many partial shifters or weres were there that we had no idea about?Would this sickness affect people with just one ancestor, way back in the tree, or do they have to be a large part shifter?
“Hey, I need to get back to the house for a bit.Will y’all be okay?”I asked, distracted, already walking to the door.
“Uh, yeah?You good?”
I nodded.“Something I need to check.If Waltrip calls, tell him I need to talk to him.”
Mal jogged around the end of the couch and intercepted me at the door.“Landry, what’s going on?If it involves my kid, or me or?—”
