Page 35 of Wolf Bane
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted.“But when I do, one way or the other, I promise you’ll find out.”
* * *
Tyler and Ethanwere still neck-deep with clan business when I called Tyler a few minutes after leaving Mal’s place, so I tried Waltrip again.It went straight to voicemail.
Of course.
My hands were tied, really, when it came to what I could research on my own.I didn’t have Tyler’s computer skills or Waltrip’s investigative resources.But I could make one hell of a list.I opened up the spreadsheet with the local were and shifter info on it and added the Clemens family, Mariska, Jenny Garza, Tomas, and Eustace Robards on one side of the page.On the other, I added details.
Robards:Advanced age, no sign of being a were or shifter, shifted in clinic after being bitten by Clemens kid.
Melly Clemens: Rash, too many juice boxes, biting
Jay Clemens: Sleeping a lot
Vinnie Clemens:Can’t pee, flu-like symptoms
Jenny:Flu-like symptoms, not a shifter, contact with Mariska and Tomas
Tomas:Flu-like illness, non-shifter
Mariska:Flu-like illness, shifter + were experiment hybrid, contact with Tomas
Justin:Hybrid, flu-like symptoms, contact with med school friend shortly before illness
Hybrid.It was what we were called in the ICW paperwork, according to Ethan.Hybrid felt sointentional.We were lab experiments gone very wrong or very right, depending on your point of view.
Mongrels, if you were some of the more vocal weres in the area.Mutts.
Abominations.Though that one… I’m sure Mal, Justin, and I had all thought it about ourselves at some point.
Justin, it seemed, still did.
After too long gazing at my navel, I made myself add one more name.
My own.
Landry Babin:Hybrid.Bitten by potentially infected/symptomatic juvenile (Melly).No symptoms post day one.Further contact with others on list—Mariska, Justin, Robards.
I made a few more notes on my list, including a little side scrawl to talk to Justin about setting up a time to speak with Gina Perrin and for me to follow up with her about it, and opened up the files on the flash drive Tyler had assured me was clean.
It took about two hours to go through everything, to find what I needed to make my lists.By the time I glanced up, bleary-eyed and hungry and in desperate need of the bathroom, I realized it was already well into the evening and Ethan wasn’t back yet.Checking my phone, I saw two texts from Tyler sent less than half an hour before, one telling me Ethan was on his way back and the other that Ethan’s phone was dead.
Because of course it was.
I swallowed down the irrational urge to decide it was intentional, that he’d let it die to avoid talking to me—that was insecurity talking, maybe frustration about the new job keeping us apart for so long too.Instead, I checked the time again—if he left Tyler’s half an hour ago, he’d be home any minute—and got up to take care of the urgent call of nature before heading to the kitchen to figure out food.I was on the verge of just ordering Thai when footsteps outside caught my ear.
At first, I felt a flutter of relief and pleasure—Ethan was home.
But it was tempered quickly by two things: The steps were moving past the door, around the side of the house, and they were far too light to be Ethan’s.
And a third thing: Myrun, hide, fear, panicsenses were kicking in to high gear.But I held still, kept my breathing slow and even—Ethan had been damn good about making me practice these things during hisWerewolf 101sessions that, admittedly, usually ended in naked time because why the hell not.
Instead of fighting my senses as I’d done for most of my life, I leaned into them, let them do what they were made to do.The steps stopped between my house and Mal’s.They were waiting to see if they were noticed.Between our houses was a bit of green, the property line not exactly generous, and some thick hedges because suburbia.But if someone was looking out their kitchen window, they’d be able to see whoever it was standing there.
Did they want to be noticed?
Was this some weird prank?Maybe Iwasoverreacting, and it was just the meter-reader running late on their rounds or something.I eased closer to the window, just a few inches to the right of the fridge.It wasn’t full dark yet, but definitely dusk, casting the space between our houses into deep shadow.My eyes adjusted quickly, though, and I could make out the tall, lean shape of a man facing Mal’s house before lowering into a crouch, his back to me.Quietly, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a text to Mal.
