Page 46 of Wolf Bane
Silence thick as clay settled over us for a very long moment.Finally, the sound of gravel crunching under tires and raised voices outside the door pushed me into action.That had to be Ethan—I could feel it in my bones.And I wanted to get the fuck back home with himright that instant.Waltrip motioned for me to stay, but I followed anyway.Zero and Slidell popped around the door leading into the infirmary, Zero’s brows raised in question.
“My ride,” I said with a tight smile.“Keep labeling the vials please.It’s almost time for me to head out.”
I caught up to Waltrip as Ethan was parking in the patch of broken asphalt and chunky gravel between the hospital’s old emergency exit and Benoit’s trailer.Waltrip and Benoit had beat me there, along with Daniel the Biter and two other weres I didn’t recognize.Ethan was already out and standing beside his truck, hands held low and out to the side.Unlike other weres I’d seen when approached by a clan or pack leader, he didn’t dip his chin at Benoit’s approach.Instead, Ethan just glared steadily at Benoit and waited.A quick glance from Waltrip kept me from getting too close.But God, I wanted to.So, so, bad.
“Benoit,” Ethan said, his low voice cutting through the mutters and posturing around him.Ethan raised a hand to point at me, his expression unreadable.“You have something of mine.”
Oh.Hello new kink.
“I should be offended at being relegated to property status,” I muttered to Zero, who swayed unsteadily beside me, “but it’s kind of hot, and I’m gonna unpack all that later.”
The very tiniest of twitches tugged the corner of Ethan’s lips.Benoit wasn’t having any of it, though.
“All I got here is a doctor who won’t work.He’s got the council backing him, does he not?”
Waltrip made an annoyed, dangerous sound.“We’ve been through this.”
“Enough dick swinging, for fuck’s sake.”I groaned, letting my head loll back in dramatic teenage fashion.“Ethan, I have a plan.Benoit doesn’t like it.I’m doing it anyway.There.All caught up.”
Someone snorted.
I think it was Zero.
Ethan gave Benoit a final glare before turning his full attention to me.“Show me.”
* * *
The vials were neatly arrangedin carrying cases, the cold packs rummaged from who knew where.Fern gave me a wary, tired nod.“That should keep till you can get them into the proper storage set up, but no more than six hours.”
“It’ll be less than that,” I promised, looking over to where Ethan and Waltrip were talking with their heads bent close.“I’m pretty sure, anyway.”
Fern grunted thoughtfully.“When you find out?—”
“I’m less than three hours away,” I said.“And I’m not going to just let y’all die here.If I find something out, everyone gets to know.”
She nodded.“Well.Alright then.Hey, Benoit… I love the old asshole, but sometimes he doesn’t think things out, you know?Hearing about you being so close and now working for the council?—”
“How’d he hear about that, anyway?”I asked, frowning.“It’s not like we sent out flyers or something.Does he still talk to the council?”
Fern’s expression shuttered, her small smile brittle and forced.“Oh.Benoit’s got ears to the ground.You know how it is.”
I thought of Tyler.And Waltrip.And Cullen.They always seemed to know things before anyone else, but that was largely to being in the right place at the right time or havingways.Benoit… so far, he didn’t seem to have similar inroads into the necessary communities, but maybe I was being judgey.
Maybe Benoit had some super-secret ninja spy skills under that angry exterior that I’d witnessed threatening to punch a coffee maker not an hour earlier.
Ethan glanced up at me, his expression softening for a moment before he returned his attention to Benoit and Waltrip.
Fern motioned for me to join her and Zero, so I left Ethan with the others for a few minutes, making my way down the long row of sick bodies.
“The most we’ve been able to do for the sick ones is make them comfortable,” Fern murmured, pushing sweat-damp hair back from her eyes.“When they reach the feral stage, there’s nothing much we can do then except either stay out of the way or…” She hesitated.“Well.There’s nothing we can do.That’s the end for them.”
“What do you meanthe end?”Publishing a news story about people who went feral and turned into werewolves wouldn’t exactly float in most news orgs (looking at you,Weekly World News) but there would have been some mention, even from Cullen, right?
“I mean,” Fern said quietly, barely above a whisper, “they try to kill others and have to be stopped.It’s not something we relish, Doctor Babin, but we can’t let them loose on the community.”
I thought of Melly Clemens.Mariska.“Even children?”
Her expression shuddered.“We haven’t had to deal with sick children yet.All of our affected are adults.”She looked past me and gave a tight nod to someone entering the infirmary.“Zero’s been the longest survivor.”
