Page 53 of Wolf Bane
Which I did not have.I turned my foot to step none too lightly on Ethan’s toes, but he didn’t even flinch.Instead, he produced a card from his wallet and held it out until Nelvin took it.“Dianne Kessler,” Nelvin read out, then turned a sour gaze my way.“She one of you?”
I had the feeling that, if Ethan had her card handy, she definitely was member of at least one community I belonged to.“Yeah.Human, just like me.”
Nelvin flicked the card back at Ethan, who let it fall to the ground after bouncing off his chest.“Your sort is ruining the state, Doctor Babin.Stay nearby.We’ll be talking later.”
“Over my dead body,” Ethan muttered as Nelvin sauntered back towards Wisher, who looked whey-pale and tense.“He’ll be out of office before Christmas, if the clan has anything to do with it.”
“Seriously?”I asked.“Like… replacing him with someone else or…”
He didn’t reply.Instead, Ethan shot Gina Perrin and I both a glance.“Tyler’s waiting for us.We need to get moving.Doctor Perrin…”
She shook her head.“Nope.I’m coming with.I’m neck deep in this bullshit now so you’re stuck with me.”
* * *
Tyler,Justin, and Mal were crowded into my kitchen when we got back.I introduced Gina Perrin to everyone who’d yet to meet her and she had a keen eye for Justin.He didn’t seem to notice, but I wondered if she’d found her first long-term patient.
No, I didn’t wonder.Ihoped.
Tyler had made a huge pot of coffee while Mal had prepared tea.Mariska was curled up on the sofa, looking less wan but still unwell.“I thought we were going to your place,” I said as I passed Tyler in the kitchen.
“My place is lousy with clan,” he muttered.“They keep coming byjust for a quick question Tyler, hey do you think you could tell Ethan something for me Tyler, hey Tyler we’re thinking of expanding the farm but the Geezens are being dicks, hey Tyler?—”
Ethan snorted, pouring himself a third cup of the day.“You gotta set some boundaries, man.Office hours.If they come by outside of your hours, tell them to come back.Or do what I did and just don’t answer the door.”
Justin stirred his tea lazily, watching the milk swirl.“I told him he should get one of those rental office spaces.Like those work share things out near the bigger cities.”
“Not a bad idea,” Ethan agreed.“Not necessarily renting an office space but having somewhere separate from home.That’s what I did.”
Tyler grumped at his coffee, frowning.“I’m just holding your place till this whole training period is over.I’m not gonna go investing a ton of money into a temporary problem.”
Ethan didn’t say anything, just gave me alookover the edge of his mug.
If Tyler couldn’t see what was happening yet, it wasn’t my place to tell him.He’d always been one of those sorts who needed to think something is his own idea, or he’d fight you on it till you were both exhausted.I smiled, small and tired, back at Ethan—Tyler would figure it out sooner or later.Right now, though, Ethan would keep the training wheels on for him.
“We need a murder board,” Justin announced, looking around my kitchen with wide eyes.
He was still too pale, too gaunt, and Tyler said he wasn’t sleeping still, but there’d been a subtle shift in his mood since the makeshift clinic.Like he was finding a part of his old self again.Or maybe not his old self, but something like it.Maybe being able to do something, to use what he knewbeforeGarrow wasn’t entirely lost.Something more than fear and anxiety was blooming under the surface, and I hoped it would keep growing.That it would be a damn kudzu weed of healing, however that looked for him.
I saluted him with my mug.“Sorry, I meant to go get a multi-pack from Costco last week but got distracted.”
Justin rolled his eyes, looking more alive than I’d seen him in literally a year.“You just seemed like the kind of guy who’d have a whiteboard laying around, you know?Maybe one of those that’s like a whiteboard but has the fabric bit on the side so you can use pushpins.”
“He really does, doesn’t he?”Mal mused, giving me a considering look.“Not gonna lie, I’m consistently surprised at Landry’s lack of murder boards, given everything he’s got going on.”
“Hey, what’s thisheshit?You’re in this too!”
“Fair.”Mal smiled, tired eyes crinkling slightly.Talk of a murder board had stirred Tyler into a search and he reappeared from our home office with a pad of paper and a handful of pens that were of dubious usefulness.
“Swear to God, I’m buying a whiteboard after this,” he muttered, dropping his bounty in the middle of the kitchen table.“Alright.Let’s go.”
All eyes turned to me.“Uh.Right.Okay.Here’s all of the puzzle pieces.”
Tyler started writing as I started talking.The Clemens kids, Robards, Lugaru, Justin.Monk and Hood.“I already checked on Kayley, that teacher who got bit.She’s not showing any signs,” I added.“At least as far as I can tell without flat out asking if she feels like turning into a werewolf all of a sudden.”
Gina Perrin chimed in with what she knew from her recent time with the council’s main offices.“I’m sure there’s more,” she said with a heavy sigh.“There’s so many rat holes and warrens there…”
“And Garrow,” I added quietly.“Can’t forget him.”
