Page 71 of Wolf Bane
“My father was a mistake,” Eliza began, but Daniel gave her a shake, silencing her.
“He lied to you,” Daniel reminded her with that irritating, patronizing patience that made my teeth ache and skin crawl.“Eustace is a liar.He kept this from you.”Another shake.Another whimper.
“Hey!”Tyler, naked as the day he was born, strode forward.“Stop that, asshole!”
Daniel turned, ready to strike, but Tyler was faster this time.He leapt, shifting to strike Daniel feet-first.Daniel hit the ground with an awfulthunk, Eliza tangled in the chaos.Daniel gave one guttural snarl before Tyler slammed him back to the floor, clamping his teeth on Daniel’s neck.Daniel twitched, chest heaving, but didn’t move.
“Tyler—”
He growled at me, low and guttural.His ears were pinned back, teeth bared to the gums.For a horrible moment, I wondered if there was something they’d slipped him, something they’d done, because I’d never seen him like this.Didn’t even know it was possible for him to be like this.But after a long, breathless moment, he shifted, turning his face away from me.Dismissing me.And I could breathe again.
“Okay.I’ll take that for afuck off,” I muttered, holding my hands out to the side, showing him I wasn’t going to grab for him.“Eliza, listen to me.People are dying.Garrow isn’t going to do anything good here.Hetorturedus,” I motioned to Justin.“Left us both fucked up for life.And our friend and his daughter, too.He murdered children, Eliza.Dozens of them.And now you’re letting him make you complicit in this.”
“No,” she insisted.“No, he’s not.I’m the one who contacted him.I’m the one making it happen.”She didn’t try to get to her feet again, eyeing Tyler warily before she said, “His work was almost perfect.I canmakeit perfect.”
“The only thing you’re making is a pile of corpses,” I slashed out, words sharp and heavy.“People aren’t experiments, Eliza.No matter what Garrow thinks he’s doing.It’storture.”
“It’s playing God andwinning,” she snapped out.“The weak are removed.The strong will remain and make us stronger by virtue of their blood.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.
Justin beat me to the punch.He wrenched the control for the shock collar away, jamming the button until Eliza howled and slumped to the floor, not unconscious but definitely done with her villain monologue.
Tyler eyed Justin with a mix of pride and wariness.“Hand that back to Lan, alright?Let’s get that away…”
We got Justin to sit finally, Eliza still a twitching lump on the floor as Tyler gathered up Daniel.“If anyone comes back,” Tyler began.I just nodded.Fight our way out or die.
* * *
Tyler manageda semi-conscious Daniel down to the cage before returning to Daniel, Eliza, and I in the lab area.
“I can’t find the other two,” he huffed.“The layout of this place is insane.I got lost twice on the way downstairs.”
“Daniel’s going to have a motherfucker of a headache,” I said.“Are you sure he was breathing?Maybe I should…”
“No, you shouldn’t,” Tyler said firmly.“Let him have his concussion.He gave you two already.He needs to catch up.”
Justin made a sad, dry sound in his throat, the cough I thought was gone tearing around the edges of his breath.“I was trying to pull up everything,” he said.“Everything I could manage.The things we’d need to start breaking down what this virus is, you know?I thought maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing.I was like hey, silver lining.Getting kidnapped a-fucking-gain, but this time it’s helping cut my research time in half.”
He scrubbed his hands over his sweaty, pale face and shook his head.“Everything was going so fast.It felt good.Right,you know?I mean, I still feel like hammered dogshit on a hot shingle, but… Maybe I felt a tiny bitnormal, too.My head wasn’t spinning so fast.I didn’t feel like I was just ruining everyone’s lives around me… I still felt—feel—sick most of the day but not…” He jammed his finger to his temple.
Tyler and I exchanged worried looks before he took a few steps towards Justin, gingerly reaching out to grasp his shoulder, giving him time to see the movement coming so he could pull away if he wanted.Justin let out a broken, dry sob and flung himself at Tyler, making him stumble.“It’s… okay, it’s not okay.It sucks sweaty cheesy balls, but we’re here with you.And you’re going to be?—”
“If you say okay,” Justin croaked, “I might hit you.”
Tyler huffed a small laugh at that, pulling Justin in for another hug.
I decided discretion was the better part of friendship and not to mention Tyler was still naked as a jaybird.Instead, I turned to Eliza in her huddle on the floor.“Where is Garrow right now?You’re not doing all of this for some sort of grand reveal to him.You have to know where he is.”
She nodded.“But you’ll ruin it.”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.”I glanced up at her father, quiet and still.“He’s not on life support.What’ve you done to him?”
“Nothing.Daniel brought him here from the council clinic last night.I signed him out against medical advice.He hasn’t woken up.He won’t.”She finally met my glare.“I’ve sedated him, to keep him calm.He was fretful.A danger to himself.But he’s not on anything other than some propofol.”
I swore loudly at that.“Jesus.You just gave that to him with no workup?”I demanded, picking my way around the stands of equipment to get to Robards’ bedside and ignoring her muttered excuses about googling dosages.His pulse and respiration were slow and regular, but that did little to shake my concern.
“His temp is high,” I noted.“Is there infection?”
