Page 10 of Wolf Bane
Cullen’s expression, already pinched and disdainful, soured a bit further.“It’s not a virus.Viruses are communicable.”
“Not always,” I muttered.Ignoring his scoff of annoyance, I reached for the small drive he set down on the table.“What’s this?”
He slapped his hand down atop the silver rectangle.“No.This is ICW property.”Reaching into the satchel, he produced a sheet of paper and laid it on the table in front of me.“This is a summary, to begin with.”
“Which you’re about to explain to me like I’m a toddler,” I pointed out.“What difference does it make if I do the reading or you do?”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered.“Listen to me.I am not free to tell you any of this, but contrary to popular belief, my head isn’t up my ass.This isn’t some strange little cold going around.There’s a pattern emerging that, givenyourhistory, is concerning.To put it mildly.There are sixknowngroupings of this outbreak, all in semi-rural areas.Most centered in Texas and Oklahoma, but now one in Colorado and one in Maryland.The infected…” He trailed off, uncertainty tinging his words for the first time in since he’d opened his mouth.“I’m seeing a pattern, Landry.I just can’t figure it out!”He shoved the paper at me, sending it sliding across the slick surface of the table.
“That’s shit research,” I muttered, grabbing the sheet.Names, location, date of diagnosis.“Death?”
“Some of them, yes,” Cullen rasped, pressing his hands over his eyes.“The ones that survive, they shake it off easily after about a month.They do experience heightened senses, heightenedsensitivities.Some?—”
“Aggression?”I demanded, Kayley’s bite, Melly’s sharp teeth, flashing through my thoughts.“Are they especially aggressive?”
Cullen hesitated.“Some,” he admitted.“The younger ones.They… burn out,” he said, the words sound like a quote more than his own.He produced a few more pages, thick paper from a fancy office stock that told me he’d been sneakily printing this off at the office.That, for some reason, amused me.Probably more than it should have.But I bit back my smirk and spread out the other pages.
“Fevers that spike around a hundred and six and stay there, metabolism stuck in overdrive… Uncontrollable shifts far too young.”
For the first time in our short acquaintance, he soundedscared.And that worked under my skin more than anything else.
“How young are we talking here?Weres, the average age for the first full shift is what, eight?Nine?”
“Like humans, it depends on a lot of factors.It’s not analogous to puberty,” he added with a faint sneer.“Sexual maturity has nothing to do with shifting.”
“Just the average age.”I sighed, grabbing another sheet.More names, dates.Some more deaths.The locations were in Texas, though, not Oklahoma like the first sheet.I set them side by side, two stacks started.
“Nine, on average, though it’s rarely an easy process and the second shift tends to come later.Shifters… are different.Some, like our little friend next door, start quite early.Others don’t achieve a complete shift until their teen years, depending on the form of their change and, well, I suppose many other factors.”
I started making neat piles of the print outs.“Why print and not just email me?”
“You’d ignore an email.And this was safer.”
“Safer?”I looked up.“For whom?Fromwhom?”
Cullen was quiet, purse-lipped and hooded-eyed, for a long moment.Finally, he wilted just a little, admitting, “This information is not supposed to be shared yet.And I find myself at odds with the upper echelons of the ICW over this.Ethan is getting a talking to today about his choice to inform you of the situation, and he will be silenced.So, prepare for that.But I…” He huffed softly.“Well, it’s nothing so noble as bravery.”
“What is it then?”
“Let’s say I’m guarding my own interests,” he said after the longest pause in the history of pauses.“Right now, this is being treated as a simple annoyance.But I’m not convinced and, to be frank, neither are many of the higher-ups.”
“So why come to me?Or are you visiting all your pet doctors this week?”
“Because I am rarely mistaken when it comes to my gut feeling, Landry.Perhaps it’s somethingwereabout me,” he added with a deprecating smirk, “or maybe it’s just years of experience dealing with bullshitters.But this smacks of organization.Of a plan.Not some random werewolf cold going around.And you, dear Doctor Babin, are one of the few people I know who can and will poke at this till the wheels come off.”
“I… I’m flattered?”
“Don’t be.You’re one of the few survivors from Garrow’s experiments.It was either you or Justin, and he’s scared of his own shadow.You, however, are angry.Angry and offended.And you have the curiosity and tenacity to take this apart and find out what’s making it tick.”
“That feels like a lot of backhanded compliments,” I muttered, rearranging the papers as if they were puzzle pieces.The right order andclick.
“How many patients?”
I glanced up.“Shouldn’t you already know that?I mean, youarethe liaison for us with the ICW, right?”
“I’m not omnipotent,” he snipped.“We don’t have trackers on every were and shifter we’ve met, sending us telemetry on their health status.We rely on field reports of this sort of thing.Besides,” he added with a sniff, “Ethan’s been chatty.His calls aren’t entirely private.Certain key words, they ping the security measures.And you mentioned a little family with odd symptoms.”
“That violates patient rights,” I bit out.“That’s?—”
