Page 47 of Wolf Bane
Zero shuffled over, gaunt and sallow.“Not for lack of trying,” they muttered.“If I could just die now, I’d be fine with it.”
Fern shook her head when I opened my mouth to protest, to tell them they’d be okay.Instead, I defaulted to doctor mode and reached out to check their pulse.“It is always this fast?”
Zero nodded.“Even when I was well.”They glanced at Fern, who took the hint and moved to another cot to adjust the saline drip for the patient.“Slidell is in denial,” they murmured.“They think I’m going to get better.But I know, Doctor Babin.I know down in my bones I won’t.”
They turned their face up to me, eyes wide and red with unshed tears.“Do you believe me, that I know?I’m refusing thispalliative caremess because I refuse to spend whatever time I have left hooked to a bag and pissing into a bowl because I can’t get up.I’m just mad it’s taking so damn long.I want to feel better,” they hissed, curling in on themselves like Aunt Cleverly’s resurrection plant.
Carefully, I sat beside them on the rickety cot we’d adopted as a bench.“When I was in medical school, I spent time with patients who were terminally ill, and time with people who became suddenly unwell.A few knew they were dying.They were so certain, no matter what tests we ordered or procedures we did that showed they weren’t dying at that time.And after the first two or three, I started to trust them.Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern.”
Zero smiled wanly.“No platitudes, Doc?No assurances I’ll make it?”
“If there’s a way to make sure you live, we’re going to find it.”I hoped.I wished.
They watched my expression for a long moment then gave a satisfied nod.“I believe that you believe that.”Zero patted the back of my hand, gave my fingers a squeeze then, with more energy than I expected someone in their state to have, popped to their feet.
“Come on.Everyone’s being all secretive, and it’s bullshit.If they want your help, they need to give you help first.Help me talk to everyone who was there that day.”
I wanted to go home.
I was tired.Exhausted.Whatever was beyond exhausted.All on levels deeper than just needing rest.Fern eyed me warily and I decided, at least for the moment, to pack away her evasiveness with everyone else’s and get on with things.I still needed to call Cullen and that, I knew would take the last remaining tiny dessert spoon I had left.
“Come on.I want to get samples from unexposed folks.Then,” I clapped my hands together and gave Zero a big, tired grin, “I have a spreadsheet to update!”
ChapterTwelve
At a Love’s Travel Stop outside of Timpson, Texas, Ethan tossed me the keys when he got out to pee.“I’m getting one of those disgusting energy drinks Tyler loves.Want anything?”
I shook my head.“I’m good.How much longer till we’re home?”
He shrugged, glancing at the parking lot, at the dark highway beyond.“Hour?Maybe house and a half?Traffic’s heavier than I expected.Need you to drive, though.I’m beat.”
Not waiting for a reply, he headed into the store.A bank of semis retiring for the night rumbled across the lot, a car with its brights on parked at the pumps behind me, blinding me while I tried to watch Ethan head for the drinks section.I could make out the top of his head as he paused in front of the display of Red Bull and Bang before shrugging to himself.He disappeared behind a tall stand of Corn Nuts and the guy behind me finally shut off his damn headlights.I couldn’t see Ethan anymore, so I fidgeted with my phone, checking to see if Justin had called back.Instead, there was a text from Tyler, just a simpleWTF assholeand nothing else.
I also had a long string of texts from Reba with suggestions for new peanut brittle flavors (cinnamon toast sounded promising, honey mustard not so much), asking if she could practice a needle stick on me at the office (no… a thousand times no), and reminding me that I still needed to help her study for her gross anatomy exam like I’d promised.I sent a quick reply, gently suggesting saving her more risqué flavors for a special run or something, get people used to her brand first, avoided the needle stick question, and suggested a few times for us to work on her flash cards after work.
I just left out the part where rescheduling might happen since I was in the midst of a crisis involving inhuman beings she had no idea existed.
Ethan appeared at the passenger side window, brandishing two bottles of water with an energy drink under one arm, his eyebrow raised.
“Shit, sorry,” I muttered, unbuckling and scooting over.Ethan climbed in without a word, setting the bottles down, cracking open the Coconut Lime Blast Tachycardia he’d chosen.“Sure you want to drink that?Maybe you can just get some rest?—”
“I’d be doing that if shit hadn’t gone to hell,” he said quietly, rolling the bottle gently between his hands.“I had plans for my time off this week, but…”
I waited.
“But what?”
“But they just didn’t pan out,” he said after the world’s longest pause.“Things have a way of doing that.”
“That doesn’t sound ominous at all.”
“Ignore me.”He sighed.“I’m just tired.Very fucking tired.”
I glanced at him as we pulled onto the freeway.The sodium lights from the old lamps caught his face in a mix of orange light and shadow.He looked, I thought, ghostly.Or more than that, like a mask of Ethan Stone.The shape was there, the features, but it sat wrong.It unsettled me in the worst ways, but not as much as his defeated air, the way he was just… there.
A few miles on, I bit the bullet, aiming for flirty but concerned.“So, I don’t even get anI missed youorAre you okay.”
Ethan took a final swig from his bottle, taking his time to recap it and set it in the cup holder between us before sighing.“I missed you, Landry,” he repeated dutifully.“Are you okay?”
