Page 6 of Wolf Bane
Mal snorted softly.“Between managing an entire CDC’s worth of germs and the shithead parents who are pissy about a trans kid just living her life alongside their little disease vectors, it’s been… it’s been a week.”
“Jesus.”I sighed, finally shutting the car door to lean on it.“Need to vent?Need someone offed?I’m not saying I’ll do it, but I probably can find someone who will.Tyler probably has a list somewhere.”
That got a small, bitter smile.“It’s not unexpected,” he said.“Just disappointing.In Colorado, no one really cared.We lived on the pack’s land, and they were as protective of Mariska as one of their own, even though her mom…” He visibly shook himself at the memory of Samara and all she had tried to do, all she had almost succeeding in doing.“I knew we’d probably run into some trouble, but I really didn’t think it’d be so soon.Mariska… bless my child,” he muttered.“Mariska told her entire class last Thursday.They were having some sort of atell us something interestingcircle time.A bunch of the kids had gone to this traveling fair thing over near the state line and were gushing about it.Mariska could’ve told them about learning to fish or getting to paint her bedroom purple with glitter in the paint, but she decided to speak her truth to a room full of kids and one very startled teacher.”
“Oh God…”
“Yep… That was a fun phone call to get on the job site.Thankfully, nothing had happenedinclass, and all of her teachers are aware already, but it’s not usually something Mariska talks about.”
“How’s Mariska doing after the fact?”
Mal shrugged.“Fine as frog’s hair.The kids in her class don’t give a shit.She’s just Mariska.It’s a few parents who’re being problems, though.The usual shit,” he added before I could ask.“She’s happy at that school.She’s happyhere.I don’t want to have to move her.”
“Dad!”Mariska called from inside the house.“Can I use the dog shampoo?It smells nice!”
“Go,” I urged, barely managing to stifle my laugh.“Don’t let your daughter de-flea herself without adult supervision.”
Mal, already jogging, shot me a friendly middle finger and disappeared back inside the house.
I almost called him back, just for a second, to ask if he knew anything about the Clemens kids.I couldn’t tell him about them being sick, but if they were known biters, for example, it’d take a load off my mind.
“What I need,” I complained to Ethan hours later, “is a drink.But someone whose name rhymes with Tyler finished off my bottle of Jack Daniels and Mal finished my Coke, so I’m drink-less.”
Ethan chuckled tiredly.“You don’t even like Jack and Coke.You only drink it because I do.”
“I like it.I just like more Coke than Jack.”
The sound of Ethan settling into the hotel bed—sadly familiar now—rustled down the line and he sighed.“A few more days,” he said in reply to my unasked question.“I have a day trip to Dearborn or maybe it’s Roseville.I don’t know.There’s an office there where I’m supposed to meet up with a few counterparts so we can exchange notes, and I’m slated to give a presentation about rural were and shifter communities in our region.”
I grumped, rolling onto my side in the darkened room, unable to stop the hiss of discomfort when I brushed against the bite mark from earlier.The bite itself had already healed over—thanks weird genetics—but the spot itself felt like a deep bruise and was tender to the touch even hours later.
“You good there?”
“Oh, Melly Clemens tried to take a chunk out of my leg today.That whole family is just a lot.”
“She what?”
“Bit me.Just chomped down on my calf while I was examining her brother.”I twisted and turned to get a better look at my leg.“One good thing coming from being a human science experiment is healing quicker.It’s looking pretty decent now.”And it was—what should’ve been a scabby, red, swollen bite mark was now just a semicircle of red teeth marks and black-and-blue skin.No puffiness, no bleeding.Hell, there’d probably not be any scars, either, by this time tomorrow, I thought.“Feral little brat.”
Ethan was suddenly very alert.“Was she sick?”
Something about his tone sent a trickle of alarm through my core.I sat up, exhaustion taking a backseat to growing worry.“You know I can’t tell you about that.I’m already pushing it, naming names about the biting incident.”In fact, I might have crossed a line there… Making the switch from working with the dead to the living really required a lot of second and third guessing.
“Landry…” The silence sat heavy and thick between us, the soft susurrus of Ethan’s breathing the only sound for so long I wanted to hang up just to end it.“There’s some things I can’t tell you,” he said, low and stilted, weighing each word before he let it fall.“But there’s been some concern lately about a virus going around the were and shifter communities.It’s mostly nothing?—”
“Then why are you so worried?”I demanded.“You’re acting like this is the plague or something.”His low, heavy sigh rankled, sending my hackles straight up.“Look, I get it.This new job with the ICW is all super-secret squirrel shit—Wait, are there squirrel shifters?You know what, table that, tell me later.”Ethan’s surprised huff was almost warming, fond enough to make me want to break and tease him about what other kind of strange shifters I could think of, but I had momentum now.“But for the past six weeks you’ve barely been home, when we talk it’s like we’re polite exes, and I absolutely understand there are things about this new job you can’t tell me, but I’m starting to feel like a mushroom here, Ethan.”
“Do you think Iwantto keep you in the dark, Lan?Christ, this whole thing is just layers and layers of NDAs andtalking-tos, and warnings, and reminders, and…” He trailed off.“And I’m a little mad at myself for loving it, you know?I… I feel like this is actually going to help make a difference for us, long term.Not justus-us but peoplelikeus.”
“Like you,” I said, barely above a whisper.“Me, Mal, Justin, hell, Mariska even… I don’t think we’re included in the ICW’s grand plan.”
Ethan was quiet again.Then.“You’d be surprised, Lan.I promise you.You’d be surprised.Look, there’s a million things I can’t tell you, but this much I can let slip on accident, if anyone asks where you found out.There’s this weird bug going around.It wasn’t a big deal at first, you know?A cold.Maybe some strain of the flu that’s not hitting humans.But…”
I could practically feel him trying to decide which boundary to break and which wouldn’t be worth it.
“How about this… Let me ask some questions and you just give me a yes or no.”I sighed.“Is it fatal?”
“No,” he huffed softly, annoyed amusement clear in his tone.Something I had a great deal of experience with when it came to our arguments.
