Page 68 of Wolf Bane
She finally moved away from Robards, ambling towards me with a predatory sort of grace I knew had to be practiced.“Do you think it’s possible to keep something like Bluebonnet a secret, Doctor Babin?Do you think we were all oblivious?We’redesperate,” she hissed, stopping just out of arm’s reach.“We’re dying, Doctor Babin!”
“I’ve lived in the Belmarais Clan my entire life,” Tyler interrupted.“My father was clan leader.Now my brother is.We didn’t know anything about what was going on at Bluebonnet until Landry came back.”
“Then you should know better than anyone,” Eliza bit out, “how desperately we need this!”
“Wedon’t,” Tyler snarled.“We’re notdying.Weres and shifters have never been a huge population.Comparing us to humans is ridiculous.Using the difference in numbers to scare folks is cruel and fucking evil.”
“Every year, there’s fewer of us,” she said, breath fast and shaky.“More and more weres are birthing nulls, finding partners outside our circles?—”
“God forbid the gene pool has a deep end,” I muttered.
Eliza bared her teeth, motioning to the two guards, one of whom went to stand behind Justin and the other went to block the doors.“Do you truly believe your father was clueless?That the clan leaders from here to the coasts and back again were oblivious to what was going on?Where do you think Garrow got the money?”
“He was wealthy.Ran a legit clinic for a while.Came from a medical research background and?—”
Eliza raised her finely sculpted brows.“Are you serious?”
Tyler’s wild giggle was anything but amused.“Oh, God fucking damn it.God fucking damn it twice with a dry hole!”
“His clinic was running legitimately,” I repeated.“They were a private one so he could filter out the humans.”But… but what if that wasn’t true?Everything else had been a lie, so why not that?
I wanted to sit down, to lay down really, but forced myself to stand still, to face her as she had a quiet conversation with Daniel.He nodded at whatever she said and headed for the double doors being guarded by the female were.
“So, everything has been a lie,” I said slowly, fighting for neutral tones.“And that means what now?You’re going to be a copycat and try to repeat his experiments?I gotta tell you, lady, that Garrow is a monster, but he was abrilliantone.Do you have the same acumen when it comes to fucking with literal lives?”
“It doesn’t matter.”She laughed.“Garrow was brilliant.You just said it yourself.And he wasn’t fucking around.He has records—acres and acres of meticulous records.And he was so close to perfection.”Her attention drifted back to her father, expression crimping into something close to sorrow before she smoothed everything back out into neat lines.“Garrow’s work is unfinished.Everything he started, everything he incubated with Bluebonnet, is on the verge of completion.”
I watched enough true crime shows late at night while Ethan was gone (and okay, before we got together too) to know about those people who became obsessed with killers, who thought they could help them somehow.Emulate them, make them proud.“So, you decided to do it for him?What kind of fucked up parasocial?—”
“She’s helping him,” Justin said quietly, the soft words falling like bricks.“She needed us, Landry.She can’t do it on her own, and everyone who helped Garrow with the wet work is in the wind.”He pushed away from the monitor, fingers fluttering towards the collar before he shoved his hands under his arms, crossing them tightly over his chest.
Tyler bared his teeth, as close to going feral as I’d ever seen him.“You’re poisoning the clans?What’s the point in that if you’re so desperate to save the population?Kill us off, save a handful, prove your worth to Garrow?”
Eliza’s expression crumpled.“Do you think I’d intentionally kill weres?That I’d deplete an already dying community?God…” She dashed mascara-tinted tears from her cheeks and reeled towards me.“Out of everyone here, you have to understand, Doctor Babin.All of the work Garrow put into you, gaining near-perfection.It failed with the others, but you…” She let out a shaky breath.“It’s so close.And I need to find outwhy.Doctor Garrow can’t come yet, but I want it to be ready when he’s able.”
“Did you get him out of prison?”I asked quietly.“Are you the one?—”
“No.”She smiled.“That was entirely him.He’s brilliant.”
I twisted around to look at Daniel, standing in silence by the doors.“Was it Benoit then?Was all of that your first attempt to grab me?”
Ethan should’ve let Waltrip rip him apart.
“Benoit,” Daniel said with disgust, “thinks this can be salvaged.He got scared.He doesn’t have a vision.Status quo is enough for him.When he rejected the council, we had hope…”
“Benoit is a stumbling block,” Eliza said, tone sharp enough to split an atom.“So are the cowards in Belleville, New Orleans, Denver, Baltimore?—”
I cut her off with a wave.“Wait, wait, wait.How many people are involved?How many clans?”
“We’ve approached every clan registered with the council,” Daniel said.“We offered them a chance to rebuild.To be part of our revival.They’ve been too soft for too long.Let the humans blur the margins.”He gestured to Eliza, a small smile curling his lips.“Eliza has the vision.She’s willing to do what it takes to bring us back from the brink.Hard choices have to be made, and she’s willing to do it.”
Eliza sighed, drifting towards him to link their fingers together.Oh, it was like that… “Lid for every pot,” I muttered.
Tyler snorted beside me, but we went mum under Eliza’s sharp glare.
“It’s fine to talk about making the hard choices foryourself,” I said, taking another step towards them, “but that’s not what you’re doing.You’re making the choices for everyone else.You’re killing people, Eliza!”
“No, I’m culling the packs.The weak, the diluted.”She pulled away from Daniel and closed the distance between us in just a few strides.“You’re the closest we’ve come to perfecting the cure for the weaknesses brought on by human infection, Doctor Babin.We need you.”
