Page 62 of Aleko
The door opened, and Sebastian entered, carrying two hospital syringes in plastic packaging. “All right,” he said. “I got two more. Seems a bit silly to me. We don’t get diseases. So I’m not sure why we each need our own.”
“Particularly considering what we’re about to do with your blood,” said the girl.
“Uh…” said Sebastian staring at her.
“Not reassuring, Princess,” muttered Hudson.
“Right. Sorry,” she said, looking around the room. “Disregard that. Everything’s going to be fine!”
“Also not reassuring, Yazmin,” said Sebastian, “but thanks for the effort.”
“I want to make sure the doses are even,” said Killian, tiredly. “It takes twenty minutes to take effect. Do you want to do it now? How long does the spell take?”
“Well,” said Yazmin, “after reviewing the spell, it seems relatively quick. The pack gathers in a circle, and the alpha makes a brief incantation. Then the pack makes an offering of blood, and the alpha bites the human and gives him the blood. All told, I think it should take no more than five minutes. But we may want to move Pellos to the floor because it could get a bit messy, and there is some indication that sometimes transformations can take hold immediately.”
“Or not,” said Hudson. “Seems like it could go either way.”
“I’m sorry,” said Alex. “Back up. I do what?”
Yazmin glanced nervously at Hudson. “You need to bite your human.”
“I’m still stuck on the blood offering,” said Sebastian.
“Uh, well,” said Hudson, “that’s why we brought the knife and the bowl. I think, um, we have to all put some blood into the bowl, and then when Alex bites Pellos, he pours the blood into the bite.”
“And then everyone says the last bit of the incantation together, and then… he’s a wolf,” said Yazmin. “We hope.”
“I bite… Pellos has been shot, and he has already lost blood. I’m supposed to put more holes in him?” demanded Alex.
“If it works,” said Hudson, “he’ll heal.”
“And if it doesn’t, I’ll have killed him,” said Alex.
The room was silent.
“OK,” said Sebastian. “We all have to say an incantation?”
“It’s just two lines,” said Yazmin.
“OK, but I don’t do Latin,” said Sebastian. “So, I’m going to need some coaching and a minute to memorize it. I don’t want to fuck this up.”
“That sounds like we should do the shot now,” said Killian. “We’ll take the shot and practice our parts while we wait for it to kick in.”
“What shot?” asked Alex. “How is that part of the spell?”
“It isn’t,” said Killian. “It turns out that wolves have lost the ability to connect with humans because warlocks worked some sort of magic. The shot is the cure. The Oregon pack funded it and developed it with a witch. I stole it. Without it, I don’t think the spell will work at all. And to be perfectly clear, the vial says it contains two doses. We’re splitting it in half.”
“Then no,” said Alex, recoiling. “No, we’re not doing it.”
“The cure was developed for mating, which takes a strongerconnection,” said Killian. “We’re already connected to Pellos. We shouldn’t need as much for this to work.”
“Fingers crossed?” demanded Alex. He rose to his feet, unable to remain still.
“Yes,” said Killian bluntly.
Alex wanted to pace, but there was no room. Alex gripped the end of the bed and closed his eyes, counting the dots. There was an extra one, pale, and only half there. It was the one that had been next to Killian the entire time he was gone. It was the dot that he’d expected Killian to bring home with him. A shiny golden spark named Moira that danced in time to Killian’s heartbeat.
“Moira’s from the Oregon pack, isn’t she?” asked Alex, finally realizing what Killian had done.
