by Jen Haeger
“But you can eat…” Clem picked up the box. “BooBerries?”
“Oh yeah, they’re my favorite…”
Clem raised an eyebrow.
“Really.”
“If you say so.”
Evelyn chuckled, but Clem’s forced quips and banter were painful for her to witness. Finishing her meal quickly, when Kim went upstairs to get ready to go to the lab, Evelyn went into the basement to send Dr. Jonson an e-mail about getting her the key for the old janitor’s closet and to give Clem and David a chance to catch up.
Evelyn really wanted to get back into the lab herself, but the Wolfkin cycle was so close now, it was highly unlikely that they would have any big breakthroughs before the battle, so she concentrated on Clem. After Kim left, the three of them sat down and Evelyn and David told Clem of their plans to lock him up and observe him from the second day before the full moon. Clem agreed, saying that it was likely the safest way. They set Clem up in David’s bedroom and David on the pullout couch in the basement, much to Clem’s annoyance, but Evelyn told him that having to traverse both the basement stairs and the stairs to the second level were not so much physical therapy for a man with a cane as much as a guaranteed head injury.
Clem went to bed soon after and David and Evelyn hung back in the basement to discuss things without Clem hearing. Sitting quietly, Evelyn gathered her thoughts as David stared at the wall. Eventually he spoke, but avoided looking at her.
“I’m a little nervous about Kim this full moon. She’s still so young, and the battle is going to be a crazy environment for a newbie Wolfkin. We’re going to have to do a huge amount of work on control in the next few days.”
“Have you spoken to her about it?”
“A little, but I thought maybe you could talk to her too.”
“Sure. We also have to find a place for us to be with her during the change.”
“What about that woodlot you were telling me about near the vet school on the edge of campus? I don’t want to get too far away from Clem, in case…”
“Baker Woodlot? I dunno if that’s such a great idea. It’s kinda close to campus, and what if Kim gets out of hand?”
“I think she’ll be okay, but it’s up to you.”
Evelyn chewed at her lower lip trying to decide. “I guess there is a pretty high gate around it, and the mud usually keeps most students out this time of year, especially at night. Let’s just hope that Green Spiral isn’t out there communing with nature.”
“Environmental club?”
“Pagans actually. Nice people. I thought about joining in undergrad, but just never got around to going to a meeting. Any more word from Roberto?”
“Roberto says that the Vulke are going to wait until the day of the fight to tell us which site will be the final site, probably to prevent any serious preparations or shenanigans on our side. He talked to many of the other packs, but he got mixed reactions to my idea. Some of the packs just don’t think it will work at all, some are worried that it will backfire and just confuse and enrage the strays further, and some think that it’s cheating.”
“Cheating? What about the Vulke bolstering their ranks with innocent meat shields? That’s not cheating? Idiots. But not knowing where the site is until the last minute, won’t that make it hard to get the deer carcasses where they need to be?”
“Difficult, but not impossible. Actually, Dr. Jonson is good friends with a veterinary pathologist at the vet school and due to the tuberculosis testing on wild deer in Michigan we have plenty of access to deer carcasses. We just set up two helicopter pilots willing to do the drop. One is Madeline’s cousin and she’ll be ready to go at the upper peninsula site, but the other is just some local pilot who Dr. Jonson convinced will be dropping carcasses baited with rabies vaccine to prevent the spread of raccoon rabies.”
Evelyn nodded knowingly and gave a bitter smile. “Clever, and not a little ironic.” She inhaled deeply to stem her emotions. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to be there. I’m going to fight. I feel responsible in a way. I need to do this.”
David looked into Evelyn’s fierce eyes and knew that he was defeated. “I know.”
*
The next day Evelyn left the condo early to prepare the janitor’s closet for Clem. First she went to the lab to pick up the key from Dr. Jonson. He was distracted and didn’t even ask her what she needed it for. Evelyn was thankful she didn’t have to try to explain the situation with Clem to him. Checking that the key worked, and that there was no way to unlatch the deadbolt from the inside, Evelyn marveled at how perfect the room actually was. Not only was it in its own little alcove hallway that no one had reason to go into, but the ceiling was high and the single light bulb was way up in one corner and covered by a metal cage, piquing her curiosity as to what the original purpose of the room had been before it was a janitor’s closet. The only thing left in the room now was a large utilitarian sink that seemed old and stolid enough that even an enraged werewolf wouldn’t be able to do too much damage to it, but there was also a drain in the floor in case he did.
The only trouble that Evelyn encountered was where to conceal the camera in such a bare room, but she didn’t even have the camera yet, so she locked the room back up and consulted her phone for directions to a local spy shop. She had heard about such places and had driven by them on occasion, but had never been inside one before. Entering the store, Evelyn was amazed by the wide selection of items that she thought were only movie fantasies, like voice-recording fake eyeglasses and video pens. The overzealous clerk with thick glasses magnifying his pale grey eyes, thinning red hair, full beard, and twitchy manner smacked of a true conspiracy theorist. Coming out from behind the counter, he immediately assailed her with helpfulness.
“Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
Evelyn saw no reason not to be plain. “I need a small video camera.”
He motioned to the far wall. “Sure. We’ve got several models here. Are we talking something to fit in a purse or briefcase or smaller?”
“Ah, smaller I think.”
The clerk turned from the wall to look at her. “Smaller ones are going to be wireless and have a receiver, but the receiver has to be within two-hundred feet. That going to be a problem?”
“No.”
He turned back to the wall. “Got a few of the wireless here in stock, but none of them are strong enough to transmit past a military jammer, you understand.”
Evelyn didn’t understand, but also didn’t need an explanation. “Right. Not an issue.”
Picking up a box with a two-hundred and ninety-nine dollar price tag, he pointed to the description on its side. “This one’s high quality, six-hour battery life when taking stills every two minutes, and only two inches by three inches by two inches. Best seller.” He pushed his glasses farther up his thin nose. “Now, do you need anything by way of concealment?”
Taking the box from the man, Evelyn looked at the actual-size picture on the front. She’d expected it to be tiny but glancing at the other boxes, the battery lives on smaller ones were only a few hours. She considered the bare room. “I guess I do.”
“Well, without getting too specific, what’s in the room? Any cabinets or vents? Will you have unsupervised access to the room?”
“Access yes, and there’s ah…a sink I guess.”
“Exposed pipes or inside cabinetry?”
“Exposed.”
The salesman’s ears perked up. “Perfect. Got just the thing.” He went into the back room of the store and returned with a length of PVC pipe wide enough to conceal the camera, with a hole drilled in it for the lens to look out, and grooves inside to slide the camera in and hold it in place. “Standard length between the basin of the sink and the trap. Sneaks right in place with some plumber’s putty or silicone bathroom caulk to secure it. It’s been my experience that unless people are specifically looking for cameras or bugs or have
a plumbing problem, they rarely notice the extra pipe.”
Wondering what his experiences were, Evelyn took the camera, and the fake pipe to conceal it, up to the counter. “Sounds good.”
Smiling, the clerk punched prices into the cash register. “We’re also running a special on bugged ballpoint pens and the night vision goggles today.”
“No thanks.”
*
Swinging by a Meijer on the way back to the lab, Evelyn picked up a tube of clear silicone bathroom caulk and a cheap stuffed panda, then headed back to the lab to install the camera in the janitor’s closet and the receiver in the lab. Fortunately, it was around lunchtime, so no students were in the lab to watch Evelyn as she climbed up on a lab bench and perched the recording device on top of one of the fume hoods behind the ventilation duct. After she clicked the power on, she jumped back down and confirmed that it was invisible from the floor. Supposedly both the camera and recorder that turned it on had six hours of battery life, but she didn’t fully trust that, so she climbed back on the bench and switched it off again.
Next she asked Dr. Jonson to e-mail his students and tell them that the lab would be off limits for the next two nights—from six in the evening until ten ‘o’clock the next morning—due to some delicate work that needed to be done by the nighttime lab-share researchers. Evelyn also made up a sign for the door of the lab. She knew that it was short notice and that it was risky, but even if the students couldn’t get into the janitor’s closet, she couldn’t risk them hearing anything unusual either and possibly calling campus security.
Having set up Clem’s containment chamber, Evelyn returned to the condo, had a late lunch, visited with Clem a bit, and then crashed in her bed to nap for a few hours, since tonight would be the last night they would be able to work in the lab before the fight with the Vulke. Evelyn figured that they could wrap up some things in the lab and then cut out early and she could talk to Kim about how to control herself during the next full moon cycle which was starting the next night. She was physically exhausted, nervous about Clem, worried about Kim, and overall in a mild panic about what might happen during the fight with the Vulke in four nights. Tossing and turning she tried to tell herself that things could be much worse and that she needed to keep a positive attitude if they were going to defeat the Vulke, but she was having trouble coming up with ways that things could actually be worse.
27
Evelyn woke a little after six and found that Kim had already gotten up. She rolled out of bed and took her time sleepily changing into scrubs for working in the lab then freshened up in the bathroom before heading down to grab a bite prior to heading off to the lab. When Evelyn reached the kitchen she found Kim helping Clem at the stove where a large pot of chili simmered aromatically. David was conspicuously absent.
“That smells amazing, Clem.”
Clem pointed to Kim. “Well, you wouldn’t be havin’ any ‘til ‘round midnight if it weren’t for my soo-ie chef here.”
Kim giggled and her face turned red. “I think that’s pronounced sous, Clem.”
Clem shook his head in mock disappointment. “See, already fixin’ to bump me as head chef.”
Evelyn forced a small laugh, but she was having trouble giving in to the jovial atmosphere, much as she wanted to. “Where’s David?”
Clem went back to stirring and Kim answered Evelyn as she put spices away. “Oh, he’s downstairs talking on the phone to…um…I think Zachary about the logistics of the deer drop. Roberto is way too busy trying to coordinate all ten of the battles, so he kinda put David in charge here, but I think that he also had to put the other Alphas in charge too, and Zachary’s being a pain in the butt.”
Evelyn was surprised that David hadn’t mentioned any of that last night, but then again, there had been a lot to talk about other than Zachary’s well known propensity for being a jerk. David came up the stairs almost as if on cue. “What’s a pain in the butt?”
Evelyn glanced at Kim and they both chuckled, though Evelyn’s was half-hearted. David looked confused. “What?”
Evelyn shrugged and Kim shook her head. “Nothing.”
Evelyn set the dining room table for dinner, trying to make it as fancy as possible and unable shake the somber Last Supper feel of the night as she set out the silverware and napkins. David helped get everyone drinks and set out a bowl of shredded cheddar cheese and a bowl of sour cream, then Kim forced Clem to sit while she brought in a bowl of chili for each of them. It was the first formal meal that they had had at the dining room table, and Evelyn wondered if there would ever be another.
Clem rose and held a bottle of Michigan craft beer aloft. “Not much one to say grace, but I can toast to the al-mighty in the hopes that he’s there lookin’ out for us and that he’s got a sense of humor.”
David followed suit with his beer. “To the almighty and his sense of humor.”
“Amen!” said Kim, raising her orange juice.
Evelyn followed with her glass of water. “Here, here.”
The four of them clinked bottles and glasses then dug into some of the best chili that Evelyn had ever eaten, although the circumstances under which it was being eaten might’ve biased her opinion slightly. Everyone abided by an unspoken agreement not to discuss the looming deadline for battle, and Evelyn was almost able to forget for a moment what lay ahead for all of them. She really didn’t want the dinner to ever end, and ate too much as a result, but eventually she and Kim had to excuse themselves.
On the way to the lab, Evelyn told Kim of her plans to just wrap things up and then have a chat about Wolfkin control. She took a long way around to the vet school to show Kim the expanse of research forest on the nearby edge of campus in which she and David planned on changing with Kim, and Kim had some of the same concerns as Evelyn. “Why so close to campus? What if, if I do have control issues? What if I hurt someone?”
Evelyn didn’t want to tell Kim the whole truth about Clem, but she decided that she needed to give her some explanation for staying so close to the school. “Well, actually I’m curious to see the effect of the change on Clem’s remaining wounds, so I’ve asked him to change in a secure room in the basement of the vet school where I can videotape him. Also, between you and me, I didn’t want him rushing his recovery and reinjuring himself, so this seemed like a good way to keep him still for at least one night. But we want to stay close so that we can let him out first thing in the morning.”
Kim seemed to accept this. They parked, headed down to the lab, and ran into Dr. Jonson in the process of locking up. Evelyn was surprised because they had never seen him at the lab so late. “Dr. Jonson, what are you still doing here?”
He gave the two women a weary smile. “Just putting some things in order for my students in case…well, you know. Time waits for no man. I take it there have been no exciting breakthroughs just in the nick of time?”
“We’re making good progress, but like you said, it seems like we’ve just run out of time.”
“Well, I’ve taken the next few days off, so I guess I’ll see you…well, there. Until then, take care.”
He nodded to Evelyn and Kim in turn and then ambled down the hall disappearing around the corner. Evelyn watched him go with a heavy heart, wondering if he would survive the next few days.
*
After several hours of work in the lab, Evelyn and Kim made no major breakthroughs, but had steady progress. Around three, Kim finished her last project of the night and Evelyn, who’d finished her lab work earlier, was satisfied with the start that she’d made on the “final” report to send to Philip, so she saved the file to her flash drive and they locked up the lab. Evelyn didn’t really want to go back to the condo and risk waking up Clem and David, so instead she and Kim strolled across the street to the children’s garden to find a place to sit and talk. Technically the garden was closed at that hour, but the wooden gate was only just past waist height, so Evelyn and Kim hopped over and found some benches to sit on. Evelyn had
been to the garden many times during the day and enjoyed its whimsical beauty and Alice in Wonderland themed hedge maze, but with the waxing moon shining down on the statues and structures through thin clouds, the garden took on a more sinister persona.
Once they were both seated comfortably, Kim turned her expectant eyes on Evelyn. Not having prepared anything ahead of time, Evelyn stumbled a bit for what to say. “When I first became a Wolfkin, I had trouble with control. I was very angry, so that didn’t help at all. I knew what was happening to me, but I didn’t want to focus enough to gain control, I just wanted to be angry and destructive. But you, well, you should have a much easier time, since you seem like you’re handling everything much better than I did. Unless I’m wrong and you’re a very devious ticking time bomb.”
Kim smiled ruefully. “I do get angry sometimes. Why me? But then I think about who might’ve taken my place, and I think about that little girl you told me about. It puts things in perspective for me, and I guess that everything has just been happening so fast, that my brain might not have even fully processed it all yet. It seems like for you all of the stress and craziness was over, and all you had was time to dwell on what had happened.”
Evelyn nodded. “You’re probably right. Clem helped me with my focus. He kept telling me to remember who I was and that who I really was wouldn’t change because of what had happened to me. He said that bad things happen to good people, but that you can’t let yourself go bad because of those things. He stayed with me every night of the first change and just having someone I knew there, someone who cared about me, really helped. You don’t know David and me very well, but I hope that you know that we do care about you.”
“I know that, but I guess that’s why I’m so nervous. What if I hurt one of you again? Or what if I hurt someone else? You might blame yourselves for not being able to control me.”
“Did you ever hear the poem about the Whatifs? I think it’s by Shel Silverstein.”