by Sumida, Amy
The imps jumped the thread behind me and we all zipped along with the information, straight to the man behind the disease. The email connection wasn't active, just the dormant path that had been originally established between two servers, but it worked just fine for traveling. Like an Internet hacker, we could ride the stored information to the source as easily as something actively in use.
The thread carried us over whole states in seconds, rushing through buildings as if they were nothing but a hallucination, which they kind of were in the Inter Realm. As long as we held to the thread, it was the only thing that would remain solid for us. In the Inter Realm information was King and everything was in your head. You could be whomever you wanted to be and find anything you wanted to find.
I saw the server approaching, the one Dr. Armstrong's computer was attached to, and I shouted back at the imps to cloak themselves. We didn't know what would be waiting for us on the other side of the computer screen and I didn't want to start a stampede. So we zipped through the server and came to a stop directly behind a flat screen monitor. I nodded at the imps and then touched my hand to the screen, imagining myself whole again. The Inter Realm processed my request and uploaded me to the Human Realm once more. Pop, it's a human.
The imps appeared behind me. I saw a ghostly shimmer of their forms under their spells of invisibility, thanks to the goggles. They grinned at me as if they knew I could see them and I smiled back. Then I looked around.
The room we'd entered was empty of people other than ourselves, just a cluttered office with plain white walls, a desk groaning under piles of paperwork, a computer, a printer, and a filing cabinet. As I looked around, a man came through the door, closing and locking it behind him. How thoughtful.
He was gangly thin and bespectacled with wispy brown hair and watery brown eyes. He looked distracted and slightly worried, his brow crinkled in thought. His skin was an unhealthy milk color.
I revealed myself as he took a seat at his desk. He jolted in shock and then his face went white, staring at something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the imps there, smiling their sharp-toothed grins. They did look a little menacing, even for tiny things, and especially to a guy who'd probably never seen a fey before.
“Who are you?” He stammered. “What are you?”
“We're debt collectors,” I grinned my own wicked smile at him, allowing my eyes to turn a little hot, my dragon rising inside me. “We're here to collect payment for what you've done.”
“I... I've done nothing.”
“You created a mutated form of rabies, Dr. Armstrong,” I walked forward and leaned my hip against his desk. He pulled back from me. “That virus has infected some of my family. It's killed several of them already and now my brother is dying, so you'll forgive me if I don't have the patience to play games with you.”
“Demeter,” he whispered.
“Yes, Demeter,” I nodded. “Good, I'm glad I don't have to torture that out of you,” he blanched. “Oh yes, I will torture you if I have to. I have no problem cutting you into tiny pieces if it means saving my family. Are we clear on that?”
“Yes,” his throat worked convulsively. “I understand.”
“Great,” I waved my hands out, “then this will be very fast and painless for you. I want the antidote and I want you to come with me to administer it.”
“Look, I'll give you the antidote but I can't go with you,” he glanced at the imps behind me. “I have things to monitor here, I can't just leave.”
“Dr. Armstrong, maybe I wasn't clear enough,” I held out my hand and released my dragon claws. They were long and curved, shining like polished jet in the florescent lights. His eyes widened and he pulled back even further into his chair. “I will cut you open and pull things out of your body that should never see the light of day. Then I'll call in a friend of mine who can heal you and we'll repeat the process. Over and over I will do this until you finally agree to do what I want. Or, you could just come with me now and administer a few shots. I'll need more antidote just in case we have a relapse, and then you can go on your way, no skin off your back or anywhere else, I promise.”
“I... I have a vaccine,” he stammered, “you can give it to the rest of your family and they'll be immune.”
“Wonderful,” I beamed at him, “we'll take that with us as well. Now get up and go gather everything, all your vials of the mutated virus, your notes, the antidote, and the vaccine. Meilyr will go with you,” I nodded to the imp who immediately went invisible and the Dr. gasped. “Yes, he'll be there but you won't see him, so don't try to warn anyone or do anything else to piss me off because Dr. Armstrong, I am hanging on by a thread, you know?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good,” I nodded to the door, “run along then.”
He nodded jerkily and rushed out the door. Meilyr went after him and then the door shut behind them with a quiet snick. I had a strange revelation then, a moment of seeing how much I'd changed from the woman who had first started down this path. That woman would never have tortured a man. She never would have stood there and so calmly described the manner of the torture either. She would have found the very thought to be abhorrent and would have naively believed that there would have been a better way to get the Dr.'s help.
Was it the God War that had changed me? I've had more than my fair share of torture done on me. Had it numbed me or broken me a little? Or maybe it was the nature of the beasts inside me that had altered my perception so noticeably. It didn't feel like a bad change, more like an improvement, but does anyone ever look upon themselves and think they have changed for the worse? It made me think of a quote I once read. Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.
I let the matter go, deciding I didn't have time for philosophy, self or otherwise. So I turned to the desk and sat down in the chair there, surveying the surface for anything important. When I found nothing on the desk, I started searching the computer files for anything with his rabies research in it. I found several files with detailed descriptions that I couldn't understand but I did understand the word rabies, so I destroyed them all, Bearach helped me so that they were completely gone without any trace left to be retrieved later.
Maybe twenty minutes after that, right when I was about to give up and go looking for them, Dr. Armstrong and Meilyr returned. The Dr. had a cardboard box with him and on top of it was piled file folders full of paper. I nodded to him and the imps all reached up for bits of what he was carrying. He handed it over with a wary look, his hands shaking.
“Relax,” I turned him back to face me. “I don't want to hurt you, Dr. Armstrong. I have a feeling you were manipulated into doing this.”
“I was, she-”
“I don't care about that,” I cut him off, “I just want you to understand that I won't hurt you unless you try to do something that would prevent my family from recovering. If you help us, I will not only release you unharmed, I will protect you from Demeter.”
“You will?” He seemed to deflate a little.
“Yes, you have my word,” I nodded. “Now here's what's going to happen. I'm going to hold onto you and you're going to hold on tight to me, then we're going to travel through the Aether. Don't ask, I don't have time to explain, but we're going to go to another realm and-”
“Yes, Demeter has taken me through,” he interrupted. “I understand.”
“Oh,” I frowned at the twittering imps who were laughing at me. “Okay then, let's go. Guys,” I said to the imps, “we're going to Fenrir's Hall. Meilyr, can you give your pile of stuff to Bearach and go to Pride Palace to let Kirill know where we've gone?”
“Yes, my Queen,” Meilyr passed his stack of folders to Bearach and disappeared.
“Okay, everyone,” I nodded to the imps, grabbed the Dr. tight, and traced us to Fenrir's Hall.
Chapter Forty-Two
Once we were in Fenrir's Hall I practically pulled Dr. Armstrong down the hallway
to the room we had Ty in. Fenrir, Trevor, and Emma were still standing guard at his door and there were angry sounds coming from within. The other rooms were disturbingly silent.
They looked up in surprise, Fenrir's face slowly sliding into a relieved expression. He came forward to meet us partway, looking from Dr. Armstrong to the imps and then back to me.
“Did you do it?” He whispered. “Truly? Is this the man who can cure them?”
“This is the man who made the virus,” I held up a hand when I saw the anger start to fill his eyes. “He was a victim too and he's agreed to help us. he's brought the antidote, along with the virus so we can destroy it, and a vaccine for the rest of the wolves. In exchange I've promised to protect him from Demeter.”
“So be it,” Fenrir nodded at the Dr., who had gone deathly pale at the sight of my huge adopted father. “Hurry, all but one of them are already in a coma and Ty is getting worse.”
“Alan and Jack?” I asked with a frown, knowing those were the two who'd been infected the longest.
“They didn't make it,” Fenrir shook his head, tears coming to his eyes.
“Time is of the essence,” Dr. Armstrong interrupted, “show me the first patient.”
Fenrir turned and led us to the first door. It was already ajar and lying on the bed inside was Sean, I could finally tell who it was now that he'd shifted back to his human form. His dark hair was plastered to his head and his skin was pallid beneath the sheen of sweat. He was indeed unresponsive. Seated around him were a few more Froekn, keeping an anxious watch.
Dr. Armstrong looked him over and then turned, looking for his cardboard box. I gestured for Scotaidh to bring it forward and he handed it to me. I opened it and Dr. Armstrong searched through the vials and then brought one out.
“Do you have needles?” He looked at our blank expressions with a little panic.
“Yes,” Emma answered from the door and then ran off. In a few seconds she was back with a box full of hypodermics. She handed them to Dr. Armstrong. “Fill them all and I'll help you administer them.”
He nodded and filled all of the syringes carefully, finally passing a handful to Emma. Fenrir looked from the bed to Emma and then back.
“Go with Emma, Dad,” I nodded. “She might need you to help hold down the others. We'll make the rounds with Dr. Armstrong.”
“Okay,” he agreed and hurried out of the room.
“Go ahead,” I nodded to the bed.
Dr. Armstrong found a vein on Sean and carefully injected him with the antidote. He pulled away just as Kirill came in with Meilyr. Kirill came over to me and silently pulled me into his arms as we watched Sean for any kind of sign that the antidote was working.
“Let's get to the others,” Dr. Armstrong held up his half of the filled syringes. “It's going to take some time to work.”
I nodded and led him out, Kirill and the imps tagging along. Each room we came to had a group of Froekn waiting anxiously at the bedside of a comatose wolf. They all looked hopefully at us when we entered and I tried to reassure them that the sick wolves would be fine but I didn't really know for sure yet so my expression was probably lacking. We gave seven more Froekn the shots and then returned to Sean to see if it was working yet.
Minutes seemed like hours as they ticked by, the sweat beading on Dr. Armstrong's forehead as if he sensed that his well-being depended on Sean's. We heard a happy cry from next door and I smiled in relief, knowing that Ty was alright. Sure enough, Fenrir bounded into the room and pulled me and Kirill both into a hug.
“Thank you, Little Frami,” he lowered his forehead to mine. “You've done the impossible again.”
“Anything for my family,” I smiled up at him.
He nodded and pulled away so Trevor could come up and hug me too.
“Sean?” Fenrir asked as he went to stand at the foot of the bed.
“He has yet to show signs of recovery,” Dr. Armstrong swallowed hard and stared warily at Fenrir.
“Either way,” Fenrir stared hard at the man. “You have the thanks and protection of the Froekn, Dr.-”
“Armstrong,” the man held out a shaky hand to Fenrir and Fenrir enveloped it with his own massive paw. “Malcolm Armstrong.”
“Thank you, Dr. Armstrong, for my son's life.”
“I'm sorry for the children you've already lost.”
“Demeter has a way of collecting victims,” Fenrir sighed. “Your apology is accepted.”
“Valdyr?” Sean's raspy voice came from the bed just as shouts of joy started echoing in from the other rooms.
“Sean!” Fenrir shot over to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“A little tired,” he grinned, “but better I think. Was I sick? I've never been sick before.”
“Yeah, Son,” Fenrir gave an unsteady laugh. “You could say that.”
Chapter Forty-Three
The virus was destroyed along with all of the notes on its creation and the antidote was safely stored away. Then the vaccine was administered to the rest of the Froekn, after I'd made Dr. Armstrong give it to himself first. It's best to be careful, you never know.
He didn't seem to mind, said he'd been planing on taking it anyway. So by the end of the day, we were all exhausted but alive and I was immensely grateful for that. We still had some Froekn to mourn but at least we'd managed to save fifteen of them. I hate to play favorites but I'm part human so I'll admit I was glad it wasn't Ty who'd died. He was my favorite of Trevor's brothers and from what I saw in Fenrir's reaction, he was one of Fenrir's favorites too.
When I told Fenrir about Andrasta's attack on my lions, he pulled me into a hug and just held me for awhile. Then he shook his head and cursed himself for being foolish and not thinking of asking Odin to bind the Froekn to him and provide an afterlife for them. He said he was going to take them all over to Valhalla as soon as possible and then at least if any more wolves died, they wouldn't be completely lost.
Fenrir gave Dr. Armstrong a room to stay in while we worked out the Demeter issue, as he put it. The Dr. seemed visibly relieved to discover we were all true to our word and he appeared more than happy to enter the divine equivalent of witness protection. I guess it was better than the alternative.
I sent the imps back to Faerie, promising to bring them each their own laptops as thanks for helping me yet again. They vowed that they didn't require any thanks but I could also see the excited gleam in their eyes. So I assured them they'd get their rewards regardless and they traced back home with wide grins on their little furry faces.
Trevor, Kirill, and I traced home with similar expressions, relieved down to our cores that the Froekn had come through this latest debacle mostly intact. I hoped there wouldn't be any more action for awhile but Demeter was still at large and Andrasta seemed to be hunting my lions now too. I knew any peace I found would be brief.
Chapter Forty-Four
“In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight,” Trevor sang as he came sauntering into the bathroom, where I was washing up, getting ready for bed. “In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.”
“Are you implying that Kirill is out cold?” I eyed him through the mirror over the sink, after I finished washing the soap from my face.
“Eeeeee-eee-ee-eeee-e um um a weh,” he sang and grabbed me around the waist.
“You're a damn lunatic,” I laughed.
“Ah, hello?” He looked up from nibbling my neck. “Werewolf. I'm one of the very first lunatics. The word was practically made for us.”
“Very funny,” I pushed him away. “I don't want to have sex right next to a sleeping Kirill. That seems kind of rude.”
“We won't,” he grinned and pulled me out of the bathroom. “I've got something special for you.”
“You've got...” my eyes lit up with understanding. “Oh, is it that time of the month?”
With my sip from the Grayel I'd become immortal, healing wounds super fast. This included the werewolf love bites that Trevo
r used to take great pride in giving me. So now whenever he felt the pull of the Binding, usually around the full moon, he'd carry me off somewhere and scent mark me to his heart's content.
It was working pretty well for us and that was a relief, since I didn't know how long it would take for the sip to wear off enough for his bites to stick around a little while. With my fey heritage and the recent dip into Anubis' fountain, I may never get to that point. It was good to have another way to sate the wolf, plus I loved being scent-marked by Trevor.
“It's that time, yes,” he grinned and led me into the butterfly courtyard.
We walked down the path that meandered through the inner courtyard, holding hands like lovers taking a stroll through a park. He kept casting me lascivious looks and I started giggling like an idiot. I couldn't help it, his eyes were warming from within, casting a gentle glow on his cheeks, and with the huge arrangements of sleeping butterflies looking like monstrous dripping flowers behind him, he looked more fey than wolf.
Then he veered off to the side and there, set back away from the path and nestled in the overhang of some lush trees, was a little werewolf love bower.
Trevor had constructed a basic metal frame on which he'd hung sheer white silk panels and wound some flowering vines that grew off of the nearby trees. There were little lights strung up in the surrounding trees and over the frame, while underneath it all, was a big, comfy mattress, covered in white linens and fluffy pillows.
“Trevor,” I whispered and went forward to take a better look. “This is amazing.”
“You like it?”
“Like it?” I fell back onto the bed and stared up at the gauzy fabric and fragrant flowers. “Can we just leave this here forever?”
“Sure,” he crawled onto the mattress beside me. “Why not? No one else really comes back here. It's not like we'll have to explain our love den.”
“And even if we did,” I shrugged and sat up, “who cares? This is fabulous and I'm going to curl your little werewolf toes to show my appreciation.”