“Why are we shackling this one?” Killian asked as he did so.
“With all the Frankenstein fuckery going on around here, I’m not taking any chances,” she said as she locked chains around the other one.
A child’s sobs began echoing through the otherwise silent hallway, and Killian was on his feet in a second.
“Damian?”
“Uh-uh. You help me get these two secured away from these people.”
“But there’s a kid….”
“Beasts first, then kid,” she snapped. “God I’m glad you dropped out. Grab the other end, we’re taking it to the basement.”
Killian helped her haul the wolf away, his heart racing at the thought of an injured kid, terrified and alone, lost in that horrific scene. They locked the beast into one of the shifting rooms; padded rooms which locked from the outside, which had been mostly out of use since the end of the first wave. The beast was beginning to twitch awake as they slid the lock in place, and they hurried back upstairs for the other one. It still looked dead; but as Killian lifted its shoulders into his arms, he noticed the reflection of light in the wolf’s existing eye.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What?” She asked as they moved to the elevator.
“You’re a genius,” he told her. “Let’s hurry.”
A gurgling growl escaped the wolf’s mostly-paralyzed throat, and they picked up the pace, throwing it in a cell and slamming the door shut just as it began to move its head and snap its jaws.
“The fuck is Snow up to?” Mariella asked with a scowl.
“I’ll let you ask him,” Killian said, scrubbing black blood off of his hands and arms. “I’m going to go find the kid.”
Upstairs, the cries led him to the reception desk. Killian’s heart fell when he ducked behind it to find Pan, curled against the cabinets with his back slashed open and bleeding profusely. The sobbing came from inside the cabinet.
“Mariella!” He called. “I need some help here!”
“What the hell have you all been doing to my hospital?” A sharp voice demanded.
Killian stood to find Maude in house slippers and a bathrobe, her purple hair wound around bright green curlers.
“Maude! I need your help,” Killian said desperately.
“Everybody does, apparently,” she snapped. “I go to bed for a couple hours and this is what happens? Didn’t your mothers teach you anything?”
“Yes, Maude, and we’re really sorry, but Pan’s hurt and a kid is trapped.”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she grumbled, snatching a first aid kid from the wall as she walked. “Good lord, what happened to him?”
“Long story. Can I move him?”
“In a minute, don’t rush me.” With practiced efficiency, Maude packed the wide, deep wounds full of gauze, taped it firmly in place, and then scurried off. She returned a moment later, pushing a lightweight hospital bed. “Put him there, I’ll take him.”
Killian gently lifted Pan from the floor and lay him on the bed. He wanted to take the time to touch his face, tell him he was sorry, kiss his mouth; but Damian was still crying, so Killian turned away the instant Pan was out of his arms and opened the cabinet door.
“Hey, buddy,” Killian said gently. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” Damian sniffled. “I’m scared.”
“Come here, bud, it’s safe now.”
Sobbing heavily, Damian launched himself out of the cupboard to cling tightly to Killian’s neck. Killian held him tight and rubbed his back, keeping him turned away from the chaotic, bloody scene by the door. Maude was back behind him a moment later, and picked up the phone. She hit a series of buttons.
“You’re needed at the hospital. Yeah, I know you’re on break, but you aren’t paralyzed, are you? Then you’re better off than your replacements. You think I want to be here either? Get your rears in gear, we got a foyer fulla bleeding people and half a medical staff that’ll be sleeping off the hangover for the next four hours. Rears. In. Gear.” She hung up, then hurried out to the crowd of people with a cartful of first aid supplies. Mariella stepped back through the doors then, and Maude handed her an armful.
“Bloodiest first, wrap them up,” Maude said shortly.
Mariella did as she was told without hesitation or argument, which surprised Killian. His face must have reflected that, because Mariella grinned at his expression.
“Medical outranks military,” she said. “Watch more TV.”
“Yes ma’am,” Killian grinned. A soft snore in his ear told him, to his great relief, that Damian had fallen asleep. Killian carried the child down the hallway and out the back door. He wanted to stop. He wanted to make sure that Pan was still breathing. But until Damian was safely in bed, he had no other priorities.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Pan’s back burned like fire, but he wasn’t dead. Apparently breathing and conscious were the only qualifications for participating in this particular meeting. It was a strange meeting. Killian, Sven, and Mariella stood on one side of the long table in the hospital break room. He, Broderick, and Snow sat on the other. An unofficial hearing, an interrogation, a tongue-lashing; from the way Mariella glared at them, it could be all three. They had sat in silence for two full minutes while she paced the table, meeting each of their eyes with her furious gaze.
“Explain,” she snapped finally, setting her fists on the table. “We’ll start with you, Broderick. Tell me what happened tonight.”
“As Alpha, I don’t appreciate your tone….”
“My tone will be the least of your problems,” she interrupted. “There was a riot in my city tonight, and that does not fly. You can and will be stripped of your title, Broderick. You know this. You swore me in yourself. I am bound to protect this city from all threats. All. Threats. Start talking.”
“The riot was…unfortunate. We may have moved too hastily.”
Mariella sat down and gestured with open hands and a closed face, inviting him to continue. Broderick sighed heavily and leaned forward.
“This afternoon, Pan impulsively allowed a child to bite the ailing Floyd, thinking that fresh shifter DNA would overwrite whatever had been done to him at the O’Conner facility. He was quickly apprehended and taken into custody. Bernadette called Floyd’s time of death, and Snow confirmed. But before Floyd had been removed from his room, he began breathing again. That was when Snow called for me.” Broderick sighed and ran his hands over his face, reluctant to share what followed next. “Snow asked my permission to use Damian. He wanted to measure the exact amount of genetic transfer in the boy’s bite. I agreed because Snow was confident that he could do so without having Damian bite another living creature. Snow has samples of all of the children’s blood, from one routine checkup or another. He thought he could use those samples to mimic a bite.”
“So how did that experiment turn into the bloodbath we saw out there?” Mariella asked.
“We…we got the data. I told him to find your team and begin treating the beasts, then I left to give Pan the good news. Pan couldn’t believe it, but Floyd was stabilizing, so I brought him back here to show him. Damian was still in the building. Snow and three researchers were struggling to contain one of the beasts. Pan jumped in to get Damian out, and I went to get you. I’m sure you know how it went after that.”
Mariella nodded sharply. “Snow. Speak.”
“Your team had been on their feet all day, helping us. When we discovered that the children’s genes would save the beast shifters, I was excited. The beasts were still groggy from transport and the heat of the sun; I thought we could handle it ourselves. We chose the weakest of the bunch, the one who appeared to have been rejected by the group. As you know, they had begun bunching together by then, organizing into packs of sorts. This one had not been included, and was barely breathing. We brought him back in shackles. I thought Damian had left the hospital already, since I had released and thanked him for his help. But when we returned, he was still there.
He screamed when he saw the beast. That seemed to trigger something within the beast’s brain, and he started to fight us. I had…two syringes in my pocket. One was a tranquilizer. One was blood. I thought…I thought I grabbed the right one, but just as I was going to stab the beast with it, I noticed that it was the wrong one.”
Pan looked away from Killian’s face. This was where he’d screwed up, and he didn’t expect Snow to shield that fact. He didn’t want him to. But Snow looked at him apologetically and hesitated, so Pan spoke up.
“What happened next was my fault. I saw the doctor with a syringe. The beast was shoving him away, I thought he couldn’t get enough leverage. I shoved his arm as I ran past. The needle buried in the beast’s arm. It went nuts. Damian was screaming. The beast didn’t like that. It went after him and I got in the way, dropped Damian over the desk before that thing got there. It ripped me up. I screamed. Damian stuck his head up. I went over and shoved him into the cabinet and held it closed. I don’t know what happened after that, I passed out.”
Mariella nodded at him. Her face was still unreadable, but the fury in her eyes seemed to cool. He snuck a look at Killian, who looked terribly sad and so very tired. Sven’s normally transcendent face was weary. The magnitude of their chain of screw-ups hit Pan all at once, and his shoulders bowed under the weight of it.
“So here’s what happened,” Mariella said. “The man who Damian bit is not dead. That’s true enough. But he isn’t a man anymore either. He’s bloodthirsty and out of control. He’s locked in the basement. The wolf you thought was weak because he wasn’t in a group? He ain’t dead either. You forgot, Snow, these beasts were people. So nobody wanted him? He wasn’t weak. He was an asshole. An insane asshole. I shot him in the eye with a silver bullet. He died, just like Floyd. But they’re both breathing. Both of them.”
She stood and paced the room. This time, she didn’t meet anyone’s eyes.
“When I was a girl, my family was chased out of our home. This was before the shifter epidemic. We got chased out because someone told the neighborhood watch that my Mama was an illegal resident. Proof didn’t matter, they wanted us gone. So we disappeared. Lived on the road a while, settled somewhere else. Took a trip to the river that summer. Yeah, that summer. Everybody’s got a theory about why the bugs bit who they bit, maybe it’s a scent, maybe this, maybe that…they’re all wrong. Those space bugs don’t give a shit who they turn. Those little fuckers want what everybody else wants. It’s hot? They want water. They got us all, my whole family.
“My mother still tried to live like respectable people. Then my brother started getting picked on at school. He didn’t fight back, he knew better, but they kept pushing him. They pushed him until they saw his eyes. Then they killed him. At that time, there was no way to prove that a dead human body hadn’t been a shifter in life. The cops took them at their word. Our neighbors turned on us. Assumed we were all monsters. I mean we were, but they didn’t care enough to find proof that we were shifters, or proof that we were dangerous. We were run out of town again.
“The humans react first and think later. They don’t look for proof, they just do whatever they feel like. They get excited and cut corners. They don’t follow the chain of command if they don’t feel like. We have got to be better than that. We have to. Broderick, you should have waited for proof that the bite worked all the way before bringing Damian back in. You should have talked it over with the leaders. You should have taken the time to think. Snow, you of all people know how fast this shifter shit can spiral out of control. You should have locked Floyd down the second he started breathing and watched him until you knew what you were dealing with. Pan, you should have removed yourself from the entire situation the second we were back in town. You need to know your own head. You were not okay, and goddammit, I told you that. Before you fuck with things that you don’t know about, take a damn nap and talk to someone.”
She turned and met each of their eyes, one by one.
“All of you failed in the exact same way. You failed to trust the group. This society only works if we follow the rules we set for ourselves. Each one of you failed to communicate with the leaders. Snow, you went to Broderick, but you didn’t bother coming to me. Broderick, you went to Damian without consulting with Killian or Sven. Killian leads the children. Sven nurtures the people. Without them, you’re just as bad as the mad scientists we rescued these people from. Without me, you’re snack food.”
With that, she sat down, opening the floor to the other two leaders. Killian stood first, and Pan’s heart pounded frantically in his chest. Mariella was scary, but it was Killian’s opinion that mattered to him most.
“I don’t want to teach the kids that they can’t trust their Regis Thyme family,” he said heavily, sounding exhausted. “But if all three of you were willing to use one of our own like this…Alpha Medic, Alpha Thyme, and their favorite hairdresser…then how can I avoid teaching them that? Who can they trust, if they can’t trust you? And how can I teach them that they are safe, in this place, to do what they need to do, to be exactly who and what they are…and at the same time tell them that their caretakers may not be trustworthy? The goal of this place was to raise each other up as a family, as a unit. We take care of each other. We take care of our kids, first and foremost. That’s all I have to say.” Killian sat down and crossed his arms, staring down at his feet. The tips of his ears turned red, and Pan watched as a tear fell to splash on his lap. Guilt threatened to swallow him whole.
Finally Sven stood. He looked over the five miserable shifters and sighed. Pan had never seen him look so helpless. Sven lived in a mental space of Zen, and no matter what was happening, it shone from his eyes. Now…his indigo eyes were simply blue, eternal youth had given way to haggardness, and his posture was that of a man defeated.
“There are some things that even transcendence can’t fix,” he said sadly. “Damian was traumatized today. He is my first priority. I find myself too angry to connect properly with those of you who contributed to his pain. My anger is my own burden to bear, and my own trouble to resolve; however, I request that you three maintain your distance for the time being. When I am able, I will assist in your recovery as well.”
“That wraps it up,” Mariella said. “Except for this. You three will be spending the next two months in the disciplinary wing. I am taking temporary command of Regis Thyme, along with Sven, until we work through this mess. Sven’s apprentices will be working with you every day. My team is waiting outside to escort you. Cooperate for your own sakes. They aren’t real thrilled with you all either.”
Something halfway between numbness and relief filled Pan’s chest. He didn’t think he would have been able to go back to normal after this. Somehow, he was completely willing to spend the next eight weeks staring at the wall and performing thrice-daily meditations with a Svenling.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Love me,” Pan whispered in his ear. “Love me like I’ve never done anything to make you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” Killian said earnestly.
“Then why are you killing me?”
Killian looked down. His claws were buried in Pan’s chest. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I have to.”
Spikes dug into the space between Killian’s toes, and the dream shredded.
“What exactly do you have against my feet?” Killian groaned, yanking his feet back under the covers. Grover only meowed nonchalantly and sat on his chest to clean himself.
“Yeah, you think you’re slick,” Killian grumbled, pushing the cat to the side. He’d put on several inches and a few pounds in the last couple of months, and his feral kitten hood had softened to full-grown cat assholery. Killian’s alarm shrieked to life and he turned it off, narrowly avoiding smashing it to bits. Shower, coffee, news. He had no lesson plans to go over today. Though it was Friday, there wasn’t going to be any school. Today, the city would close. Today, there were more important things to learn, more important work to be
done. He watched the bubbly new anchors banter for the camera.
“We are following up on the wolf explosion this morning! If you think it’s ended, you aren’t’ alone. Sources say that reported wolf sightings have fallen by thirty-three percent in the last two months, and very few of them have been within city limits. Wildlife biologist Gemma Stone is here with us today. Gemma, what do you make of the sudden lack of sightings?”
“Well people did start shooting them,” the young ginger woman said, her lips quirking in amusement. “My guess is, they’re avoiding you.”
“You give them a lot of credit,” Mary said, her extra-wide smile glinting in the studio lights. “Why would they suddenly stop going into cities after one wolf was shot in one area?”
“Maybe they listen to the news,” Stone fired back with a wink.
Mary laughed, a sound as fake as her smile, then turned back to Stone. “On a serious note, Stone. Two wildlife biologists, both studying wolves like yourself, have gone missing in the last two months; the same two months that saw wolf sightings decrease. Do you suspect that the two things are related?”
“Now who’s giving the wolves undue credit?” Stone laughed. “You think they kidnapped the scientists and went underground?”
“Do you?”
“Of course I do,” Stone said with heavy sarcasm. “And don’t forget, the squirrels are forming an army, and the kittens are on their side.”
Grover hissed at the TV, making Killian chuckle.
“Ms. Stone, you have to admit that the wolves’ behavior is uncharacteristic, and that the timing is strangely coincidental.”
“Speaking of coincidental timing, it’s time for me to go! Stay safe out there, kids. And if any big bad wolves are watching, you’d have better luck in the Midwest. I hear Nebraska has, like, two cities…and one of them likes you.” She winked at the camera, flashing a yellow eye almost too quickly to notice. Mary was left stunned and unprepared as Gemma Stone stood and left the studio. A second of silence stretched into three before Mary recovered her wits.
Dying to Live: The Shifter City Complete Series Page 34