by Geonn Cannon
Frost shook his head like a weary father. “Stubborn young women stealing my clothes and ignoring my advice. If I was ever curious what it was like to have daughters, you two have certainly taken care of that.”
Ari smiled. “At least we won’t ask to borrow your car.” She nodded at the closed office door. “Is she really okay to be up and around?”
Frost gave another sigh and scratched the top of his head. “No. But it’s also not going to be a dire situation. She needs more bedrest if just to make sure there are no lingering effects from her captivity. Her mental trauma alone is enough to make me wary, but there was clearly physical torture as well. But I also know keeping her here will be difficult, if not impossible, and she’ll spend the time fighting with me instead of healing. So I can only ask that you and Miss Frye keep an eye on her.”
“You can count on that. Do you know the Cardoso family?”
He thought for a second before shaking his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell. But I obviously don’t tend to every canidae in Seattle. It does seem a bit convenient that your client’s sister just happens to be connected to whatever happened to Miss Duncan.”
“Not really,” Ari said. “She was specifically looking for a canidae detective. Unlike you, as far as I know I’m the only one of those available in Seattle.”
He “hummed” and nodded. “And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“You’ve had an incredible day, Ariadne. Have you had a chance to sit down? Rest? Take a breath?”
Ari nodded. “Dale made me eat lunch.”
He smiled. “She’s a good one. But it’s just a good start, not actual rest. Take the rest of the night off.”
“The night?” Ari said. “It’s barely mid-afternoon. There’s a woman missing--”
Frost held up a hand to stop her. “Your day started early. You were immediately hit with the emotional fallout of being reunited with a loved one you thought was dead. You will be much more useful to the missing woman if you don’t burn yourself out on the first day of the search.”
Ari wanted to argue, but she couldn’t deny he had a point. So instead she nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
The office door opened and Milo came out. She’d changed into Frost’s slacks but was topless and barefoot.
“I can’t change.”
“I might have a smaller shirt if you--”
“No,” Milo snapped, staring at him with wide, unblinking eyes. “I can’t change.”
Ari said, “You tried to transform?”
“I started to have a panic attack about Gwen,” Milo said, staring at the backs of her hands. “Sometimes changing for a few minutes helps. The wolf calms me down. But when I tried, I... I didn’t...” She balled her hands into fists. After a second, she smacked herself in the chest with them. “Nothing is happening!”
Ari grabbed Milo’s wrists to stop her from further blows. “Calm down. We don’t know why your wolf brain took over this morning. You’ve been through something awful. Maybe it affected the wolf, too. Maybe it just needs a little time before it’s ready to come out.” She looked at Dr. Frost. “That happens sometimes, right?”
“Yes, of course. You probably experienced it yourself, following the transfusion from your mother.”
“Right!” Ari said. “There were days when I felt like it was brand new. You just need time.”
“What if it’s that drug? The one you got in prison that kept you from changing?” Her eyes were full of tears.
Ari had never seen Milo looking so scared. She looked at Frost, who was shaking his head.
“I took your blood this morning. I would have seen evidence of that. Ariadne is right. You need time to get back to anything close to normal.”
Ari said, “If it will help, I can have Dale get in touch with Dr. Byrne. She can tell us if there’s a chance you were exposed to the drug.”
Milo nodded, still looking at her fists. “I think that would help.” She glanced down and realized she was topless. “Shit. I should probably finish getting dressed.”
Ari smiled. “I never looked below your shoulders, I swear.”
Milo grunted and shoved Ari’s shoulder, then turned and went back into the office. Ari turned to Frost and raised her eyebrows. He raised his back at her.
“How concerning is that, really?”
“One to ten scale?” He shrugged. “Given everything she’s been through and the unknowns we’re dealing with, anything unusual should be treated like a potential symptom. I would call it a seven on the scale. Something else for you and Miss Frye to keep your eye on. If you’re interested in hiring someone who can help out with the task, there are a few nurses I occasionally use. I can give you their numbers.”
“Thanks. Every little bit will probably help.”
Milo came out of the office, still tucking the shirt into her pants. She looked between them. “Talking behind my back?”
“Yep.” Ari held her arm out and drew Milo close to her. “Come on. Let’s go get you something good and greasy to eat.” She aimed a finger at Frost. “No lecturing about junk food.”
He shook his head. “Absolutely not. In fact, given her malnutrition and what she’s obviously gone through, I’d say she’s more than earned a nice juicy hamburger.”
“Oh god,” Milo said, grabbing a handful of Ari’s shirt. “Hamburger... yes. Multiple hamburgers.”
Ari grinned. “I’ll take you to Two Doors Down and you can have all the burgers you can eat.”
“And then?”
“Then we’re going to take you home, pup. You’ve been gone long enough.”
***
Ari unlocked the door to Gwen and Milo’s house and turned on the lights, grateful to see the switch actually worked. She and Dale sometimes came over to keep things from getting too dusty and keep the spiders from taking over. Every time they visited, she was certain they’d discover the power or water would have been shut off. Her mother had set up automatic payments for things like utilities and rent before they went to Europe, but her bank account wasn’t a bottomless pit no matter how much she might act like it was sometimes.
Then again, Ari had recently learned the majority of her mother’s money was stolen from hunter bank accounts, so maybe it really was an endless resource.
Milo hesitated in the foyer, scanning the living room like she’d never seen it before.
“Everything okay?” Ari asked.
Milo nodded. “Weird to be here without Gwen. That’s all.”
“If you’d rather stay with me and Dale...”
“No,” Milo said. “No, it’s still home. And it still feels really great to be back here. Just not as good as it should feel.”
Ari went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She and Dale had cleaned it out months ago, but there were still bottles of water. She took out two and carried them to Milo, who was now standing at the living room window. The yard beyond was overgrown and wild.
“We kept meaning to find a kid to mow this for you...”
“Mm.” Ari tapped Milo’s arm with the bottle, which seemed to snap her out of her trance. She took it and cracked the lid, then downed half the bottle in one swallow. They’d spent over an hour at Two Doors Down, where Milo had eaten four monster 420 Burgers with an enthusiasm that drew comments and admiration from both the waiter and the cook.
Ari waited until Milo finished the water before she spoke. “I’m not going to try pushing you. I don’t want you to frustrate you, or pressure you about something you can’t remember. I just want you to know that Dale and I are both here for whatever you need.”
“Just find her for me,” Milo said, still staring out the window. “Do that for me, pup?”
“I’ll do everything I can.”
Milo nodded. Then she growled and spun on her heel, stalking to the couch and throwing herself down onto the cushions. “I feel like such a waste of space. Gwen’s out there somewhere and all I’m doing is eating burgers and napping.”
&
nbsp; “Hey, you got away. You let me know she’s out there to be found. That’s more than enough for right now. You’ve earned a little rest.”
Milo tilted her head to the side. “Isn’t that what Dr. Frost told you earlier...?”
“Yeah, well, do as I say, not as I do.”
“Sure,” Milo chuckled. She looked up at Ari, trying to read her face. “You gave up on us, didn’t you?”
Ari considered lying. Decided there wasn’t a point. “Yeah. You were completely gone. Radio silent. No one knew where you’d gone. I thought if there was any chance you could send us a message, you’d have found it by then. It was easier for me to just make peace with it rather than clinging to hope.”
Milo said, “I understand. I would’ve done the same thing. Hope can be a pain in the ass.”
Ari went and sat down on the couch next to Milo. They stared at the wall in silence, drinking their water.
“You know, there’s something from before my memory goes all--” She waved a hand next to her head to indicate a mess. “It might not be something you want to hear.”
“Oh boy,” Ari said. “Might as well pull off the band-aid.”
“When we were in Germany, Gwen let people assume we were married because it was easier than defining what we actually are to each other. You know what I mean?”
Ari nodded. “Dale and I don’t like girlfriend, either. You explained this at Dr. Frost’s.”
“I know, but what I didn’t tell you was that after a while, it stopped feeling like a cover story.” She picked at the label of her water bottle. “I’ve always looked for the next one, you know? Even when a relationship is good, at the back of my mind, I’d think, ‘next time I live with someone, she’s got to be a little tidier’ or something like that. I don’t know when I stopped doing that with Gwen, but I haven’t thought of the next one in a really long time. I don’t think I want a next one.”
“For what it’s worth,” Ari said, “I don’t think she does, either.”
Milo didn’t say anything to that, but Ari could sense she was struggling to keep her emotions in check. She looked around the living room, remembering things she spent years trying to forget. Her childhood, the first transformations, learning about who she was. The betrayal, the vow to never return...
“I spent a long time trying to get away from this house,” Ari said. “My mother and I lived in the same city but I didn’t see her for a decade because I was so betrayed by what she’d done to me. Mom’s never really been my favorite person. But I understand her a lot better than I ever thought I would. And I know she’s aware that she’s made mistakes, and she’s trying to do better. You make her happy, Milo. You make her want to be better.”
Milo stared hard at her water bottle. “Which is ironic,” she said, her voice lower than normal, “since she originally hired me to break up you and Dale.”
Ari laughed. “Yeah. Funny how that worked out, huh?”
“How is she doing? After the whole book fiasco. We kept wanting to reach out, make sure she was okay, but we didn’t want her to think we were worried.”
“She’s fine.” They had also discussed this at Dr. Frost’s, but Ari had a feeling Milo’s memory still wasn’t quite recovered. “Back to normal. She’s more nervous about a relapse than I am.”
“I think she’s right to be.” Milo held up her hands to hold off Ari’s defense. “This isn’t about Dale as a person. Her strength, dedication, fortitude, none of that comes into it. But when we were in Germany, Gwen and I learned a lot about these fucking essays and the horrors they’ve caused. They woke up a whole generation of hunters, and they’ve even managed to turn some wolves against their own pack.”
Ari shook her head. “I don’t get that. It’s just words on a page. I’ve seen the book, it’s like this thick.” She held her thumb and forefinger up so they were almost touching. “How can one book so much power?”
“You ever heard of the Bible?” Milo said. “Some people don’t even bother reading that one before they go off to do horrible things in its name.”
Ari rolled her eyes. “That’s not the Bible’s fault. Those people started out with their own sets of beliefs that they use the Bible to justify. You and Mom had that book all those months and you never even peeked? Not even once?”
Milo sat up, grunting quietly. “We saw what it did to Dale. Dale Frye, of all people. It made her someone neither of us recognized, scared the shit out of both of us. We weren’t about to play with something that could do that to a person like her. So no, I haven’t read any of the essays. I have no desire to know exactly what they say, or to understand how they could make our sweet Dale into a monster. The evidence spoke for itself.”
Ari wanted to argue, but she knew it wouldn’t help. “Okay. I’ll take your word for it, for now. I’m going to go back to the office and check in with Dale. Will you be okay here?”
Milo looked around, obviously wary of the empty space. “I’ll call if I need to arrange a sleepover.”
“Dale and I are on-call. Take a long bath, put on your own clothes, get back into your own skin. The wolf will be waiting when you’re ready.”
“Thanks, Ari.”
Ari bent down and kissed the top of Milo’s head. “Feel better soon, Millicent.”
She left the house and was reaching for her phone to call Dale when it started ringing. She knew instinctively it was Dale even before she looked at the screen. Whether it was because they had such a close connection, or just due to the general insanity of the day, she couldn’t have said. She swiped her thumb across the screen to answer.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Hey.” Dale sounded breathless. “Are you close to the office?”
“I’m at Mom’s house. Are you okay?”
Dale exhaled sharply. “There’s... I... I need you to get here. I don’t want to tell you this over the phone. Get to the office, puppy, please.”
“I can be there in ten minutes.”
She beat her estimate by four minutes, risking a ticket but willing to pay the price if it meant Dale didn’t have to be alone for whatever fresh hell was rearing its head now. She parked in front of the building and ran inside, half-expecting to see Hayden behind the desk with a gun to Dale’s head. She was alone in the office, staring at the computer with a look of anguish that was almost as bad as what Ari had imagined.
“What’s wrong?”
Dale hit a button and motioned for Ari to come around the desk. “I have an alert for the word ‘werewolf’ and ‘canidae’ on social media. I get a lot of ads for urban fantasy books, TV shows, things like that, but this went up about half an hour ago. Links started popping up all over the place about ten minutes later.”
The screen showed a site with the words FULL MOON FIGHTERS scrawled across the top in blood-red letters. A video player was embedded underneath the title, a blank square until Dale tapped the button to start it playing.
A man stepped into frame. He wore a black turtleneck and a rubber mask of what looked like George Washington, leaning in close to the camera as if checking to make sure it was recording. When he stepped back they could see he was in a cinder-block room with no windows. The only exit must have been behind the camera.
“We are the Full Moon Fighters,” he said, his voice muffled by the mask. “The purpose of this video is to spread the word about a scourge which has run amok in our world. There are creatures masquerading as people living in our neighborhoods, eating in our restaurants, shopping in our stores. They look just like us but they’re not. They’re monsters.”
Ari said, “Is he outing werewolves?”
“Keep watching.” Dale sounded like she was about to throw up.
“I know,” George Washington continued, “that most people watching this will claim it’s a hoax. But I also know there are people out there who know the truth, who will rise up to prevent humanity from being overwhelmed by these creatures.
“I’m talking about canidae, werewolves, skinwalkers.
Don’t be fooled by the fact they can look like us. They’re animals. And we’re going to prove it.”
He stepped back from the camera and motioned someone forward. Two more men, dressed identically with different Presidents as masks, dragged someone into the center of the room and dropped her on the floor. A steel bar rested across her shoulders, and her elbows were bent so that her wrists could be shackled to either side. It made her look like a bird pinned to a display case. She was dressed in a thin white T-shirt and sweatpants, barefoot. Ari held her breath, only able to see the back of the woman’s head but knowing in her gut exactly who she was looking at. One of the other men, with an Abe Lincoln mask, pulled the prisoner up into a kneeling position.
It was Marin Cardoso.
George Washington leaned back into frame. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with a real... life... werewolf. Looks like your neighbor, right? Your best friend? The girl who makes you coffee every morning. But twenty minutes ago, she was a wolf.”
A pre-recorded clip began playing. It showed a wolf, the wolf Ari recognized from the photo Eva had given her, backed into a corner. She was growling, hackles up, snapping at the men who had surrounded her. She snapped and lunged at them, but it was clear she wasn’t going to come out victorious. The scene snapped back to the Presidents. Lincoln and the third man, John F. Kennedy, had stood Marin up and was attaching the steel bar to chains hanging from the ceiling.
“We know very little about these beasts, but there are some hard and true facts. These monsters can’t go more than four weeks without reverting to their true state. And that, my friends, is what you’re going to see. The monster you see before you transformed back into her human disguise--” He checked his watch. “Seventeen minutes ago. At some point in the next twenty-eight days, she will change back. We are going to be filming her and streaming the footage live so you can see the transformation as it happens. No trick photography, no CGI, no bullshit. Just a woman becoming a wolf in front of your very eyes.”
He stepped closer to the camera.
“And then the world will know the truth. The beasts won’t have anywhere to turn, nowhere to run or hide. You will be exposed. Click the link below to go to the live video. Share the link. Make sure everyone is watching when the truth is exposed.”