Darkness Unveiled

by Emerson Knight

  She hooked a thumb over her shoulder as if gesturing to something. “I just got your messages. I had lost my phone and just now got—”

  I waved her excuses aside. She was an excellent liar, but not good enough to fool me. “Tell me what you know about the attack on my pack.”

  “I heard,” she admitted sheepishly, taking a step back. “I am sorry for your losses. If I had anything at all to share with you about it, I would. As you know, I don’t get involved in violence. I have a few rules, and that’s the first one.” She held up a finger like a ward. “The most important one.”

  Despite my growing impatience, I said nothing, preferring to draw her out with a steady, determined stare. Apparently she didn’t like voids in conversation—most people didn’t—because she rushed to fill the silence as she backed into the living room, slowly putting a couch between us. “That being said,” she added cautiously, “from time to time, someone … misrepresents themselves, and I, being a purveyor of whispers and knowledge, sometimes sell my wares with the full but otherwise false expectation that no one will actually get hurt.”

  I felt my jaw clench and forced it to relax. “Explain,” I insisted, slowly following her around the couch.

  Sweat began to form on her forehead as her breath quickened. “Sometimes,” she swallowed, “I just bring people together. People I don’t know directly, for reasons I don’t know. I’m at their mercy, really, in regards to intentions. Mostly there’s just an asking for a need, followed by a fulfillment. Introductions are made, handshakes performed—”

  “Payment issued.”

  She shook her head nervously, her curls bouncing. “I’m at the mercy of their projected integrity, really.”

  “Who?”

  She sucked in her lips, glancing about the room as she took another step back.

  I followed her, allowing no room for her to try and escape.

  “Perhaps a brief negotiation?” she asked timidly.

  “Too late, Artemis. Tell me everything.” I squeezed my fists until my knuckles cracked loudly. “Tell me now.”

  She sighed as she brushed a wayward curl from her eyes. “A man wanted to know about antidotes—specifically about antidotes—and I … I knew another man—by reputation only—who could answer such questions.”

  In an effort to control my anger, I took in a deep exaggerated breath and slowly exhaled. “The creatures that attacked my pack used a poison that prevents my people from healing.”

  “I heard,” she admitted sadly.

  “And yet you said nothing,” I snapped.

  “I couldn’t be sure it was my introduction,” she explained, taken aback.

  “That’s never stopped you before.”

  “This attack … this monstrous attack—there’s power behind this,” she insisted, trembling. “Immense power. He found me once, Ethan, and not the way you did. I can’t hide from him.” This place, I realized, was her sanctuary; without its secrecy she was back on the street, always looking over her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispered sincerely.

  I growled. “Artemis—”

  “I brought two people together to make an antidote,” she insisted, then swallowed hard before continuing. “But it seems those who make antidotes, also make … poisons.”

  “Who?” I demanded.

  “A man,” she said, swallowing fear. “That’s all I remember. That’s all he’ll let me remember. When I try to remember more, I-I fall apart.”

  I didn’t understand, but I knew she wasn’t lying. “Who made the poison?” I demanded, raising my voice.

  “I-I can take you to him. If you’re not with someone he recognizes, I don’t think he’ll talk to you. Which is to say, you need me alive and unharmed,” she clarified.

  “Artemis. If you lie to me now, if you mislead me, I will consider you an enemy of the pack. Do you understand?”

  Her curls bounced as she nodded emphatically.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Yes,” she fluttered about, grabbing a light coat and small purse. “I can’t promise he’ll be home.”

  “Let’s hope he is. For both our sakes.”

  Artemis guided me by memory to Dr. Robert Yoshi’s house, filling me in on what she knew about the man I suspected had created the poison that was killing my friends. There was nothing supernatural about Dr. Yoshi. According to Artemis, he was an immunologist who had quit a military biological warfare program for ethical reasons to teach chemistry at a local university. After leaving the military program, Dr. Yoshi had lived a seemingly simple, comfortable life until his wife was diagnosed with stage three liver cancer. The cost of treatment went well beyond what his insurance and salary would cover, leaving the doctor looking for sources of extra income. When the silver-haired witch found Artemis, Dr. Yoshi was the only name she had to offer.

  “This witch showed up on your doorstep?” I asked, clarifying.

  “Yes.”

  “And you can’t remember anything about him?” I gave her a sideways look and saw the panic in her expression as she tried to remember, then shook her head. “How does that work?”

  “Magic, I think. He did something.” She bit at her nails as she turned within, her gaze growing dull.

  “I know someone who can help you with that.”

  She appeared even more panicked than before. “Fudge no. Thank you. I don’t need strangers poking around in my noodle.”

  I let the subject drop as she directed me to the entrance of a gated community. Josh would take a look at her whether she wanted him to or not, but there was no point in explaining that now. I needed to focus on this doctor. I pulled up to the guardhouse. A young man—probably in college—emerged to greet me with a clipboard.

  “Name, sir?” he asked.

  I drew my wallet out of my pocket, fished out a hundred-dollar bill, and flicked it up between two fingers. While he grappled with what I assumed was his first and probably last bribe, I stared ahead, waiting impatiently. He only needed a few seconds to take the money, then muttered a thanks and opened the gate.

  “You’re not going to kill anybody, are you?” he asked as an afterthought.

  I drove through the gate without answering. Artemis pointed out the two-story brick house. Lights were on inside. The driveway was empty, so I assumed he didn’t have guests.

  “Kids?” I asked. A family would complicate matters significantly.

  “No.”

  “The wife?”

  “Didn’t make it,” she whispered.

  I turned off the headlights and killed the engine just before coasting into the driveway.

  “If you don’t know, tell me. Does he live with anyone?”

  “I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure.”

  As long as it’s not kids.

  She followed me to the front door. “Perhaps I should knock first. I can get him to let me in and then you can reveal yourself.”

  “No.” I opened the screen and kicked in the front door with the flat of my boot. The house was a split-level, with the entryway between floors. I paused just long enough to locate a single heartbeat in the house. Following the sound, I reached the top of the stairs to find a short, wide-eyed Japanese American man with short graying hair emerging from the dining room with a red stain on his button-down shirt and a napkin in his hand. He saw Artemis behind me.

  “Emily,” he called her, “w-who is this? What are you doing in my—”

  Without breaking stride, with one hand I lifted the doctor by the collar of his shirt and drove him into the wall behind him. He sank into the Sheetrock, and I held him there, watching the terror in his eyes as he saw the angry wolf in mine.

  “Oh, crap,” I heard Artemis mutter behind me.

  “W-what’s happening?” Dr. Yoshi stammered. “Take whatever you want. Take it all and go!”

  “I want to know how you poisoned my friends.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about! Please!” he pleaded, but the look he gave Artemis told me he
knew exactly what I was talking about. “You promised discretion!” he cried to her when he realized I wasn’t buying his innocence.

  She jabbed a finger toward him. “I brought you together to make antidotes, not kill wolves.”

  “I had no choice! When he told me what he wanted, I said no. I said no! But he did things to me. He used magic to make my life miserable until I gave him what he wanted.”

  “You’re lying,” I growled. He was too frightened for me to distinguish if he was lying, but it didn’t hurt to accuse him of one, make him uncomfortable to get to the truth. “I want the poison. And I want the antidote. Lots of it.”

  He hesitated, his will crumbling. “A-are you going to k-kill me?”

  “Give me. What I want,” I snarled.

  “You should give him what he wants,” Artemis suggested helpfully.

  On the drive to his lab at the university, I told him, “I need enough antidote to treat thirty victims.” I included the Seethe’s injured, though I had to guess at their numbers. “How long will it take?”

  “I have enough for forty already made,” Dr. Yoshi declared from the seat next to me, but I didn’t believe him. “The silver-haired man ordered the poison and the antidote, but when he picked up the order, he only took the poison. He didn’t say why. I didn’t know how it was to be used.”

  “You remember what he looked like?” Artemis asked, surprised.

  “What’s his name?” I demanded.

  “He never gave me one.”

  I squeezed the steering wheel until I thought it might snap. “Describe him, then.”

  The doctor visibly struggled to remember, his eyelids blinking rapidly as he began to rock in his seat. “Bright violet eyes. That’s all I remember—the eyes, staring at me.”

  “Magic,” Artemis whispered from the seat behind me. “He’s going through the same pain I go through when I try to remember. It’s amazing he even remembers the hair and eye color.”

  The doctor led us into his laboratory, where he kept the antidote in a locked cabinet. He had a couple of vials of poison as well. I called Dr. Baker, who answered immediately. “I’m bringing the antidote,” I declared. “Call our contacts in the highway patrol. Let them know I’m coming from the university. I’ll be speeding.”

  “Hurry, Ethan.”

  Once the SUV was loaded, I put the doctor into the passenger seat and closed the door before Artemis could get in. “Go home,” I said. If Josh could break the spell that blocked the doctor’s memories, Yoshi would be able to tell us a lot more about the witch than Artemis could. I trusted her less now than before, but she remained a valuable resource. I preferred not to drag her into the light unless I had to.

  “You’re going to leave me here?” she said, eyes wide in disbelief.

  “It’s better you’re not seen with me,” I growled, glaring down at her. “If I call, you answer. If you don’t, I will find you.” Seeing that she understood, I climbed into the driver’s seat and drove out of the parking lot, leaving her there.

  “Am I going home?” the doctor asked softly, his voice wavering as he huddled against the door, staring out the window.

  I locked his door and turned on the child safety mechanism so he couldn’t unlock it. I didn’t need him getting brave and killing himself trying to roll away on the highway. People did stupid things when they thought they were going to die. “You’ve got a lot to answer for, doctor.” My jaw clenched as I concentrated on weaving through traffic. “Before you think about going home, I suggest you pray your antidote actually works.”

  His heart rate began pounding like a drum and his breathing became shallow and quick as he began to hyperventilate. He understood what was at stake.

  “Take long breaths. Hey!” I shouted, getting his attention. “Long, slow breaths.”

  I made record time to the retreat, thanks to the appearance of a police car that changed into the lane in front of me and turned on its sirens and lights, clearing the way. After a while the car veered off and was replaced by an ambulance. We had pack members in all the emergency services, but we also held a lot of favors that could be called in. I pulled up to the front door of the retreat to find Josh, Sebastian, Dr. Baker, and several pack members anxiously waiting for us. From the dashboard, I opened the back hatch and Dr. Baker retrieved the box of antidote. When Sebastian opened Dr. Yoshi’s door, he recoiled toward me.

  “You’re safe, for now,” I told him. “If we decide to kill you, it will be much quicker and more merciful than what your poison has done to my people.” At my urging, Dr. Yoshi stumbled out the door, immediately surrounded by angry, growling were-animals pressing in on him until Sebastian pushed them back. He roughly took the doctor by the arm and was guiding him toward the house when Steven emerged in a hot fury. He leapt onto the doctor, knocking him to the ground, and straddled his chest as he squeezed the man’s throat with both hands. Yoshi’s face turned bright red as he gasped and spat, struggling feebly to pry Steven’s grip loose. By the time I emerged from the SUV, Sebastian had pulled Steven off, forcibly holding him back while I got the doctor to his feet, shielding him from the others. Every one of us had lost someone. Every one of us grieved for someone who was dying from Dr. Yoshi’s poison. I needed to get him inside as quickly as possible.

  “Steven!” Sebastian shouted, but Steven refused to stop pushing toward the doctor. “We need him! Stop! We need him to help your mother, Steven!” The mention of Joan gave him pause, but he was barely in control. “We need him to apply the antidote. We need him to show us what this poison is, and how he made it, so that this never happens again. When that’s done, only when that’s done, we will judge him. Understand?”

  Tears welled in Steven’s eyes as he struggled, until he finally forced himself to turn away. I hurried the doctor into the house, past more angry were-animals, and into the clinic where Kelly and Dr. Baker were already examining the vials from the box. Joan, Marko, and Winter were there, pale and slowly dying around us, as were several others. Two bodies, I saw, were now covered head to toe with white sheets. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, willing my own fury away.

  Marko was my fault. He shouldn’t have been with me in Virginia. That wasn’t pack business.

  “The most important thing you can do now,” Dr. Baker instructed our guest in a calm, strained voice as he squeezed Dr. Yoshi’s shoulder, “is help these people recover from this poison. I’ll have a lot of questions for you later—questions you will be required to answer—but right now I need your help to calculate the dosage. If you have any hope of surviving this night, Dr. Yoshi, it starts with saving these lives behind you. Now. Let’s begin.”

  Sebastian and I stood back against the double doors and watched as Dr. Baker and Dr. Yoshi conspired to calculate the doses, giving each one to Kelly to administer as it was prepared. After a moment, we stepped out of the room to find Josh leaning against the wall, while Steven anxiously fidgeted as he paced the hall. Hearing us, he stopped immediately, looking up for hopeful news.

  “It will be some time before we start seeing an improvement,” Sebastian said softly.

  Steven’s shoulders sank as he nodded, his gaze dropping to the floor as he returned to pacing.

  “Ethan,” Sebastian said, his voice suddenly tense as he turned to me.

  I knew what he wanted. “He claims not to remember much about the man who hired him to create the poison, except that he was a witch with silver hair and purple eyes.”

  “That’s pretty specific,” Josh said, “but that doesn’t match the description of any witch I know of. Probably from out of the area. He couldn’t give you anything more?”

  “Getting that much out of him caused him some kind of pain that seemed to cloud his memory,” I explained. “Magic?”

  “It’s possible. If it’s the same witch who sent those creatures to attack us, he’s very powerful. I’m not sure if I can break his spell, but I have some ideas that might work.”

  “Once Dr. Baker is finished
with our guest,” Sebastian instructed Josh, “take him somewhere quiet and see what you can do.”

  Josh nodded.

  “Was Dr. Yoshi a willing participant?” Sebastian asked me.

  I shrugged. “He claims he was forced to create the poison. He was too frightened in general for me to tell if he was lying.”

  “We’re lucky he left the antidote behind,” Josh said.

  Sebastian grunted.

  I shared his doubts. “Or this witch is playing some kind of game,” I explained to Josh. “He ordered the antidote made, but didn’t take it.”

  “You think we were supposed to find it?” he asked, incredulous.

  “More likely the antidote was to give the doctor a sense of deniability.”

  “Are we going to share this with Demetrius?”

  Sebastian nodded. “After we verify that the antidote works.”

  Dr. Baker emerged through the double doors, wearing an exhausted, but relieved expression.

  “It’s working?” Steven asked, breathless with anticipation.

  “Slowly,” Dr. Baker smiled, “but yes. The poison is still inhibiting their ability to heal at their normal rate, but the healing process has begun in all of the patients.”

  I felt my shoulders drop, unaware until then of the tension I’d had been holding. Josh and Sebastian smiled, relieved, while Steven leaned against the wall for support. He started for the doors, then stopped when he met Sebastian’s gaze. A silent exchange passed between them before Steven nodded slowly and disappeared through the doors.

  “I’ll get Dr. Yoshi out of there and check him over,” Josh said before disappearing through the doors as well.

  “Good work, Ethan,” Sebastian said. “You look exhausted. Are you staying the night?”

  “There’s something else I need to take care of.” I needed to check on Sky. Just because the creatures hadn’t yet targeted her, didn’t mean they wouldn’t. For most people, a phone call would do, but not her. Not from me, anyway. With any luck, she wouldn’t even know I was there. I just needed to know that she was home, safe within her ward, and then I could go back to the retreat and check on Marko and Winter.