I raced back to the cabin to check on Hopper and evaluate the damage they’d done to all my stuff. Hopper lingered under a pile of old shoes in the closet, and chittered at me in fury when I found him. I covered him with a blanket and got back to piling up my counter-supernatural critter weapons.
My hands shook, though I couldn’t tell if it was fury, adrenaline, or withdrawal.
I would head out to the woods, maybe to the fire road where the rangers found me. Jamie was out there, and he’d save me if anything else showed up. He’s spent the last ten years protecting me from afar, apparently, so I’d test that one more time. I’d summon Dragomir and figure out what the fuck we were going to do.
I shouted for Dragomir and tried to use that unfortunate connection through his blood to summon him to that spot. It was still early in the day but the trees created a good amount of shade. With the mask and gloves, he could answer me. He would have to answer me. I needed answers and until I got them, nothing else would get done.
Summoning Jamie was harder, but I did my best: thinking it out to the universe that I needed my brother. If I could get them both in the same place, we could negotiate a trilateral truce and at least have a united front in protecting ourselves from Archer’s guys. They could go back to their feuding once that issue was dealt with.
I fumed as I packed the weapons in a backpack, holding a redo of the argument with Archer in my head, and muttered to myself all the great comebacks I should have thought of at the time. Even geniuses couldn’t always come up with a good retort. If our paths crossed again, I’d be ready.
I slammed the door and went to the truck, but turned when a cold breeze snapped through me.
Dragomir. His irritation came through loud and clear, though I didn’t see a speck of it on the flesh-colored silicone. “Do not summon me.”
“We have a problem,” I said. “Well, you have a problem and I have an opportunity.”
The freakish gloves looked like Hulk hands when he made a fist. “You are supposed to be finding an actual cure, not this ridiculous... disguise.”
“How about we make sure we live out the next week, then argue over how I save your life?”
“Explain. Quickly.”
I gave him the highlights of my conversation with Archer and stood my ground as Dragomir started pacing. “So here’s the deal, Dracula. I don’t think I like you very much and you owe me an explanation about the blood, but you’ve helped me and we have a deal. I need to know the truth. I need to know why — what you did to my brother. If you’re one of those fancy-pants vampires who can create werewolves — I need to know why Jamie ended up like he did. I need to know how you did it so I can reverse it, so I can change him back.”
Dragomir watched me from behind the safety of his mask. He waited a damn eternity before he faked a deep breath and started talking in an emotionless monotone that made my skin crawl, even more so because it came from an uncanny face. “My original creation — the creature that attacked you — lost control of the pack. He was unable to control them and the pack ran wild as I focused elsewhere. It became clear that if they continued unchecked, eventually my sanctuary would be uncovered and those... hunters would have shown up on my door. I needed an alpha who could control the pack. Your brother fit my requirements.”
A knot balled up my throat. Jamie fit his requirements. Like Dragomir had a Chinese menu to pick from — chicken, beef, or tofu. But was it the truth?
As I processed that, Dragomir went on, careless. “Unfortunately for me, he had such a strong will — or perhaps only a strong motivation — that he soon exceeded my control. He took control of the pack himself and... left. I have not been able to control him, although I can occasionally influence the pack to do my bidding.”
“And you didn’t just make more werewolves?”
“Certainly not. I have enough for my purposes, if I could get your intransigent brother to obey my orders.” Dragomir’s real lips thinned. “It is not easy to make them, which is why there are not more.”
I took a deep breath and braced myself to hear more things I really didn’t want to. “But it can transmit by bites, right?”
“Under certain conditions. Those beasts are not helpful for my purposes. They are too much the animal.”
Time ticked away. Eventually Archer and his team would leave the hospital and come looking for me or Dragomir or Jamie. “When I was attacked. That was on purpose, wasn’t it? So you could control Jamie by controlling me. Or did you really just want the day-walking fixed?”
“Clever girl,” he murmured. Like a really smart animal fell for a stupid trap. “I did not expect the old one to attack you, but it presented an opportunity. The evidence you periodically found brought you deeper and deeper into the park. It was inevitable that you would be injured and available for saving.”
“And our deal — you were just stringing me along about Jamie until you got your cure. That’s all this was.” My stomach turned over and threatened to introduce my breakfast burrito to Dragomir’s shoes.
Dragomir shrugged. ““Does it really matter?”
“Yes,” I said. “It matters.”
“Fine,” he said. Like I was the most exhausting thing he’d dealt with in centuries. “I want to walk in the daylight. You appeared to be the most likely to find that cure for me. After I changed your brother, I saw his memories of you and did my own research. Then it was simply a matter of time until you wandered into my little corner of the mountains and I could set the old one in your path. You did the rest.”
I hated him. God, I hated him so much in that moment I would have staked the bastard without flinching.
But I needed him, too. He was the key to saving Jamie. “How do I reverse the werewolf — thing? How do I make Jamie human again?”
“You cannot. Once it is done, it is done.”
“No.” I shook my head, resolute. With science, everything was possible. The vampire lied before. Maybe he lied about that. “You thought you’d never walk in the daylight and yet here you are. Just because you think it’s impossible doesn’t mean it really is. Tell me how you made the werewolves and I can figure out how to turn them back. I can. I just need — time. And a lab.”
Dragomir remained oddly tense in the relaxed hiking outfit that protected his body from the light. “I hardly think I will tell you anything of the sort.”
“Well, Deus vult, asshole,” I said. I clenched the backpack and debated getting the garlic mace to just do away with him. I could start with nothing. “Deus vults that my brother will be human again. Is that enough to convince you to cooperate?”
“Hardly.” His irritation at my deliberate misuse of Latin floated in the air like a fart in church.
“Then that mask is the closest you’ll get to running around in the day,” I said. I meant every word. “You broke our deal, so we’re going to make a new one. And hopefully that’ll save both of our asses with the monster hunters.”
His lip curled and took the mask with it. “Monster hunters. What a ridiculous thing to call them.”
“You are pretty monster-y, friend, so it’s apt.”
“Ridiculous children,” he muttered.
And I wondered if he meant me in particular or the monster hunters or just generally the rest of the world. “They’re going to kill you, probably kill me, and destroy the werewolves. I don’t know if that’s the order they’ll pick, but that doesn’t change the outcome. All three of us – you, me, and Jamie – need to work together, or we’ll all be picked off.”
“I hardly think —”
“They can get to you, Dragomir.” I started pacing. “And what happens if they catch Jamie and kill him? What happens to the werewolf pack if Jamie is out of the picture and you can’t be bothered to watch them? Who controls the other ones? Will they run rampant until they change the whole town and you end up with an army of hunters in your territory, knocking on your door?”
“Hmm.” He adjusted the sunglasses that protected his eyes from the UV rays, and tapped at his silicone-covered chin. “That is an interesting thought. They would run rampant, I would assume.”
It sounded more like a philosophical problem, the way he said it, than a town-destroying cataclysm of violence.
“Right. And if they ran wild so tourists got pictures of them, and if you somehow survived, these mountains would be overrun with people searching for cryptids. You’d get no peace. No rest. Someone would find your lair eventually, and even if you killed them, more people would follow.” I took a deep breath. “So we have to work together, Dragomir. It’s the only way any of us will get what we want.”
He folded his arms. “This sort of bargaining is beneath me.”
My chest heaved as if I’d run a marathon. How was I exhausted just by arguing with him? I didn’t want to use the last arrow in my quiver, but if he refused to cooperate, there wasn’t much choice. “Is anyone from Chicago still looking for you?”
He went rigid.
When the silence stretched, I nodded. “Interesting. Once the werewolves are publicized, it’ll be all over the news. Someone out there will know you’re responsible, and they’ll come knocking. How many will it take for them to kill you this time? Can you run far and fast enough to save yourself again?”
He remained silent long enough that I heard boots crunching through leaves. I turned just in time to see Archer and his team appear from around the cabin.