A bath will make me feel better. It always does.
I keep the thought in mind as I sink into the tub, letting hot, soapy water slosh over my body.
Perhaps if I tell myself that, perhaps if I believe it in my heart of hearts, then the words will prove themselves true. Perhaps.
My mind wanders as I recline against the bath’s sides, pacing back and forth over Rayne, Wendy, and Maury. How can it be so early in the day and yet so much of my temper has been pulled, twisted, stretched, and frayed?
I sink into the suds and hold my breath for a while under the water.
Somehow, down here it’s easier to think. Yes, of course sound is muted and my sight is hindered by the fluffy underside of bubbles, but it also muffles my thoughts. Allows me to pick at them one by one and study each in turn.
Norma?
She hasn’t come home, but I didn’t really expect her to before sundown. No doubt she’s huddled up with the rest of her clutch mates back at SPEAR HQ, causing mischief and havoc in my name. Atta girl.
Rayne?
Nothing I can do about her until she wakes. That will be one hell of a conversation, but at least I know what I need to apologize for. Sometimes that’s the best place to start. And I know I was out of line this morning.
Wendy?
All I can do is my job. Whether he’s being set up or not, I need to find out what’s actually happening with the werewolf population of the city and bring it back under control.
Sounds simple on paper.
My air runs out before I can turn my thoughts to Maury, and I allow my body to bob upward in the tub. My hair breaks the surface and water streams down my face and ears in warm, thick streams.
Not enough to block the sound of my phone though.
I’ve no idea how long it’s been ringing, but I lean out of the bath to tap the screen, thus bringing the call to life. Another tap transfers the call to my speaker function.
“Karson.”
“Oh, good, you’re awake. I needed to talk with you.”
“Jack?” I peer at the phone again. The number is one I don’t recognize, but that’s certainly Jack’s voice crackling down the semi suitable line.
“Yes, sorry, I had to call from—” He clears his throat. “This isn’t my phone, but they wouldn’t let me grab mine. Look, I need an update on these werewolves.”
“I only saw you this morning.”
“I know, I know, but…but you really need to figure this out. Sooner than you think.”
I let the water slosh a little, just to cover the parts of me currently exposed to air. “It’s in hand.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. Jeez, what’s your problem today?”
There are strange sounds coming down the line. Unlike Jack’s normal phone, this one seems to carry a lot of background sound. I catch the hum of low voices, the grunt of an engine, something large and heavy like a truck perhaps. Shouting.
“Where are you?” I ask.
“Away.”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“The only one you’re getting. Come on, Danika, I need you to focus. You’ve got to take this seriously.”
All my moving in the tub has caused a tiny pink shadow to appear on the water between my legs. It reminds me that my period is something strange and unusual. Something that I need to get checked as soon as possible. Preferably by one of the Foundation doctors, since my usual GP won’t have the slightest clue. A fact I’ve learned the hard way.
“—they will take over everything and I don’t know how that works.”
“What?” I snap away from my thoughts with a jolt. Hadn’t realized Jack was still talking. “What did you say?”
He sighs. “You didn’t hear a word of that, did you?”
“No, I—”
“I don’t have time right now. They’re listening, and I have another call coming through. Just…” His voice hitches, almost trembles. “Be careful. I can’t help you if you’re on the wrong side of all this. Please remember what you’re supposed to be doing and do it quickly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I can’t—”
“Jack?”
Water splashes as I attempt to stamp my foot before remembering where I am.
“Fine, I…there’s a protocol. It’s new and untested, but it’s a contingency for Angbec to be used if edanes get out of control. I think it’s called Project Revival and—”
“But I’ve never heard of it.” I splash away a few more threads of pink wriggling through the water.
“Good. No one is supposed to know. You need to trust me when I say you don’t want this contingency enforced. You have to figure out what’s going on with the werewolves before someone gets hurt.”
“Like I said, I’ve got this. Why don’t you trust me?”
“I’m trying to.”
The background sound on the call abruptly becomes louder. The hum of voices evolves into a questioning mumble and the engines sound closer than ever.
“Jack, where are you?”
“I…I need to go,” he murmurs.
“Wait, Jack—”
The line dies.
I sit back in the water again, nibbling my bottom lip, running over the conversation in my mind again.
Project Revival? What the hell is that?
And now that I think about it, who are “they”?
* * *
I know I should sleep, but I can’t. Not only does my body seem to be rebelling against increasingly irregular work hours, but all I can think of is Rayne.
Tossing and turning against those sheets, I try to plan out all the things I want to say when the suns drops. I ponder the best ways to apologize and explain that my hormones have gotten the better of me. Just thinking such nonsense makes me cringe. After so many years, what has suddenly changed in my body to do this to me?
My rational mind calmly points out that Foundation drugs are a work in progress and may have side effects we don’t yet know about. The rest of me is cruelly pleased that Mum will never know. At least not if she continues to give me the silent treatment.
“But it wasn’t my fault.”
I’ve said it at least once a day, every day since that night at Club Starshine. I did everything I could to save Pippa, truly I did. Hell, I beheaded a smooth-talking, vampire bitch-queen with an orc-made battleaxe. But despite everything I did, how many rules I broke and how hard I tried, the only way to save Pippa had been to make her a vampire. Something Rayne did for me, not in spite of me.
I remind myself of that fact too.
My watch beeps and the automatic shutters on the windows to our house begin to lift.
Sundown.
So much for the nap.
I turn in bed again, facing the door, wondering how I’m going to do this.
Thirty seconds later, someone raps at my door. Three guesses as to who.
“Hi, Rayne, come on in.”
She tiptoes through the door like a timid little thief and shuts it softly behind her. Her gaze is pinned to the floor, where her bare feet scuff back and forth against my carpet.
So. Fucking. Beautiful.
Her hair always looks a little crazy, whether she’s just woken or not, but I love it regardless. Soft strands sticking up every which way to frame the delicate features of her near doll-like face. That mouth, those eyes, her soft, smooth skin. She has her underwear on, but nothing else, clearly having come straight to my room on waking. It’s a mismatched set of black panties and baby pink bra but she has never looked more perfect.
“Hi.” Oh, boy, even her voice is gentle and fearful.
Deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
Her shoulders twitch, but she doesn’t leave the door. “Me too. That was a cheap shot and to fire it on the cusp of sunrise was…cruel.”
She’s right, but we’re talking without yelling. I don’t want to do anything to throw fuel on the embers.
“I know you didn’t mean it. It’s okay. I…I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did.”
“You were scared.”
“But I shouldn’t be scared of you. That’s the point we’re making here, isn’t it? You’re my girlfriend. At least I hope that’s what you consider us to be. I should know that you’d never deliberately hurt me.”
At last Rayne looks up. Her expression is one I’ve no idea how to read, but at least I can see her eyes now. They have a faint sheen of silver in them, and when she licks her lips, the tips of her fangs are visible.
“You’re right. I’d never hurt you on purpose.”
Why do I feel like she’s saying something else?
I push the sheets away and climb from the bed. Slowly. When I pick my way through the mess of my room, I can feel her watching me, that calm, assessing gaze she reserves only for me.
Her hand, when I pick it up, is cold. “You need another blood bag.”
She stiffens but doesn’t pull away. “I had one yesterday, I should be fine.”
“Rayne, I’m really sorry. I freaked out earlier and blamed you. That’s not fair. And you’re right. I have been holding back but, cliché as it is, it’s not a you-thing, it’s a me-thing. And I need to deal with it. PMS isn’t helping, but at least I know that’s happening. And…” I consider how to phrase this without sounding creepy. “Wendy said I need to be careful.”
“What?” Rayne’s eyes widen.
“No, no, not like that. No, no, I mean that I need to do something about the…smell.” My own nose wrinkles. “Why can’t I talk today? I mean that with my period in full flow—” I catch myself. “Ha, full flow. Get it?”
She rolls her eyes.
“With my period here there’s obviously going to be blood, right? If Wendy could smell it, the scent must be double for you. So this morning wasn’t your fault. It’s not something you could control.”
“I see.”
“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean vampire, blood, blood, vampire? I can’t believe it took me so long to connect those dots. Now that I know, if I do a better job of being clean, or something, then maybe it won’t be so hard on you.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
“Why did that sound more like ‘fuck you’?”
Rayne pulls her hand away. “You always smell like blood, Danika. It fills your entire body. There isn’t a second between us that lacks that knowledge. I can see your pulse. If I focus I can hear your heart beat. If I’m close enough I can feel the blood moving beneath your skin. Every night of my life is full of that knowledge. And every night, I control the urges that leaves in me.”
“But this morning—”
“I came to you this morning because I want you.” The faintest of growls enters her voice. “I wanted to touch and pleasure my girlfriend. Yes, there’s blood, but I didn’t even notice until I found it.”
“But you were so pushy and forward. I thought the blood might—”
“Everyone smells of blood.” She reaches for my shoulders, then stops without touching. “Danika, I can’t forget what I am. Not for a second. When Vixen turned me into this monster she made it impossible for me to forget. Every moment, every night, if I’m with humans, I’m thinking of blood. All the time. I smell it, I taste it, I want it, I—” she breaks off with a sigh. “I can control it. I have to control it. I have no choice.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I reach for her hand again, stunned when she pulls back out of reach. “Rayne?”
“Don’t. You’re right. I need a blood bag. I’m going to grab one from the emergency store. Then you can tell me about the meeting this morning.”
The reminder wipes my mind of all this emotional, relationship trouble.
“Wendy’s in trouble.”
Rayne nods. “Let me get dressed. Ten minutes.”
True to her word, Rayne moves at speed and, a mere five minutes later, we’re in the kitchen sitting across from each other over the long, wide table.
Pippa darts back and forth behind us packing for her night, shoving supplies into her bag while she chatters on the phone.
Rayne sits with one leg tucked up beneath her on the straight-backed chair, both hands resting on the table. I’ve flipped my own chair around to straddle it, resting my chin on my overlapped wrists.
“Unlawful lupine infection?” I say again, grinding my fingernails into the soft wood of the chair. “Bullshit, right?”
“Of course. You know it, I know it, Wensleydale certainly does, but you have to remember, SPEAR doesn’t. They have to follow protocol.”
“So I shouldn’t be pissed that he’s in that cell, dosed up with who knows what?”
“That’s not what I said. Phillipa?” She turns to my sister.
Pippa treats Rayne to a questioning look.
“Do you know anything about a new drug given to werewolves on a full moon?”
A slight frown followed by a sharp, “I’ll call you back.” She swipes the phone screen then shoves the whole thing into her pocket. “Yes.” A pause. “There is something. One of the research teams in Scotland synthesized a sedative called Quilax.”
I lift an eyebrow.
“That’s not the actual name. It’s Q174X or something like that, but Quilax stuck because it’s catchy…and because we have some real old school nerds on the research team. Anyway, it contains traces of silver azide and is supposed to be in trial phase.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
Her frown deepens. “I don’t like it. Put aside the silver azide for a moment, we still don’t know enough about the blood chemistry of werewolves to be experimenting like this. We don’t have enough volunteers to keep up with sufficient research so we’ve no idea what this will do to them.”
Rayne and I share a look. She opens her mouth, but I get there first.
“Is any of it in Angbec right now?”
“It shouldn’t be. The Foundation authorized the initial synthesis and reproduction of the chemical on a small scale, but so far nothing from the Scotland team suggests it’s ready for werewolf testing. It should still be in their lab. How do you even know about this?”
“I think Maury used it on Wendy.”
Pippa’s eyes widen.
“You’re speculating, Danika.”
“Then why was he so cagey with me?” I glare at Rayne. “He wouldn’t tell me what it was when I noticed and tried to sneak it past me even before that point. Why?”
“Because you’re a known loose cannon with reckless disregard for authority?”
“Hey—”
“It’s true.” She shrugs. “We need to give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it may not be this new drug from Scotland. What if it’s something else?”
“And what if it isn’t?”
Pippa joins us at the table. “Guys, calm down. The drug hasn’t left Scotland. It can’t have. Last I heard, they still needed to find a substitute for silver azide and so far there isn’t one.”
“And what’s wrong with silver azide?”
“Aside from the fact that it’s an explosive? Not much. It’s pretty useful stuff, just incredibly volatile. A few milligrams of the stuff would make a significant bang.”
I stand. “We have to get Wendy out of that cell.”
“We will.”
“No, we need to do it now.”
“Danika—”
“It’s my fault he’s in there. He came to me for help and I let Maury bully me into putting him in holding. I should have fought harder to keep him out.”
A sigh from Rayne. “From what you’ve told me, Maury can’t bully you into anything, no matter how hard he tries. Besides, we can’t take Wensleydale from holding. We need proof.”
“But you didn’t see him this morning. He was lying there like some limp spaghetti string. I’ve never seen him look so out of it. If someone really is out to get him, then—”
“Then we stop them. We have to work it that way round, Danika, we have no choice. Please. Don’t do anything crazy.”
I’m pacing now, hadn’t even realized I’d started moving. At the end of the kitchen, I twirl and turn, following the line of the cupboards lining the kitchen.
She’s right of course. But in my mind’s eye I see Wendy’s docile smile again and the limp slide onto his bed. This can’t be good.
“Dani?”
I look down to my sister.
“I need to go, but…I don’t think you need to worry. For one thing, Mr. Gordan is one of the strongest wolves I know. It’s going to take a lot to hold him down and I don’t know that anything could for any length of time. He’s the pack alpha for a reason. For another, whatever it is that Maury used, it can’t be the Q174X. That’s still in a lab in Scotland, not ready to be used yet. He’ll be fine. Okay?”
I’m nodding, but the spiky lump in my throat makes that hard to feel genuine.
She pats my shoulder and heads out.
Rayne looks up at me from her slouch in her seat. “We should talk to the rest of the pack.”
“Yeah. Let’s take the rest of Kappa though.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I think we’re going to need them and…I need to tell you something about the car.”
* * *
Rayne sits upright and stiff against her seat belt. Her nostrils flare as she scents the air, one hand tracing the gouge marks in the ceiling above the driver’s seat. “This is a lot of damage. Why would they do this?”
I’ve asked myself the same question over and over since this morning. Still no answers. Aside from fear of SPEAR following Wendy’s arrest, there are no reasons I can think of for the attack on me. Not from Wendy’s pack, anyway.
Funny, I hadn’t been nervous this morning, but now, even with Rayne at my side and other members of Kappa on the way, my stomach is looped into tight, rigid knots.
“Did they recognize you?”
“I hope not.” I flex my fingers on the steering wheel. “I mean, I’m a pack-friend. Wendy himself vouched for me and placed me under pack protection. If they knew it was me, then we have yet another problem to add to the list.”
Rayne nods and turns her attention to the road. Though it may not seem so to the casual observer, I know she’s now on high alert, scanning every dark corner and shadow for signs of danger.
So nice having a vampire on side.
The neat, clean streets give way to muckier, grimmer ones as we near the edges of Misona. Traffic thins, then dies off altogether, most humans well aware of the fact that this land belongs to werewolves.
Those few pedestrians out on the pavement walk with the graceful glide of edanes. Not all werewolves, to be sure, but certainly less squishy than the average human.
We pass a couple of hollow, burned out cars and the shabby carcass of a children’s play area wedged between two tall flats.
The road ahead is blocked, two skeletal cars shoved nose to nose with a stack of cardboard boxes, twisted shopping trolleys, and old furniture piled up behind.
Rayne wrinkles her nose. “That’s new.”
“Something to do with the new wolves?”
“Could be.”
I stop the car well back from the blockage, actually taking time to turn and face back in the opposite direction. While I don’t expect it to happen again, it would be nice to have a clean getaway path this time.
The moment I step from the car, I know something’s wrong.