Page 37 of A Light in the Dark
THIRTY-SEVEN
Does it involve the phone alarm I shut off this morning?
I didn’t pass out in Joel’s SUV, but I came close. He guided me through his house, which he’d decorated in a modern minimalism fashion. I suspected he’d neglected to actually do much with the place, placing furniture he liked into spaces that needed it. He showed me his crafting room, which was a wonder to behold. He had several massive crafting stations, and he’d been hard at work on numerous projects.
We’d be challenged fitting his crafting stations into my house, but I’d figure something out somehow.
After I’d poked around in his crafting room for a while, he guided me to his bedroom, which had the promised silk sheets. As I had zero desire to deal with returning to my home to fetch pajamas, a healthy interest in catching his attention, and a lifetime supply of condoms, I flung off my clothes in record time and threw myself onto the bed.
Joel had used his own silk for his sheets, and I burrowed between them, wiggling and rolling around to best enjoy the texture.
Shifter Five’s silk was the best silk, and if Joel couldn’t identify his own silk, he only had himself to blame.
“This was not what I was expecting, and if I had known how much you’d enjoy silk sheets, I would have issued this invitation earlier.” Joel laughed, and unlike me, he took his time getting undressed. I peeked, enjoying the view as he puttered around his bedroom and hung everything up neatly, sparing the precious silk from unnecessary wrinkling.
He took his time preparing for bed, which proved to be my undoing.
Silk, plus warmth, plus comfort equaled sleep.
I could only assume the past few weeks had gotten the better of me, as Joel beat me up, and he had gone to my home to fetch clean clothing for me. “Are you ready to get up yet? It’s almost noon.”
Damn it. Had I really slept for that long? “Noon as in Earth equivalent or noon as in the sun is halfway across the wretched sky?”
“We don’t use Earth time here, Valerie. It’s actually noon. I tried to wake you up earlier, but you whined, clutched the sheets, and threatened to cry. As I wasn’t sure if you’d actually cry, I decided to take the safe route. I brought some rabbits over, and they’re in the oven, so you can have a breakfast of roasted rabbit to go with your coffee.”
“Does that mean I can’t lure you into bed?” A romp sounded like an excellent way to start my day.
He chuckled. “What I have in mind for you, those sheets, and my bed will take a great deal longer than the time to finish roasting the rabbits, so we will have to wait to indulge until after. Ideally, we’ll head to City Hall, let you chip away at that, and call your parents, after which we’ll return here for a leisurely and pleasant evening.”
I could handle waiting with such an offer on the table. I threw off the comforter, bounced out of bed, and took possession of my clothes before wandering around to locate the bathroom. “Morning showers are five minute affairs, so if you want leisurely affairs, those will have to wait for tonight.”
“My morning showers are lengthy affairs, but mostly, I stand there and try to remember what shampoo is and why I need to use soap,” he confessed. “It usually takes me an hour to become functional. You slept through my shower, several attempts to ask what you wanted in your coffee, and me poking you in the shoulder.”
“I’ll be back in five minutes, and I’ll show you the secret to getting me out of bed without a lengthy battle.”
“Does it involve the phone alarm I shut off this morning?”
“It really does.”
“I vanquished that demon before it could wake you,” he announced.
That did explain a few things, although I had no memory of setting an alarm. Yesterday, I must have hated the thought of sleep, choosing a time to wake up out of habit. “Well done. We shall have to explore how the hero is rewarded this evening.”
“Do you think you can find your way to the kitchen? If so, I’ll finish getting our meal ready while you shower.”
“If I get lost, I’ll wander around and eventually whine loudly for assistance. And if you didn’t want me exploring your house, you would have given me directions to your kitchen.”
Joel laughed. “If you end up entering a dark abyss, that’s the garage, so turn back. If you end up outside yet contained by four walls, that’s the courtyard, and I will enjoy laughing at you from the kitchen window.”
“If I end up in the courtyard, you may have to retrieve me, especially if there are pretty flowers to admire.”
“There are pretty flowers to admire,” he confirmed before heading off to handle his kitchen duties.
While it wasn’t what I had expected from cohabiting space and sharing a bed with Joel, I found the situation to my liking and went off to take a shower so I could begin my day.
After feeding me a breakfast of rabbit, vegetables, and coffee, I braced and called my parents, wondering if they’d actually come to Stonecreek. On the third ring, my father answered, “Well, well, well. It seems my little girl remembered to call, although it is after noon.”
“I slept through my alarm,” I confessed. “I am only now functional. Sorry about that.”
“It’s no problem, but I’m not letting a chance to yank your chain pass me by.”
Of course he wouldn’t; if Dad could get his pokes and prods in, he did. Always. “Are you game for coming to Stonecreek still?”
“Will two weeks work for you? We’re doing some work on the house, and I don’t want to let the renovations sit half finished.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Two weeks would give me plenty of time to get back into the swing of things. “Two weeks works. I’ll talk to some friends and see about getting you a ride. I might be able to come pick you up myself, but it would have to be a blitz trip.”
“With what car?” my father challenged.
“The one I’m going to be buying later today,” I confessed. “My neighbor is letting me borrow his, but with all the trips to City Hall I’m needing to do, I’m going to need my own. However, I might hijack my neighbor’s SUV for the trip, since he grew up near us.”
“He’s from the recluse town, right?
I sighed. While I’d been aware of the town’s existence, nobody had called it by name, there weren’t signs for it near my area that I knew of, and the people avoided us for good reason. “Joel, what’s the name of your town? I didn’t see it when we were headed in.”
“Watercrest,” he replied.
“He’s from Watercrest.”
“He lives near the luna moth farm, right?”
I wondered how my parents knew the name of the town when I hadn’t. Rather than ask, I explained, “His parents run the luna moth farm, Dad. I don’t think the luna moths are going to be active in two weeks, though.”
“They’re currently in their larvae stage,” Joel reported, and he pointed to an aquarium on a stand where his entry connected to his living room. Sure enough, there were moth larvae inside chewing on fresh leaves. “The flutter has been taking care of our moths while we were… indisposed. ”
I relayed Joel’s commentary about the lifecycle of the luna moths.
“Ah, I see.”
I laughed. “You won’t be able to see the moths, but we can show you some larvae. Joel got some eggs from the last hatch, and you can see them while you’re here.”
“I’d like that. Two weeks it is, then. I’ll let you go. I got to get back to work while there’s still daylight. Call when you know what time you’ll be around to pick us up.”
I promised I’d call him back, hung up, and crossed my eyes. “I’m already having some regrets about this, Joel.”
“It’ll be all right. I’ll summon backup, and unlike your parents, mine are more than happy and willing to drive to Stonecreek to see what I’m up to. I just know better than to invite them often. They’d try to take over. But since you’re the one currently ruling this roost, I’m confident I can contain them this time. And if your parents fight with my parents, we’ll have some prime entertainment. We can sip drinks we make in your fancy new basement while we watch the fireworks. But I’ll find some volunteers in the flutter willing to pose and try to charm them.”
“Do you think they have luna moth genetics, too?”
“Probably,” Joel admitted. “That they’re asking about the luna moths probably shows a connection, and you didn’t need to pick up anyone’s genetics. I think you just needed a reason to believe you could.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
Joel grinned at me. “DNA results, Valerie. They had your previous DNA results from your first test for the faulty shifting gene, and all I did was ask them to evaluate one of the DNA strands that has markers for luna moths. The faulty DNA test has luna moth DNA results in it, so I inquired if you had the genetics already. The markers were present. Magic works in mysterious ways, and it’s entirely possible one of your parents is just like you and in love with everything luna moth—and from there, they picked up the genetics and passed it on to your other parent. I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m not.”
That thought intrigued me, and I wondered which one of my parents would have had a secret love affair with luna moths. After some consideration, I determined my father was the likely culprit.
Sometimes, I thought he worked outside so much just to be able to meet butterflies, bees, and all of the little creatures in the world.
“You’re right. I’ll try not to worry about it. After we eat, assuming you’re game for it, we’ll head to City Hall to see how much I can get done before we check out cars and come back here to enjoy the rest of our evening.”
“That sounds like a most excellent plan.”
Happiness came in many shapes and sizes, and it was often found in the strangest places. That there were people who delighted in seeing someone—anyone—other than the former mayor taking the reins of Stonecreek horrified me. I offered them a strange joy, one founded on hope that things would improve.
That bothered me.
As warned by the security guard, many people working for the city-state had been receiving low pays, and the city-state owed at least several million dollars spread out across permanent hires, contractors, and unpaid invoices. Fortunately, Stonecreek had the money, but only due to the former mayor’s fall.
The bastard had done a good job of trying to turn Stonecreek’s wealth into his wealth, but his imprisonment had helped make certain the funds were returned to their proper place.
Ten signatures later, and everyone would be paid appropriately—and there’d be money left over to continue paying everyone fairly. Sorting out that mess took six hours, but I left City Hall with a sense of accomplishment.
As though aware I had more important things to do, the reporters left me alone save for a few greetings, some of which were recorded. To my surprise, no one had asked me any questions beyond how I was doing and if I was having a good day. I spoke the truth on those; I had a headache, but otherwise, things were going well.
The headache bothered Joel more than it did me, and rather than go car shopping and indulge in his bedroom, we skipped off to a clinic to check if I had something amiss with my health. The Moonriver hospital hadn’t found any evidence of a lingering concussion when I’d been discharged.
Joel was supposed to be the one suffering from a headache rather than me.
One blood test later, and it was determined I had the start of a nasty little bacterial infection, one likely contracted during my stint in the woods and had needed time to incubate. Stress from trying to untangle Stonecreek’s mess took the blame for the infection being able to take root .
As I was declared noncontagious, I went off with a prescription and a suggestion to take it easy for the next two weeks, doing no more than three hours a day of work until cleared of the infection. If I did as told, I’d suffer from mild to moderate headaches without any of the other symptoms.
It wasn’t the same illness that had killed my brother, but it was close enough that I would be taking the doctor’s advice and doing everything to the spirit and the letter. The fear I’d share my brother’s fate rose, although I did my best to hide my worries.
“Luna moths pick this one up with sad frequency,” Joel informed me. “The medications work well, and all you have to do is make sure you get rest. The clinic was a little harsh on your restrictions, but they know who you are, and the last thing we need is the one mayor everyone currently agrees on falling over dead from a bacterial infection. It does mean we have to abstain. I do not want that infection, you do not want me contracting that infection, and we’ll suffer together otherwise.”
I heaved a sigh. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another. What about car shopping? Can we still do that?”
“We can still go car shopping, but I’ll be driving you to and from City Hall until you’re cleared from the infection. What was the deal with your reaction to the diagnosis? You looked like you’d seen a ghost.”
“My brother died from a similar illness, and the medications didn’t work.”
“How long ago?”
“It was about twenty years,” I admitted.
“That’s why. The medication you’re taking was developed some fifteen years ago. It didn’t exist when your brother got sick. This one is good for all the related bacterial infections, and it has an excellent track record. I know what to look for, and I’ll make sure you get through this just fine, all right?” Joel patted my back and guided me to his SUV. “You’ll have to deal with me hovering, though. It’s my sacred duty.”
“Are you saying that as the man I’m going to be sharing my bed with or as the leader of the flutter?”
“I’m saying that as both the man who will be sharing your bed with you and the leader of our flutter. Do you want a car, a truck, or an SUV?”
“A car, something a little sporty but not overly expensive and reliable. I’d like it in either green, blue, or yellow. Four doors and a trunk are required. I might need to drive someone somewhere, and I need room for his camera gear.”
“I see you are extending your luna moth obsession to your vehicle.”
I nodded. “I feel I need to go all in at this stage. My parents are going to enter our domain and realize we are luna moth obsessed.”
“But not luna moths?”
“I’m honestly not sure. I’m figuring there’s a good reason why your town kept secrets from my town—to the point I didn’t even know your town’s name.”
“We like our secrets, and we don’t have our town name on any signs. If they can keep the secret, I don’t have a problem with letting them know.”
“I don’t know if they can keep such a secret,” I confessed.
“Let’s observe them with the luna moth shifters, and we’ll decide then. Not everyone from that town of gossips is bad—there are just enough gossips to make it a little riskier than any of us like. And if it turns out they’re close to shifting, they need to know we’re available.”
That I could believe, especially if they got trapped in their first shift silk like I had. “You are planning on teaching me how to shift on purpose, right?”
“I am, but not until after your bacterial infection has been treated for at least a week. If you think the headache is bad now, try to imagine continuously vomiting low quality silk that can’t be spun. And none of the shifting silk can be used, either. If you can spin it, it shatters at the first sign of pressure or just rots.”
I gasped. “This bacteria ruins silk?”
“It completely ruins it.”
“I’m sick with silk-eating bacteria?”
“You are.” Joel herded me in the direction of the elevators that would take us to the parking garage, pressing the button to take us down. “For the sake of your precious silk, you must take your medicine at the correct times.”
“Will my stash be harmed if I touch it?” If I couldn’t stitch or do anything with my silk for two weeks, I doubted I’d survive.
“The bacteria only harms silk you produce. Already spun silk is safe.”
Heaving a sigh, I waited for the elevator door to open, and I stepped inside. Then I heaved another sigh. “And you’re sure I can’t spread it to you?”
“There are ways to technically spread it, but as we will not be engaging in bedtime activities and we will wash our hands at the appropriate times, it’s not an issue. I will be disinfecting our bathrooms in an abundance of caution, but you would have contracted it while in the woods and unable to bathe appropriately.”
Right. “There was definitely no bathing on that adventure.”
“Please don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine. You just need a week or two to recover. However, you may wish to warn your parents, as I have no doubt that word of your illness will spread, especially due to the probable source of infection.”
Right. My parents would flip once they learned I was ill, especially after my brother’s death. I dug out my phone, braced for parental panic, and dialed their number.
My father once again answered, and he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I caught a bacterial infection during my misadventure, and inevitably, some reporter is going to tell the world about it, so I’m telling you before they can tell you. I’m about to pick up the prescription, and it was caught early. My neighbor is a worry wart, and he dragged me to a clinic at the first sign of headache. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”
My father sighed. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being dying in the hospital, how sick are you?”
“Zero point five. They only figured it out because they checked for evidence my head injury was back, saw nothing on the scans, and decided to do blood tests. I’ve been given a doctor’s note dictating I am not permitted to work more than three hours a day for the next two weeks.”
“All right. Would you prefer if we came earlier?”
“If you want to finish your renovation project, finish your renovation project, Dad. I’ll check in daily with an update. I’m going to be spending my three work hours a day trying to get this mess cleaned up, and I’m a bit of a monster with a headache. But I’ll call daily and let you know if anything changes. If I worsen, I’ll recruit someone to come pick you up and bring you to Stonecreek.”
“I can work with that. Your mother isn’t going to handle the news well,” he warned.
“They made a better drug than when my brother died. I’m on the new one.”
“They made the better drug because your brother died,” my father replied. “We wrote to Mirage, sent a blood sample, and donated his body. You remember how we had a closed casket funeral.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“Your brother’s body is in his grave; he just went to Mirage first. We didn’t want to tell you. We didn’t think you’d understand. But they used his body for research on how to make the new drug.”
While we lived on a progression locked world, we were allowed to innovate within the confines of our tech restrictions. New drugs, new vaccinations, and so on were permitted if we could do so without violating those restrictions.
I took a minute or two to mull over the reality of what my father told me. “He would have liked that. He always wanted to help others.”
“And now Zac gets to help his little sister. Your mother’s going to be a mess, but I’ll ask that she wait to call you in the morning. I’ll tell her you’re tired and you need sleep so you can get better. ”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“But seriously, do you think you can let us see those luna moths?”
“If you need to get into contact with a luna moth flutter due to any compulsions, desire to fly, or obsession over any scraps of silk that cross your path, that is not a problem. You’ll have to swear secrecy so the gossips in town won’t go stalking the poor moths, but if you want to meet some luna moth shifters, that is no problem.”
“The ghost moths are shapeshifters?”
“Yes, Dad. They’re shapeshifters. I’ll tell you a little secret. Go buy some roses, plant them on the edge of your property, and set up some patio furniture. When the moths come to visit your garden, put out a plate of sliced oranges for them. You might not have frequent visitors, but you should get some visitors with that scheme. If you go to Watercrest, there’s a garden shop there that sells some roses. Just tell them I sent you. But don’t try to match my rose garden, Dad. Mine is a thing of epic beauty.”
“You have a rose garden?”
“Most of my courtyard is dedicated to all things roses, and I have some indoor roses as well. You’ll get to see them soon enough. Just don’t lock the luna moths in your house, however tempting that might be. Oh, and leave out a basket with a smooth liner. If you’re lucky, the luna moths might leave you with a gift.”
“I think I’ll try that, thank you. I’ll go tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, there’s a really good butcher there. Tell Jolena I said hello, please! ”
“You’ve been to Watercrest?”
“That’s where I bought some of my roses. My neighbor took me. If you see any sticks on the road when you’re driving, stop and check for luna moth eggs or larvae. Put the stick carefully in your vehicle and tell someone in town you have them. They’ll direct you to the luna moth farm, I’m sure.”
Joel chuckled, shaking his head at my commentary.
“We have a tub of larvae we’ve been feeding,” my father confessed. “That’s my renovation project. There’s not a lot of food for them, so I have been gathering stuff to feed them. I can go to Watercrest and someone can take care of them?”
Sucker. “Since your car might not survive the trip, I can ask for a favor or two from someone in Watercrest to help you with your babies, Dad. It won’t be a problem, and they’ll get the care they need. You’re running out of food for them, aren’t you? How large is the tub?”
“We are. I think we have enough for a few more days before they eat everything. The tub is… rather large.”
“How large is the tub, Dad?”
“It’s ten feet by ten feet, and it’s six feet tall, and I had to install magicked plastic to keep them all in. I have mesh over it to keep the predators out.”
Goodness. How many larvae was he trying to feed? “I’ll take care of it,” I promised. “And don’t be surprised if you have a visitor sooner than later. They’re a bit obsessed about their luna moths over in Watercrest.”
“Thank you. Please give them my number if they can help.”
Laughing, I told my father I loved him, shook my head, and hung up. “Joel, please call your parents and tell them they need to go to see my dad to pick up an entire hatch of luna moths. Apparently, he has a bunch of hungry babies in a tub, and he’s running out of food for them. His ‘renovation’ project is apparently caring for his larvae.”
“They must be primed to shift and are bleeding off magic. You didn’t shift until you were startled and encountered a shifted wolf, so it’s entirely possible they need to see someone shifted to be able to shift, too.”
“We need to figure out how to move a ten by ten by six foot larvae pen.”
Joel snickered. “I’ll make sure someone gets plenty of bins and a travel trailer over to their place. Please give me directions.”
I did as told, wondering how long my parents had been obsessed with luna moths, too—and how my father had found so many larvae. “Where do you think he got the larvae?”
“I’m sure the luna moths bred near his place. People in that town just don’t care about them and will kill the larvae in their gardens for being pests. If your father was trying to save as many luna moths as he could, he probably went to his neighbors and offered to check for pest eggs, collecting all the luna moth eggs so they’d hatch in his possession. And if he has a pen that big, he has a lot of larvae.”
“Or they have a larvae palace, because my father can be obsessive.”
“Anything else I should know before we go to the dealership?”
I considered him a moment before nodding. “My father told me that my brother is the reason the newer treatment exists. They donated his body to somewhere in Mirage after his death.”
Joel’s eyes widened. “Well, if your parents wanted the adoration of luna moth shifters around our world, that’s how you get it. That treatment has saved many, many lives, and most of them are luna moth shifters. That bacteria does not like us.”
“It’s our Achilles’ heel, isn’t it?”
“It really is. I’ll make sure Mom and Dad know so nobody wakes old trauma. And I’ll see about getting their DNA tests done for shifting, and if they are primed, to make sure someone can help them through it, collect their first shift silk, and prepare them for the reality of life as a luna moth. And while I enjoy your company, we weren’t really in close enough proximity for long enough to transfer the genetics. You came prepackaged as a luna moth shifter. Something I appreciate, mind you—but nobody had any idea there were possible shifters right next door.”
“I do not mind how this is turning out in the slightest. I just find it funny that we grew up in neighboring towns, but it took us moving several hours away to the big city to meet.”
“I prefer to think of it as it was meant to be. I just had to wait for a while for you, which suits me just fine. We should have hundreds of years to drive each other wild.”
“Show me some fancy cars, Joel. I think I need some sticker shock to ground me in reality. I don’t even know if I can afford a new car after splurging on renovations.”
“If you can’t, I can. I hate debt, so I’ll pay off the bill. You can pay me back at the appropriate rate if you’re not happy receiving a car I’m forcing on you as a gift. ”
“We’ll meet in the middle or something,” I replied. “That way, I don’t have to think about it more than accepting there’ll be some sort of arrangement to fairly pay for this car I’m going to need to get through life for the next while.”
“You’ll be fine,” he promised.