Page 40 of Wolf Bane (Marked #3)

Tyler whined, an angry and animal sound. “Don’t look fine.”

“Got a lab,” Justin offered with a small, weak shrug. “Ta-da?” His gaze darted to me, and his smile was a shade more genuine. “You were right, Landry. And it’s going to be okay.”

The woman paced around the end of Robards bed, approaching on clicking stilettos. “My father spoke well of you, Doctor Babin. In his lucid moments. Unfortunately, there weren’t many of those.”

A name swam to the surface, coupled with the memory of a very curt phone call. “Eliza. You’re Eliza.”

She smiled tightly. “I prefer Elizabeth these days, but yes.” She glanced back at her father, frowning. “He lied to me for my entire life, Doctor Babin. It shouldn’t have come to this.”

“He’s part were.”

“He’s a dud,” Daniel offered, narrowed gaze fixing on me. “His abilities never manifested. Not until you.”

“He took whatever it was your friends gave him. How well do you know the Clemenses?”

Elizabeth shook her head, annoyed. “The Clemenses are useful idiots,” she said flatly.

“Just like Benoit.”

Daniel snarled, more human than wolf now. “Benoit’s not an idiot. He’s helpless! And I got the chance to make things right, asshole! He doesn’t get it . The outbreak was a fuck up, but not mine. But I can help. I can fix it.” He turned beseeching eyes on Eliza. “We can fix it.”

If he was bothered by the ways she didn’t even deign to acknowledge him with a glance, he didn’t let on. “How long have you been helping, Daniel? How long has it been? Before or after Garrow escaped?”

Eliza piped in, bored and sharp-voiced. “Daniel’s been part of our team for just under a month.

He’s been quick to learn.” He perked up at that, a happy puppy at his master’s praise.

“But the debacle in Lugaru has slowed us down. Made this too much of a mess.” She jerked her chin at Daniel, calling him to heel.

“Don’t let the Stone spare interfere with Boudreaux. ”

Tyler only had eyes for Justin, watching as he started typing something into the nearest computer. Justin darted another glance our way, “They’ve finally figured out what to do with me,” he said, a wry smirk twisting his lips. “Right, Lizzie?”

She glared at him before continuing with gritted teeth, “Doctor Babin, you have something that will be extremely useful for our project. You can either cooperate, or we can be persuasive.”

“I don’t think I want to know what persuasive might be,” I muttered, gingerly touching the healing cut near my scalp. “Why do you have Tyler?”

“He wouldn’t leave me,” Justin said, cheeks flushing. “He’s an idiot.”

“Someone has to save your ass,” Tyler groused. “You’re too nice.”

“I’m not nice. I’m cooperating until I have an out.”

“Oh my God.”

I forced a small smile at Eliza. “You brought this on yourself,” I said under their bickering.

She stared at me for a long, cool moment before returning her attention to her father.

“He doesn’t have long, I don’t think,” she said quietly.

“It’s so strange, watching someone die. Can he hear me, or is he already gone?

” she asked, more to herself than anyone else.

“They never tell us, you know. It’s all theory, isn’t it? ”

“When I was in med school,” I said, “I did rounds in critical care and oncology for a bit.” I took a few steps towards her, my gaze slipping away from her calm, slightly confused expression to her father.

He was still—still and gray-faced. The man I’d met only a handful of times wasn’t in there anymore.

No lively quirk of the lips, no raspy chuckle or booming voice. No fluttering hands as he told a story.

A body. Breathing with the help of a machine. Hooked to more contraptions I didn’t recognize, things that must have been made especially for Garrow, especially for this.

“The nurses would tell the families to talk to their loved ones,” I continued, stopping just across the bed from Eliza. “They can hear you, even if they can’t respond. And maybe that’s something that will help you, after, knowing he could hear what you said.”

She hummed softly under her breath, a tuneless little thing that drifted between notes like a conversation held between her lips.

Behind me, Justin was still working, keys clicking in the silence. Tyler had gone quiet, too.

“Eliza, where are we?”

She shook her head once, birdlike, before reaching to touch the silvery stubble on her father’s jaw.

“When I was very small, my grandmother told me we were special. Chosen, she’d said.

Dad said she was tetched,” she said, making a motion towards her head.

“She would take me to Papaw’s old hunting camp, outside of Ouachita.

She was always waiting for something, it seemed like.

Like she expected me to do something amazing and was always disappointed when it didn’t happen.

” Her attention shifted to Justin. “How much longer?”

“Ah, I’m not sure. It’s— Ah! ”

Daniel, at some signal from Eliza, had activated the shock collar.

Justin clawed at his neck, gasping. body arching into the pain.

Tyler let out a wordless growl and leapt.

He landed on Daniel’s back with a heavy thump, taking them both down to the ground.

Daniel laughed, breathless, and cranked up the collar another notch as Tyler tried to get purchase around his neck.

“It’s not for puppies, Stone. This one’s made just for mongrels like him! ”

“Tyler,” Justin gasped. “Stop! Tyler…”

Tyler roared in frustration, rolling to his feet. The female were rushed over, but Eliza waved her back with a flick of her wrist. “I’m sure Mr. Stone understands the rules now. Don’t you, Mr. Stone?”

Tyler, breath heaving, nodded once. “Justin?” A million questions were in those two syllables. Justin, who had gone to the floor in his distress, just nodded in return.

“Let me check him over,” I said, already moving towards Justin’s side. “Make sure he’s okay.”

“He’s not okay,” Tyler protested. “Did you not see what the fuck just happened?”

“Tyler,” Justin protested, his breath still hitching, a ghost of a cough in his voice. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

No one stopped me when I dropped to my knees beside Justin. “Let me take a look, okay?” I murmured, and gently checked his neck for burns, for broken skin. His pulse was racing and he felt clammy, but his eyes were bright with excitement when I finally met his gaze.

“I got this,” he whispered. “I promise I got this. Trust me.” He grabbed my wrist when I moved to check his scalp for any sign of head injury. “It’s not Garrow,” he said, the words barely given breath. Less than a whisper, but clear as a shout. “It’s her.”

“Doctor Babin,” Eliza said, voice a calm and dulcet tenor. “If you’re done pawing the other mongrel, I have something for you.”

Justin gave me a small shove, getting to his feet. I followed suit, giving Tyler a hard look. Don’t do anything drastic , I said in a glare. He just rolled his eyes.

I prayed that meant okay .

Slowly, I stood, keeping my hands where everyone could see them. Eliza was still by her father’s bed but now on the side closest to us. She watched me with a birdlike curiosity that made me self-conscious in ways I never imagined before.

“Eliza, where are we?”

A small smile graced her features as she kept her eyes on her father. “I heard about you, back when I was in nursing school,” she said, gaze unfocused. “Grandma Robards told me about you. You were a rumor. A bad dream. A mistake.”

She shifted her gaze, piercing me through and holding me down with the strength of her glare. “She was furious, you know. When I couldn’t change. She said my father ruined the bloodline. Blamed him for the way we were all dying off.”

“You’re null,” Tyler said, low voice loud in the small space. “You can’t shift.”

Eliza’s fingers curled, leaving red tracks down her father’s cheeks. “Garrow was supposed to save us, you know? Heal us.”

The sharp slap of her hand across Robards’ face drew a surprised, angry growl from my chest. She smirked.

“I wondered,” she said softly, “what it would take? Why you’re like this, but the others died. I begged, you know? Begged dad to let me be part of the tests.”

“How did you even know?”

She finally moved away from Robards, ambling towards me with a predatory sort of grace I knew had to be practiced.

“Do you think it’s possible to keep something like Bluebonnet a secret, Doctor Babin?

Do you think we were all oblivious? We’re desperate ,” she hissed, stopping just out of arm’s reach. “We’re dying, Doctor Babin!”

“I’ve lived in the Belmarais Clan my entire life,” Tyler interrupted. “My father was clan leader. Now my brother is. We didn’t know anything about what was going on at Bluebonnet until Landry came back.”

“Then you should know better than anyone,” Eliza bit out, “how desperately we need this!”

“We don’t ,” Tyler snarled. “We’re not dying. Weres and shifters have never been a huge population. Comparing us to humans is ridiculous. Using the difference in numbers to scare folks is cruel and fucking evil.”

“Every year, there’s fewer of us,” she said, breath fast and shaky. “More and more weres are birthing nulls, finding partners outside our circles?—”

“God forbid the gene pool has a deep end,” I muttered.

Eliza bared her teeth, motioning to the two guards, one of whom went to stand behind Justin and the other went to block the doors.

“Do you truly believe your father was clueless? That the clan leaders from here to the coasts and back again were oblivious to what was going on? Where do you think Garrow got the money?”

“He was wealthy. Ran a legit clinic for a while. Came from a medical research background and?—”

Eliza raised her finely sculpted brows. “Are you serious?”

Tyler’s wild giggle was anything but amused. “Oh, God fucking damn it. God fucking damn it twice with a dry hole!”

“His clinic was running legitimately,” I repeated. “They were a private one so he could filter out the humans.” But… but what if that wasn’t true? Everything else had been a lie, so why not that?

I wanted to sit down, to lay down really, but forced myself to stand still, to face her as she had a quiet conversation with Daniel. He nodded at whatever she said and headed for the double doors being guarded by the female were.

“So, everything has been a lie,” I said slowly, fighting for neutral tones.

“And that means what now? You’re going to be a copycat and try to repeat his experiments?

I gotta tell you, lady, that Garrow is a monster, but he was a brilliant one.

Do you have the same acumen when it comes to fucking with literal lives? ”

“It doesn’t matter.” She laughed. “Garrow was brilliant. You just said it yourself. And he wasn’t fucking around.

He has records—acres and acres of meticulous records.

And he was so close to perfection.” Her attention drifted back to her father, expression crimping into something close to sorrow before she smoothed everything back out into neat lines.

“Garrow’s work is unfinished. Everything he started, everything he incubated with Bluebonnet, is on the verge of completion. ”

I watched enough true crime shows late at night while Ethan was gone (and okay, before we got together too) to know about those people who became obsessed with killers, who thought they could help them somehow.

Emulate them, make them proud. “So, you decided to do it for him? What kind of fucked up parasocial?—”

“She’s helping him,” Justin said quietly, the soft words falling like bricks.

“She needed us, Landry. She can’t do it on her own, and everyone who helped Garrow with the wet work is in the wind.

” He pushed away from the monitor, fingers fluttering towards the collar before he shoved his hands under his arms, crossing them tightly over his chest.

Tyler bared his teeth, as close to going feral as I’d ever seen him. “You’re poisoning the clans? What’s the point in that if you’re so desperate to save the population? Kill us off, save a handful, prove your worth to Garrow?”

Eliza’s expression crumpled. “Do you think I’d intentionally kill weres?

That I’d deplete an already dying community?

God…” She dashed mascara-tinted tears from her cheeks and reeled towards me.

“Out of everyone here, you have to understand, Doctor Babin. All of the work Garrow put into you, gaining near-perfection. It failed with the others, but you…” She let out a shaky breath.

“It’s so close. And I need to find out why .

Doctor Garrow can’t come yet, but I want it to be ready when he’s able. ”

“Did you get him out of prison?” I asked quietly. “Are you the one?—”

“No.” She smiled. “That was entirely him. He’s brilliant.”

I twisted around to look at Daniel, standing in silence by the doors. “Was it Benoit then? Was all of that your first attempt to grab me?”

Ethan should’ve let Waltrip rip him apart.

“Benoit,” Daniel said with disgust, “thinks this can be salvaged. He got scared. He doesn’t have a vision. Status quo is enough for him. When he rejected the council, we had hope…”

“Benoit is a stumbling block,” Eliza said, tone sharp enough to split an atom. “So are the cowards in Belleville, New Orleans, Denver, Baltimore?—”

I cut her off with a wave. “Wait, wait, wait. How many people are involved? How many clans?”

“We’ve approached every clan registered with the council,” Daniel said.

“We offered them a chance to rebuild. To be part of our revival. They’ve been too soft for too long.

Let the humans blur the margins.” He gestured to Eliza, a small smile curling his lips.

“Eliza has the vision. She’s willing to do what it takes to bring us back from the brink.

Hard choices have to be made, and she’s willing to do it. ”

Eliza sighed, drifting towards him to link their fingers together. Oh, it was like that… “Lid for every pot,” I muttered.

Tyler snorted beside me, but we went mum under Eliza’s sharp glare.

“It’s fine to talk about making the hard choices for yourself ,” I said, taking another step towards them, “but that’s not what you’re doing. You’re making the choices for everyone else. You’re killing people, Eliza!”

“No, I’m culling the packs. The weak, the diluted.” She pulled away from Daniel and closed the distance between us in just a few strides. “You’re the closest we’ve come to perfecting the cure for the weaknesses brought on by human infection, Doctor Babin. We need you.”