Page 45 of Wolf Bane (Marked #3)
Chapter Nineteen
“Y ou haven’t touched your tea.”
Garrow regarded me over a monitor set up on a dusty metal desk.
Vinnie Clemens had helped Daniel manhandle me to the east wing of the building, leaving Robards ( maybe just his body, was he even alive, what is Eliza doing to him now?) and Eliza behind.
The corridors we’d passed had been bare of any decoration, most stripped of even carpeting and padding.
The place was being renovated, I realized.
At least in parts. Where we’d been, the lab area, had been some sort of health center at one time.
The wing we were in now had definitely been the classrooms Tyler had supposed them to be.
In a broken pile behind me were desks, disturbingly small and childish.
Like someone had come in and just shoved them aside to empty the space, leaving a single wooden chair and the battered, dusty desk with Garrow’s grinning face atop it.
Vinnie had, inexplicably, brought me a cup of hot tea from an electric kettle in another room nearby. Daniel had brought me death glares.
I wasn’t sure which I preferred less.
“I’m sorry, I’m just having a little mental breakdown. I’ll take a sip in a minute. I’m sure it’s not poisoned or anything.”
It wouldn’t be—Garrow needed me for whatever he’d been working on. At least if Eliza was to be believed. My blood, my tissue, my knowledge, whatever it was wouldn’t survive being poisoned to death. But I’d still rather die of thirst than take a sip of the tea.
Garrow smiled, teeth flashing in amusement. “You should know by now it won’t affect you. You’re special, Landry. The golden child, as it were. Mal, to a lesser extent. But he didn’t garner the laurels you did.”
He motioned to someone off screen and a hand—slender, red nails, gold rings—came into view holding a folder.
“Your medical records, at least as far as I had them. There’s some missing, nothing vital though.
” He glanced up from his showy perusal with a tight, sympathetic smile.
“Eliza tells me you were interested in learning about what we’re doing these days. ”
“Eliza,” I said carefully, watching Daniel watch me from behind the monitor as if he were protecting Garrow’s back, “said a lot of things that seemed like partial truths or maybe… her own version of things.”
“Celestine indicated she’d dropped a few truths for you as well,” Garrow continued silkily, as if I hadn’t spoken.
“It wasn’t my wish for you to be brought in so soon, Landry, and trust me when I say Eliza, Celestine, and Daniel will be dealt with.
” Daniel’s face colored an ugly red, but he didn’t break his parade rest posture behind the monitor.
“They chose to be a hammer when we require a whisper. A suggestion.”
“A fuck you, you fucking murderous monster?” I suggested politely. “Or maybe a severe and persistent ass kicking?”
Garrow glanced around the room he was in, then peered into the camera. “Your guard dogs aren’t with you, Landry. Who do you propose would mete out this ass-kicking?”
“Why are you hiding in another room? Hell, for all I know another town in another state, another country. On the fucking moon! If I’m such a non-threat for you, why aren’t you here?
” I started to rise, not sure where I was going but just needing to move.
Vinnie was fast, though, pressing me back down into the wooden chair with little finesse or gentleness.
Jerking out from under his heavy hands, I glared at Garrow.
“What’s your end game, then? Kill off the part-humans?
Populate the world with your bespoke werewolves thanks to my DNA? ”
He clicked his tongue, smirking faintly at my presumption. “If any of the mongrels can survive the culling, then they’re worthy of continuing their lineage.”
“What makes them worthy? What makes the others weak? Eliza seems to think anyone partially human is unworthy. But you’re telling me it’s just weakness that makes a were unworthy.
Which is it? What’s your metric for deciding?
Or is it just purely on vibes and you decide on a whim?
You don’t like this clan, so send the special death mobile to their little rural town.
This person over here didn’t kiss your ass well enough when you visited their town so off goes the Wolf Bane Express to dole out poison to the kiddies. ”
“Please, Landry. You’re being dramatic. You really do remind me of Cleverly sometimes.”
“Well, she did groom me to be your lab rat, so…”
Garrow’s eye roll looked painful. “Cleverly understood my mission, Landry.”
“She wasn’t even were ,” I snapped. “She wasn’t a shifter. Why would she give two fucks about preserving the…” My brain screeched to a halt. Those missing puzzle pieces were starting to click into place again and I felt like a blazing idiot. “She was, wasn’t she? She was null.”
Garrow’s brow twitched, his expression hard to read.
“Cleverly was many things. Burdened by grief and shame being the highest on the list. She made choices, very early in our association, that made some things easier but weighed on her terribly.” He sighed, rapping his fingers tunelessly on the desk in front of him as he stared at something only he could see.
“But Cleverly isn’t why we’re here. You, Landry, are why we’re here.
Rather, you and I are the reason. My work.
Thanks to you, I’ve been able to advance research by leaps and bounds even while… detained.”
“You were in prison.” I met Daniel’s eye. “And you’re okay with that, huh? Letting a guy who kills children and commits mass murder use your clan for his experiments? You’re fine letting him literally give poison to other weres and shifters just because their families don’t look like yours?”
Vinnie’s the one who spoke up. “You don’t understand, Doctor Babin. We’re dying out. There’s few pure weres left in the world.”
“Bullshit. Absolute fucking bullshit. And Garrow knows it.”
Garrow was watching with a small, tired smirk when I swung back around to face him.
“Which is it, Garrow? You started torturing people— kids —because you wanted to create stronger were lines, or you want to kill off the were lines that don’t fit your idea of strength, of real ?”
He spread his hands, his smile growing once more.
The asshole was amused by me, mocking me, but all I could feel was disgust. Anger that would usually drive me when someone got shitty with me was gone, replaced entirely by a nauseating ulcer of knowledge that this man had not only killed dozens of innocent people, he had convinced others to help him.
“You enjoy it,” I seethed. “You enjoy the killing, don’t you?
Having people get their hands dirty for you.
Do you make them tell you all about it, or is just knowing enough?
Sending these mobile clinics out, betraying the trust of people who need the help, who need support…
” Saliva flooded my mouth, the urge to be sick so close to the surface it was almost impossible to fight.
“I don’t enjoy deaths, not the way you’re implying.
” Garrow sighed. “I enjoy knowing my work is progressing. That mistakes I made previously are being corrected, that we are making progress towards our goal.” He leaned in, bringing his face close to the camera before adding, “And it’s thanks to you, Landry.
Using your blood, your tissue samples, we’ve been able to create the Wolf Bane compound.
It’s not perfect, but we’re close. So close. ”
He sat back, motioning at whoever was off screen on his side.
The painted nails appeared again, handing him a cup of something hot.
He took a sip and made a pleased sound before setting the cup aside and refocusing on me, casual as you please.
As if he wasn’t just discussing gleefully committing genocide and instead telling me all about his new pool or a trip out of town. Proud but self-satisfied.
“As you know yourself, with any experimental treatment, there will be stumbling blocks. Delays. Theories that don’t pan out and need to be readdressed. We cannot enable mongrels such as yourself to fully transform into a were, so we must cut out the diseased tissue. Let the healthy thrive.”
“Holy mixed metaphor, Batman,” I muttered, leaning away when Vinnie shifted closer. “So, what are you going to do with me, then? Chop me up into little pieces to make your poison? Hold me at gunpoint and force me to watch you commit mass murder?”
Garrow made a face at that, a truly disgusted one.
“Eliza had a grand idea that you’d see the error of your ways and assist. Use your medical and personal expertise to smooth the transition for the families who are reluctant to participate in our movement.
But I know you, Landry, and I knew from the start you’d never be helpful like that.
All we need is your blood and a small tissue sample. ”
“You’ve got enough of me to make an entire army of Landry Babins,” I pointed out, that vomiting idea getting more unavoidable by the second. “There’s nothing I’ll give you, Garrow. Not a cell.”