Page 46 of Wolf Bane (Marked #3)

“I own you, Landry. I made you. You would have died as a child without me. Your parents gave you up so willingly. Didn’t Cleverly ever tell you?

An addict father, a desperate mother. And you were so good for me, Landry.

Cleverly was so proud. She couldn’t be one of us, not as a dud, but she could see to it that she was the mother of a new line.

One perfected through our work, our insight.

We refuse to be complacent, to wait for nature to strangle us out with the human weeds.

Cut away the sapping vines, letting the strong flourish.

Eliza, bless her heart, had a wild notion she could help her father.

But Celestine had to show her how wrong she was.

Out of all of the original cohort, only two of you survived.

And only one of you has any meaningful change.

You’re so close to perfect, Landry. Mal, though…

” He clicked his tongue sadly. “A waste. Justin is a failed experiment as well, and he knows it, bless him.”

“What the fuck?” I looked at Daniel again.

He was still giving me that dead-eyed thousand-yard stare, but something in his expression had shifted just a fraction.

Disgust, maybe? Anger? Something radiated off him, putting me on alert.

Vinnie, though… He was quiet. Too still.

“What will you do when the next generation is born with nulls? Or if one of your precious full-blooded weres marries a human?”

He shook his head, confused. “I’ve told you. We cut away the cancer. We leave the healthy tissue to heal.”

Vinnie shifted uncomfortably beside and behind me, just at the edge of my peripheral vision.

“Why are you hiding, Garrow?” I growled.

“If you’re so sure you’re right, why are you hiding from us?

Are you afraid Vinnie here’s going to realize you’ll happily kill off his kids if they don’t meet your standards?

That Celestine—his own mother—would throw them in a sack into the river to drown like kittens if it made you happy?

Or are you more worried about Daniel, your faithful lapdog here?

Maybe he’ll realize this isn’t some courageous quest but actual mass murder, and right now, people he grew up with, people he loves and who love him, are slowly dying because of you? ”

“It’s necessary,” Daniel parroted. “It’s what keeps us safe.”

“And what about Eliza? She’s a null. You think he’ll let her live, after this? He’s just using her to get what he wants. Once he’s done with her, she’s dead too. Hell, she might already be. Have you checked?”

Daniel’s eyes flared and he held himself with that sort of stillness that bespoke a deep urge to bolt.

Maybe I got him … “Where is she, Daniel? Did Garrow order you to leave her with her father? Is Eustace dead, too? Oops. I didn’t mean to .

We don’t know if Eliza is, after all. Probably fine, right?

Not like she went off the rails and absolutely ruined Garrow’s big villain reveal by kidnapping me and, oh yeah, Justin and Tyler too.

They escaped, you know. Probably already alerted Ethan and the council.

Do you think the council will be cool with this?

I know you don’t give two shits about them, but they do have the metaphorical firepower to make your life hell, you know? ”

Daniel clenched his fists, jaw creaking with the pressure between his teeth. “The council failed us. They made us weak. They’re making us weak.”

“Sounds like you’re repeating someone else’s ideas there, Danny.

Do you have any of your own? A strong person would have their own thoughts and ideas.

But I mean, I get it. It’s easier to let someone else lead, right?

You just have to do their dirty work instead of focusing on the hard parts.

Like keeping your community safe. Like meeting people where they are and acknowledging you’re not perfect.

” I paused, letting a sneer curl my lip as I leaned towards him.

“You’re not an apex predator, Danny. You’re a lapdog. ”

The blow was expected, and I turned away just enough to avoid getting a solid cosh to my head, just a clip to my jaw.

Vinnie lurched into motion, pushing Daniel back across the desk, sending the monitor crashing to the floor as they tangled.

Daniel roared his anger, Vinnie trying to restrain him as Garrow shouted at both of them to stop.

“Hard to control your minions when you’re too scared to show yourself,” I laughed, manic. The chair clattered back as I stood, grabbing it to swing hard at Daniel, who had risen to his knees.

I don’t care how big and strong of a werewolf you are. A chair to the head will always put you down, at least for a few minutes.

And who says watching wrestling isn’t educational?

That left Vinnie, though. Huge, lumberjack looking Vinnie. He rose slowly to his feet, staring down at Daniel’s slumped form. Garrow’s orders to whoever was on his side of the screen rattled between us. Go, south wing, bring him, take this, now .

“They’re going to kill your kids one day,” I said flatly. “We both know it.”

“Ma… Ma promised me they’d be safe.”

“Do you believe her?”

He met my eyes, his own watery and uncertain. “I want to.”

“Your kids are safe then. But what about mine, if I have any? What about the ones in Lugaru? In Cooper? In Dallas, Shoot Well, Copper Mine… The ones I used to play with when I’d go for my visits at the clinic?

How many dead kids do I know, Vinnie? How many people are dead, whose lives are ruined, because Garrow and his friends decided to play God? ”

Vinnie drew in a long, deep breath, then let it out on a sigh with his eyes closed. “They’re coming from the other end of the building. Garrow’s never far. You have to go.”

I startled at that. “You’re just… letting me go?”

“You’re running. You took down Daniel. We fought.” His smile was small, bitter, when he opened his eyes. “I just wanted to keep my kids safe, Doctor Babin. I don’t… I don’t want them to die like the others.”

I nodded slowly. “Fear is a powerful motivator, but what’s happening here isn’t fear, Vinnie. They’re not afraid.”

Vinnie pressed his lips into a tight line, holding back whatever he was going to say next. “I’m disappearing too, Doc. With the kids. I don’t know where, but… I can’t do this. I can’t let them be part of this. It’s bad enough, what I’ve let happen, but…”

Time was so short, a fuse burning at my heels that was already spreading heat up my muscles, into my nerves. I needed to go now . To get the fuck out. The building was big but not huge. I had little time, but Vinnie had even less.

“How do you feel about Colorado? I know a guy there. He’s a shifter, but he’s got a good heart. I could put in a good word for you. Place is called Shoot Well.”

* * *

It took little convincing to get Vinnie to let me help.

The fear for Melly and Jay’s lives was greater than his pride, at least in that moment.

We left Daniel and a screaming Garrow, splitting in the corridor.

“The main entrance,” he said, pointing towards the left.

“They’ll be coming from that direction. It’s the most direct route from the east wing.

They’ll have guns, likely three shifted weres. ”

I nodded. “Follow the river into town. Get the fuck out. Call Ethan,” I reminded him.

He held up the small paper where I’d written down Ethan’s number. “If you don’t hear about me in a day or two…”

I nodded. “We’ll get your kids safe.”

He hesitated just a moment more. I could hear, smell, feel the weres coming now. They weren’t far, rambling through the corridors and downstairs to reach us fast. “Eliza was working on something to reverse the compound. I don’t know what. She hadn’t gotten far. She wanted to help her dad…”

I could only hope Justin and Tyler had been able to keep the hard drive safe and that it had anything useful on it. “Go.”

He nodded, bolting to the right as I took the left.

The weres caught up to me at the end of the long drive. As fast as I was, they were faster. But as fast as they were, they weren’t faster than a late model SUV driven by Waltrip, skidding to a halt in a handbrake turn that would’ve been really cool if it’d been on purpose.

“Landry!” Ethan leapt from the passenger side, harried and wild-eyed as he sprinted towards me, scooping me against his chest while Waltrip gave zero shits about his nice suit, shifting, leaping at the three closest non-shifted weres.

“Get in,” Ethan ordered, pushing me towards the SUV. “Shut the doors. Stay down. Tyler and Justin are in the back.”

And I was too tired to fight. I was okay, this time, with letting them save me.