by Jen Haeger
Evelyn looked down at her menu and found that it was comprised of long lines of genetic code. “But I don’t know what I want.”
“I think that you do, but just don’t think it will be good for you.”
Evelyn looked up from the menu and Marcus had appeared at Sara’s side. A crimson trail now dribbled from her mouth in a vulgar stream, but Marcus was a barely recognizable abhorrent mess of burned and bloody flesh. Evelyn spotted bone poking through the muscle of his arm. One side of his face, including the eye, appeared to be melted.
“Well, that’s my ride,” said Sara as she rose and took Marcus’s charred arm.
Marcus smirked at Evelyn and showed his missing teeth. “It’s not your fault.” He pointed down at the table which was now in ruins and littered with broken equipment and shattered glass. “I would take it up with the manager.”
Waving goodbye to Evelyn, Sara and Marcus strolled to a large glass revolving door that exited out into a brilliant yellow-white light. Evelyn wanted to tell them to wait, but the light from the door kept getting brighter and brighter until it blinded her.
Evelyn awoke to the brightness of the bedside lamp of the hotel suite. She rubbed her face, turning away from the unwelcome visual stimulation and groaned.
Kim spoke softly. “Sorry Evie, Caroline came in and turned on the lights a few minutes ago. David tried to stop her, but he wasn’t fast enough. I guess it’s time to get up.”
“Yeah, do you want to shower first?”
“Oh no, it’s alright, you can go first. I didn’t get…I can wait.”
Evelyn had done the same thing that Kim had done for pajamas last night, which was strip down and sleep in the hotel robe. As she extricated herself from a tangle of sheet and blanket, she tied the sash of the robe a little tighter. It was pretty comfortable, but she couldn’t picture wearing it all day or putting back on her stained and wrinkled suit. She glanced over at Kim who was gingerly scooting to sit up in bed.
“Are you still in a lot of pain?”
“Nah,” Kim shook her head, “just was a long day yesterday, and nothing but Tylenol.”
When they had stopped at the drug store the day before, Evelyn hadn’t had her veterinary license with her to get Kim another prescription of more heavy duty pain-killers, and they’d settled on extra strength Tylenol instead to ease her discomfort.
“Oh Kim, I’m sorry. I’ll see about getting you something stronger today.”
Kim shook her head again. “Thanks, Evie, but I’m okay. I don’t want to mask the pain anymore. I’m tough, believe me, as a swimmer I’ve had some massive muscle pulls in my time.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yep.”
Evelyn relented. “Okay. On a totally unrelated note, what would you say to a new pair of pants and a clean shirt?”
Kim giggled. “That sounds great, but how are you going to manage that?”
“Easy. David!”
David took a few moments to get to the door, and when he opened it and saw the women in robes he blushed and averted his gaze.
“Whoa, ladies, don’t let me interrupt anything.”
Evelyn looked over at Kim and rolled her eyes loudly. “We need you to do us a favor.”
“Wow, this is my fourteen-year-old self’s dream come true.”
Kim giggled and Evelyn just shook her head in mock disgust. “Not that kind of favor. Be a dear and head down to the gift shop and buy us some clothes.”
“Clothes? Booo.”
Kim flashed David a wide smile and shook her head at him, amused, but Evelyn really wanted to get into the shower and was rapidly losing her patience. David must have noticed.
“Okay, okay, I’m going! Except, and I know I’m not supposed to ask this, what sizes should I get?”
Evelyn eased off the bed and picked up Kim’s shirt and pants from yesterday so that the other girl didn’t have to get up, and then her own shirt and pants. She tried to avoid looking at the stains on her shirt as she handed them to David in the doorway.
“Check the labels. Thanks.”
“Oh, good idea, I’ll see what I can find. Be back in a jiffy.”
With that he closed the door, but soon after, a barely audible argument between Caroline and him raged out in the living room. Since she really didn’t want to be a part of it, Evelyn escaped to the bathroom and turned on the shower. She luxuriated under the hot water for as long as she felt she politely could with Kim waiting her turn, got herself as presentable as possible using the toiletries provided by the hotel and those they had picked up yesterday, and then put back on the robe and headed out into the bedroom. Kim clicked off the television as Evelyn came out of the bathroom and pointed to a neat stack of clothes on Evelyn’s bed similar to the stack on her own bed.
“David came through, although all they had for pants were sweatpants with the casino logo on them.”
Evelyn went over to her bed and examined the clothing offerings which consisted of a pair of black sweatpants with the Soaring Eagle logo down the left leg, a black T-shirt with a similar, more understated logo at the right chest, and a black sweatshirt with the casino resort logo on the back, Kim’s ensemble was light blue and white.
“Well, I guess I’m a cat burglar and you’re a soccer mom.”
Kim smiled as she limped over to the bathroom with her pile of clothes. As she got dressed, Evelyn was secretly a little miffed that David had chosen more feminine and flattering colors for Kim. She tried to tell herself that she would’ve looked pretty ridiculous in the baby blue, and that black was in fact a better color for her, but she couldn’t shake a bitter sting. David had forgotten about socks, so instead of putting on the dirty dress socks from yesterday, she went out into the living room barefoot. Since she didn’t expect to be leaving the hotel room that day, she supposed it didn’t matter all that much. She then remembered her frantic hike through the woods in bare feet not forty-eight hours ago and frowned.
6
After all of the urgency of the past few days, Evelyn’s mounting anxiety drove her mad as the hours crept by. Caroline had left the hotel room while Evelyn was in the shower, so after a room service breakfast, David, Kim, and Evelyn were left with nothing to do but wait around the suite. There wasn’t much left to discuss, so they sat in silence until finally David relented and flipped on the television, channel surfing until he came to some CSI reruns on FX. Evelyn was going to do some sit-ups and push-ups until she realized that it might be a bit rude to do so in front of Kim with her injury. She also wanted to call Dr. Alverez and get the ball rolling with quitting and the clinic sale, but she wasn’t sure if she should do that from the casino’s land line, so instead she just sat and tried to be entertained by the crime show.
Around a quarter past one the phone rang, startling them all, and David snatched the phone off its cradle. It was Caroline summoning them for a meeting with Zachary. Evelyn was annoyed that he wouldn’t just come up to meet them in the spacious suite, but kept her opinions to herself as she went back into the bedroom to put on her dirty socks and dressy shoes which looked silly with the rest of her casual outfit. Caroline had left them all keycards on a small table by the door, and as Evelyn grabbed hers she realized that the sweatpants had no pockets, so she ended up shoving the card into the pouch at the front of the sweatshirt. Once in the casino foyer, a security officer approached them and escorted them to the unmarked door that led to the inner offices of the casino administrators and the head of the Wahya pack. He used his key card to get them into the inner hallway where Marcus’s office (now Zachary’s office, Evelyn reminded herself) was, then motioned for them to continue along the hallway without him since Evelyn and David already knew the way.
The door to the Wahya Alpha’s office with its new nameplate announcing Zachary Harchem as the Executive Vice President was closed when they arrived, and David rapped on it, the impatient staccato cadence of sound oddly muted in the short hallway. What is the point of this? Evelyn thought as they waited.
After dealing with Roberto last night, this is just Zachary posturing and pretending that he’s in charge of things. In the typical fashion of self-important assholes, Zachary made them linger in the hall for more than a minute before Caroline let them in, and she barely looked at them as she resumed her place standing at Zachary’s side. Evelyn felt a surge of ire when she looked at Caroline, but tried to keep her emotions in check because of the two Wahya members in the room, Caroline was actually the lesser annoyance.
Neither Zachary nor Caroline gave them leave to sit, but Evelyn plunked down in one of the two chairs in front of the massive desk, and David insisted that Kim take the other as he positioned himself standing between them. Zachary continued to pay his laptop screen more attention for another couple of minutes, until David cleared his throat. Zachary glanced up at them and smiled as though he had just won a secret battle of wills.
“Welcome back. I…”
Zachary’s smirk faded as he noticed Kim and he turned his head and gave Caroline a displeased look.
“Sire, I did invite only David and Evelyn.”
David put a hand to his mouth in mock innocence. “Oh did you? I must’ve misunderstood. Sorry. Zachary, this is Kim, she’s the newest member of the Inali, our Gamma I guess. Kim, this is Zachary the Alpha of the Wahya pack.”
Kim grimaced as she stood. “A pleasure to meet you…er…sir.”
Zachary recovered his composure and fixed an unctuous smile on his smug face. “The pleasure is all mine, of course.” He looked her up and down with lecherous appreciation. “I see that you have availed yourself to our generosity.”
Kim gave Zachary a polite smile and sat back down.
David replied for her. “Actually I had to buy those for the ladies this morning from the gift shop.”
Again Zachary turned to stare daggers into Caroline, but this time she astutely avoided his gaze.
“Well, I’m sure that we can find some way to reimburse you, but I trust that the rest of your stay has been comfortable?”
Evelyn was getting bored with the theatrics, so she decided it was time for her to speak up. “Yeah, Zachary, the suite is lovely, really, but we’re actually expecting a call from Councilman Rivest soon. Is there something in particular you wanted to talk about?”
Zachary tensed, his eye twitching and shoulders hunching, at the mention of Roberto’s name. “Actually I just wanted to thank you, Evelyn, for working so hard to find real evidence of the Vulke’s involvement instead of just pointing fingers. Now, I wish you’d brought the evidence to us first before calling a meeting of the Betas, since it might’ve prevented, well, the unfortunate incident that occurred there, but at least all of the packs are well-informed now. Caroline has been on the phone all morning with our Wahya brethren and I want you to know that you have my pack’s full support. You let us know if you, or the Inali,” he gestured towards David and Kim, “need anything at all.”
Evelyn clenched her teeth, but then remembered something and looked over at Caroline. “Were you able to reach Clem’s family?”
“No I wasn’t.”
“They’re at the Holiday Inn in Ste. Sault Marie. David warned them that they might be in danger, in case the Vulke thought that we might take refuge there again.”
Caroline frowned down at them. “Is there anyone else you contacted specifically?”
“No, just Clem’s family.”
Zachary butted in at that point. “You should have let us contact him for you. You don’t have to do everything yourself you know.”
Evelyn leveled a cold stare at him. “This was before we had hard evidence and I couldn’t be sure that you would take me seriously.”
“Well, I don’t want to keep you, like I said, I just wanted to let you know that we are here for you now and you’re not alone in this, and you are welcome to stay here for as long as you need.”
David nodded at Zachary. “Good to know, but hopefully we’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”
Evelyn took this as their goodbye and got up out of the uncomfortable chair. Kim followed suit more slowly, and David led the way to the door.
“Oh, and Evelyn, good luck with your research. Let us know if you need any samples.”
Evelyn couldn’t stop herself from spinning around with a cat-who-ate-the-canary smile on her face.
David and Kim turned to watch what Evelyn was going to do.
“Actually Zachary that would be fantastic.”
Evelyn approached Zachary behind his desk and he could only stare at her with his mouth agape. “But, but, you don’t have any equipment with you.”
“Don’t need it. All I need is two envelopes.”
Zachary hesitated, but he opened a drawer and reached inside and produced two standard white business envelopes and handed them to Evelyn. Caroline appeared curious despite herself. Reaching forward, Evelyn pinched a few of Zachary’s hairs between her thumb and forefinger then plucked them out.
“Ahhh!” Zachary brought a hand up to his head at the spot where she had yanked out the hairs and rubbed his stinging scalp while Evelyn placed the strands in one of the envelopes and folded down the top flap.
“Hairs work just fine, but only if they have sufficient skin tags attached.”
Evelyn, blank-faced and professional, walked over to Caroline and reached out her hand, but Caroline grabbed her wrist while giving her a look that read, don’t even think about it. “I’ll do it myself.”
Caroline isolated a single hair and gave it a quick jerk, freeing it from her scalp. Evelyn raised an eyebrow as she held the envelope open for Caroline to deposit the hair in. Evelyn then closed the envelope over the precious hair. “Thank you so much for your generosity, Zachary.”
When Evelyn turned to face David and Kim she was beaming, and David, having a difficult time keeping a straight face, spun on his heels and continued to the door. He was already out in the hallway when Evelyn caught up with him, but didn’t say anything until they were all out in the casino lobby again. “Bold, Evie, very bold.”
“Hey, he offered.” Evelyn’s smile lost some of its luster. “And we can’t afford to waste any time waiting for samples that may mysteriously disappear in transit.”
David’s face also fell. “True.”
7
When they arrived back at the suite, the phone was ringing and Evelyn ran to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Eisenhart? Is that you?”
“Yes, Roberto?”
“I should hope that no one else knows to call you at this number. Where have you been?”
Evelyn’s sigh harbored a substantial weight of irritation as she set down the envelopes containing Zachary and Caroline’s hair samples. “Zachary wanted to meet with us.”
“Who is Zachary?”
“Zachary is the new Alpha of the Wahya pack.”
Roberto was silent for a short time. “What happened to Marcus?”
“Marcus was killed by werewolf hunters while he was trying to rescue Clem.”
“Was he? Is Clemson dead too?”
“No he’s alive, but he was really badly injured, so he’s still recovering with his family in Sault Ste. Marie.”
“No one thought to tell me all this last night?”
“I’m sorry, Roberto, I guess I just forgot that you were out of the loop.”
Roberto sighed loud enough for Evelyn to hear it over the line. “Well I guess it does not matter now. I have procured you all cell phones which should be delivered shortly to the front desk. Also, I have an excellent lead on a laboratory for you. I believe that you graduated from veterinary school at Michigan State University?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I spoke with Caroline earlier today and it just so happens that there is a Wolfkin professor at the veterinary school. He has not been active in the Wahya pack in years, but she is confident that he will want to help.”
“Funny. She didn’t mention anything when we saw her just now.”
“
Well, I do get the distinct impression that you two are not the best of friends.”
“We have…history.”
“Well, she should be contacting him now, and I am in the process of buying a furnished condo close to campus. American bureaucracy regarding such things is overly complicated, but my solicitor should have things sorted by tomorrow afternoon at the latest and then we can move you in tomorrow night and collect your belongings from your old apartments as well.”
“Shit. I just thought of something. I left my key to my apartment behind at the lab.”
“That is a mild inconvenience, but not insurmountable. I am sure we can find someone with the proper skills to achieve our goal; it will just cost a little extra now that there might be a Vulke assassin hiding in the closet waiting for you.”
Evelyn pictured herself returning to her apartment without realizing that the Vulke had her key, and being horribly murdered. She shivered. “Thanks for the imagery, Roberto.”
“What?”
“Forget it, American humor.”
Roberto cleared his throat. “Ah, well, I will contact you via cell phone tomorrow. Please have them with you. I thought…that something untoward had happened.”
“Sorry. We will.”
“Very good. Until tomorrow then.”
“Goodbye, Roberto.”
Evelyn hung up the phone and relayed the conversation to David and Kim while she hunted for a pen to label the hair envelopes.
Kim headed towards the bedroom. “I think I’m going to go lie down for a little while.”
Evelyn was too keyed up from the meeting and conversation with Roberto to nap, so she paced around the suite for a few minutes then grabbed a pad of stationary and scribbled out some thoughts she’d been having about the next steps in her research.
David sat down on the couch for a spell then fidgeted and jumped up again. “I think I’ll go downstairs and see if the cell phones are there yet.”
Evelyn finished putting down her thoughts and set the notepad aside. “Okay.”
