by Jen Haeger
Kim nearly jumped out of her seat. “Ooooh, and we can start with me! I’m not sure that I’ll remember everything that I ate last month, but I don’t think Roberto has sent someone to collect my clothes and things yet, so I can ask him to collect all of the food at my apartment too.”
David’s sour attitude was no match for Kim’s enthusiasm, and he smiled. “Okay. I’ll call Roberto, but are you sure that you really just don’t want your clothes?”
Kim stuck out her tongue at David in a playful manner.
Evelyn started to smile too, but it somehow lost steam and faded from her lips. She cleared her throat. “Tell Roberto to have other packs do the same if possible and send a list to us to cross-reference with Kim’s groceries. Receipts would be the best, but I don’t think that most people keep them. I don’t. Do you guys?” Both Kim and David shook their heads. Evelyn shrugged. “Oh well, we can suggest it to Roberto, maybe at least one of the other strays is more OCD than we are. If anything matches up with any of Kim’s food, then we’ll process it in the lab and search for viral DNA. In the meantime I’ll add designing better Languorem luporum primers to my lab “to do” list.”
“Speaking of the lab, when do you think that it’ll be ready for you girls to start working in?”
“It’s taken a little while to order supplies and a few key machines, but provided a big shipment comes in tomorrow, we should be good to go tomorrow night,” Evelyn said.
David smiled broadly. “That’s great news!”
Evelyn’s nod was only half-hearted. “It’ll take a while to really get going again, and I’m not particularly thrilled to be working nights, but it is what it is. I just wish I had more time. I doubt we’re going to make a big breakthrough in two weeks.”
David was thoughtful. “Maybe nothing will happen in two weeks.”
Evelyn stared him in the eye. “Do you really believe that?”
He looked away. “No. No I don’t”
14
Roberto spoke in a crisp tone, clipping each word just shy of full enunciation. “The Vulke have contacted us and officially declared war.”
“Damnit!” David kicked over a dining room chair.
Roberto continued without pause. “I have to say that I am a little surprised that they are following any kind of civil protocol, but I guess if they did not they wouldn’t get to fight us fang and claw.”
“Well isn’t that thoughtful of them.”
“They sent a list of preferred fighting grounds and we are either to choose our preference from the list or counter with our own list. To their credit, all areas seem to be far from human inhabitance.”
David snorted.
“Also, they have insisted that there be no weapons on either side.”
“And if we tell them we won’t fight them and try to find them and shut them down off the battlefield?”
Roberto cleared his throat. “They say that they will launch a much wider scale infection. They claim it will be thousands next time and that they will then let nature take its course.”
“Thousands of strays?!”
“Yes.”
“But, they might be bluffing, just trying to draw us out for the slaughter.”
The sound of Roberto’s exhaled breath issued through the phone. “Are you really willing to take that risk, David? Would you have the destruction of thousands of innocent lives on your shoulders?”
David was silent.
Roberto pressed. “Would you?”
“Of course not.”
“Exactly. It is unfortunate, but unless we are able not only to find, but to eradicate, the Vulke’s ability to spread the mutant virus, we are regretfully at their mercy. I will of course retrieve Kim’s belongings and notify the other packs of what you are asking for, but time is short and the Inali should prepare for battle.”
David was furious. “What do you mean prepare for battle, Roberto? I’m ready to fight, but there’s no way that I’m letting Kim fight, and how can you even think of risking Evelyn?!”
“I am merely thinking of numbers, David. This will not be the only battlefront. We have received no less than ten challenges to take place all over the world. We just do not have the numbers that the Vulke have, and unless you are willing to go out and transform others simply for the purpose of war, we never will. And if we decided to do that, we would have already lost.”
“But we could focus all of our allied packs on one fight and destroy one whole freaking Vulke army!”
“Yes, we could. But what would it accomplish?”
“What do you mean, what would it accom—“
“The other Vulke armies would still be out there, and they could easily replenish those numbers and hit the unguarded areas the hardest while we were scrambling to get our packs back.”
“You—“
“Also, how can we ask one pack to give up the defense of their own territory? You automatically assume that the other supporting packs would agree to come defend here? What gives this land priority? Do you think that all of the Wahya and Amaruq would fly over to Africa to defend the pack territory there?”
“Well—”
“They would not and I will not ask them to. No, the packs will be strongest defending closer to their own territories.”
“But—“
“This is the way things are David. I apologize if you thought that I was asking for your opinion on the matter, but I am telling you how things are going to happen. I will have Kim’s belongings and foodstuffs sent to you as soon as possible. Take care, I must go now.”
With that Roberto severed the connection, and David wanted to throw the phone. How could Roberto play into the Vulke’s hand so willingly? It made no sense. David had nearly forfeited both his and Evelyn’s lives two years ago by letting the Vulke dictate the actions of the Wolfkin Council and the other packs. Sure, the Vulke had the upper hand in all this, the aggressor in warfare commonly did, but there was no reason to play entirely by their rules. David was pacing around the room and had to let off some steam or he felt as if he was going to explode. He couldn’t even talk to Evie or Kim about it because both would want to help with the fight and that was exactly what he was trying to avoid, especially when it promised to be a bloodbath.
The women had gone grocery shopping for some essentials, so David tore up the stairs and changed into running shorts and a T-shirt. He laced up the running shoes that whoever had raided his apartment had thought fit to include in one of the garbage bags full of his clothing, and headed out the door to try to exorcise the rage he was feeling.
At first he tried not to think at all, but just pump his legs and let the cool spring air wash over him. The day was bright with only the occasional large puffy cloud. He didn’t know a particular route to follow, but just turned or went straight as the desire struck him. When he felt a fraction of the tension in his chest and shoulders ease and figured he had gone at least a mile, he slowed his pace. Ceasing his admiration of the scenery of the quaint subdivision, he concentrated on coming up with a real strategy against the Vulke that didn’t involve stepping into a trap and praying that it didn’t go off in their faces.
Naturally his thoughts gravitated towards his own experiences with the Vulke, but he told himself to be careful of relying too much on past experience, because a lot had changed since then. Two years ago the Vulke might even have been willing to deny that werewolfism was caused by a virus, but now they fully embraced that fact and had used the virus to their advantage in creating the mutation. Additionally, having killed the Alpha himself and Evelyn having knocked off the pack’s Beta, David knew that none of the Vulke leaders that had been in power then were still in power now—except for perhaps the Gamma who David knew nothing about.
Still, David believed that the Vulke were the same crazy, bloodthirsty pack they had always been, just more savvy and sneaky about it than before. He thought it was safe to say that the Vulke’s overall intentions remained much the same as well: step one, conquer the ot
her Wolfkin packs, step two, conquer the humans, step three, conquer the world. Even if they were only able to accomplish step one, the world would truly become a frightening place with monsters running free in the night, and David didn’t have much faith in the competency of werewolf hunters after their kidnapping of Clem went so horribly wrong for them.
David was certain that true dominion over humans wasn’t ever going to be possible, but if the Vulke were somehow able to mutate the virus further, so that they could change form regardless of time of day or time of the month, then the humans might actually be screwed. He couldn’t think about that right now. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to worry about it ever, and he wouldn’t if he could figure out a way to defeat the Vulke now. David considered his fight with the Vulke Alpha, Christoff, two years ago. His breath caught a little in his throat when he thought about how it was Evelyn’s idea that had saved his life.
Marcus, Caroline, and even Clem had been trying to help him by bringing out his animal instincts and hoping that he would be more vicious than Christoff in a Wolfkin fight, but in the end, he had set a trap for Christoff and human cunning had won the day. That’s what they needed to be using now to fight the Vulke, not Wolfkin custom or animal instincts, but human cunning and human tactics. Aren’t there any members of the armed forces in any of the allied packs? David considered asking Roberto, then modified his choice to Caroline, then reluctantly decided to ask Madeline. The trouble was, there just wasn’t much time left to strategize and prepare and then get word out to the other packs, so it couldn’t be anything overly complicated.
David wracked his brain for any hint or mere whisper of an advantage. He supposed that if they knew where the fight was going to take place ahead of time, they could seed the area with bombs or booby traps, but in the chaos of battle that was apt to kill just as many friends as foes. Maybe instead we could hide some of our numbers and then signal them to come at the enemy from behind? The troubles with that plan would be them having to know where “behind” was going to be, have a reliable way of signaling, and having enough numbers so that it wasn’t obvious that half of their troops were missing. David swore. He was no military strategist, he needed help. He rounded the corner and saw the condo a few blocks ahead. He needed to research the most brilliant strategic military victories in history. He needed the magic of the internet.
15
Over the next two days David managed to keep what Roberto had told him under wraps; Kim and Evelyn had been so busy in the lab and slept most of the day, but he knew that he couldn’t avoid telling them something forever. He had tried to contact Madeline at the number given to him by Caroline but only got a generic voicemail prompt. He didn’t think that Caroline had any reason to give him a phony number, so he left a few messages and also left a message for Roberto asking him when there would be a meeting to discuss strategies.
David, Kim, and Evelyn were having a meal together—dinner for David and breakfast for the girls—when Evelyn queried him about the situation.
“So I forgot to ask, has Roberto heard anything from the Vulke? Do we know how all of this is going to go down?”
Since Evelyn had a knack for knowing when he was lying to her, he chose to omit details instead. “Yeah, they‘re in the process of negotiating certain sites for the fighting to take place. They want it to happen out in the wild, away from civilization, and have ordered the other packs not to try to use weapons.”
Evelyn frowned. “And if we do?”
David looked into her eyes. “If we don’t follow their terms then they’ve threatened to infect thousands more people with the mutant strain.”
Evelyn swallowed hard. “Thousands? But they could never hope to control that many.”
“Roberto said that they wouldn’t try, they would just ‘let nature take its course’, which I guess means that they would just sit back and watch us try to deal with all of the strays. But my bet is that they’re bluffing and just trying to control us and get us to do exactly what they want us to do.”
Evelyn pulled at her lower lip. “I don’t know. They might well be capable of infecting thousands and be insane enough to do it. But did you say sites? I kinda thought that it was going to be one big battle.”
“No. Roberto says there’ll be at least ten different confrontations all over the world.”
“Oh, that…sucks.”
Rocking in her chair at an increasing pace, Kim’s voice burbled out. “What are we going to do?”
David shook his head. “You gals are going to keep focusing on your work in the lab and helping me figure out how the Vulke are spreading the virus. I’m going to meet with Roberto, Zachary, Caroline, Madeline and whoever else actually cares about winning this damn war and figure something out.”
Evelyn gave him a dour look, but for a moment said nothing.
Kim reluctantly agreed with David. “David’s right. If we can figure out how to stop more infections, then we wouldn’t have to be so worried about doing what the Vulke want us to do. Did Roberto say when my things would get here?”
“Sorry, he just said that they’d get them to us as soon as possible.”
“Well, let’s hope that they’re a birthday present then,” Kim said wistfully.
David raised his eyebrows. “A birthday present?”
“Yeah, tomorrow’s my birthday, I’ll be twenty-three.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
Kim shrugged. “It didn’t seem important with everything else that was going on, besides it’s not like we have time to celebrate.”
“Like heck we don’t!” David insisted. “In times like this it’s even more important to celebrate, and I’m sure that one night off isn’t going to make that much difference. We should go out tomorrow night.”
*
Evelyn thought David was being insane. He knew that every second was precious, so if David wanted to get Kim a cake or something that was one thing, but taking an entire night off from the lab? Of course, she couldn’t just come right out and say any of that because she would look like a bitch, so instead she smiled while Kim and David chatted and stayed silent while she came up with a plausible excuse for having to go back into the lab instead of going out with Kim and David tomorrow night. Watching Kim devour her grilled cheese and tomato soup, Evelyn couldn’t help but marvel at how Kim could be so blasé about their entire state of affairs, and jealousy roiled inside her. Kim still feels like an outsider and things are so weird for her that everything probably just feels completely unreal. Not to mention, she definitely has less guilt and pressure on her shoulders. No one blames Kim for the war and no one is going to blame Kim if she never finds a cure for Languorem luporum. Suddenly finding it extremely difficult to keep the smile on her face, Evelyn excused herself from the table, took her plate into the kitchen, and then went upstairs to brush her teeth and get ready for a long night at the lab.
*
Kim’s possessions showed up the next morning while Kim and Evelyn were sleeping. Roberto called David to inform him that the delay was due to the fact that Kim’s apartment had been completely ransacked, and it had taken extra time to sort through the debris. Most of the foodstuffs came without packaging in labeled plastic baggies, so that evening Evelyn had no trouble excusing herself from the festivities.
“I’m sorry, guys, but I started something in the lab last night that I really have to finish up tonight, and since I can’t go anyway, I want to start cataloging the food from Kim’s apartment too.”
Kim’s face fell. “Oh, Evie, are you sure you have to go into the lab tonight?” She turned her frown toward David. “Maybe we should wait until tomorrow?”
Evelyn jumped in with encouragement before David could cave. “No, no, I don’t know how things are going to go in the lab tonight, and we can’t just keep putting it off. You two go, have a good time. Having to wash my own glassware tonight will be my birthday present to you.” Evelyn winked at Kim.
The creases in Kim’s face smoothed out
and a grin peeked through. “Alright. But we’ll miss you.”
When their taxi came, Evelyn ignored the hint of accusation on David’s face as she waved Kim and him out the door. “Have fun!”
Slamming the condo door, Evelyn tried to convince herself that she didn’t begrudge David and Kim a night off, since it wasn’t as if they had been sitting around idle all this time. I wish there wasn’t so much expected of me that I could justify a night off. As Evelyn trudged over to the dining room table heaped with Kim’s foodstuffs, sparks of defiance flared in her chest, and she finally realized what was truly bothering her about Kim’s birthday celebration. Her whole being was screaming to fight the Vulke in every way that she could, and going out and partying this close to the next full moon was, in Evelyn’s mind, akin to admitting defeat. Evelyn refused to surrender. Though a cure might honestly be a year or more away, and they still had little idea how the mutant was being transmitted, giving up was not an option. Nevertheless, as she sat in the quiet of the condo meticulously logging Kim’s groceries into a spreadsheet on her laptop, she felt a selfish loneliness and envy that came strictly from missing out on the fun.
16
Not long after their arrival at the condo, Roberto had sent them a package containing not only “company” credit cards for all of them to use, but also a new driver’s license for Evelyn. This gave David an even greater appreciation of just how deep Roberto’s pockets were and how extensive his connections. Even so, David felt a small twinge of guilt when he used the card for a rather extravagant dinner with Kim at a restaurant called Dusty’s Cellar, and again when he charged their second round of drinks at Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub. He brought the two tall glasses of beer back to their table and set the finely-crafted pale ale in front of Kim while he took the delicious stout for himself. The night was still young so they’d had no trouble getting a table, though the place had filled up since their first round in connection with the live band setting up in the corner behind a modest dance floor.
