“We are friends, Mister Taylor. We are the friends of the wolves. We were once very best friends with Jimmy’s wolf. The one they called Kalima—the one who became Collins.”
Brandon listened, tried to understand everything, but couldn’t wrap his mind around it at once. Instead, he breathed with a deep and rusty sound.
“You see. We want to help him.” Michael smiled firm and strong.
Brandon’s eyes went down to the floor. “How can I help? I can’t do anything.”
“Oh,” Michael blasted out with a breath that almost sounded like he winced. “You can help us by being our eyes. You can help us by telling us where he is. You can help him by keeping him out of further troubles.” He stepped forwards again, and stopped right in front of him, even coming closer this time. The toes of his black dress shoes even touched his bare big toe.
“How? I’m weak. I couldn’t do anything. I can’t do anything.” Brandon kept his face down. His thoughts jumbled back to that night in the barn. It then flew to that night in the clinic in Castleford. The pain of his arm, which still hurt, was all there. How he couldn’t do anything when it happened. He couldn’t help. That pain around his inadequacies felt like a vice, gripping his soul. His inability to help his friend and his friend’s friends all came up inside his heart, and with it, it made him feel heavy. He felt so helpless. He felt so weak. He felt so wrong. He wanted to help them, he wanted to be able to help all of them, but couldn‘t. I was too weak. I was too weak. I was too weak!
“We can help you help them as well.” Michael again brought his cold right hand up to his chin and again lifted his eyes back up to his. His black eyes sparkled behind the white of his face. “I know how badly you felt for not being able to help them back then. I know how terrible you felt for being so—well—weak. We can give you the ability to help your friends. We can give you the ability to do something more than what you were able to do—are able to do. We can give you the gift, my boy, of strength. We can give you the strength to do what we ask of you, and to protect your friends.”
Brandon blinked. His mind went blank. The last thought there, as he listened to this man‘s cool and smooth voice, or whatever he was, was that this had to be one of them. He had to be something like them, if not a wolf exactly, but something close to it. That thought offered him an idea. If they were like Jimmy, if he was something similar to him, he would be able to help his friend if he became it. He would be able to fight with him side by side. The idea felt strong. It felt powerful. It almost seemed to answer his every question to his every fear. He looked deeply into Michael’s dark eyes, and gasped so heavily, that it made his mind cross over to a strong and overpowering haze. “What do I have to do?”
“Join us. Let us help him. Let us give you something that will allow you to help them.” He smiled again, as his pearly white teeth shined. Fangs, or something like them, came sliding out from his upper lip so smoothly that it made it look natural. They looked sharp. They looked like the canines of a large and powerful dog.
Brandon saw them and his mind froze in place. “I will.” A single tear rolled down the left side of his face, and with Michael’s cold touch, it froze just before it slid down to his chin. Seeing the fangs, he knew what was going to come next. The idea of being bitten came rolling into his thoughts. How is that going to feel? Was it going to hurt? What would happen with me after the bite? They were all good questions, and thinking of them, brought his fear into becoming something else. He no longer felt fear for becoming what he might become, but instead, he felt afraid for the pain that he knew it would cause him. The anxiety for how it would feel to change into something else also flashed before his very eyes.
Michael stepped closer. He raised his hands up almost like he expected a hug from a child, and wrapped them around him, blanketing him into an instant shudder of a freezing cold.
He felt firm within the embrace. With it, he let out a huge exhale, almost as if the arms just squeezed the air right out of him with their very strength alone.
Joshua smiled as he watched Michael take both hands and grab this Brandon by both shoulders. He watched as he raced his mouth to his neck. He watched as their plan came together, just the way Michael said that it would happen. He was always right about such things. Michael was never wrong when it came to such affairs.
The pain did come, but it came swiftly. It came with vengeance, but it didn’t last all that long. Soon, all he could feel was an odd feeling of his own blood being sucked out of his heart and pulled towards his neck. He could feel a numbing of his skin, and could feel his legs grow weak beneath him. If it wasn’t for Michael holding him, the feeling would have made him fall to his knees. Along with weakness, he could feel his mind begin to fade. It wasn’t long before he felt nothing at all.
Outside of the three-story building, Melinda waited by the vehicle, and waited for everything to happen. She watched the area. She watched the street. She watched for people, and had to make sure that no one would hear what would happen next. She watched it all, guarding the apartment building behind her with intensity. How long she had to wait, she didn’t know, but she did know that Michael would convince him soon enough. When she heard the scream come strongly behind her, it made her smile. Hearing it, she knew he accomplished what they came there to do. It happened quickly. It happened just the way he told her it would.
3
“Damn it! This isn’t working!” Rachel watched her next to last sample just wither away right in front of her eyes. She couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t do anything to stop it. The bloods infected cells still flowed and worse yet, they still looked unchanged. The wolf’s cells acted more resilient than she ever thought they would. They even altered back to what they were faster this time around. She tried hard, using the silver nitrate to stop them from altering the human, normal cells, but like the ten times before this, it didn’t work. Quite simply, she failed again, and it made her heart feel like stopping. She felt lost, and even worse than that, she was running out of blood to test. She now knew that she had to find something that will work and soon, but it started to feel useless. This was her last hope, and now, she had nothing left.
She turned to Amanda, her new assistant, and huffed. “Just let it go.” She did so strongly that it blew her own black hair from her face, making it arc up before it came back down flat again. She now felt even more tired than she already did. She also felt winded. She felt like she ran a marathon and collapsed just a foot or so from the finish line.
“I don’t know what you were expecting by doing this, Doctor.” Amanda bowed her head to the counter top beside her. Her soft blonde hair dipped some in front of her face, even though it was done up some at the back of her head. “I’m not sure what a simple blood sample mixed with silver nitrate was going to accomplish anyway.” She turned from the counter, walked back towards the counter behind both of them, and stopped. They were both standing in the middle of a row of counters that filled the interior of Rachel’s lab at Knight’s Research Center, the former Ravenswood Labs. Standing there, thinking, she had no idea what they were even working on. She thought they were supposed to be studying an all-purpose cure for illnesses, and thinking that, this wasn‘t what she expected to be doing with her time. How this blood sample could have done anything weighed on her mind like a heavy damp cloth weighing you down on a rain soaked day. She has been feeling this way for weeks now, and watching Doctor Garland with this last blood sample didn’t help the feeling one bit. In fact, it felt like a big waste of time.
Rachel listened to her, and shrugged with disgust. She just shook her head. “I told you before. I think if I can retreat this virus with this silver nitrate it will accomplish everything. Besides,” she paused, turned to Amanda and bowed her eyes down to the floor. She crossed her arms over her chest as she did it. “It doesn’t matter now. I‘ve tried everything. I don‘t have much more blood to test, so I can‘t risk losing anything more of what I don’t have. I can‘t risk the r
est of the samples.” She puffed again. “I don’t know what to do now.”
“If you tell me what this person is inflicted with, I might be able to help you?” Amanda sighed. Being fresh out of college gave her some ideas. She figured that’s why Richard Ross hired her in the first place, but with that, she had to know what they were supposed to be doing before she could find a way to help her with it.
Rachel couldn’t go that far. She had to keep what her new assistant knew to a very minimum, but that was becoming hard to do. She was smarter than most people were, so it was only a matter of time before she would catch onto everything. With that thought, she still had to keep strong. She still had to keep her in the dark for as long possible, like it or not. “It’s something like cancer.” She looked back to the microscope and to the samples that now felt useless sitting next to it. “It doesn’t matter anymore, anyway.”
Amanda felt for her new boss. She couldn’t help but notice the disappointment oozing from her like jelly from a tipped over jar, but there was nothing more she could do to help her. If she wasn’t going to be any more specific about what they were studying, then she knew that she was lost to do it. Except, of course, to just continuing to offer her ideas. “It was a blood sample. Can’t you find the person that gave it to you and get some more?”
Rachel puffed even louder. “I’m not sure where he is right now.” She turned back to the slide and to the microscope that she just watched all of her ideas crash and burn. “You’re right.” She puffed again. “I’ll have to get some more and just continue on. I can‘t give up now. I have to keep going.” She turned back to Amanda and offered her a smile. When Richard Ross offered her an assistant when she came back and accepted his offer, she didn’t think that it was such a good idea to have her helping her. She thought it would just hinder her options. She would have too many questions, but now, with all things considered, and her failures at that, it started to look like the best idea he ever had. She started to like Amanda a lot. She liked her company. It helped her to forget about Jimmy in some ways. It helped her keep her sanity and her wits.
“Doctor?” Amanda kept her head down low. She had to press again. She had no other options to give her, so she simply raised her eyes up as she asked. “What are you trying to do anyway? I don’t understand what you’re trying to do. You have to tell me what this guy with the blood sample has that we can use.”
Rachel knew this was going to happen, someday, sooner rather than later. “He’s infected with a rare pathogen. If I can get the infected cells to retreat, then I know it should work on others. Not just like him, but everyone.” That sounded rehearsed, and in fact, it was.
Amanda nodded. That made sense. “Then we’ll keep trying.” She smiled. She could feel her determination almost fill the room. What it told her was that she had a connection to the victim they were studying. It must be from someone that was very close to her, and that wasn’t always a good thing to have when it came to doing what they did. She knew that sometimes it became unavoidable. Doctors couldn’t help themselves in getting too close to their patients. They were human after all. Getting too involved was bad, it made people make mistakes, but knowing that, and feeling it now coming from her, she knew she had no choice but to continue offering her help. How would she feel, if the circumstances were reversed? “I’ll discard the sample and get the slides ready for when we get some new blood to start again.” She smiled, left the counter behind her and joined the one by Doctor Garland. “We have a lot of data to look over. There might be something there that we overlooked?”
Again, Rachel smiled. Amanda might have been only in her early twenties and fresh out of college at that, but she was turning out to be a God sent to her in more ways than one. “Sure.” She smiled, turning her attention to her lab’s door, seeing someone standing there out from the corner of her eyes.
Richard Ross stood there, in the now open doorway with a strong smile written across his face.
“Mister Ross?” Rachel asked, somewhat startled with seeing him just standing there listening to them like that. He always did that to her. He always found a way to startle her just right. After what happened with Jimmy, keeping him a hostage like he did, having his people try to kill him at that, she figured he would always make her feel that way. She didn’t have the choice otherwise.
“I hope that I wasn’t interrupting anything?” he asked, stepping into the room and letting the door close softly by itself behind him. “I wanted to check on you progress.” His smile grew larger. His fine suit sparkled. His deep white hair almost seemed to glow.
“You didn’t.” Rachel looked to Amanda. “Things are not going all that well I’m afraid.” She bowed her head again.
“I see.” He came closer to the counter that separated the three of them and stopped there, directly opposite from them. “I have something for you, Doctor Garland that might change the situation you find yourself.” He looked from Rachel and over towards Amanda, with the smile never once leaving his face. “I was wondering if I could speak to Doctor Garland in confidence for a moment.” His eyes grew large, yet the rest of his face continued to look overly joyous. His confidence oozed, and showed through the smile still covering his face.
Rachel noticed the look. He had something to say, but he continued to play his part for the secrecy they were all forced to play. Seeing it, she turned back to Amanda. “Amanda? Could you give us a moment? Mister Ross and I have some things to discuss.” She smiled to her young friend.
“Sure thing.” Amanda set the slide that she had just removed from the microscope to the counter next to it, turned, and faced Mister Ross. She looked to Doctor Garland, and nodded to both of them. “I’ll be in my office, if you need me.”
Richard Ross bowed his eyes as he watched her come around the side of the counter and passed him, walking to the door to the lab behind him. When the door closed after she left, he turned back to Rachel. “How do you like her?” he had to ask. He felt justified watching the two of them together. They worked well together. They looked like a good team. He loved seeing it, and for more than just her needing it too. He couldn’t get everything he wanted without it. Besides, with everything that happened, not doing so would have been an insult, he felt sure of that much.
Rachel nodded. “She’s nice.” She smiled. “And helpful.”
Ross chuckled some. “I’m glad.” He left his side of the counter, walked over to the end of it, and came to her side. “I cannot again tell you how happy that I am that you came back to us. You’re help will definitely give us so much more than what we could ever do alone, I’m so sure of that.” He smiled again.
To her, his smile looked almost boyish. Seeing it, and listening to him, she shrugged. “I didn’t come back here to help you, Mister Ross. I’m doing this for my friend.”
He nodded. “I know.” His face turned almost bashful just then. The thoughts of the wolf flowed through his every thought. He missed him. He actually missed seeing it. He missed smelling it. He missed everything about him if not more, and when he heard that he lived from the bullet and fall, he couldn’t believe how that made him feel. It gave him the chance to do everything right again. Now, with Doctor Garland back, he felt sure that it would be only the matter of time to get everything he wanted, and that made the world feel exciting again. It made it all feel worth it. He couldn’t wait to see where everything would go, now that everything was back together again. “How is he?” His eyes went down to the floor and came back up again after he asked the question.
“Fine.” Rachel crossed her arms again over her chest. She felt rather defensive with the question. It also made her a little bit angry at the same time, so she tried to remain calm. She couldn’t lose her cool, not with him—not ever.
Seeing her, and sensing what it meant, he just nodded again. “Good.” She wasn’t going to answer him; he could feel that, so he turned his mind back to the matter at hand. “I wanted to give you this.” He reached with his right hand into his
slack’s side pocket and pulled out four vials of a clear liquid that sparkled some with the lights overhead. He sighed with seeing them. He held them out to her with them resting comfortably on his palm.
She looked down at them. “What are they?” She looked up again and their eyes met.
It was Ross’ turn to shrug. “They were developed a while ago, back when Collins was still with us. The solution was the closest that we ever came to get what we were looking for. What we hoped for was the cure for illness, but instead it turned out to be something very different.” He looked from her eyes down to the vials and then back up again to her eyes. “It might help you find what you‘re looking for.” He smiled.
Rachel uncrossed her arms. She couldn’t bring herself to move. “What does it do?” She needed to know that first. She always felt hopeful, she always felt herself full of optimism, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel any more of that hope and optimism just to find it lost again.
“It inhibits the change.”
Her eyes grew wide, and could almost not believe what she just heard, so she had to clarify more of what he said. “What do you mean?”
“The drug stops the cells of the host from being—well— overpowered by the wolf’s cells. It surrounds the human’s cells, and protects them, keeping them from the transformation.” He set the vials down to the top of counter, right next to her.
She watched them almost like she watched a star falling to the earth—with a magnificent awe.
“We used to give it to Collins to help control his—well— instincts.”
She reached out with a soft touch and took one of the vials into her right hand. Using the top of it, where the cap held the fluid inside the tube, she held it up. She watched the clear fluid swarm around inside the glass tube with a sparkle in her eyes. “How does it do that?” She watched the swirl. She helped it by making a circular motion with her wrist.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 58
