Moonlight Medicine: Epidemic (The Moonlight Medicine Trilogy Book 2)

by Jen Haeger

  “What?! What’s happened?”

  Evelyn shook her head as tears began to roll down her cheeks and her giggles turned to choking sobs. David moved to go to her, but she held up her hand.

  “Don’t contaminate the lab. That’s all we need now,” she said miserably. “I’m coming out.”

  She took off her gloves, gown, and cap and followed David out into the bedroom. They sat together on the bed and Evelyn told him what she had discovered and what it meant.

  “So we have our proof,” she concluded, “but we can’t present it or it may all turn around on us.”

  David knitted his eyebrows together, but said nothing.

  “I wish Clem was around. I could really use a little of his special brand of humor right now,” Evelyn murmured. “He’d make some bad joke about us needing to learn Russian or something.”

  David smiled his lopsided smile, but it had less humor in it than usual.

  “I know what you mean,” he said, “I think that…” David trailed off with a distant look in his eyes then he grabbed Evelyn’s shoulders. “Evie, we aren’t the only Vulke who’ve been running around North America for the past few years,” he said excitedly.

  “What are you saying, who else is a V-“ Evelyn stopped abruptly as it struck her.

  Clem was also a Vulke, he had been attacked and left for dead by a raiding group in Alaska and had only later been absorbed by the Wahya pack.

  “Clem,” she breathed. “But was there really any proof that it was the Vulke that attacked him? Will the other packs really believe that he was infected by the Vulke?”

  “I think it’s a much better gamble that they will believe Clem was bitten by a Vulke, than it is that they will believe we didn’t engineer the mutant strain ourselves,” David reasoned.

  “O.K., now all we need is a sample of Clem’s DNA, but he’s up in Sault Ste Marie.”

  “That’s the easy part,” said David. “We call Karen and have her FedEx a sample from Clem to us overnight. We pick it up at the post office in town.”

  Evelyn looked at David wide-eyed. “Sometimes you are just bloody brilliant.” She beamed at him. “I’ll go out and call her right now. They’re at the Holiday Inn Express again?”

  David nodded. Evelyn retrieved her cell phone from her pack and went outside to call Karen. Pacing, Evelyn requested a call to Karen’s room through the front desk of the hotel.

  “Hello?” Karen’s voice was hushed and Evelyn could hear the exhaustion bleeding through.

  Evelyn stilled. “Karen, it’s Evie.”

  “Evie, I’m so glad you’re alright. What’s going on?”

  “There’s a lot to explain.” Evelyn took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. “I’m not even sure where to begin. Do you know about the strays?”

  “I think so. Clem mentioned the Wahya finding a stray before he…a little girl, right?”

  “Katie, yeah.” Evelyn swallowed down a surge of anger and sorrow. “Well, there are more. Maybe a lot more, and…and I think that the Vulke are behind it. I think that they’re making the strays and then abducting them.”

  “What?”

  “We met one of the strays, and I think that the Vulke were after her. They killed a police officer outside of her apartment complex. It’s a long story, but the important thing is that the Vulke aren’t acting within Wolfkin law, and I think that they tampered with the Wolfkin virus, made it easier to transmit. I want to warn the other packs, but I don’t have proof. That’s where you can help. I need a sample of Clem’s blood.”

  “Why Clem?”

  Evelyn paused. “Because he was turned by a Vulke, and technically…he is a Vulke, at least his viral strain is.”

  “Oh, I…right…”

  “I need his blood to show that it has the same viral DNA sequence as the strays. I hate to ask you to do this, to risk going out, but could you-“

  “I can send the sample within the hour. Just tell me where I’m sending it.”

  “We have a post office box in town.”

  Evelyn told Karen the box number and the post office’s address.

  “I’ll see if I can ship it same day.”

  Evelyn slumped with relief. “Thank you so much Karen…How is he?”

  “It wasn’t easy to move him, but I think he’s doing a little better every day. He still can’t talk yet, but I know that when he can he will ask to see you,” Karen replied optimistically.

  “I promise I will come and visit him as soon as I can.”

  “I know you will. And Evie, Sweetie, you and David be careful, alright?”

  “We will Karen. Thanks, you too.” Evelyn hung up and went back inside the cabin.

  David was in the living room explaining everything to Kim.

  “Karen is going to try to get a same day delivery for Clem’s DNA sample,” Evelyn declared. “So I think that I am going to finish up a few things in the lab and then head into town. If the sample comes today, I’ll hike back in, but if it doesn’t come until tomorrow, I’ll stay at a cheap motel overnight.”

  Evelyn knew that David didn’t want her to go alone, but he couldn’t complain because his ankle was still swollen and Kim was in no shape to either be left alone, or be hiking back and forth to the lab for no good reason. He gave Evelyn an exasperated look but didn’t protest.

  “Do you need any help in the lab?” David offered.

  “No, I don’t think so. Why don’t you keep Kim company? If you’re bored, I think there’s a deck of cards in one of the kitchen drawers,” said Evelyn lightly as she headed into the lab.

  David scowled at Evelyn, but then turned a broad smile to Kim. “Do you know how to play Rummy?”

  Kim smiled and nodded, so David went over to the kitchen and fished the cards out of the drawer.

  *

  Allen finished his meager bowl of stew and swiped the last dregs out of the bowl with his fingers. It was his first meal in days and he didn’t want to waste any of it. As he put the plastic bowl down on the tray he tried not to think too much about how he had earned the meal, or the other man that was now lying bleeding and hungry in another cell. He tried to estimate how many days it had been since his abduction, but the lack of natural light and clocks made it impossible to make an accurate guess. Licking the stew from his filthy fingers because they hadn’t given him any silverware, just a bowl of stew and a hunk of bread, Allen looked down at the rest of his body which was smeared with blood and dirt and crusty with dried sweat. The smell was so bad that he considered using the small cup of water to bathe, but then dismissed the idea and washed down his stew with the precious liquid. Stink he could afford, dehydration he could not.

  Allen glanced down at the shackle around his ankle. He had long since stopped trying to remove it, since he had nearly crippled himself in the attempt. He could barely touch his ankle now without eliciting a surge of throbbing pain, and he gently rearranged his leg as he lay down on the floor of his cell. As soon as it was healed he was going to make a break for it. Right before one of the fights, he was going to bolt into the darkness around the brightly lit fighting floor. He probably wouldn’t make it very far, but he couldn’t stand another minute of this torture. This tiny cell, the filth, being forced to fight other men to survive, he was done with it. He didn’t know who these men were or what was going on, but he got the feeling that he was being conditioned for something and he didn’t want to find out what. He was getting out one way or the other.

  Sick of looking at the ceiling of his cell, Allen closed his eyes. Hearing someone outside the door, he immediately stood up, careful to keep his weight on his good ankle. It couldn’t be another fight so soon. He stared at the door in anticipation as he heard the heavy bolt slide back. The door opened slowly to reveal the familiar sight of Klause and the man in black fatigues. The man was holding a pistol as usual, but Klause had something else in his hands this time. Allen blinked. It appeared to be a fire hose.

  “Rise and shine, soldier!” the man in bla
ck shouted. “It’s bath day!”

  *

  Evelyn finished most of the presentation, leaving only a few slides partially blank to be filled in with Clem’s viral DNA information. She ran through it a few times until she was satisfied that it presented the information in a logical and easy to follow way. Then she cleaned and disinfected the entire lab to prevent any possible contamination and prepared the equipment and machines to run Clem’s DNA sample as soon as she got back to the lab. She also did a little more work on the actual cure research, taking the new mutant strain into consideration. Evelyn thought that she could develop a vaccine of sorts that could handle both the original and the mutant strain as long as she targeted the traits that they had in common.

  Evelyn then decided it was time to hike into town. She headed out into the main cabin to detach the day pack from her hiking pack and fill it with some provisions and overnight materials. She found David and Kim playing cards and laughing hardily, such that Kim was in tears. “Oh, what’d I miss?” Evelyn said.

  David had to catch his breath before he answered her. “Oh, Kim was just telling me about the cat she had when she was growing up, Mr. Whiskers.” As he said ‘whiskers’ David put his hands up to his mouth in a spread-fingered interpretation of whiskers and both he and Kim relapsed back into their laughing fit.

  “Oh. Well, you’ll have to tell me the story too sometime…” said Evelyn awkwardly.

  David took notice when Evelyn shouldered the day pack and struggled to recover his voice again. “You getting ready to head out?”

  “I want to go while it’s still light out.”

  “Don’t you want to eat dinner together first?” David persisted.

  “No, I’d rather just get out and back. I’ll eat when I get back, or at the motel,” Evelyn countered.

  Sobering up from his fit of laughter, David stood and walked over to her. “You be careful. I don’t like it that you’re going alone.”

  “I know. But I’ll be fine. Really, I’m a big girl. I’ll see you soon,” Evelyn said softly. Then she turned to Kim. “Don’t let David keep you up too late. Get some rest and feel better. When I get back I’m going to check on your bandages again, O.K.?”

  “Be careful, Evelyn. We’ll see you soon!” Kim called out.

  Evelyn waved and David held the door for her, then she was back out in the damp forest hiking towards town. She felt sorry for herself as she left the cheery warmth of the cabin. It wasn’t exactly cold out, more like pleasantly cool, but the rain and the fading light made the woods quite dreary in comparison. As she hiked her mood worsened, though she felt she should be at least a little bit happy. They were finally making some progress in gathering the evidence to convince the other packs of the Vulke’s involvement with the mutant strain. Maybe they could even head off the Vulke’s attack and at the same time be able to research more freely and openly without having to skulk down to a secret lab on the weekends. She strode sullenly along through the muddy woods until at last it occurred to Evelyn why she was truly upset. She hadn’t seen David laugh like that in a long time.

  36

  Unfortunately, it turned out that Karen wasn’t able to get a same-day delivery, so Evelyn ended up spending the night at a seedy motel called the Red Deer Inn, and planned to pick up the package containing Clem’s DNA sample early the next morning. It was a lonely night, and Evelyn wasn’t able to stop herself from thinking about David and Kim. She and David’s relationship had been rocky from the start and strained almost to the breakpoint by Evelyn becoming a Wolfkin. They had just started to rekindle their feelings for one another, and Evelyn didn’t know if the smoldering embers of their relationship could survive if Kim and David were attracted to one another. She had to admit that it was a much less complicated pairing than her and David. It wasn’t David’s fault that Kim’s life had been drawn into the Wolfkin world and that she’d become infected. There was still a slight hinkiness to the whole Alpha/Gamma, leader of the pack and his third in command relationship, but it seemed less tainted in Kim’s case because she was not a true member of the pack but rather had been absorbed into the Inali.

  Evelyn felt the stirrings of a normal jealously, but also something much deeper and more primal that she didn’t even want to admit to herself. It was a feeling of proprietorship of David. He was her Alpha. They had shared the same blood. He’d made her what she was. It was a strong and confusing feeling and Evelyn didn’t like it. She felt like it corrupted the feelings that she had for David, and she wasn’t sure that it was fair to either her or David to pursue a relationship built on those contaminated feelings. But then the thought of just letting David go, of letting him be with someone else, like Kim, caused Evelyn to feel such a horrible, aching pain in her chest that she couldn’t bear it. At the same time, she wanted David to be happy. Evelyn didn’t want her selfishness, her desire to avoid that pain, to force him into a relationship with her that wouldn’t make him happy in the long run.

  She tossed and turned all night and got little sleep. Awaking completely exhausted, Evelyn showered sluggishly, ate a meager breakfast of a granola bar and water in her motel room, and headed over to the post office. Still bone weary after retrieving the package from Karen, the only thing that kept Evelyn moving steadily through the forest back to the lab was the knowledge that as soon as Clem’s sample was processed, they could call a meeting of the Betas. It was their only hope to prevent the Vulke from destroying the Wolfkin world and quite possibly the world as they knew it.

  *

  When she arrived back at the lab, Evelyn found it difficult to interact with David and Kim.

  “So, how’d it go?”

  The weather was clear, sunny, and warm and they had taken the two kitchen chairs outside in front of the cabin.

  Evelyn managed to smile. “Fine. Got the sample.”

  David sat up in his chair. “Are you going to need help in the lab?”

  “No, it’s fine. It’s just one sample. You guys stay out here and enjoy the weather.”

  David looked unconvinced and Kim frowned. Evelyn wasn’t particularly looking forward to heading back into the windowless lab for another long day of DNA extraction, isolation, replication, and sequencing all alone, but she thought that it would be worse with David and Kim trying to help out. Evelyn didn’t know if she could handle the two of them laughing together in her lab right now.

  *

  When Evelyn finally emerged from the lab roughly eight hours later, she held multiple printouts and a flash drive containing what she would present to the Betas at the meeting. The results had come out exactly as she had expected and exactly as they had desperately needed them to come out. Clem’s viral DNA matched hers’, David’s, Kim’s, and Katie’s at the pack sequence. She was hardly able to stand, but she still had to start the official chain of phone calls that would result in a meeting of the Betas. She only hoped that the other packs would honor her request to exclude the Vulke.

  She went outside to get reception on her cell phone, and then made an initial call to the meeting location site she had chosen to book a room. When that was all taken care of, Evelyn took a deep breath, and called Caroline’s cell phone. Caroline answered after only four rings.

  “Yes, Evie, what is it?” she asked, sounding as tired as Evelyn felt.

  “I have proof. I am officially calling a meeting of the Betas. You are the first,” Evelyn answered.

  Telling Caroline that she was the first was the formal way of beginning the phone chain. Caroline was then obligated to call her downstream Beta to continue the chain until all of the Betas were notified. Evelyn knew that the downstream Beta in Caroline’s case was Madeline, because each Beta also knew what the two subsequent branches of the phone tree were in the event of an emergency or when the Beta they were supposed to call couldn’t be reached. The Betas then had roughly twenty-four hours to arrive at the meeting at the chosen location.

  At first she thought that Caroline might give her a hard time or refu
se to continue the chain, but with only a brief hesitation she said, “Where?”

  “The Erie room at the Westin Hotel at Detroit Metro Airport, and as this is a dangerous and sensitive matter concerning the Vulke, I formally ask that the Vulke be excluded from the initial meeting,” said Evelyn, trying to sound authoritative.

  “I will continue the chain and relay your request, Beta Evelyn of the Inali,” Caroline replied stiffly.

  She can be such a bureaucrat, thought Evelyn, but she politely thanked Caroline and hung up the phone.

  Evelyn slumped to the ground and lay on her back in the tall fluffy grass outside the lab. She felt her weariness creeping into the very marrow of her bones and desperately needed to get some rest before the meeting tomorrow, but just wanted to take a few moments to breathe the fresh air and avoid the awkwardness that she now felt around David and Kim. The last rays of the sun were filtering through the trees into the clearing and Evelyn tried to tell herself that everything was going to be okay. She would convince the other packs of what was happening and they would band together and take action against the Vulke, maybe even before more people were hurt. She told herself further that somehow things would work out between her and David. She imagined them cured of Languorem luporum, and growing old together surrounded by grandchildren and eventually great-grandchildren.

  She dozed off and was awakened when David got worried and came out to check on her. Night had fallen and a cool breeze materialized out of the North. Even though she was chilled, Evelyn was still reluctant to go back into the cabin. She was painfully hungry and in the end, she knew that she couldn’t spend the whole night outside, so she went inside and ate a freeze-dried dinner that David had prepared for her. David and Kim were not nearly as tired as Evelyn, having spent pretty much the entire day resting, so after dinner Evelyn retired alone to the bedroom. Had she been less drained, she might have had trouble falling asleep again, but as it was, Evelyn fell fast asleep even being able to hear David and Kim’s muted voices coming from the living room.