The Wereling 3: Resurrection

by Stephen Cole

  She wiped her eyes and looked at him. I must look terrible, she thought, still stunned by everything they’d just come through. A total mess.

  But from the way Tom was looking at her, he didn’t seem to think so.

  ‘Right then,’ said Blood briskly, hanging his jacket over Tom’s bare shoulders as they reached the stairwell. ‘It’s time to play “How many people can we fit in a Mercedes?” Stacy, you can sit on my lap …’

  They went outside. The night was cold and the air clear and crisp. Distant revellers toasted Christmas with drunken cheers.

  Kate remembered her dad’s last words: ‘Farewell too to my daughter. May her life be better from this day on.’

  The moon was full and round, high up above the skyscrapers.

  I’m not afraid of you anymore, Kate thought.

  g

  g

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  ‘Here you go, Anderson,’ said Blood, passing him the tickets. ‘May Santa’s gift of domestic air travel be yours this Christmas.’

  Tom thanked him with a rueful smile. ‘Last year for Christmas, I got a Wii and a ton of cool games. This year, it’s his and hers tickets to Seattle and a cure for being a werewolf!’

  Kate grinned. ‘I’m sure Jicaque could maybe upgrade his gift to some comic books and a skateboard if you asked real nice.’

  ‘It is my experience,’ said Jicaque gravely, ‘that skateboarders can be just as dangerous as werewolves …’

  Tom laughed. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so good. A great weight had fallen from his shoulders after all these long months of crawling about in the darkness. Now the sunlight streamed in, warm and dazzling through the concourse windows at O’Hare airport, and it felt unbelievably good against Tom’s skin.

  It was the day after Boxing Day, and a time for goodbyes.

  He and Kate were heading to her old house to go grab the evidence that could clear their names – then they were coming back to Chicago. They would be staying with Sunday and her dad; she’d insisted, and since Jicaque was treating both Tom and Walker together, it seemed to make sense.

  ‘See you tomorrow,’ said Sunday, kissing Tom’s cheek and almost crushing Kate with a tight hug. ‘I’ll get your room all ready.’ She looked at them mischievously. ‘You’re gonna be OK sharing, right?’

  Tom glanced at Kate and blushed. ‘We’ll see how it goes.’

  Chung stepped forwards and shook Tom’s hand. ‘Look, man, I’ve got to split. See you around, OK?’

  ‘You’re really going through with it?’ marvelled Kate, shaking his hand in turn. ‘I mean … China?’

  ‘With the Chapter finished and all my friends dead …’ He shrugged. ‘In 1875, my family came over from China to Chicago. Now I just feel it’s time I went back to the old country. Roots, I guess. You know?’

  Jicaque nodded. ‘I have many friends in China, old and wise. If you wished—’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Chung. ‘But I think I should find my own friends. And my own wisdom.’

  ‘That sounds pretty wise of you, for starters,’ said Blood amicably, clapping Chung on the back. ‘Good luck.’

  Chung nodded round at them all. ‘Goodbye.’ Then he turned and walked away, heading for International Departures.

  Blood turned to Stacy and smiled. ‘See how easily he’s doing that? Just upping sticks and getting away from it all …’

  Stacy sighed. ‘Adam, we’ve been through this already …’

  ‘I know, but you’re a stubborn little hussy, aren’t you?’

  ‘What’s all this?’ Tom asked, smiling.

  ‘She’s so dutiful,’ moaned Blood. ‘She’s got a stack of holiday leave built up and yet she won’t come away with me for a little luxury break in Hawaii …’

  Kate frowned at Stacy. ‘Are you crazy?’

  ‘But they’re so short-staffed at the hospital,’ protested Stacy. ‘I can’t just—’

  ‘Of course you can,’ said Blood. ‘Tell them you have to go to Hawaii because … because your sister’s really sick.’

  ‘I don’t have a sister.’

  ‘Family secret – you just found out about her and you have to go.’ He beamed over at Tom and Kate. ‘Good luck, you two.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Stacy weakly. ‘And I’ll need some too, with him around!’ She tilted her head towards Blood.

  ‘Will you still be here when we get back tomorrow?’ asked Kate.

  ‘Sure,’ nodded Stacy.

  Blood smiled. ‘Unless we’re in Hawaii, of course.’

  ‘Will you quit with the Hawaii stuff?’ complained Stacy, but there was no disguising the grin on her face. ‘See you, guys.’

  ‘I’ve got it! You’re investigating the terrifying tropical beach bug …’ Blood steered Stacy away in the direction of the ticket desks, and winked at Tom and Kate. ‘Oh, a nasty little virus that one. Lives only in Hawaii, in the whitest possible sands. Think how your colleagues will respect you for finding a cure …’

  Tom watched them walk away, then turned to Kate who was checking her watch.

  ‘We should be going,’ she said, then looked up at Sunday and Jicaque. ‘Thanks for everything, guys.’

  ‘May your journey be swift and peaceful,’ said Jicaque.

  ‘And with no screaming babies or snoring old men sitting behind you,’ added Sunday with a smile.

  With a last wave, Tom and Kate headed off to catch the American Eagle internal flight to Seattle.

  g

  ‘Well,’ Kate said, as she walked in through the familiar front door. ‘This is kind of weird.’

  ‘You’re telling me,’ Tom replied quietly.

  The taxi had dropped them at the causeway that led up to Kate’s old house, and she and Tom had walked the rest of the way. The river on either side of them flowed lazily, dreamily. Frost made the conifers sparkle. The sky was darkening like a bruise above them, and Kate started feeling nervous and edgy as they approached the place that had been home since she was fifteen years old.

  She flicked on the lights and saw Tom survey the spacious living room suspiciously, as if expecting something nasty to come crawling out of the shadows. But there were only the bleached walls and floorboards, the exposed beams of the high ceiling, her dad’s books stacked messily on the bookcases and a dead fire in the grate …

  ‘This is where it all began,’ murmured Tom.

  Kate watched him walk over to the place where he’d turned ’wolf for the first time … the place where her brother had died. A dark, stubborn stain on the polished wood was all that remained of Wesley in the cold, empty house. That all seemed like years ago now, not just a few months.

  After she’d found what she was looking for in the pile of mail by the front door, she crossed the room to join Tom. ‘Here.’ She pressed a padded envelope into his hands.

  ‘The evidence?’ he asked.

  ‘Must be. It’s Dad’s handwriting, and addressed to himself.’ She opened it to be sure. ‘Yeah … a CD, and a letter to that lupine in the FBI …’

  ‘You realise that with this evidence, if we’re smart we could actually expose the ’wolves,’ Tom said quietly. ‘Make normal people accept these things exist.’

  ‘And then destroy them?’ Kate shook her head. ‘If we start a worldwide ’wolf hunt, there could be worse carnage than the limited killing that goes on now. The lupines would have to band together then, to survive. It could mean all-out war … I won’t have that on my conscience.’

  Tom sighed. ‘I guess so. But we know Takapa’s disciples learned something of the codechanters’ magics … we know that all Takapa’s research is still sitting there in his warehouse … So what’s to stop the ’wolves just starting again?’

  Kate touched his arm. ‘Takapa is dead. His ’wolves will have no focus and no cash. And after that whole display at the Bane Gallery, do you think the pureblood community will be lining up to associate themselves with anything he achieved?’

  Tom looked at her and half-smiled. ‘Then �
� we might really have won?’

  Kate gave him a tentative smile in return. ‘Seems impossible to believe, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Time will tell, I guess,’ Tom agreed. ‘I can’t wait for this next month to be over so I can see my family. As plain old Tom Anderson again.’

  Kate stared at the smear on the floorboards. ‘I’ve got no family left at all now.’

  He looked awkward. ‘You only have Blood’s word for it that your mom—’

  ‘Don’t,’ Kate told him. ‘You saw the state of her.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  They stood in silence for some time.

  ‘You know …’ Tom sounded awkward. ‘You’d be very welcome – more than welcome – to come to my folks’ place with me.’

  Kate didn’t look up. ‘That’s sweet. But you don’t have to do that.’

  ‘I know I don’t. I just really want you to meet them.’

  ‘Well, let’s wait and see,’ Kate said. ‘There’s still another month to go before you’re cured.’

  Tom looked at her uncertainly. ‘You’ll really wait with me until Jicaque’s finished?’

  She took hold of his fingers. ‘Someone’s got to hold your hand, right?’

  He grinned bashfully. ‘Right.’

  ‘Always assuming we can cope with being squeezed into Sunday’s spare room together for thirty days.’

  ‘Oh,’ Tom said, rubbing his thumb over her fingertips. ‘I think we’ll cope.’ He paused. ‘You know, I’m beat, and the flight back is killer early. Maybe we should think about getting some sleep.’

  ‘Maybe we should,’ Kate agreed.

  ‘Uh … where are we sleeping?’

  Kate shrugged. ‘You can take your pick. And that includes my old bed.’ She looked at him. ‘I’m not the girl who used to sleep there anymore. Guess I’ll take the couch.’

  ‘Well,’ Tom said. ‘It would be kind of weird, staying in that bedroom with the ghost of the old you. And I’m not exactly dying to stay in that spare bedroom I was held in before.’

  She tutted. ‘Fussy, aren’t you?’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ he smiled. ‘I can’t say I really want to sleep in your mom and dad’s bed either … or your brother’s come to that.’

  Kate looked at him. ‘Guess you’re down here with me, then.’

  ‘Guess I am,’ Tom said. He took a step towards her and opened his arms.

  She met his embrace, sliding her own arms around his neck as he pulled her in close.

  This isn’t how it ends, she thought. It’s how it begins.