Cold Moon Rising (6 page)

Bobby answered because Will was still out of breath. After searching the jungle for Ahmad for the past day, he’d flown straight here.

Without a plane.

“Nope. You were right that there was a struggle, and some of the blood Will collected definitely tasted like Ahmad’s. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about him, but he’s never gone missing without checking in either.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Lucas’s voice from the doorway made us both turn our heads. He’s not a big man, but he’s solidly built, so he filled most of the opening, not even counting the pulsing bluewhite aura that surrounds him. His salt-and-pepper hair had gone to mostly silver since I’d met him, but I knew more than one person who aged rapidly in a high-stress job. Right now, there was no higherstress job in the world—human or supernatural—than being the head of Wolven. Things are going to hell in a handbasket all over the world, and he’s responsible for fixing anything that involves shapeshifters. That’s most of the problems in the news right now, even though the humans don’t realize it.

“He’s not missing anymore. I just got off the phone with Ahmad and he’s on his way to Boulder. Should be here tomorrow. He wants a briefing about what he missed.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head before glancing at me and Will. “As you might guess, he was annoyed he had to travel this far just to talk to you two.”

I shrugged. “You couldn’t have just handed us both the phone?”

Another shake, but this one with a level of agreement. “Doesn’t work that way in a debriefing. It has to be in person. You know that. And you had to come here to heal up. It was the closest location with full lab facilities. Rayna’s coming along, but we’re still trying to figure out what happened to Angelique. She’s definitely not herself . . . she’s actually cooperating with us without argument.” Like the rest of us, he was flummoxed at her attitude. Yep, she knew who she was. Yes, she remembered her imprisonment and was willing to talk about her captors. But gone were the demands and the haughty attitude that she’d carried for, apparently, her whole term on the council . . . which was more than a century. The change of personality was worrying enough to the physician in charge, Amber Wingate, that she’d called in her husband, Charles, to visit. He’s the chief justice of the council, a polar bear–shifter that pretty much everybody has intimated is the de facto ruler of the Sazi. “Amber’s got her under sedation magic until she can arrange for one of the traveling MRI rigs to come up here to see if she had a serious head injury that didn’t heal right.” He looked right at me, flinched visibly, and then added, “She’ll probably want to have Sue checked too, if you have no objection. Apparently, it’s . . . necessary at this point.”

That wasn’t something I liked hearing, and it spurred me to stand up and push my way past Lucas into the hallway. Yeah, he could probably hold me with magic and make me freeze in place for hours. He’s got the oomph to do that. But this time he didn’t. He’s mated too, so maybe he understands just what not feeling Sue in my head is doing to me. It wasn’t just the normal kind of twitchy that every husband feels when his wife is sick. This is deeper, like the phantom pain of a missing limb. Yet with a magical tie, you can’t see for certain whether the limb is still there. It was making me crazy.

The machines were beeping softly as I walked into the room. A wave of smooth, warm power tickled my skin, rising up from the bed. Healing magic isn’t like anything else. It’s a warm bath, a fluffy towel, and hot cocoa in front of the fire, all rolled into a cozy sensation that makes you feel like an hour after a big turkey dinner. Lazy, content, and sleepy.

But it didn’t make me feel lazy or content. It just washed over me and then past. My every nerve was on edge as I watched all the machines flicker and beep. “So, what’s wrong with her?” There was a gruffness on the edge of the words that spoke more of my fear than I liked anyone to know. But no doubt the healer’s heard it all. She’s been doing this for centuries.

Dr. Wingate—Amber to those in Wolven—pulled the stethoscope plugs from her ears and let out a sigh.

“I wish I knew. I’ll be straight with you, Tony, because I think you can handle it. Her body just seems to be breaking down. The tissue and joints are degrading at a rate I can’t keep up with.” She reached forward and lifted the edge of the sheet. I had to suck in my breath in a hiss at the nasty bruise that covered half of one thigh. “Any idea how long that’s been there?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t been home for a few days, but it wasn’t there last week. She said she’d been working out at the Wolven obstacle course with your sister-in-law, Tahira. A couple of the women there have been working at beefing up her self-defense skills. She prefers to be out of my head when I’m on jobs, and I figured it was a good way to keep her busy.” A thought occurred to me and it made me growl.

“Did someone there hurt her?”

Amber shook her head and then sat down in the chair next to the bed. “Not according to Tahira. I just got off the phone with her. But the trouble is, when I try to heal it, the bruise just grows. It’s like it’s reacting negatively to my magic, which doesn’t make sense. I heal humans all the time . . . without them realizing it, of course. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“What about plain old human diseases?” My background as a human is too wide and deep to ignore, and I’ve noticed that an awful lot of shape-shifters forget about the obvious. “Have you done blood tests and checked her organs and such?”

Amber didn’t take offense at the question. That’s one of the things I like about her. “It’s the first thing I thought of, since she’s full human . . . not even a Sazi family member that we can find in her family tree. Kidneys, liver, and heart are all fine. Platelet count well within normal, so it’s not that her blood is too thin and her red and white cell counts are right in range. She even has a decent cholesterol count and absolutely average blood pressure. No autoimmune problems, cancer, meningitis, Lyme disease or chemical poisoning. But, she’s got necrosis in her nasal linings, spots in her lungs, bruising, and a rash on her back.” Another shrug, accompanied by a frustrated sigh. “I’ve got her on antiviral and antibiotic drips, plus an antiinflammatory. I’m starting into the rare diseases, but I don’t know . . . this just feels wrong. It feels magical, but backward. Like she’s allergic to the cure.”

“Well, people can be allergic to drugs. Why couldn’t a human be allergic to magic? Lucas told me that most attack victims don’t survive their first change. Could that be part of the reason?”

She tapped her fingers on the clean white sheet and got a thoughtful look on her face as she stared at Sue. “I wouldn’t even know how to begin to test for that, and it would be a really bad thing if she were.”

I couldn’t really see why. “If it’s healing magic that’s making her sicker, then just let her heal in a human hospital.”

She turned her face fully toward me and raised both brows. “And then what, Tony? If it’s magic she’s allergic to, then she’s allergic to you. You’re her tie to our world. So if it really is affecting her, every minute you spend with her, every moment you’re mated, is putting her closer to the grave.”

That logic leap was so obvious it shouldn’t have clubbed me upside the head as hard as it did. As it was, though, I sagged against the doorway and found my knees wouldn’t hold me very well. The queasy feeling in my stomach wasn’t helping my mood any, either.

“So how do we fix it? There has to be something that can be done. Can you shield her from me like you did when she was in Boulder? Are you shielding her now?”

She stood just as I spotted Lucas and Bobby coming down the hallway. “Yes. No. Maybe. I’m not shielding her now, so if you can’t feel her, then it’s worse than I thought. Frankly, I don’t know if that even is the problem. And, if it is, shielding might make her deteriorate faster. I’m going to have to consult with some other healers and maybe a few seers. My sister Aspen might be able to tell me what will happen. She likes you because you both have hindsight, so maybe. But don’t count on the seers being too horribly helpful in this. They look at the bigger picture, and that often leaves us little people out in the cold. For now, though, I’d say that it would be best if you weren’t here. I noticed the process speeding up when you walked in the hospital. It might be coincidence, but we can’t be sure and I’d like every advantage I can get.”

So. That was it then. It would make me laugh if I didn’t scream first. Sue wanted to hire me to kill her, one year ago this month. I said no, but amended that maybe I could in a year or so, if the heat on her from being a local celebrity where we lived, died down. Well, it did and a year has now passed.

Prophetic? Who knows? All I know is that it sucks. But I wasn’t going to let it sit until there was no other choice.

I was a kid when my mom got sick and died, and I couldn’t do anything but watch. This time, I wasn’t so willing to be a bystander. I stepped farther into the room as Lucas and Bobby reached the doorway and found myself staring down at her pale, perfect features. I didn’t want to leave her. Not for a second. But could I kill her by staying?

“Will’s ready to head back to Texas, Tony. You need to tell him anything?”

I shrugged and shook my head, not taking my eyes from Sue. Her auburn hair was shorter now, in a wedge cut. She told me on the phone last week she liked the way it bounced when she walked. Yeah, we can talk mind to mind, but sometimes a voice on the phone is just comforting when you’re alone. And too, maybe she realized what was happening before anyone else, because we’ve been talking on the phone a lot lately. I never really thought about why she might call me, unless—

I turned my face to Amber with concern probably etched across it. “Is she in pain? Are these bruises and degeneration hurting her?” I had another sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I already knew the answer. It was what had been beating on me from behind that wall. “Shit. She is in pain. I can feel it.”

Apparently, that was another of those obvious things that made Amber’s eyes open wide her mouth form an O. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. If the small blood vessels are breaking and causing the bruising, then there could easily be pain. I should probably start her on something in her IV. Maybe that’s why she’s retreated into a coma-like state. Actually, there’s a weird condition with blood vessels breaking I remember reading about—” She grabbed the chart hanging on the end of the bed and a pen from the pocket of her smock, and walked out briskly, flipping pages and mumbling to the nurse next to her. “Let’s get someone up here to do a spinal tap and I’ll also need another blood sample. Then . . .”

I wanted to touch Sue, but feared doing so, even with the gloves on. All I could do was look on helplessly until I felt Lucas step close and let out a slow, deep breath. He was pulling in all his magic so that he felt like a normal human next to me. He’s one of the few alphas I knew who could do that and I appreciated the gesture if magic really was hurting her. I noticed Bobby stayed at the door. “You need something to take your mind off this before you start to pine.”

Yeah, that would be a bad thing. Had pining happen once, before they figured out that separating Sue from me with a shield could cause it. It’s like the mating magic is a drug and without it, I wound up going through a really vicious, cold-turkey withdrawal. Until Lucas figured it out, I was well on the way to putting a gun in my mouth and squeezing the trigger.

Lucas shuddered lightly, a physical manifestation of what I was thinking. “Actually, we both need a distraction. I’m going to leave Bobby here with Amber to do the lab work, so let’s get some meat and then I’ll drop you at a motel. I need to talk to the temporary Alpha here in Boulder about some business, but then tomorrow morning I’ll need you to drive with me to Kansas. We should be back before Ahmad gets here and I want to hear more about your experience in that cave before he starts to grill you for details. Bring your guns. I’ve already loaded up a duffel with silver ammo.”

I nodded and turned away from Sue as I felt her encouragement that I go with Lucas. I couldn’t deny that a little mindless action would keep me sane right now. And I’ve found that wherever Lucas went, action seemed to follow.

Chapter Five

THE HORIZON WAS barely edging to blue from black as we headed down into Kansas under a starless sky. “Remind me again why we’re here at such an ungodly hour? When you said tomorrow, I’d assumed you meant in broad daylight. And I was pretty sure you mentioned us driving.”

Lucas shrugged. I only knew because I heard the fabric of his shirt rustle against the seat. His scent gave away nothing. He was a blank slate, which told me he’d prepared for this trip by putting on that blasted cologne. It was handy when I was wearing it, but annoying when others did. I’ve noticed that I’ve started to consider the ability to scent emotions as nearly necessary, which is probably a mistake. Any crutch you rely on too much can be dangerous.

It was still full dark at, according to the altimeter, eight thousand feet and dropping. The lights from the instrument panel bathed us both in an eerie glow, but it wasn’t enough to see much more than broad movements. “Plans change. Peter, the local Alpha, had to cancel on me because work went nuts and he couldn’t get off early. Then Amber confiscated my old office for a meeting with the local seers. I tried to get some sleep and wound up having nightmares.”

Time to change the subject, because frankly, I don’t really like people sharing dreams. They’re often odd and have little meaning outside of the person’s own psyche and experiences. Plus, having graduated college with a psych minor usually made me listen and comment, which wound up a bad idea on nearly every occasion. “So what’s the scoop with the reconstruction? We going to have actual offices soon so I don’t have to keep wading through stacks of paperwork in my office in Chicago?” Wolven was going through a rough time right now. They either had a mole in the group, or someone managed to get access to the building in Paris, because the whole place was bugged to the nines. Computers had signs of having been cloned, files had fingerprints that didn’t match employees, and some folders were flat missing. Nonessential, nonclassified files had been moved to the headquarters of the wolf councilman—