Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation (25 page)

The bacon stirred aching memories in her chest, as it had for a while now, and evoked the scent of a campfire in a fall forest. The memory felt like it should have been from long ago, but only a few years had passed since the day David told her that he was a werewolf. She’d felt a certain dread that day, which she had thought had unfolded several times over, but she realized was only just now coming into true fruition, though it was a different kind of fear now. Then, she’d feared only for her own life. Now, there were so many more lives at stake that Evelyn could hardly breathe.

Evelyn envisioned the face of evil as she knew it: Christoff, Darya, and the woman who had killed Sara. But these would not be the faces that she would be fighting tonight. She had no reference for the faceless evil that destroyed the lab, drew Kim into the middle of a conflict that she should have no part of, and destroyed the life of at least one innocent little girl. And it wasn’t going to necessarily be true evil they were facing, but a shield of confused and brainwashed innocents. This conflict was so much larger, sinister, and impersonal than those she’d already faced, yet she wondered what the present might be if David had never become a werewolf or if he had never found the Vulke nor stumbled upon her research. She thought of Clem’s talk of sacrifice and lamented that she hadn’t known at the start of all this that by sacrificing her life, she might have prevented the cataclysmic events that were now unfolding.

“Evie? Are you ready?”

David’s voice infiltrated Evelyn’s thoughts. She blinked and found that she’d been drawing patterns in the syrup dregs on her plate with her knife. She reprimanded herself for becoming lost in thoughts that would not help them in the present. This was the way things had worked out and no amount of thinking, wishing, or even praying would change anything. She needed to stop thinking of herself as a victim or life’s pawn, and start thinking of herself as crusader. They were acting like they were going to face their doom, when they should have been marching to meet evil head on and turn it back towards the gates of hell.

Evelyn slapped the knife down on the table. “I’m ready.”

*

Once more in the car, they drove north, heading for I-75, which would lead them towards either of the two chosen battlegrounds. The others seemed content to settle back into an unhappy silence while David drove, but Evelyn decided that it was time for the silence to end. She turned in the passenger’s seat until she could see Clem and Kim.

“I think that we have a good shot at this.”

Kim eyed her, but no one replied right away, so Evelyn continued speaking.

“The distraction plan is a good one and if the other packs follow suit, I think that the Vulke will be caught off guard. We’re using strategy and the only strategy that they have is overwhelming numbers. Also, there’s no guarantee that even without distraction, their strays would stay focused on us and not turn on the Vulke. I don’t think that they thought this through very well and I’m pretty sure that we rushed them into a full battle before they were ready.”

Evelyn’s words sounded true enough to her own ears. She only wished that she truly felt as confident as her words claimed.

Clem cleared his throat. “Ya know, I think you’re right. I bet they were ‘fraid of us trackin’ down their stray holding tanks or figurin’ out how they’re makin’ the strays and shuttin’ down the en-tire thing. And they didn’t even get all of their strays now, did they?” Clem winked at Kim.

Kim smiled and took up the pep talk. “No they didn’t. We heard reports from all over of strays that the Vulke weren’t able to catch, and Evelyn’s right; they don’t know how the strays will react in combat. I think that it’ll be easy to distract them. We just have to stay focused, and not panic, just like you taught me, right David?”

David stayed silent for a long moment and Evelyn turned to stare at him, but his face was unreadable. Finally, he spoke in a voice tight, cold, and filled with quiet fury.

“It’s time to finish this.”

40

The buzz and shrill tone of Evelyn’s cell phone ringing made her twitch and drew somber looks from Kim and Clem. Evelyn tried not to let their grim faces affect her as she answered.

“Hello?”

Roberto’s voice was strained. “The Vulke have confirmed the battle site. Upper Peninsula. I will text you the directions. Be there an hour before sunset.”

He hung up before Evelyn had a chance to ask him anything, like if the helicopter and the deer drop were still a go. A pessimistic part of her began to spew seeds of sickening doubt, but Evelyn roughly squashed her worry and was careful to keep her voice steady as she told the rest of the car Roberto’s message. The mood in the car palpably darkened, and silence reigned for the next few hours.

Evelyn stared out the window, trying to really
see
the scenery. A quote from Romeo and Juliet playing through her mind:
Eyes, look your last. Arms, take your last embrace
. It was a grim phrase, but she couldn’t seem to get it out of her head. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t thought that she was about to die before. In fact, she still had the letters that she had written to her friends and family before David’s challenge against Christoff, but this was different. Here there were no easy outs, no contingency plans strapped to her arm. She felt naked somehow, exposed. She didn’t have the blazing solace of David’s love or even the comfort of Clem’s lively charm to see her through this time. Evelyn would have to find her own strength now. She logically knew that there were others, so many others, fighting with her, but she still felt utterly alone.

Thoughts spiraling into despair, Evelyn closed her eyes and willed herself to just be still. The situation was set. Nothing was going to stop the events from unravelling today and it was too late to go crawl into a hole somewhere and cover her head until it was all over. It was high time that she accepted this and moved on. Tonight she would have to come to terms with what she had become and finally embrace the beast inside of her. She’d steal its strength, cunning, viciousness, and yes, its rage. Evelyn was suddenly relieved that she was going into this fight as a werewolf instead of a human. Fighting, dealing death: she imagined that this was why the Wolfkin were created. As a human, a doctor, a veterinarian, she was the exact opposite. Everything about her human-self involved protecting, healing, and caring.

Evelyn knew that dispensing with all her humanity tonight would be a mistake, but she would also have to give into the wolf like never before. Surprised by the tiny thrill of excitement that ran through her at the prospect of letting go of her Wolfkin self, she unexpectedly wished that she’d examined herself in a mirror or bothered to take in her reflection when she was in her werewolf form. Curiosity pawed at her brain.
What do I look like in wolf form? Do I look fierce and imposing? or merely twisted and grotesque? Maybe even comical?
Her thoughts drifted to werewolf depictions in media that she had seen over the years. She didn’t feel awkward admitting that some were quite appealing.

Appealing? God I’m sick
. People were about to be slaughtered all over the world and she was thinking about her attractiveness as a murderous creature. She almost laughed aloud at the craziness of it, but then her blood froze in real horror.
Maybe I am going crazy
. Sure
Languorem luporum
normally took many years to manifest its devastating neurological symptoms, but she’d been working closely with a mutated strain. She thought that she’d been careful, but…
what if?
No
. Evelyn said the word firmly in her mind. No, this wasn’t madness. This was a terrified mind’s desperate attempt to distract itself.
Besides
, she thought morosely,
I may need to be a little insane to get through tonight
.

*

David pulled off the road into a ramshackle gas station just outside Mackinac City, where they would cross the bridge into the vast expanse of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “God’s Country” as many would say. Evelyn had just been to Sault St. Marie to retrieve Clem a few days before, but it seemed impossibly long ago now.

Evelyn turned to David. “We should switch drivers.”

“I’m fine,” David complained.

“You should conserve your energy, for…tonight.”

David bristled and looked like he was going to argue, but then all the fight drained out of him and he merely nodded. Evelyn knew it was the truth, but she also felt a little guilty because driving was definitely something to distract her from her own thoughts. Clem and Kim went inside the small gas station convenience store to load up on Cokes, power bars, trail mix, beef jerky, Snickers Bars, and other high-energy snacks for a pseudo-lunch and dinner.

As they crossed the bridge, and Evelyn glimpsed the sun shimmering off the cool blue water far below, her mind raced back to the morning she had woken up in the autumn forest in the U.P. after David had kidnapped her to save her from the Vulke assassin. A tightness gathered in her chest and it became painful to breath. The memory wasn’t exactly a good one, she’d been terrified that David was some kind of psycho and that he was going to kill her, but the memory was extremely powerful, nevertheless. David had confessed everything to her that day and for good or for ill, they’d been nearly inseparable since. It all had a strange circularity to it. All of this had started here in the U.P. for Evelyn, and it seemed it was going to end here one way or the other. She wondered if they were going to be near the place where she and David had camped. In reality it didn’t matter in the least, but in Evelyn’s mind it was excruciatingly important.

*

For an hour after they crossed the bridge they stayed on US-2, but then David had to begin navigating off Roberto’s directions on Evelyn’s phone. The roads grew gradually less busy, less well-signed, and less paved until they were bouncing along on a dirt trail that had been marked with a bare wooden stake and a smudged number. Evelyn at first thought that they were going to be early, but the driving after they strayed from the highway was such slow-going that the sun was sinking in the blue sky by the time they reached the final turn off.

Evelyn felt numb. It wasn’t that she was emotionless, but more like she was experiencing so many emotions all at once that there was an overload in the system and she couldn’t feel any one particular emotion. The trail was treacherous enough that she had to concentrate to keep them from puncturing a tire or bottoming out the SUV, but she did steal a quick peek at David out of the corner of her eye. He was uncharacteristically stony-faced and stared straight ahead, his eyes blazing.
Determination? Resolve?
Evelyn was abruptly struck by how stupid she’d been. She’d been so focused on herself, on her own guilt about the war with the Vulke, and blaming herself for causing it, that she’d never truly stopped to consider David’s thoughts and feelings.

David, who still blamed himself for killing his friend Tommy when he changed into a werewolf for the first time, who literally led the Vulke straight to Evelyn’s door, whose blood infected Evelyn with
Languorem luporum
, was also taking on the burden of blame for everything that was happening now. Evelyn flashed back to all of the times that he told her that she wasn’t to blame for what was happening, and realized that the silent subtext was that she couldn’t be responsible because
he
was responsible. She wanted to reach out to him, to comfort him, to assuage his guilt, but it was way too late for that now, so she merely focused her eyes back on the trail ahead and vowed to talk to him after, though Evelyn didn’t let her mind linger on the meaning of “after”.

Another bend in the beaten track and cars appeared. Most were SUV’s, jeeps, and vans though a few were smaller cars that had surprisingly managed the trip. Evelyn spotted a few people making their way between the cars and through the trees towards the end of the dirt road. Searching for a place to park, Evelyn thought about all the cars here.
Will there be anyone left to drive them home tomorrow?
Images flashed through her mind of the cars, rusted and cobwebbed, abandoned here in the woods. Their Ford Explorer was there, leaves covering the opaque windshield, tires flat. Evelyn blinked and the image faded. This was it. They had arrived, and Evelyn felt…nothing. It was as if someone had ripped away all of her emotions and she shivered at the hollowness inside her.

41

Evelyn eased the SUV over to the edge of the trees and parked behind a midnight blue van. She killed the engine and had no idea what to do next.
Should I grab a bottled water or a Coke? Wolf down one last power bar (pun intended)? How does one prepare for battle?

“Let’s go.”

David’s voice was nearly a growl, and it made Evelyn more keenly aware of the impending dusk. She knew what squad she was in and her mission in the battle, but that didn’t prepare her for what was coming and she hoped that the wolf would know what to do.

They exited the car and Evelyn made to lock it and place the key in her pocket before she realized what a stupid idea that was and set the keys on the driver’s seat. As they followed the other Wolfkin into the woods, Evelyn desperately wanted to say something to diffuse the tension, but words all felt stuck in her throat. The cracking of twigs and rustle of dry leaves under their feet were the only sounds that Evelyn could hear for a while as they trudged further from the trail, but then she began to hear voices filtering through the trees. The voices gave her a crazy comfort in the pregnant silence of the forest and she yearned to reach them more quickly.

Soon enough they came upon the other friendly Wolfkin gathered in a small clearing. Evelyn picked out Roberto in the middle of the crowd, organizing the teams and giving last minute instructions to the team leaders. Some people were engaged in subdued conversation, some were stretching or vigorously exercising, and still others were holding hands together in prayer. Clem broke away and joined one of the prayer groups, and Kim wandered towards three Wolfkin doing pushups. Evelyn glanced around in a daze and wondered where she should be. She followed David automatically as he stalked towards Roberto without hesitation. Roberto didn’t seem to notice them until David spoke.