Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation (35 page)

Three hours later, her exhaustive search came up with wolfsbane, opium, vinegar, wormwood, and silver, though silver was advertised more as a weapon to kill werewolves than as a cure. Of all of these werewolf cures, the only one that held any plausibility was silver. At first Evelyn thought that silver would also be a dead-end, since it was touted as a miracle cure-all by many holistic ‘medicine gurus’, however, another half-hour of research brought up two studies on silver as a treatment for AIDS. In the first study, the silver prevented the virus from binding to human blood cells, and in the second study the silver compound actually electrocuted the virus via electron jumping. Stunned by the possibility of fact meshing seamlessly with ‘fiction’, Evelyn’s initial excitement soon waned when it became apparent that the silver nanoparticles would have to be injected. Any cure that she came up with was now only really feasible if it could be applied to a large number of hostile werewolves all at once. That really left only oral administration or inhalation.

“Damn.”

Leaning back in the chair, Evelyn stretched out her stiff neck and arms, then leaned forward again and closed the array of books and magazines spread out before her on the table.
This is why I haven’t done this before.
Though what she’d found was interesting, and not a little bit spooky, it wasn’t helpful for their current situation. Maybe later, if they somehow prevailed over the Vulke without finding a different cure, Evelyn could look deeper into the silver aspect. As for right now, she glanced at her watch, it was time to get back to the lab. When she left her books on a return cart, Evelyn’s stomach grumbled audibly. Having not eaten a thing since breakfast, she completed her campus tour by heading over to the Student Union to grab a quick dinner. Chicken tenders, medium fries, and a medium Coke later, she was winding her way along university paths back to the vet school.

It was a little after eight, and the walkways had mostly cleared of students, though a few still wondered past Evelyn as she walked. The night was warm and clear with a mild breeze, and Evelyn found herself in mindless enjoyment until the vet school loomed ahead of her. Since she hadn’t napped and the Coke was unlikely to see her through the entire night in the lab, Evelyn first went up the stairs, away from the lab, to grab another caffeinated beverage from the vending machine on the second floor. Her footsteps echoed eerily in the near vacant corridors, and the content feeling from the walk outside ebbed away as she glanced over her shoulder while waiting for her second serving of Coke to drop from the machine.

Hurrying back down the stairs, the unease building in Evelyn’s chest dissipated in degrees as she got closer to locking herself in the lab. She chided herself for not asking Kim to come with her, as not only would it have lightened the work, but it would have provided some company. After all, if these were her last days on this earth, did she really want to spend them alone because of what? Pride? That seemed a pretty ridiculous reason.
In fact
, Evelyn thought as she unlocked the door to the lab,
speaking of being alone, I should go see Sylvy, find out if Peko still recognizes me, go out to lunch with my mom, and call my sister.
There hadn’t been time for any of that before, and Evelyn wasn’t sure that there was time for it now either, but she wasn’t going to miss the opportunity again. Roberto would disapprove of course, but she was okay with that.

*

Getting back into the swing of things at the lab proved sluggish at first, but Evelyn gradually picked up speed as the night progressed. To her it felt like she’d been away for weeks instead of days. As anxious as she’d been to get back to her research, by three in the morning she was falling asleep while pipetting and had to call it quits. She made some notations in her lab notebook, cleaned up, and locked the lab door behind her. Driving home, she wondered if Caroline was making any progress, or at least any effort in retrieving power bars from Katie’s home. She also wished that Roberto would get back to her about contacting Nicolas for more information on the mutant virus. Any information at this point could be invaluable if Nicolas wasn’t flat out lying.

The more Evelyn thought about it, as she snuck into the condo and helped herself to a bowl of cereal, the more she was leaning towards just calling Nicolas on her own.
What harm will it do?
Obviously she didn’t want to call from her own cell phone, or a pay phone that could be traced, but what about calling him from a burner cell phone (whatever that was)? Wolfing down her breakfast, Evelyn quietly climbed the stairs, got ready for bed, and slid into it, trying not to wake Kim. As she drifted off to sleep, her thoughts continued to circle around Nicolas and what information he might have about
Languorem luporum
.

*

Evelyn awoke in a sweat, rattled by unremembered, though still disturbing, nightmares. Only pale, grey light streamed in through the window, but a quick glance at the clock told her it was nearly noon. Feeling unrested, though not eager for more sleep, she slipped out of bed and went to the window. The colorless day outside did nothing to raise her spirits. Evelyn threw on some clothes and went downstairs, thinking that she might call Sylvy today and set up a time to visit her and check on Peko. When she entered the kitchen, she found David and Kim there, dressed in sweaty workout clothes, preparing lunch. Evelyn detected a slight hiccup in their conversation when she appeared in the doorway, but pretended not to notice.

“Any news?”

David glanced up from the bread he was slathering with mustard and shook his head. “Nothing.”

Evelyn shrugged. “At this point, maybe no news is good news.”

David looked unconvinced.

Kim swallowed a bite of sandwich. “How did it go at the lab last night?”

Evelyn rummaged through the refrigerator, seeking milk for her cereal, glad that she didn’t have to look Kim in the eye. “Oh, okay I guess. Seems like I’ve been gone longer than a few days, though. Missed you. You’ll come in with me tonight?”

Finding the milk and extracting her head from the fridge, she saw Kim nodding vigorously. “Of course! Yeah, I wanna get back to work too!”

“Mind if I come too, Evie? With everything on hold for the time being, and Roberto keeping me out of the loop, there is literally nothing for me to do right now.”

Evelyn’s throat tightened. She could sense that David was still mad at her for the secrets she’d kept from him, but feeling useless was worse, much worse. She remembered that feeling from just before the challenge at the Council manor and couldn’t force David to go through it just to spite him. “Of course you can come. Not like you don’t know your way around my lab.”

David raised his eyebrows at her, a whisper of a grin on his lips.

“Wha…oh. Oh. You know what I mean!” She hit him playfully on the shoulder. “And just for that, you’re going to be washing glassware and sterilizing benchtops all night.”

David’s face transformed as an actual smile graced it for the first time in days. His eyes sparkled with life, humor, and a twinge of mischief. Evelyn beamed at him as she stared into his eyes, and for a moment she was lost in them like when they’d first kissed. Then he focused over her shoulder, his smile wavering, and Evelyn remembered Kim sitting at the table behind her. Evelyn’s emotions were caught between anger that Kim was spoiling the moment and sympathy for her. As much as Evelyn’s life sucked right now, Kim’s was that much again worse, all things considered. The sympathy won out and she turned to face Kim.

“Hey, you know, now that things are…have calmed down for a little while, maybe we should go visit your mom. What do you think?”

Kim’s eyes went wide and her lips parted. She swallowed several times. “Do…do we have time for that? Is it safe?”

Evelyn poured her cereal and considered. “Well, really I’m not even sure that the Vulke know that you’re with us. And I don’t see how they would have the resources, or quite frankly the patience, to stake out every relative of every stray or every Wahya member. Not that we should completely let our guards down, and like go back to your apartment, but I want to visit with my mom too.” She turned to David. “And Sylvy. And bring Peko here to live with us.”

David scowled. “Evie, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Which part?”

Sandwich finally complete, he sat down at the table. “Um, any of it?”

Evelyn sat down with her cereal. “Why? There’s no reason to think that the Vulke are going to do anything before the next full moon cycle. They’ve got us on the ropes. Even if we figure out which brand of power bars they are using to spread the mutant, how do we know where they’ll distribute the next batch? Or if they already have? And even if we shut down the factory, they could just contaminate something else, like a water supply. If they’ve been researching the virus as long as we have, they’ll know finding a cure in a month is a joke. And we’ve used up our one trick. They won’t fall for the deer carcasses again, they’ll expect it, have the strays well-fed or train them to ignore food while fighting. I think that they’ll be using this time to regroup, stabilize their new territory and allies, and prepare for the next Wolfkin cycle. I don’t think that they even care about us anymore really…and if they were going to track us down and kill us, they have a spy. They don’t need to come after our families.”

David sighed. “That sounds like a lot of defeatist rationalization.”

“Maybe. But now that we’ve got the chance, don’t you want to see your folks one last time?”

“I…I don’t know, Evie. Not if it means putting them in danger. I’ve e-mailed them. I don’t know what I would say in person.” He looked away. “After Tommy and Russia, they…well, we’re not as close as we used to be.”

Evelyn bit her lip. “Kim, what do you think?”

Kim glanced down at her half-eaten sandwich. “It’s probably selfish, but I think you’re right, Evie.” She looked up. “At least for me. David and I ran away before the Vulke ever saw us, so I don’t know how they could know that I’m with you guys, or want to spend much time tracking down my mom. But for you guys…I don’t know, but I think it’s riskier.”

Evelyn tapped her spoon against her teeth. Kim was right. They needed to
know
if their friends and family were being watched. And she now knew who to ask.

57

After some preliminary research on the internet, Evelyn determined how she was going to contact Nicolas. First they would need to purchase a prepaid cell phone with cash. They would then remove the battery (the only easy way to confidently block someone from tracing the phone) and drive to Ohio. There they would place the call and then throw out the phone. It was an expensive venture, but in the end it would be Roberto’s money, so Evelyn didn’t trouble herself about it too much. The plan was to continue on from Ohio to Tennessee in order for Kim to visit her mother. Based on the information from Nicolas, and how much they could trust it, David and Evelyn would then decide whether or not to set up meetings with their friends and family members. Evelyn had wanted to go that day, but David convinced her to wait a few days, citing several reasons. Among which was the possibility that it might look suspicious for Nicolas to receive mysterious phone calls directly post-battle. Not entirely persuaded that a few days would make no difference, she nevertheless conceded to wait because she didn’t want to argue and have David decide against the plan entirely.

Her spirits lifted by the prospect of seeing her mom soon, Kim’s cheerful demeanor returned in full force. It was even difficult for Evelyn, frustrated as she was by having to wait to call Nicolas, possibly not being able to visit her own family, and having not heard a peep from Caroline about the power bars, to maintain a sour attitude in the face of Kim’s smiles. Work at the lab was also progressing, though Evelyn was beginning to feel like she was going in circles with the research. She would locate wolf DNA, then identify attached viral sequences, but their blending with wolf and human DNA made finding the definitive beginning and ending points all but impossible. Additionally, she was constantly reminded that any curative vaccine would have to be oral or inhalant, which complicated matters further. Concentrating more and more on the mutant strain, Evelyn searched for the changes which made
Languorem luporum
hardy enough to withstand the acid of the stomach and then able to be absorbed into the blood stream. If she could elucidate the way the virus could be made infectious orally, maybe she could find a way to effectively neutralize it orally. Sadly, this technique not only felt like a long shot, it also ran the risk of working only on the mutant strain of the virus.

Then, the day before they were going to leave to enact Evelyn’s plan and visit Kim’s mother, there came an unexpected knock at their door. The sound caused Kim to spill her water at the dining room table and Evelyn to miss the last step of the stairs, catching herself with the railing just before falling on her face. David sprinted in from the kitchen and ushered the women towards the back door.

“Be ready to run.”

With no heads-up phone call from Roberto, it wasn’t an outlandish suggestion as no one else, save Clem and Madeline, knew where they were. Evelyn scurried behind Kim to the kitchen, but then ducked down and attempted to listen, though her view of the front door was blocked by the dining room. She heard the front door open, but then only murmurs. Kim had positioned herself next to the back door, and was lifting a blind to peer out into the small yard behind the condo. Abruptly, the front door shut again and Evelyn tensed. Kim shot her a quizzical look, but all Evelyn could do was shrug. Then she spied David coming into the dining room with a package, which he set carefully on the table. Relieved, Evelyn rose. David spotted her and held up a hand.

“Don’t get any closer.”

“Why?”

“It could be a trap.”

Kim danced over to stand next to Evelyn. “What’s going on?”

“David thinks someone sent us a bomb.”

Kim’s brow knitted into an adorable expression of befuddled concern. “Oh.”