Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation Page 4

  When David had gone, Evelyn wandered over to the windowed side of the suite’s living-room and pulled back one of the heavy blinds. It was a beautiful day outside; she really wanted to open up the window coverings and let the sunlight spill into the room. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the best of plans. The Vulke probably didn’t know that she was there, but that was still no reason to present herself in front of a wall of glass, in a place the Vulke knew to be the Wahya stronghold.

  David returned with a smallish cardboard box and used his room key to rip open the tape on the package. Inside were three shiny new cell phones with chargers and a note from Roberto with a telephone number on which to contact him. Evelyn picked up one of the identical black phones and rotated it around in her hands.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter much if we get our phones confused at this point.”

  David selected another phone. “I guess not.”

  She turned on her phone and scanned through some features. The phone had three numbers already entered in: one was a number that Roberto had given them to contact him, and Evelyn suspected the other two were for the sister burner phones. She called the first mystery number and the phone in David’s hands rang. He glanced up at her and nodded as she ended the call and entered in David’s name with that number and then Kim’s with the other number. The phone had texting and internet capabilities, but was a brand that Evelyn had never heard of before. She took a deep breath, dialed a number, and retreated to the far corner of the room.

  “Country Acre Vet Clinic, this is Wendy speaking, how may I help you?” a cheerful voice answered.

  “Hi Wendy, it’s Dr. Eisenhart.”

  “Dr. Eisenhart! Are you okay.? We were beginning to get worried. Dr. Alverez has been trying to reach you.”

  Evelyn sighed. “I’m sorry Wendy, yeah I’m okay, just some emergency family stuff going on. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. I lost my cell phone and we’ve been in the car driving a lot. Is he around?”

  “Yeah, I’ll get him for you.”

  “Wait, Wendy.”

  “Yeah, Doc?”

  “I just wanted to let you know that it’s been really great working with you, and I’m going to miss you.”

  “You’re leaving the clinic?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry, but like I said, I’ve got a lot of personal stuff going on right now and I’m not sure when it will all be sorted out. Dr. Alverez and I talked about it before, and I just can’t keep leaving him in a lurch.”

  “Sure, well I’m really gonna miss you too. Aren’t you coming back at all?”

  “No, sorry, I just can’t right now, but I’ll come visit when…when I can. Tell everyone that I’m going to miss them.”

  “Okay. I will. Goodbye Dr. Eisenhart.”

  “Goodbye, Wendy.”

  Evelyn’s throat constricted as she said her goodbye. It was only Dr. Alverez that she didn’t get along with at the clinic. The low murmur of his voice came through the other end of the phone line, then silence, then him clearing his throat.

  “Dr. Eisenhart. I assume this is in regards to activating the clause in your new contract.”

  “Yes it is.” Evelyn didn’t bother going into any details. Dr. Alverez wasn’t the type of person who cared about personal details; he was all business, especially when dealing with Evelyn.

  “Fine. I’ll contact my lawyer.”

  “Thank you.”

  There was more silence on the other end, then Dr. Alverez cleared his throat again. “I think that you are a good doctor, Evelyn. You just need to get your personal life in order. Good luck with your future career and please keep our non-compete clause stipulations in mind.”

  Evelyn was a little taken aback by the compliment but still didn’t feel confident calling the man by his first name. “Ah…I will, thank you, Dr. Alverez.”

  He hung up without saying goodbye, but Evelyn didn’t mind. She found that she actually had a tiny soft spot for the grumpy old man after all.

  8

  The rest of the day was spent killing time with various activities. Kim contacted a few friends and family members, trying to convince them that her injury had made her decide to take a vacation from both school and swimming. In the middle of the phone call with her mother, she retired to the bedroom and didn’t emerge for over an hour. Caroline did not come back to the room, and since the room had been cleaned while they were meeting with Zachary, David eschewed sleeping on the couch in favor of the king-size bed in the bedroom previously occupied by the ornery Wahya Beta.

  The next morning Evelyn awoke refreshed from an uninterrupted night of dreamless sleep and was ready to leave the casino. Dressing quickly, she constantly checked her cell phone, waiting for Roberto’s call, and had to force herself to sit down and eat breakfast.

  The three of them sat at the table without talking, David sipping coffee and Kim pushing soggy hash browns around her plate until finally breaking the silence.

  “Is this how it’s going to be now?”

  Evelyn lifted her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, the hiding, not being able to go outside.”

  David lowered his mug. “I think you will probably be fine to go outside and do things fairly normally. There’s no reason for the Vulke to make the connection that you’re with us, or that you’re in Michigan. Evie and I, however, are in a bit of a bind. We’re going to have to keep a low profile until we get things figured out. We can’t be sure that the Vulke aren’t going to try another assassination attempt, although if we were smart, we probably would’ve left the state.”

  Kim’s shoulders relaxed.

  “I guess that’s what makes ours such a cunning plan, hiding in plain sight,” Evelyn chuckled.

  “I guess. It just isn’t fair that the Vulke know who we are and how to find us, and we don’t know anything about them.” David’s face puckered in frustration.

  Pursing her lips, Evelyn tried to placate him. “Maybe Roberto can get us more information on that. I mean, the Council had to be keeping track at least a little after all the trouble two years ago, right? He at least would know the current Vulke leadership.”

  “Unless they lied or changed leadership since the Council manor blew up.”

  Evelyn frowned at David. “I know it’s frustrating right now, but we’ll figure things out. We aren’t the only ones thinking about what to do now. At least some of the other packs are thinking the same things that we are and working on the same problems. We just need to worry about our end right now, which is getting back in the lab.”

  His scowl easing, David managed a weak smile. “I guess you’re right.”

  Not long after breakfast Evelyn’s cell phone rang. Sure it was Roberto, Evelyn hurried to answer it. “Am I glad to hear from you. Tell me some good news.”

  “Things went better than I had hoped and I am sending a car to pick you up in the early afternoon and take you to your new home. Your belongings should precede you.”

  “What about our own cars?”

  “I think it is best to abandon them at the moment and collect them when the situation is less dangerous.”

  “I guess it really doesn’t matter for me anyway since I lost my driver’s license back at the lab.”

  Roberto sighed like a father disappointed in his daughter’s report card. “Did you? Another inconvenience, but I think that I should be able to help out with that, given a little time. In the meantime, I have also made arrangements for you to meet with a Dr. Pat Jonson, the professor I told you about yesterday. You will meet with him tomorrow at his lab at noon. I have also taken the liberty of making appointments for all three of you down in the spa at eleven a.m. The car should arrive shortly after your appointments are over, and I will text you a number to call when you are ready. The car is a white Ford Explorer, and you will recognize the driver.”

  “Wait, what do you mean that you made appointments for us at the spa? Do you really think that this is the right time for a massage? And the drive
r better not be Caroline.”

  “Evelyn, please just go down to the spa and say that you have an eleven o’ clock appointment, and it is not Caroline, I promise. I really have to go now. I will call you again in a few days unless something happens. Take care.”

  The connection ended and Evelyn was left staring down at the phone’s blank screen.

  David nudged her arm. “Did I actually hear him say we were supposed to go down to the spa?”

  “Yeah, in about ten minutes.”

  Kim blinked at her. “I guess I could use a massage, but somehow…”

  “You don’t think that’s what Roberto scheduled us for,” Evelyn finished for her.

  Kim nodded.

  David shrugged. “Well, we’ve got nothing better to do and we won’t know until we find out, so what are we waiting for?” he said.

  Evelyn nodded her acceptance and Kim appeared intrigued, but Evelyn suspected an explanation that she wasn’t overly thrilled about.

  *

  Evelyn’s suspicion turned out to be spot on. She walked out of the salon with shoulder-length red hair, David as a blond, and Kim with a short spiky do. Of the two of them, Evelyn couldn’t tell who was more put out, Kim or David. On the other hand, Evelyn couldn’t help smiling at her new reflection in the mirrors of the hotel elevator. After collecting their meager belongings from the suite, they left the card keys on the table, texted the driver, and met the car in front of the hotel entrance. David opened the front passenger’s door and stopped dead, his face an unreadable mask. Evelyn peered over his shoulder and her mouth involuntarily fell open. Madeline was the driver.

  “How…?Why…?” David stammered.

  Madeline gave them an exasperated look. “I didn’t geet out of zis state quick enuzz. Now geet in zee car alrezy!”

  David climbed in the front and Evelyn and a befuddled Kim clambered into the back. After Evelyn slammed the car door, she turned to Kim. “Kim, this is Madeline. She’s the Beta of the Amaruq pack from Canada.”

  “Madeline, this is Kim, she’s the new Gamma of the Inali.”

  Madeline snorted as she pulled out of the huge parking lot and onto the road. “And ‘ere I thought she waz just a stray.”

  Kim blushed in embarrassment, and Evelyn shot Madeline a dirty look then patted Kim on the arm. “Madeline is slightly lacking in…well…people skills, but she’s helped David and me out a lot in the past, so she’s okay.”

  They fell into silence after that and, as Evelyn stared out the window and watched the casino disappear behind them, she was grateful that their sojourn there was over. Not that she was overly bothered by casino sweats, but Evelyn was still excited about finally getting back into some of her own clothes again. I wonder if the person gathering up my stuff will think to grab toiletries. It wouldn’t be that big a deal to buy more, just another small hassle. As the scenery passed Evelyn speculated as to whether Kim’s new apartment would be close to Evelyn’s new condo and if her condo was in the same complex as David’s. March was not really a good time to be looking for vacancies around a big university since classes wouldn’t end for the semester until late April. So, I guess we might be a little spread out, but it’ll probably be good to get some space.

  She tried not to think too hard about the serious relationship questions that were floating around in her head. All of that needed to be put on the back burner now. They were at war and things could take a turn for the horrific at any moment. Evelyn deliberated the previous discussion with Roberto about the actual mechanics of the war. She had no doubt that he was correct about the Vulke wanting to fight in Wolfkin form, and not wanting to draw too much outside attention, since most of the time they were in human form, they were just as susceptible to a policeman’s bullet or being arrested as any other non-Wolfkin. A massive crackdown by the authorities on their “terrorist activity” might seriously hinder their plans. The real trouble was, Evelyn knew that the werewolf virus was being transmitted some other way now, but until she found out how, she had no idea of how many more people were becoming infected every day. In fact, it was clear to her that at present it was more important for them to discover how the mutation was spreading, than to find an overall cure for Languorem luporum.

  This line of thinking led Evelyn to question what her next move in the lab should be, and whether David could assist her by interviewing as many strays as he could in order to try to decipher any commonalities. Evelyn already knew that they were of varying ages (ex. Katie and Kim), and she was certain that some of the strays must be males, since the Vulke would want healthy males to bulk up their army. She hypothesized that the mutant couldn’t be airborne, since that would’ve infected a far greater number of people and would be a lot harder to target younger healthy males, unless they were pumping it only into the air supplies of gyms. This thought gave Evelyn pause, but it still didn’t strike her as particularly plausible, since it was difficult to judge dosage and exposure that way. Evelyn winced and rubbed her temples as the dull throb of a headache beat into her brain.

  What she really wanted to do was to sit down with a bunch of other scientists and have a brain-storming session about Languorem luporum, but she got the impression that there weren’t that many Wolfkin scientists hanging around. She was excited to meet Dr. Jonson and was curious what he was researching in his lab until she realized that she could use the internet on her phone to look him up. Calling upon the magic of Google, she typed in the man’s name. Evelyn put her head in hand and couldn’t stop herself from laughing aloud and drawing the attention of everyone in the car.

  “What’s so funny?” David piped in from the front seat.

  “The lab Roberto has procured for me. The head researcher is a theriogenologist.”

  Neither David nor Kim gave any verbal response, and Kim stared at Evelyn blankly.

  “A theriogenologist is someone who studies animal reproduction.”

  “Oh?” Kim offered.

  Evelyn’s small, eclectic joke died a lonely death. “Trust me. In veterinary circles, it’s hilarious.”

  9

  When the party pulled up in front of the condominium, Evelyn was impressed. It was larger than she expected and the outside looked nice and new. It wasn’t right next to the campus, but it wasn’t far. Madeline got out of the vehicle and handed Evelyn the set of keys from the ignition of the Explorer. It had several identical house keys hanging from it as well as the car keys.

  “Oh, do you want me to get these off here for you?”

  “What do you meeen?”

  “Do you want me to remove the house keys,” Evelyn said slowly, pausing between each word, “so I can give you back just the car keys?”

  Madeline gave Evelyn a long-suffering look. “I don’t zee why. Zee car eez also for you.”

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize.”

  Evelyn was still a bit confused because they should have dropped Kim and David off first if the car was for her to use. Evelyn was going to grill Madeline a bit more, but then the other woman pulled out her cell phone, texting as she walked away from Evelyn, so instead Evelyn just ambled up to the door of the condo and let herself in. David and Kim followed close behind. The entranceway of the condo opened into a comfortably large living room with hardwood floors and a gas fireplace. A cozy brown couch and matching chairs were arranged around the fireplace and a wooden coffee table on a brown, shaggy rug. Various little end tables and a book shelf occupied the nooks and crannies of the room. The opposite end of the living room opened up into another area that had a modest dining room table with four chairs and wrapped back around to the kitchen.

  As they progressed into the kitchen, they found the first signs that someone had come into the condo before them. Some of Evelyn’s kitchen appliances had been haphazardly placed on the counter; there was also dish soap and a sponge near the sink and other necessities like dishwashing liquid under the sink, and upon inspection, the refrigerator and pantry were partially filled with recognizable foodstuffs from Ev
elyn’s apartment. Additionally, the cupboards contained dishes from both her and David’s apartments. As soon as Evelyn recognized the dishes from David’s apartment, a light bulb went on in her head and then burned brighter and brighter until it exploded.

  “Wait a minute.”

  Evelyn tore back through the living room and out the door. Madeline was nowhere in sight. Evelyn muttered a few choice curse words and then used the key-fob to lock the car before heading back into the living room, where Kim and David had congregated and were staring at her.

  “Did anyone else think that we were all going to be living here together?”

  Kim’s eyes sharpened. “Oh!”

  David put a hand to his forehead. “No, but I should’ve.”

  Evelyn looked down at the three keys on the keychain. “I mean it makes sense, I just assumed…”

  Evelyn had another thought. This condo is big, but it isn’t that big. She explored further, this time up the stairs that were just off the main entry along with a small half-bathroom. Reaching the top of the stairs, she found three open doors and one closed door. Since she could see the bedrooms and bathroom through the open doors, she tried the closed door and discovered it was a large linen closet.

  “Oh no.”

  Evelyn dashed back down the stairs. David and Kim weren’t on the main floor, but a light shone from a carpeted stairway leading down near the back door. Kim and David’s discussion of the finished basement drifted up to Evelyn at the top of the stairs, and she descended to join them. The basement was carpeted and separated into two areas, one for entertainment and one for working. The first area, to the right of the stairs as one headed down, had another fireplace, a couch, and a large television cabinet with a sizable flat-screen television. The second area to the left of the stairs was set up as an office with a cheap wood desk and a second-hand desk chair, a tall, metal file cabinet, and two bookshelves. Several boxes containing books from Evelyn’s home library sat open on the floor and on the desk. Evelyn’s laptop was also waiting for her on the desk. An open doorway to the left of the desk led to the laundry room, and in between the two areas was another walled off, but windowed room. It was this room that Kim and David were standing in when Evelyn came down the stairs.