Riley frowned. “What’s your plan?”
“Ah, good.” I smiled, hoping my slightly numb lips wouldn’t make the expression too Heath Ledger-as-the Joker for what I was trying to convey. “According to the mice, I’m not infected. Thanks to Dr. Jalali, who administered the antiserum I prepared after Cooper and I were bitten, we know that even if the mice are wrong, I’m in the best possible position for dodging the infection.” I knew that most of my projected good cheer was mania: on some level, I was still scared out of my mind. There wasn’t time to dwell on the fear. The fear was going to do me no good, and it could do me a great deal of harm if I surrendered to it. “Are we in agreement thus far?”
“I’ll grant you that,” said Riley grudgingly.
“This disease spreads through fluid transfer. You can’t catch it by touching an infected person, or even drinking from the same glass.” I sounded like a public health announcement. I forced myself to keep going. “I’m willing to return here at night. I’m willing to be locked in while I sleep. But, sir, I need to be able to help you with this situation—and not to be overly boastful of my abilities, you need me. You need someone who has dealt with lycanthropy before, and who can speak to the local cryptids. You don’t have anyone else with my skill set.”
His eyes narrowed again, this time accompanied by the tensing of the jaw that signified rage in almost all primates. Sometimes it’s nice to be dealing with members of my own species. I understand them when they react to me. And that impulse explained everything. “You arrogant little—”
“Sir, there is arrogance in this room, but it’s not mine,” I snapped, stunning him temporarily into silence. I took advantage of the opening, stepping toward him—still not close enough to be an infection risk, but close enough that my presence would be impossible to belittle or overlook. I was also close enough that he could punch me in the face, but that was a risk I was willing to take. He probably wouldn’t do it. My face was where I kept my teeth, after all, and he was worried about catching lycanthropy.
Riley stared at me, eyes narrowing further. I was starting to wonder if he needed glasses. Behind him, Shelby shook her head, her best “you better know what you’re doing” expression on her face.
I really hope so, I thought, and said, “Dr. Jalali and her family live less than five miles from here. Where there’s one wadjet family, there are more, because they need to be close enough to find husbands for their daughters. They’re spread out by necessity, they’re better gossip networks than the bogeymen if you can find your way inside, and they had no idea there was a werewolf in this part of Queensland, because the people who knew about it didn’t tell them. They’re your neighbors. They’d be your allies, if you gave them the slightest indication they were welcome. They like living in a place where they don’t have to worry about the Covenant swooping in and shooting their children, but you’re not giving them cause to like you, and it’s cutting off one of your main sources of potential intelligence. It’s speciesist and it’s stupid. Sir.”
Riley stood up a little straighter, silently reminding me that I was picking a fight with a mountain that walked like a man. “We don’t need monsters to point out the holes in our security,” he said. “We don’t need anything inhuman to help us find husbands for our daughters. I’m still not seeing where you’re offering me anything I can’t find just as well without letting you out of this room.”
At the word “husbands,” Shelby winced. Oh, great.
“Mr. Tanner, how much of this is about my relationship with your daughter?”
Riley didn’t answer.
“Mr. Tanner, the wadjet have doctors who can interact freely with the potentially infected Society members, with no fear of catching lycanthropy-w. They can’t catch the disease, and because of that, they’ll continue to treat your people like, well, people,” I said. “If one of my mice travels with them to see the potentially infected, we may be able to provide reassurance for people who have every reason to be terrified right now.”
“Great. Snake doctors and talking mice are the solution to all our problems.” Riley wasn’t yelling. It might have been better if he had been. “Sounds to me like I can have both those things without letting you out of this room.”
“Would you ever have thought to look for them without me?” It had taken shamefully long for me to look for them. I’d known about the Society members in quarantine before I’d landed in Australia, but I hadn’t thought to seek a nonmammalian doctor until my own life was in danger. I didn’t like what that said about the scope of my focus. I had allowed myself to be overwhelmed by fear, and hence distracted from the greater mission. I needed to serve all intelligent life, not just the interests of the species I happened to share.
Again, Riley didn’t answer. I watched his face, trying not to glare or show my desperation. This wasn’t my field of expertise. Give me a thesis to defend, not a jailer twice my size to rail against.
Shelby stepped around her father, putting herself between us. He blinked and drew back slightly, startled by her movement. I managed to hold my ground, but only barely; I had seen her start to move.
“You’re being a pompous ass, and I won’t stand for it,” she said. “I knew from talking to Raina and Gabby that you wanted to see Alex for yourself, and I figured the werewolf problem was a good excuse for you to do that, especially since we needed the help. What I didn’t figure was that you’d be watching for a way to get my fellow out of the way.”
That gave Riley something he could seize on. “Surely you’re not implying I sent him out there to be bitten,” he thundered.
Shelby scowled. “No, Daddy, although I might start implying it if you keep refusing to listen. Him getting bitten was a convenient accident. Otherwise, you’d have just kept shoving him into labs and hoping he’d stay out of the picture so you could grill me over and over on what I was doing with a Price from America, instead of coming home and settling down proper with someone from the Society. Did you ever consider that maybe I’m with a Price from America because I love him? It’s a thought you might want to start having, along with the thought that maybe the fact that he’s diddling your daughter doesn’t mean he has no brains remaining in his head!”
“Uh, Shelby, maybe a little less emphasis on our, uh, after-dark activities?” I asked, as the red spread across Riley’s cheeks and forehead. He looked like steam was about to start coming out of his ears, cartoon-style, and I really didn’t want the accompanying anger to be directed at me.
“No, Alex, he needs to hear this,” she snapped, her eyes staying on her father. “Yes, I’m sleeping with Alex, Daddy. Because I love him, all right? I’m going to marry him, and probably give you those grandkids Mum’s always on about, and the fact that he’s an American and from a family you don’t approve of doesn’t matter a toss, do you understand? This isn’t Romeo and Juliet. Our households aren’t alike in dignity, although they may be alike in pigheaded, head-up-the-bum-ness. You’re going to stand aside and let Alex out of this room. You’re going to let him do the job he came here to do. Or I’m going to stand in front of the whole Society and announce that you’ve locked away one of our best prospects, without valid medical reasons, because you can’t stand the fact that he’s fucking your oldest girl.”
The word “fucking” seemed to break something in Riley. The color drained from his cheeks, replaced by a resigned pallor. He shot me a venomous glare before looking back to his daughter and asking, in a soft voice, “Is this really what you want?”
“I want to protect our people, Daddy, and you’re not going about it the best way,” she said. “Humans only isn’t the best way. It’s as short-sighted as anything else that says ‘we should leave people out for their own good.’ Alex is right, and if we want him to help us, we can’t lock him up in here. It doesn’t do anyone any good.”
Riley looked at her for a few seconds more before turning his attention to me. ?
??All right, Price: you get your way. You can move about freely during the day—but don’t be mistaken, everyone will know that you’ve been bitten, and they’ll be watching for signs that you’re trying to spread your disease. Do you understand? And come bedtime, you’ll be locked back in here, in case you decide to change in the night and start going for throats.”
Werewolves could transform as easily during the day as they could at night, but somehow sharing that little piece of information didn’t seem to be in my best interests. “I understand,” I said. Then, pushing my luck a little, I asked, “Can we open discussions with the wadjet about coming here to treat the others who have been injured? They’re unlikely to request much in the way of payment; mostly, they trade in information and in favors.”
“I don’t want to owe any favors to a snake,” snapped Riley.
“Some people may feel differently,” said Shelby. “Mary’s in quarantine, yeah? Her family would probably be happy to owe a snake a favor if it meant they knew she was as comfortable and well-tended as possible.”
“Fine.” Riley threw up his hands. “Fine. You do what you want—but you heed me, Shelby Tanner. If your precious boy there bites anyone, I’ll put him down like the dog that he is. He won’t get another chance from me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Daddy,” said Shelby.
“Yes, sir,” I said, just in case my understanding mattered.
“I don’t believe this.” Shaking his head, Riley turned and stalked out of the room. He left the door open. That was good: at least he’d meant it when he said I was going to be allowed to continue moving about freely.
“Your father hates me,” I said, sounding faintly dazed.
“My father hates everyone who dates one of his daughters.” Shelby turned to me, smiling brightly. “I think that went rather well, don’t you?”
For once, I had absolutely nothing to say.
A crowd had gathered in front of the quarantine house by the time we finished getting me dressed and shifting my weapons to better align with my injuries. I’ve always been right-hand dominant, which was good, but many of my knives were positioned to be backup weapons for my left hand, and that wasn’t going to work when I didn’t have full range of motion in that shoulder. Especially since most painkillers also fogged cognitive functions, which meant I couldn’t use them if I was planning to go into the field.
Shelby and I stepped onto the porch and stopped, blinking at the people waiting for us in the yard. I didn’t recognize most of them, and the few I had seen before at the previous night’s banquet looked gravely worried, not welcoming in the least. Raina was sitting on the edge of the porch, her back against a pillar and Cooper’s dog stretched out beside her. Jett had her head in Raina’s lap, apparently unperturbed by the fact that the girl was playing with her Gameboy right above the dog’s ear.
Raina looked up at the sound of footsteps. “Oh,” she said. “It’s you. Gabby owes me ten bucks. She said Dad would shoot you before he let you out.”
“I think he was considering it,” I said. I gave the crowd a sidelong look. “Why do we have this much company?”
“They wanted to see that you were still a people, and not a hairy, slavering killing machine.” Raina cocked her head to the side in a gesture that reminded me of Shelby, especially Shelby in the early morning, when she wasn’t quite prepared to be awake yet, and was thus overly critical of everything around her. “You don’t look like a hairy, slavering killing machine. I guess you could’ve shaved. Are you going to rip our throats out with your teeth?”
“Not planning to, thanks,” I said, and turned to face the crowd. They continued to watch us, staring and silent. I raised a hand and waved. “Hello.”
“How come you’re out here?” demanded a voice from the back of the crowd.
I frowned. “Do you mean ‘how come I’m in Australia,’ or ‘how come I’m not in the quarantine shack with everyone else’?” I was reasonably sure they meant the second, but I wanted the conversation to be a conversation, not an interrogation. We were outnumbered, and I didn’t know what Riley might have said to them on his way out of the house. We needed them to think that we were equals, rather than recasting us into predators and prey.
“How about both?” The owner of the voice pushed her way through the crowd to the front. She was a short, skinny woman with dark brown hair and a face like a fashion model, complete with lipstick, elaborate eye makeup, and enough foundation that I wasn’t sure of her skin tone. She was probably Caucasian, based on the shape of her face, but I could have been wrong. “What makes you think you can solve our problems for us? You’re not even here two days before you’re a werewolf and Cooper’s dead? Sounds to me like you should get right back on the plane!”
An ugly murmur spread through the crowd. This wasn’t good. I took a breath, looking for my courage. It seemed to have stayed in the room, and so I went for the next best thing: my sense of duty. “I’m not a werewolf,” I said. “I’ve been checked by a medical professional, and the consensus is that I am not infected.” Mentioning the mice wouldn’t do any of us any good, and it might confuse the matter. “Just in case the doctor was wrong, I’ve allowed myself to be treated with an anti-lycanthropy tincture. In addition, I’ll be returning to quarantine each night, and will be locked in until morning. This will continue until the twenty-eight-day incubation period has passed.” Unless I transformed after all, in which case a bullet to my skull would take care of the rest of my problems.
The crowd glared and muttered. I took a deep breath, glancing down at Jett, who seemed perfectly comfortable with her head on Raina’s leg. I looked back to the crowd.
“Cooper’s death was an accident. The werewolves attacked while we were gathering aconite flowers to make the treatment that we’ll be offering to anyone who has been or happens to be bitten. I tried to save him. I failed.”
Shelby stepped forward. “He’s telling the truth,” she said. “When my father and I found Alex and Cooper, they were both collapsed in the medical station, blood and flower petals everywhere. Cooper’s wounds had been cleaned and irrigated to reduce infection, and the bleeding had been slowed. It was clear that Alex tried to intervene. He failed. Can you really blame him for failing when he was injured and standing up against impossible odds?”
The crowd muttered more. The mood seemed to be lifting, turning away from anger and toward the easier to manage combination of mistrust and fear. Anything that kept them from breaking out the torches and pitchforks was okay by me.
“Cooper was a good man,” I said, and I didn’t have to force the wobble in my voice; it came naturally and almost against my will. Showing weakness could go either way when I was facing a potential angry mob. “Maybe he could have gotten away if he hadn’t stayed to help me shoot the thing. Maybe not. We’re never going to know. But I can promise you this: I will be staying here, and fighting beside you all, until we manage to remove this threat from your community. I will do everything in my power to make things right for you.”
The crowd quieted further. This time, their muttering was barely distinguishable as words. Raina finally stood, dislodging Jett’s head with a gentle nudge, and turned to face the people who’d come to confront us. She shoved her Gameboy into her pocket, almost as an afterthought, and crossed her arms as she demanded, “Well? Are you lot happy now, or do you need to see me hobble him?”
I gave her an alarmed look. If she decided to try, I was going to have my first full-on fight with a member of the Tanner family since the night when Shelby had drawn a gun on my cousin in the kitchen of my grandparents’ house.
The crowd muttered and, for the most part, looked down or away—anywhere but at the girl who was now facing them all down. Shelby reached over and took my hand, lacing her fingers through mine. I squeezed her palm lightly, and just held on. Whatever was going to happen now, it was already done; all we were waiting for was the shape
of it.
One by one, the people who’d come here to accuse me of somehow betraying them by being bitten turned and walked back toward the path separating this little isolation facility from the main house. The woman with the dark brown hair was the last to go, shooting glares over her shoulder at us all the while, until finally even she disappeared from view.
Raina blew out a breath, sagging. “You don’t do anything by halves, do you?” she demanded, dropping her arms as she turned to me. “Can’t just see a werewolf, no, you have to go and get yourself bitten by one. Can’t just bring in an outside expert, nope, it has to be a snake woman with three university degrees that Dad can’t pretend don’t exist. Are you even a person, or are you a walking force for chaos?”
“My baby sister’s the force for chaos,” I said automatically. (Specifying which baby sister I meant would have been redundant: compared to me, they were both proof that entropy always wins.) “Dr. Jalali was just the closest medical professional who didn’t need to worry about catching lycanthropy.”
“Only that wasn’t a factor, because you’re clean,” said Raina, a slight sneer in her voice.
“Yes,” I said firmly.
“You don’t have to be a snot, Raina,” said Shelby. She still hadn’t released my hand. “You know Alex didn’t do anything wrong. There’s no point in acting like he did, unless you’re trying to get Dad on your side for something.”
“Everyone else is going to act like he did something wrong,” said Raina. She sounded much calmer now: she just sounded tired, too, like she couldn’t believe she had to explain this to us. “He’s your imported werewolf expert, he’s the man who’s going to save us all, and what’s the first thing he does? Runs out and gets himself bit, like some amateur with trumped-up credentials trying to impress his girlfriend. Doesn’t build faith in his skills, and doesn’t build faith in your ability to assess the situation, either.”