Winter Wolf (31 page)

“I need to talk to Aiden. He’ll help us—probably. That leaves figuring out how real doctors approach finding cures for diseases, or a vaccination. Something.” Amber rubbed her temples. “I have a laptop if you want to start looking into that.”

“I should call Dominic. My phone’s busted. He’s probably fuming by now.”

Amber nodded and went into her kitchen, where she opened a drawer. A few moments later, she returned with a cell phone in hand. “This is my spare. It’s a secure phone. It belongs to the Inquisition and they record everything, so watch what you say. Feel free to use it until yours is replaced.”

“Not really secure if they’re recording everything,” I muttered, accepting the phone.

“At least you know who is listening, right?”

“Small comfort.” I dialed Dominic’s number and braced myself for a conversation I wouldn’t enjoy.

“Dominic speaking,” my agent said, sounding tired.

“Hey, it’s Nicole. I just got back in town. My cell broke. I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier. There was a family emergency, and then I went out with a friend for a few days.” I waited, but Dominic didn’t say anything. “Have I missed anything important?”

“No,” my agent replied, and then I heard him sigh. “We’re still negotiating the contract, which has been delayed because of the rebuild of the set. I should have something for you soon. Is everything okay?”

“A little stressful, but otherwise fine. I’ll be staying at my friend’s place for a few days before heading home. Did someone bring the dogs over? I hope you don’t mind watching them for the night?”

“They’ll be here in about half an hour. One of my security guards agreed keep an eye on them. When they aren’t penned in my yard, they’ll be at his place. He is better with dogs than I am.”

I chuckled. Dominic, like many of the well-to-do, had a fiendishly expensive home, which was fenced with a fifteen foot stone wall. While it wouldn’t surprise me if Rocky or Silver could jump that high if they wanted to, I gave my agent credit; they’d have to be determined to get out of his yard. “Can I pick them up tomorrow, then?”

“I could pen you in for dinner, if that’s okay with you.”

“If I’m paying this time, you’re getting fast food and you’ll like it,” I warned. “Five?”

“Sounds good. Do you need me to pick you up?”

“I’ll have my friend drop me off at your place,” I replied.

“At five, then.” Dominic hung up. I frowned at the phone.

“Did you agent just ask you on a date?” Amber asked, incredulous.

“A date? With Dominic? Hah, I don’t think so. He’s usually so busy that he’ll take clients out to a meal to talk. He’s the workaholic type. He probably wants to talk about the contract negotiations, knowing him. You don’t mind dropping me off, do you?”

“I don’t mind. Make yourself at home, and I’ll go see if I can convince Aiden to come join us for a bit. Feel free to poke around the condo, though I’m afraid the fridge is pretty barren.”

After setting me up with her laptop, Amber left. I went to work, wondering if what I’d be able to learn on the internet would give me some clue on how to cure the Fenerec.

~~*~~

After two hours of searching the internet, I learned one important thing: if I wanted to cure the Fenerec, I needed to find a survivor. Only a survivor would have the antibodies to battle against the illness. The reason behind it didn’t matter too much to me; I’d find out soon enough if a wizard’s reputation lived up to the hype.

It also explained why the Inquisition’s doctors were at a loss. Without antibodies, the Fenerec couldn’t fight the disease. It left me with another option: there were Fenerec immune to the illness, although no one knew why.

I almost wished the Fenerec did suffer from
Ebolavirus Zaire
. It had a treatment. People survived.

The Fenerec either never got sick, or they died. But even if I found out why some were immune, I’d have to figure out a way to make use of that knowledge. Had these Fenerec somehow been born with antibodies while their brethren fell to the illness? Where could I begin finding out?

I pushed Amber’s laptop across the coffee table so I wouldn’t slam the case closed in frustration. Without knowledge, power was useless—worse than useless.

~You can see,~
the book said and I heard hesitancy in its voice.

“I can see
what?
” I demanded, reaching into my bag to pull the book out. I set it next to the laptop. “Do you have an idea?”

~You can see the disease, if you choose. So could Amber, if she realized she could. Any powerful fire witch can do so.~

“Need I remind you that I am not a fire witch?”

~You’re a wizard. You can do everything a witch can and more. Unlike them, however, your sight does not come with instinct, but with learning and practice. Scrying into the past uses the same skills. You’re just looking for something else. You already sense the flow of electricity in things, do you not?~

The book knew I did, so I kept quiet, staring at the blue leather. When it didn’t speak, I asked, “So what does that have to do with anything?”

~All living things have auras. Signatures. Those are what fire witches sense. In a way, you’re not so different from them. You sense electricity with ease, don’t you? If you can learn to sense people in the same way you do electricity, then you can begin to sense smaller things. Very tiny things.~

“Like the disease?”

~Like the disease. If you get good enough at it, you can see what Is different in someone who is sick versus someone who is not. Which is what you want, is it not?~

“It can’t be that easy,” I muttered, pulling Amber’s laptop back to me so I could once again continue my search. Vaccinations in humans often gave antibodies to those who did not have them, so that illnesses couldn’t thrive. “I’m pretty sure once someone is sick that you can’t vaccinate them.”

~Perhaps the Winter Wolf could see these things and found a cure using what he learned.~

“Is that possible?” I frowned, considered all of the information I had read, and shook my head. “Seeing is different than making a disease just disappear.”

~Winter is the season of change,~
the book said. It hesitated, and I waited for it in silence.
~Wizards are the embodiment of change.~

“If I don’t like the rules, change them?” My voice was bitter.

~Desperation is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a wizard. If you believe you can, you will.~

The book’s words hurt, but I couldn’t refute them. It was right. I didn’t believe I could do anything. How could I? All I saw when I thought of the Fenerec and the plague was death. Wizards weren’t the embodiment of
change
, unless change meant charbroiled, fried, or electrocuted. I was growing confident in my ability to destroy things—Jason had been reduced to a pile of ash because of me and my work with the moonstone.

“I know.” Acknowledging the book pained me almost as much as the realization of the truth.

~Think about it and remember this: you are not the first. If someone else can do it, so can you. You are equal to the challenge and the Winter Wolf, no matter what you might believe.~

I wrinkled my nose and leveled a glare at the leather tome. “And how would you know that?”

~I chose you. Of course you’re his equal.~

The book’s confidence stunned me into silence.

~~*~~

When Amber returned, she was alone. I looked up from the laptop, weary from hours of staring at the screen. With a heavy sigh, she flopped onto the couch beside me.

“Aiden died yesterday, along with four others,” she said in a dull, tired voice.

I drew a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“So am I. I spoke with the L.A. Alpha, and… he believes most of his pack will die during the next full moon. They’re too weak to resist the need to change.” Amber choked up. Tears burned in my eyes.

“When is the next full moon?”

“Four days from now. In two days, the youngest with weakest control will start joining with their wolves. The oldest might last until the moon rises.” I heard the tears in Amber’s voice, so I kept my eyes closed. I wasn’t ready to cry—not yet—but my throat tightened as realization settled in.

In two days, my sister would die—if she wasn’t dead already. In four days, my entire family would be gone.

We weren’t running out of time, it was already gone.

I didn’t have to look for a Fenerec survivor. I knew one. If I wanted to stop the virus, I needed to face him in person, to hell with the consequences. I didn’t know if Richard had lived through the plague before, and if Alex verged on death, the Alpha would be volatile at best. “I need to call my father,” I said, sitting up straight. I picked up Amber’s cell and dialed.

“The Desmond residence,” my father said.

“We need to meet.”

“It’s a little late for that, Ms. Thomas.”

“If you want your daughter to live, you’ll come to Los Angeles.” The easiest way to avoid arguing with my father was to hang up, so I did.

I turned to Amber. She wiped the tears off of her cheek and lifted her chin, as though she challenged me to mock her for crying.

“I haven’t learned a lot, but I might have a few ideas,” I said, turning my attention to Amber’s laptop and pulling up the notes I had typed up. I turned the computer so she could see the screen. “From my understanding, Fenerec don’t get colds normally, right?”

Amber nodded. “Not unless they have the plague.”

“Colds are extremely virulent and they mutate easily. That’s why there are new vaccinations each year for common cold and influenza strains.
Ebolavirus Zaire
is typically hard to catch. It’s great at killing, not so great at spreading. If the plague was like
Ebola,
it’d be easy to contain. But it’s more like a cold.”

“I follow. What’s your point?”

“When I stopped trying to look for ideas for a cure, I started looking at the types of diseases and viruses out there. There’s a lot. The really lethal ones are difficult to spread. Bites, contact with fluids, things like that. The ones easily spread are usually not lethal, unless you’re really young, really old, or already sick. A smart virus doesn’t kill its host, not without having time to spread first.”

“Like what has happened with the Fenerec.”

I nodded. “Exactly. So, I started to look at viruses that take over other cells, like AIDS.”

“I don’t see how that’s helpful, Nicole.”

I drew a breath, wondering if my logic was sound, and if my idea could possibly work. With such limited knowledge, the theory was just that—a theory. A gamble. A dim hope. But if the book thought wizards could change things, maybe I could. “What if I can make a cold that kills the plague instead of the Fenerec? The infected Fenerec can catch colds, right?”

Amber stared at me like I had somehow grown a second head. “That’s it?”

Swallowing to ease the tightness in my throat, I stared down at her coffee table and nodded. “That’s the best I have.”

“But it’s such a simple idea.”

“I thought ‘Keep it simple, stupid!’ was a the point,” I mumbled.

“So why did you make that phone call? If you have this idea, why do you need outside help?”

“He’s immune, Amber.”

“You called a True Fenerec.”

“If he’s immune, he’s somehow able to fight off the virus. If I can find out how, and tie it with a common cold…”

“You want to cure the Fenerec with the equivalent of biological warfare.” Amber laughed, but it was a sad sound. “You know something like this has never been done before, right?”

“Do you have a better idea?” I whispered.

“No. Okay, what do you need to do this?”

“I need my father, a cold, and a lot of electricity,” I replied, hoping I could hash together a more solid plan before we ran out of time.

“If you need virulent colds, well, the best place to find those is at the Children’s hospital. There are always sick kids in there, and surely
one
of them has the latest strain of the cold.”

“A hospital?” I shuddered at the thought of going into a place with so many machines meant to keep people—
children—
alive.

“I know someone who can help. She’s in the Inquisition and she owes me a couple of favors. Her job is to save kids with weak immune systems from colds. If there’s anyone who can help us, it’s her.”

I hesitated at the thought of putting children at risk, but I nodded. “See if you can get us a date with her, then.”

“What about your date with your agent?”

“I have more important things to worry about.” Dominic could wait—and he would. He wouldn’t like it, but that would be his problem.

“But what about your career?”

I gaped at Amber for a long moment. “What?”

“Your career, Nicole. Aren’t you worried you’ll lose your job?”