I knew wolf shifters could get sick if they ingested wolf’s bane. I didn’t know of anything like that that made hyenas sick.
“No, at least nothing I’ve ever heard of. As far as I know, there’s nothing we eat that would be toxic to anyone else.”
Well, crap.
“Okay, thank you.”
“How long have you been sick, Sinclair?”
The man was too close. He’d smell a lie.
“I started feeling out of sorts a couple of weeks ago, but it didn’t get this bad until recently.”
Both of Shade’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve been throwing up before now?”
“A few times.”
Sort of.
Ten times was a few, right?
“We need to get you to a doctor.”
“No, I can’t. If the council finds out this is more than food poisoning, they’ll replace me before I can find the kids.”
Shade’s eyebrows shot together over his eyes. “What kids?”
“When I became councilman, there were a stack of files waiting on my desk. I organized them from simple complaints to high priority situations. There were twenty-four files that I felt needed my immediate attention. Of those twenty-four cases, seven of them were missing teenagers.”
“Maybe they just ran—”
“No, by all accounts, these were dream kids. Good grades, no drugs or alcohol, no trouble with the law, liked by everyone.”
“And they are missing?”
“The police seem to think that they are runaways.”
“And you don’t?”
“No. I sent Stryker out to look into them for me, but I haven’t heard back from him yet. I can’t be removed from my position until these kids are found. No one is looking for them.”
“Okay, okay.” Shade rubbed his hand over his mouth. “I’ll give Stryker a call and see if he’s found anything. In the meantime, I don’t want you to eat anything not made by me or Bob until we know what this is. Understand?”
My throat tightened at the implication of Shade’s words. “Why?”
“Because something is obviously making you sick. Until I know what it is, I’m not taking any chances.”
Relief flooded me and filled my eyes with tears. Shade believed me. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t found anything.”
Maybe not, but I had no doubt he would.
“The files are on my desk and everything I have been able to put together so far is on my laptop. If you want to hand it to me, I’ll put in the password.”
Shade raised his eyebrow once again. “You need a password for your laptop?”
“Don’t you?”
