“Just use the actual word, Freemont,” David Hollis said. “Killed. The others were allkilled.”
“There are children in the crowd, David,” my brother volleyed back.
David narrowed his gaze. “Werepups grow up fast.”
“Itisconfusing to think of them as halfwolves, since halfwolves aren’t a threat to humans,” Adalyn said.
Her sister’s eyes lit up. “Ooh . . . we could call themvampwolves?”
A chorus ofI like itandyeses rang out.
Liam sighed. “Rebaptizing them won’t help uscurethem.”
“What happens when they feed on blood? Do they shift back into humans?” someone asked.
“Only when they feed on Lori’s Sillin-rich blood,” Liam answered. “Animal blood sates and calms them, but doesn’t make them slide back into skin.”
“What about human blood?” I asked.
“Human blood? We can’t be giving them human blood, Nikki. Can you imagine what sort of savages they’d turn into if they got a taste for it?” Avery stepped out of the crowd, his one-year-old asleep against his shoulder.
Lucas stopped rocking on the back legs of his chair, slamming back down. “Might help them shift back.”
“Lori’s blood helps them shift back.” A lock of auburn hair fell into Avery’s eyes. He shoved it back.
“Darren, you’ve analyzed Lori’s blood, right?” I asked.
“I have.”
“Can you measure the exact quantity of Sillin in her bloodstream?”
“I’d have to run a fresh sample, but yeah, I can get a pretty accurate readout.”
“Maybe if we manage to reproduce her blood—”
“It’ll help Lori, but it won’t help thevampwolves,” Avery’s sister, Apple, interjected. “We need to find a solution that locks them back in skin.”
“Lucas. Doc.” Liam tipped his head to the door.
Lucas rose. “Up we go, Morgan.”
Bookended between Nate and Lucas, Lori walked through the sea of shifters, who parted around her as though the very air she exhaled was toxic.
As more questions were lobbed at Liam, and Storm demolished his piece of crust, smearing handfuls on my white tank top—not so white anymore—Pondside began to empty. Soon only a hundred or so shifters remained.
David Hollis finally got up, along with his wife, son, and daughter, who shot me one heck of a stink-eye. “How long do we have to find thevampwolvesa solution?”
Until Friday.
David nodded.
I stayed until the end of the meeting, and then throughout dinner, which Nolan and Dad had gone to prep halfway before the Q&A had begun.
The shifters who remained hounded Liam, even as he made his way to the table and took the seat Dad had vacated. He held out his arms, and I handed over Storm. Evidently tired of discussing the case, he dismissed them, promising answers after dinner.
I grabbed a napkin from the tray in the middle of the table and dipped it in water, then dabbed at my poor tank top. “Remind me not to wear white around Storm.”
His lips, which had sloped downward throughout the entire meeting, finally straightened.You might want to stop trying to clean your top.
