“And he said there were no girl cats,” Billy added. “Well, no girlstrays. He said there was a rumor that a girl survived being infected once, way down south, but that he’d never met one, so he wasn’t even sure that was true. But Silas…well.” He shrugged. “If you tell him he can’t do something…”
My hand tensed around the edge of my seat, which I’d been clutching without even realizing it.
“So, he talked my mom into it.”
Breath burst from my body on a surprised exclamation. “What?” I’d thought he was leading up to me. To my infection.
“Denny was only barely scratched, that day in the woods, so he didn’t get sick when Silas and I did. We thought he wasn’t going to, and he was pretty pissed about that. Then, a couple of days after Silas and I recovered from the fever, his scratch started looking puffy and infected. A day later, he had a fever. But his wasn’t as bad as ours. He didn’t get as sick as we did. Silas remembered that. So, he thought that if he just scratched my mom alittlebit, she’d probably be fine.”
“He knew that was illegal, right?” Vance interrupted, while I stared, transfixed, at Billy. Equally fascinated and repulsed by his story. By the history of the psychosis that had basically created me.
“He knew it was against the rules. But he said those weretheirrules, not ours. That if we weren’t Pride cats, we didn’t have to follow Pride cat law. And that my mom should get to make her own choice.”
“Did she?” I asked. “Did she want to be infected?”
Billy shrugged. His pulse spiked again, just for a second. “I didn’t see it happen. I just got up one morning, and she was making flapjacks and bacon, but she looked pale and kind of sweaty. When I asked if she was okay, she smiled and said she was going to be a shifter, just like me.” He stared down at his fingers as they plucked at the thin sheet beneath him. “She didn’t, though. She got really sick that night, and Silas wouldn’t take her to the doctor. He said we couldn’t, because they’d run tests. He said we had to take care of her, like she’d taken care of us. But nothing helped her. Not even the ice baths. She died before the sun came up.”
“Oh my god.” It took me a moment to realize I was the one speaking. I heard the words, but I couldn’t really feel them. I hadn’t meant to say them.
Silas killed his “wife.” He’d experimented on her, heedless of the risk.
“Did Eamon know?” Vance asked.
Billy shook his head. “I don’t think so. We buried her in the woods. I thought someone would come looking for her, but no one ever did. I don’t think she had many friends, by then. Silas didn’t like her to leave the house. She always said we were all she needed, anyway.”
Billy drained the rest of his bottle and set it on the floor. “Things got bad after that. No body cleaned. No body cooked, or really shopped. Silas was mad all the time, and he had a hard time getting drunk, which just pissed him off. I stayed out of the house as much as I could, and one day I walked into town to look for a job. I thought I could flip burgers at that diner on Third, and they might let me bring home food no one wanted. But before I got there, I ran into Eamon. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and he could tell something was wrong. I told him my mom had died and I didn’t want to live with Silas anymore. That I was going to get a job and find some place to live on my own. And he said I could sleep on his couch for a while. ‘Cause shifters in the community had to help each other out.” Billy shrugged. “So, I did. And that’s when I met you.” He found my gaze again, and in that moment, he looked sadder than I’d ever seen him.
“So, you weren’t with Silas after that?” Vance asked, when I couldn’t seem to find the words.
“No. I was living with Eamon, working here. Then Eamon became the Marshal, and things started changing. And then one day, Charley was just gone.”
“And you’re saying you had no ideawhyI was gone?” There was a hard edge to my voice, despite my best effort to stay soft. To be friendly and receptive to whatever information he could give us. To be the person Billy would want to keep talking to.
I couldn’t help it.
“No! I had no idea until you came back to work, and you smelled different. I could tell, then.”
“And you could tell who infected me? You could smell him?”
“Yeah.” Billy’s pulse sped up a little, and it maintained that slightly elevated speed—a sign of ongoing stress. But I still couldn’t tell that he’d told a single lie. “That’s when Eamon took me aside and told me what had happened. By then, it was all over. Silas was dead. He said you’d executed him, and that was therapeutic. That now you could start to get better. And youdidget better. Not just better than when you were first infected, but better thanbeforeyou were infected. You’d been so upset before. Because of your brother.”
“No.” I stood, and in the blink of an eye, I’d paced across half of the room. “This has nothing to do with Ben.”
“It does, though.” Vance’s voice was calm and smooth, and I couldn’t tell whether that was for my benefit or for Billy’s. “Charley, can I see you outside, please?”
“No.” I squared my shoulders and turned back to face him. Was it fair that I had to interrogate the suspect in a crime I was a victim of? No. And that would never have happened in the human justice system. This brutally unfair aspect of werecat law and order was the flip side of the same coin that had given me the right to execute Silas on my own behalf.
If I was willing to accept the benefits, I’d have to accept the costs.
“No,” I repeated. “Let’s keep going.” I walked past Vance, headed toward the cell, but this time I didn’t sit. “Was I targeted because of Ben? Because my brother was a shifter? Did you target me, Billy? Did you tell Silas about me?”
“No!” Billy’s pulse spiked drastically before settling back into that elevated pace. “No. Charley, I swear, I didn’t speak to Silas at all after I moved out. Not once since the day l moved in with Eamon.”
“So, it’s coincidence that I hired you, and a year later I was targeted by your stepfather? Kidnapped and infected against my will?”
Billy shrugged miserably. “I don’t know aboutcoincidence. It was probably Denny.”
“By which you mean Camden Senet?”
