“Yes, Tima!” they shouted.
Feeling better, I joined Trevor at the elevator. As we got into the golden cage, I said, “You too. Let's not risk shifting until we know for sure it's safe.”
“I had no trouble this—”
“Trevor, please! I have a bad feeling.”
He immediately nodded. “As you wish.”
“Thank you.”
We went up to the top floor and left the elevator hand-in-hand. Azrael and Odin were sitting at the kitchen table, feeding the twins. It had once been a small table, but I had to expand it with our growing family. Kirill, Viper, and Re were on the couch, watching television. They all greeted us as we came in.
Sebastian and Dominic cried in unison, “Mommy!”
“Hello, my loves.” I went around the table kissing men and boys, making my way back to the fridge.
After grabbing some cream, I went to the counter to pour myself a cup of coffee.
Trevor joined me, placing his mug next to mine in a silent request. “Should I tell them, or do you want to?”
“Tell us what?” Odin asked.
I poured coffee into Trevor's mug and went to the table with my coffee, leaving the cream for him. I took the chair beside Odin. “Trevor had some trouble shifting back from wolf last night. We were both okay this morning, but I told the Intare not to shift until this was over.”
“You think it has something to do with the machine?” Azrael asked.
“It could. Shifting is a transformation, after all.”
Azrael looked over at the men on the couch. “Did you hear that? No shifting for now.”
“What?” Viper called over the sound of gunfire. He clicked off the TV and got up.
Kirill and Re came over to the kitchen table with Viper, and I explained what happened and why we needed to be careful.
“I'm going to text my father.” Trevor headed for the tower door nearest us. “I don't want the Froekn shifting either.”
I sipped my coffee and made a funny face at Dominic, who giggled. I was about to say more when Torrent came running into the room. With a jerk, I straightened in my seat. “Torr, are you all right?”
“V, there's some weird stuff going on.” Torrent set a tablet on the table, and then he noticed the twins. “Uh, hi, Sebastian. Dominic. Um?” He looked at me.
“I'll take them downstairs and stop by the classroom to warn Lesya and Vero not to shift until we tell them it's safe.” Re picked up the twins, one in each arm.
“Thank you.” I kissed his golden cheek as he passed by.
“Bye-bye!” the twins called to us in unison.
No one was immune to adorable winged toddlers. We all waved and called bye-bye back, even Torrent.
Torrent waited until the sound of the elevator moving came in from the corridor. Then he brought up a video on his tablet. It was a social media post with a caption that read, “End of Days?” Torr pressed play, and the video came to life. A person sitting in an emergency waiting room had uploaded the video. They filmed a man at the check-in desk. Going by what the angry people in line behind him said, he had cut to the front. He was hunched over and wearing a hoodie. The camera angle showed the back of his head and the desk nurse's face. When the nurse looked up at him, her eyes went wide. She stumbled to her feet and backed away. The woman filming muttered a curse and moved away from the waiting area for a better look at the guy.
The view shot to the nurse first. She scrambled for something, and then her voice came on over the intercom. “Code purple! Code purple! ER!”
“Code purple?” I asked.
“Some hospitals use it to announce an infectious event or person,” Torr whispered and motioned at the video.
The man backed away from the desk and then spun to run out the door. Our view chased after him, but when the man looked over his shoulder, the woman filming screamed and fell back. I didn't scream, but I gasped when I got a glimpse of the man's face. He looked feverish, but it wasn't his wide eyes or flushed skin that disturbed me. It was the inflamed veins running up the sides of his neck, glowing with every breath hetook. When he exhaled, his breath misted in the air as if he were standing in a snowstorm.
