I shook my head. “No. Apparently he’s not regained consciousness since Falon brought him back.” I kept my eyes on Max as he came further into the room, refusing to even acknowledge Gabriel’s presence.
I’d never thought of myself as petty before, but apparently I was.
With a sigh, I forced myself to include Gabriel with my next question. “He was poisoned, wasn’t he?”
“Yes,” Gabriel answered. “The bullets and the blade had aconite—”
“I don’t mean by the hunters’ weapons.” I gestured to where Callum lay on the bed, now emitting a soft keening whine that made me want to cover my ears. “I mean whatever caused him to go feral in the first place and is still affecting him.”
Gabriel met Max’s eyes and some silent communication passed between them.
Max sighed. “You know I can’t tell you anything about an active investigation, Rys.”
I knew that, respected him and his job enough not to press, but for fuck’s sake, we needed answers. I stood and ran a hand through my hair, gripping the strands hard in frustration. “What about the others?”
Max levelled a cool look my way. “What others?”
I scoffed. “Come on, we all know this isn’t the first time a non-human has lost control for no apparent reason in the last couple of months. Bit of a coincidence don’t you think?”
“Whether it is or not, I’m not about to discuss it here with you.”
Gabriel kept silent, letting Max do all the talking. I found that strange since he’d never shut up when I’d known him.
Yet another reminder that you really don’t know him anymore.Not that I needed one. He’d grown into his sharp cheekbones and strong jawline, filled out in a way that made him look strong and supple instead of slight.
It was all wasted on me.
I clenched my teeth, struggling to get control of myself. Being around a shifter in such obvious distress was getting under my skin. Talis set his hand on my shoulder, fingers gripping tight. I closed my eyes and sucked in a shaky breath, drawing strength from his touch.
When I opened them again, I caught Gabriel glaring at us before he quickly looked away. Ignoring him once more, I addressed Max. “Can you tell us anything?”
Max’s forehead creased. “Why are you so invested? This isn’t your pack. If I have anything to report, you know it’ll be to Falon and Callum’s mother.”
“I asked for their help,” Falon called from outside. His footsteps sounded on the wooden floor of the hallway as he came inside. “I think this concerns all non-humans in the area, don’t you?”
Max scrubbed a hand through his short hair, fingers itching like he wanted something longer to grab hold of. “We have some theories.” He sighed as his gaze fell on Callum again. “We won’t know if they fit Callum’s case or not until we get the results back from testing his blood.”
“So it is a poison. I fucking knew it.” I raised an eyebrow at Max, daring him to deny it.
“For fuck’s sake, Rys, you need to let us handle this.” He sighed again, and a sliver of guilt crept in. He was only doing his job.
“I’m sorry. It’s just…” I gestured helplessly at Callum.
“I know.” Max closed his eyes for a second, clearly warring with some internal decision. “In some of the other cases, we found a hallucinogenic drug in the fugitives’ blood.”
I frowned at his terminology. “Do you have to call them that? Surely they’re victims if someone gave them drugs.”
“We don’t know how they ingested the drug,” Max said, voice steady. “It could’ve been voluntary. So until we can prove otherwise, they’ll be classed as fugitives.”
I opened my mouth, more questions on the tip of my tongue, but Max shook his head.
“I can’t tell you anything more, so don’t ask.” He turned to Falon. “As soon as Callum’s blood tests come back, we’ll let you know. Until then, I’d like you to walk me through everything he did in the hours leading up to him turning feral. We’ll also need to know what he did in the week previous. Where he went, who he met. Anything that might shed light on why this happened.”
“Of course.” Falon squeezed Callum’s mother’s shoulder. “Are you up for this?”
“Yes,” she said, mouth set in a grim line. “I want to find whoever did this to my son, because there’s no way he did it to himself.”
I hesitated, unsure of how to proceed.
