Bruce froze. Every body part, every hair follicle stiffened to rigidity.
From the back side, Josh blew out a heavy breath. “Great. Now help me carry him to the car.”
Bing shook his head. “We are needed in Wisconsin. Now.” And then he opened his mouth to say something else, but Josh threw his hand up over his eyes.
“Don’t you dare Jedi mind-trick me. I don’t care what’s going on in Wisconsin. This is mybrother.”
Yordan groaned as he finally got out of the van. “Like we need family drama now. Here.”
With a mighty heave, Yordan lifted up the rigid wolf, and all together, they crammed him into the back of the van. But when Bing went to shut the door, Josh grabbed his arm.
“Don’t leave him like that. Order him to go to sleep.”
Bing clearly didn’t like taking orders from Josh, but it was a reasonable request. Bruce was a new recruit, and it was their job to help him, not make it worse, even if the idiot had brought it on himself.
To his credit, Bing didn’t argue but adjusted until he was looking straight into Bruce’s frozen eyes. “Relax and sleep for….” He glanced at Yordan. “How long?”
“Three days.”
“Three days,” Bing continued.
Right on cue, Bruce’s muscles relaxed. He flopped flat onto the van floor and started snoring. Josh shot Nero a wry look.
“What I wouldn’t have given to do that to Bruce when we were kids.”
“I am not a parlor trick,” Bing snapped. “There is real danger, and you have delayed us with this foolishness.”
Josh stiffened, his mouth opening for some smartass response, but Nero stepped quickly in front of him. First things first. “What’s going on?”
Yordan sighed. “The usual. World-ending disaster in Wisconsin.”
Naturally. Because in this timeline, the demon was alive and well. And still killing the planet.
Nero nodded and pushed Josh toward his car. “We’ll follow you. Call me on my cell and tell me exactly what is going on. And then we’ll tell you how to fix it.”
To be continued…
