Loving Lucius (Werescape) (27 page)

That one paused again. Prompting a response from me. "Yes. Crops are our primary food source. We trade the excess for other supplies."

"Hadrian also said there are two sanctuaries within two to four days ride. One northwest. The other southeast."

Hadrian talked as much as Violet. I'd have to insult him with the comparison. "Yes. Are you planning to take off in the middle of the night?"

"Why would I do that?" she crowed. "I like it here."

Teenagers. "Who knows? I leave to hunt for a day and return to insanity."

"Lucius," Elise scolded. "Josie lost everything. Her home. Her sire. Her brothers. When you see the pain on her face, you'll stop this."

"Josie didn't take you down to the lab. My sire did."

"Don't you dare say anything about this in front of her. She's just like me. Homeless. Fearing she carried a horrible monster. At least, she could come here for help. My sire just dumped me on you."

Why does my mate have to make this so personal? "You weren't dumped on me. I accepted the responsibility of escorting you here. Please stop trying to distract me from the fact my sire has lost his mind."

"Someone else did not long ago." Elise stared at me with big moon eyes.

Fine. I'd cork it. To save face. But Augustus would hear all about my disgust with him behind closed doors. I pulled the big door to the warm glow of Augustus' hearth and ushered my mate and Violet toward the Shifters, Augustus, Drea, and Josie seated at my sire's dinner table.

"There you are," Augustus called, a lilt to his voice, noting his good mood. "We were just discussing healing with Josie. You arrived at the perfect moment."

How convenient.

Violet jumped at the opportunity to speak. "It's just a psychic power."

I'd have to explain to the little one how discussing psychic powers wasn't the best topic for any social situation. Grant it, tearing into your sire was best left for moments when the audience busied itself elsewhere as well. But I'm not the one growling up the wrong tree.

Drea waved us to her end of the table. "Sit with us."

Next to Josie.

Sherry and Tacitus eyed us from where they sat next to Drea.

Sherry just fit in like a pea in a pod now. I hurried to please Drea and avoid a confrontation. But the closer I stepped toward Drea, the more I could see her face gripped with worry or fear. Her eyes were a bit swollen. From crying.

Josie didn't exhibit the same symptom. But she had always been a tough little female. She could hunt with the best Shifters, use any weapon like a seasoned warrior, and argue the men into the dust she kicked up in trying to prove she was as good as any man. Even Hostillian. After I learned of her interest in the enormous quiet Guardian, I had to hand it to her. She could do anything to get what she wanted. Even if that meant remaining unmated in hopes Hostillian would snap out of his trance and claim a mate. Gods help us if he doesn't choose Josie when he finally does. She would die trying to make him miserable. As miserable as she was in choosing to return to her sire's outpost to help raise her brothers after she finished her education. After her mother died of cancer. And now the rest of her family is gone.

Something inside me sank into a bottomless pit.

Falling. Dropping. Crashing away.

Elise had been right. Josie didn't deserve to be ostracized. Augustus hadn't endangered anyone. Probably saved his own tail in keeping Elise close. Just in case he needed to be healed. And I went and howled up a hailstorm.

"Are you staying?" Drea asked.

Shit. I stood behind Elise, staring at Josie.

Josie's blue gaze held an omniscience that probably gifted my mind with the wherewithal to make the great leap and jump the crevasse. To find myself standing on the side of understanding. Or her heartbeat, but, as they said before AEI, nobody was home. It was most likely her thoughts were elsewhere. Back where the gods of aging stopped plaguing the lucky woman's body with the agony of aging. She still looked sixteen. Fortunately. A Normal could age really fast these days. I claimed the remaining seat next to Elise.

"You're from north of here, Josie?" Violet asked. "In a forest denser than this one?"

"Yes," Josie calmly said.

Augustus leaned forward.

Humoring Violet's insatiable curiosity.

"There are roadways cut through that area of the Big Woods where the trees on each side are so dense that one can't see anything beyond the first row." My sire winked for affect.

"I would like to see that one day." Violet glanced at Elise hopefully.

Elise must have thought about the comment because she didn't reply.

Augustus leaned back into the crook of his chair. "We go out to harvest wild crops when the time is right. Perhaps next spring we will venture that far for maple sap."

"What?" Violet immediately tossed back at him.

"Natural sugar," Drea said. "We collect the sap and boil it down to make syrup for sweetening foods and to use for trade. The natives did it for centuries before the Europeans arrived to North America."

Yes. We could go farther north. Even stay at the abandoned outpost long enough to boil the sap down into syrup for easier transport. That time of early spring was devoted essentially to hunting and keeping warm otherwise.

"The syrup is still in the storage building," Josie announced, almost mindlessly.

Drea's gaze shuttered a bit.

Contemplating the implication. Her sire and brothers were gone.

Augustus fidgeted for a moment before settling back into his formidable casualness. "Once I know what we're dealing with has burned itself out, I'll send a group of Shifters up to collect the stores, Josie."

"What did you do up there most of the year?" Elise asked.

Probably to change the subject.

Josie's gaze snapped with life and locked onto my mate. "Hunt. Process pelts. There's an enormous pile. Especially the beaver. They'd be worth their weight in gold made into winter coats, boots, and blankets." She sighed as if suddenly remembering something.

"Why do you hunt beaver?" Violet asked. "Do you eat them? I've never heard of people eating beavers. Aren't they important to have in the forest because they create ponds and rivers?"

"Yes. But in the cold of winter when sitting in your cabin thinking you'd chew off an arm to have some stew, beaver is pretty tasty. Food and furs. Two reasons to hunt beaver."

"Well, then, I would like some of these furs, Mr. Augustus," Violet announced. "I could use them to make a blanket and learn how to sew my own coat. If you don't mind, Josie. I need to learn how to do things for myself."

I could have rubbed her hair into a tousle.

"Oh, no, Violet," Elise scolded loudly. "Those furs are worth a fortune. You can't ask Josie to give them to you. That's rude."

Josie mindlessly waved a hand. "They'll rot up at the outpost. If Augustus sends up a group of Shifters to retrieve the supplies, he's welcome to do what he will with them."

Augustus winked mischievously at Violet.

He'd never change. After meeting Elise, I have. But my sire isn't that weak-willed. He could manage anything. And I needed to learn to be as easygoing. Maybe that's what Elise was here for. To help me hone my self-control. To throw me into the boxing ring with three opponents just to teach me how to remain patient and focus like my sire.

If that's what Wolf knew I needed in choosing a mate, he'd selected the right female. She'd tested my every nerve with her little secret. Proven I wasn't ready to lead the clan. Forced me to deal with more responsibility than simply the Mating Fever.

I can sink or swim now.

My Elise obviously intended on making me dogpaddle. She would be my self-conscience's demanding little voice. The part of me that forced me to be stronger. Be more patient. Be more cunning. Become what my sire needed for the clan.

Yes, Wolf knew what he was doing. And a warrior and his Wolf worked best as a team. Come Hell or high water, this team would win the race. Even if that means a hell of a lot of Gods-be-damned dogpaddling.

Dinner finished without mention of the deaths and any discussion of the potential epidemic. Tacitus departed, ushering the females through the night to the safety of being underground with Drea, leaving me with my brothers and sire.

Augustus waved me to follow by a turn of his chin. We stepped into his bedroom and closed the door. The cabin's central hearth opened into this room as well. The yellow flames drove back the darkness in half the space. But not in my sire's human eyes.

He leaned close, holding his cup of steaming coffee. "Something's not right about this fever. What can kill a Shifter? We have alien DNA. We've never had trouble with anything except gangrene." He kept his voice low.

Just in case one of my younger brothers got a wild hair to eavesdrop. "You think it's new? Alien?"

"Elise could heal Josie. As far as we know. We won't know whether she carried anything until I can work on the blood samples. I came here for the rest of the day just to ease Josie's mind. But I have a bad feeling about this. And even if Elise healed Josie, her alien DNA might or might not allow her to heal the rest of us packing alien DNA." He tipped his shiny silver cup up and sucked down a gulp of coffee.

What could be the reason for the aliens to introduce a foreign pathogen that attacks Shifters?

"I see it in your stare," Augustus stated dryly. "You're wondering why introduce it? I can only think of two reasons."

I waited for him to continue.

"The extraterrestrials are finished with Shifters--don't need us anymore. Or," he gulped down another swig of coffee and lowered his cup, "they're trying to flush Elise and her sisters out of the underbrush."

"What?" Make some sense now. "The aliens are after Langston."

"Maybe. Maybe not." He drank a long drink of coffee as if scalding his esophagus would bring answers to light out of the foggy haze concealing the answer we needed.

My mate? "Explain why the sisters."

"How do you find what you're looking for, Lucius? Think. It's simple. They're healers. Introduce something to kill people they can heal. And see how far it spreads. Even if the aliens can't find a trend in the diffusion of the microorganism, they could eventually hear where these savior healers are located because people would panic. Word of a treatment would spread. Rumors of psychic healers will be a powerful force. Motivation. Everyone would race to the healers to be near them in case they contracted the fever."

Simple enough. "What do we do?"

"Tomorrow, I'll send you to the telegraph. You'll send an encrypted message to Death Summit. Tell them the game is on. The clan elders will meet early July. We can announce what we've learned at the rendezvous. Unless…" He shrugged and lifted his cup to his lips again.

Simple. No fog bank to burn away. "Unless we're all dead and nobody can make the gathering."

"True." He smacked his lips. "Besides, I need Elise to keep Drea preoccupied. My mate's so concerned her sister is about to have a meltdown. And you know how tough little Josie is." He shook his head as if trying to dislodge what he knew about his cousin.

My sire. Always out to take care of everyone. One day, I'd be as capable. I hope. So, I'd do my part and deliver the message tomorrow. Even if that meant Elise would have to stay behind. Besides, I can make it to the pole and back in a day. Running in my Wolfskin. Easy.

****

"You were right," Lucius admitted as he shut the door to our personal quarters. "Where's Violet?"

Right about Josie? Oh well. At least he admitted something most men wouldn't. And it's nice to know a female's intelligence doesn't intimidate him. I couldn't help but smile. "Violet's sleeping over with her friend."

His golden eyebrow arched sinisterly. "I'll take care of you after I tell you about tomorrow."

Bad timing for the Mating Fever. I had to help his sire tonight in the lab. To be perceived as irresponsible, especially with the clan leader's life at stake, would be the worst thing for me. "Did Augustus need me to assist tonight? He wanted to work in the lab."