Reclaiming the Wolf (Cascade Shifters Book 1) (20 page)

Howard shook his head. “There should be enough for three. I wasn’t taking any chances.”

Except with everyone else’s lives, but Sy didn’t say that. “How long will it take for the cure to start working?”

“I was injected before I got sick. But from what I’ve been told, it should start working on a sick wolf in about four hours.”

Sy nodded. “Okay, then I’m going to test it out. If what you say is true, I’ll come back and we can talk to my brother.”

Before Howard could protest, Sy was out the door. Closing it behind him, he headed back to his car. If Howard was telling the truth, then all he had to do was test the cure on a volunteer and hope it didn’t kill them.

Chapter Seventeen

Sy waited in one of GreyFire’s conference rooms. Erika, Jonathan, and four other GreyFire sentries sat around the rectangular table in the room with him. Since they had time to kill, he looked to Erika and asked, “Has anyone recognized the picture of the man who searched Howard’s apartment?”

Erika shook her head. “No. I asked everyone who’s ever had contact with Markgen, but the middle-aged man is a mystery.”

He grunted. His brother’s people hadn’t seen him since, either, which made Sy think the bastard had fled. If neither DarkStalker nor GreyFire could find the human in the next few days, there would be little chance of ever finding him.

Of course, if they could find a way to beat this damn virus, the man would no longer be a threat.

When the sixth and last still healthy sentry came into the room and locked the door, Sy shifted his attention to the men and women in the room and said, “You’re probably wondering why a cougar asked you to this meeting.” There were a few mumbles and he continued. “The information in this room stays in this room. Are we clear?”

A man with tanned skin, dark brown eyes, and spiky black hair said, “I’m all for being civil, cougar, but you’re a guest here, nothing more.”

Sy raised an eyebrow and nodded at Erika. He didn’t envy her task, but if she dreaded sharing the news, she didn’t show it. Instead, her voice was full of dominance and authority when she said, “I’ll allow that sign of disrespect only because of your ignorance, Tomás.” She gestured toward Sylas. “Kaya declared a power share with Sylas Murray. With Kaya sick, he temporarily is our clan leader.”

The room erupted with questions and Erika put up a hand. The voices died down and she said, “We don’t want this news traveling around the clan. With the current sickness running rampant, this news might turn the den into chaos. Until we get Kaya better, I need all of you to work with Sy. Thanks to him, we might have a cure.”

The man who’d spoken up before, Tomás, looked at him for a second. Then he said, “You’re sleeping with Kaya again, aren’t you?”

Sy growled. He was tired of people asking that fucking question; as if that was the only reason Kaya would ever ask for his help or rely on him.

Well, it was time to show them there was more to Sylas Murray than having Kaya for a girlfriend. “Enough. What is between Kaya and me is none of your damn business. Erika mentioned we might have a cure, so readjust your priorities or I’ll find some other GreyFire members to help me. I was giving deference to your reputations, but so far they aren’t matching up to the reality.”

The room went silent. When one of the sentries spoke up, it wasn’t Erika but rather Jonathan. He said, “Tell us what you know and what needs doing. Any feline who can sneak a punch on me definitely has my respect.”

Sy nodded, grateful for the wolf’s support. He recapped his interrogation with Kevin Howard and about the vial. Then he said, “The question is who do we risk as a guinea pig to see if Howard’s vial works as promised? Kaya would want to use it on herself, but I know there are some wolves much sicker than her, so I wanted to hear your input. Especially since some of the sick wolves have already undergone cougar blood transfusions and I have no idea how that might affect the results.” He looked at the woman at the far end of the table with short, blonde hair and green eyes. “Erika told me you have an M.D., Lisa. What’s your medical opinion?”

The woman named Lisa placed her forearms on the table in front of her and said, “Well, if what Kevin said is true, and we have three doses available, I’d like to use one dose and split it to test for both adverse effects as well as to try to break down the compound so we can reproduce it. A few simple tests will let me know if the mixture of cougar-shifter and wolf-shifter blood will change the effectiveness of the cure.”

“How long do you think that will take?”

Lisa shrugged. “For the transfusion-related test, probably the rest of today; as for the replication, a few days as long as my genius-level researcher, Donovan, remains healthy.”

Sy nodded. “As soon as we’re finished here, I want you to select a discreet team to carry out your ideas. And if this Donovan is as vital as you say, try to keep him away from any infected wolves for as long as possible.”

Lisa said, “That shouldn’t be a problem as he’s not exactly a people person.”

“Good.” He looked around at the rest of the sentries. “After giving one dose to Lisa, that leaves two doses. Since Lisa’s work will take some time, I still say we should offer a dose to one of the sick wolves. That way, if Lisa can replicate the formula, we’ll know for sure that it’ll work and we can start mass injecting everyone pronto.”

Erika spoke up. “From what I’ve seen, the virus works faster on children than on adults. One of the infected children is faring pretty badly. He hasn’t had a transfusion yet, so I can lay out the risks and ask his parents.”

Sy wondered if Howard had ever thought about all the innocent children being hurt by his actions. But rather than waste his time thinking about that asshole, he said to Erika, “Do it.” Then he looked at each and every face around the table. “As for the rest of you, I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. Keep track of where the virus is spreading and let me know straight away if you start showing symptoms.” They all nodded and he said, “That’s it for now. I need to call my brother and then go check on Kaya, unless you have any questions or concerns to report?”

No one replied, so he glanced to Erika, who shook her head.

The others remained quiet. He could tell they still hadn’t warmed up to him, which was fine. For now.

All he cared about was Kaya and getting her clan healthy. If he could do that, then he would have plenty of time to warm up to the sentries. If not, well, he wasn’t going to think about that. For Kaya’s sake, he needed find a way to make it work.

Sy stood up. “Erika and Lisa, I hope you’ll have news for me soon.” He turned toward the door. “We’ll reconvene this evening. I’ll have Erika give you the time and place.”

And with that, Sy left the room to go to Kaya. She had damned well better be still alive.

~~~

Kaya awoke from a dreamless sleep to find Sy sitting in a chair next to her bed with a laptop balanced on his legs. While she remembered waking up several times and falling back to sleep, her head was less fuzzy than the last time she’d been conscious.

And she was a whole hell of a lot less hot.

She tried to sit up, but her body was heavy, as if she had pushed her muscles to the breaking point by running thirty miles yesterday with a stone-filled backpack. Her feeble attempts to sit up caught Sy’s eye, and he closed the laptop, tossed it aside, and leaned forward to cup her face with his hands. The instant he touched her skin, his eyes burned bright with happiness. “Kaya-love, your fever’s broken.”

She didn’t have a fever? It took her a second for her cobweb-filled brain to process that, and then she said, “Tell me what happened, Sylas. Am I going to live?”

He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. The action awoke her wolf, who had been too weak to make her presence known. Sy said, “Are you sure you’re up for it? You’ve got to be exhausted right now.”

Her inner wolf gave a weak growl. Kaya frowned and said, “Exhausted or not, tell me what the hell happened or I’ll find someone else to give me the information.”

He shook his head. “I think my question of whether your stubbornness would ever fade has been answered.”

Before she could reply, he gave her a gentle kiss and said, “But I love your stubbornness, Kaya Alexie, so don’t ever change.”

Her irritation faded as quickly as it had come. “Tell me, Sy. Do I still have a clan to lead?”

His face became serious, and her heart skipped a beat. Had GreyFire been decimated? But if so, why had her fever broken?

She was about to demand an answer again, but Sy brushed the hair off her forehead and said, “Yes, Kaya, you have a clan. A few died before Donovan could manufacture a cure, but considering what could’ve happened, things are good.”

Kaya closed her eyes. Most of her clan was still alive.

The momentary joy faded as she realized that while they were alive, they may no longer want her as their leader. After all, she hadn’t recognized Kevin Howard as the threat he was, and on top of that, she’d put a cougar-shifter in charge while she’d lain sick.

But despite the fact she might lose her position, she was still happy GreyFire had survived and could better prepare against biological warfare in the future. It was time to put their medical research skills to use for more than financial gain. GreyFire might even extend a hand to some of the other shifter clans to work together.

Even if she were no longer their leader, she’d still do whatever it took to protect them. If that meant badgering their new leader with her ideas, so be it. If they kicked her out of the clan, she still had Sylas and he would help her with whatever stubborn proposals she came up with.

Still, she hoped that they didn’t kick her out. Her heart ached at the idea.

She took a deep breath to clear the worry away so she could ask more questions. Neither Kaya nor her wolf liked the unknowing, even if it would hurt them in the long run.

She opened her eyes, looked back at Sylas, and said, “So how did you manage a cure?”

Sy continued to stroke her forehead, and she leaned into his touch. His voice only soothed her further as he explained about questioning Kevin Howard, finding his vial stash, and the ensuing race against the clock to test out and replicate the cure. They hadn’t been able to find the person responsible on the Markgen side, but Sy didn’t seem too worried about that since they now had a way to stop the deadly virus.

Kaya felt her energy waning. As happy as she was to find out everything that had happened, there was one more thing she needed to say before trying to get some rest. “Thank you, Sylas Murray, for taking care of my clan. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you and your brother’s help.”

Sy’s hand stilled on her head and she wondered what was wrong. Had he hated taking over GreyFire? Did he resent her for it? Had her wolves disrespected him the whole time?

But then he gave a lopsided smile and her worries eased. “You’re welcome. But if you really want to thank me, get well soon so I can hand the damn wolves back over into your care.”

Her wolf’s protective instinct came to the forefront. “Did they mistreat you? If they did and they still keep me as their leader, so help me, they will get an earful.”

He grinned. “Good to know they’d make your shit list. I wouldn’t want to be on it.” She frowned and he laughed before he said, “They were less than happy about it in the beginning, but once Jonathan of all people started back me up, the others soon followed suit. Tomás in particular was one difficult bastard to win over.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. His brother was killed by a snow leopard-shifter in Russia a few years back, and he holds it against all feline-shifters.”

“Well, shit. You think Erika might’ve mentioned that to me.”

Kaya had enough energy to muster a smile. “We need to keep you on your toes.”

Sy leaned down and gently kissed her before he moved away and said, “You’re looking tired, love. Why don’t you sleep and we can talk more later?”

She knew he was right, but she fought off her tiredness. She wanted a few more minutes with her cougar-shifter. After contracting the virus, she had a whole new outlook on seizing what was important and never letting go.

And Sylas Murray was definitely something she wanted to keep close.

Rather than tell him how much she cared for him, she focused back on her clan and her own immediate future. She said, “I’ll rest soon, but Sylas? Do you think the clan will want you to transfer the power back to me?”

He frowned. “Why wouldn’t they? Have you not seen how they redecorated your room? If you think that’s a ‘fuck off’ message, then I’m a bear-shifter.”

He gestured around the room and for the first time she noticed the myriads of cards and handmade crafts covering the walls and every available inch of the tables and shelves in the room. Some cards were drawn with crayon, while others looked to be printed from a computer. From all those legible from her bed, they all asked for her to get well soon. Except for one extra-large card drawn with a purple crayon that had what she assumed was a wolf and cougar side-by-side with hearts drawn around it and the world ‘LOVE’ scrawled across the top in big letters.

Kaya blinked back tears. She tried not to get her hopes up, but she was pretty sure her clan still wanted her.