Wolf Fur Hire(28)

“Link?”

“Stay back.” His voice dipped and grew gravelly. “She’s going to kill us.”

“What?” Nicole held her hands out helplessly. “I won’t kill you.”

“Not you. The fox. The fox will kill us.”

“Vera? Link, I don’t understand. You said she loves you like her own brother. She won’t hurt you.”

Link leaned forward, hands on his knees and dry-heaved, and when he stood and linked his hands behind his head, she saw his eyes. They were pure white, and blood flowed freely down his nose, dripping from his chin onto the snow.#p#分页标题#e#

“Oh, my God.” Nicole approached a step, but he countered and backed away.

Link angled his face in warning, his eyes telling her to stay put. “You don’t want to touch me now, woman. Wolf is hurt.” A feral snarl left him. “Fuck you.”

“What?”

“Not you,” Link choked out, shaking his head again. “That part was for me. I did this.”

She didn’t understand any of this. Didn’t understand the conversation that was going on between Link and Wolf, and she couldn’t comprehend the reason for the gore on Link’s face. His nose didn’t look broken or even swollen.

“Tell me what’s going on, Link. Tell me right now.”

Link spat red in the snow and hooked his hands on his hips. “When you told me to fight, I did. I went and saw Vera. I asked her to try and fix me. Or if she couldn’t fix me, I want her to buy me time. I want more time.”

“With me, or more time to figure out how to fix the curse?”

“Either one. I’ll take anything.”

“And Vera’s medicine is doing this to you?”

Link waited too long to answer. The only sound was the pit, pat, pit, pat of crimson staining the ice near the toe of his boot. Finally, he dipped his chin once. “Vera has tried to cure a McCall before.” He strode around her and up the porch stairs to the cabin.

Stunned, she asked in a high pitch, “And?”

“And it didn’t work,” he gritted out over his shoulder as he disappeared inside.

“Wha—?” Nicole followed him in and closed the door gently behind her.

Link stood at the sink washing his face, but even from here, she could hear the constant growl in his throat. The unbalanced sound tore at her heart. He was in pain because she’d pushed him. He was worse now than she’d ever seen him.

“What do you mean it didn’t work?”

Link locked his arms against the counter, staring out the window with his back to her. His voice was hoarse and exhausted when he said, “She had a friend on the island where she used to live. She was banished there to try and fix the problem shifters, and one of them was a McCall. Eustice. My cousin. He tried to be good, like me. Vera can suppress animals, but with McCalls, it’s not just an animal problem.” Link turned and leaned his hip on the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s a problem with the human side, too.”

“So putting Wolf to sleep like she did with the Silvers’ bears won’t fix you?”

Link shook his head, those blindingly white eyes steady on her. “Vera tried to suppress Eustice’s wolf, but with us, it’s different. One bad, unbalanced wolf in a pack can affect the entire dynamic. He can make an entire pack rotten. When she suppressed Eustice’s wolf, the poisonous side of his human half went unchecked, and he got head-sick faster.”

“What happened to him?” she asked in horror.

“He hanged himself.”

Nicole sank down into a chair by the table. It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. It felt as if an avalanche had settled over her, pinned her body so tightly she couldn’t move to dig herself out. “Oh, Link. I don’t want you to take that medicine anymore. Not at this cost.”

Link pulled out the chair on the opposite side of the table and sat down hard. As he removed his winter hat, she stared in sympathy at his shaking hands.

“Vera is adjusting the serum as we go. She’s trying something different on me. She calls this one the McCall Reset. The idea isn’t to put Wolf to sleep, because I need him. The plan is to curb some of the traits the McCalls get in the final stages of madness, and to repair my fucked up DNA. She needs time to fix me though.” Link worried at a loose string on his discarded gloves and dipped his gaze. “Vera thinks you can save me.”#p#分页标题#e#

“How?”

“By being my anchor while go through the cycle of meds. Eustice didn’t have anything to live for. He gave up when it got too hard.” He inhaled deeply and locked eyes with her. “Vera wants to meet you.” Link slammed his hand on the table and snarled, “The fox hurts. You make us feel better.”