Chapter 6

The infirmary was halfway between the main entrance of the house and the gym. It was a good-sized room with white walls and white tiled flooring. It had one of those beds you see in hospitals, the ones where you can adjust about everything, in the far right corner with a nightstand against the wall, tucked in the corner and a railing along the top that allowed a ten by ten section of that part of the room to be curtained off.

To the left were two island type counters that looked more like those lab stations in high school. Behind them was another counter and several overhead cabinets. Along the right wall were a variety of different medical machines that Dannie couldn’t even guess what they were for and more cabinets. These were narrow and made of gray metal. Near Sara was what looked like a makeshift waiting area with a couple of chairs, a couch, and a coffee table with outdated magazines in the middle.

The air had a strange smell of pungent herbs and disinfectant. Sara was over by the lab station. She looked up, her brow furrowing and full lips pursing as Dannie entered. “Danielle. How are you? Anything I can help you with.”

“Mom told me you were making my shift injections. I’m just coming by to collect.”

“Ah,” Sara said, closing the lip on a glass jar. She walked around the table looking as ethereal and graceful as one of Tolkien’s elves. Her light blonde hair, slim, pale frame, and loose, flowing dresses only accented the regal air she carried. In her late thirties, Sara could pass as an early twenty-something without too much trouble. Her brow furrowed lower as she frowned. “I’m afraid they’re not all finished.”

Somehow Dannie wasn’t surprised. “You’re joking right?”

“I have been busy.”

“Busy? With what? This is a tiny town. The festival just started so don’t even try to use that as an excuse like Mom did.”

Sara lifted a fine, blonde eyebrow. “I do have other duties.”

Dannie pressed her lips together, trying to keep her temper. “How many do you have made?”

“None. I’m still collecting the supplies.”

“What? Why?”

“Not everything is so easy to get a hold of. Wolfsbane isn’t a plant we commonly keep on hand. It takes time to get a supply in.”

Dannie wanted to rip out her hair and scream. Why did her father tell her they’d be ready? “How long?”

Sara made a soft hum as she handed Dannie a jar of herbs. “Please put that in the cabinet over there will you?” With a frown, she took the jar from her. “The shipment is due to arrive Monday so I’d say by Wednesday they should be finished. I was told you had enough to pass the full moon. Am I wrong?”

“No, I have two injections. That’s it,” Dannie said as she put the jar where Sara told her. “I can’t believe this. My flight was—” Dannie’s fingers brushed something velvety soft that zapped her with what felt like static electricity. “Ow, what was that?”

“What was what?”

“I don’t know. Here let me get it,” Dannie said and pulled out a rectangular shape, wrapped in a dusty gray cloth.

Sara gasped and rushed over to Dannie. She grabbed it out of her hands and snapped, “Don’t touch that!”

“Okay…” Dannie replied, shocked, and held up her hands.

“What is this book doing here?” Sara said, frowning and angry.

Book? She was freaking out over a book. Suddenly, the realization hit Dannie. “Wait, is that the book as in the book?”

Sara grimaced. “Yes.”

“Wow,” she said in equal measure of awe and horror. This book was a deabru spellbook of sorts. It had caused more than its fair share of havoc on her family. The spell that tore her dad’s soul in two, causing him to live a split existence as twins for hundreds of years came from that book. The spell that killed Balric the Betrayer’s son came from the same book and started a spur of murders through him, Mom, and Ian that took almost a hundred werewolf lives cause of it.

Of course, on the flip side, Sara used to book to heal Dannie’s father’s soul after Ian killed her uncle and namesake. It had stripped Ian of his stolen power so her mom could defeat him. Dannie itched to look at it, look through the macabre pages that played such a big part of her family’s history.

“Dannie, I think it’s best if you leave,” Sara said, giving her a little push to the door. “Forget you ever saw that book and never talk about it.”

“Wait, why?” Dannie asked, more than a little disappointed. “What’s—”

“Go,” Sara demanded, giving her a stern glare. “I’ll have your injections ready as soon as I can. I promise.”

Dannie stared at her for a moment. She didn’t understand what the big deal was. Yes, the book was a nasty and vile thing, but forget she ever saw it? Never talk about it? What was Sara afraid of? No one, but Sara could use the thing. From what Dannie understood one had to have the ability for magic to use it. With a shrug as she left the room, Dannie said, “Okay, fine.”

Shaking her head, she started up the stairs but stopped when she heard her sister calling “Come on, let’s go for a run,” Cass said, bouncing from foot to foot. She was already decked out in black athletic shorts, a gray tennis top, and her hair in a bun.

Usually, running wasn’t Dannie’s favorite cardio. She preferred dancing, but why not spend some time with her sister since she was going to be stuck there for a while. “Sure, let me go get changed.”

Cass gave her two thumbs up and Dannie rushed up the stairs. She threw on gray leggings with a red tank top and joined Cass out in the backyard. On the edge of the yard was a dirt trail that forked off in different circuits.

The first fork was for the mile-long trail then five and branching off every five-mile increments for the maximum circuit of twenty-five miles. Dannie knew Cass probably did the twenty-five circuit, but she couldn’t. “Ten miles. That’s my limit.”

Cass looked at her over her shoulder and smirked. “Okay, we’ll take it easy. I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Dannie narrowed her eyes at her twin for a moment then smirked back. “Yeah, well what can I say? We can’t all be the golden child.” She didn’t wait to hear Cass’s reply before she began a slow, easy jog to warm up.

“You’re not funny, Dannie,” Cass said, catching up to her.

Dannie grinned and continued to jog, gradually picking up speed until she was running. The yellowed, grassy landscape rushed by her. The whisper of the wind through the grass, the sounds of their feet hitting the ground, and their heavy breath were all she could hear. Dannie’s heart pumped and she could almost feel the blood rush through her veins. All her previous worries and aggravations were flushed from her system, and it was great.

“So how are things?” Cass asked as they slowed about three miles in.

“Same ole, same ole, really,” Dannie replied.

“I see,” Cass said, slightly bitter.

“You’re not going to start that again are you?”

“I just don’t get it. You’re not stupid nor are you desperate so why the hell, out of all the things you could be doing, are you a stripper?”

“First, it’s exotic dancer and second maybe because I enjoy it and I make a lot of money doing it.”

She scowled. “Now you sound like a prostitute. God, Dannie I have spent all of my previous lives fighting for women to be taken seriously, to be treated as equals, and here you are allowing men to objectify you.”

Dannie sighed, rolling her eyes. “Oh please, Cass time to get off your high horse. It’s all good fun, a harmless fantasy. I get to play someone else and men get to pretend I’m dancing just for them”

“Of course, them throwing money at you to convince you to take off what little clothes you have on is not demeaning at all.”

Again, she rolled her eyes. “They don’t throw money at me. What’s the difference between men putting a five-dollar bill in my shoe strap than leaving the same thing to tip a waitress? Look, I’m not ashamed of what I do nor am I going to let you make me ashamed either.”

Cass furrowed her brow, frowning. “I’m not saying you should be, Dannie. I don’t want that either. It’s just… is that really the person you want to be?”

“For now, yeah. I’m saving up my money, thinking about what I want to do with my life, and when I figure that out, I’ll have the money I need to go for it.”

“Why can’t you do that here?”

“You know why. I can’t be around werewolves without causing friction. It’s better for everyone that I live so far away,” Dannie replied. Besides, she didn’t want to be reminded every day of how different she was either.

“It isn’t better for everyone. I know Mom and Dad hate you being so far away and I don’t like it. The others, well, they’ll get used to the creepy thing as we did. It doesn’t bother me anymore and I know it doesn’t Mom and Dad either.”

Great. They can tolerate her. What great praise! “Do you even hear yourself, Cass?”

“What do you mean?”

Dannie shook her head. “Never mind. Come on, let’s run some more.”

“No Dannie what do you mean?” Cass demanded, but Dannie was already jogging and picking up speed until she was running again. There was no point in trying to explain it. Dannie had tried in the past and she never got it. Cass fit in and was a friend to all. She always had been. It, along with her passion and fighting spirit, was what drew and convinced her sire to turn her into a werewolf in the sixteen hundreds. Cass never knew what it was like to be lost in the world, not knowing one’s place in it.

Dannie, on the other hand, did. She was a reject. Her wolf was so weak it never spoke to her as other wolf spirits did. Dannie didn’t have a past like other werewolves. She only remembered this lifetime. The only reason Dannie was sure she was a werewolf was that when she was twelve and in full swing of puberty, she started to go through her first shift. Dannie also would’ve died that night if it wasn’t for her mom and Sara stopping it.

Shame burned deep in Dannie’s chest and she shook her head again, trying to clear her past and what she was from her head. Dannie sucked in a breath and pushed herself to run faster. Could it be possible to outrun the truth if she just ran fast enough? Dannie didn’t think so, but, at that moment, she wanted to try. At the very least, she wanted to keep Cass from asking her to explain her life choices again.