Page 37 of Dark

He released me, and I collapsed in a twitching, boneless heap. The others leaped away like I had fleas. Over the next twenty minutes, I fought to regain control one finger and toe at a time, listening with my cheek pressed to the carpet while the local vet was called. My brother was given grape Tylenol, which he promptly threw up.

“He needs to go to the emergency room,” Sofia said in a low voice.

Ben paced, worn work boots crossing in and out of my field of vision. “And if they want to draw blood? Spinal fluid?”

“You know as well as I do nothing will show up in his spinal fluid, and it’s the middle of the month. His viral levels will be undetectable.”

“We think. If you’re wrong, and someone starts asking questions—”

“Then I’ll deal with them,” Sofia snapped. “Have you forgotten what I am?”

There was a long pause. “And if that doesn’t work? You realize we could be bringing down—"

“You think I’m afraid of my brother?” Sofia’s voice went so cold that for a second, I stopped breathing. “I don’t follow his orders, and I sure as hell don’t follow yours. I’m taking my son to the doctor. Try and stop me.”

She stalked past Ben, and in that moment, I could not have loved Sofia more, knew that in the morning when my social worker arrived and my trash bag and I were gone, she would love August as fiercely as if he were her own blood. A traitorous tear dribbled down my cheek. Pushing drunkenly upright, I swiped it away.

Ben scrubbed a hand over his face and called Brody over. “We’ll stop and send Calgary home on the way into town. I expect you to handle things here until we get back.”

“Yessir.” Brody’s bare toes dug into the carpet.

I stabbed my fingernails into my palms until I smelled blood. “I want to go with August.”

No one responded. I might as well have been invisible.

Over Brody’s shoulder, I caught a glimpse of my brother’s auburn hair as Sofia bundled him off to Ben’s truck.

“Wait!” I shouted. “Ben, please!”

Maybe he heard the desperation in my voice, because at the last minute, he turned. Chest heaving, I clawed dark red furrows into my arms, trying to calm down so he would take me along. Kneeling, Ben started to put a hand on my shoulder. I lurched back so fast I hit the wall. He dropped his arm.

“Need you to stay here with your brothers.”

Panic flared. “August is my brother.”

Ben continued, “They don’t let kids into the ER. You’d just be stuck out in the waiting room—”

“I don’t care.”

“—and I can’t be in two places at once if something happens and you lose your cool.”

“I won’t. I can control it this time, I swear.”

But Ben was already pulling his keys from his pocket. “We’ll call from the hospital as soon as we know something.”

I shrank back into the wall, the black, desperate rage from before clawing up through my chest. The front door slammed. Ben’s truck pulled out of the drive, the sound of the tires spinning on the gravel sending my wolf into a frenzy, a sense of panic I hadn’t felt since the last time the social workers tried to separate me from August three years before screaming between my ears, blocking out everything else.

As if they could read what I was thinking, Brody and Dallas edged between me and the door.

West jumped in, having become a master in the past year at talking me and Dallas out of murdering each other. “August will be fine. You heard Mom. Let’s pull out the Wii and see if there’s any ice cream.”

I used their moment of distraction to bolt back into August and River’s room. The three of them shouted in surprise. They were still yelling for me as I launched myself towards the window, Brody’s fingers nearly closing around my collar as I exploded as a soot-black wolf headfirst through the glass.

7

Ethan

THIRTY MINUTES LATER we were parked outside the Walmart across from the after-hours vet clinic where Ellie worked weekend shifts.