Chapter 104

Grace

My heart raced as I stared at my phone. I waited for him to call back, but as time stretched on and the night began to fall, I had to give up. Amira headed home. Eason and I headed back home as well, though he didn't ride with me. I wanted to ask him to, but he was gone before I could. I could have really used the company. He got home before me, but he didn't stay downstairs long enough to talk after raiding the freezer, warming something up, and disappearing upstairs.

I tried not to think about what that all meant or much else. I tried to trust Charles' skill, so I showered. I tried to do some research. I tried to talk to Eason, but he was dead asleep by the time I tried to. I put Cecil and Richard to sleep. Margaret had come home about an hour after I'd put the kids together, paused in the doorway of the living room, and rolled her eyes.

"Go to bed, Grace."

I didn't move, and she didn't wait for me to and disappeared upstairs. Silence fell over the house. I tried to go back to reading. Then, I paced and paced until it felt like I was going to make a dent in the floor, yet the unease didn't ease. The moon rose in the distance. The stars twinkled outside. I made tea and drank it, but I couldn't sit still. I walked around the house. Eason came down for a few minutes with glowing eyes and a sweat trickling down his neck.

"Eason?" He turned to look at me, crouched beside the freezer. His eyes were two glowing points in the dark. "Could we talk?"

He tilted his head at me, blinked, and went back to digging through the freezer. He pulled out a box of what looked like ice cream from a brand I'd never seen and dropped it into a small cooler beside him.

"It's just... Charles hasn't called, and I really--I'm freaking out, and--"

Eason closed the door of the freezer, stood up, and picked up the cooler in one hand. Then, he growled at me.

Go to bed.

I flinched at the tone of it: accusing, irritated, and just a bit angry, but before I could say anything, he staggered back towards the stairs, leaving me alone in the kitchen with the silence again.

The sky was just starting to lighten when my phone chimed, and the screen lit up with a message from Charles. Relief washed over me as I read it.

Everything is fine. I'll call you in the morning.

With trembling hands, I quickly dialed his number and held the phone to my ear. The seconds felt like hours as I waited for him to pick up. When he finally did, his voice sounded tired but reassuring.

"Grace," he said, and just hearing his voice was like a soothing balm for my frayed nerves. "You should be sleeping."

I couldn't help the faint smile that tugged at my lips, even in the midst of my worries. "I needed to hear your voice, Charles. I couldn't sleep until I knew you were okay. Are you okay? You're not just telling me that while you're... bleeding out or something like that?"

There was a warm, fondness in his response, though it was accompanied by a faint chiding tone. "I'm fine, love. Not even a scratch, but I won't be coming back."

His words shocked me. "What do you mean, Charles? Why not?"

Charles sighed and explained what had happened when we got off the phone. My heart pounded as I listened, knowing that the situation was far more dire than I had initially feared. When he finished, I hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Charles, we should bring those survivors to Mooncrest. They might need medical attention, and we can't leave them out there."

"They are getting medical attention out here, but there is no way I would clear that."

I bristled at the words. "Clear that?"

"Lycan Enforcer--"

"It's my territory."

"It is outside the edge of your territory. These people are not from your territory, so now it's not. No, it's not your jurisdiction."

"I'm the nearest alpha to their territory. I should render aid."

"I am not telling you not to. I am telling you that I will not bring unknown people into your city during a terrorist attack."

I blinked. "They're injured."

"Yes."

"We have hospitals."

Charles took a deep breath. "I can't tell if you're being stubborn or obtuse. A group of people catch a new strain of Flu, deadly as hell, fast-spreading--do you bring them into your hospitals?"

"I'd quarantine them at least."

"You are missing the point. Until it's certain these people aren't a threat, I'm not clearing any transport to take them into the city. Blood Moon has used infiltrators to get inside territories during situations like this."

"Even infiltrators will die without proper medical treatment, Charles," I said. "Mooncrest has always--"

"Your father shut the borders during the Silver Flu Epidemic. Do you not remember that?"

"This isn't a flu--"

"You're right. There is no quarantine for a bomb threat, Grace."

"You can't honestly think that someone could sneak a bomb into Mooncrest on their person with no one noticing?"

He let out a soft groan. "I don't have time to argue with you or the energy to argue with you about something you have no experience with."

"I told the citizens today that I would stay true to Mooncrest's values. We help people, not save our own skin at the expense of someone else's."

"Not stupidly," Charles said. "I understand you want to help, but you cannot put yourself at risk to do so."

I set my jaw. "What about the not-bomber-suspects? What happens when they bleed out? Am I just supposed to accept that?"

"Hard answer: yes." I growled at his answer. "Soft answer: compromise."

My brow furrowed, and I narrowed my gaze out the window. "I'm listening."

"Get a group of non-essential medics together, and I'll have a unit bring them out to the camp. "

"That's not--"

"That's the compromise, Grace. Take it or leave it."

I didn't like it. It went against everything I believed in. How would I feel knowing my family member was denied aid that could have saved their life because of a potential that was so unlikely to happen? Let him have his compromise, I guess.

"I don't like this."

"I'm not asking you to."

"You'd really be okay with letting people die on a distant maybe."

"I won't lose a moment of sleep over it. I promise."

"I didn't think you were that callous." He was quiet for a moment. "And in case you didn't remember, there are already Blood Moon operatives in Mooncrest. Don't you remember the list? Blood Moon said a week. These people might not even survive--"

"Take it or leave it, Grace."

I set my jaw. The words ricocheted through me. "Fine. I'll take it."

"Good. Pick-up point is Mooncrest Hospital."

I hung up, frustrated and antsy. Charles couldn't be serious. The man who played with Cecil and rocked Richard to sleep, the man who loved me, couldn't imagine letting people die on a maybe.

Where was the proof that there was a real danger of letting a handful of people come to Mooncrest to rest after they'd been through such an ordeal? There wasn't any, and as much as Charles said I had no experience with Blood Moon, I had enough experience as a person who needed help.

And as alpha of Mooncrest, it was my call to make, not his.

I called the hospital to get them to put together a team of medics, briefing them on the situation. Alongside the medical team, I organized a police escort to ensure safe transportation for anyone requiring more advanced medical care back within our city's borders. The Enforcers were good at their jobs, but medics and whatever medical training they had wasn't going to be enough to save that woman's life.

And no one's life was any more important than any other.

I got off the phone and sank into the cushions of my couch with a sigh. This would all be over soon. Based on the debrief I got from Eason about the last attack, Blood Moon pulled out within a week as soon as the patent for the Silver Flu landed.

The longevity drug wasn't as pressing as the Silver Flu vaccine, but I couldn't believe that the President, for all of his underhandedness, would risk losing all the research on the drug.

After all, the patent held no information about how it was synthesized, just the effects of the drug based on chemical analysis. If he wanted a chance to get the drug to Lunar Remedies for production, he was going to have to come into Mooncrest, infiltrate Wolfe Medical's labs, and steal my research.

And that was even more impossible than trying to blow up Mooncrest.

My alarm went off, telling me it was time to get ready for another day at the office.

I took a deep breath, made some of my own coffee, and headed out before anyone else was awake.