FORTY-FOUR
The hardest part of any doctor’s job was talking to the families of patients who had died. To look a grieving spouse, child, father, mother, brother, sister, in the eye and have to tell them that, in spite of everything you had learned and all that was at your disposal, you had not been able to keep their loved one alive…was a nightmare.
But what the hell did you say about something like this? Jane thought as she stared at the mobile surgical unit’s empty exam table.
As the RV slowed and made a fat turn, she sat back down beside Vishous and tried to put the series of events into perspective. Into a rational framework. Into something that could be explained without the use of the word “zombie.”
God in heaven above, she thought. Not for the first time.
They didn’t even have a body anymore.
“Almost there,” Qhuinn said from up front.
Leaning around V, Jane looked down the surgical unit’s interior and through the front windshield. She couldn’t see much but evergreens and skeleton trees all covered in snow—no, wait, there was the farmhouse.
Havers’s underground medical facility was located on the far side of the Hudson, deep in a forest, and it was accessible through various entry points, all separated by plenty of distance. The one they were going to use was the faker homestead with the barn out back, the one that appeared to be where peaceable humans resided, the ruse to hide the rest.
This was where deliveries came in, and also, when sadly applicable, bodies.
After Qhuinn turned them around in the drive and parked them butt-in to the barn, Jane got out of the RV and took a series of deep breaths. She still had no idea what she was going to say to the civilian’s next of kin. Cause of death: cardiac failure due to traumatic injury. Cause of reanimation: no clue. Secondary cause of death: incineration by my mate’s hand.
“Come on,” V said as he put an arm around her shoulders.
She hadn’t been aware of just standing there in the cold, but Qhuinn had already opened the side door of the barn and was waiting. Getting with the program, she was all in her head as they checked in with the security monitor, were granted access to the elevator, and descended down to the clinic. As they got off, it was into a warm, well-lit, utterly undecorated corridor that looked exactly like all the ones in human hospitals.
“Damn it, I always forget which way to go,” she muttered.
Yup, just like St. Francis. Lost and there was no signage.
“This way,” V said.
After a bunch of turns that she didn’t track, they came around a corner and found what looked like almost all of the Brotherhood standing in a clutch. Havers, the race’s physician and Marissa’s estranged brother, was by them, all college-professor-like with his tortoiseshell glasses and his bow tie.
Everyone got good and quiet as Jane and her two escorts approached, and she hung back as V and Qhuinn answered a lot of very difficult questions. And answered some more. And…
“Excuse me,” she cut in. “But where is the next of kin? I want to go see him now.”
Havers cleared his throat. “What are you going to tell him?”
“What I know to be true.”
“Are you certain that is wise?”
Jane frowned—and before she knew what she was doing, she stepped in tight to the healer. Even though he was taller than she was, she glared right up into those glasses.
“I’m not going to lie to him, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” she snapped. “He has a right to know everything we do, and if I can’t explain something, I’m going to let him know that.”
“There could be larger consequences,” Havers hedged. “This could be a threat to the species at large, and one wouldn’t want to cause a panic.”
As the healer looked around, seeking backup from the Brothers, she was done. “Not my problem. I’m a physician first, the rest of you can worry about politics. Now where is my dead patient’s brother.”
The fact that everyone just stared at Vishous pissed her off. Like she was a problem to be managed by him?
“She’s one hundred percent correct,” Vishous said. “She should tell him what she knows and what she doesn’t. It’s up to us to put it in context. But there will be no lying or subterfuge—and I’m going to make sure no one interferes with what she has to say. Anyone have a problem with that.”
That last one was not phrased like a question and he was pegging Havers with hard eyes as he laid it out there.
The healer looked to the floor and nodded. “But of course. Right this way.”
Havers led them down the hall even farther and then into a waiting area that was half full with lots of chairs. As they passed through, Jane noted the patients and families who were milling around, or sitting watching the TV, or standing in line at the reception desk. Many of them waved to the healer, smiled at him, greeted him with respect—and he was gracious in return.
It was a reminder of Havers’s complicated nature. He was good to the people who came to him for help, he truly was. It was just outside of that sphere that made you want to smack him sometimes.
Now there was signage, the overhead plaques with arrows directing people this way and that to things like RADIOLOGY, OUTPATIENT SURGERY, OBSTETRICS, WELLNESS CARE. Eventually, Havers took them down a short hall that had four closed doors, two on each side. Beside them, discreet labels read FAMILY COUNSELING.
“He is in here,” Havers announced as he went to knock on one of the panels. “He is Aarone, son of Stanalas.”
V caught the healer’s arm. “She goes in alone. You and I are waiting out here.”
“Actually, Vishous, why don’t you and I go in together?” Jane pivoted toward him. “You were there. You might offer some insight I cannot.”
“You got it.”
Jane was the one who knocked, and when there was a quiet “Come in,” she opened things up. A very well-dressed young male with blond hair and pale eyes was sitting in one of six chairs. He was obviously nervous, his palms stroking up and down his thighs, his shoulders braced.
“Hello, Aarone,” Jane said as she entered. “I’m Dr. Jane Whitcomb, and this is my mate, Vishous, who has medical training. I’m here to speak with you about your brother—”
“Half-brother.” The male looked at Vishous. Looked back. “He’s my half-brother, but we’re very close. What’s going on? I got this phone call and I came here, but no one’s telling me—is Whinnig okay?”
The words came out in a rush, his anxiety clearly overcoming him.
“May I have your permission to speak with Vishous present?” When the male nodded, she approached him. “Is it all right for me to sit down next to you?”
“Yes, of course.” Aarone got to his feet and offered his palm for a shake. “Forgive my manners.”
Jane took a seat and waited until he’d resettled and those pale eyes came back to her. And then she spoke. “I’m so sorry, your brother has gone unto the Fade.”
She used the traditional vampire way of communicating death, out of respect, and the reaction was immediate. The male began to tremble, his eyes glassing over with tears.
“What—how? He was perfectly healthy. I just had First Meal with him a couple of hours ago. How did this happen?”
Jane handled the sad business like a total professional, and as Vishous stood with his back against the door—in case Havers got any bright ideas—he could only respect his mate even more. She told the male what happened event by event, with a calm, firm voice. And as for the parts that couldn’t be explained, she owned up to them and fielded the questions as best she could.
And then the male looked across at V. “You don’t know what it was that attacked him? I don’t understand?”
Vishous cleared his throat. “The only conclusion we can draw at this time is that the Omega is changing its strategy and sending something new out into the field.” Even though those entities had not read as part of the evil one, what else could be behind them? “We will get to the bottom of this, though—I promise you.”
The young male burst up and paced around in the tight quarters. “And meanwhile, I have no body to bury. Just a nightmare story and a whole lot of I-don’t-knows.”
“I’m sorry,” Vishous said remotely.
Jane handled the anger better than he did. “I realize this is very hard. I lost a sibling myself, and frankly, I’m still not over it. I really wish we had more for you, I truly do.”
The male stopped and faced her. “How do I know that Whinnig made it unto the Fade?”
“Was he a kind male? A just and kind male?”
Those tears, the ones that had come before the anger, reemerged. “Whinnig was the best. He was my closest friend. We went everywhere together. We have always been inseparable—especially after all of our parents were…they didn’t make it through the raids.”
V closed his eyes in commiseration. So much fucking loss. He fucking hated the Omega, he really did—
Vishous flipped his lids back open. “Tell me something, did your brother mention where he was going tonight?”
If they were inseparable, where had Aarone been?
“He was meeting someone. I don’t know who, though.” The male looked over. “He never had anything to do with the Lessening Society, if that’s where you’re going with this.”
“Not at all. I was just wondering.”
At least they had the cell phone that had been used to call for help. V was going to go through that as soon as he could. Look for numbers. Contacts. Although come on, like the Omega was going to reach out and touch people through a goddamn phone call?
“And it’s such bad luck, what with that will,” Aarone said.
“What will?” V asked.
The young male dragged a hand through his hair. “We had different mahmen, Whinnig and I. He was born first and his mahmen died on the birthing bed. We found out, like a week ago, that his uncle on that side of his family had recently died and left him this huge estate? My brother and I are…we are well off, it is true. But he invited me to go to celebrate this windfall with him. We were going to travel, get out of Caldwell during this winter weather…but that is not going to happen anymore.”
V measured the male again. The clothes were fine, that cashmere coat and those fancy loafers the kind of thing that required cash and taste to afford. And the accent was straight-up glymera, all the way.
“Who was the uncle?” V said.
The name given didn’t ring any bells. But then the aristocracy’s shit was not something he had ever much bothered with.
Jane spoke up. “I’d like to suggest you speak with a counselor, Aarone. The clinic here has a number of them on staff. They can really help with grief.”
“I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
“Just keep it in mind. And if you have any questions, or you want to speak with me again, all you have to do is ask and I’ll be here.” There was an awkward pause. “Do you have someone who can pick you up? Help you get home?”
More with the hair dragging. “My girlfriend is at my house. It’s our two-year anniversary. She’s supposed to be getting something ready for us, and that’s the only reason I didn’t go out with Whinnig tonight. Bad timing, huh.”
“How about we call her and ask her to come get you?” Jane offered.
“I’m fine.”
Jane got to her feet and put her hand on the male’s shoulder. “I think it would be best for you not to be alone right now. This is a bad shock made so much worse with everything we don’t know.”
After a moment, the male stared up at Jane. “Was it a brother or a sister? The one you lost?”
“It was my little sister, Hannah. She died when she was young, but I remember everything.”
“And you’re not over it.”
Jane shook her head. “No. But that doesn’t mean I’m not living my life, either. We take our dead with us through our lives, and that’s the way it should be. And again, if you believe the good and the just go to the Fade, then your brother is there. Believe in that. How he died doesn’t change who he was, do you understand? No matter what happened, it was not his fault and it will not change his afterlife.”
There was another pause, and then the male got to his feet and threw his arms around Jane. As the pair of them stood together, V looked down at the floor out of respect.
And thought of his mahmen for no good reason.