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“Perfect,” she said. “Everyone else, we need all hands on deck to help everyone we can. I know you are all worried about your families and friends, but the only way we can get through this is by getting everyone through it. So, keep your eyes and ears on me. I’m going to need a lot of hands since I only have two.”
River approached me, looking grave and pale. A little muscle flagged in his jaw as he gave me a nod. “Lead the way,” he said.
I left with him and showed him up the stairs as Cole and Ashton went toward one of the storage rooms, likely to gather some five-gallon buckets he kept on hand in case he needed them. It felt a little strange to be apart from Cole while we handled this. I was so used to being with him in every challenge, especially if the challenge was one we faced together about the pack.
As I hurried up the stairs with River, though, I realized the simple act of being apart maybe wasn’t the strange thing. I was quiet as I gathered up two bottles of bleach and a handful of spray bottles. Quiet as I showed River where to find the med kit and the roll of bandages.
I saw why Sylvia had sent us together when I saw the mesh bandage roll. It was enormous. I wondered if she’d maybe had an idea that something like this would happen at some point. She seemed more than prepared for what was happening, to the point it was almost surreal.
By the time River and I got back to the dining room, Sylvia had gotten everything organized in a way that resembled what I could only assume an emergency room triage was like. The shifters who were having lesser reactions to their own therapy were lined up neatly on the left side of the room while the others—the ones experiencing cracking bones and bursting viscera—were off to the right. The middle of the room was a sort of impromptu walkway.
Travis stood in the center of that walkway with a faraway look in his eyes as he worked on soaking up the blood on the floor with a pile of dishtowels.
“Good, you’re back,” Sylvia said to me and River as she walked up to us and took the medical supplies. “Can you guys get to work on that disinfectant? Poor Tim over there can’t stop vomiting because of the smells in the room.”
“Yeah, of course,” I said.
“Take it out of the room if you can, though,” she said. “Some people are just on the edge of starting to be sick, and I worry the smell of straight bleach coming out of the bottle may push them over that edge.”
“Right,” I said before looking up at River. “Can you come help me? That way, I don’t have to make a bunch of trips.”
“Definitely,” he said, looking a bit green himself.
It took me a few frazzled moments to think of the best place to go to be the most efficient. I chewed on the inside of my lip as I turned around in place in the foyer. Finally, I remembered the deep sink in the basement in what was once designed to be a washroom for employees of the hotel this building had been planned as.
“I know where to go,” I said, leading River quickly down the stairs.
We moved through the finished basement and into the little utility closet. We intended to use it as such, so the floors still had cool, smooth concrete and the walls remained unpainted. The laundry hookups were unused, but the sink was deep, with two faucets that supplied cold water. Cole had told me that the sink was usually used for mops, but since the basement was carpeted, we could just use the room as a storage area until we could get the remnants of the room’s original purpose out of it.
River and I got to work, using a nearby measuring cup to make the bleach and water solution as accurately as we could. The water pressure was low, though, and the bottles were filling up frustratingly slowly.
As we stood there in silence, I felt River’s eyes on me. I looked at him and found he was wearing a slightly concerned expression.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, immediately self-conscious.
I looked at myself to see if I was having a wardrobe malfunction. After all, I was still in pajamas. Nothing looked amiss, though.
“It’s nothing, I think…I…” he trailed off. “I think I’m just surprised to see you in your element in all of this.”
I looked back up at him. “My element?” I repeated before sputtering a laugh. “Hardly. Without Sylvia, I’d probably be melting into a puddle right about now.”
“I don’t mean this particular circumstance, as in the chaos upstairs,” he clarified. “I mean all of it—being a mate, a wife, helping run a pack. Don’t get me wrong, though, you’re really holding it down in this situation, too.”
“Nah,” I said dismissively as I finished filling one bottle and put the spraying head on it. I grabbed the next bottle and got to work measuring the bleach. “I’m just trying to be as helpful as I can.”
“Don’t be modest, Marley,” River said, sounding almost annoyed. “I’m not blowing smoke up your ass here, alright? And you deserve to be proud of your accomplishments.”
“Sorry.”
He finally cracked a smile and shook his head. “It’s fine,” he said. “Sorry, I’m not angry. I’m just stressed. It’s hell up there right now, and I’m kinda glad it’s taking forever to make these bottles. That’s what I mean, though. You’re holding it down a lot better than you’re giving yourself credit for.”
“Well, thank you,” I said, touched. “I was actually just thinking about how weird it is that I’m doing all this stuff away from Cole.”
“Is it weird?” River asked. “I mean, you and Cole were doing stuff apart when you visited us in Georgia.”
“Hmm,” I thought for a moment. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We did do a lot apart. I guess we’ve been handling stuff apart here, too—sort of dividing and conquering. But I don’t know. I guess something feels different about it, you know?”
“When I first met you, your biggest frustration seemed to be your lack of agency,” River said. “The feeling that nothing you did really mattered, for better or worse. When you came to training that day and we paired up, most of the other nonshifters were there to learn how to protect themselves. You were there for that, too, but you also talked a lot more about being able to protect other people.”
