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***
Max stepped over the threshold of Alma Venus Boarding School for the second time in his life. The first time, he had been here to find a bride. Now, he was here to save her. It had been difficult to convince Avelyn to stay at the Schloss, but she had eventually understood. They had all been on edge in the past two weeks, waiting to hear from Miss Delacroix. It seemed that it took Delyse quite some time to convince her brother to pay her a visit, but she had managed in the end. Then, it took forever for James Harington to make up his mind. The interesting part was that Max didn’t receive a call from the headmistress, but from James himself. He had asked Max to meet him at Alma Venus because he wanted Delyse and Monique Delacroix to be there. Why? Max had no idea, and he didn’t care either. If James established the meeting, then it meant he had the cure, which was all that mattered. The clock was ticking. One more week until Thunder Moon. Avelyn needed the vaccine now.
The secretary greeted him and told him he was expected. He went inside the office. The same office where he had interviewed Avelyn. It felt like a century ago. He closed the door behind him as softly as he could.
“Hello,” he said. “Miss Delacroix.” He nodded his head towards her. “Delyse, Mr. Harington…”
“Please, call me James.” The young man closed the space between them and shook Max’s hand in a firm grip. He was tall and handsome, and his intense blue eyes and perfect blond hair made it clear he was Delyse’s elder brother. He couldn’t be more than 25 years old. Avelyn’s age.
“James. Thank you for agreeing to see me.”
“Well, anything for my dear sister.” He gave Max a quick, tense smile.
“How about we all sit down?” suggested the headmistress. “I’ll ask Patricia to bring the coffee.”
“Thank you,” said Max. “You’re too kind.” He sat down on the long sofa, while James took the armchair across from him. “Avelyn would have loved to come.”
“And I hope she understood why it wasn’t possible.” Miss Delacroix dialed her secretary, told her they were ready for the coffee, then put down the receiver.
“Yes, of course.”
Delyse hesitated one moment, then decided to sit down on the other side of the sofa, as far as possible from Max, but still in front of her brother. She gave James a timid smile, hoping he’d understand everything was fine. She was okay, really. She didn’t mind seeing Max after having been refused by him. The headmistress took her place in the leather chair behind the desk. They all exchanged some meaningless pleasantries until Mrs. Jones brought the coffee and left the office. Delyse and Monique Delacroix wanted to know if Avelyn was well, and Max assured them she was doing great, except that she was a little nervous about the approach of the full moon. They all were.
“I’m glad to hear Avelyn has adapted so well to your family,” said the headmistress. “It’s a relief, really. She’s always been so stubborn and feisty. Wild little thing she was when she was a child. You should have seen her. Adorable, but a serious pain.”
Max laughed, his heart warming at the cute picture the woman was painting in his mind. “Sounds like her all right.”
James Harington took a small sip of his coffee and cleared his throat. All eyes turned to him.
“Max, you might be wondering why I wanted to meet you here and nowhere else.”
“Yes, I was, actually.”
James set his cup on the small glass table next to his armchair, and dug his hand in the inside pocket of his elegant, classy jacket. He took out a small phial with a clear, transparent liquid inside it.
“Is that…” started Max.
“Yes, it is. The cure for the werewolf venom.” He made a dramatic pause to let the information sink in. He leaned back in his armchair, making himself comfortable while also displaying a position of dominance.
Max fixed his gaze on the phial for a couple of seconds, then his eyes went to James, and he also leaned back on the sofa. He realized then that this wasn’t going to be easy. The heir of the Harington fortune would not simply give him the cure without asking for something in exchange. Max crossed his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow, showing James he was listening, open to negotiations.
“Harington Pharmaceuticals has been working on this cure for years.”
“So I’ve heard.”
James smiled. “Needless to say this is… not to be made public.”
“Absolutely.”
“Normally, before telling you what I’m about to tell you, I should ask you if I can trust you. But I won’t do that. You know why? Because I’ve decided to trust you the moment Delyse told me about your bride and what she’s going through.”
It was Max’s turn to smile condescendingly. “Because, of course, that is also something not to be made public.”
“No, let’s stay positive. This is not about each of us having to lose something if our discussion doesn’t go well. I trust you because Delyse trusts Avelyn, Avelyn trusts you, and I trust Delyse. It’s as simple as that.”
Max studied his face intently, trying to find any trace of deceit. There appeared to be none. “All right. You wanted to tell me something.”
“About the cure.” James took a deep breath and looked Max straight in the eyes, a crease of concentration and earnest adorning his forehead. “Twelve years ago, my father began to research the possibility to make a vaccine against the shifter venom, a vaccine that could prevent humans from ever being turned into shape-shifters, and could even reverse the transformation process. He made some fair progress in the first two years, and he figured that it would be easier for him to continue his research and experiments if he had the approval of the Council and the help of some of the best shifter scientists. If the project had been a public, authorized one, then he would have had better access to the basic materials, which were, as you may have guessed, samples of blood and tissue from the five species of shape-shifters. As you know, the project did not receive authorization. All the representatives of the shif
