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Only when the hunger is gone, quenched by the meat, does the world start coming back. The over-bright lighting that hurts her eyes. The blurred faces standing away, apart, staring at her. Those eyes. Staring. She doesn’t want it. Not the whoomp whoomp of the air conditioning above that is so loud. Not the disjointed voices. Not the smell of their panic. Not the thud of their heartbeats in their chests.
Not the man with a loop on a a long stick that is inching closer to her.
She is crouched low on the ground. She feels the heaving of her own breath. The sticky blood on her hands. It is cold. Now that the meat is eaten it sickens her. It sits heavy in her belly. It was cold and clammy. The chunks still in her hands are cold and clammy. She can smell their age. Fresh would have been better.
Fresh meat.
The man with the loop on the stick is still coming towards her. She watches him, no thought in her mind of moving because he is a gnat. No danger to her. She is tired now. Her stomach is heavy with meat. She wants to sleep. The man is irritating her. His loop is too close now. It is by her head. She swats it but the man keeps coming.
Stupid creature. He’s just meat.
She debates leaping for him. Her mouth suddenly yearns for his soft throat. Not to eat. Just to be rid of him. But then another man is there, a golden man, ordering the one with his stick away. And he is crouching within leaping distance of her teeth. He is speaking to her.
He is not meat. He is master.
And she must listen to master’s words because master is speaking to her. She hears him.
“Come here, India,” he says. It is not a request. It is a command.
She comes.
Chapter 11
DIANA
I go to the hospital in the morning, anxious to see how India is doing. When I arrive Storm and Leo and DI Zael are already there, waiting outside of India’s room. Yesterday the doctor had not let us speak to India. DI Zael is pacing back and forth outside of the door. The doctor is inside, checking on India. I can see her through the blinds. The doctor comes out and shuts the door behind her quietly.
“How is she?” I ask.
The doctor looks to Storm before replying. Storm nods.
“India has a concussion,” she says. “Some scratching and bruising, and one deep laceration on her abdomen. She is dehydrated. She was in a psychotic state when she came in, and not thinking rationally. We medicated her overnight, but it is wearing off now and she is conscious. However she is in deep shock and is fragile. She has no memory of recent events.”
“That’s convenient,” says DI Zael. “Doesn’t want to incriminate herself, more like. Is she safe to talk to?”
“What do you mean?” says the doctor.
“Did you give her some wolfsbane to keep her calm? I don’t want her going for me and my officers when we question her.”
The doctor stiffens, and the look she gives DI Zael is one of distaste. “We did administer wolfsbane, but it was for medical reasons, not because she is unsafe.”
“She was found devouring raw meat at that supermarket,” says DI Zael. “She doesn’t sound right in the head to me. What is to stop her from going for one of us if she gets hungry?”
“She was eating because she had been starved for several days,” says the doctor, looking displeased. “Her body knew what she needed and in her psychotic state she ate the first food she found.”
“Are you seriously saying she is not a dangerous werewolf?” demands DI Zael. “She needs to be locked up. This hospital room isn’t secure enough. I want you to increase her dosage of wolfsbane.”
“That is for me to decide,” snaps the doctor. “And I have administered what I think is appropriate.”
“Do you know what caused her psychosis, doctor?” Storm asks calmly.
The doctor looks to him gratefully. “Part of the reason was that she had been self-medicating with wolfsbane, taking small amounts on a frequent basis. There was none in her blood when she was brought in yesterday.”
“That means she’s dangerous!” snaps Zael.
The doctor determinedly ignores him and keeps directing her comments to Storm. “The sudden withdrawal from wolfsbane caused a rapid and overwhelming return of her werewolf senses, leading her to exhibit abnormal and antisocial behavior like stealing and eating raw meat. I doubt she would have done it otherwise. I will be weaning her off the wolfsbane in the next few days.”
“She won’t be here for days,” says DI Zael. “We’re arresting her.”
