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Chapter Thirty
Edie
WhenIgotMelindato the clinic, I ran inside looking for Ethan.The front drugstore area was closed and dark.I ran back to the patient area and saw that it was empty.Where could he be?
I picked up my phone and called him, hastily unfolding a wheelchair to use for Melinda.Damn her pride.Somewhere in the clinic, I heard a phone ringing.
Behind the counter, I found a hatch door that led down to a basement.“Ethan?Are you down there?”
“Edie?”There was a clatter, then Ethan appeared at the bottom of the stairs.He was sweaty, dusty, and wild-eyed.“What’s going on?”
“It’s Melinda.I think we figured out what is happening to her.She’s being poisoned.”I started toward him.
“Don’t come down,” he said quickly.“It’s dirty and dusty.I was just, uh, working on the hot water heater.Poisoned, you say?”
“My mother recognized Hen’s Teeth in the tea blend Melinda’s been getting from Mona,” I said triumphantly.“Remember that flower I brought you the other day?Did you ever test it?”
“I’m a busy man, Edie,” he snapped.He came up the stairs and closed the hatch behind him.
“I know,” I said.I’d heard too many stressed doctors speak harshly to take it personally.“I think that may be the key.Maybe the reason it wasn’t showing up in your tests is that we didn’t know we should be looking for it.It only affects shifters, so why would human medicine have a test?”
“Very clever,” he said, following me as I wheeled the chair outside.It was starting to rain.My mother helped Melinda into the wheelchair while quickly relaying her symptoms to Dr.Barnes.
“We were hoping you knew an antidote.If not, we can use your lab to test the seeds and see if we can identify the chemical compounds and work from there,” I said.
“I have some ideas,” he said.“Come in, come in.Melinda, how are you feeling?”
“Like I don’t have enough energy to be this mad,” Melinda said.“Mona is going to regret this.”
“Yes,” Ethan said.“You sent Dominic out there?He’s probably ripping her guts out right now.”
There was a hint of thrill in his tone that struck me odd.My mom and I helped Melinda onto the examining table while Ethan lingered in the doorway.“Jasper went with him.He’ll keep everything under control.”
“I hope not,” Ethan said.
I slowly turned toward him, stepping forward so I was between him and the other women.Ethan had his arms braced against the door frame, blocking the exit.His face was in shadow.His shoulders were shaking, and for a moment I thought he was heaving.Then laughter bubbled up his throat.“You were so close, Edie.You figured out how I was poisoning her.And then you brought her right to me so I could finish the job.”
The world tilted under my feet.“The Hen’s Teeth seeds.It was you?”
Melinda, who had just settled onto the table, sat up again.“Ethan?”
“Sit down, old woman.No one cares what you think.”He laughed harder.“Wow!I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting to say that to you.”
Melinda inflated with rage.Ethan lifted his head and grinned at us.
There were more teeth than there should have been in his mouth.Sharper, fiercer teeth.
“Ethan.”My voice was shaky and thin.“What have you done?”
Was his hair thicker?“You’re the expert, right?That’s why the Moreaus brought you in to do my job.Why don’t you tell me what I’ve done?”
My heart was pounding, but my mind clicked smoothly.“You isolated the gene that makes shifters.”
“Close!You are clever.Maybe not as clever as I am, but we could have used your mind.”
“We?”
“I tried to bring you in,” he said.“The way you were talking yesterday, you’re practically one of us already.Now’s your chance.That curious mind.Do you want to know how much further the rabbit hole goes?”
