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Doc gave me a bewildered look, seeming to age before my eyes. He gave his bushy mustache a cursory stroke, his eyes wandering to the empty hearth. “I’ve never seen anything like it. By all accounts, it shouldn’t have been possible. I saw your parents at church just the day before, and Ronin was as healthy as ever. He was dead by sundown the next day. Your sister followed him only hours after.”
“I don’t understand. Shifters don’t get sick.”
“We don’t. But he did. So did she.”
“Can I see them?”
His complexion went slightly green. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. This was... ugly. They don’t even look like themselves.”
Oh, God.
“Doc, I’m going to need more info so I’m able to make some sense out of this.”
He blew out a breath, looking like he was trying to gather himself. “The only word I have for it is plague. The onset was immediate, the symptoms fatal”—he shuddered—“like something straight out of a horror film. Phe was with your father when it happened. She must have caught it from him.”
“But where didheget it?”
Doc shook his head, baffled. “No clue. As far as I know, he was home. No telling when he could have gotten infected, how long it was incubating. I don’t know shit all, Kingston, and I’m not too much of a man to admit that scares the ever-loving crap out of me. But that’s not the worst part.” He paused, licking his lips. “I didn’t see your dad go. But I watched Phe slip away. She was delirious. We had to quarantine her, seal off the room and keep everyone out. But I stayed at the door and talked to her, offering what comfort I could.”
Tears burned my eyes thinking of my sister dying like that.
“She said some things, Alpha. Things any God-fearing person would find alarming.”
Icy dread raced down my spine. Locusts. Plague. And... we’d already fought a war with demons. Was it all related to Sunday? To us?
“Tell me.”
“She was babbling by the end. Near incomprehensible. Mentioning things like boiling oceans and horsemen, and... a woman standing over your father’s body, reaching out and touching her. But the part that made my blood run cold was when she started quoting scripture. From the book of Revelation.”
The hair on my arms stood on end. Phe hadn’t attended church a day in her life—much to Mama’s chagrin. I don’t even think she’d ever seen a bible. “Do you remember what she said?”
Stricken, he nodded. “‘Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet... She was expecting a child, and she cried out in pain, in the agony of giving birth. She gave birth to a child, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And the child was snatched away to God and to his throne.’”
Shock took my knees out from under me, and I sat down on the desk, sending pens and books clattering to the ground. “Sunday.” Her name was ripped from me. Disbelief and absolute fear turned my blood to ice.
“That’s what I thought as well. Kingston, I don’t know what you’re involved in, but I have a bad feeling it’s not going to end well for your mate or your child.”
Or for any of us.
“Where’s Mama? The girls? We need to get them out of here. Somewhere they can be looked after. What if they get sick?”
“I think the danger has passed. No one else has shown any signs. If they were infected, considering how fast Phe went, they would already be gone.”
“How can we be sure? You already said you’ve never seen anything like this.”
“You’re right. I haven’t, but I’m intimately familiar with the aftermath, and I already ran some tests. What wasinthem is not in the others. They’re safe, Kingston. As safe as we can make them.”
I barked out a harsh laugh. Safe? Who the fuck was safe anymore? The world was ending, and I’d helped usher it in. Now we were all going to pay the price.
I stood and started pacing, dragging my hands through my hair and pulling. “Is there anything else you need me to know? Anything more earth-shattering? What do I do?”
Doc lowered his gaze for just a moment, then matched my stare. “I’d start praying.”
“I’ve got bad news for you, Doc. I don’t think He’s listening.”
“Maybe not. But it sure as hell can’t hurt.”
“Thank you for being there for her. So she didn’t die alone.” That fucking broken glass was in my throat again. “She deserved so much better.”
