The Wolf Gift (The Wolf Gift Chronicles 1)

She kissed Reuben tenderly on both cheeks.

"You,ll bring Stuart in to see Dr. Cutler for his shots."

"Absolutely, Mom. Stuart,s my little brother from now on."

His mother looked at him for a long moment.

"Try not to think about all the unanswered questions, Mom," said Reuben. "You taught me once that we have to live with unanswered questions all our lives."

She was surprised. "You think I,m worried, Reuben?" she asked. "You don,t know what this night has done for me. Oh, it,s been ghastly, yes. It was the Day from Hell and the Night from Hell. But someday I,ll have to tell you all about my worries, what they actually were." She shook her head sadly. "You know, medicine can confound the most rational of human beings. We doctors witness the inexplicable and the miraculous every day. You wouldn,t believe how relieved I am now about a lot of things." She hesitated, but then said only, "A surgeon can be as superstitious as anybody else."

They walked in silence to the waiting van.

He embraced Jim warmly, and promised to call soon. "I know the burden you,re carrying," Reuben whispered to him. "I know what I,ve put you through."

"And now you have a houseful of these creatures?" Jim asked in a hushed confidential voice. "What are you doing, Reuben? Where are you going? Is there any turning back? Well, they,ve snookered everybody, haven,t they? And what now?" Immediately he was sorry, terribly sorry. He hugged Reuben again.

"This gives me time and space," said Reuben.

"I know. It takes the heat off you and that kid. I understand that. I don,t want anyone to hurt you, Reuben. I can,t bear the thought of them catching you, hurting you. I just don,t know what to do for you, myself."

A few of the law enforcement people were still taking photographs and the sheriff reminded them: "No publishing of private photos on Facebook and I mean it!"

It seemed an eternity as they took their leave, Dr. Cutler the absolute last, who wanted so to check on Stuart, but realized that the boy shouldn,t be awakened after what he,d been through.

Stuart,s mother would be in the hospital for another few days. Yes, he would help Stuart to get to see his mother. He would handle it. Not to worry.

Phil gave him a rough hug. "One of these days I,m going to appear on your doorstep," he said, "with a suitcase under my arm."

"That would be wonderful, Dad," he said. "Dad, there,s a little house over there, down over the rise, with a view of the sea. It needs a lot of repair, but somehow I see you in there, hammering away on your old typewriter."

"Son, don,t push it. I might show up here and never leave." He shook his head, one of his favorite little gestures. He shook his head negatively at least fifteen times a day. "Be the best thing that ever happened to your mother, if I did," he said. "You just whistle when you,re ready for me to come."

Reuben kissed him on his rough unshaven face and helped him into the van.

At last they were gone, all of them, and he wandered back through the drizzling rain into the house and bolted the door.

Chapter Thirty-Six

THEY WERE in the dining room. There were candles burning on the hunters, boards, and on the table, in heavy engraved candlesticks. Thibault was feeding the fire again.

And across the table, Felix sat with his arms around Laura who was crying softly, her lips pressed to the back of her left hand. Her hair was loosened now and down around her face in that ethereal white veil that Reuben loved, full of flickering and reflected light.

Reuben bristled in his heart at the sight of this powerful and enthralling man holding her, and as if Felix sensed this, Felix drew back now, stood up, and gestured for him to take the chair at Laura,s side.

He went round to face Reuben across the table, seating himself beside Thibault, and they were quiet for a moment in the vast dreamy and warm room.

The candle flames played softly on their faces. The smell of beeswax was sweet.

Laura had stopped crying. Her left arm locked around Reuben and she laid her head against his chest. He enfolded her with his right arm, kissing the top of her head and cradling her face with his left hand.

"I am so sorry, so sorry for all of it," he whispered.

"Oh, not for you to say," she said. "Not your doing, any of it. I,m here because I want to be here. I,m sorry for such tears."

What had brought on these particular words, Reuben wondered. They seemed related to a long conversation that he had missed.

He forced himself to look up at Felix, ashamed suddenly of his jealousy, heart breaking that he was now alone with Felix, that Felix and Thibault were under this roof with him and with Laura and that they were at last alone. How many times had he dreamt of such a moment? How many times had he prayed for it? And now it had come, and there was no impediment. The night,s horrors were behind them. The night,s horrors had been climactic, and were done.

Immediately Felix,s cheerful and affectionate expression melted his soul. Thibault, with his large heavy-lidded eyes, looked thoughtful and kind, gray hair tousled, the soft folds of his face framing an expression that was gentle, wise.

"We couldn,t tell you what we were doing," he said. "We had to draw them out, Klopov and Jaska. With Jaska it was simple. He was dogging your mother, dogging Stuart. But Klopov only surfaced at the very close."

"I thought as much," said Reuben. "It was clear Jaska deferred to her. I could sense it. So she was behind it all."

"Oh, she was the last of the governing committee that took us prisoner twenty years ago," said Felix. "The very last, and Jaska her eager apprentice. It took a little provocation bringing her into it, but never mind that now. We couldn,t warn you, we couldn,t reassure you. And you do realize that not the slightest suspicion will ever attach to you or Stuart now for the Man Wolf,s attacks."

"Yes, that was brilliant," said Reuben.

"But you were never in the slightest danger," said Thibault. "And if I may say so, you behaved superbly, rather like you did with Marrok. We never dreamed that Marrok would approach you. We didn,t account for that at all."

"But how long have you been watching exactly?" asked Reuben.

"Well, in a way, since the beginning," said Felix. "Since I picked up the Herald Examiner in Paris and saw Marchent,s death splashed across the front page. As soon as the ,San Francisco Man Wolf, made his debut, I was on a plane."

"Then you never left the country after our meeting at the law offices," said Reuben.