The Wolf Gift (The Wolf Gift Chronicles 1)

Something quickened in Margon,s face. He reached out and placed his hands on Reuben,s shoulders.

"You have it in check?" he asked. There was no hint of judgment, only the simple question.

"Yes," said Reuben. "I can keep it down."

"Good," he said.

"But I don,t know about Stuart."

"If he starts to change, we,ll get him out of sight," he explained. "It is important that he be here. You leave matters to us."

Stuart appeared, suitably dressed now in polo shirt and jeans. He was clearly alarmed and looked to Reuben silently but desperately. Laura, too, was now dressed in her usual sweater and slacks and took her place resolutely by Reuben,s side.

Felix motioned for Margon to draw back, and the two moved closer to the dining room, signaling to Reuben to go ahead.

He snapped on the switch for the outside lights, turned off the burglar alarm, and opened the door.

It was a sea of wet angry people in glistening raincoats with glistening umbrellas, and a good many more enforcement personnel than he had realized. At once the female Russian doctor - middle-aged, thick-bodied, with a short tight cap of gray hair - advanced, beckoning for Jaska and her squadron of supporters to follow, but Grace barred her way.

Phil came up the steps and slipped into the house, with Jim right behind him.

"If you would all please listen," said Reuben. He raised his hands for patience and quiet. "I understand how cold it is out here, and I,m sorry I,ve kept you waiting."

Grace was backing up the steps with Simon Oliver and trying to keep the Russian doctors at bay. The scent of malice rose decisively from the two Russians, and Jaska,s cold eyes fixed Reuben harshly, as if they were beams that could somehow paralyze a victim as he pushed relentlessly closer.

The female doctor was powerfully excited by the sight of Reuben, eyeing him arrogantly with small milky-blue eyes.

"Doctors, please," said Reuben. Grace was now at his elbow. "Do come in, and you too, Dr. Cutler - ." (He hoped and prayed Felix and Margon knew what they were doing, that they were the beings he believed them to be, but suddenly it seemed a slender and fantastical faith!) "We need to talk inside, you and I." He went on. "And Galton, I,m so sorry to have brought you out in this weather. Galton, maybe you could rustle up some coffee for all these people. You know the kitchen here as well as anybody else. I think we have enough cups for the whole party - ."

Beside him, Laura motioned to Galton and said she,d meet him at the back door.

Galton was amazed, but immediately nodded and started taking orders for sugar and cream.

Grace pushed into the room behind Reuben.

But the two Russian doctors remained on the steps, in spite of the pelting rain. Then the woman said something under her breath and in Russian to Jaska, and Jaska turned and told the men and women peace officers to please be ready, to draw close to the house.

The men were none too sure about following his orders, obviously. And a great many hung back, though a few in uniforms Reuben didn,t recognize came forward and even tried to follow Jaska inside.

"You may come in, Doctor," said Reuben. "But the men must remain outside."

Suddenly the sheriff came forward, very much objecting, and Reuben, saying nothing, allowed him into the great room as well.

He shut the door, and faced them - the sheriff, the family, Simon Oliver, the girlish and pretty Dr. Cutler, and the two formidable Russians who appraised him with eyes of stone.

Dr. Cutler suddenly let out a cry. She,d picked Stuart out of the shadows by the fireplace and rushed to him with her arms out.

"I,m all right, Doctor - ," Stuart said. He put his big ungainly arms around her immediately. "I,m sorry, I,m just so sorry. I don,t know what happened to me last night, I just somehow had to get out of there, and I broke the window - ."

His words were drowned out as the female Russian doctor and Grace began to shout at each other, the Russian woman insisting, "This does not have to be difficult, if your son and this boy will simply come!"

There was something grindingly presumptuous and vicious in her tone. Reek of malice.

Simon, looking very wet and very worn out in his usual gray suit, but more than anything outraged and militant, grabbed Reuben,s arm and said, "The fifty-one-fifties are bogus. They had these papers signed by paramedics who aren,t even here! How can we verify these signatures, or that these people even know you two boys?"

Reuben only vaguely knew what a "fifty-one-fifty" was, but he could tell it was a legal paper of commitment.

"Now you can see perfectly well that there is nothing wrong or violent about this young man, both of you," Simon continued in a quaking voice, "and I warn you, if you dare to attempt to take him or that boy there out of this house by force - ."

With a steely firmness, the Russian doctor turned and introduced herself to Reuben. "Dr. Darya Klopov," she said in a thick accent, with a slight raise of her white eyebrows, her eyes narrowing as she extended her small naked hand. Her smile was a grimace baring perfect porcelain teeth. The scent of deep resentment came from her, absolute insolence. "I ask only that you trust me, young man, that you trust my knowledge of these extraordinary experiences that you,ve had to endure."

"Yes, yes," said Dr. Jaska. Another grotesque smile that was not a smile, and another thick accent. "And absolutely no one has to be harmed in this situation, where, you see, we have so many armed men." His lips drew back menacingly from his teeth as he said the words "armed men." He turned anxiously to the door as he gestured, seemingly on the verge of opening it and inviting the "armed men" in.

Grace flew at the doctor with a volley of legal threats.

Jim, in his full black suit and Roman collar, had taken up a position directly beside Reuben, and now Phil came round and stood with him as well. Phil, looking professorial with his disheveled gray hair and rumpled shirt and crooked tie, was shaking his head, murmuring, "No, no, this is not going to happen. Absolutely not."

Reuben could hear Stuart pouring out his heart to Dr. Cutler. "Let me just stay here with Reuben. Reuben,s my friend. If I can just stay here, Dr. Cutler, please, please, please."

What do I do now?

"You see," said Dr. Klopov unctuously, "this is a signed order entrusting you to our care."

"And have you ever even laid eyes on the paramedic who signed this order?" demanded Grace. "They bought these two pieces of paper. They do not understand. They will not get away with this."