“I take that as a no.”
“You said I had a fever.”
“Yes. We were talking in the truck, you were asking questions, but they stopped making sense after a while.” She nodded at his shoulder. “How’s your shoulder?”
He touched the scar. “Fine?” He massaged it, and there was no pain. “Fine. It doesn’t hurt.” Which surprised him. “How long was I asleep?”
“You haven’t really been asleep. You’ve been delirious.”
The wolf squinted its eyes.
It seemed he was still delirious.
“How long was I… whatever?” He feared the answer.
“Two days. Sometimes well enough to make it to the bathroom and drink some fluids. Other times I had to have someone sit with you to keep you from hurting yourself.” She nodded at the bedside table. “Do you think you’re up to eating something? Or at least drinking the orange juice? You need to get some fluids in you after… Dr. Dante?”
“Um…” Reese forced a smile. “I’m—” His voice crumbled, and he cleared his throat. It didn’t help, so he cleared it again. “Can I uh…”
She handed him the orange juice.
The burn of citrus carried away the grit coating his tongue, leaving a pleasant sweetness.
“Go easy on that. You’ll make yourself sick.”
He lowered the glass.
The wolf continued to watch him.
Did it ever blink?
“What are you staring at?” Seung looked in the same direction as Dr. Dante.
Reese jerked his attention off the wolf. “Nothing.”
The wolf sat beside Seung now. No more than a foot away from the bed. Its body wavered from transparent to opaque. The stars making up its eyes never dimmed.
Seung made Reese look at her.
“You see the Fenrir, don’t you?” Her expression was a mix of awe and concern.
“The what?”
“My wolf.”
“Your…”
The wolf tilted its head at the same moment and direction as Seung.
“No, Dr. Dante. We’re not human… And neither are you.”
“What are you?” Reese didn’t know if it was rude to ask and if it was, would he care?
“My people are called Varu.”
“Johnathan and Frost,” Reese said. “He said they were Mah.”
“Mah are Varu. It was a name given to their ancestors when they were cast out. They use it now as a way to separate themselves as an independent people.”