“Why does he want Luca?”
Seung watched her wolf with sadness. “Isaiah wants to bring back our wolves, and Luca is the only one who can do that.”
“You don’t want them back?”
“Of course I do. More than anything in the world.” Her eyes shimmered. “They are our reason to exist. They are why we are here. They are everything to us, Dr. Dante.”
“Then why would you want to stop Isaiah?”
She straightened up. “Because there are those of us who believe Luca doesn’t have to be tied to their pack. He can live with whom he wantsandhe can bring back our wolves.”
“What about the VrK? If it can give Johnathan’s kind wolves….”
“We don’t know what it will do. It could give them back to us. It could kill us. It could…” She swept her fingers under an eye. “It could destroy the Fenrir.” She cleared her throat. “We know Luca can bring them back like they’re supposed to be. They’ll walk by our sides, join with us when we call for them, and protect us as they have for thousands of years. We don’t know what will happen if we take the VrK. Our wolves are independent beings, not a creation.”
What was it Johnathan had said to Reese? “Because the Anubis made the Sarvari in its image.”
“Yes.”
“What about the other way around? Can Luca give the Mah wolves?”
“They don’t want Fenrir unless it’s their only choice. There’s also the chance there’s isn’t one for the Cana to call them.”
“Why not?”
Seung followed the stitches edging the designs on the comforter. “When I was growing up, we used to tell each other about Varu with a darkness in them. And that’s why when those Varu stood before a Cana, there would be no wolf to call. I’m not even sure where I first heard the stories. Probably from the older kids, who heard it from the older kids. I’m sure by the time it got to me, it had changed a lot.”
“Affect and effect.”
Seung furrowed her brow.
Reese shrugged. “How you tell a story will dictate the impact the story has on a person. Retelling usually isn’t about accuracy, it’s about reaction from the audience.” He stirred the congealing blob of oatmeal in the bottom of his bowl. “Did you know they did an entire study on Fact vs. Effect and how cultural—”
Seung pressed her lips together.
Reese ate a bite of oatmeal. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He waved his spoon. “You were saying.”
“The color of the wolf is believed to represent a person’s being. Black wolves were always equated with an evil lying in wait inside a person for the chance to escape. But it was a myth.”
“Until it wasn’t anymore.”
“Exactly. The Varu who manifested a black wolf was labeled Mah and cast out. Later he was hunted down and executed.”
“Why?”
“There might not have even been a reason. We were killed for nothing except the sake of appeasing humans who’d decided we’d committed a crime. It was easier to give them who they wanted rather than face the slaughter of an entire Clan.
“But when he died, the Cana who loved him brought him back to life. And please, don’t ask me how. All we know is when he rose from the dead, he no longer carried a wolf. What resided in him had transformed into something far more terrifying.” Seung lost some of the color in her cheeks.
“You’re afraid of the Anubis?”
“It used exiled Varu to build an army to destroy its enemies. During the time of its rule, I watched it slaughter millions.”
“You’re mean you actually saw it. As in a thousand years ago, saw it?” If Reese thought the historians wouldn’t burn him alive, he would have insisted on making a phone call.
“Yes. Kings and emperors would send their armies to kill the Anubis, and it would leave fields of bodies behind. Survivors became curs. That’s what attacked you the other morning. Curs can never change back. When we’re bitten, it has no effect.”
“Why did it come after me?”