“It shouldn’t be possible. He isn’t changing back?”
“No.”
“Then something has been done to him.”
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
“What do I do?”
“Wait it out.”
I was thrilled to waste my long-distance minutes on such a useless reply. “I can’t wait it out. I have to get home.” No better time than now to reveal my other reason for choosing him over Lucas. “You have to send someone to Elmwood, Manitoba.”
He scoffed. “I have to do nothing without a damned good reason.”
“Mercy is going to kill Vivienne.” Using Grandmere’s real name felt strange, but I suspected it would have more impact.
“What?”
Guess I was right.
“Mercy sent her a postcard. Said see you soon. And I have it on good authority she’s planning on striking at me where it hurts most.”
“On whose authority?”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the still-bloody tooth I’d ripped from Peyton’s jaw, running my fingers over the smooth surface. “An acquaintance of hers from way back. He would know.” Past tense.
I smiled to myself and slipped the tooth back into my pocket. A time would come when I could rejoice over what I’d done, or at the very least reflect on it, but it wasn’t going to be now.
Callum was quiet again, twice in one conversation, which had to be some sort of record.
“I can’t help you with Desmond. I might be able to influence a reversal in person, but there’s nothing I can do unless you can bring him to me from New York.”
“We’re not in New York. We’re in Paris.”
“Then there’s truly no way I can help. And neither can your king, I’m afraid. I might suggest investigating what caused the shift to see if you can do something based on that. As for my mother…”
It was my turn to wait in silence. He would help her, wouldn’t he? She had left him when he was only a teenager, but there was no way he’d hang her out to dry in her hour of need. Callum could be crue
l, but when it came down to it, the thing that mattered most to him was family.
“As for her?” I egged him on.
“I’ll send Ben and Fairfax. She’ll be protected.”
Ben, my younger brother. He and I had only met a handful of times, and the family bond wasn’t really clicking yet, which was fair given I hadn’t known he existed for the first eighteen years of his life. But if one of my siblings was going to stay with Grandmere, I would have preferred…
“Can you send Eugenia instead?” Genie was Ben’s twin, and she and I had grown close. She’d also met Grandmere, which I thought would help ease Vivienne into things better. Genie had inherited our family’s matrilineal witchcraft gene, making her one tough cookie.
“Eugenia has commitments in St. Francisville. I will send Ben.” This was said in his don’t argue with me tone, and I obeyed. I was grateful to him for sending anyone, so I shouldn’t be too picky about his choices. At least Ben was family. And I’d met Fairfax, the only African-American werewolf in my uncle’s pack, during my visit south. He seemed trustworthy.
“Thank you.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t protect my own mother?”
“I don’t know what to think about mothers sometimes.”
“Yes, well. Mercy is a special case.”