Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted

Vanessa's coming.

Selene's sudden warning jolts me out of my I'm-not-that-tired couch nap. You know, the kind where you sit down and think, I'm not that tired, and wake up hours later? Yeah. One of those.

"Is it about Ivy?" My voice is more croak than words, but thankfully she's able to pluck the words straight out of my head.

I would assume so.

My muscles protest as I shift on the couch, stiff from sleeping in an awkward position. Selene's claws click against the wooden floor as she makes her way to the door, her silver fur catching the dim light. Only one lamp is on, which in hindsight might be why I fell asleep. It's too dark in here.

A sharp, quick succession of knocks rap against the door.

"Come in." My voice is still rough. A series of pops accompany my stretch. Relief floods through my spine, and I cough to clear my throat.

Vanessa opens the door, her hair pulled back in a messy bun. She smells like antiseptic, which isn't unusual for someone in the medical profession.

"Sorry to wake you." She steps inside, looking exhausted. "But I thought you'd want to know about Ivy's condition."

I straighten, my fuzzy brain slowly clearing. "Has something changed?"

"She's stable. Her fever's down, but still elevated. She woke up for a few minutes, but thought I was her mother." Rubbing her eyebrow, Vanessa settles into a chair across from me. "Halfway through our conversation, she fell back asleep. She asked for a strawberry birthday cake."

Not sure how to even respond, I can only stare.

The healer shrugs. "She's not oriented to person, time, or place."

"I see."@@novelbin@@

"Could be the fever. Could be whatever this stuff is you're trying to hunt down. Her symptoms are too nonspecific, and our testing abilities here are too limited."

My head feels too heavy to hold up, so I rest it against my hand, leaning into the couch cushions. My eyes burn from exhaustion as I blink at Vanessa. Something's off about this late-night visit—she wouldn't trek through the snow just to tell me Ivy's fever is down.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Vanessa grimaces. "She asked how much longer she has to give her blood away."

My spine straightens despite my fatigue. "What?" That sounds distinctly like she's involved in something vampire-adjacent.

"I need to emphasize that she's completely delirious." Vanessa holds up her hands. "She thought I was her mother, remember? She was asking for birthday cake. Whatever she's saying right now, we can't take it at face value."

True, Grimoire chimes in out of nowhere. Fever dreams rarely make sense.

But how often do fevers talk about giving away blood?

"Did she say anything else?"

"No. She drifted off right after that." Vanessa's scrubs rustle as she shifts in her chair. "Her temperature is still high. Enough to possibly account for confusion and hallucinations."

"But you felt it was important enough to tell me."

Vanessa meets my eyes. "Because while I agree she's not in her right mind, sometimes delirium reveals truths patients wouldn't normally share. I've seen it before—they lose their filters, their ability to keep secrets."

The antiseptic smell coming off her grows stronger as she leans forward. "I'm not saying this means anything. So don't do anything rash."

My stomach churns. Blood. Why would Ivy be giving away blood? And to whom?

And when? Is this something that happened when she was five years old and liked strawberry cake? Grimoire muses.

Why five? I like strawberry cake, and I'm an adult. Ostensibly.

Fine. Maybe thirteen. Or sixteen. Does it matter? So sensitive about some strawberry cake.

Seriously, these two in my head are probably killer for my sanity.

We should interrogate her. Selene bares her teeth. Wake her up. I'll get her to talk.

Rubbing my eyebrow, I sigh. She really hates Ivy. "We have no proof of anything except that a very sick woman is having fever dreams."

"Exactly." Vanessa stands, smoothing her scrubs. "I just wanted to keep you informed. Try not to read too much into it. She also told me she wanted sprinkles on her cake and that her stuffed unicorn was hiding under the bed."

I nod, watching as she heads out. Obviously, I want to know if this is some random fever gibberish or some sort of clue, but it still feels awful to have any sort of suspicions toward someone we consider an ally.

Hopefully it's nothing, but we can't ignore it, either.

Vanessa pauses with her hand on the doorknob. "Try to get some real sleep, okay? In an actual bed?"

My lips quirk. I guess it was obvious I fell asleep on the couch. "I will."

The door clicks shut behind her. I stare at the spot where she sat, turning this new piece of information over in my mind. Blood. Taint. Missing wolves. They have to be connected somehow.

Maybe. Maybe not. Don't be so insistent they're all related. It could be unrelated, too.

Grimoire's helpful lecture only makes my newly minted headache throb a little harder. "It would be easier if everything's connected. One enemy is better than an army of them."

Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire

Better to assume there's an army of them, Selene agrees, in rare harmony with the book. You don't want to overlook anything by being too dialed into a pet theory.

Her muzzle rests against my knee as she stares at me with her icy blue eyes, and I rub her ears. I should be wide awake after the conversation with Vanessa, but I'm tired, and my brain feels like a slug with this new information. "I get it, guys. Keeping my mind open to all possibilities."

But don't ignore the possibility that they're related, either, Grimoire cautions.

Selene chuffs. She knows that.

Your defense of her is admirable, pup, but sometimes she needs things spelled out for her.

My eyes narrow, but I'm too tired to mount any kind of protest at his evaluation of my mental faculties.

Before they can devolve into another fight in my head, I hold up my hands. "That's enough, guys. I'm keeping an open mind to all possibilities. But in order to do that, I need sleep. Restful sleep. No squabbling in my head, please."