Chapter 21 21
I sighed and pursed my lips before I answered. “I was living off grid in a small community.” Mentally I crossed my fingers and hoped we could leave it at that. The glint in Connor’s eyes did not bode well. I had to distract them. “So, what did you guys learn about Cyrus Howl?”
Connor had been unable to find any other instances involving the marble of doom. Tristan had struck out as well. At this rate, we were going to have to wait for the murderer to knock on the door and introduce them self. We spent another few hours going over the case. I sent Connor home when his eyes started looking glassy. Tristan was on the back deck staring into the woods when I told him goodnight. I chose not to comment on the herbal scent hanging in the air around him.
Sleep was hard for me to come by. Tristan spent the night roaming the house. Listening to him, I couldn’t decide what he was doing. I’d fallen into a light sleep when I was awakened around sunrise by intermediate light thudding noises. Stumbling around my room I finally located my robe hanging on the hook in my closet. Funny, I usually throw it in a ball on the floor the once or twice a year I use it. How had it gotten on the hook?
Blurry eyed I made my way to the kitchen. My heart stopped. Oh wait. That happened centuries ago. Tristan had my freezer hanging open with containers of blood stacked everywhere. It would seem the thudding noise was him throwing containers into the trash can. My hand flew up to knock him across the room. Just before the magic hit my fingers, I controlled the urge. Must find out why he wanted me to starve before I magically bitch slap him.
“What the hell are you doing?!” I shrieked at him. So I had control of my urges but not my voice.
“I’m throwing out the expired ones. You really should clean this thing out once in a while.” His voice sounded jittery. His eyes were a murky blue brown color. I have to admit I found them a little creepy looking. He picked one of the containers up off what looked like a freshly mopped floor to read the label. “What is Royal Blue?”
I let out a frustrated noise and snatched the container from him. “It’s blood from people of royal descent. This stuff is expensive!” I carefully started stacking the containers back in the freezer. My irritation level grew when I noticed that the trash was overflowing with my specialty blood. He had thrown away my Maui Wowie infusion! I brandished the container at him. “You are a stoner! Why would you throw this away?”
“It expired six months ago.” He kept shifting around. It was really getting on my nerves.
“So? It doesn’t go bad if it’s in the freezer!” I shooed him out of the kitchen and restocked my food supply while my breakfast was taking a spin in the microwave. With my freezer restocked and my breakfast in my hand, I went looking for my new maid. He was busy dusting the furniture in the living room with a feather duster. Ok, that seemed a little odd. I mean, where did he get a feather duster? I don’t recall owning one. Wonder if it came with the French maid outfit . Oh dear. Please don’t let him have found that. Talk about an awkward conversation just waiting to happen. I pulled my mind away from what could happen, to what was happening. “What is wrong with you?”
“I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin. I can’t sit still. I can literally hear my heart beating. I don’t know why.” He might not have a clue, but, I did.
“How long has it been since your last dose of wolf bane?”
He paused and thought a moment. When he answered, I could hear the surprise in his voice. “A week. I should have taken a dose yesterday.”
“It’s no longer suppressing your werewolf side. I’m not an expert but, you look like someone suffering withdrawals. I know someone who can shed some light on your predicament.” Damn, I’d left my phone upstairs charging on my nightstand. After a quick run upstairs to dress and grab my phone, I flopped on the couch using Bask as my pillow. It took an hour on the phone with a friend who was both a wizard and doctor, but, I had answers.
Tristan stopped sweeping my wrap around porch when he saw me come outside. I waited until we were settled on the deck lounges before I relayed what the doctor had told me. It wasn’t withdrawals. His wolf side was reasserting itself, with almost twenty years of pent up energy needing an outlet. Hence the sudden need to clean everything. His enhanced senses would randomly return one at a time. She said it could take up to a month for them all to return. Since he could hear his heart, it was safe to assume hearing was returning first. Given his long term exposure to the potion, he wouldn’t be able to change form until the potion was completely purged from his system. The good doctor said that could be anywhere from a month to three.
I left the pup on the deck to reflect on what I had just told him while I called Connor. Smug satisfaction filled me when he answered the phone. From his voice, he had still been asleep. It felt like a small bit of payback for yesterday morning. I filled him in on what I had learned and told him to get over here. We needed to find our guy soon. If the pup was going to keep this cleaning thing up sooner or later he was going to run out of things to clean down here. Then, he’d move to my room. I shuddered at the thought of him in my lingerie drawer. That is if he survived cleaning my weapons room.