Chapter 24 Wildlight
Wildlight
Lucien drove us back to the plaza, the Heart, with another car containing Dianna and a couple of werewolf guards following us.
Once everyone was parked, he led our entourage to one of five large cabins, this one stationed to the left of the Pack Hall.
The sign near the entrance door read Concordian Ward.
When we entered, I couldn’t help but feel confused. During the drive, Lucien had told me we were going to the pack hospital, and I asked him why he wanted me to come along. He had given me a loaded look I couldn’t quite read as he said cryptically, “You’ll see soon.”
The place, however, looked nothing like what a hospital should look like.
If anything, it looked like I imagined a mystical apothecary would: shelves and cabinets full of herbs and mysterious powders, a front desk showcasing flasks in its vitrine, another table with a few boiling pots—or rather, cauldrons—along with a wide selection of tea and a huge Persian carpet covering the entire place from wall to wall in different shades of red.
Along with all those things were hospital beds that seemed far more cushy and comfortable than regular ones, along with separating curtains with the same patterns and color scheme as the carpet, and all the medical equipment stored in glass cabinets.
The smell, though, was unlike the smell of any hospital I’d ever visited. Normally, there was the distinctive smell of disinfectants, but here, the main scent was of the brewing tea and a number of herbs I couldn’t possibly identify.
Behind the front desk stood a familiar figure, who looked up the moment Lucien and I entered with a big, welcoming smile on his handsome face, putting his dimples on display.
“Cousin!” Remi, Lucien’s cousin, said as a greeting in French, rounding the desk to give Lucien a one-armed hug, which Lucien returned. “J’ai l’impression de ne pas t’avoir vu depuis une éternité.”
“It’s only been a few days, Rémi.” Lucien responded to the rapid French chatter with a weary smile, and I could see him visibly relax. He’d been tense the entire drive here.
Remi grinned as he released Lucien. “I heard you went full Alpha mode today.”
And just like that, the tension returned, straining Lucien’s face. “There was no other way,” he said quietly, resolutely, but his eyes betrayed him. I could see the heavy gravity he felt that he didn’t allow himself to show. “I needed to remind them who their Alpha is.”
Feeling the tension, Remi’s grin disappeared. “From the way the members talk about it, it seemed the message was well received.”
The two exchanged loaded glances, and I could see they were sharing thoughts I wasn’t privy to. I wondered if it had anything to do with what Alby had said. About Lucien and his pack back in France.
Lucien then took a deep breath and asked, “Is Ana?s still here?”
Remi shook his head, a frown on his face. “An hour ago, she headed to the library with Enoch and a human man.”
That reminded me that Thayer had joined Anais and Enoch on their research of Lucien’s Spellscript. With everything that had been happening, it hadn’t crossed my mind since that morning.
With a curt nod, Lucien said, “Don’t forget to tell Ana?s when she comes back that we visited, okay?”
Remi’s bright eyes flicked behind me, toward where Dianna stood, waiting, with the guards on each side, as he nodded absentmindedly. “All right.”
Lucien then led us past the front desk, leaving Remi behind, and deeper into the Ward. He came to a stop before one of the beds, which was fully hidden behind the thick curtains. Through it, however, I could see a shadow. Someone was lying there.
He then turned to Dianna, who was now fully dressed, and said, “You have fifteen minutes.”
She barely gave a nod. In fact, she was so stiff, one of the guards gave her a gentle nudge forward to get her going. She finally did, disappearing behind the curtains.
After Lucien told the guards to wait outside, he turned to look at me, gaze heavy. “Werewolves don’t easily get hurt,” he suddenly said.
I frowned, thinking back to Alby and Dianna and how they were still somewhat fine even after being shot, and wondered why he was telling me that.
“This is true in the physical sense,” he continued, face grave. “When it comes to our mental health, however, we are far weaker than humans.”
Feeling the gravity in his words, I could only nod as he slowly pulled the curtain away, revealing Dianna sitting next to the hospital bed, her hand holding the old man’s who rested there.
Though resting wasn’t the right word for his state.
The man’s glassy eyes were staring unblinkingly at the ceiling.
His face was full of wrinkles and completely pale, which made him appear to be in his eighties or nineties, and his skin was paper thin, with spots and blemishes.
His thin, wispy layer of hair was entirely white.
What I could see of his body under the blanket was thin and frail.
He seemed like a wraith, really. All skin and bones. As if with one slight shove, he would fall apart and turn to ash.
We paused at the foot of the bed, and Lucien leaned toward me so he could murmur in a barely audible voice, “This is Kate.”
“Kate?” I repeated in a small whisper. Well, shame on me for assuming the patient’s gender.
“Kate,” Lucien confirmed, and took a deep breath. “She’s eight years old.”
“Eight,” I mumbled, unable to process what he was saying. “Don’t you mean eighty?”
“No, eight.” Lucien’s voice was now low, and the grim pain I could hear in it made me look up at him. There was evident darkness in his eyes. And guilt.
So much guilt that it made my own heart ache for him. I reached out to hold his hand, squeezing it.
He squeezed back, though he kept his eyes on Kate.
“Every full moon,” he said in a soft murmur, “werewolves go through a forced transition. Our humanity is pushed to the back, and the animal takes control. Before the full moon fully rises, we shift into our wolf form so we won’t cause any damage, because if we stay in our human form while our humanity is wiped out for a whole night . . .”
His shoulders slumped, his head hanging low.
“Depending on the werewolf’s age and inherent temperament, if we stay in our human form during the full moon, our actions may vary, but none of it is good.
For instance, more aggressive werewolves in their young adulthood could attack and kill each other, or do something far more vile.
” The disgust in his voice was apparent, and I didn’t want to imagine what those vile things could be.
“Those who are more levelheaded, whether young or old, could potentially be harmless—unless provoked, and no one knows what the trigger for that could be.”
Lucien’s eyes returned to Kate, full of despair. “And sometimes, no matter the age or temperament of the werewolf, they can catch a fatal mental disease called Wildlight.”
I stared at Kate now, too, as I started to realize where he was going with this, holding on to his hand now for my own sanity too.
And the blow came when he explained in a barely there whisper. “When a werewolf spends the full moon in their human skin, the animal within goes completely wild. The infected wolf can lose their humanity completely, and not just for the duration of the full moon—but for life.”
He squeezed my hand again, and I could feel him tremble with barely contained rage.
“That loss of humanity causes the werewolf to go berserk. Young or old, they turn into horrendously strong killing machines that could physically tear anyone apart. Only an Alpha can restrain them without getting fatally hurt in the process.”
Horror filled me as I listened to him when he added, “I had to immobilize an eight-year-old girl suffering from Wildlight after she killed her own parents.”
My throat was closed up. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was hold Lucien’s hand and stare at the half-dead person lying in the hospital bed, and Dianna, holding on to her with empty eyes and a hopeless face.
“Two months ago, Kate was infected with Wildlight,” Lucien said, his voice even, but the tone broken.
“She didn’t shift into a wolf in time. Very early in the night, she killed her parents, then ran to the woods in search of prey—any prey.
She was so small, Drew.” He sucked in a breath, and I slowly turned to look at him.
“A small little wolf who could kill an adult. It’s the most absurd sight you could ever see. ”
He trembled, turning to look at me with unbearable pain in his gaze. “And while her humanity was gone, she was still only a baby. I had to fight a baby, hit a baby, and knock a baby unconscious so she wouldn’t kill anyone else.”
I choked, tears escaping my eyes.
“I had never encountered someone so young being affected by Wildlight,” he whispered, and I could see tears in his eyes too. That sight broke me. “In France, the youngest I had to subdue was fifteen, which, while not an adult, is still not a baby either. This little girl was a baby.”
“Lucien,” I breathed, feeling suffocated, as I shook my head, holding on to his hand almost as tightly as Dianna held Kate’s.
A tear fell down his face too. “When she regained consciousness, she was already shackled and caged,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Seeing a tiny girl struggling against her shackles is a sight I don’t wish on anyone.”
He gave me a faint, bitter smile. “Wildlight doesn’t just affect the line between our human and animal sides,” he said, “but it also affects our very soul.”