Chapter Fifteen
“That’s odd,” Keegan murmured to her new employee, Juniper Parsons. “Mrs. Smyth isn’t here.”
Keegan had barely put the HELP WANTED sign in the window when Juniper stepped inside.
Sheridan was small enough that she knew everyone in the pack, and Juniper had always lived on the fringe with her younger sister and father.
Alpha Jericho tried many times to bring them in closer, but the dad preferred isolation.
Rarely did they attend the full-moon runs, and in fact Juniper never ran.
Truthfully, Keegan had forgotten about her until the day the younger woman stepped into the coffee shop and applied for the position vacated by Mairi.
Her too-skinny frame and sallow complexion tugged on Keegan’s heart and she hired the younger woman on the spot.
So far, Juniper was an awesome employee absorbing everything like a sponge.
“She’s here every morning?”
“Like clockwork.”
Keegan stepped out to look up and down the street, and saw a figure crumpled against the ice cream parlor only two shops down. She ran over and saw a young woman, passed out with a bit of dried blood at her hairline.
Juniper gasped. “Is she alive?”
“Yes, go get Savannah.”
Juniper turned and ran toward the apothecary while Keegan turned back to the unconscious woman, trying to locate the source of the blood.
When she moved the hair back, pointed ears with a small tuft of hair at the tip came into view.
Shock poured through her. The ears were the same as Brinnah’s when she first arrived.
Did that mean this woman was from Brinnah’s old pack?
It didn’t take long for Juniper to return with Savannah. The enchantress immediately kneeled down to examine the woman, pausing as she discovered the ears. She looked at Keegan.
“I think you need to call Alpha Jericho. And Everett.”
Keegan nodded and pulled out her cell phone to place the calls as Savannah continued her examination. It didn’t take long for the alpha to connect the line.
“Hello, Keegan,” he greeted.
“Alpha, I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s an unconscious woman by Bitsy’s shop and she has ears like Brinnah.”
He sucked in a breath. “Attacked?”
“I don’t know. There’s blood. Savannah is here, examining her.”
“Blood? Don’t touch her, Keegan. I’ll call Everett and meet you in a few minutes.”
“Yes, Alpha.” She hung up and hurried back to Savannah. “He’s on his way. Is she going to be okay?”
“I think so. She’s dehydrated and severely malnourished, but the head wound is minor. I think she collapsed from exhaustion.”
“You think she came all this way from Canada?”
“That is a fair assessment. Brinnah can confirm.”
“The alpha said I can’t touch her and that he’ll call Everett.”
A few minutes later, Jericho showed up and joined Savannah. “Everett said he and Brinnah will be here momentarily. Does she have any identification?”
“Not that I’ve discovered. We can search the forest, but I don’t think she has anything.” Savannah lifted the hair to show him the ears. “Refugee maybe. Her eyes look bruised, but I don’t think from a beating. This poor thing must’ve run far with very little sustenance.”
“She escaped?”
“Possibly.
A truck came to a stop and Brinnah hopped out of the passenger side and ran to the unconscious woman.
“Kadie!” she cried, falling to her knees. She grabbed her friend’s hand. “Kadie, please wake up.”
“You shouldn’t touch her, Brinnah,” Jericho warned.
Tears rolled down Brinnah’s face and she leaned over to talk softly into Kadie’s ear. It must have done something because she roused, blinking open deep blue eyes, almost violet in color.
“Brinnah?” she asked, her voice thin and weak.
“Yes, I’m here.” She wiped limp hair off Kadie’s forehead. “Did the alpha let you leave? Where’s Maggie? Oh, I’ve missed you so much.”
Kadie gripped her hand. “They’re dead.”
Brinnah blinked. “What? Who are dead?”
Tears filled Kadie’s eyes. “Everyone. The alpha. Elder Agnes. M-Maggie. Their bodies just melted.”
Brinnah’s whole body seemed to melt as she collapsed in a boneless heap. “What ... oh my God, no. Please. No. What? What happened?”
“Some disease. We didn’t know where it came from. Or how it spread. I ran after the alpha died, but I didn’t know where to go. I beg of you, can I stay here?”
Brinnah looked at Alpha Jericho. “Can she stay? Please?”
“Damn it,” Jericho muttered.
“What’s going on, Alpha?” Everett asked. “What disease?”
Jericho looked at each person. “This stays between us. Ezra Parsons died of a blood disease. Doc is investigating how contagious it is, which is why I don’t want this to get out until we know the facts. Understood?”
When each person nodded, he glanced back at Kadie. “Are you infected with this disease?”
“No, Alpha,” she replied, head bowed. “Wolves die within days of infection.”
“You can stay, but I insist on quarantine until we figure things out. Okay?” When she nodded, he turned to Everett. “We should get her to the medical office.”
“Good idea,” Savannah said. “I can coordinate with...”
She paused, looking at something beyond Kadie’s supine body, and everyone turned their attention to what had captured her attention. An older woman staggered and Keegan recognized her.
“Mrs. Smyth?” Keegan asked. Sickness was quite different from a human, as well as the aging process.
Each shift regenerated cells. Wounds could be healed and disease erased.
To have the older woman looking like she was ready to keel over wasn’t good.
Not to mention an entire pack dying from some disease.
Just then, Mrs. Smyth collapsed and Savannah reacted immediately, hurrying to inspect the older woman.
Mrs. Smyth lay on the ground, eyes closed.
“Stay back, Keegan,” Savannah ordered. She took a few steps toward the older woman. “Mrs. Smyth?”
Suddenly, her eyes opened wide and her lips parted. From it a red mist sprayed out, and Savannah fell back.
“Oh my God,” she muttered.
She scrambled to her feet and pulled Jericho and Keegan away from Mrs. Smyth.
As the red mist left her body, it seemed to leech the color from the older woman and she went from normal skin tones to ghost white.
Suddenly the mist evaporated and Mrs. Smyth’s wolf let out a mournful howl before her head lolled to the side. Death had consumed her.
“Stay back!” Savannah yelled. “Shifters, don’t go near that body.”
“What’s the disease?” Alpha Jericho demanded.
Savannah bent down to touch some of the fallout from the mist. “Oh, no. This is not good. No, no, no.”
“Savannah, what is going on?” Jericho demanded. “This is how Ezra died.”
The enchantress pulled hand sanitizer from her pocket and quickly wiped her hands. “We’ve got a big problem, Jericho. It’s the red plague.”
He frowned. “The what?”
“Humans had the black plague. Shifters had the red. It kills your blood and your animal. I’ve gotta call Niall.”
Keegan backtracked, almost tripping over the doorway entrance. Everett grabbed Brinnah to pull her away, and she in turn grabbed Kadie. They all watched fearfully.
“What the hell is the red plague?” Jericho asked. “I’ve never heard of this.”
“Consider it a magical virus. Like I said, it literally separates the animal from the human. That red mist was her wolf dying, and since a shifter can’t live without its other half, it indirectly kills the human side as well.
Even if you catch it in your wolf form.” Savannah placed one hand on the side of her head.
“Jericho, it’s highly contagious. Everyone needs to be extremely cautious. ”
“Is this what killed my old pack?” Brinnah asked, her voice thick with grief.
“From what your friend described, yes.”
Jericho ran a hand over his face. “Where the fuck did this come from?”
“This plague hasn’t been around for centuries,” Savannah replied. “I have no clue why or how it resurfaced.”
“Shifters are resilient,” Everett said. “So, what caused this?”
Savannah bit her bottom lip. “A long time ago, there was a war between the shifter world and the magical world. Warlocks released the red plague toxin in the shifters’ water supply, and it worked so well that they were on the brink of extinction.”
“How did we survive?” Keegan asked.
“There’s only one cure,” Savannah replied, fear leaking from her tone. “But unfortunately, it died out a long time ago.”
“What was it?” Jericho demanded. “I’ll send a call out to all the packs. Maybe someone has it.”
“They won’t,” Savannah said, shaking her head. “The only cure is the horn of a unicorn. And there are no more of them.”
Jericho blinked. “Come again?”