赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“Hello, Ashleigh,” she said with a smile in her voice. “I’m guessing you are calling me because you can’t get ahold of Axel. Unfortunately, we have had a bit of an incident here, and he’s not around at the moment.”

Her voice held a disingenuous tone of playfulness. It was likely that Ashleigh already knew about Myka, but in case she didn’t, Alice didn’t want to explain her sorrowful mood right now.

“That’s all right. I’m actually calling to speak with you.”

Alice furrowed her brow. She glanced back at Bell and Peter. They were still going over the final details and setting up the equipment. She got up from the chair and stepped outside the door to continue her conversation.

“With me?” Alice replied with exaggeration. “And to what do I owe this honor? Oh, great Luna of Summer.”

“Stop,” Ashleigh said quietly.

Alice was surprised. She knew that she got under Ashleigh’s skin a lot of the time, but this must’ve been a record.

“I’m sorry,” Ashleigh continued, surprising Alice yet again. “I know you and Myka are close. I heard what happened.”

Alice swallowed but said nothing.

“Look, I know you’re going through something terrible right now. But I really need to ask you something, and I swear it is important.”

Alice was intrigued.

“I’m all ears.”

She could hear Ashleigh take a deep breath on the other end of the line.

“Do you know who Myka’s parents are?”

Alice felt a chill down her spine. She remembered his father lying on the ground, convulsing, as the foam trickled from his lips. She remembered his mother falling to her knees as the blood pooled beneath her.

“What an interesting question,” Alice replied in a neutral tone.

“Please, Alice, I swear it is important.”

“I’m afraid, Ashleigh, I struggle to trust in people’s word. Myka’s parents have been gone for a very long time, so I fail to see how they could matter now. Especially to someone who couldn’t possibly have known them.”

“Fine, you don’t have to tell me who they were. But can you tell me if it’s possible that Myka was Luna Irina’s younger brother?” Ashleigh asked.

Alice felt a tight grip on her chest. She was shocked, confused, and concerned. Ashleigh had a tendency to bring to light hidden information that posed a danger to the people around her. But she was an inherently good person. She would not be seeking to hurt Myka.

With a deep sigh, Alice decided to trust in Ashleigh.

“You are full of surprises, Ashleigh,” Alice smiled. “Very few people knew the truth about who Myka was. Even the ones that saw him every single day, that ‘treated’ him.”

Alice clenched her jaw at the thought of the lab. At the thought of that small boy, shocked, cut, tested on over and over.

She took another deep breath.

“Before she discovered her bond to Gorn, Irina and her parents were free of many of the harsh realities of Spring. They lived quietly along a lake and had little interaction with others. But once she became his, he made sure she would never have an escape route.

“He took control of her parents and fed them drugs to keep them compliant and loyal. When Gorn found out that they were expecting a pup, he chose Myka as one of his pets in order to strengthen his hold on Irina.

“Yes, Myka is her one and only brother. She never knew him. But from what I hear, she would have died for him. Which is why he was a perfect toy in Gorn’s chest.”

Ashley’s deep inhale through the phone line was shaky.

“How do you know all this?” Ashley asked.

Alice scoffed sarcastically.

“My father took very detailed notes,” she sighed. “Now, tell me Luna of Summer, what is so important about knowing Myka’s origins?”

Alice turned and glanced back inside the room, they were prepping for the transfusion now.

“Irina was a descendant of the original Luna of Spring,” Ashleigh said. “She didn’t go crazy, not in the way that everyone thinks. She had abilities left over from her ancestors, but one she didn’t know about. An ability to hear the life of the forest.”

Alice furrowed her brow.

“Wolves can’t cast magic…” she said, confused by what Ashleigh was implying.

“It’s not casting, it’s just a part of her. She probably never even realized that it was a power.”

“That seems… crazy,” Alice stated.

“Crazier than a wolf whose blood can heal someone almost back from death?” Ashleigh asked.

“Bell…” Alice whispered, turning her eyes to focus on the dark-haired woman.

Bell had sat down in the chair beside Myka’s bed, preparing her arm for the transfusion.

“Yes,” Ashleigh replied. “She is a descendant of the Autumn Luna; they both have unique blood.”

Alice felt that strange scratching at the back of her mind again.

“Unique… blood…” she whispered.

“But that’s not what matters right now,” Ashleigh continued. “What matters is that I need Myka’s help with an important mission, and probably yours too.”

“Well… he’s a bit indisposed at the moment, dear, but I can take a message?”

Ashleigh sighed her annoyance.

“This is serious, Alice, the fae in him could be the solution to a very big problem.”

‘…the fae in him….’

The words echoed in Alice’s mind. She looked at Bell, who smiled and gave Peter a reassuring wink. Peter nodded and then looked down affectionately toward Myka, he ran his fingers through his hair and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

‘…they have unique blood….’

An image from Alice’s medical records popped into her mind, a report on the blood she had received from Bell. Unique markers she had never seen before.

Suddenly Alice realized that she had just recently seen very similar markers on a blood panel. Her eyes widened, and she dropped the phone. Alice pushed through the doors and cried out fiercely.

“Stop! You can’t give him her blood! It will kill them both!”