I chuckled softly. “I just might do that.” After hanging up, I immediately dialed Wyatt. “Hey, is your ghost still there?”
“A hello would be nice,” he replied.
“Wyatt, I need you to ask him something. I don’t think this is a natural virus or genetic defect. I think someone’s infecting people.”
“Now that’s a twist I didn’t see coming. Hold on.”
I paced back and forth between the buildings, rock music thumping in the background. A car horn beeped a few times, some girls cheered, and a beer bottle shattered.
“Welcome to Dialing the Dead. My name is Wyatt Blessing, and I’ll be your spirit guide.”
“Ask King if he took any medicine for his heartburn. Not the boiling root stuff but real medicine.”
Wyatt repeated my question, and then there was a minute of silence. “He had some pills.”
“Put me on speaker. Did he get them at the store?”
“No,” Wyatt said. “He says human medicine isn’t strong enough.”
“Does he remember who gave it to him? Was it someone in his pride or did he buy them on the street?”
After a few seconds, Wyatt replied, “His father believed in natural healing and wouldn’t have approved, so he got them from a Relic.”
I stopped. “Was his name Graham Wiggins?”
“Yes. He wants to know how you knew.”
Graham had mentioned how he peddled medicine on the side. Not unusual for a Relic, but why wouldn’t he have mentioned treating King? Especially since he didn’t work for the Freeman pride? Maybe he didn’t want to get in trouble with Sambah for sneaking around behind his back. King must have mentioned how his family didn’t approve of Western medicine, but something didn’t feel right. In fact, it felt very, very wrong.
“Thanks. That’s all I needed.”
After hanging up, I sent Blue a quick text message.
Raven: Ask Graham if he prescribed meds to the victims. Be careful.
Blue: Where are you?
Raven: On my way. Don’t let him leave.
As soon as Blue hopped out of Raven’s truck, she stepped onto the sidewalk and made her way toward the hot dog stand. While she hadn’t spent any time in this area of town, she’d flown over it a few times. Young people flitted from one bar to another, but it was also a spot for lovers. Many were presumably on their first or second date, awkwardly holding hands and stealing glances at each other. Human courting rituals were so strange to her. Blue walked beneath the bright lights strung up all around the hot dog stand. The shop was nothing more than a long building with service windows. Most customers took their meals and walked off, but a few sat at the round outdoor tables.
She approached Graham and pulled out a chair. “Raven’s having trouble with parking, so she’ll be here in a minute.”
“Have you been here before?” he asked. “The hot dogs are delicious. Delicious! I took the liberty of ordering for you.” Graham handed her a wrapped hot dog from his pile before tackling his fries. “It’s on me. Payback for the last meal. That cup is plain soda and the other is grape. You get first choice.”
Blue took the plain soda. “Thanks.”
The smell of hot dogs and french fries made places like these irresistible to pass by. She hadn’t grown up with processed food, and maybe that was why it was so addictive to her. She pulled away the silver wrapping that kept her meal toasty warm.
“I put mustard on it,” Graham said. “Hope you’re not one of those ketchup people. I can go back and get another if it’s not what you want.”
“No, this is perfect. I love mustard.” She took a big bite and sighed. Sometimes the little things brought her happiness. Blue was also starving since they’d skipped dinner.
Graham wiped his fingers with a paper napkin. “Don’t worry about talking out in the open. It’s too loud for Vampires, and most Breed don’t like busy human streets on a Friday. Too many intoxicated college kids.”
Usually people chose isolated areas for privacy. Lakes, underground garages, abandoned warehouses. Not Graham. He needed to be stationed near the food, and Blue was grateful. After finishing her hot dog, she eyed Raven’s.
“Might as well,” he said, chuckling. By the looks of the wadded-up wrappers, Graham was working on his third wiener. “I’ll give her one of mine.”
Blue smiled. “Raven likes burgers anyhow.”
“Overrated. Just a bunch of mystery meat.”
“And this isn’t?” She held up her naked hot dog.
“What’s the latest update? Your partner said you found something.”
Their table was small and intimate, but Blue still lowered her voice. “We found a connection between the victims.”
“How so?”
“They were all alphas or redheads.”
Graham set down his half-eaten hot dog and picked at the bread. “I don’t follow.”
“Almost all the men are alphas, and the rest—including all the girls—are redheads. You know as well as I do that a redhead is more likely to produce an alpha, and a strong one.” She suddenly belched and sat back, hand on her chest. “Pardon me. Anyhow, we wanted to get your insight. You knew some of these people.”
“You two have certainly done your homework. I would have never connected those dots, not without meeting every person. Are you absolutely certain?”
“Without a doubt. We asked everyone to either confirm alpha status or send us a picture. That’s more than a coincidence. Most of them were sick right before, so it fits a pattern.”
“Your questions must have raised suspicion.”
“We had a really good alibi, so you don’t have to worry. What do you think?”
“It sounds like what you’re suggesting—a virus. The thing most people don’t understand about viruses is that they’re designed to survive. And sometimes that means mutating and changing their behavior. It’s not that different from people except that we acclimate to change while they themselves change. Have you two thought about the consequences of leaking this knowledge?”
Blue cleared her throat. “We’ve considered it. We thought maybe you might have connections in your world—someone who can do an autopsy on some of the remains and identify the virus. Maybe even find a cure before it strikes more people.”
Graham stroked the scruff on his chubby cheek. “Just imagine what the higher authority would do if they thought a virus was spreading among Shifters. They would force you into isolation—away from the general population. People would resist, and there would be violence. So much violence. If it affected all of us, that would be different. But it’s just Shifters, and people don’t think much of you to begin with. Wouldn’t take long before everyone considered you a threat to the Breed population.”
“They’re more threatened by our numbers than they would be a virus. It could also be a genetic mutation. We’re not scientists, so that’s why we called for your expertise.” She rubbed her chest, wishing she hadn’t eaten that second hot dog.
Graham watched a couple walking past their table. He seemed to have a lot on his mind, and Blue could only imagine the heavy weight of deciding the fate of an entire race. “Now that I think about it, I should have noticed the obvious connection. If a person knew enough victims, they’d see it too. But you didn’t know them, so how in the world did you connect those dots?”