Jack was the one who opened the exam room door. “Grace, come on. We have to go — Olivia’s not doing so good.”
I stood, embarrassed to be found with tear-stained cheeks. I turned to tip the used syringe into the hazardous waste container by the counter. “I need help carrying him.”
He scowled at me. “That’s why Isabel sent me in here.”
I looked down, and my heart stopped. Empty floor. I spun, ducking my head to look under the table. “Sam?”
Jack had left the door open. The room was empty.
“Help me find him!” I shouted at Jack, pushing past him into the hallway.
There was no sign of Sam. As I pelted down the hall, I could see the door wide-open at the end of it, black night staring in. It was the first place a wolf would’ve run to, once his drugs wore off. Escape. The night. The cold.
I spun in the parking lot, looking for any sign of Sam in the slender finger of Boundary Wood that stretched behind the clinic. But it was darker than
dark. No lights. No sound. No Sam.
“Sam!”
I knew he wouldn’t come, even if he heard me. Sam was strong, but instincts were stronger.
It was intolerable to imagine him out there somewhere, half a vial of infected blood mixing slowly with his.
“Sam!” My voice was a wail, a howl, a cry in the night. He was gone.
Headlights blinded me: Isabel’s SUV, tearing up beside me and shuddering to a stop. Isabel leaned over from the driver’s side and shoved open the passenger-side door, her face a ghost in the lights of the dashboard.
“Get in, Grace. Hurry the hell up! Olivia is changing and we’ve been here
way too long already.”
I couldn’t leave him.
“Grace!”
Jack climbed into the backseat, shuddering; his eyes pleaded with me.
They were the same eyes I’d seen at the very beginning, back when he’d first
been turned. Back before I’d known anything at all.
I got in and slammed the door shut, looking out the window just in time to see a white wolf standing by the edge of the parking lot. Shelby. Alive, just like Sam had thought. I stared in the rearview mirror at her; the wolf stood in the parking lot and gazed after us. I thought I saw triumph in her eyes as she turned and disappeared into the darkness.
“Which wolf is that?” Isabel demanded.
But I couldn’t answer. All I could think was Sam, Sam, Sam.
