Wade turned and looked at her, his face stricken. "No, baby, I'd never think that about you."
"Yes, you do, you won't even hold my hand."
He reached out toward her but stopped in midmotion. The pain showed on his face, but he couldn't make himself touch his daughter. The younger brother, Em, took her hand in both of his, holding her hand up against his body. He glared at his father. His eyes were shiny now, too.
Robert, the older brother, laid his hand on her leg under the sheets, because that was what he could reach. He wouldn't look at anyone, and I caught the shine of tears as he turned away.
"Mr. Karlton, you need to talk with me out in the hall, now. Russell will talk to Laila."
"I can't leave my boys with him."
That was it, I'd been nice. "Your boys, as if Laila isn't your girl anymore. She's not dead, Mr. Karlton, she's just a shapeshifter. She won't even change until next month's full moon. She's still your daughter. She's still everything she ever was."
"But not a U.S. Marshal." This from Laila.
I turned and looked at her. The first tear trickled down her cheek. "They're gonna take my badge."
"Did they say that?" I asked.
She frowned a little. "No, but you know the rules."
"For regular cops, yes, but for the preternatural branch of the service, they're a little more flexible."
"You don't change shape, Anita, that's why they haven't taken yours."
"Maybe, but I know that until you shift they absolutely cannot take your badge, not without a fight."
She looked at me. Her younger brother was looking at me now. Robert was wiping at his face with his free hand, the other still on his sister; I think he was too emotional to look at anyone just then.
"You're a shapeshifter, too?" Em asked.
"No, but I carry lycanthropy. My blood tests come back with it, I just don't shift."
"You'll shift," Wade said, "you all do."
"I've been like this for two years now. I carry it, it helps me heal, be stronger, but I don't change shape."
"Can Laila not change shape?" Em asked.
I shrugged. "She probably will, but until the week of her first full moon she won't be a danger to anyone."
"You don't know that," Wade said.
I looked up at him, and it was good that I'd had lots of practice staring way up at very tall people and being tough while I did it. I let him see the anger in my eyes, because I was angry with him. He was making a terrible situation even worse for his daughter. Fathers weren't supposed to make things worse.
"I do know that," I said. "I've lived with two shapeshifters for years now."
"They gave it to you," he said, and his tone made it sound liked the bubonic plague or AIDS.
"No, they didn't. I actually got cut up by a bad guy and a shapeshifter who waded into a fight to save me. The bad guy didn't mean to contaminate me, he meant to kill me."
Socrates came up behind me, and I got to see Wade Karlton flinch a little. "My sister felt the same way you do when I got hurt. I haven't seen my nephews, or her, in five years. Mama and the rest of us miss them."
Wade looked at Socrates. "You mean you miss your family."
"No, Mama invited me to the first Thanksgiving after I was hurt. When my sister saw me, she took her kids and left, said she'd never be there if I was there. Said I wasn't safe, said I was an animal. Mama takes a dim view of anyone badmouthing her children, so I see my family every holiday. I'm the oldest of five. I've seen every nephew and niece as a newborn, and been at all the birthday parties, ball games, school plays that I can manage. My one sister stopped coming because she thought I'd be there. Then two years ago her oldest got involved with a gang, and I went down there and helped get him out of it, because gangbangers are just as scared of wereanimals as you are. I made sure the boy got himself straightened out. Last semester he was on the honor roll and it looks like he's got a shot at a football scholarship to a good college."
Wade looked at Socrates, and I couldn't quite read the look, but apparently Socrates could, because he said, "His father was bigger than me, built more like your boys and you." Socrates grinned, sudden and happy in his dark face. "I've seen defensive lines just give up, once he hits them just once."
"You play ball in high school?"
"In high school. I wasn't big enough or good enough for college ball, but John is; he's what his father could have been if he'd had someone to keep him out of the gangs."
"You knew his father?"
Socrates nodded. "Went to high school with him, but the gangs and the drugs got him."
The two men looked at each other. I just tried to be quiet and invisible between them, because this moment wasn't about me, it was just them.
"I coach a city school; we lose a lot of kids."
"Too many," Socrates said.
"Does your nephew play locally?"
"No, they're in Detroit."
"What's his name?"
Socrates told him.
It was Em who said, "I know him. We were at football camp together. He was the only guy as big as me, and as fast."
Wade nodded. "I remember him. What schools is he being scouted by?" And just like that, they started talking football, and there was no more us vs. them, it was just guys and sports. I'd never been so happy to listen to people talk about sports in my life.
Socrates moved Wade and Em off to one side to talk football and colleges. Robert moved up and took Laila's hand. I came to the other side and put my hand over hers where it lay on the sheets. She looked a little startled. We didn't know each other that well.