The sound of furniture being moved woke me. Soft whispers. People shifting back and forward. How long had I been asleep for? Three hours?

I jumped out of bed, tugging clothing back into the right places, hurrying into the hall. Elena and Daniella were moving another mattress into the room.

"Who is it?"

"No one. We wanted to have another bed in there."

I sighed, slumping against the wall, relieved for a second. Then, "Are they sick?"

"A little more now, yes. Not critical." Elena smiled a quick tense smile.

We headed in and I saw that there was already one single mattress against the wall, Clayton sprawled out on it, fast asleep. Sleeping in here? That made sense. Logan was lying in bed watching a TV, sweaty, looking pretty pale, and Dominic was sitting beside him, sweaty and red faced, but very distracted by the movie. Good old Ponyo. It got them every time.

The second the other mattress was dropped down and made up, it was offered to me, and I crawled into it gratefully. Seeing Dominic okay, and Logan too, after three hours of nightmares about them close to death, was enough to bring back that need for sleep.

I lay back and watched as Elena took a 'guard' post instead, pretending to watch the movie as she watched the kids instead.

"Are the girls okay?"

"No sickness. All three are fine. No one else has gotten sick overnight at Stonehaven. They've taken precautions, rested up, and we've decided to warn the mutts in two days if there's another case." Elena rattled it all off. Her eyes went to the pillow I was ignoring. "I'll watch, here's your phone-" She tossed it to me, "-already on vibration, Daniella is working on breakfast, everything is all taken care of. So have a good rest."

"Yes, mam." I flopped back and shut my eyes. "Nick okay?"

"He's not sick, but he was awake all night apparently, watching the girls sleep." She replied.

When I checked messages, Nick having sent me an hourly report. Most of them were 'sleeping fine xxoo' or some variety of it. I wasn't sure where I'd left my phone but I hadn't even thought of sending messages back. Maybe Elena had hid it? I doubted it. It was more likely she'd sat on it somewhere I'd lost it. I texted back 'Dominic watching Ponyo' and passed out.

The day passed slowly. Both boys got sicker, we knew they would, but it was hard to watch. The worst part was how helpless I was to stop it, I just had to sit there pretending to smile at Dominic as he just got sick, lost interest in us, his eyes shut as he entered the phase of the disease that knocked him out. Logan wasn't far behind him there. We increased checking their temperatures to every fifteen minutes instead, not that it was really needed, because at least one adult was close enough to see if they sweated more than usual. It wasn't like with the adults.

By now Nick was constantly texting me, and I tried to text back, though I'd get distracted easily. We were trying to prepare ourselves for something we'd seen in the adults, fevers that were dangerously high, hallucinations, and convolutions.

Dominic cried, when he was awake, not understanding why he hurt. I couldn't say or do anything to comfort him besides sit with him, or let him hear Nick's voice on the phone. It didn't matter that he wouldn't remember this after- it tore at us, ripped our guts out, tortured us worse than anything. Logan wasn't much better, all his calmness gone, maybe the fear of what he'd seen finally coming through the self-control he usually showed.

Nick showed up at three that night, standing outside the door, clearly about ready to burst through the net, illness be damned. It was Clayton who had to keep him out there, and while the balance of strength had been tipped in Nick's favour, he seemed unable or unwilling to go against Clayton's will.

Finally I had to leave Dominic to Clayton's watchful eyes, I knew he wasn't going to fail me there while Elena had Logan, and took Nick down to the kitchen myself, leading him gently by the hand away from the room.

"We can't let you get sick too." I reminded him, as his eyes kept fixed on the room above, hand shaking.

"He's tiny."

"I know." I hugged him, wrapping arms around his chest, a tremble there when I got close enough to feel it. I was shaking too. Nick leaned against me, breathing in and out fast, head twisted in the direction of the room above us. "What is going on?"

"Clayton's talking to him." He replied, shutting his eyes, chin resting on top of my head finally. "You hungry?"

I blinked. I hadn't even thought about it. "Probably."

"I'll go home when we've eaten. Deal?"

"Deal." I went to the fridge, or tried to, but Nick directed me towards a chair and went to do it himself. Sandwich, microwave, melted cheese, tomato and chicken, slightly stiff bread from the torment of the microwave, and from Nick it was the best thing I'd eaten for days. We ate with one hand, the free hands holding, fingers playing and hunting each other, trying to be light hearted. Maybe we were both tired enough to need a smile.

"Everything's okay up there. Dominic's asleep." He informed me, as we ate, resting his head on his free arm when the food was gone. This wasn't comfortable, apparently, and he scowled, standing up. "Come on. Cuddle before I go."

"And Logan?" I had no willpower to resist that offer right now and followed him into the living room, letting him tug me on top of him as he flopped onto the couch on his back.

"Also asleep, Elena's reading a book to him." He yawned, shutting his eyes, tugging a cushion under his head. "Temprature is high but not dangerous. Vi is napping, is she?"

"She stays asleep at night unless it's urgent. We sleep during day." I yawned, another shudder, exhausted already. It was, according to the phone, just before four in the morning. "How are the girls?"

"Missing Dominic and Logan and you. And everyone." One of Nick's hands stroked along my back slowly. "Smart girls. Dad's on watch. I was supposed to be sleeping but I tried and … here I am. Shh. Don't tell anyone."

"I think they noticed." I replied, dryly, and he laughed. "How are you feeling?" I reached up to touch his forehead. It was dry, cooler, he was breathing okay under my ear.

"I'm not sick. I was just overreacting."

I intended on teasing him about this, admitting it, but the gentle stroke of his hand under my top, the sound of his lungs inhaling and exhaling under me, the slowing heartbeat, it lulled me into sleep before I could open my mouth.

A gentle shake made me jump, Nick's arms tightening around me, a mutter of 'Don't you dare move her, Clay'.

"Nick's ordered to go home." He smiled a tense smile at Nick. "Let her up."

"Five more minutes." Nick muttered. "She's warm."

"He's too close to the kids right now. We don't want him getting sick." He reminded me, my eyes flying open, and I slid off with Clayton's help, Nick's arms failing to keep me there. "Nick, home."

"I'll get sick so I can stay." He might have been trying to joke, grabbing for me, but Clayton kicked him hard, so sudden and violent that the couch tipped over, Nick going over with it with a yelp, the wooden frame cracking.

"I'll replace that." Clayton glanced at me, then turned on Nick as he got up, aiming another kick, not kidding. "Head on upstairs, Anne. I got to go to Stonehaven to spend time with Kate, so I'll drag him behind me." He looked angry, really angry, as he advanced on Nick. "You want to change that statement?"

I left Clayton to it and hurried upstairs. There had been not much chance from when we'd fallen asleep, it'd only been half an hour, the kids asleep, Elena sitting against the wall beside Logan, her head tipping forward as she fought sleep. Vi snored softly on the mattress.

Elena's eyes opened as I came in and she smiled a tired smile, then glanced at Logan. He lay there, breathing a little too fast, sweat glinting in the dim light coming from the hall light, a hand clutching hers so hard the skin was white, head right up against the edge of the bed beside her.

I slid onto the floor beside Dominic, his hand on the teddy again, fast asleep, eyes moving under the lids as he dreamed. It might have been easy to think he was just asleep, if it wasn't for the damp pillow or the bowl and the damp cloth beside him. A quick check, his temperature up again, and I gently wrung out the cloth so I could stroke it against his head.

He froze, suddenly, twitching, mouth open, eyes rolling back in his head, the whites of his eyes staring at me. I jumped up, knocking the bowl over in my panic, heart hammering as I stared at him. I didn't know what to do. Vomit bubbled out of his mouth.

"El- Elena..."

Elena was up beside me, pushing Vi with a foot as she passed her, a hard kick that got the Russian up in seconds.

"It's okay." Vi was beside Dominic in seconds, shaking the red curls as if she was trying to shake her sleep out of her head, rolling him onto his side as his tiny body jerked and convulsed, tipping his head down so that the vomit came out. "It's okay. Don't panic."

"What is it? What's going on? Is he too hot?"

"No. It's okay." Vi didn't look at me, scowling as her hair kept getting in her way, and Elena grabbed it, tugging it back. "Thank you. It happens sometimes. We did it too. He's not in danger as long as he can breathe."

She could say that till her face was blue, all I could see was my baby shaking and jerking, eyes back in his head, throwing up, so afraid that I felt the first itch of change for the first time since my own disease. Elena's arm tightened around me. I tried to stay calm, I really tried, trembling as Vi took over, glancing at her phone every few seconds, the seizure just keeping on going, and going, and going...

Then suddenly he relaxed, body going limp, blinking sleepily up at us. Dominic took a few seconds to think about this, about what had just happened, eyes fixed on my face, before he started to cry and sat up, trying to grab for me. I lifted him up, trembling, Vi stroking his back.

"He won't remember it." She said softly, as I tried to not cry too. "It might be the vomit he's upset about."

He probably was, and I let her led us into the bathroom, stripping his clothing off. He needed changing too, tears running down his face as he stared at the distress in my face, letting Vi wash his mouth out carefully with water as she cooed to him gently.

"Smile, he'll calm down." She said, softly, as she stroked his face. "Such a brave boy."

I tried to smile, Dominic's dark eyes going from her to me, unsure, the crying slowing down as he took in my smile. She was right. He calmed down, letting me change him, letting us lower him into a bath that Vi ran, a little upset but apparently okay. No harm done, nothing wrong, just a fright for me.

I bathed him as Vi changed the sheets and cleaned up, the lukewarm water clearly nice against his hot skin, and he even took an interest in one of the ducks for a moment when my smile didn't vanish. It was still fake- I wanted to bawl my eyes out- but he either didn't know or care. Once he was dressed in a fresh nappy and Pjs he happily curled back up in bed, thumb back in mouth, the duck nearby.

"Some children have it." Vi explained softly, as my smile faded, eyes locked onto him till he was asleep. "During a fever. It does not harm them."

"If you say so." He did seem okay now, already asleep, and had even played in the bath for a moment.

Elena's hand squeezed my shoulder a moment before she went to check Logan's temperature. She glanced up at Vi. "Bath for Logan now."

"Let's see." Vi moved over, nodding. "Okay. Come on. Up we get." She helped Elena lift him up, ignoring his complaints. "Stay with your boy. If he does it again, turn him onto his side, time it, and keep his mouth clear so he can vomit. Stay calm." She was already running a bath as she spoke to me, the two of them in the bathroom, Logan sitting on the edge of the bench as he slumped against his mum.

Dominic didn't do it again, and he seemed to get better, but Logan got worse. Elena was trying to stay calm, she was trying very hard, but by the time day time had come and Logan's temperature had only dropped a fraction, even she couldn't stop herself from biting at people, snapping, till Clayton returned with Amar and I made her come with me into one of the spare bedrooms.

"Sleep." I pointed at the bed. Some part of me hated this, ordering my alpha, but right now she was mother. Another mother.

"I should-" Elena muttered, glancing behind me to the hallway, the dark shadows under her eyes and the pale skin almost making her look sick again.

"Clay's back. He'll tie you down if you don't." I wasn't sure about that, to be honest, but she sighed and crawled into the bed.

"You sleep too." She muttered, trying to order me, but she was too tired to put much effort into it. Elena fumbled with her phone, setting the alarm for four hours. "Wake me if-"

"Course we will." Clayton's voice came from the doorway. "You heard her. Sleep. Let us take care of it."

We returned to the room. I found out why Clay had come for me- Dominic was having another fit, Vi beside him, soothing him as he jerked. He didn't throw up this time but it wasn't any less scary. Thirty seconds, apparently, and he relaxed, eyes going to me.

This time I tried to smile and he didn't cry, just blinked, a little confused looking.

"Time to change you again?" I asked, moving over, and Vi nodded a tight smile at me.

"Yes." Dominic spoke, blinking, sitting up. His rare voice, so solem right now, as he tried to smile back. "Time."

"I think he's getting better already." Vi said softly as she moved past me.

I changed him, Amar checking him, the fever apparently lower again. He gazed up with a little more interest as a light was shined in his eyes, grasping for the torch, and inspecting it as Amar checked him over.

"It took Matt a week to recover." I muttered.

"Dominic is not at the stage Matt is in changing and is younger." Amar looked thoughtful as he watched Dominic grasp the torch and hold it to his eye himself. "It might be a clue."

He glanced up to Vi, who was bent over Logan, who did not look okay yet.

"Still a bit hot." She replied. Clayton was sitting beside him now.

"We'll try another shower." Amar was already heading for the bathroom as Logan was lifted up in Clayton's arms, Vi not far behind.

I sat with Dominic, who stayed awake now, hands making the baby sign for 'hungry'

"He's hungry." I called, relief at this news.

"You can take him downstairs for some soup." Amar called back. "Bring it back up though."

I lifted Dominic up and we went downstairs, his hand playing with my hair and the duck, a little hot but alert now, eyes with life in them again, waiting eagerly as I made the soup and brought it back up into the bedroom. He ate it all too, yawning, and fell asleep again.

Logan ignored the offer of food and continued to get worse as the day got on, hotter, more feverish, till Amar was forced to use medication to help keep him calm. He started to see things in the room that weren't there, even as Elena came back, struggling and fighting, having nightmares. It wasn't at a 'all hands on deck, panic' range, apparently, but one look at Elena and Clayton and it'd be easy to assume otherwise. I didn't blame them there.

The only good news was that, still, no one at Stonehaven had gotten sick. Not the girls, not Kate, no one. There were two mutts sick now, Daniella had left with Savannah and Adam to deal with them, the three already in the desert and setting up with Amar's guidance over the phone. No one seemed keen to take Amar or Vi away from Logan, even if they were both qualified to deal with it.

I used the afternoon as a chance to nap in a spare room, Dominic beside me, a mosquito net over us just in case. He got better and was well by evening, where as Logan remained bad then, still, throwing up, refusing to drink or eat and having to be forced to drink the cold broth we'd made. When Dominic went to sleep for the night I helped out, so that Elena and Clayton could get some rest in the spare room with Dominic, through there wasn't much really anyone could do except wait and get him to drink. But by the time midnight came, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, the nightmares gone, and Vi was sure that he was starting to come out of it.

Two that morning, Antonio showed up and walked into the bedroom, ignorin Vi's hiss of 'Get out!', sitting on the ground beside Dominic. He smiled weakly at me, stroking Dominic's curls gently, refusing to budge when Vi pushed at him.

"We don't know when he's not contagious." She hissed.

"You, myself and Anne have to leave now. For the makeshift hospital." His eyes met Vi's eyes, for a moment, and she blinked.

"Now?"

"Now." He replied. Stood up slowly. "Pack up."

I saw it, suddenly, as Vi moved out of the light. Antonio was sweating, his breathing shallow, and was tense. He caught my stare and shrugged lightly.

"Bags are in the car, plane is waiting, and we've got to go. I'm sorry we have to rush but-" He rubbed his head. "I wanted to leave the second Ana told me it was my turn. I didn't want to spread it. Dominic is looking better."

"He's more or less over it." I replied, moving up, touching Antonio's forehead with my palm. He was warm. Maybe not noticeably so, not normally, but it wasn't a warm night. "You sure?"

"Yeah." He replied softly. "I'm sure. Nick doesn't know yet. We'll call him from there."

I nodded slowly, Antonio's hand coming up to take mine away from his forehead, eyes going over me to the door. Elena was standing there.

"Daniella has already got the hospital set up." She let him know quietly. "There's a hidden area for pack, so they don't know which of us are sick, and the rest is ready. You need to go help now. I'll take Dominic back when he's fine."

"Call me if the girls get sick." I didn't need to say it. I knew she would. But she nodded and offered me one of the bags I'd tried to pack when I thought Nick was sick. "If Logan gets worse."

"I think he's getting better." Vi said softly, hand brushing across Logan's forehead. "He sleeps calmly now."

"You better get going before Antonio gets worse." Elena handed me the bag and I nodded. "Don't worry about us. I'll send Clayton to join you if Jeremy ..." She didn't want to say it, couldn't, and bit her lip somewhat.

"We'll be fine." Antonio replied quietly. "Don't worry. I got out of there when I found out."

We headed downstairs, the car already running, Vi not even bothering to pack much except for the medical equipment she wanted to take. She'd already packed that, apparently, she'd already gotten ready to leave for the 'hospital'.

As we drove for the airport I called Nick and let him know Dominic was safe. Then I handed the phone to Antonio. We were far enough now to not be chased down by Nick, we weren't sure if he would or not, but he seemed ...almost calm ...about it. Maybe he was less worried about his father's strength. Deep down it worried me, Antonio being sick, because it seemed that the longer a person had been a werewolf, the harder it was on them to be sick like this. Like chicken pox. The kids seemed to fight it off okay and the adults struggled. Clayton had taken three weeks. How long had Antonio been a werewolf now? Longer than Clayton.

The flight was a quick one though, thankfully, and the half-demon Adam picked us up on the other side. The kids had taken hours for it to show, a gradual process that had given us time to think. Antonio wasn't getting that. He had already started to sweat on the plane, worrying the flight attendant, and leaned against me or Vi now, half-awake. He was still holding onto his mind and his sense of what was going on, thankfully, but I suspected that wasn't going to last much longer. The hospital was an hour's drive out of the city in the middle of the desert. Literally. It was really just an old set of buildings, maybe an old factory, the inside reminding me of the place I'd been held captive in.

Then I realised why. It was the place. I hadn't even thought about this, what the pack or the Cabal had done with it, and Vi froze too when she realised where we were.

"Did they tell you it was here?"

"No." I felt a shudder go through me as I stared at the space. Ghosts, memories in the back of my mind, of how I'd left it. Corpses. Blood. Horror. Snow outside. "No. They didn't tell me."

Daniella had tried to change it, we could see that, she'd tried to change every inch of it. Clean it. Scrub it. Had the bars and cages torn out. There were new ones now, different cages, single beds inside made of thin metal frames, but the cages were empty for the moment. In one of the other 'wings', the one I'd found Pav and Vi in, were some more single beds. Two of them were occupied, wooden shelves with things on it. Flowers, actual flowers, and books. A TV. Rugs. Paint on the walls that was new. Daniella had done her best to cover it up as much as she could.

"She was here on her own." I muttered.

"Not on her own." Daniella spoke up, from beside us, a tense smile. "We've reclaimed this as ours now. Hello." Savannah was beside her, a warm smile there.

"We're going to use this space for the right thing." Vi muttered. "Claim it."

I just saw the ghosts, the corpses, the places along the wall where girls had died. I didn't know how I could stay here.

Antonio's groan, as he leaned heavier against us, brought me back to reality. "Where are we taking him?"

"Follow me. There is a place upstairs we can use."

She led us through the halls and into what looked like a manager's office and storage room. There were a few beds in the storage room as well, a room I hadn't been in, clean sheets on them, beds in the office. Antonio was lowered onto one of the beds in the storage room.

"The Cabal took care of this place when they found out he was half sorcerer." Daniella explained softly as she helped him by tugging his shoes off. "Cleaned it out. Jeremy made them tear every last trace of it out and destroy it. Everything here is new. All the furniture, all the equipment, the cages, everything. It's outside in a shed."

"Except the ghosts." I muttered and she nodded, lips tightening.

"This was where you were bitten, so it might be harder for you." Daniella glanced out the window down at the factory floor. We could see the beds from up here, the two strange mutts asleep, Savannah and Adam reading nearby. "I was only here for a few days."

"This was were you were bitten?" Antonio asked, sitting up, tugging his shirt off when Vi tried. "Let me while I still can."

"This was the place." I replied, aware that my arms and legs were shaking now, throat swelling with an emotion I didn't want to feel.

Antonio's rough hand slid into mine. He squeezed it and pulled me back to sit on the bed beside him, so that he could wrap one arm around me. He didn't seem to know what to say but the gesture did help.

"I was never up here." I tried to smile, turning back to him, turning my back on the factory. "If I ignore that window then I can pretend I'm not here."

"There is a curtain." Vi replied, tugging it across, so that we hid the factory. The storage room and manager's office had wooden floorboards, painted walls, new furniture. Daniella said that everything here was new. It did almost make it easier to ignore outside this room.

"Call Nick if it gets hard." Antonio muttered. He lay back, rubbing his head, gladly accepting a towel so he could wipe the sweat off. "He won't let you down."

"I know." I smiled, or tried to, but it didn't fool the older man. "How are you feeling?"

Antonio shrugged and I took the towel. Vi had put a bowl beside us and I used it to wipe his face down, his eyes shutting as cool water eased his hot skin. "Thanks, sweetie. How much of your sickness do you remember?"

"Not much at all." I replied. "Just a few things at the start. Then a lot of bad dreams, felt like months, then back again."

"Sounds simple." He muttered.

I hoped it was going to be. My anxiety about how Antonio would take this, being older, was shared by Vi who had us all go outside to have a 'briefing' on how to handle his case. She didn't just tell us how to handle it, she handed out schedules for sleep and work, assigned jobs, and made it clear who was in charge here. No one seemed to mind. She was a qualified nurse and she knew what to do.

This was increased when another mutt showed up, sweating, stumbling, half expecting to be killed on the spot. Trust in the pack was not there, it was obvious, and he'd left it till the last second, almost crashing the car into the side of the building. He was not expecting three female werewolves, a witch and a half-demon to be there outside. He might not have known what Savannah and Adam were but us? One sniff, even while he was sick, and the look on his face would have been hilarious if he wasn't stumbling out of a car that'd skidded into the fence.

Adam hoisted him up and led him inside, directing him away from us, and we could hear him rattling off the ground rules without needing super hearing. They involved 'not touching the women'. Like a lap dance, apparently, we did our thing and they just watched. It was made clear what would be done if one tried. Werewolf justice didn't involve courts.

I headed inside, having 'first watch' till nine that morning, the darkness of the night just starting to get lighter and a fraction bluer, stars vanishing over us. Three mutts, David, Billy and Steven, two of them too sick now to notice or care if I'd entered the room. David, the one that'd just showed up, stared at me warily. Then to the cages, he could see the corner of one, and he glared at me. Apparently seeing an empty cage was enough to make him unhappy about this arrangement.

"You're the one that cut off that cock, aren't you?" He gazed at me, suspicious, shoulders tensing as Adam returned with a blanket.

"Did she?" Adam's eyes came onto me. He and I hadn't spoken, ever, and this was his introduction to me? He just seemed amused.

"Yes." I replied, crossed my arms, and lowered my eyes to the bed. He lowered himself down onto it reluctantly. "We're trying to keep it quiet from humans."

"So if I leave-"

"Before you're over it, if you leave, we'll kill you." I wasn't sure if that was the orders but for now it worked. I tried to ignore the room itself, the shadows of cages that once sat there, keeping my eyes in the man's face. "If you stay, you might live."

"Good girl. Nurse me to health." He spat, cringing as Adam pushed him down a bit too hard, his head hitting the back of the metal rail.

I ignored that barb and offered him clothing, dodgy pants and a top, so that he didn't ruin the ones he had on. "You either wear it or you go home in it."

He got up, changing, and I refused to turn around or give way. Even sick, David was still trying to push buttons and see how far he could get with me, even with the reputation that clearly disturbed him. Trusting us, putting himself in this building, it went against every instinct he had.

I wondered what message Elena had spread for him to force himself to be here. I'd ask later. Maybe she'd used Tyler Lake's illness somehow. I didn't know what it did to someone if they weren't under careful treatment.

It was Vi who was with Antonio at first, she moved past us to head upstairs, and when I looked up I only saw a mirror. A one way window then? I wondered who'd watched us from up there. The cages had covers and I'd never seen anything higher than them.

My first shift was uneventful. There was something off-putting and that went extremely against my nature to 'nurse' on these men, even if I didn't have the same grudge against mutts some of the pack did, I didn't want to go near them, led alone sponge their foreheads down. There were dividers that hid each mutt from the other, not that it really mattered, but that just added to the claustrophobia that came with it.

When one of them touched me, even if he was unconscious, I almost clawed his eyes out. I didn't know why. It just bothered me to be touched by him, even a hand grabbing my wrist that I easily got off. By the time nine came I needed to get outside of that room, away from the ghost of those cages and dead girls, away from the mutts, relieved to see Daniella take over. Vi had me wait, just fifteen minutes more, as she decided to move the first two mutts into their cages now. We knew that at some point the fevers would increase to the point that they'd start to change sporadically and would wander around- the cages would keep them contained and safe.

I took out my phone as I headed out into the hot sunshine and sighed as I flopped onto the hot ground. Nick had been calling the entire time and I called him, flopping onto the dusty ground outside, watching clouds chase each other across the sky.

"-ven't you called me back?" He demanded the second he picked up. I guessed that the first part had probably been 'Why'.

"Vi has us on shifts now. I was on nurse duty." I explained as I heard him thunk down onto something. The porch maybe. "Everyone okay?"

"Everyone's good. Woke up to find Dad gone, a note on the table, apparently he didn't tell anyone except work. He wants me to handle the business with one of his colleges."

"That's good, isn't it?" I asked, as he seemed put off. Even unhappy sounding. "He's trusting you."

"If he wasn't sick, yeah, but he's... how is he?" He was trying to smile, I heard it in his voice. "I wish he'd have told me."

"I'm not sure. I was looking after the mutts down here. He was talking though, getting me to tell him what to expect, preparing himself." I sighed, leaning back in the dirt, shutting my eyes. The sound of Nick's voice was easing away the stress from inside. "I'm sure he wanted to tell you."

"Sounds like him. Dominic is back to normal, Logan is coming back too, Clayton's passed out over here in the living room. I think he's keeping an eye on me."

"Good sign if he's gone to sleep at Stonehaven."

"Exactly. How you doing?"

"They made the hospital in the warehouse I was bitten in." I muttered, slightly bitter now, wishing someone had warned me. "The cages are different but ..."

Nick didn't reply for a while. I heard him get up, a door creak near the phone, and Jeremy's voice.

"You sent her to live in that damned place they hurt her?"

"Nick, leave it." I muttered, tired, shutting my eyes. Jeremy wasn't even the alpha now but old habits died hard for Nick. Or maybe he went for the first higher ranking person he set his eyes on? "Just tell me how everyone is."

"No one's sick." That was Jeremy, not Nick. "How are you handling it?"

"Being in this place?"

"Yes."

"It's like there's ghosts everywhere. I don't know. I can handle it." I tried to smile and make my voice sound 'happy' or something. It was a pathetic attempt and I kicked at a dry weed as I waited for him to answer.

"If there's a point you can't, tell me, and we'll bring you back." Jeremy said, after a while, quieter. "Elena won't mind."

"She and Clayton have to stay there though, don't they?"

"The alpha can't just leave and if they do, it has to be into a situation they're fairly safe in. Nursing three mutts isn't going to work." He paused, softer. "It's possible we'll come closer if there's too many mutts for you to handle. How many are there?"

He probably knew this already but I was glad that he was onto logistics and off emotions. "Three now. I'm just about ready to claw their eyes out already." I muttered. I heard him laugh softly.

"Like I said. If you have to come back, tell me, and we'll bring you home. Nick, okay. Here."

I heard Nick's voice come back. "Okay? You can come back. Day or night. What's the address of the place?"

"I heard. It's okay. I'm here as long as Antonio is. Dominic's really okay? How about the girls? Matt?" I got up and headed inside. "I'll get the address for you."

Nick reassured me, telling me what each was doing at that exact time, Matt already at school again. Logan was staying home, Kate was at school with Matt, they were trying to keep them going in a normal routine. Amar was back onto studying the disease with the assistance from the Cabal. Nick was still as baffled as I was as to why they were so interested. Lucas couldn't, or maybe didn't know enough, to explain it apparently. I gave him the address, not entirely sure why he wanted it, and we sat there teasing each other till Nick suddenly cut off. I suspected his cell phone battery died if he'd been sitting there calling for hours.

I headed upstairs afterwords, eyes diverted from the factory floor or the smaller warehouses where we'd been held, straight for the manager's office and storage room up the stairs. Antonio, when I looked in, was asleep. Vi was setting up the room, setting down big plastic containers of water, as this place only had showers downstairs. We didn't want to be caught off guard if he need a bath and that might have happened more often than we liked. There was a chest freezer in the corner of the manager's office now.

He opened his eyes as I sat down on a chair beside the bed and smiled a tired smile.

"Call Nick? How's the babies?"

"All good now." I reassured him. Vi handed me the ear thing and I checked his temperature. It was rising still. "Everyone's okay. A bit shocked by your exit but okay."

"Good." He breathed out slowly, eyes shutting, going back to sleep. His shallow breathing slowed again.

"He will be unconscious by night, I think." Vi said softly. She brushed the hair out of her face. "If not faster. I had to send Savannah to get ice and some other things."

"When do I sleep?" I checked the schedule. Apparently right now was 'food time'. This didn't work well when we didn't have a kitchen though. I wished we could have just stayed at home with him. "How do I cook something to eat?"

"She gets camping stove too."

That was not going to be fun. Cooking werewolf sized meals on a camping stove.

We heard a shout from downstairs, something slam, and hurried to the window. The mutt that was still concious had pinned Daniella against the cage bars, but before we could help, he flew off her and against his bed. Savannah stood nearby, face stony, breathing hard as if she'd come running. Daniella tied him up, ignoring his threats, and put him into one of the cages. She looked as if she was tempted to rip out his throat then and there. He got out of the ropes easily enough, she hadn't tied it to keep him that way, but the door was locked now.

"There might be some problems with having only women werewolves here." I muttered.

"I agree." Vi crossed her arms. Daniella was holding at her shirt and heading for the staircase, face red with fury, while Savannah watched. at least that was what we'd guessed, because Savannah now had him on the bed and Daniella burst into the office with a growl, throwing the torn shirt aside and grabbing for her bag.

"Sick son of a bitch. I vote we keep them tied up in those things." Her eyes went past us to the doorway into the storage room. I turned and saw Antonio leaning against the door frame, eyes on the ground floor, a dark look on his face as he stared down there. He probably still had his hearing and had heard the whole thing.

"Antonio, are you-"

"Lucid? Yes." He replied, soft, breathing shallow still, sweat pouring off him. "Enough to take care of that."

"No, you go lie down. We take care of that." Vi steered him back into the bed. "You rest. You can help when you are not sick."

When he refused to budge I went to help her tug him back into the room. Antonio sighed, a shudder of a sigh, as my hand touched his arm and he let me lead him back.

"If they touch any of you, call Clayton."

"If they touch me or anyone else, they'll beg for Clayton." I tried to reassure him. "Let's check your out."

"Have you called Nick?" He let me check the temperature, sitting up, but his eyes were still on the window in the office.

"Yes." I blinked at him. "I told you about that."

Antonio blinked, confusion clouding his head, and he shut his eyes a moment. "You did. Sorry. I don't know how I forgot that. I should call him. Have you got a phone I can use?"

"You are sick." Vi sighed as she took the reading off me. "Drink this. As much as you can."

He drank the large glass of water obediently and cringed. I saw his throat convulse, as if he was fighting the urge to throw it back up, but he stopped it and gave the cup back to Vi.

Daniella called something about going back downstairs.

After that excitement, things calmed down a little. The new mutt was sedated with his lunch, after his attack on Daniella, the other two mutts and Antonio's confusion increased until he couldn't remember things for longer than ten minutes. He got a call with Nick though, which calmed him down a little.

By night he wasn't aware of much at all and Vi got tense, aggressive even, with her orders. I sat with him, waiting, but there wasn't much we could do. It was as bad as watching Dominic get sick. We all knew it was going to happen, we knew it could be bad, but no one could say how bad or for how long.

With the mutts sedated and Antonio asleep most of the time things got quiet that night. I crawled into the bed in the manager's office, Vi in with Antonio and the door shut, Daniella downstairs for another shift. Adam and Savannah were sleeping down there- they had no issues with the ground floor like us and apparently liked the idea of privacy. This left me alone.

I tried to sleep, facing the wall, curled up on the blow up mat and trying to relax. The office was hot- it was up high- and the little air conditioning unit in the storage room had been cut off by the shut door. Sleep came for only five minutes before I woke up panting, heart racing, chest in pain, in the middle of a full on panic attack. It wasn't the normal level of anxiety either. I felt my skin itch, threaten to change right there, felt the urge to run. Run from this place as fast as I could. It felt like I was in the cage again, down there, that the hostile guards were around... or their ghosts, anyway, crowding around my back. I couldn't even turn from the wall, I stared at it, eyes wide, sweating. Logically there was nothing behind me, I knew that, but …

"Nick?" The phone was in my hand and against my ear. I'd called him without thinking and the second it stopped ringing and I heard breathing, sleepy slow breathing, I realised I'd done it. "You awake?"

"Uh huh. I am now. Hi." He yawned against the phone. I pictured him there, curled up under the sheets naked, that sleepy look in his eyes. "Panic attack?"

"How'd you know?"

"You're panting." He replied, I heard him shift up, the click of something. A lamp maybe. "What can I do? Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Just talk to me." I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to think about it. "Read something. I don't care what. Just let me hear you talk." I breathed hard, squeezing my eyes, hands clenching as I tried to not change.

"What are you wearing?"

I laughed, even with the panic, a small smile cracking through. "Not telling you."

"Come on, what are you wearing? I'm wearing nothing."

"Big surprise. Just ...read something to me, okay?"

He read Harry Potter, to my amusement, and that relaxed me. I'd been trying to get him to read the books for months. I shut my eyes as I listened, my breathing slowing, hearing his breathing slow too.

At some point I fell asleep and when I woke, it was morning, the phone still in my hand, battery dead. I wasn't sure when he'd stopped reading or when I'd fallen asleep. Just that I'd fallen asleep with the sound of his voice in my head, cutting through the nightmares that chased me into the factory, and there was someone behind me eating breakfast from the sounds of things, the gentle hiss of gas coming from the camping stove.

"Hi." Savannah said as I turned around, flipping eggs on the larger-than-expected stove. "Hungry?"

"Yeah. That's a big camping stove."

"I know how werewolves eat. Here." She handed me a plate of pancakes and fried eggs, an odd mix, but I wasn't going to complain. "You get first shift downstairs."

"Exciting. Thanks."

I checked in on Antonio before I started for the day, his breathing shallow and fast, Vi asleep nearby, looking like she'd been up all night. The room was cool in there, door just open a fraction, music playing.

Downstairs it was less peaceful and the day was crazy. I didn't have time to see or think about the ghosts, even if 'my corner' weighed heavily in the corner of my eye all day, the three mutts in and out of various states of fever. I felt less like clawing their eyes out now, now that David or whatever his name had been, was asleep. They were just sick men who were helpless and vulnerable, and however idiotic they were sometimes, they had put their trust in us .

Over the next week, six more mutts showed up. Three left the second they saw the cages, the other three too sick to give a damn, and two of those three returned just hours later. The other one was hunted down in a hospital and taken away by the Cabal, according to Lucas who called us up, and again I wasn't sure why they were so involved in all of this. He didn't seem to understand it either. He and Paige were with Ana in New York now, so she could keep up with school, and were investigating it from there. Nick was supposed to be there too, apparently.

That was the other odd thing. Nick kept calling me, but Clayton called me and asked me if I knew where Nick was. He seemed to be keeping up with his work but he wasn't in New York. He wasn't at Stonehaven either. Whenever I asked Nick about where he was, he'd distract me somehow. Then, just as Clayton was going to be ordered to hunt him down, he'd show up at the house. Like he hadn't been missing.

Antonio, surprisingly, was not so bad. He was bad, sure, but he was coping with the fever. Vi was keeping the room cool, we'd take turns sleeping in the room with him, get him to drink, help him to the bathroom, and while he didn't really show any awareness beyond a few minutes, he seemed to cope. Maybe it was because of how physically fit he was or that he'd prepared himself. I didn't know. The few times he did get so hot that we needed to get him undressed and wipe him down with cold clothes, he didn't struggle, and we didn't need to restrain him. The others though, all eight of them, were driving me nuts.

After a week of this, he took a turn for the worse, and I was the one who was on with Vi for him. Daughter in law, maybe it made sense to everyone, or maybe they saw how close I was getting to smacking the mutts. Even Daniella had more patience than I did, though not by much, and standing on the ground floor was enough to make me irritable and upset.

I sat with him, the restraints loose around his ankles and wrists now, stroking his shoulders and forehead gently as he slept a restless sleep, tossing and turning, his eyes moving frantically under the lids, the sweat pouring off him even in the cool room. He'd started to talk now, mostly jibberish, but sometimes he said Lily or Lillian. Nick's mother. Whatever dreams or nightmares he was having, she featured in them quite a lot, and it showed just how little he'd gotten over her.

Friday, nine days after we'd arrived, and another problem arose. It wasn't with the mutts. Adam had gone to sleep in the office while watching the TV and when Savannah went to wake him, he wouldn't wake.

I went out with her to see him slumped there, breathing fast, his skin shiny with sweat. This wasn't unusual in the office- it was warmer than everywhere else- but he seemed too hot. He was some kind of half-demon that had fire, so she hadn't been alarmed when he'd been warm, but now she was.

It was just minutes after we found him sick that another person turned up at the warehouse. Not a werewolf but a woman, by the name of Cassandra, someone that both Adam and Savannah knew. She was dragging a good looking man beside her, also covered in sweat.

It was then we found out that this disease, whatever it was, had spread. Not just to werewolves but to others.

Vi got Adam downstairs, worried about his control over fire while he was sick, and checked on both him and the male vampire- Aaron- while I called Elena.

"You're sure?"

"That they're sick? Yes. That it's the same thing? No clue." I watched her with the two men through the window in the office.

"Lucas and Paige will bring Ana over. It's her break in a few days, I'm sure she'll be able to get a few days extra. How's Antonio?"

I'd called her that morning and given the report but I repeated it. "Restrained a little, muttering, having nightmares. Very hot. We've got him comfortable and Vi is keeping in contact with Amar."

"So no different?"

"Not really. Is Nick around or is he still doing his vanishing act?"

"Vanishing. He's not sick, we think, Clayton's trying to figure out where he goes." Her voice had gone dry. "When you call him, remind him that we've got bigger problems."

"Is anyone sick there?"

"Like this morning, no. We've got some updates on the disease though. I wanted to call you soon and let you know, there'll be a meeting tonight. On skype." She sounded somewhat amused by that.

"Skype? What time?" I wrote it down as she read out the details. "Okay, nine it is. Why?"

"Urgent. Breakthrough with the disease. Ana will be there-" She paused. I heard voices in the background, could only assume that was Jeremy on another phone, "-just before the meeting. Let us know if it's the same illness."

"Shit." I swore, without thinking, as I saw the female vampire go down.

"What?"

"The woman, Cassandra, I think she just collapsed. Dropping like flies."

"How many are sick there?"

I counted them. "Um, eight mutts, Adam, and the two vampires. Eleven."

"You're going to need more help soon." Elena's voice went quiet and she sighed. "Paige and Lucas will be there tonight. We'll send Amar too, if it's all right, though the Cabal have adopted him in town for the research..." She sighed. "Okay. I'll see what I can send you."

We said our goodbyes and I went downstairs, after quickly checking that Antonio was comfortable, taking the baby monitor with me. Cassandera insisted that she and Aaron have their beds in the same cage and, while we knew this was impossible with two delusional werewolves, we hoped this wouldn't be a problem with two vampires. It may not have even been the same illness.

This hope vanished when Ana, Paige and Lucas appeared with bags of takeaway for dinner and the confirmation that yes, Adam, Aaron and Cassandra did have the illness. The exact same illness. Cassandra informed me, when I asked, that yes. She did drink blood. This made the 'avoid blood and mosquitoes' thing a problem. I wondered how many others we'd be getting... Cassandra was already making calls about it- informing others to be careful. They'd take care of their own, she assured me, even if it wasn't the same sickness. But the council members had decided to gather here and she was one of them.

Council members? I had to admit, I had no clue who the council members were, besides Elena and Jeremy. Apparently Adam was, Paige was, and now Aaron and Cassandra? We really did need help then. I wondered who'd decided this. Vi seemed as bemused as I was about that.

We brought the laptop upstairs. Ana, Paige and Lucas had decided to stay here, though I wasn't sure where, having brought some mattresses with them. We sat around as we waited for skype to connect and ate the chinese food.

It was a video conference of Amar with another doctor-type-person and we weren't the only ones watching and listening in. There were a number of people. More than I'd expected. Amar explained this by giving us the next big shocker- it wasn't the werewolves who got sick first. It was the sorcerers.

Even Lucas seemed surprised by this. He sat up slowly, eyes narrowing, Paige's hand coming to rest on his arm.

After the sorcerers, there'd been increased interest in finding several sorcerers at large, including the ex-alpha's father. Then when he'd been sighted and we'd gotten sick...

The other man took over then, a sorcerer according to Paige, taking us off that topic quickly. Instead he described how it worked. Most of it was scientific mumbo jumbo, at least to me, but then I'd always been terrible at science at school. Something about how the mutated version was the first one, the original one, which could affect almost every species. Except, to my shock, my daughters. Elena's daughter.

They were the only ones completely immune. Kate specifically was of interest. Elena hadn't mentioned that. Did she know? I wasn't sure that she had. Lily and Susie were too young, their immune systems forming, Kate being older meant she was of greater interest.

Elena rang me the second they'd said that and I backed up, lifting the phone. Clayton was in the background as soon as I picked up, arguing with someone, really going for it.

"I know, Clay, give me a- Anne, are you watching?"

"I am. Did you know?"

"I let them take blood samples of all of us. Including the kids. I didn't know about this. Clay, I know."

On the laptop they were still discussing the implications of Kate and the toddlers. Other scientific mumbo jumbo. Tests. Tests? Oh hell no. Something about a potiental cure. Treatment.

"They didn't discuss this with you?"

"They did say that they wanted additional samples from the girls but I said I'd talk with you first." She growled softly, shoving someone away, and I heard Clayton's frustrated growl before he stalked upstairs. "Clay's probably going to be in their room all night guarding them now." A long drawn out sigh. "This would have been better if they'd told us first."

"Tell him to put the toddlers in with them. Matt too."

"He's already working on it, from the sounds of things." Elena replied.

We went quiet as we heard him explain the other part. The older a person was, the worse it was.

"Think of it this way. In a child chicken pox is harmless nearly every time. In an adult chicken pox could be deadly. This disease is similar. The older a person is, the worse it affects them, and if a werewolf has started their changes, will experience a fever that is deadly. The three werewolf children had manageable fevers that were of no threat to them." That was the other man, the one I didn't know.

"Try watching your toddler have a seizure and then see how non-threatening it is." I growled softly.

"If they come for more samples-"

"Imagine they're your daughters and then answer them." I replied. Elena was, more or less, their aunt. I trusted her.

"Would you let them take a small amount?"

"Small. If they try to take too much, Clayton has my permission to use that look of his on them. In fact, I'll hire him, he can stand over them while blood's taken." I heard her laugh softly. I added, quickly. "I'm sorry I've lumped them onto you like this."

"You have to work there and we need you to be there. Don't worry. They've got endless attention here."

We went quiet again. They seemed to be wrapping up, giving out advice on staying safe, and it suddenly occurred to me.

"Is this for everyone?"

"Every species." Elena replied, quieter than before.

"So everyone knows about-"

"That's why Clayton's so angry."

I swore and resisted the urge to storm back home right then and there, stand in front of them, and ...well, at least it was waking up some instincts in me.

"You can trust him."

"I do trust him." I did. He was a bit ...well, mad... sometimes. Inhuman. But I knew that part wouldn't let anyone in the pack down, particularly the 'puppies'. They were safe with him around. "Any luck with help?"

"Not yet. Have you spoken to Nick today?"

"No, he didn't answer his phone." That had made me anxious, sort of, but it had been early when I'd tried to call him and the day had gone crazy after that.

"He hasn't answered our calls either."

Fear washed over me, sudden, violent almost, and Elena's voice cut through it fast, "However he's all right."

"How do you know?"

"Did you feel any concern today for him?"

I hadn't. I breathed a bit slower at that. Nick got into less bad situations than I did, somehow, but I tended to know when he'd come home upset. I hadn't been worried about him in the slightest today. "No. Nothing."

"Then he's fine. I just had to make sure. Clay was going to track him down but he may be a little distracted now." Elena sounded almost apologetics.

"It's okay." My head jerked up as I heard struggling from the storage room. Everyone else had gone now, now that the conference was gone, and I knew it'd be Antonio. "I better check on Antonio. Thanks for calling so fast."

Antonio was trying to get up, struggling, growling, his skin ripping. After so many days it wasn't surprising, he hadn't changed since he'd come here, but I was quick to tug his clothing out of the way, undo the restraints, and shut the door on him as he got into the change. While he was a wolf there was nothing we could do except wait. We'd put a little window into the door, a one way window, so we could check, but other than that it was just waiting.

Vi hurried up the stairs as I taped a little 'wolf' sign to the door. "He is changed?"

"Doing it now."

She didn't look in, neither did I, the two of us knowing that it was few who wanted to be seen at this stage. "It is about time."

We bolted the door shut, sat down, and watched the ground floor.

Ana came upstairs from the little TV and bed area, reaching out for my arm and hesitating, touching it briefly, looking exhausted. I made her sit down and tell me about school, not just 'fine', but all of it. She'd made friends, was in the soccer team, and the home room teacher was looking out for her. Apparently she'd been teased for being black and for not being American, in the way girls usually did it, but she had friends that stood up for her. I hadn't even thought about her being 'black'. The most I thought about her species- that she smelt like a cat. Skin color hadn't even come into it until she was changed.

When I told her this, she relaxed, smiling, admitting it was the same thing. Maybe we saw the world in a different way. I didn't know. I followed my nose and my nose didn't detect anything different in skin color. It did, much to my amusement, used to detect different ethnicities based on their diets. Some people from Asian cultures smelt more spicy, and I could tell they lived there, ate that diet, or had visited there recently.

I didn't smell it anymore though.

Antonio spent a few hours as a wolf. He lay on his side, protected under the bed, in front of the air conditioning unit, panting. We slipped water and food in there but he didn't even bother to lift his head, a sharp inhale, then a relaxed whine as he smelt me. I probably could have sat in there with him but we weren't ever sure. He may have been fine with a quick slide of water, right now, but with the fever screwing with his head, a relaxed wolf could have turned into something else too fast for us to predict. He ate too, drank the water, ate the food, and curled back up in front of the cool heater.

When he changed back Vi and I dressed him again in the loose pants, all shame irrelevant right now, as he leaned on us, eyes shut, almost out of it again.

I was alone again that night and called Nick. This time he answered, the sound of rain where he was, as if he was in a car. A car? I wasn't sure what that meant, but he reassured me he was on his way back to Stonehaven and had pulled over.

"So, what are you wearing?"

I snorted and told him what'd happened in the skype thing earlier. He was quicker to dismiss it than I had been, relaxing the second I told him Clayton had heard it, and didn't seem too concerned when I psuhed it.

"Clay won't let them go near the babies. If anything sets him off like a threat to Elena, it's a threat to helpless puppies, so relax. So what are you wearing?"

"Tshirt and jeans."

"To bed? Shesh. Are you alone?"

I glanced around and nodded. "Yeah."

"Good. I'm unbuttoning your jeans..."

"No, you're not." I rolled my eyes. He'd lowered his voice, gone husky, and I heard him snort.

"Yeah, I am, if you just imagine it. I'm now slipping a hand in..."

"Nothing's there." I slid my hand down. "I can't feel anything except my hand."

"Oh? Where's your hand going?"

"To scratch my belly."

We went on like this for a while, teasing each other, though I had to admit I missed him. Maybe if we'd had a more private place I might have tried it seriously. Eventually he picked up Harry Potter and continued with that, with less of a complaint than last time, until I fell asleep.