Another Half
BLADE -- Chapter 18 Pt 2

Azul Springs

June 2012

“I’m sure glad you didn’t do to me what you did to poor Hammer,” Ax said laughing as he walked Blade to the infirmary, which was the building next to the Training Center. He insisted that she get checked out after the last fight. “I’d like to have more pups in the future if it’s okay with you.”

“Hammer? Is that his name? Family of yours?”

He laughed. “Yes, that’s his name and no, he’s not family.” He frowned. “At least, not that I know of. But after that crushing defeat,” he said with a dramatic grimace, “he’ll have to change his name to Jacob or something.”

It only took a second. He side glanced at her, and they burst out laughing.

“So, now what?” Blade asked once they simmered down.

“Well, Rex is supposed to show up tomorrow to show his support for you as the new Training Master,” Ax said with a deep frown, but then his face lit up. “And then you get to fight him on your real last match. That’ll be fun to watch.”

“Wait.” They had reached the entrance of the infirmary, but Blade stopped. “I’m supposed to fight the alpha? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Ax laughed. “It’s a little late for you to be afraid of anyone, don’t you think?”

Blade stared at him, uncertain if he was serious or not. “Why would you want me to fight the alpha?”

When she became her previous pack’s Training Master, she didn’t have to fight the alpha. That was not standard practice, but she knew each pack had its own traditions.

“Relax. It’s just an exhibition fight. I mean, it’s not a serious fight. Traditionally, it’s meant to show the pack that the alpha is still the strongest wolf, y’know? Trust me, Rex thinks it’s dumb, too. He’ll go easy on you, I promise.”

Blade rolled her eyes. “And I promise to go easy on him, too.”

Ax laughed as they walked into the building. To Blade’s surprise, a frail-looking boy of about five years old in a white gown ran into her as they were walking in, he bounced off Blade’s legs and fell onto the floor.

She crouched down to help him up, and a cold shiver went up her arms when she looked at his wan face. He looked up at her with confused and frightened dilated eyes and the tale-telling white ring of scally skin around his mouth.

The White Lady.

We haven’t seen her in a long time, Talon said worriedly.

Blade cupped the boy’s face and then ran her hands down his arms. They were cold to the touch.

“Mommy! Where have you been? I’ve missed you!” His confused little face scrunched in pain.

Blade flinched. “I’m here now, baby. Does your stomach hurt?”

He nodded.

“It’s been hurting for a long time, hasn’t it?”

He nodded again. “I can’t eat anything, Mommy, and I’m so hungry.” He sobbed. “I throw up everything and it hurts.”

“I know, baby. I know. Come here. Let me take you back to bed and I’ll fix you something to make you all better, okay?”

“Blade, do you know about this disease?” Ax had crouched next to her. “We have several cases and we have no idea what to do about them.”

She picked up the boy and cuddled him against her chest. He put his rail-thin arms around her neck. He wasn’t heavy at all.

“It’s not a disease, Ax. Where are the rest? Show me.”

“It’s not? What is it, then?”

She looked into his face, searching. Ax trusted her, and he had proven that he was trustworthy.

“Poison,” she whispered. “Someone’s been poisoning this child.”

Ax’s eyes widened in apparent disbelief, and she motioned him to walk.

When they arrived at the quarantine wing, a nurse wrapped in a plastic suit and helmet approached them.

“Oh, you naughty little boy! Where have you been?”

Blade laid him on an empty bed, and kissed his forehead before examining the others.

To her dismay, they all had the same signs and symptoms.

She went up to the nurse.

“Where are your antitoxins? And do you have a workstation like a lab around here? To mix substances?”

The nurse looked at Ax, who nodded.

They followed her to another room with several large wooden cabinets, and Blade quickly set to work after replaceing the compounds she needed, a heat source, and a large flask with a rubber stopper.

“The White Lady, the White Lady,” Blade murmured over and over. “Stop the While Lady’s milk, berries, and frogs with beans from Africa and blue from Prussia. Stop the White Lady, stop the White Lady from taking your pups, your mothers, and fathers…”

“Blade? Are you okay?” Ax asked after a few minutes. He looked agitated.

“Yes, yes,” she said, absently, pouring a bright blue powder into a large beaker half-full of liquid and then mixing it in with a stirring rod. “Why would you ask that?”

“You keep saying the same things over and over. It’s creeping me out.”

“Oh,” Blade said, laughing nervously. “I’m just remembering the formula. My grandfather used poetry to teach me—” She snapped out of her current state and looked at him, “to teach me certain things, like how to mix certain—-medications. Nothing bad and certainly nothing to worry about.”

An hour later, Blade poured a cooled milky light blue concoction into a large Erlenmeyer and sealed it with a black rubber stopper. By that time, however, Sergio and a doctor had joined them.

“Here’s your antidote. Five milliliters for every hundred pounds. Directly into the bloodstream,” Blade said to the doctor and nurse, who had stood by her throughout the process and even served as a lab assistant. “Your antidotes didn’t work before because it’s not enough to treat each poison separately. This,” she said lifting up the Erlenmeyer, “will counteract both poisons simultaneously, and the stabilizer will remove the waxy build-up in their stomachs and make sure the antitoxins don’t react with each other. The improvement should be almost immediate.”

“And you’re sure?” the doctor asked nervously as she looked up at Sergio.

Blade nodded. “I promise. This will work.”

The nurse received the Erlenmeyer. She and the doctor scurried off.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Sergio said, crossing his arms.

With the events of the day finally catching up to her, Blade sat down on a nearby stool. She was bone tired.

“What do you want to know?”

“Are you sure that antidote going to work?” Ax looked at her with hope.

She nodded realizing her friend needed personal reassurance.

“I’ve seen this before, Ax. Nightshade berries mixed with thallium and an organic wax is a nasty business, but there are worse poisons. I promise my antivenom will not harm them.” She waved her hand towards her workstation. “You saw yourself, I mixed in nothing that they hadn’t tried before. I just used different proportions and added a stabilizer. The worst that could happen is that nothing happens.”

Sergio scowled. “And how do you know all this about poisons? I replace it more than a little suspicious.”

Blade glared at him warily. “I just know, okay? What you should be more concerned about is replaceing who’s been poisoning all of those people. You need to stop them before they actually kill someone. And heaven forbid they have access to the pack’s water supply.”

“I’m not lifting a single fucking finger to accuse anyone of shit until I see how the sick react to this so-called antidote of yours.”

Blade shrugged. “Fair enough. Mind if I go to bed now? I’ve had a long day.”

“Yes!” Ax said quickly. “Awesome job today, Blade. Now go to bed, but shower first. Damn, you stink.”

She smiled appreciatively at him.

“You will have to answer to Alpha Rex about this,” Sergio said. He kept his arms crossed, but his hands were now clenched into tight fists. His mouth was twisted into a nasty sneer. “You clearly have a shady past. We’ll need to keep an eye on you.”

Who pissed on his cookies? Talon said.

“Stop threatening my Training Master,” Ax said through clenched teeth. “She had just got done wiping the floor with Hammer’s face, won the damn Tournament, and then she still came up here to try to help in a situation that’s had us by the balls for weeks. I called you in so you could be aware of what’s going on not so you could abuse her.” Ax nodded at Blade, and she immediately left, but she paused after the door closed behind her.

“Ax, you can’t be serious! We don’t know anything about her! She could be trying to kill us all!”

“You’re just still mad because she got you to let Crys finish her degree. Let that shit go, man! Damn, you’re such a fucking baby.”

Blade covered her mouth to quiet her laughter and started to walk away as she heard Ax again.

“Now pay the fuck up, asshole. I told you Blade would win!”