Free Web NovelChapter 133: Blaise’s History
Doctor Thomas paused in his footsteps, giving me a curious look.
"Blaise didn’t tell you?"
"No, he didn’t," I said, although part of me wanted to reply that if he did, I wouldn’t be asking him. That would be the sort of rudeness Damon would have approved of, which was why I didn’t want to do it. "He never said anything about... humans."
"...I can’t say I’m surprised, but I am disappointed." Doctor Thomas sighed as he shook his head, and reluctantly continued to walk at a sedate pace. I walked with him as I watched him gather his words. "It’s not a happy story after all."
"Oh, in that case, I’m sorry for asking," I said with a sigh. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity, but I didn’t want to infringe on Blaise’s privacy too.
"I can tell you some parts, though. There were some good parts, like Blaise learning how to cook," Doctor Thomas said, sensing my dismay.
I blinked in surprise.
"You should have seen his face the first time he seared a fish. He’s a good child. Always did well in school. Had all the pretty senior girls going for him too, when he went to school. He helped me around the clinic and house back then. He’s good at housework, so you don’t have to worry about household chores in the future."
"You raised him," I realized.
"Only for a short while." Doctor Thomas shrugged disparagingly. "Back then, I was a doctor in a big city far away, and I found him broken and bleeding, nearly dead on his feet in the alley near my home. He was such a small scrawny boy back then, his limbs were like twigs."
Doctor Thomas then gestured with his hands, allowing me to visualize how Blaise must have looked like a child.
"Bruises all over, but I still remembered the ferocity in his eyes. He looked like he was about to eat me alive when I first stumbled upon him!" Doctor Thomas broke out into fond laughter as we continued to walk. "Come to think of it, he was more like a stray kitten than a wolf."
I snorted; Blaise might be amused at such a comparison, but Damon definitely wouldn’t be.
"After he collapsed at my feet, I examined him. He was severely malnourished and showed signs of abuse," Doctor Thomas continued, his voice grave. "I waited to see if anyone would claim him, but then no one showed up. Eventually, time ran out, and he was to be sent to the orphanage.
"By then, I had interacted with him for months, and I thought to myself, ’Well Thomas, since you’re a bachelor with no children on the horizon, why not do a good deed and help this poor orphan?’" freewebnøvel.coɱ
"You adopted him?" I asked in surprise.
"You can say that. He stayed with me for years. He didn’t have any identification on him and his records weren’t in the system, so I couldn’t exactly go through the legal system. I merely told anyone who asked that he was my nephew and enrolled him in school when he wanted to go."
"Blaise refused to tell me anything but his name, and he kept looking over his shoulders even months after I took him in. Whatever sent him out on the streets must have been horrific. Back then, I thought he must have been a runaway, fleeing from the mob."
"Then years passed, and I wondered about his future. He could go to university. Truth be told, I objected to him going back," Doctor Thomas confessed, his shoulders slumping with exhaustion.
"I didn’t trust his brother to look after him. I still don’t," Doctor Thomas said with a scowl. "For the longest time, I even believed that Damon was responsible for his sorry state. But Blaise jumped at the chance to leave and rejoin his pack. Deep down, I knew it was inevitable... but it was still a pity that he decided to give up a possible scholarship to Harvard to run naked in the woods. What can the werewolves offer that the human world cannot?"
"He’s a werewolf, he’s not technically naked. And Damon is his twin brother," I couldn’t help but point out. "If he lived like a human, he would be miserable eventually." I could not imagine Blaise working an ordinary job like a normal human being; that very thought made my head hurt.
"You’re not a normal human, are you?" he asked with one raised eyebrow. "And here I thought you might have met Blaise at a grocery store when he bumped his trolley against yours, but you’re too supportive of werewolves to be raised amongst humans."
I coughed. This old doctor had a pretty vivid imagination. "Well, I was raised among werewolves. Does Everhaven know about werewolves?"
"Some of the much older folk do. They remember what happened last time when the monsters came crawling out, picking off humans like ants," Doctor Thomas said. "Now, thanks to Fangborne’s protection, most people think it’s a myth. Something that the internet cooked up to drum up tourism for this tiny town."
"I see..."
"Oh look, we’re here," Doctor Thomas said. I blinked; we weren’t at the hospital, but we were standing in front of a small diner. There were more people inside, all waiting or eating their breakfast.
Huh. Guess I found where the townspeople were.
"Excellent, Harper, we made good time. Gus usually comes here to buy breakfast; hopefully, we can hit two birds with one stone."
"Gus?" I repeated, my heart starting to race as my ears registered the familiar name. Surely it was nothing but a coincidence. There could be more than one man named Gus in this town. "Who is that?"
My mother’s necklace was a heavy, expectant weight around my neck. It seemed to twinkle in the morning sun, its bright red shine attracting curious eyes even through the dirty glass panel, smudged with old handprints.
"Ah, I forgot you don’t know him. Gus is our resident handyman. He’s the one that’s going to fix the machine," Doctor Thomas said, as he pushed open the door, causing the smell of hearty bacon and fried eggs to flood my nose.
My stomach growled, yet I forced myself to focus on his words instead of the enticing smell.
"Oh look, he’s here! Hey Gus! I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet!"
I whipped around, only to see a familiar face.
