Page 65 of Howl Will I Know

He scribbles something on his notepad.

Beside me, Hewit shifts in his chair. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Possibly nothing.” Karloff looks up. “Scientific inquiry requires one to establish what is relevant by first asking questions that may prove irrelevant.”

“That sounds like a convenient excuse to ask anything you want.”

“Yes.” Karloff nods. “Quite.”

I cover my mouth to hide my smile.

Karloff keeps writing.

When we reach the night Hewit almost shifted in his sleep, the professor’s pen stops. “Repeat that.”

Hewit’s fingers tense around mine. “I woke halfway through a shift.”

“Without consciously initiating it? Has that happened before?”

“Not since I first changed.”

Karloff’s eyebrows draw together. “Interesting.”

“You keep saying that like it’s good.”

“It is neither good nor bad. It is interesting.”

Hewit huffs. “Not helping.”

Karloff ignores him. “And Nora woke before the transformation became physically apparent? You sensed it?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

I hesitate. “I don’t know. I woke up afraid, but the fear didn’t feel like mine. I… knew he was changing.”

“And yesterday you responded to a thought generated by Hewit’s wolf without Hewit speaking?”

I look at Hewit. “Yes.”

Karloff taps the end of his pen against the page several times. Then he pushes back from the table so abruptly that Hewit’s wolf flashes in his eyes again.

Agnes startles beside us and lets out a nervous little fart.

Karloff glances toward the plant. “She has a sensitive digestive system.”

Agnes rustles her leaves as if embarrassed.

“Laboratory,” Karloff says, already halfway across the room.

Apparently, that’s the entire instruction.

I glance at Hewit. “Does he always do that?”

“Yes.”

“You could’ve warned me.”