Chapter 167

Charles

I settled into my seat and shifted Richard so he lay more comfortably on my chest. He didn't even stir. I wasn't sure if he'd just exhausted himself playing with other children. I opened the email Grace forwarded me and wondered if she had read it.

I suppose we'd see soon enough.

The RFP was from Earth Therapy. I found myself pleasantly intrigued. I had reached out to the Inter-Species community on Wolfe Medical's behalf a while ago, but I hadn't expected to get anything back so soon. Earth Therapy, a human company, was seeking a proposal from Wolfe Medical for the development and implementation of a werewolf pain medication with a shorter production time. Earth Therapy was located close enough to the Duncan Pack that it made sense. The surge in violence near the border, fueled by the oil shortage resulting from the attack on the Duncan pack, had created a pressing need for it, and to my knowledge, Wolfe Medical's focus had never been pain relief, so much as cures. Until the longevity drug could be tested and perhaps expanded to increase a werewolf's healing factor, pain relief was going to remain a giant industry.

I paused, considering it. Pain relief would likely always be a large industry. I wondered why Wolfe Medical had never really branched out for it. I suppose there was no time like the present. I glanced over at Grace, especially with an actual scientist at the helm of the company. The RFP presented an opportunity to not only address a critical issue but also to showcase and expand the expertise of Wolfe Medical's research and development team.

I read through the rest of the RFP, humming thoughtfully. Getting a connection to a prominent human pharmaceutical company so early on would help forge further ties outside of the Werewolf States.

There was just one problem: would Grace be brave enough or moved enough to try?

"Hm," I said, looking up at Grace. "Well, what do you think?"

She bit her lip. "Well. I… had thought about expanding. We talked about it, I just hadn't thought it would happen so soon."

So, she'd at least looked it over, but what was that nervousness in her eyes?

"What do you think about the timeline?" I asked.

Grace winced. "Well, I'm not… I don't know what sort of pain reliever they're looking for." She glanced at Eason. The guilt in her eyes was so bright it was almost painful.

Had Eason been… I blinked at Eason. Why hadn't I thought that was the case? More importantly, why had he gone into such a drastically different field in the end? Had it just been about money, or had he been too heartbroken to pursue medicine? I drummed my fingers on the table, unable to parse it out, but with Eason's transformation, his path to being a healer was all but a given.

"Formulation I can do, but… the diagnosing bit that would be required before hand is something else."

"How about a general pain reliever, like Ibuprofen." I paused. "DO you know what that is?"

She flushed. "A human medication?"

I nodded. "It's…"

Hell, I didn't know either.

"It's a NSAID," Eason said. "Non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug and a pain reliever. It blocks cyclooxydenase enzymes in humans, but a werewolf's metabolism, effectively, burns it up before it can do anything."

I really hoped Grace understood half of that. The look of relief on her face told me she did.

"And it's used as a general pain reliever?"

"By way of reducing inflammation. Admistered in pill form most commonly," Eason dropped his gaze to his screen. "Short doses. Hard on the kidneys, depending on the duration and strength of doses… I think you may want to start with a werewolf version of morphine, though… given the attacks. It would be useful for silver surgery. Opirium would be a good place to start."

Her eyes brightened. "No one's ever managed a stable opirium derivative."

My lips twitched. Witches had been using opirium as a basis for pain treatments for years, but a witch's constitution would process it differently.

She hummed. "We'd have to get access to it first, and a pill definitely won't work if you're saying the werewolf metabolism will burn it up… Unless they have stomach pain, I guess, but it would be too strong, hm?"

"Not in a small enough dose, but you're right on having a werewolf injest it for anything more than a stomach ache."

"While we're on the subject," I said. "Why doesn't Wolfe Medical have a pain reliever?"

She blinked. "No one has a pain reliever."

"What?"

"Werewolf medicine is built on cures, the werewolf recovery factor, and… numbing agents," Eason said. "Werewolves can't take witch potions the same way lycans can, and the witches aren't really interested in making drugs for us given…"

I thought of Astarte and shook my head. No. He'd made an enemy of witches long before now.

"What do you do for surgery then?" I asked.

"Keep people unconscious until the last possible moment," Eason said. "And make sure they're deeply unconscious before doing anything."

I shook my head. "That must be agonizing."

"Werewolves don't tend to do surgery often," Eason said. "Well, less often than humans, but way more often than lycans."

"No kidding. What about elders?" I asked. "Werewolves have arthritis. right?"

"What's that?" Grace asked.

Eason's lips twitched. "Yes, werewolves do, but by the time it sets in, people have maybe a few years left."

"And they spend it in pain?" I asked, unable to understand.

Eason shrugged and looked at Grace. "Inflammation in the joints."

She frowned. "Well, werewolves get old."

"Young people can have arthritis," I said, looking at her. "I have cousins who have arthritis."

"No way," Grace said. "That just means their lifespan is… shorter than others."

Eason grinned. "Werewolf medicine has a handful of strong suits, but it hasn't expanded much. I imagine that when the longevity drug is finished, all the other medications designed to ensure comfort are going to take off."

I shook my head. "Werewolves are… oddly barbaric."

Eason grinned. Grace's jaw dropped. "Hey!"

"What about body aches during the…" I trailed off, realizing that I already knew the answer.

I wondered how many more people could have been saved if they'd developed a pain medication during the Epidemics. I tapped the table.

"I think you'll have plenty of time to take over the medical world. How many werewolves died from the Flu because they couldn't handle the pain?"

Eason's lips twitched. "More than anyone knows."

Grace's jaw dropped. "But the vaccine—"

"A body can still shut down from pain," Eason said. "I had to write a paper on it. I cried like a baby for days when I figured it out."

"Would this paper happen to be published?" I asked.

Eason's eyes widened. "Er… yeah. It was."

I looked at Grace. "Could you search for it, Grace?"

She paused and started searching. "Can I ask why?"

"Curiosity."

"He's trying to see if the President is suppressing information even within the States."

"Northfall technically isn't in the States," I said. "It's in a neutral territory made available to all through the Inter-Species Federal Bureau."

Grace shrugged. "I can't find it."

Eason typed a few strokes and turned his screen to her. He handed the laptop over and looked at me.

"You think he'll suppress the painkiller research too, hm?"

"It's possible."

Grace's jaw trembled. She typed something and then gave it back.

"I'll read it… later." Her eyes were glossy as she took a few notes. I had no idea what she was thinking, but I'd pull her aside later and ask. Grace took some notes, murmuring to herself. Eason leaned over, watching her.

He hummed. "Maybe."

"No?" Grace asked.

"If there's silver involved, the whole thing will break down."

She tutted. "And it would be just our luck that silver would be involved…."

"Is there a chance you could work them both simultaneously?" I asked.

"Both?" Grace's eyes bulged.

"A pain reliever for werewolves and one for humans," I gestured to the laptop. "Duncan is a mixed territory, and the shortage of human pharmaceuticals that perform to the standard of magical pharmaceuticals is a wide open market."

She bobbed. "I'd need to do some research on human pharmacy and… humans, I guess."

"I brought my old textbooks with me," Eason said. "It's a good place to start."

She frowned. "You had textbooks on humans?"

"Comparative anatomy." His lips twitched. "I thought the plan was to take over the world, Science Queen?"

Her lips twitched. While the guilt was clearly still there, it had softened.

She dropped her gaze then she looked up. "There was something… I did want your advice on."

"Okay."

Her lips twitched. "About Duncan… I thought it would be good to offer aid."

"What were your thoughts?"

"We have silver antidote stockpiled," she said. "It could at least make it easier for them if silver was involved. There weren't many details on the news about what all happened, but burn salves we have, bandages, and general medicinal supplies. Food?" She paused. "Police or something if there's still a security concern. I think I could get with Gabriel for construction materials, but I'd be stuck out on labor…"

I nodded. "Sounds like a damn good idea to me, and what a way to stick to your President."

Her eyes flashed. "Let me know if there's anything else I should be adding to the list. I'd like to call them before the end of today."