Read Online Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore - Free Book Online Page A

says.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIt’s been almost ten months since you were here, but I’m looking at your teeth now, and they don’t need filing. They haven’t grown at all.”
    â€œThat’s weird. What does it mean?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” he says. “Open, please.”
    I open wide, and he pokes around with a little hook instrument. “Any problems with your other teeth? Anything bothering you?”
    â€œAckshully, ’esh,” I gurgle around his gloved fingers. He takes his hands out of my mouth.
    â€œWhat’s up?”
    â€œWell, the other night I guess I was grinding, and I got a sharp pain in this tooth here,” I say, pointing.
    He examines the tooth, pokes some more, then tells me he’s going to take some X-rays. A few minutes later, he’s looking at the pictures on a big monitor, going hmmm again a bunch more times, and checking my file again.
    â€œDid you find what caused that toothache?” I ask.
    â€œI think so. You don’t mind if I have your mother come in for a moment?”
    I told him it was fine, and he brings her in from the waiting room. “Is everything all right?” she asks.
    â€œYes, I think so. Danny mentioned a toothache, so I took some X-rays and found something a bit unusual.”
    â€œUnusual is usually bad,” I say.
    â€œNot necessarily.” He turns to Mom. “His genetic treatments were discontinued before completion, is that right?”
    â€œYes. He had seven rounds, but the doctors couldn’t finish the last three. Why do you ask?”
    â€œI’ll show you.” He moves the monitor so I can look, too. I see the whitish teeth and light gray gums. Looks fine to me.
    Dr. Loeb uses a sharp instrument from his tray to point things out on the image. “These are your permanent teeth, all of which look perfectly fine. I’m not sure why your fang-teeth don’t need filing, but that’s another matter. Now take a look here.” He points at white shadows beneath my regular teeth. “See these? Because you’re bi-specian, you were born with a set of wulf teeth deep in your jaws, underneath your vamp teeth. When genetic treatments are successful, the wulf teeth shrink down to tiny, calcified nubs that stay dormant. But something else is going on here.”
    I’m not sure I like that sound of that, and I get this bad feeling he’s about to start talking about pulling a bunch of teeth. “What is going on?” I ask.
    â€œThe wulf teeth didn’t shrink. They’re almost full size.”
    Looking at the X-rays, I have to agree. And the wulf teeth are kind of nasty looking, some with a bunch of sharp little peaks. “What does that mean?” I ask.
    â€œWell, right here, you can see what caused that toothache you mentioned. This wulf tooth is a little higher—that is, closer to the surface—than the others. Which means it’s closer to the root of the vamp tooth above it. The other wulf teeth I assume are stable, but a good deal bigger than I had expected them to be.”
    â€œWhy do I have them?”
    â€œMy best guess is because the treatments were discontinued. The last of the treatments would have essentially killed the wulf-teeth structures and roots. But instead, they developed.”
    He looked at the screen, obviously fascinated.
    â€œWhat can we do about it?” Mom asks.
    Here it comes, the part about me having to get thirty teeth pulled.
    Dr. Loeb shakes his head. “As long as they don’t erupt or push against the other teeth, I think we should leave them as they are.”
    â€œDo you think they’ll become a problem?” I ask.
    â€œThere’s really no way to tell.” He turns off the monitor. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
    I don’t know. In the bathroom mirror, I look exactly the same as I always have. But there are too many things happening with my