The Hex Files: Wicked Moon Rising

by Gina LaManna

  “I asked you to stay,” Lemont said. “I’m asking now. Nicely.”

  “Wow,” Willa said, staring at the wall before me. “Can you conjure stuff too?”

  Lemont merely smiled as I turned to face him. “No. I have other talents.”

  “I’d say so,” Willa muttered. “There weren’t bricks there a second ago.”

  “Detective DeMarco, please stop acting as if I don’t care what happens in Wicked—I do, I truly do, just as I care what happens in my New York jurisdiction,” Lemont continued, strolling out from behind his desk. He gave me a pleading glance. “All I’m asking, Detective, is for you to step away from the case. I’m assigning my best Lieutenant. Watters will get to the bottom of things, I promise. I wouldn’t leave you out to dry. I’m doing the very best that I can.”

  “By trapping us here?” I tried to appear unimpressed at the array of bricks that blocked my path to freedom. The pale silver Residuals were strong around the edges, signifying the chief’s sizeable amount of power. “I don’t think so.”

  “But Dani, you’re not trapped at all.” Lemont smiled, waved his fingers, and the wall behind me crumbled before my eyes. A faint silver glitter shimmered in the air, the only sign left from the bricks that’d been stacked in front of us moments before. “I just needed to get your attention.”

  I understood that it had been an illusion—that Chief Lemont was an illusionist, a skill that likely came in handy considering the fact he worked in the human world. He could cover up a lot of things with his crafty little pictures.

  “Fine,” I agreed testily. “Send Watters.”

  “I don’t expect you to be happy with my decision, DeMarco. But I do expect you to cooperate and let her do her job.”

  “I don’t think I have a choice.”

  Without a backward glance, I strode through the doorway and left Lemont in the dust. Willa mumbled some sort of thank you to the chief before shaking his hand and then tottering out of the office after me.

  I didn’t look back until Willa and I reached the elevator, a contraption that gave her endless amounts of pleasure. So much pleasure that she pressed every button multiple times over. It took us fifteen minutes and two button-pops from my jeans before we reached ground level.

  “If you keep stressing this much,” Willa said. “You’ll get sick. It’s bad for you.”

  “Yeah, well,” I said. “The chief of police is sending someone to Wicked to do my job. My boyfriend is in the hospital. My jeans don’t freaking fit.”

  “If you keep stomping about like that,” Willa pointed out. “Your jeans will fit in no time. There’s your silver lining, Detective.”

  Chapter 17

  “What an eventful day!” Willa wiped a hand across her forehead. “No wonder you stay so skinny. All that running around combined with the stress of being all scary to people—I mean, I just blew through three thousand calories in Lemont’s office. I need some pizza.”

  We leapt off a trolley near Sorcerer’s Square, safely back home in Wicked, still processing the events of the day. Between Matthew’s attack, the morgue, and a trip to New York, I was pretty much wiped. I planned to go get some grub at the pizzeria—pants button be damned—and fall into bed for a power nap.

  After a quick rest, I planned to get back on the streets and follow up on my only lead: the dead werewolf. I knew Matthew as well as anyone, and there simply wasn’t any other explanation for an attack against him.

  After letting Willa in on my plan, she frowned. “You’re sure Matthew’s attack isn’t related to some guy Matthew arrested or something? Some werewolf he clipped for indecent exposure?”

  “It’s possible,” I said. “But doubtful. Matthew wouldn’t have let a convict get that close to him. There has to be another explanation.”

  My brain was stuck on Grey. I couldn’t for the life of me think of another wolf that had the power to get into Matthew’s house, surprise him in bed, and still get the jump on him. It just didn’t make sense. In theory, Matthew should have flattened whoever it was in a heartbeat.

  “I suppose you’re right.” Willa shrugged. “Well, I’m going to go home and fill my mom in on my crazy morning. She’ll be dying to hear the details. By the way, Dani, you don’t have to walk me home.”

  “We’re almost there.” I shrugged.

  With all the attacks lately, the last thing I wanted was to put Willa in danger because of her ties to me. I’d feel better once I saw her safely home.

  “Here we are!” Willa gestured toward the cute brick house on a neat little lawn. Ivy trailed with tiny white flowers up the white painted porch, and more white furniture sat out front. Wicker chairs and tables, a hammock and a lounger. Two glasses of iced tea sat bleeding on the table out front, abandoned just after they’d been poured minutes before.

  A faint humming sounded from behind the house, then it grew louder and louder. I followed Willa through the airy bursts of pink blooms and striking red tomatoes and bushy herb patches scattered through the front yard. It was a garden of sensory overload: the brightness, the scents, the brush of soft leafy tendrils against our skin as we made our way to the back yard.

  “Hey there, dudes!” Juno called with a silly grin on his face as he came around to the front yard and met us on the side of the house. He gave a wave which turned immediately dangerous when the shears in his hands nearly flew across the yard. “Whoopsie-daisies. I gotta be more careful about that.”

  “Yeah, I think so,” I agreed. “Good to see you, Juno. The garden looks fab.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” Willa twirled happily around, glancing up at the sunflowers that preened over her head. “It’s just so gorgeous! Juno, is my mom home by chance? She has got to hear about the day I’ve had.”

  “She’s upstairs,” he said. “We were just about to have a break on the porch, but she had to run inside for—”

  Juno’s explanation was cut off by a blood-curdling shriek from the interior of the house. Willa’s face went pale, and the sunflower stalk she’d been running her fingers over snapped in half as her fingers involuntarily squeezed.

  “What was that?” Willa gasped as the sunflower toppled to the ground. She stepped on it in her haste to get to the front porch, crushing the petals beneath her feet.

  I rushed after Willa, passing her unceremoniously as I leapt over the porch railing and barreled inside. A quick glance at the first level told me it was empty. With my Stunner extended, I sprinted upstairs, chasing down the sounds of terror.

  The screams had stopped, leaving a deafening silence in its wake. My ears rang with the eeriness of the sudden quiet.

  I raced around the corner upstairs and spotted a door open at the end of the hallway. Through it, I could see white bedsheets and a fluffy comforter, and on it, a stain. A dark, ugly stain.

  “Juno, hold her!” I yelled behind me. “Keep Willa back!”

  “No!” Willa screamed, but Juno—good man that he was—reached for her and grasped her to his chest while I continued down the hall.

  I slowed only for the briefest of moments as I elbowed the door open and swept around the room. There was a clambering at the window as a figure in black—hooded, his face obscured—climbed over the sill and dropped to the ground below.

  I shot my Stunner at the window, dashed after the figure, but by the time I stuck my head out and prepared to drop to the ground, he was gone. Vanished, whether on foot or magically, I couldn’t say. I knew instinctively that I’d have no chance of finding the intruder, so I did the only thing I could and turned my attention to the woman on the bed.

  “Kady,” I murmured, my heart breaking as I saw the claw-like scratches down her body. “Kady, stay with me. We’re going to get you help.”

  I was faintly aware of the struggle outside the door. Juno and Willa, I thought. I sent the door flying shut with a quick burst of air and a spell—and locked it. Normally, such magic was frowned upon on the job, but this was an extenuating circumstance. Willa couldn’t see h
er mother like this.

  “It’s...” Willa’s mother breathed heavily. “I’m fine.”

  “No, Kady!” I fumbled at my waist for a tiny bit of Aloe Ale. While it wouldn’t have helped Matthew, it might staunch the blood flow from Kady’s wounds. The bright shade against her white sheets was colorful—more eerily cheerful than Matthew’s black. It roiled my stomach and sent my heart lurching.

  While I fumbled with the Ale, I reached for my wrist and Commed dispatch. I gave the woman on the line a quick rundown of the situation and the location, and instructed she get medics over to the Bloomer residence at once before I disconnected.

  I then concentrated on spreading the goop over the worst of Kady’s wounds.

  “He thought...” she murmured, and I leaned closer to listen. “He said...”

  “He said what?!” I pressed. “What did he say? What did he think?”

  But it was too late. Kady’s eyes closed, and she lapsed into deep unconsciousness. Her breathing went ragged and unsteady as I wobbled to my feet.

  The sound of a door cracking in half stole my attention, and I ignored the buzz of my Comm. The cops and meds would be here in minutes. My main goal was to keep Willa away from the scene, away from her badly wounded mother.

  “Juno,” I said. “You’ve got to keep—”

  The rest of the door cracked, shattered. As it fell, I caught sight of Juno holding Willa to his chest just as hard as he could. But it wasn’t enough. In her anguish, Willa had kicked her feet up from the ground and struck at the door. One of her heels had punctured the wood, and the second kick had collapsed it.

  Willa threw her head back, hit Juno in the nose. Blood spurted from his face and in surprise, he reached forward to stem the bleeding and let Willa go free.

  My eyes met with Juno’s, and I shook my head in disbelief. He gave a sorry nod, but I knew there was nothing more either of us could do.

  Willa collapsed beside the bed in complete and utter anguish as her mother’s breathing grew more and more ragged, her skin growing paler and paler. I knelt beside Willa, rubbed her back, and let her tears fall on me as she leaned against me.

  When the cops burst through the door and the meds shoved us aside and set to work on Kady, I could do nothing but hold my only friend to my chest and watch as she broke.

  Chapter 18

  My calorie consumption, the investigation, and my tangled, wearied emotions were all put on hold for the rest of the afternoon. Three hours after the attack, I found myself sitting in the hospital waiting room again with Willa’s hands latched on mine like leeches, as if to let go would be to die.

  Willa’s mother had been taken in by an agitated, pale Nurse Anita at the hospital. The angst in her step and lack of updates on Kady’s healing progress told me all I needed to know about the situation—that it was, indeed, dire.

  “Matthew is already on the mend,” I said. “The attack was similar. I’m sure your mother will be okay.”

  Willa just shook her head. She’d taken to moving like a zombie, not quite seeing, not seeming to feel a thing, not daring to hope. “He’s a vampire. He can heal himself from anything. My mom is basically human. She’s not built to withstand a werewolf attack.”

  I didn’t have an answer to that because it was true. Except for the werewolf part, which concerned me. While the claw markings did look suspiciously wolfish in nature, the figure I’d seen leaving Kady’s room didn’t look animal in its movements. It appeared decidedly human, a fact which hadn’t left me alone since we’d arrived at the hospital.

  Werewolves weren’t able—at least, not on a regular basis—to shift in and out of their forms. It was mostly a full moon sort of thing with some exceptions. And even the exceptions would have been a stretch in this instance.

  Most wolves, once shifted, lost almost all human emotion—they went deep into The Depth until they transformed back for reasons of safety. They often couldn’t differentiate between friend and foe, family or enemy. It was why shifting in public was a heavily punished, zero-tolerance sort of crime. It was incredibly dangerous.

  Which was why I doubted Kady’s attacker was a werewolf, at least in the traditional sense. My mind quickly shifted to Grey who, because of his Elderwolf status, had the ability to shift in and out of his second form as he desired. And I knew from personal experience that he had uncanny, human-like control in that form. It was still Grey.

  Still, even Grey had to change into and out of his clothes. I’d run straight upstairs after Kady’s scream. The timeline was tight; if the wolf had shifted back immediately after the attack, he might have had time to throw a black robe on, but it would have been risky.

  An alternative solution was a spell, either purchased or conjured, that clothed the attacker more quickly. But that would mean the intruder had a decent handle on magic and had been incredibly prepared.

  An uneasiness settled on my shoulders. I couldn’t stand to point the finger at Grey. I couldn’t fathom why he’d ever want to hurt Matthew, first of all, let alone an innocent person like Kady Bloomer. If ever there was a woman who had no enemies, it was Willa’s mother. She was the human equivalent of a sunflower—a bright burst of light, inoffensive to just about everyone and everything.

  Juno had stayed back at the house to answer questions from the cops and help clean up once the scene was cleared. He felt awful, I could see the helplessness on his face. And while I knew I needed to be here with Willa, I was anxious to get moving—to make a difference. To go after the animal who’d almost ripped a family apart.

  “Why?” Willa asked for the hundredth time. “Why her? What did she ever do to anyone?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, honey. I’m sorry. The only thing I can think of is that... maybe it’s related to Matthew’s attack. Maybe whoever attacked Matthew was watching him. Maybe they saw her go into his room at the hospital to bring flowers or something; this person could be trying to hurt people close to Matthew. Or,” I said, shivering from a sudden feeling of ice water being dumped down my spine, “me.”

  “You?” Willa scrunched up her nose, shook her head. “What do you have to do with any of this? No offense, I mean.”

  I hesitated.

  “Don’t hide things from me,” Willa demanded, sounding firm for the first time since she’d seen her mother. “I want the truth. My mother might die, and I don’t want you to tell me she won’t—because you can’t promise me that.”

  With a forlorn shake of my head, I squeezed her hand. “No, I can’t promise you anything, and I do owe you the truth. Willa, I think it’s time you learned about The Hex Files.”

  She shot her gaze up to me. “Go on then, what are they?”

  “Let me back up. See, Willa, there are two things happening right now. A woman was found dead yesterday morning, a werewolf. Killed by a vampire.”

  “I know. I was at the morgue and Sienna explained that much.”

  “But there was another attack yesterday that I haven’t told you about.” I stalled, regretting that I had to draw Willa into something so unpleasant and dangerous. “It was on me.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything? You know you can trust me!”

  “There was a lot going on. Plus, I’m fine. Grey was there.”

  “Grey seems to be around a lot.” Instead of Willa’s normally teasing tone, however, she sounded resigned. “It’s unfortunate he has to be.”

  “I can’t agree more,” I said. “Can we go someplace private to talk? The, uh, files are sort of a secure topic. There’s a breakroom around the corner.”

  Once Willa and I grabbed cups of sludgy coffee and situated ourselves around a small table in an abandoned breakroom, I filled her in on the story. As much as I knew. I recapped everything from Trenton’s first mention of the files to my request to have Matthew find me the locked box in exchange for my help on Mayor Lapel’s murder case. I ended with the attack and Grey’s latest theories.

  “You think...” Willa hesitated. “If my mom wasn’t atta
cked for the sake of revenge from the wolves that it might have something to do with these Hex Files?”

  “I really doubt it,” I said. “But I felt like I owed it to you to come clean. Matthew, Grey, and I are keeping an eye on random attacks in the borough after what happened to me. I think it’s prudent we consider your mother’s attack as well, just to be safe.”

  Willa nodded.

  “I also needed to explain why I can’t stick around the hospital any longer,” I admitted. “I need to get out there, to get cracking on the witnesses before everything goes cold. I want to talk to everyone who had contact recently with Allie Sparks. For all we know, she was involved in something dark and dangerous that leaked into the borough. It wasn’t Matthew, and I need to prove it.”

  “I’ll come with you.” Willa gave a firm nod, wiped at the moisture pooling in her eyes. “My mother is in a coma, and judging by the look on Anita’s face, she’s not coming out of it for a while. I’m not doing any help here; my mom doesn’t even know I’m around. She’d want me to be with you.”

  “I think you should stay,” I said. “Just in case the situation with your mother changes for better or worse. And if it does, call me, and I’ll be back in seconds. Nothing is more important than my being here for you, but...”

  “You have a job to do.” Willa pushed her curly hair back. It was still matted and salty with shed tears. “I understand.”

  “Willa, be careful.” I stood to leave, but on an impulse, I turned back and hugged her again to my chest. “Watch your back, okay? Something’s not right in the borough. Don’t trust anyone.”

  “Except you.” She gave a watery smile. “You’ve always got my back.”

  “Except me.” I let her go, glancing over my shoulder as I moved toward the door. I paused in the entryway, turning to find Willa curling the cup of steaming hot liquid closer, her eyes fixed on the pool of darkness like it held all the answers.