Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1)

by Rasmussen, Jen

  He was worse up close—a stench of cologne covered the now-familiar clove smell, and his shirt was unbuttoned far enough to show his amulet, along with a smattering of fair hair against his purple skin. The effect was a sort of fury-meets-Mafia thing that almost made Thea laugh. Instead she tried to look calm and bored.

  “A human transformation, huh?” he asked.

  “Yes. And you are?”

  “Philip. Fourth generation. And I resent your being here, frankly.”

  Thea had no idea how to respond to that. After another sip of beer she settled for, “Oh?”

  “Emerson is my brother.” Philip gestured at the angry host who’d seated her. Figured.

  “Okay.”

  “He just got laid off. He was an Inflictor. Now he has to work here. Budget cuts.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “But you think you can just come waltzing in off the street?” He looked her up and down. “Baird Frost’s whore, right?”

  As he said it, Diana came and put Thea’s plate in front of her. “I thought you looked familiar!” She caught Thea’s shocked look and said, “I mean, that you were Baird’s girlfriend, not… did you want jam for your biscuit?”

  “No,” Thea said. “Thank you.”

  Diana made a hasty retreat, while Philip smirked at her. “Bet you learned some things in Hollywood that came in handy when you were convincing Graves to take you on, huh? I hear he hired you. Probably hasn’t been laid in—”

  “Philip, go sit with your friends. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

  Both Thea and Philip looked up. It was Cora, the hostile redhead. Why would she come to Thea’s rescue?

  “You might think you’re embarrassing her, but that’s not how it’s coming out,” Cora went on.

  Thea thought he would argue, but Philip only shrugged. “Food’s getting cold anyway.” He went back to his friends, all of whom were giving Thea filthy looks now, while Cora took the seat he’d vacated. She waved to Diana, who came over with another set of utensils.

  “Hey, Cora,” Diana said. “Elon out of town again?”

  “Isn’t he always? Left this afternoon.” Cora looked at Thea. “You don’t mind if I eat with you, do you? It’ll save you from guys like that coming over, anyway.”

  “No, not at all. Thank you.”

  Cora turned back to Diana. “I’ll have the chicken, too. And a sweet tea.”

  Diana nodded and left, and Cora smiled. “It must be weird, to eat alone, not knowing anyone. I wouldn’t know. I was raised here, my family is here. There’s no such thing as a stranger. I don’t think I’ve ever had a meal by myself.”

  So was that her game? She just wanted to taunt Thea, make her feel more out of place than she already did? Thea made a noncommittal noise in her throat, but said nothing.

  “My point is, it was mean of me, picking on you when you’re alone here and out of your element, and I’m on my own friendly turf. I wanted to apologize.” Cora shrugged. “Elon is my boyfriend, and he’s a flirt. And you’re awfully beautiful, as I’m sure you know. It’s a little threatening.”

  Thea stared at her, unsure of what to say. She’d already suspected the reason for Cora’s coldness, but she’d never have expected Cora to admit to it.

  “Yeah, I know,” Cora said. “I’m painfully direct. That was the exact phrase my boss put on my last review. Painfully direct. I get in trouble for it all the time.”

  “I don’t find it painful,” Thea said. “It’s nice to hear some honesty. I lived in L.A. until pretty recently. Everybody’s fake there.”

  “Yeah, I know who you are.” Cora leaned forward and lowered her voice. “So what is Baird Frost like? In bed?”

  Thea hesitated as she swallowed her bite of chicken. She’d have loved to tell Cora—tell someone—the truth, but she was contractually required not to speak of it.

  Then again, what did she think would happen? That Baird would somehow track her down in this magically hidden colony of mythical creatures to serve her with a lawsuit?

  She smiled, her first genuine smile in she didn’t know how long. “Five minutes,” she said. “Missionary.”

  Cora’s laugh was an unselfconscious whoop. “No wonder you left him.”

  That wasn’t at all what had happened, but despite her moment of indulgence, Thea wasn’t feeling anywhere near so liberated as to correct Cora on that point.

  She’d been right about the family resemblance; Nero and Cora were brother and sister. He joined them a few minutes later, with two others whose names Thea almost immediately forgot, obliging them to move to a bigger table. Under other circumstances, Thea would have gone to the ladies’ room for a panic attack, being with so many new people. But she felt safer surrounded by furies who belonged there. It turned out to be a more pleasant meal than she could have hoped for. She even had a second bottle of beer.

  They were choosing desserts when someone else came over, a long-haired, long-legged fury wearing an abundance of turquoise jewelry, who looked almost as shy as Thea.

  “Nero, I wondered if I could email you my lab report to look over before I turn it in to Megaira?”

  “Sure,” said Nero. “I don’t think you met the new hire when she was in the building today. Thea, Hester, Hester, Thea.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Hester held out a hand. Thea reached out to shake it.

  As soon as they touched, everything disappeared, and Thea was someplace else.

  She was lying down, maybe being held down. Her arms felt pinched. It was a struggle to breathe. It was dark, but she could see anyway, a parade of things that made no sense and couldn’t really be there. A clown, riding a cow, biting the head off a rat. He munched it thoughtfully as he rode by. Behind him, a lion riding a man, whipping him as they went. Three singing birds with human heads. A dragon that breathed cotton candy. A little girl with no head, blood flowing over her pink dress and white pinafore as she skipped along, holding a red balloon. Thea heard the carnival music, smelled the stale popcorn.

  She thrashed, and something stabbed at her, a needle. When she heard herself scream, she recognized the voice.

  Of course. Flannery had always been afraid of the circus.

  When Thea came to, Cora and Nero were leaning over her. Hester was nowhere in sight.

  “Where did she go?” Thea sat up and looked around the dining hall. A few furies were standing around her. Others were turned in their seats, staring. Her head pounded to the same rhythm as the pulse she could feel throughout her body.

  “Where did who go?” Cora asked.

  Thea looked at Nero. “Your friend. Does she work with you?”

  “Yeah,” Nero said. “She’s a little high strung though. Kind of freaked her out when you lost it. Was that a seizure?”

  “Not exactly.”

  She knows something about Flannery.

  “Well, it was an attack of some kind,” Cora said. “You should go to Wellness and get checked out.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Thea said. “This has happened before. I know what to do for it.” In reality, she had no idea what to do. But she knew she needed to get out of there and think. Diana was coming toward them now, with a glass of water. Thea was sure she heard snickering from somewhere.

  “It’s just stress,” she said.

  Nero laughed at that. “Yeah, I imagine you’ve had a pretty long day.”

  “So I have.” Thea drank the water, then tried to smile at them, but it felt wobbly on her face. “I need to go back to my apart—residence and rest, is all.”

  “We’ll walk you back,” Cora said.

  “No, have your dessert. Seriously, I’m fine. See?” Thea stood and took a couple of steps to demonstrate a steadiness she did not feel.

  She knows something about Flannery, and she works in RDM.

  She decided Cora would appreciate directness, or at least the appearance of it. “Look, it’s just kind of embarrassing, okay? Breaking down in front of you guys, and all these people. Espe
cially when I’ve already been called weak half a dozen times today. I just want to go, with as little fuss as possible.”

  Cora cocked a skeptical eye at her, but nodded. “Okay, well the movie starts at eight-thirty, did they tell you about that?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Well, if you’re feeling better and you want to go, come by my residence. House F, number 7.

  Now why couldn’t I get a lucky number like seven? “I will. Thank you both.”

  Back at her residence, Thea paced from one end of her sitting room to the other, one of her bells dangling from her hand, clinking each time she turned. Of course the circus wasn’t real, but the bed, the pinching, the needle. Flannery might be in a hospital somewhere, hallucinating.

  The movie starts at eight-thirty.

  How many of them would go to the movie? Half? Most?

  Enough for her to go snoop around RDM?

  She wouldn’t be able to get in past the keypad. But it was such a big, rambling building. There had to be several doors and plenty of windows. All it took was one person in a hurry, to be careless with one of them. Most likely she’d find everything locked and come straight back, but here was a chance to at least check.

  The bell clinked again. Thea looked down at it, looped around her hand on its red string. She tossed it on the floor, where it rolled under the couch.

  She waited until nine-fifteen; late enough for the stragglers to be settled in, early enough to attend to her business before people started to leave. She wondered if it would be a Benjamin Stake: Vampire Hunter movie. Maybe the latest one, the one that had, in its roundabout way, made her twenty-seven million dollars richer.

  The campus was well-lit, which didn’t make Thea happy, but at least the RDM building was off the main walkways. She skulked around the perimeter, checking every door, every window she could reach. The doors were all locked, and most of the windows didn’t seem designed to open at all. She’d almost given up when she looked up and saw one final window, small and narrow, probably built for ventilation rather than light.

  If that was the case, it would open. It was too high for her to reach, but it was partially hidden behind a sprawling southern live oak. Was the tree close enough to the building? It might be.

  Thea smiled. Live oaks, the trees of her youth, so accessible and easy to climb. She and Flannery would use the three on Aunt Bridget’s property for picnics when they were young, lounging in the branches with bags full of peaches from the orchard, maybe some bread and cheese, or even, rarely, a soda.

  It was a tough jump to the first branch, especially with a bum leg, but after that it was easy. Almost before she knew it, Thea was leaning carefully toward the window. She was nowhere near as nimble as when she was a kid; This Unfortunate Incident had seen to that. But she did okay, if she used the bad leg to latch onto the tree and maneuvered mainly with her back and arms. She managed to get her fingernails into the slight crack between the window and the trim to its right. She tugged and felt the tiniest bit of give.

  It would open. It might take her a while, in this awkward position, half dangling out over the lawn, but it would open eventually. And she was still skinny enough to shimmy through it, if she could get her leg to cooperate.

  Her feeling of triumph was short lived.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

  Thea let out a startled cry as she fell. Not far enough to break anything, thankfully, but she had a feeling she’d be sore as hell tomorrow. If she lived that long.

  She’d forgotten they could fly, or at least, she wasn’t used to looking for trouble from above. The fury who’d challenged her—male, and gigantic—swooped down from the top of the same tree she’d been in and took hold of her wrist. She explained who she was, then tried to claim she’d just been walking the campus, trying to learn it. That sounded as ridiculous as she knew it would, given the position he’d found her in. He picked her up and tossed her unceremoniously over his shoulder, then flew her across the campus, a short distance from the pond, where several small houses were clustered together around a big garden. He knocked on the door of one of these. The fury who answered seemed to be some sort of guard-servant combination. Thea’s captor told him they needed to see Alecto.

  Great.

  Ten minutes later, Thea found herself alone with Alecto in a small enclosed porch at the back of the house. She sat on the edge of the chair she’d been offered while Alecto, arms crossed, towered over her.

  “I am not happy,” Alecto said, “about several things. I am not happy to be disturbed in my home after hours. I am not happy to see that you are the cause of that disturbance. I am not happy that the very day I so generously allowed you a chance to join our colony, you betrayed my trust by trying to steal—”

  “I wasn’t stealing.” Thea knew interrupting was probably a mistake, but she thought it would be worse to let Alecto think her a thief for any longer than necessary. “I was just trying to see something.”

  “Something in RDM?” Alecto asked. “Something confidential, that you could perhaps sell to somebody?”

  “Nothing like that.” Thea thought quickly. “Nero said that hexes were things, not spells. Things you have to carry around.”

  Alecto shrugged. “What’s your point, apart from stalling?”

  Thea chose her words carefully. Furies could see sins and virtues. Alecto might know an outright lie, if Thea was dishonest enough to wear that vice too close to the skin.

  “I’m looking for my cousin,” she said. “Graves told me she was hexed, and then she disappeared.”

  “So?”

  “So, I figured you probably keep records when you make the hexes. I thought I might be able to find something about what you did to her, that would help me figure out what happened to her.”

  Alecto looked at her closely. Thea tried not to flinch.

  “You’re an idiot,” Alecto said finally. “But I see loyalty in you.” Her lip curled the tiniest bit. “And cowardice.”

  Thea felt her temper flare. What she’d just done was bold even for a normal person, let alone for her. For some absurd reason, she wanted some credit for it.

  Alecto smiled, just slightly. “And a touch of wrath, that’s unexpected. But I see secrets, too.”

  “Everyone has secrets.”

  “Including Hexing House. Our records are confidential, and trying to break into them is a serious offense. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t throw you out of here right now.”

  “Because you said yourself you can’t let me leave anyway,” said Thea. “I’ve seen too much, as they say. And you might find me more useful as a trained fury than a body floating in the river. I could be good at this, and you know it.”

  That won her another short-lived smile. “A little stronger already, I see. That’s good.” The stern face came back. “But it isn’t enough. I don’t trust you. I don’t trust the motives of someone who thinks we hurt her cousin, yet is campaigning to become one of us.”

  Thea had no answer to that, so she kept her mouth shut.

  “If I were to let you stay, you’d be watched. Closely.”

  Shit. “Fine.”

  “And you’d have to be punished.” Alecto narrowed her eyes, considering this.

  “How about a fine?” Thea suggested.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Someone in the dining hall said his brother got laid off. Maybe the company’s a little short on cash.” Thea shrugged. “I’m rich. How about ten thousand dollars and we’ll call it a day?”

  Alecto stared at her for a few seconds, then tossed her head back and emitted a throaty, almost exuberant laugh that seemed completely at odds with everything else about her. “I’ll take that deal,” she said. “If only because I want to keep you close until I know what you’re up to.”

  If only because you want my money, you mean. Among other things, but what?

  Thea nodded respectfully.

  “Do not let me see one hair on your head out o
f place,” Alecto said. “Or I will deal with you in ways that are less in line with company policy, and less pleasant for you.”

  Thea stood, hoping it would encourage the conclusion of her interrogation. “Understood.”

  She was escorted—which is to say, she was carried like a sack of flour—back to her residence by a security guard. Once inside, she pulled the bell out from under the couch and put it back on her bedroom door.

  They’d taken her in, at least. By that measure, her mission so far was a success. Aunt Bridget had told her to infiltrate, and infiltrate she had.

  Sort of. Alecto wasn’t buying it. Thea would be watched. And she believed her vision as surely as if she’d seen it in real time, which meant somewhere, while Thea was flailing around and botching everything, Flannery was suffering.

  But why? And why was Alecto really letting Thea stay? What was so special about either her or her cousin, that would make these furies want them?

  Thea took The Book of Flower Friends out of her toiletry bag and fed it some blood, but it seemed her psychic powers were tapped out for the day. She wasn’t going to figure this out, or find Flannery, in the next ten hours. Maybe not for quite some time.

  Which meant she would have to report for training first thing in the morning.

  She would have to become a fury.

  “Harlot!” The man—a human—spit on the ground at Thea’s feet.

  Slut, she was used to. Occasionally, whore. But harlot was new. There was fire and brimstone in the word that made her break out in a sweat.

  His eyes were bloodshot, his chin dark with stubble, and he smelled of cheap beer. Thea wasn’t fond of confrontation of any sort, but this one especially would be best avoided. Without making eye contact, she tried again to pass him. Again he put himself between her and the door.

  “And now you’re serving the demons, are you? You just get them demons out here, then. Get them out here to face me!”

  Thea wished she had some mace on her. Barring that, she wasn’t sure what to do. She opened her mouth to insist, as calmly as possible, that he let her pass. But she was spared the necessity by a large fury who came through the doors and grabbed the man by the arm, twisting it around before the drunkard even knew what was going on.