by D. N. Hoxa
“I have an idea,” I said reluctantly as I ate the sad excuse for a sandwich Bender had made us.
“Let’s hear it.”
“I’m going to be the bait,” I mumbled. It was the stupidest idea I’d ever had, but it was also an idea that could work. The only one that I could come up with.
“Pardon me?” Bender narrowed his brows.
“Those vampires are going to keep coming after me. After this.” I nodded at the ring. “I’m going to go to Dirty Joe’s and stay there all night long until they find me. I’m going to give them the ring, and then I’m going to let the ECU follow them.”
Bender thought about it for a second. “And you think they’ll just let you walk away?”
I flinched. Probably not, but I wasn’t a helpless little girl. I could handle my own.
“The only reason they’re not here yet is the sun. They’re not going to shake your hand and say goodbye to you once they get that ring.”
“That’s why I’m going to wait for them at a bar. I doubt they want to cause that big a scene in such a public place.” I hoped so, anyway.
“You think the ECU would go for it?”
I shrugged. “We’ll find out soon.” My sandwich was almost finished.
“It’s too risky, Winter. A thousand things could go wrong,” Bender said. “And didn’t the ECU let one of them go once? Excuse me if I don’t trust them to do their job properly.”
“They’re the only ones with the resources to handle something like this. Trust me, nobody would have liked to be there more than me.”
“I want to try it,” Bender said.
My stomach rolled because I knew exactly what he meant.
“I wouldn’t advise it.”
It felt like I was being violated having that ring on my finger and looking like monster. I never wanted to do it again. But Bender didn’t listen to me. Instead, he took the ring and put it on his finger without even looking at it. He was terrified, but his eyes sparkled with excitement, too. I ate the last bite of my sandwich and sat back in my chair. This was going to be fun to watch.
“Go ahead,” I said and held my breath. I was about to see that beast again, and as much as I tried, I knew I wouldn’t be prepared for it.
Bender closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. A second passed. His eyes opened, and he looked down at his hands. He still looked like him.
“Did it work?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“Did you charge it?”
“I did. I just did.” He looked at the ring, which was only half way onto his finger. “And again.” He met my eyes, hopeful.
“No,” I said reluctantly. “Maybe it only works on women?” Bullshit, my mind called. The beast I’d caught had been a man. “Or maybe you need to get it all the way on your finger?”
Bender did exactly that—though with difficulty. My heartbeat tripled when he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to charge the ring with his magic again. I didn’t even want to look because the results would be the same.
Sweat covered my forehead. Of course it wasn’t going to work with Bender. My magic was stronger than his. My magic was fairy magic, not only Bone.
The thought that the people behind those beasts were like me crossed my mind again, but I remembered what it had said to me. How it had looked at me. It wasn’t possible for a man to look at his own kind like that.
So what the hell were they?
“Why isn’t this working?” Bender asked, panicked now. “I’m charging it with my full power.”
“Maybe it’s broken,” I whispered.
“You just tried it. It worked perfectly on you.”
Suspicion grew in his eyes, and it made me even more uncomfortable. I grabbed my phone and dialed the number Peterson had texted me.
“I have no idea, Bender, but it doesn’t matter. Soon, this will all be over.”
Not sure whether he thought my reaction was believable or not, but what other choice did I have? Talking about it more was just going to raise his suspicions of me. I didn’t want that. I couldn’t afford that just yet.
“Connor,” the man on the phone said, and though I had called him, his voice still surprised me.
“Mr. Connor, Winter Wayne speaking.” I was going to get right to the point, if he’d only let me.
“How did you find this number?”
Was it possible that the guy knew who I was? Probably. Everybody knew the fairy.
“William Peterson gave it to me. I understand you’re in charge of the ongoing investigation regarding the Green coven attacks.”
“The private investigation,” the man hissed.
I had no idea what he was, but he sure sounded like a Blood witch to me.
“An investigation that doesn’t concern you, Miss Wayne.”
“On the contrary. I have information that is going to help you find and catch those responsible for the kidnappings.”
There. That should do it. Those were the magical words everybody in his place would want to hear. He’d treat me with a bit more respect now. Except…
“Like I said, this is a private investigation conducted by the ECU. Everything is under control, and your assistance isn’t needed. Goodb—”
Like hell.
“Under control?” I said, laughing a bit. “You mean, like you had the beast I caught under control, just before it escaped right under your noses?”
I’d stood up without even realizing it and Bender was right in front of me, trying to figure out what was going on through the expression on my face.
“That is not your concern, Miss Wayne,” Connor hissed.
“I have information that’s going to help you catch all of these people. I can lead you right to them.”
“You do realize that interrupting an ECU investigation is a crime punishable by imprisonment, Miss Wayne? I know you do. I’m willing to turn a blind eye on the fact that you are still involved in a case you were specifically told to stay out of.”
This guy! Had he lost his mind?!
“I don’t think you heard me. I know exactly how those beasts are doing this. I know who they’re working with, and I can lead you—”
“And if we believed in every person who claimed to know how to do our job better than us, we would have perished long ago.”
“Is this because I’m a fairy? I swear to God I’m going to kick your ass if you won’t listen to me because of how I look! People’s lives are at stake here! Dead bodies are going to start appearing soon!”
As soon as I said the words, I regretted them. Shit. I bit my tongue, but the damage was done. Bender covered his face with his hands. I blew it. Yep. I blew the hell out of it.
“How would you know when dead bodies are going to appear?” Connor asked, his voice low and full of judgment all of a sudden. And suspicion. Lots of it.
“If you just meet with me, I’ll tell you everything I know and how I found out. I swear to you, I’m not lying. Just…please.” That word was harder to say than pulling my own teeth out with a damn plier, but the guy wasn’t listening and he needed to.
“If you call this number again, I will have you hunted down and thrown in a cage, Miss Wayne. And when all of this is over, you will be required to come in for questioning about this information you claim to have. Illegal information,” he said, and I could swear I heard the smile in his voice. “Please don’t leave the country.”
He hung up. If I could have afforded another one, I would have thrown my phone against the wall.
“Who else can you call?” Bender asked halfheartedly. He didn’t even need to hear the details of the conversation to know that we were screwed. The ECU wasn’t going to help us. They wouldn’t even listen to us.
“Finn,” I said reluctantly. “I can call Finn. He might know someone…”
With shaking fingers and with anger and panic making a mess out of my stomach, I dialed the new number.
“Bone?” Finn said as soon as he picked up. “What’s up?”
“I k
now how they’re doing it. The ECU doesn’t give a shit.”
There was something about the man that always made me want to confess. I had to be extra careful to hold my tongue before giving away too much information.
“What do you need?” Finn said.
It wasn’t fair that I was surprised because that werewolf had always helped me, but I still was.
“To make them listen. I can lead them right to those beasts. All I need is for them to listen.”
Finn sighed. Not a good sign.
“They’re treating this investigation like it’s a goddamn oil deposit. I haven’t heard a single thing since you called. I don’t know…” His voice trailed off. “Bone, hold on a sec.”
The complete silence from the other side made me think that Finn had put his hand over the speaker of his phone. He was probably talking to someone, and I wanted to yell at him to stop wasting my time. Instead, I bit my tongue and didn’t even look at Bender pacing in front of my desk.
“Bone, William Peterson is under arrest,” Finn said.
“What?” I couldn’t believe my ears.
“The ECU just brought in the order. Apparently, they don’t have the wolves to spare to send after him. Fuck,” he hissed.
“It’s my fault.” I slammed my forehead against my desk. “He told me something he shouldn’t have, and I ratted him right out.”
He told me that the beast had escaped. Normally, nobody would have given a shit, but the ECU knew how bad that made them look. They let a murderer escape, for God’s sake! And a fairy found out about it. Somebody had to pay the price. Goose bumps covered my arms. If they were taking Peterson in, who was going to protect his children?
“Look, I’m going to try to get someone from the board to meet with you, but don’t expect any miracles. They aren’t letting anyone close to this case.”
“It’s all I can ask for, Finn. Thank you,” I said as a thousand different scenarios ran through my head.
“Don’t go doing anything stupid, Bone. I mean it.”
I was going to say that I could make no such promise, but the line went dead, as if Finn knew my reply. He probably really did.
“We’re fucked, aren’t we?” Bender said.
I bit my lip. It was enough of an answer for him.
“How good is your magic?”
“It’s not,” I mumbled, looking down at my hands. “All I can do properly is a shield.”
“There must be something else you can do, another spell you can conjure.”
Blood rushed to my cheeks. I said nothing. If he only knew…
“If you could activate this ring, you can activate Pretters, too, right?”
“That, I can.” My braid had four of them I’d filled myself, which probably meant they were useless. I hadn’t had the chance to try them out, so I didn’t want to count on them, because what if they failed?
“I’ve got two with me. I can get more if you know someone who sells around here,” Bender said.
I looked up at him, brows narrowed in confusion.
“What are you talking about?” I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I still asked because I hoped I was wrong.
“We can’t just let them go, Wayne. If the ECU won’t listen, we have to take care of this ourselves.”
I laughed. Really loudly and for quite some time. To his credit, Bender let me take it all out and didn’t say anything. He just stared at his boots and sometimes nodded to himself.
“Sorry about that,” I said and cleared my throat when I was done. “These beasts, these witches—whatever they are, they fight like fifty werewolves together. Fifty werewolves that can make spell stones appear out of thin air. Also, very powerful spell stones. And their claws!” My hands flew up to my chest. “Very long. Very sharp. Very painful.”
“I saw you, Wayne. I know what they look like,” Bender spit. Was he blaming me for pointing out how stupid he was being? I rose to my feet and walked over to him.
“You don’t know what it’s like to fight them. They destroyed a fucking SUV by simply landing on top of it. Powerful doesn’t even begin to describe them. They went through werewolves and witches like they were made out of paper.”
Maybe I sounded like a scared little girl, but what was wrong with admitting it when you were way—way—in over your head?
“But you caught one of them, didn’t you?”
“Because I got lucky.”
Bender rolled his eyes. It didn’t become him.
“So let’s get lucky again!” he shouted. “What’s the alternative, Wayne? You wanna just let this go, just like that?” he demanded.
I didn’t appreciate his tone, but the guy was desperate. I could see it in his eyes.
“We would be walking right into a death trap. Trust me, it’s not going to end well for us.”
“You don’t understand.” He smiled, but he looked like he was about to cry, shaking his head. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing when I know I can get to them. They killed my niece! They killed all those people like they were nothing!”
His words cut right through me. It was easy to picture being in his shoes. Just the thought of someone hurting my mother, or Amelia—I wouldn’t have cared about anything but going after the ones who did it.
“You brought me here,” Bender continued. “You opened up old wounds. You insisted I listen to you, that I believe in you, and I did. I listened to you, Wayne.”
Goddamn it, I couldn’t even look at the guy. He was right. This was all my fault. I hadn’t thought about the consequences. I’d just wanted to crack the fucking case and get all the glory, not caring about what it would cost the people around me.
“I’m not going to just sit back and let them get away with it,” he whispered, his head down, shoulders hunched—the image of a completely helpless man.
The face of the green-eyed beast flashed through my mind. I’d claimed to him once that the world wasn’t going to sit back and watch him kill innocent people like he owned the world. But that’s exactly what the world was going to do. By the time the ECU figured out who they were and how to get to them on their own, February second would have come and gone, and those kidnapped people would be dead. If the beasts did it before, and they were doing it now, they were going to do it again. Why wouldn’t they if nobody would stand in their way?
No, Bender was right. If the ECU wouldn’t listen, it wasn’t the end of the fucking world. Options. There were always options if you just took the time to look. And I was going to.
“We can’t do this ourselves.”
There was no way in hell we’d survive the night against those things.
“So, let’s go watch a movie instead, why don’t we,” Bender hissed.
“No, we don’t have time for movies. I said we can’t do this ourselves, not that we wouldn’t. We just need to ask for help.”
The idea sparked every cell in my body and lit it on fire.
“Didn’t we just do that?” Bender asked, narrowing his brows in confusion.
“We asked the ECU. They’re not the only ones who can fight.”
The pieces of the puzzle fell into place in my mind. Half of me was dead sure this wasn’t going to work, but the other half of me was hopeful.
“I don’t get it.” He moved in front of me, shaking his head.
“The covens, Bender. The covens.”
His eyes lit up with fireworks. His lips parted as he looked at me but didn’t see me. A smile touched my lips. Yes, this is going to work. It had to.
“The covens,” Bender whispered.
“Blood, Bone and Green—this fight belongs to all of them.”
The Bone coven had already suffered greatly at the hands of these beasts. The Green coven was in the middle of it, and if the Blood coven hadn’t had a taste of it yet, they would. I was sure of it. They’d be sure of it, too, as soon as they heard the story. No more fucking secrets. Secrets were the only reason we were in this position.
“Fuck, Wa
yne. This could work,” said Bender, wanting to smile but not really daring to just yet.
“It’s going to. Nobody wants to be covenless.” It’s like being all alone in the big bad world without anybody to turn to. I knew firsthand how that felt.
“I’ll call a meeting with the Bone leaders.”
“And I’ll go talk to the Greens.” My heart hammered in my chest just thinking about it.
“How are you going to do that? The ECU probably has Peterson by now.”
I walked back to my desk and took the old ring in my hand. “I don’t need Peterson. I’m going to pay them all a visit personally.”
“And the Bloodies?”
Shivers washed down my back. I knew very little about the Blood coven. But I knew Finn, didn’t I? I was going to hire his agents, anyway. I could pay him for information, and as his client, he’d be obligated to give me everything he could find.
It looked like my mother’s jewelry was finally going to be sold for a purpose.
Eighteen
Night caught us in Turtle, driving back to Bloomsburg. I’d let Bender take the wheel because I was too distracted, and I’d had two calls to make. I’d just gotten off the phone with Amelia, who’d called to tell me that the former leaders of the Bone coven had requested her presence in a meeting. She freaked out even more when I told her that I already knew about the meeting. That Eli Bender had called it, and that I would be there, too.
Now, it was time to give Finn another call.
When we left the office, I gathered two handfuls of my mother’s jewelry, and we stopped at the closest jeweler. I thought I’d feel bad giving her things away for money, but I didn’t. In fact, I was a hundred percent sure that this was exactly what my mother had in mind when she left them to me. I even dared to think she would be proud of me, and goose bumps covered my arms.
“Just do it already. We’re almost there,” Bender said when he caught me looking at the phone.
I dialed the number reluctantly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to Finn, but there was always a chance he’d turn my offer down. He was an expensive fella, but that wasn’t going to stop him. The ECU would, though. A phone call from them, and he’d shut down.