Bone Coven (Winter Wayne Book 2)

by D. N. Hoxa

  “And we all appreciate that, Ms. Wayne, but they will take it from here. Please understand. We want our people found as fast as possible,” Peterson said with a tired sigh.

  Great. Now, I was annoying him, too. I didn’t dare look around at the whole yard of ECU people looking at me from fear I’d lose my temper and make a mess out of the already messy situation.

  Obviously, the damage had already been done. No matter what I said next, Peterson wasn’t going to change his mind and rehire me. I’d waste my breath if I tried to make him see that he needed me. The promise of the whole ECU being on this case had him all the way up to the clouds, and he wasn’t coming down any time soon.

  “Thanks for the opportunity,” I ended up saying. Anger faded from my chest when it felt how useless it was. Time had come to go back to my office.

  “Thank you, Ms. Wayne. The other half of the payment will be sent to you in the morning together with a bonus. I do hope I’ll see you again.” He offered me his hand for the second time. This time, I shook it. It was pointless to hold a grudge against him now. I could use his recommendation. God knew I could use a good word from a coven leader.

  “Good night, Mr. Peterson.” I wanted to tell him to say hi to Elisabeth for me, but if he asked me how I knew his daughter, and I told him I’d sneaked into his attic, things could take a turn for the worse fast. I was tired. I was in pain. I just needed to get to my couch and sleep.

  My gun was still in my hand, even when I walked out in the street. Countless Green witches were standing on the sidewalk across the house. The fire had gone out, but the four wrecked SUVs were still there. Shivers washed down my back when I remembered how they’d gotten that way. I tried my best to ignore the stares of the people while walking away, but it was impossible not to let my eyes slide on a few faces.

  I stopped in my tracks when I spotted a man, not much older than Peterson. He was just across the street from me, but I could read the expression on his face. Was he disgusted? No. He was curious.

  Elisabeth hadn’t looked at me like I was a lesser creature just because I had pointy ears and violet eyes, but she was a little girl. Hatred isn’t something people are born with. Hatred is taught and learned. But a grown man looking at me and not even flinching? Definitely a first. Could have very well been my imagination, so I lowered my head and continued to walk out of the Green coven community to find Turtle and get the hell out of Delaware. I hoped with all my heart that I would never have to return there again.

  Ten

  The flowers in the front yard of my aunt’s house looked fresh enough to smell, but I knew better than to try. They’d knock me out in seconds if I got that close to them, even though Amelia had fed me her special tea to make me immune to them—or so she said.

  You might be wondering why I was in Bloomsburg, at my aunt’s house, instead of in my own office in New York City, and I can explain.

  The night before, on my way back from Delaware, I thought a lot about where I’d been, where I was, and where I wanted to go. The truth was pretty simple: I wanted to solve this case almost as much as I wanted to keep on breathing.

  With the ECU being all over the Green coven, there was no way in hell I could get any more information without getting killed, or at the very least, imprisoned. I wasn’t going to get the chance to talk to the beast—that I caught—again anytime soon, but there had to be another angle I could explore. There were always options if you looked hard enough, and I was willing to look until my eyes bled.

  The idea hit me just as I arrived at my office. If not a hundred percent, I was ninety percent sure that those beasts had been the ones to kidnap and kill the children of the Bone coven leaders. I could have been dead wrong, but something in my gut was telling me that I wasn’t. By the time I lay down to try and get some sleep, my decision was already made.

  What else was there for me to do, anyway? I had more than enough time, and just the thought of having something to do kept me awake those two hours I tried to keep my eyes closed. My aunt told me there had been an investigation going on for years about the Bone coven. That information had to have been stored somewhere, preferably somewhere I could sneak into. Though the case was a decade old, if I knew what I was looking for—an ugly ass beast—I had an advantage the Bone investigators never had. I could see things they hadn’t. I could use that information to track down the three other beasts.

  Or I could find nothing at all and return home feeling like an even bigger failure.

  Worth the try, don’t you think?

  I got out of the car and walked as fast as I could to Amelia’s door without running. Sparks of excitement lit up the blood in my veins, and though I hadn’t slept at all the night before—even after the healing spell I’d cast on myself—I was wide awake. Didn’t even need coffee, though I wouldn’t turn one down if offered. I knocked on the door three times, then stepped back. Amelia was going to be surprised to see me. A look down at my body said I looked okay. The three claw marks on my chest were still raw and visible, so I had to wear a high-necked shirt because I didn’t want to freak her out. My palms were still a mess of scars, but I’d just keep my hands fisted. Other than that, I looked perfectly fine.

  “Winter?” Amelia said as she unlocked the door from the inside, then opened it. “What are you doing here so early?”

  “Surprise,” I said, then walked in without waiting for her to invite me. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  “You didn’t. I was just making some coffee,” Amelia said. Her surprised eyes scrolled down my body a few times until she was sure that I was all right. Good call on the high-necked shirt.

  “Great. I’m here to ask you something.”

  My aunt sighed. She also rolled her eyes dramatically.

  “Of course you are.” She waved for me to follow her into the kitchen.

  “Oh, come on. Don’t give me that.”

  “Not giving you anything,” she mumbled.

  The kitchen smelled of fresh coffee. My mouth watered. I was too excited to sit, so I just rested my elbows on the kitchen counter while I waited for her to bring me my mug. Maybe I should have brought something to eat, too. Too late now.

  “You are. You’re trying to say that I’m always here to ask you for something when I’m not.” I wished I had something to ask of her every time I visited. That would have meant I actually had something to do.

  “Have you even slept?” she asked with a laugh.

  “Yes.” She could tell I was lying. I didn’t care. “But seriously, though. It’s about the coven.”

  Amelia stopped moving for a second. “What about the coven?” Her voice wasn’t as cheerful anymore.

  “I’m going to tell you something, but you have to promise me that you’ll never tell anyone. Ever.” I trusted my aunt. I didn’t know her that well, but for the past two months, we’d been really tight. She didn’t strike me as a person who spilled her guts whenever she talked to someone. On the contrary. I could trust her with my secret. I had to. She wasn’t going to help me if I didn’t show her that I was really onto something.

  “Is this about the call you got on Sunday?” Amelia asked.

  She looked upset all of a sudden, and she barely looked at me when she took the mugs to her small table. I was still too excited to sit, so I just loomed over her.

  “It is. You’re not going to believe it, but seriously. Promise me. No one, ever.”

  “I promise, Winter. I’m not going to tell anyone. Who would I tell anyway?” She shrugged.

  “Uh, Jeb?” He was her boyfriend. Of course she’d tell him.

  “I won’t tell Jeb. Happy? But why do I get the feeling that I don’t want to know what you want to tell me?”

  Looking down at her while telling her what had happened wasn’t very comfortable, so I sat down and grinned. “Maybe you don’t, but I’m telling you anyway.” I rubbed my hands together. “Ready?”

  “God, how old are you?” Amelia said, shaking her head.

 
“Everything you told me about the Bone coven and how it came apart, it’s happening to the Green coven, too.”

  Amelia froze with the mug halfway to her mouth. For a second, she didn’t even breathe. “What?”

  “That’s what I think.” I rested my elbows on the table so that I could get closer to her. No idea why I felt like whispering because nobody was there to hear us. “The children of three coven leaders have been kidnapped.”

  The blood drained from her face completely. “How do you know this?”

  “On Sunday, William Peterson came to the office to offer me a job. This was the job. To try and find who was kidnapping those Greens because one of his children was next.”

  “Holy spell, Winter,” Amelia whispered.

  “They thought it was werewolves because somebody had seen them running away from Delaware. Ever since he told me the story, I knew it was connected to the Bone coven. What are the odds that the same thing—”

  “Winter, stop,” she cut me off. “Just stop. You signed a contract about this, didn’t you?”

  A dumbfounded smile took over my face. “But you’re my aunt.” She was family.

  “You could get in trouble for telling me this.”

  “I got fired last night, if that makes you feel any better.”

  Amelia raised a brow. “Already?”

  “Not what you think,” I mumbled with a flinch. “Will you just let me tell you?”

  Her hands were slightly shaking. She wanted to come off as uninterested, but it was obvious she was dying to know everything. “Go ahead.”

  “Like I said, what are the odds of the same thing happening to two covens, a decade apart? Very slim. So I took the job. Last night, I was in Delaware. I sneaked into the Green coven community because I couldn’t find any information anywhere else. I was there when the werewolves attacked Peterson’s house and tried to get one of his children.” The thought of Elisabeth made me shiver. She was all right, but I wasn’t sure she would be for long. “They couldn’t because Peterson had a lot of guards there, both Green witches and hired ECU soldiers.”

  “Did somebody die?” Amelia asked.

  “Lots of people died,” I said with a nod. “But that’s not the point. Those werewolves weren’t really werewolves. They were some sort of wolf beasts with very long fur and green eyes. The scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Also, the strongest creatures I’ve ever come across. You wouldn’t even believe it. The stone spells they used unleashed spells that had a fucking SUV in ruins in half a second. Their physical strength is beyond imagination. My beads did nothing to those creatures when I’ve seen them tear through flesh easily.”

  “Wolf beasts?” Amelia repeated, suspicion clear in her eyes.

  “I don’t know how else to call them. They went through two dozen guards in seconds, and two of them were already running away when I attacked one.”

  Her mouth popped open. “You attacked one?”

  “It’s not as bad as it sounds,” I mumbled, and I was being honest, because it was worse.

  “Were you trying to get yourself killed?” Amelia reproached.

  “Of course not!”

  “You just described them as beasts with super strength and super magic!” she cried.

  “You’re not letting me tell the story.” I was alive and well. That was all that counted. “Anyway, so I attacked one and managed to knock it unconscious. We chained it in Peterson’s basement, and I was interrogating it before the ECU came and kicked me out.” Not a very nice reminder. Being fired sucked. It had sucked the first time, and it sucked now, too. “Apparently, they are now personally handling the coven’s case, and Peterson fired me right after.”

  Amelia shook her head. “So what now?”

  “You’re not asking the right question,” I whispered. “I said I interrogated the beast before the ECU arrived.”

  Her brows shot up. “And what did it say?” Right question.

  “Oh, nothing, except that it and its friends were responsible for the killings in the Bone coven, too.”

  “Impossible,” Amelia whispered, narrowing her brows, a dumbfounded smile on her face. “Really?”

  “Well, not in so many words, but it said that they’d done this before and nobody had stopped them. Do you know anything about this sort of thing happening to the Blood coven?” My aunt only shook her head. “Exactly. So it meant the Bone coven.”

  Amelia bit her lower lip and just stared at her untouched coffee for a long minute. I’d almost finished mine because it was delicious, and I was thinking about taking hers, too. What good was coffee if you were just going to stare at it? I was going to need all the energy I could get.

  “I know what you’re going to ask of me,” she finally said.

  I said it anyway. “I need to find every bit of information the Bones have on what happened ten years ago.”

  “But why? If the ECU is on it, they’re going to figure it out faster than you.”

  Geez, Amelia. Thanks. “Because I want to get to the bottom of this. I want to find those beasts myself.”

  Now was not the time to mention that I felt very responsible about what had happened, no matter that my aunt thought I wasn’t. If it hadn’t been for me, my mother would have never left. My grandmother would have never quit, and even if the killings still happened, maybe the coven wouldn’t have broken apart. Now was my chance to right the wrong my existence had caused. I wouldn’t be able to ever sleep again if I didn’t at least try.

  “They’re not going to let you within a mile of anything important,” Amelia said, meaning the ECU.

  “Which is why I’m here. I’m going to find those beasts through what happened here.”

  “You think it’s going to be that easy?” She almost laughed.

  “Of course not, but I’ll never know if I don’t try.”

  “Winter, our coven broke apart ten years ago. Anything we knew about then isn’t going to help you now.”

  “You don’t know that.” I stood up again because the way she looked at me threatened to make me doubt in my own abilities. I didn’t need that. I needed trust. I needed someone to look at me the way Julian did. Like he believed I could do anything. God, how I wished he was there with me.

  “There’s no way you can get hold of the coven files. They’re locked somewhere, possibly in the ECU archives. Nobody is going to let you anywhere near them,” Amelia said.

  My heart fell all the way to my heels.

  “There must be copies.”

  But she shook her head. “Not that I know of. Not over something as important as this. The case was closed, Winter. Everybody gave up on it more than five years ago.”

  Panic set in and the coffee I’d drunk threatened to come back out right where it had gone in.

  “What about the investigators?” I whispered. “Who were they?”

  Amelia flinched. “One of them passed away already. The other is…” With a shrug, she looked away from me. “They say he’s gone crazy. Like really crazy.”

  “Who is he?”

  “Didn’t you hear me?”

  “I did. Do you know who he is or where I can find him?” If there was a chance he remembered anything at all, I would take it. I’d go to the end of the world if I had to.

  “You’re not seriously thinking about going to him, are you? I just told you that the case was closed a long time ago, and the guy who handled it has lost his mind!” Amelia shouted.

  “And I just told you that I’m going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”

  My aunt stood up to face me. “This isn’t your fight, Winter. The Green coven already has the ECU.”

  “I can help them. You know I can.” The words came out as a pleading but I didn’t care. If I helped the Green coven, I’d help the Bone coven, too. What if, in the end, Bone witches began to trust one another again? What if the coven got back together? Just the thought of it made me shiver.

  “This is bigger than you, honey. I’m sorry, but you’re
better off staying away.”

  The words hurt. They hurt much more than I wanted to admit, but I didn’t let the pain show. Amelia was family, but I was wrong to think she’d believe in me. How could she when we barely knew each other? I knew I shouldn’t hold that against her, but it was hard not to.

  “Can you tell me who the investigator was?” I said and took a step back. If she couldn’t, I’d find him myself. No matter what she said, no matter what the whole world believed, I wasn’t going to stop.

  With a sigh, Amelia fell down on the chair again. “Eli Bender.”

  I held back a sigh. “Thank you.”

  When I turned to leave, Amelia followed me. I wished she hadn’t because I really didn’t want to talk to her anymore.

  “Winter, I’m only saying this because I care for you. I don’t want you to get hurt, and if you pursue this, you will,” she said as she saw me to the door.

  “I’ll be careful,” I mumbled, unable to even look at her in the face.

  “Please,” she said. “I know I can’t stop you, but will you at least call me at the end of the day?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  “Good luck.” She held onto the door and watched me walk away. “And Winter? Please, stay alive.”

  That was always the plan.

  Eleven

  “I promised you half a favor.” I was in my car, my phone on my lap with the speaker on.

  “You did,” Finn said in a hurry.

  “I’m going to need one in return.”

  I wasn’t sure if he’d heard about the beast I’d caught in the Green coven the night before, but it was the only card I could play. My laptop was in my office and going back there just to research and find Eli Bender would take me too much time. I wasn’t a very patient gal. So I called Finn instead. A favor for a favor. He’d agree—unless the ECU had filled him in about the beast, which I very much doubted.

  “Do I have a choice?” Finn said and I smiled to myself.

  “Not really.”

  A loud sigh made the speaker of my phone whistle. I could almost see the werewolf nodding on the other side of the line.