Nero shrugged. “Makes some sense, though. Bates was in his car. Maybe he was actually just arriving on the scene.” He gestured at Flannery as she came back in from the kitchen. “Babe, you recognize this woman?”
He showed her Wanda Randall’s picture, while Thea tried not to let her distaste over the word babe show. Pete caught her eye, clearly read her mind, and grinned.
“No,” Flannery said.
“She was never at the lab?” Nero asked.
“Not unless she had her head shaved, too,” said Flannery.
“Then why would she be one of the targets?” Pete asked.
“Maybe Lex talked too much,” said Thea. “Maybe the point was to shut people up about the superhex. Kill whoever knew about it.”
“But why?” Flannery asked. “They’re doing demonstrations for potential clients. They’re marketing this thing. I could see wanting to shut people up if some kind of authority was about to come down on top of them or something, but otherwise, what’s the harm in a little buzz?”
“Buzz is all well and good, as long as it’s hitting the right ears,” Thea said. “But I doubt it’d help their business much for the average person to know they’re making weapons of mass destruction. It practically makes them terrorists.”
“Nobody likes a terrorist,” Pete interjected.
“Exactly,” said Thea. “Would you go someplace like that to buy a hex?”
Nero was giving Thea a look that was, for laid-back Nero, downright alarmed. “If they want to keep it quiet, then Flannery is in danger, too.”
Aunt Bridget gave her daughter a worried look. “I don’t like the sound of that. You don’t think they’d bring that superhex here?”
“Calm down,” Thea said. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’re putting guesses on top of guesses on top of guesses.”
“All right then, Miss Investigator,” said Nero. “Find us some facts, why don’t you?”
“That,” said Thea, “is a hell of an idea.”
The next day she requested a meeting with both Alecto and Lee, her department head.
“I’d like permission to work on a special project,” she told them over lunch in the dining hall, the only time they all had available. “It would take me away from my regular duties. And I’d need to use not only my own time, but some company resources. Human illusions, tech. No hexes, as far as I know.”
She sighed inwardly as she asked. Of course she wanted to get to the bottom of this, but in the seven months or so since she’d completed her transformation, she’d spent too little time doing the job she’d actually chosen. First she’d been briefly expelled from the colony, along with Alecto. Then she’d been assigned to lead a special team to find Megaira’s new colony. When she’d finished that, Thea thought she would finally be able to settle into her new life. But it seemed not.
Or maybe it seemed so. Alecto was already shaking her head.
“Thea, we appreciate what you’ve done up to this point. You did a great job finding my sister. But now that you’ve located her, how we deal with her is up to the board. It’s a leadership decision and you’re just not at that level yet.”
Thea frowned at Alecto. With so much going on, she hadn’t even been thinking of the big picture. “How are you going to deal with her? Fury Unlimited needs to be closed down, surely you can see that. They’re jeopardizing our business more than their own. I didn’t hear about any protests outside their gates.”
“When we have something to share with the colony, we will do so,” Alecto said.
Thea sighed, then shook her head. “That’s not what this is about, anyway. Boyd Lexington, the guy we were talking about with Detective Holgersen? He was a resident of Hemlock Heights.”
Alecto nodded. “I remember. Mr. Fanatic was talking about him.”
“Right. Turns out he worked at the superhex lab, as a nurse. And left under mysterious circumstances that resulted in some gossip, although Flannery didn’t know any details.”
“So he orchestrated the attack for them,” said Lee. “Maybe he was still on Megaira’s payroll. An inside man.”
“Would you volunteer your own neighborhood for a thing like that?” Thea asked.
“Not everyone likes their neighbors,” Lee said.
Thea shook her head. “Boyd Lexington, his wife, and a young daughter were killed.” She glanced at Alecto. “The kid I saved from that house, Talbott, turns out to be the only surviving member of the family.”
Now Lee looked interested. A natural detective, he’d risen to head of Human Relations & Investigation through the Investigation arm, and he still couldn’t resist putting his oar in on cases from time to time. “If he was in on it, he’d at least have gotten his family out of there, if not himself. Unless he was double crossed.”
“Exactly,” said Thea. “And that’s not all.” She told them about Wanda Randall. “There’s something up in that neighborhood,” she said when she finished. “Something besides the demonstration, that they were using the demonstration to cover up.”
“Could be,” Alecto agreed. “Or Hemlock Heights could have been chosen out of simple spite against Lexington, if he was fired or left on bad terms. The rest could easily be a series of coincidences and misunderstandings.”
“Maybe,” Thea said. “But I think it’s worth finding out, don’t you? The humans think we did this. If I can find proof of whatever was really going on, maybe we can use it to point them at Megaira instead.” She saw from Alecto’s face that a promise of appeasing the humans was not the way to win her over, and added, “And whatever you’re doing, or considering doing, about Fury Unlimited, I may find something you can use against them.”
“I agree it’s worth pursuing,” added Lee. “Although I can’t say I’m thrilled at the idea of using my manpower and budget to do it.”
Alecto crossed her arms and bit her lip, a pose Thea knew better than to interrupt. Finally she said, “We’ll create a special project number for it, Lee, same as we did for the Fury Unlimited investigation, and it’ll come out of a separate budget. But you will be without Thea for a while, I’m afraid.”
“I doubt Victor and Miranda will consider me much of a loss,” said Thea.
“But that’s it,” Alecto added. “I’m not sparing any more employees on this. And keep your expenses to a minimum. I agree the circumstances are odd, but I think what you’re most likely to find at the bottom of it is a lot of personal nonsense that’s irrelevant to our problems.”
“We’ll see, I guess,” said Thea.
She repeated the same thing six hours later, when she was once again in the dining hall, this time for dinner with Cora, Elon, and Nero. “So I guess we’ll see. I’m going to start with Seth Bates.”
“He’s the car killer?” Cora asked.
“Yeah.”
“What about the kid?” Nero dragged the same tater tot through his ketchup for the third time. He was distracted by something. “Talbott, right?”
“Right,” said Thea. “I need to find out where he is now. I doubt anyone will let me near him no matter what kind of story I come up with, but I’ll see what I can do.”
“You could always try the truth,” said Cora. “Tell them you’re the one who saved him. Maybe he’ll want to see you.”
“Doesn’t mean they’d let him,” Thea said. “But I guess I could try that.”
“You know, I saw the picture of your grand rescue on the internet today,” said Elon. “A much less blurry version, but I still don’t think you can tell for sure it’s you. It’s gone pretty viral, though.”
Thea groaned. “How viral?”
“You probably weren’t even trending this hard when you were with Baird Frost.”
“Shit,” Thea muttered.
“What are they saying?” Cora asked. “Alien?”
Elon nodded. “Mostly alien. A few are going with demon.”
“What, not an angel?” Cora looked offended on her friend’s behalf. “She saved the kid’s lif
e. What demon does that?”
Elon shrugged. “I think it’s the wings. We definitely have demon wings. Angel wings are supposed to be feathery bird wings, you know?”
“How would you know what kind of wings angels have?” Cora asked.
“I’m just saying, that’s usually how the pictures are. I—”
“I’m going to propose to Flannery.”
They all stopped and stared at Nero. Cora started choking on her beer. Elon slapped her back a few times.
Finally Thea said, “Really? How… nice.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cora wheezed.
Nero crossed his arms and glared at his sister. Thea had always found his coloring rather unfortunate, the lavender skin clashing with the bright red hair. But the deep purple blush spreading over his face and neck now were doing him even less favors than usual.
“I would have done it anyway,” he said.
“Well, that’s an odd way for you to declare your love for my cousin,” Thea said. “What do you mean anyway?” She stopped and almost choked, herself. “She’s not pregnant is she? Please tell me she’s not pregnant.”
At least her discomfort broke up the tension a bit. Nero grinned at her. “You don’t know much about fury reproduction, do you?”
“Huh?”
“She’s not pregnant.”
“Let’s get back to what you meant by anyway,” Cora said. Her voice was controlled—but barely.
Lord knew Thea had had her share of problems with her cousin, but she was starting to feel offended by Cora’s horror at the idea of having Flannery for a sister-in-law. And she was surprised at her friend. Cora had never treated Thea like she was inferior while Thea was still a human.
But not in your family, huh Cora? Boy, did you turn out to be racist. Creaturist? Whatever. Prejudiced.
“I meant, this would have happened eventually,” Nero said. “And you, dear sister, would have had to find a way to be happy for me instead of acting like a bitch.” He raised his voice over both Cora and Elon’s protests. “But now… I’m not convinced she’s safe out there.”
“So you want her to come live in the colony so you can protect her? Just because of this Hemlock Heights thing?” Elon asked.
“Basically,” said Nero.
Elon shook his head. “I want to be on your side, buddy, but that doesn’t seem like a good reason to get married.”
“Nothing seems like a good reason to get married to you,” Cora snapped.
Ah, now we see the real reason. It’s not that you’re creaturist, or at least not entirely. You’re jealous.
“Like I said, I’d have done it either way,” Nero was saying. “But the timing has to do with that, yes.”
“But we have no reason to think they’re just targeting anyone involved with the superhex!” Cora said.
“We can’t be sure they’re not, either,” said Nero.
“You’ve only been together what?” Cora asked. “Three months?”
A lot less time than Cora’s been with Elon. And Nero is her younger brother. Thea glanced at Elon. Something tells me you’re in for it, buddy. Judging by the flat line of his mouth, Elon was inclined to agree.
“Long enough to know her, and my own mind.” Nero gave Thea a stern look. “And before you say anything, she’s grown a lot in that time.”
Thea threw up her hands. “Hey, I didn’t say a word.”
And she kept on not saying a word, while Cora continued to try to talk her brother out of it, and Elon tried to soothe his girlfriend and keep the peace. Thea was in no mood to pick a side. Mainly because she didn’t know whose side she was on. Nero was right: Flannery had grown. For the better. Thea wanted to be happy for her.
But the idea of her marrying Nero, moving into Hexing House. It wasn’t done often, but it wasn’t entirely without precedent, either. They’d give her a job. Would it be better than Thea’s?
Would they start a family?
Good lord, would Flannery want to become a fury, too?
But it does mean Pete is free. For good.
Thea pushed the thought away. That kind of complication was the last thing she had time for.
She was relieved when dinner finally ended and they all said their tense goodbyes. Thea wanted nothing more than a warm blanket and a soft pillow.
Unfortunately, she was to have neither. Especially not the latter.
The first clue that something was wrong was the light coming from her bedroom. Thea had come a long way since her days of putting bells on her doors and checking the locks three times (no more, no less) whenever she left. But she hadn’t gotten so nonchalant as to carelessly leave lights on.
The second clue was the smell. It was faint, but definite: blood.
Her bedroom door was closed, and for a second Thea was back in her vision, seeing that crack of light underneath.
The monsters are back.
She recoiled, afraid.
What the hell, Thea? You are the monster. Nothing in that room can hurt you.
Not entirely convinced this was true, she reached out and opened the door nonetheless.
But she was right about that much: it certainly couldn’t hurt her. It was beyond either hurt or pain.
The bedside lamp was on, the better to illuminate Thea’s pillow, which was slick with shiny blood. More blood than she would have expected to come from the tiny thing lying in the center.
At first she thought it was a mouse, but then she saw the wings. Detached, spread out a few inches to either side of it.
There was a dead bat on her pillow.
A dead, headless bat.
Traditional means of investigation, like searching for fingerprints, turned up nothing, but Gordon from Security assured Thea that he would have his best people looking into the bat incident. She considered calling Holgersen as well—Mr. Fanatic, at least, had trespassed on the campus before—but knew Alecto would never allow the intrusion of human authorities in the colony.
Personal Services had a new pillow and fresh linens in her residence within the hour, but Thea went to spend the night at Cora’s anyway. Elon was already there, and Nero came as soon as he heard.
Of course Nero was beside himself, taking this as further proof that those associated with the superhex lab were being targeted. But a call to Flannery assured him that nothing unusual had happened on her end.
“Nero, come on,” Thea said. “This was clearly the Concerned Citizens For A Fury-Free County.” She used finger quotes around the name, pitching her voice to sound like Caulfield’s, making Cora laugh. “They blame us for what happened at Hemlock Heights.” She remembered what Holgersen had said to her. “And thanks to that picture, I’m the face of Hexing House now.”
“Maybe,” said Nero. “But that means one of them not only got onto the campus—”
“—which we already know Mr. Fanatic can do,” Cora reminded him.
“—but got into your residence,” Nero finished.
“Knew which one was your residence in the first place,” Elon added. “Does Mr. Fanatic even know your name?”
Thea frowned. “You know, I have no idea. But it’s not unlikely that someone said it in front of him at the protest.”
“Even so,” said Elon. “Going from a face and maybe a name to an address in an enchanted location is a pretty big leap. Even if we do want to blame the Concerned Fury-Free Whatever Society, Gordon needs to be looking for someone on the inside who helped them.”
The incident was certainly disconcerting, but assuming it was part of the aftermath of the Hemlock Heights situation, solving the larger problem would solve the smaller one. So while Thea left Gordon to investigate the break-in, the first thing she did the next day was try to set up a visit with Seth Bates.
Not only could she not get access to him, she couldn’t even get a straight answer as to where he was. She did call Holgersen then, although she didn’t hold out much hope he’d return her message.
One person she did manage to
get on the phone was Boyd Lexington’s brother-in-law. Thea told him she was a journalist. Much to her surprise, he didn’t even hesitate to give her permission to call on him and his wife.
“She’s been talking to everyone who’ll listen,” he said. “Won’t do you any good if you think you’re going to get to Talbott, though. He’s not staying with us, and I’m not at liberty to tell you where he is. He’s off limits to the media.”
Thea had figured as much. But there might be some way to get information out of them while she was there—one way or another. If they had a personal item of Talbott’s she could touch, maybe she would get a lucky glimpse of him, and be able to work out where he was from that. Or better yet, if they had such an item on hand, maybe she’d even be able to pilfer it. It wasn’t a very nice thing to consider, but if she could use it to encourage visions, to see what Talbott himself saw, she might be able to get what she needed from the boy without having to get to him at all.
She picked up a human illusion at RDM. Fifteen minutes later, she sat in a company SUV and stared at herself in the rear view mirror.
Thea hadn’t seen herself with a human face in quite some time. She expected to have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the face Celebrity! magazine had once named one of the hundred most beautiful had brought her a fair amount of pain. On the other hand, it was the face she was born with, the one she’d always associated with herself. She was bound to feel wistful.
But she didn’t feel wistful. Her feelings weren’t mixed at all. She was only repulsed by it.
Thea repositioned the mirror and started to drive.
She marveled at how little the nearly two hour trip bothered what had once been her bum leg. Langdon’s tea had been nothing short of a miracle. Thea arrived in a neighborhood not unlike Hemlock Heights in the early afternoon, when the sunshine showed the well-groomed gardens to their best effect.
The Bowman house was big and neatly maintained, like the Lexington house had been. After she showed the Bowmans passable credentials (these had been provided by the Field Office), Marshal Bowman showed her to the living room while his wife Laurel made coffee. Neither of them seemed to recognize her as Teddie Gideon, celebrity girlfriend, or as the alien-demon from Hemlock Heights.
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