“I know you want what’s best for Julius,” Thea said.
“I’ll repeat myself,” said Dr. Forrester. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you know what they did to the people who had the Ninth Disorder?”
“Nobody’s going to hurt you,” Thea said, praying that was true. “The people who ran the lab aren’t at Hexing House anymore. We’ll deal with it differently. I’ll take you back to our Wellness building, and we’ll make sure you don’t spread it to anyone—including Julius—while we figure out a cure.”
“You don’t even know that I have it,” Dr. Forrester said. “In fact, I don’t have it.”
“Doctor—”
“I can’t get it. I took the preventative treatment. Look, I know I acted crazy at the diner.” Dr. Forrester tried to smile, a flash of white teeth in the darkness. “The divorce, the stress of Julius being sick. I’m just edgy, is all.”
Thea shook her head. “You’re wasting time. You need to stop this.”
“Thea.” Dr. Forrester’s voice took on a desperate, pleading note now. “I know you want revenge against me. Maybe you even deserve to have it.”
Maybe? Get real, lady.
“But you don’t understand,” Dr. Forrester went on. “You can’t do this.”
“What don’t I understand?”
When Dr. Forrester didn’t answer, Thea stood and crossed her arms, towering over the doctor, who was still sitting in bed.
“I’m giving you one more chance,” Thea said. “Call your husband. Ex-husband, whatever. I’m taking you out of here one way or another. If you’d rather do it the hard way, I’ll drag you out screaming and we’ll leave your kid alone here in the middle of the night, watching his mom being carried off by a winged monster.”
Just like Aunt Bridget had to watch her daughter being carried away. Thanks to your old bosses.
Another surge of wrath, but once again, Thea pushed it aside. “Your call,” she said.
“NO!”
Dr. Forrester’s protest came out as a shout. Sound sleeper or not, that kid was bound to wake up. Thea really didn’t want it to come to this—although she couldn’t have said why she’d suddenly found compassion in her heart for Julius, when she’d had none for anybody else lately—but it seemed she had no choice.
She reached for Dr. Forrester’s shoulders, spreading her wings at the same time, ready to bat the woman down with them if she fought back.
But it wasn’t Dr. Forrester who fought back.
Before Thea quite understood what was happening, there was something on her back, scrabbling at her already scratched-up wings, bringing a fresh surge of blood from her wounded shoulder, biting her neck.
And just like that, riding the wave of pain, Thea’s temper rose and broke free.
Without thinking, oblivious to whatever Dr. Forrester was shouting, Thea flung the thing off her. It flew across the room and slammed into the wall, then fell to the floor.
It was wailing.
Dr. Forrester was trying to attack her too now, but Thea threw her off easily. She flew to the thing on the floor.
It got louder as she loomed over it. Now some of its cries were in English. Dr. Forrester screamed and cried behind her.
The purple haze cleared from the edges of Thea’s vision, and she finally got what was happening.
“Julius,” she said.
Thea knelt down beside the boy, but Dr. Forrester was already there, cradling him in her arms and yelling at Thea, half-angry, half-pleading for her son.
“It’s okay,” Thea said. “I won’t hurt him.”
At least, not any more than I already have.
She looked at the sniffling boy. Despite being such an angry little goblin a few seconds ago, he was just a regular kid now. Maybe the same age as Talbott, although he was slight and skinny. There was nothing about him that suggested he would have the wherewithal to attack a monster in his mother’s bedroom.
“That was brave of you, Julius,” Thea said. “Were you trying to protect your mother?”
The boy nodded. Thea nodded back.
“Well, I’m sorry I hurt you. I was trying to protect myself. That’s quite a strong bite you have.”
A slight smile. He was calming down now, recovering with a child’s speed, but Dr. Forrester was still shaking.
“This is what you meant, what I didn’t understand,” Thea said to her. “He already has it.”
Dr. Forrester nodded and said nothing, tears streaming down her face.
“He manifests wrath,” said Thea. “Just like you.”
And me.
Another nod. “Sometimes deceit,” Dr. Forrester said, and then for a second she looked proud. “Never cowardice, though. Not my Julius.”
“Anyone else? Your ex-husband?”
She shook her head. “No signs of it in him, or in any of Julius’s friends. He doesn’t see other kids much anyway, and I’ve been pretty isolated since my split with Jensen.”
“What about your job?”
“I’ve been working from home mostly, doing consultation for this medical website, and teaching a couple of online classes. I swear, as far as I know, it’s just us.”
“Well, then. Julius will have to come with us,” Thea said. “We’ll have to get you both back to Hexing House.”
Dr. Forrester panicked. She pulled the boy against her—Thea wasn’t sure how Julius could breathe, she held him so tightly—and shook her head from side to side. “No. You can’t. I’ll fight you. We won’t go. He’s already been through so much.”
“And he’s going to go through a lot more,” Thea said firmly. “Unless we can get a handle on this thing. Come on, you’re a doctor. You know better than this. Ignoring a problem this big is no way to cure it.”
“I will cure it,” Dr. Forrester said. “I’ve been doing research. I’ve been working on it.”
“Great,” Thea said. “We’ll help you.”
Dr. Forrester started to say something, but Thea talked over her. “I’m done arguing with you. I mean it. Either the two of you come back to Hexing House with me, or I will call in reinforcements and we will take you against your will.”
The doctor glared at her through eyes still shining with tears. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked in a shaky voice. “Getting to turn the tables? Taking me someplace to be your prisoner, where you can use me as your lab rat?”
She had a point. This moment should have been satisfying. At least a little. Especially for the new, heartless Thea.
But Thea looked at the frail boy. He’d twisted in his mother’s arms, so she had a clear view of his face. He wasn’t panicking, or even crying anymore. But he looked exhausted and afraid.
“Honestly?” Thea said finally. “No. I’m not enjoying it at all.”
Thank God.
“The good news is, I know a lot about how the preventative was made,” Dr. Forrester was saying to Langdon. “With some help from your staff here and your RDM department, we should be able to reproduce it without too much trouble.”
“Are you sure?” Langdon asked.
The Forresters, Thea, Alecto, and Langdon were gathered in the basement of the Wellness building. Julius was already asleep on a cot in the corner.
“I’m sure,” Dr. Forrester said. “We spent a lot of time on it. Not only for the obvious reasons, but because we hoped it would help us develop a way to block the superhex itself.” She looked at Thea. “We’ll need some of your hex-immune blood.”
Thea sighed, but nodded. Somehow, the tables had been turned again, and they were back to experimenting on her. But no matter. She had as much of a vested interest in a cure as anyone. Which was something she intended to discuss with Langdon as soon as she could get him alone.
“What can you tell us about how it’s spread?” Alecto asked.
“Not much, unfortunately,” Dr. Forrester said. “Nobody had ever heard of something like this before. But it doesn’t seem to spread easily. As far as we can tell
, only certain people are susceptible, and then those people need to be in prolonged and close contact with either the superhex itself, or someone who has the Ninth Disorder.”
“But you only have evidence of it affecting humans, as far as you know?” Langdon asked.
“As far as I know, yes,” said Dr. Forrester. “But we gave the preventative to everyone, just to be safe.”
“Well,” Langdon said. “There’s a chance furies aren’t even susceptible, then. Hexes affect us, of course, but not always in the same ways.” He looked at Alecto. “But we should take reasonable precautions, just to be safe ourselves.”
“Of course,” Alecto said. “Okay, then. We’re agreed that we’ll work together, first on the preventative, then on a cure. That’s enough for now. Dr. Forrester, you and your son will live here in the Wellness building until further notice. Langdon, quarter them here in the basement and have their meals brought in. Minimize their exposure to anyone until the preventative is ready. Anyone have questions?”
“Yes,” Thea said. She was looking at the doctor. “Why didn’t you tell me about all of this at the diner? And what were you thinking, accusing me of having anything to do with Hemlock Heights? You should have known what was going on the second I told you they were manifesting sins.”
Dr. Forrester looked away. “Denial is a powerful thing,” was all she said.
Thea wanted to slash her with her claws, but Alecto’s face was giving her a clear order to back off.
“You’re just lucky your kid needs help,” Thea muttered.
“Let’s all get some rest,” Alecto said.
Upstairs on the first floor, Thea waited until Langdon finished giving the night shift instructions for accommodating the Forresters, then grabbed his elbow.
“A quick word?” she asked.
“It’s four in the morning,” Langdon said. “It had better be very quick.”
“I won’t be able to sleep until we’ve had it,” Thea said.
Langdon led her into an exam room instead of his office, and bandaged her wounds from her fight with Philip while they talked.
“I assume this has to do with our last conversation, about your difficulties with controlling your wrath?” he asked as he disinfected her clawed thigh.
“Well, now that we know about this disease, that changes things, don’t you think?” Thea asked.
But Langdon shook his head. “Actually, no. I don’t see that it does. Yes, you were heavily exposed to the superhex, but only for a short amount of time. You’re hex immune, a factor that Dr. Forrester just told us is part of developing the preventative. And you’re a fury.”
“Yes, I heard what you said about furies maybe not being susceptible. But Langdon, I am telling you. I was out of control tonight.”
“And I’m telling you,” Langdon said. “That that is a normal part of your transformation. Do you really think I’d be sending you back out there, to live and work among all the other colony members, if I thought you might be spreading a contagious disease?”
“But—”
“Thea, you’re convinced you have this disorder because you want to have it. You want to hear that what’s going on with you is not your fault—or your responsibility.”
“That isn’t fair,” Thea said.
“It’s entirely fair,” said Langdon. “You were the fastest human transformation we’ve ever had, as far as I know. I don’t know how carefully you thought the decision through beforehand, but Thea, I’m afraid it’s too late to worry about whether you like who you’ve become.”
He finished with her leg and stepped around to look at the gunshot wound. “This trouble you’re having isn’t something we can cure. It’s who you are now. The sooner you adjust to that and find some balance, the happier you’ll be.”
It’s who you are now.
Thea blinked away tears and waited in silence until he finished bandaging her shoulder. Then she choked out her thanks to Langdon and fled the Wellness building.
Despite her aching wings, she circled the pond a few times before heading back to her residence. She hoped it might clear her head. But images of Philip’s face, contorted in pain, kept appearing unbidden and unwelcome in her mind.
It’s who you are now.
But it’s not who I want to be.
Too fucking bad. Too fucking late.
“Find some balance,” Thea said as she alighted at the front door of her building. “Just find some balance. Simple.”
Langdon was right: she did want to have the disorder. She wanted him to be wrong. She wanted them to find a cure that would make her who she was before, that would bring back her compassionate heart.
But there was no going back.
“Balance,” Thea said again as she got into bed. And despite all the unanswered questions and problems crowding her mind, she hoped for a vision-free sleep.
She got it, eventually, and woke up just after noon the next day feeling a little better at least, if not fully refreshed. She went to Wellness as soon as she was showered and dressed.
Dr. Forrester and Julius had been allocated three rooms in the basement, one as a bedroom, one that had been set up like a living room with a TV and a computer, and a lab for Dr. Forrester to work in. After visiting the latter to donate some blood to the cause of recreating the preventative, Thea found Julius in the living room, lying on the floor with a book open in front of him, wearing a shirt that was too big and jeans that were too short.
“What are you reading?” Thea asked.
Julius shrugged. “It’s about photosynthesis.”
“Woah.” Thea sat down beside him. “That’s a big word.”
“Not really.” He gave her a serious look from brown eyes that looked big in his thin face. His hair was downy and pale, not much different from the color of his skin. The effect was sickly. “I’m eight.”
Thea wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. “I see.”
“People expect me to be stupid because of the cancer,” he said. “But I know what photosynthesis is.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” said Thea. “Cancer doesn’t make you stupid.”
Julius rolled his eyes. “No, but they think you don’t go to school. But you have a kind of school at the hospital.” He looked down at his book again. “This will be kind of like that, I guess. I mean, this place will be kind of like the hospital.”
“I guess,” Thea agreed. “That must make you feel a little upset.”
“Not really,” Julius said, and he certainly didn’t sound upset. “I’m pretty used to it. Hospitals and stuff. This is no big deal. And they said once they’re done with this vaccine-thing, they can let me meet some fury kids.”
“Are there many your age?” Thea asked. It had never occurred to her to wonder how many kids there were in the colony. She saw them sometimes, walking to the school building, but none of her friends had any.
“They said there were a few.”
“Well, I hope you can make some friends while you’re here,” Thea said. “You aren’t afraid of us?”
“Nah,” Julius said. “I’ve seen furies before. Mom used to work with them. She said she used to work with you.”
Not me, kiddo. She worked on me, but never with me.
“A little bit,” Thea said. “Listen, I’m sorry if I hurt you last night.”
He shrugged again. “I lost control. I had to be subdued.”
No matter how smart or well-schooled he was, Thea was pretty sure I had to be subdued was not a phrase that came naturally to an eight-year-old. “Does your mom ever lose control like that?” she asked.
“She has a few times.”
“And who subdues her?”
“Dad used to. But he wasn’t gentle about it. That’s why we moved away from him. We never had anybody to subdue him.”
Thea frowned at that. Dr. Forrester had assured her that her ex-husband showed no symptoms of the Ninth Disorder.
“So your father loses control, too? Like you and your
mother do sometimes?”
Julius considered this, then shook his head. “No, not like us. He doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t even seem that mad. Just, sometimes we had to be subdued. You know, if we misbehaved.”
“And when did that start?”
“I don’t think it ever started,” Julius said. “It’s just how it was. But it got worse after Mom started fighting back, so they got a divorce.”
Ouch. Thea made a mental note to try to go easy on Dr. Forrester, despite their history. The woman had made some bad choices, but Thea knew as well as anyone that sometimes you did, when you were faced with a bunch of shitty options.
“Nice talking to you, Julius,” she said, and was about to go when Julius reached out to touch her.
“Will I die?” he asked.
Thea stared at him. “No,” she said. “Of course not.” And hoped to heaven it was true.
She wasn’t sure what it was about Julius that brought out the human side of her—maybe just that he was small and sick and vulnerable—but despite her worry for the boy, Thea felt more calm after their conversation. She was actually in a decent mood, all things considered, when Flannery called her an hour later.
“Where have you been?” Flannery demanded. “I left you three messages!”
“Been busy, Flan,” Thea said.
Flannery let out a little snort of laughter. “Yeah, me too. Hello? Getting married a week from today? You told me you’d help me pack and address the announcements and keep my mother calm!”
“I’m sorry,” Thea said. “Really. I just—”
“Just haven’t been a very good maid of honor!” Flannery interrupted. “I guess I could ask Nero’s sister, if you’re too busy to take it seriously.”
Thea laughed. “I’d love to hear that conversation. Pretty sure Cora doesn’t even want to attend your wedding, much less be in it.”
Whoops. Was that out loud?
Flannery was silent for a few seconds, then asked quietly, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” Thea said. “I was just teasing you.”
“Real nice, Thea. You’re a real joy.”
“Yeah well, you have no idea what’s going on with me. The world doesn’t revolve around your wedding, bridezilla!”
Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) Page 11