“Not generally, no,” Thea answered truthfully. Then added, less truthfully, “Sounds like a freak accident to me.”
“Does it?” Holgersen asked.
“I don’t see how you could prove anything else.”
He glowered at her. “We’ll see about that.”
“What are you even doing?” Thea said. “What are you hoping to get out of this? Even if you can reasonably conclude that Alecto threw a tree with her mind—which I don’t see how you can—what are you going to do with that knowledge? Arrest her? Bring a fury back to your police station and tell your boss she killed a lady with telekinesis? You’re wasting your time here, Holgersen, and we both know it.”
“We’ll see about that,” he repeated.
After that, they stood in silence, in matching hostile poses, arms crossed, heads down, until Langdon opened the door.
“She’ll see you,” he said to Holgersen. “But I’m telling you right now, don’t upset her too much. She’s been through a lot today.”
Holgersen walked into the patient room, while Thea put a hand on Langdon’s elbow. “How is she?”
“If she follows instructions—and we both know that’s a big if—and gets some rest—an even bigger if—I think she’ll be okay,” Langdon said. “I think the blindness will only last a few days. I have access to some medicines and methods they don’t have in the human world.”
Thea flexed the calf of what had once been her bad leg. “I know you do.”
“She’ll follow instructions.”
Langdon and Thea both turned at the unmistakable sound of Nana’s aged, crackling voice.
Thea stepped forward to meet the old fury, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Good to see you, Nana.”
“Yes,” agreed Langdon. “A pleasure to see you, as always.”
“You just give me those instructions,” Nana said. “And I’ll see to it that they’re followed. Alecto will stay with me while she recovers.”
“Not if she has anything to say about it,” Langdon began, but Nana waved him off.
“She doesn’t. Can I see her?”
“In a minute or two,” Langdon said. “There’s a human detective in with her now.”
Nana let out a bark of laughter. “Going to try to prove that she threw a tree with mind-powers, is he?”
“Apparently that’s his plan,” said Thea.
Nana shrugged. “He’s welcome to waste his time, I suppose.” She looked at Thea. “You haven’t been to see me in a while.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve been busy,” Thea said. “If it’s any comfort, I got this same complaint from my aunt just this morning.”
“Don’t need comfort. I get plenty of visitors without pining away for you, honey. But last time we talked I promised to look into… well, just to look into.”
Thea nodded. “I remember. Have you seen anything?”
“Furies and humans,” Nana said. “Fighting each other.”
“Where?” Thea asked.
Nana shook her head. “Couldn’t tell. There was too much smoke to see much. But the location might not matter; it might not have been literal. A warning, I think, not a real vision. See what you can do to stop it from happening.”
“Are you sure it didn’t just happen?” Langdon asked. “Maybe it was today’s protest.”
“Maybe,” Nana agreed. “Maybe not.”
“Well, I’ll do what I can, Nana,” Thea said. “But it’s kind of a vague warning.”
Nana sighed. “We work with what we have.”
Holgersen came into the hall a few seconds later, not looking any happier than when he’d left. He nodded to all of them, but Langdon stopped him when he would have walked off on his own.
“We don’t let humans roam the campus unescorted,” Langdon said. “I’ll walk you to the gate.”
With a wave to Nana, Thea started to follow Langdon and Holgersen, but Alecto called out to her from inside the exam room.
“Stay on hand, will you?” Alecto asked. “I want a few words with you after I’ve talked to Nana.”
“I’ll head to the basement to visit with Julius,” Thea said. “You can have Darnell or somebody call me when you want me, how’s that?”
“I’ll have him walk me down to you,” Alecto said. “I was supposed to talk to Dr. Forrester about the inoculation against the Ninth Disorder, and blind or not, I still have a job to do.”
Thea spent a fairly pleasant half hour in Julius’s makeshift living room, listening to him talk in roughly equal measure about the amazing plant life to be found in South America and the season’s prospects for the Atlanta Braves, before Darnell led Alecto down the stairs.
Julius scurried off to the bedroom to read, while Alecto took a seat on the couch.
“How are you feeling?” Thea asked.
“Helpless,” said Alecto. “Which I cannot abide.”
“Why did you go out to talk to them?” Thea knew it was probably a bad time to ask, but she couldn’t help it. Alecto had been so adamant, the last time, that they not engage the protesters anymore.
“I didn’t,” Alecto said. “It wasn’t them I was going to talk to. We were told there were federal agents out there. Either someone was mistaken, or the whole thing was a setup.”
“Sounds like the second one to me. Who started this rumor about the agents?”
Alecto shook her head. “I don’t know. But needless to say, those responsible for our troubles will pay the price.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t made them pay already.”
Alecto laughed at that. “What, while Langdon was bandaging my eyes? Even I’m not that efficient.”
“I meant right after Hemlock Heights,” Thea said. “Right after we found them, for that matter. I know I’m not supposed to ask what your plans for your sister are, but—”
“My sister?” Alecto paused, then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess her too.”
“You guess?” Thea asked. “Who are you going to make pay, if not her? You don’t just mean the Concerned Citizens?”
“It wasn’t my sister throwing that acid,” Alecto said.
“No, but I’m not sure you can make Mrs. Billings pay any higher a price than you already have. This all comes down to Fury Unlimited.”
“Speaking of Mrs. Billings,” Alecto said, neatly sidestepping the issue of her sister, “I hear you didn’t tell Holgersen anything about my—our—particular gifts.”
“Keep it at your gifts,” said Thea. “I’ve managed telekinesis maybe three times total.”
“You don’t practice enough,” Alecto said. “And you should. Anyway, I’d have expected nothing less, but I appreciate your loyalty where Holgersen is concerned.”
“He’s just blowing smoke anyway,” Thea said with a shrug. “He just can’t stand that he can’t do anything about any of this.”
“But we can,” Alecto said. “And we will.”
Thea gave her a hard look, despite the fact that Alecto couldn’t see it.
“Do something about Fury Unlimited, you mean,” Thea said. “What Mrs. Billings did was obviously bonkers, but you’ve taken your vengeance for that, and the Concerned Citizens are not the ones who started this. Megaira is. She attacked them. They’ve gone about defending themselves the wrong way, but that’s all they’re trying to do.”
Alecto seemed to consider her for a while, although Thea couldn’t really tell without being able to see her eyes. Maybe she’d fallen asleep behind those bandages.
When Thea couldn’t stand the silence any longer she said, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Was Cora able to get anything off Philip’s computer?” Alecto asked.
Thea frowned. Surely she could have just asked Cora that question. She wouldn’t have told Thea to wait around just so she could get secondhand information from her.
“No,” Thea said. “I guess he must have reported it quickly, because by the time she cracked his passwords, he’d already been locked out of
everything.” She smiled to herself. “Wonder what Megaira did to him. She couldn’t have been happy.”
Alecto nodded. She was picking at the arm of the couch. After a few more seconds she said, “In the course of your investigation into Fury Unlimited, you must have taken more pictures than the few that were in the report you gave me.”
“We have dozens of pictures,” Thea agreed. “Do you want the whole file?”
“Yes. Send it to Vlad, will you?”
“Sure.”
“How are they situated?” Alecto asked. “Is that building serviced by the public sewer system? Water?”
“I don’t know off the top of my head, but I can get that information for you, too.”
Alecto nodded again. “And I’m particularly interested in the ventilation system, as well.”
“The ventilation— Alecto, you wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t what?” Alecto asked. “You’re the one who just told me to focus on Fury Unlimited.”
“And you should!” Thea said. “But not like this!”
“Like what?” Alecto asked.
“Wouldn’t what? Like what?” Thea mocked. “Don’t play innocent with me, it doesn’t work for you.”
Alecto smiled slightly, and stood. “Would you be so kind as to bring me to the lab? I think it’s time I had that talk with Dr. Forrester.”
“About what?”
“I told you. The inoculation.”
“Is that still all?”
“I might have a few other things on my mind.”
“Like what? The only thing she knows about besides the Ninth Disorder that could possibly interest you is the superhex itself.”
“Not true,” Alecto said. “She was on Megaira’s team for a while. She knows the organization. Some of the people who are still at the top. She could recreate their org chart for me. Fill in some gaps. Tell me about their processes. I’m sure she knows some details that your investigation didn’t pick up. Some of them might be helpful to us.”
“That’s all true,” Thea agreed as she took Alecto’s elbow and led her toward the lab. “But since you can’t spread an org chart through the water or the air vents, I’m guessing it’s also all bullshit.”
“It may be that you can’t spread the Ninth Disorder or the superhex through the water or the vents, either,” Alecto said.
“But you intend to find out.”
“Knowledge is power.”
Shit.
Thea had meant it, when she’d pushed Alecto toward revenge. She wanted Megaira, and everyone else at Fury Unlimited who was involved with the superhex, to pay for what they’d done.
But this is going too far.
Isn’t it?
“I’m taking your advice, Thea,” Alecto said. “You should be pleased. It’s high time for us to deal with the real threat. And deal with it permanently.”
“But it’s a whole colony!” Thea said. “There are other furies in there besides your sister and her cronies. Innocent—”
“Innocent?” Alecto laughed. “All I’m aware of are a bunch of traitors who deserted their colony to follow Maggie’s promises. Even though every single one of them knew what she was making at that place. Is this the lab door?”
“Yes. But Alecto, don’t—”
“Great, thank you. You’re dismissed.”
Shit.
What have I done?
The night before Flannery and Nero’s wedding, Thea sat down with her blue cardigan sweater. Before she cut herself, she spent some time just sitting, eyes closed. She did her best to clear her mind of thoughts about the superhex, the Ninth Disorder, Fury Unlimited, or the Concerned Citizens For A Fury-Free County. She didn’t want to think about furies at all.
Instead she thought of Flannery when they were girls, playing in the orchard. Secrets whispered in the hayloft. Thanksgivings and Christmases with Uncle Gary and Aunt Bridget.
Thea didn’t want answers from her visions tonight. She didn’t want solutions. She just wanted a glimpse of something hopeful and lovely. Flannery’s wedding, her future. Little purple babies, maybe.
Just something nice, for once.
Thea flicked a claw across her lip, just where it met her gums, and used the sweater to blot the blood.
At first, as often happened with visions, she didn’t know where she was. She was standing on a hard floor, shivering. There was the scratching, grating music of an off-key orchestra, playing too slowly. The room was filled with bats. It smelled horrendous.
The bats were dancing to the music, grinning at one another, tiny bat mouths drawn back over their tiny bat teeth. Some of them were biting each other.
“What are you doing here?”
It was Flannery, in her wedding gown.
“Is this your wedding?” Thea asked.
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Flannery hissed. “None of you are.”
She drew back a hand and tried to slap Thea, but Thea avoided the blow and flew upwards. Her wings were too light, moving too fast. She looked to the side, then down at herself. She too was a bat.
“They’ll take your heads!” Flannery was shouting at her. “All of your heads!”
Thea found herself falling, diving into Flannery’s hair, melding together with her cousin until they were one and the same. Now she was Flannery, looking out at the dancing bats.
Her dress was too tight. It was hard to breathe. She picked up her heavy skirts and walked through the crowd until she reached the orchestra beyond the dance floor.
They were all corpses. Corpses she knew: dead Pete played a violin, dead Bridget a cello. Elon was there, wearing a human illusion, a gaping wound in his belly and half his face ground up like sausage.
Thea-Flannery turned back toward the dance floor. Where was Nero? She had to find her groom.
The bats were all dead, scattered around like confetti. The whole floor was sticky with purple blood. The smell of it rose up until she gagged.
Flannery screamed, in Thea’s voice. Thea woke up screaming for real, and threw the sweater across the room.
“Oh fucking come on,” she choked out through tears. “All I asked for was something nice!”
She flew straight to Aunt Bridget’s house and banged on the kitchen door until Bridget finally answered it, wrapped in her bathrobe.
“Thea, did you come to sleep over?” Aunt Bridget asked. “That’s sweet, but it’s so late. Flannery needs rest before—”
“Flannery needs to cancel the wedding,” Thea said.
Ten minutes later, Flannery and Thea sat at the kitchen table, a plate of blueberry muffins between them, while Aunt Bridget made tea.
“So what are you saying?” Flannery asked when Thea finished telling her about the vision. “You want me to call off my wedding because you had a bad dream?”
“Oh, Flannery, come on,” Thea said. “A bad dream? I understand how you feel. I know you don’t even want to think about postponing. But you know as well as I do that my visions are—”
“Special.” Flannery flung the word at her like a dart. “Let’s all obey Thea’s visions because they’re special. She’s a supermodel, she’s a Hollywood star, she’s psychic, she’s so freaking special.”
“Flannery,” Aunt Bridget said gently. “Let’s try to keep our language civilized.”
“And get off the drama train while you’re at it,” Thea said. “That’s not going to solve—”
“The drama train?” Flannery stood and leaned over the table. “You come here the night before my wedding, spouting some horseshit—”
“Flannery,” Aunt Bridget said again.
“—about dead bats and corpse bands,” Flannery went on, ignoring her mother. “And telling me I have to call off my wedding because of it, and I’m the one being the drama queen? No! Not this time. You don’t get to pin this one on me. This is your drama, Thea!”
“Fine,” said Thea. “It’s my drama. But we need to take it seriously.”
“We most certainly do
not!” Flannery flopped back down into her chair and crossed her arms. “You were supposed to get married first, is that it? The pretty one, the nice one, the one everyone likes better? So now you’re just trying to ruin it for me?”
“Flannery, stop it,” Thea said. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It is ridiculous,” Flannery agreed with an emphatic nod. “You’d think you’d be happy about this wedding. You’d think you’d be happy that I’m finally moving on and leaving Pete free for you.
I do not need you to give me Pete. I could have had Pete any time I wanted. And you knew it. You always knew it, and it made you a bitch to us both.
Thea bit back the words, determined not to get sucked into a fight, and tried to think of something more reasonable to say.
Aunt Bridget put mugs in front of them, then sat down with a tired sigh. “Can we try to discuss this rationally, please?”
“That’s a great idea,” said Thea, blowing on her tea. “Maybe you can talk some sense into her, Aunt Bridget. She obviously won’t hear it from me.”
But Bridget shook her head at her niece. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. I’m not sure calling off the wedding is the answer.”
“What?” Thea started to say three other things, then finally settled for repeating herself. “What?”
Flannery laughed. “Look at her. She’s practically in shock. She can’t believe you’d actually take my side.”
“This isn’t about taking sides,” Aunt Bridget said. “Although heaven knows that’s what you two will always find a way to make a thing about.”
“That’s not fair—” Thea started, but Aunt Bridget silenced her with a stern look.
“Thea, you showed us when you were seven that your visions were not to be lightly ignored,” Aunt Bridget said. “And I have always supported that. You know I have.” She waited for Thea’s nod, then continued. “But they’re not always straightforward, either. This particular one involved bats. Nero wasn’t even there.”
“Flannery was in her wedding dress!” Thea said.
“Yes, after you specifically asked your psyche to show you Flannery in her wedding dress,” Bridget pointed out. “I’m not sure that kind of manipulation can be trusted.”
Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) Page 13