“I’m Alecto. I’m the president of this company. Who is in charge here, please?”
Of course Alecto would come out to confront the situation personally. Thea half-smiled, imagining the futile efforts of the board to talk her into not engaging, cautioning her that it might make things worse, advising her to issue some sort of bland no comment and go about her business. No comment wasn’t really Alecto’s style.
The beefy man puffed out his chest and called, “I’m the leader of the Concerned Citizens For A Fury-Free County.”
CCFAFFC? A little clunky isn’t it, buddy? You couldn’t at least try to spell a word? Something catchy?
Thea bit back a laugh. First temper, then snark. None of this was like her. What the hell was going on inside her?
A good question. But at the moment, there was too much confusion on the outside to worry about the confusion inside.
Alecto flew over and landed beside Thea, addressing Mr. Beefy. “And your name, sir?”
“Todd.” He seemed about to offer his hand to shake, then thought better of it. “Todd Caulfield. I’m also the president of the Hemlock Heights HOA.” When Alecto looked at him blankly he added, “That stands for homeowner’s association.”
“Ah,” Alecto said. “Well, Mr. Caulfield, I’m sorry for your losses. But you appear to be acting on some bad information. We had nothing to do with the tragedy that struck your neighborhood.”
He started to say something, but was drowned out by shouts of Liar! and Witch! from the crowd around him.
“Can you tell me why you’re here?” Alecto raised her voice to be heard above them, although she still spoke to Caulfield alone. “And why you think we’re responsible for this?”
“Mr. Agnew here had some very interesting information for me about what you do,” Caulfield said, gesturing at Mr. Fanatic. “It sounded like a pretty good match to me. And then of course there’s the picture. Some thought it was doctored, but we can see the truth of that now, can’t we?”
Alecto frowned at him. “What picture?”
“Enough, witch!” A woman shouted.
“Stop letting her distract you! She’ll put a spell on you!” said a man behind Caulfield.
Thea stared at them all, wondering how this could really be happening. Had Mr. Fanatic—Mr. Agnew, apparently—really just come to them with his crazy eyes (okay, a little bit less crazy than before, but still) and even crazier story, and they’d all just flocked down here, believing in witches and demons and spells?
“Are you denying it was one of your hexes that caused this?” Caulfield asked Alecto.
Her face was inscrutable, as always. “I am categorically denying it,” she said. “It was not one of our hexes.”
More shouts. Alecto stayed calm. “Mr. Caulfield, if you’d like to schedule an appointment with my assistant to discuss this with me under more civilized circumstances, I’d be more than happy to do that. But for now…” She looked up as she spoke, addressing all of them. “You’re trespassing on private property, and interfering with our business here. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you all to go.”
There was an outcry as the protesters closed in enough for Thea to spread her wings, tensing herself for flight. Cora and Alecto did the same, although neither looked like they’d regret it too much if things got out of hand.
Unfortunately, Mr. Fanatic was standing too close. Thea’s right wing smacked him hard in the side as it opened. He fell to the ground, screaming like he’d been stabbed, although she didn’t think her talons had gouged him.
The crowd surged forward, but the three furies were already in the air, flying out of reach to crouch on top of the iron fence. The Security guys did the same.
The furies who’d gathered to watch the protest were mostly perched on the fence as well, though a few were in the trees. They began answering the shouts and insults of the humans with shouts and insults of their own.
Once, when she and Baird had attended an awards show, Thea had somehow gotten separated from him and their handlers, and found herself surrounded by an unruly crowd. It didn’t matter that most (though not all) of them were admirers, that their reaching hands only wanted to touch her, not hurt her. It was still a way of taking from her, of claiming a piece of her for themselves that she did not want to relinquish. The feeling of being locked in by all those sweaty limbs and hot, breathing mouths had brought on one of the worst panic attacks she’d ever had.
Thea knew this situation was nothing like that one, and the power of being able to fly away from them was not lost on her. But she still felt some of that old panic surging in her chest. For a second, it was almost like being human again.
And for that second, the feeling was a relief. It brought fear, yes, but it also brought a certain welcome sense of smallness that she hadn’t felt in what seemed like ages, now.
Smallness? You mean weakness. How can you welcome that feeling, and now, of all times?
Because it’s familiar. It feels like me.
That is not you anymore.
Ignoring the conflicting thoughts in her head, Thea searched the mob below for Mr. Fanatic, and found him standing again, beside Mr. Caulfield. He didn’t look hurt, except for a shallow scrape on his neck, the kind a kid might get in a fall.
But it didn’t seem to matter that he was fine, or that Thea had only knocked him over by accident. The shouting back and forth only escalated. None of the protesters appeared to have brought weapons—at least, none they’d brought out yet—but several of them picked up rocks.
It would have been easy enough for the furies to diffuse the situation by simply flying away. The humans couldn’t get onto the campus. But retreat was not the fury way.
Instead, they all had their claws out. Beside Thea, Cora was shouting about trespassers and persecutors, and defending her home.
At her other side, Thea felt a sort of vibration, a humming from Alecto, and knew her boss was gathering power. For what, Thea couldn’t guess, and did not want to know.
She put a hand on Alecto’s arm. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Alecto asked.
“Whatever you’re going to do,” said Thea. “Please don’t make this worse.”
Alecto’s hands were gripping the fence tightly, but she flicked a wing, gesturing at a man holding a particularly large rock. “He throws that, and it’ll be worse for him than he can imagine.”
Thea scrambled to think of an answer, for some way to make everyone back off. But she was saved—not by a bell, but by a siren. A police car came up the road, lights flashing. A second, unmarked car followed.
Two uniformed officers got out of the first car and started talking to Mr. Caulfield. They seemed to know each other already. Only one man—short, blond, and dressed in plain clothes—got out of the other car.
Like all the other humans gathered there, if any of the police officers were surprised to see winged creatures among them, they didn’t show it.
Alecto flew down to meet the short man as he turned to the crowd and started to shout. After a few seconds, they quieted to listen.
“Some of you know me, I’m Detective Holgersen,” he said. “As the officers here are explaining to Mr. Caulfield, we’ve done a little digging this morning, and it would appear that this is indeed private property.”
He waited out a few grumbles before he went on. “Now, I want to assure you all that the incident at Hemlock Heights is being thoroughly investigated, and we are following several leads, including those that have brought you all here today. But for the moment, I’m going to have to be honest. It would be a lot easier for me to do that, and get my job done, if you would do me a favor and disperse.”
One of the protesters pointed at Thea and shouted, “But she assaulted Mr. Agnew!”
Detective Holgersen glanced at Thea, did a double take, then gestured for her to come to him. It made her feel like a little kid being called forward for punishment, but she flew down, Cora beside her.
“I didn’t a
ssault anyone,” Thea said. “Mr. Fan— Mr. Agnew was standing too close to me when I opened my wings, and one of them bumped him, is all.” She gestured at Mr. Fanatic, who was glowering at her. “You can see he’s fine.”
“I was beside her at the time,” Cora added. “That’s exactly how it happened. It was an accident.”
“She’s a witch!” Mr. Fanatic screeched. “She’s a demon straight from Hell!”
Just give him a second, and he’ll tell you all about how I’m a harlot, too.
But Holgersen only shrugged. “Be that as it may, Mr. Agnew, this is the demons’ private property, and I think it would be most productive for us all if we just put whatever passed on both sides this morning behind us. What do you say?”
Thea was pretty sure it didn’t work like that, and that he was supposed to be asking Mr. Fanatic if he wanted to press charges. But since the detective was ignoring procedure in her favor, she wasn’t inclined to argue.
Mr. Fanatic, on the other hand, was. Holgersen nodded to one of the other officers, who pulled Mr. Fanatic aside and continued talking to him. After gesturing at both Alecto and Thea to stay where they were, Holgersen himself went to talk to Mr. Caulfield.
Finally, Caulfield raised his voice to be heard by all. “I think we’ve made our point, folks,” he said. “We’re going to let these officers do their job for now. Let’s meet back at the community clubhouse to discuss our next steps, please.”
There was a little more argument from the crowd, but most of the fire had died out of it. It didn’t take long for them to walk back down the road to where their cars were parked. Even Mr. Fanatic went, with just a few more insults for Thea as he walked away.
When the last of them had left, Holgersen turned to Thea. “Well, that was easy. But it won’t be the next time. The sooner we get this straightened out, the better.”
“Excuse me.” Alecto stepped forward. “I’m the head of this colony. It’s me you want to talk to.”
But Holgersen was still looking at Thea, eyes narrowed in thought. “No,” he said finally. “I don’t think it is.” He glanced at Alecto. “I mean, I want to talk to you, too. But I’m pretty sure it’s her I came to see.”
He pulled out his phone, tapped it a couple of times, then handed it to Thea.
“Recognize this?”
Alecto moved closer to look over Thea’s shoulder, then made a soft sound of irritation.
Cora didn’t bother being that subtle. She just said, “Shit.”
Ah. So that’s what Caulfield meant about the picture.
The good news was, the picture was blurry. Thea’s features weren’t recognizable, although it seemed her height, shape, and hair were clear enough for someone observant—someone like Holgersen—to identify her.
The bad news was, the basics were recognizable, and indisputably so: a winged creature, purple in color, flying young Talbott down from his ruined house.
Thea sat in Alecto’s office, watching her boss square off with Detective Holgersen. Despite being the source of their contention, Thea herself seemed momentarily forgotten.
“I am the head of this colony, and we don’t recognize any other authority but our own,” Alecto was saying. “You’re welcome to question her. But you’ll do it with me present.”
“No authority other than your own, huh?” Holgersen apparently saw nothing ill-advised in taking a step closer to an aggravated fury. Maybe he was brave, or maybe merely stupid. “Really? I can think of several parties who would be very interested to hear that.”
“Nobody here has committed any crime.”
“No?” Holgersen asked. “How about non-violent offenses? Like tax evasion, maybe. Because the IRS has never heard of your ‘company,’ any more than the FBI has, or Homeland Security. I know this, because pretty much every Federal agency I can think of laughed me off the phone today when I checked with them.”
“And yet here you are,” said Thea. “Interesting that you had no trouble believing it yourself.”
Holgersen glanced at her. “I wouldn’t say I had no trouble.”
“Well, maybe the agencies you would need to talk to aren’t the kind someone at your level has access to.” Alecto smiled briefly when she saw she’d scored a point. “I assure you, we pay our taxes. But not to the IRS. We have some… special arrangements.”
Holgersen crossed his arms. “Is that supposed to intimidate me?”
Alecto laughed. “Detective. We can play power games all day, but I promise you, you will lose. And I do have work to get back to. Ask Thea your questions, or don’t.”
After a few seconds of glaring got him nowhere, Holgersen huffed and sat down across from Thea.
Alecto stayed standing, leaning against her desk, and cut off Holgersen just as he opened his mouth to speak. “Thea, you have my permission to tell the detective the entire truth.”
Thea looked carefully at Alecto, trying to figure out if this was just for show, or she really meant it. Alecto nodded. “All of it. This wasn’t our doing, and now that the detective has found us, I do not want to be put in the position of hiding anything, or seeming to hide anything, or perpetuating any sort of dishonesty that might make us look guilty.”
Okay. It was an interesting approach, but then directness was one of Alecto’s virtues. Thea bit her lip, hoping there wasn’t some encoded message there, some signal she was missing. When Alecto didn’t say more, Thea turned back to the detective.
“All right. What do you want to know?”
“Why don’t we start with Hemlock Heights?” Holgersen said. “What happened yesterday? How did you come to be there to get your picture snapped by a citizen who was more excited about the presence of aliens—or demons—in his neighborhood than he was worried about the destruction going on there?”
Thea raised an eyebrow, surprised not that he felt contempt for whoever had taken her picture, but that he was willing to show it. Up until that point he’d been carefully neutral. But the slip, if that was what it was, was short-lived. His expression was indifferent again as he opened a notebook and took a pen out of his pocket.
“Old school, huh?” Thea asked. “No tablet or anything?”
“Hemlock Heights?” He prompted without answering.
“It’s kind of a long story, if I’m really supposed to tell you everything.”
Holgersen’s face didn’t change as he said, “I have an extra pen, if it comes to that.”
Thea studied him, wondering whether his sense of humor was really that dry, or whether he wasn’t actually joking. She cleared her mind and reached out, searching for his vices and virtues. He was brave. (Although, she reminded herself, that didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t stupid, too.) He was also loyal and temperate. But he wasn’t entirely honest. Not deceitful, exactly, but secretive.
He wasn’t a man to be trusted. But then, she wasn’t one to trust men, anyway.
With one last glance at Alecto, hoping her boss had meant what she said, Thea told Holgersen about Fury Unlimited and the superhex, starting with her own experience at the lab. He took notes without interrupting while she talked for twenty straight minutes, until she got to their meeting with Megaira the day before, and their flight to try to help Hemlock Heights. How they’d arrived too late, and were only able to help one little boy.
“How is he, by the way?” Thea asked.
Holgersen hesitated, then shrugged, as if deciding there was no harm in answering her. “He’s fine. As fine as he can be, anyway. His parents and younger sister were killed.”
Thea nodded and looked away, at the floor, her hands. She hoped she didn’t look guilty. Because she felt guilty. And had no idea why.
This wasn’t us.
But we were too late.
She narrowed her eyes at the detective. “You don’t look very surprised by anything I’ve said.”
“I’m sitting in a room with two purple women who can fly, and the things you say are supposed to surprise me?” Holgersen asked.
“You don’t seem surprised by the purple flying people either,” Thea said. “Had you heard of us before? Used us, maybe, or know someone who did?”
“This isn’t really a quid pro quo thing, where we both get to ask questions,” Holgersen said. “It’s pretty much my show. Why do you think Hemlock Heights was chosen for this demonstration?”
“Do you even believe me that it was a demonstration, or are you just playing along?” Thea asked.
“I’m not making judgments yet. I’m just gathering information.”
“Of course you’re making judgments. Everyone makes judgments.” She studied him again. “You’re trying to make judgments, anyway. You’re trying to decide whether I’m lying and this was all our doing, like Caulfield and Agnew told you it was.” Thea leaned forward. “So let me ask you this. Why would we deploy a hex in that neighborhood, then go there and try to save people, and get our pictures taken doing it? That would be pretty stupid, wouldn’t it?”
He watched her, and said nothing.
Thea crossed her arms and said, “I have no idea why they picked Hemlock Heights. Proximity to us? It sure seems like framing us is working out for them. Especially since Mr. Agnew…” She stopped. “Was one of the residents named Lex?”
“No,” said Holgersen, matching Thea’s frown. “But there was a Lexington family. That boy you flew down from his house was Talbott Lexington, actually. Why do you ask?”
“Mr. Agnew was talking about someone named Lex. Accusing us of killing him.”
“In your experience with this superhex, can it target individuals in that way?” Holgersen asked.
“Not as far as I know,” said Thea. “The whole point is that it’s targetless. A blanket hex with a radius of effect.”
“It would be an odd way to try to murder someone,” Alecto said. “And too unpredictable for my sister. She would want something with more certain results.”
“And according to what you’ve told me, you believe Mr. Agnew is unstable,” Holgersen added.
“He thinks we’re demons, what do you think?” Thea snapped.
Holgersen didn’t react to her tone. Thea sighed.
Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) Page 3
