Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) (17 page)

And for what? For vengeance?

Vengeance is Mine, and retribution.

“No,” Thea agreed. “It doesn’t matter.”

And it didn’t. This wasn’t about Graves or Faye (whoever she was). It wasn’t about who had helped the Concerned Citizens, because it wasn’t about the Concerned Citizens at all.

And as much as the thought might be unbecoming of a fury, it wasn’t about vengeance.

It was about protecting Hexing House. From the second those bombs went off, Thea had allowed herself to be distracted from the real threat.

And much good it had done her.

She looked at Graves. “I’m sorry.”

Graves didn’t answer her. Mustering what he could of his dignity—which wasn’t much, considering he was drunk and bleeding—he straightened his jacket and stalked away, listing slightly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Thea said again as she watched him go. “Even if it had been Graves, it still wouldn’t matter.”

Alecto frowned at her. “Why do you say that?”

“Because we agreed,” said Thea. “That day you got burned.”

“Agreed to what?”

“That the Concerned Citizens aren’t the real enemy. Fury Unlimited is.”

Alecto laughed, without a trace of humor. “Oh, the Concerned Citizens are a real enemy, all right. And they will be treated as such, you can be sure of that.”

“But surely not at the expense of taking out the greater threat.”

“I don’t see why one would preclude the other.”

“Because we can use them,” said Thea. “We have a common enemy. They just don’t know it yet. But we can show them.”

“You want to watch yourself,” Alecto said. “Because it almost sounds like you’re suggesting we
ally
ourselves with these humans who just attacked our home and killed three of our own.”

Behind Alecto, Cora was shaking her head and mouthing
stop
. Thea ignored her.

“This all starts and ends with Fury Unlimited, and you know it,” said Thea. “The superhex, the Ninth Disorder, the deaths at Hemlock Heights. The Concerned Citizens, and all the ugliness on both their part and ours. Nana’s death is Megaira’s fault, when it comes down to it.”

“As I have told you repeatedly,” Alecto said, “I will deal with my sister and her so-called colony.”

“So you say.” Thea gave her boss a blunt look. “But I’m afraid you’re going to do something stupid.”

Alecto raised an eyebrow. “I am not in the habit of doing stupid things. But
you
appear to be doing a stupid thing right now. I repeat: you want to watch yourself.”

“It sure sounded like you were planning something stupid the other day.”

“My plans are not your business. I’ve clearly allowed you too much latitude, Thea, and you’ve gotten an exaggerated sense of your own importance. This is not your concern.”

“Not my
concern
?” Thea stared at Alecto. “I’ve changed my life, changed my
DNA
, to be part of this colony.” She gestured at the crowd gathered around them. “This is everyone at Hexing House’s concern, including mine.”

“And when I have plans to share with the colony, I will do so.”

“I don’t think you’re qualified to make those plans.” Thea didn’t need to look at Cora’s horrified face to know she walked a dangerous line, but she hoped the inflammatory words would shock Alecto into listening.

Alecto seemed to grow a foot as she straightened her spine and took a step closer to Thea. “I beg your pardon?”

“I think you’re thinking like a betrayed sister, and now like a grieving granddaughter,” Thea said. “Which is understandable, because you are those things. But we need you to think like a businesswoman.”

“Oh?” Alecto’s voice was smooth and cold. “Do tell, Thea, since you know so much about it. What would a
businesswoman
do in my place?”

Thea could tell by her boss’s voice that she’d gone too far, but there was no turning back now. She squared her shoulders and said, “She would expose her rival to scandal and choke off their business. Our first reaction to everything doesn’t always have to be catastrophic violence. Look where that’s gotten us so far?”

Look where it’s gotten me.

“There are better ways to win,” Thea went on. “This fight with the Concerned Citizens has escalated out of hand, and it’s hurting us all. If we work
with
the humans—”

She was cut off in maybe the most definitive way possible: by the hard slap of Alecto’s clawed hand across her face.

The force of it was enough to make Thea trip. She stumbled and corrected herself, holding her hand to her bleeding face and trying desperately to control the wrath building inside her.

Balance was one thing. Meekness was quite another. It was no longer in her nature to stand and take a physical attack. Especially not one that was clearly designed to humiliate her and put her in her place.

Thea heard a growl, and realized it had come from her own throat. She also heard murmurs, even laughs, from the onlookers.

Alecto grabbed Thea’s shoulders.

“Those humans you’d like me to befriend just killed my Nana,” Alecto ground out. “Along with two other members of this colony.”

I didn’t say you should befriend them. I said you should use them.
But Thea said nothing, too afraid of what would come out if she opened her mouth.

“You want me to think like a
businesswoman
?” Alecto shook her, hard. “I want you to think like a
fury
!”

And I want to think less like one.

Thea knew how it would look to the crowd, the way she was staring at the ground like a submissive dog. But shutting down was the only way she could control herself. Her hands were trembling, her claws out. She could barely breathe through the urge to attack Alecto.

“I will take my vengeance on our enemies,” said Alecto. “Righteous vengeance. As is my nature and my right.”

Vengeance is Mine, and retribution.

“Look at me!” Alecto demanded.

With the last shreds of her control, Thea shook off Alecto’s grip, and met her eyes.

“If you do anything,” Alecto said, “anything at all that I can possibly interpret as an attempt to interfere with that vengeance, I will consider you a traitor. I will take your wings, and I will banish you from this colony.”

“Well, really, you picked a pretty bad day to push her buttons,” Cora said.

“Easy for you to be glib.” Thea swiped at the tears that were flowing freely, now that she was back in the privacy of her residence, away from the staring, laughing eyes of the rest of the colony.

“Okay, calm down,” Cora said. “I’m only being glib for your own good. You need to get a hold of yourself.”

“No, actually, I need to get a hold of Holgersen.”

Cora shrugged. “Wouldn’t have been my first choice, but sex can be a good way to work off frustration.”

“Ew!” Thea glared at her friend, then smiled, just slightly, when she realized that Cora was still trying to break the tension. “And this isn’t
frustration
,” Thea said. “This is serious.”

Cora gave her a look.

“What?”

“My brother’s wedding was just interrupted by a bombing.” Cora gestured at her left wing. “And I’m grounded for at least two weeks, at which time I get to find out if I’ll fly ever-so-slightly crooked for the rest of my life. Do you really think you’re the only one who gets that this is serious?”

“No.” Thea looked away. “Sorry. It’s just—”

“It’s just that you’ve gotten arrogant,” Cora said.

Thea turned back to her, staring. “I’ve gotten what?”

“Arrogant,” Cora repeated. “Don’t be so surprised, furies are especially susceptible to pride as well as wrath. I’m sure you haven’t even noticed it. But you think you’re the only one who can possibly understand and solve this problem, Thea, and you’re just not.”

“You think I deserved what Alecto just did!”

“Of course not, and I didn’t say that.”

“Cora, she’s planning some kind of biological attack on Fury Unlimited! That’s the only explanation that fits the questions she was asking me the other day. And then wanting to see Dr. Forrester right after?”

“So?”

“
So
? So then we’re no better than they are!”

“You seem to be missing the crucial difference,” Cora said. “We wouldn’t be attacking the innocent.” She sighed and softened her voice. “Thea, you’ve been here less than a year. Alecto is our leader, has been for quite some time, and has been excellent at it since the day she took over from her father. We trust her. Frankly, none of this is up to you.”

We’ll see about that.

Thea turned away from her friend again. “You’re right. Look, it’s been a long day for everyone. I’m upset and tired. I think I’m just going to hole up by myself for the night.”

She said it mostly to get rid of Cora, but Thea took advantage of the quiet time alone. She spent it thinking of ways to bring Fury Unlimited to its knees, by turning the humans against it. It was a good idea, and if Alecto refused to listen to it, fine. Thea didn’t need her boss’s blessing.

Cora wanted to call her arrogant? Prideful? Okay, then. Thea would be both those things.

She would solve this problem herself.

Luckily, she still had a special project code active, from her investigation into Hemlock Heights. Thea used it the next day to requisition a human illusion and reserve a company SUV. Then she drove to the diner where she’d met Holgersen and Dr. Forrester.

It was just Holgersen this time, but he was early again, already in a booth with a cup of coffee and a biscuit.

“This better be good,” Holgersen said. “You are off my list of people I want to have lunch with.”

“When was I on your list of people you want to have lunch with?”

He considered her over the rim of his mug, then shrugged. “Fair enough. What happened to your face?”

Thea touched the scabbed-over gashes from Alecto’s swipe. She’d been collecting quite a few new scars lately. “I walked into a clawed hand.”

“Whose?”

“Why the concern? You were ready to beat me up yourself the other day.”

“We found a gun in the woods,” Holgersen said. “It belonged to Mr. Agnew.”

“So?”

“So, if someone from your colony did him harm, as I suspect, it’s possible to suppose that it might have been self-defense. Given he was armed and had just bombed your campus.”

“And that makes you look more kindly on the whole thing?”

“Doesn’t make me look any more kindly on being lied to,” Holgersen said. “But I can stipulate that it’s possible—just possible—that Agnew got what was coming to him.”

“Three people died at Hexing House last Saturday.”

“Like I said.”

Thea waved down a server and ordered a tuna melt and a sweet tea. Then she turned back to Holgersen. “Or it could be that you’re just trying to make me think you’re on my side, so I’ll tell you something.”

Holgersen shrugged. “You called me.”

“Not about Agnew.”

“Okay, what did you call about?”

“I want us to work together.”

“I thought we were working together, in our way. Until Agnew.” Holgersen leaned forward. “And by the way, where is Denise Forrester?”

Shit
.

Thea kept her voice steady. “Why do you ask?”

“I called her the other day to follow up, see how she is,” Holgersen said. “She hasn’t returned my messages. Or answered her door. She works from home normally, but her boss says she’s been taking sick time.”

“Then she’s been calling her boss,” Thea said. “She hasn’t just disappeared.”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“I’m just saying. That doesn’t sound like a police matter.”

Holgersen glowered at Thea while the server set down their plates. When they were alone again Thea said, “Okay. I’m going to level with you. Call it a gesture of goodwill. Besides, you need to know what’s going on if you’re going to do what I’m about to ask you to do.”

She told him about Dr. Forrester and the Ninth Disorder. Holgersen didn’t interrupt, but the line of his mouth got thinner and thinner as Thea spoke.

When she finished, Holgersen said, “So everything that’s happened boils down to their way of making sure this disease would never spread, and nobody would ever be the wiser. Or even if someone with it survived, and it got out somehow, they’d have Boyd and his bio weapon as their scapegoat.”

“Right,” Thea said. “But they didn’t know Dr. Forrester had it.”

“And the other day, when I was at Hexing House interviewing Alecto after the protest. Denise and her son were there. In the same building.”

Denise, huh? Just how upset were you that she didn’t return your calls?

Thea shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Yes. But I’m sure you understand we had to respect their privacy…” She drifted off, forcing her voice to stay level rather than end on a questioning note.

“And you didn’t think
any of this
was worth telling me?” Holgersen’s voice rose until he was nearly yelling, and a few other diners turned to look at them.

“I’m telling you now,” Thea said. “And it’s not like I’ve been hiding this stuff all along, you know. I’m only like a week ahead of you.”

She considered a joke about being busy, then thought better of it. Instead she calmly ate her sandwich and left Holgersen to attack his food in silence until, halfway through his chicken-fried steak, his temper seemed spent, or nearly so.

“Fine,” he said at last. “Since it took you so long to tell me—”

“All of a week,” Thea interrupted.

“Since it took you
all of a week
to tell me all this, I assume you have a reason for telling me now. What exactly is this grand plan of yours that required bringing me into the fold?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Thea said with a sweet smile. “I want you to go undercover for me.”

Holgersen practically did a spit-take with his coffee. “Come again?”

“All this trouble that’s rained down on Hexing House is because Fury Unlimited blamed us for what happened,” Thea said. “I want the trouble to rain down on them for a change. I want to expose them.”

“Expose them how?” Holgersen asked. “To whom?”

“To the Concerned Citizens For A Fury-Free County,” said Thea. “And to all the people who saw my picture online and believed it was a monster. To all the humans who know about furies—and consider using our services—and all the humans who ever will.”

“A trial in the court of public opinion, then.”

“If you like,” Thea said, and then, seeing his skeptical face, added, “I know you’re more used to sending people to the more traditional kind of trial, but this can be its own form of justice.”

“How?”

Thea smiled. “I learned an important lesson when I was seven years old, courtesy of a neighbor of mine: shame is a powerful thing.”

“I don’t follow.”

“They depend on humans. And how many companies have you seen go under after a scandal? Maybe the CEO doesn’t actually go to jail, but they lose everything just the same.”

Holgersen was starting to look convinced. “So you want to expose what they did at Hemlock Heights. On a wide scale.”

“I don’t know if I can get absolute proof of that,” Thea said. “But proof they’re developing the superhex ought to do it. It doesn’t matter if they’re never prosecuted for it. What matters is that people believe. Preferably
a lot
of people. I want to do a better job than they did. Hit a wider audience.”

“What do you mean?”

“The implication that it was us hurt our business at Hexing House,” said Thea. “But I think it would have blown over, even if Boyd hadn’t been blamed. The Concerned Citizens had no real evidence. Nothing but their own word—and some of them were clearly unstable—and a blurry picture that a lot of people assumed was doctored. I want something with a little more guaranteed impact.”

“So you want more evidence, and harder evidence,” Holgersen said, considering.

“I think a recording would be good. And we have another advantage that Fury Unlimited doesn’t.”

“What’s that?”

“Me. Being Baird Frost’s ex-girlfriend won’t carry much weight anymore, but it should be enough to get a tabloid or two to talk to me. I can make sure the story spreads.”

Thea hoped the edge of panic she felt as she spoke those words didn’t show in her voice. The thought of seeking out the media, making herself vulnerable to them again, was almost unbearable. But she
would
bear it, if it would resolve the problem of Fury Unlimited without further violence.

“This is a big gamble,” Holgersen said. “You’d be exposing your own colony as well as theirs.”

Thea shrugged. “You’ve seen for yourself that official interference with us isn’t very likely. We’re only talking about the public here, or the segment of the public who will believe this story. It’s our potential customers I want to reach, ours and theirs. And to those people, I’m pretty sure we’ll come out looking like the good guys.”

Holgersen pushed his plate away and tapped his fingers on the table. “It’s not how I’d have chosen to bring Fury Unlimited down,” he said finally. “I’d much rather see a few people locked up.”

“But this is the only justice you’re likely to get,” Thea said.

He signaled to the server and asked for some pie, then turned back to Thea. “Want any?”

“No, I’m good.”

When the server was gone again Holgersen said, “I’ll help you.”

“Good.” Thea resisted the urge to clap her hands. Her entire plan depended on a human ally, preferably one who had a basic understanding of undercover work, and knew how to use a gun and protect himself if things went wrong. “What I have in mind is, someone to go in and pose as a client, and convince them that you have a grudge against a whole bunch of people. A group, a church, whatever you want. Something that would require revenge on a large scale. The idea is to get them to offer you the superhex. You can—what is the problem now?”

Holgersen was shaking his head. “But I can’t go undercover for you.”

Thea tried not to show her irritation. Surely she could talk him into it. “Why not?”

“For one thing, I could lose my job.” He scratched the back of his neck, looking a little embarrassed. “And for another, I did a little poking around on Fury Unlimited, even though I wasn’t supposed to. Asked a few questions, irritated a few people.”