Chapter Six
“You Must Think I’m Some Kind of Monster”
“You’ve got that look again.”
Henry straightened, turning to shoot a light scowl in Nora’s direction. “What look?”
“You’re grinding your teeth. You might as well start pacing. I can feel the tension all the way from here.”
She sat halfway across the tent from him, her arms folded across her chest, looking as though she hadn’t dropped a major bomb on him barely twenty minutes ago.
Henry felt his jaw clench. Of course he was grinding his teeth.
What else was he supposed to do when she’d pretty much just admitted to murder?
I killed someone. The words repeated themselves in his head, and for a second he wanted to close his eyes and reopen them to find that it had all been a dream, that he hadn’t bumped into yet another hybrid, or promised to protect a killer.
He’d jerked himself awake from dozens of horrific dreams after Carmen almost killed him all those years ago, overcome with a mixture of exhaustion and relief that the events weren’t repeating themselves.
But this was no dream. No amount of pinching would change the facts.
Nora had killed someone. She’d admitted it herself.
Now what was he to do? Call the police? He almost scoffed at the thought.
She was a witch who could shift into a wolf.
Evading the police would be a piece of cake.
Besides, the more he thought about it, the more he doubted this was a police matter.
Especially where a hybrid, a coven and an unstoppable hunter that looked like he was auditioning for a role at the Round Table were concerned.
“Will you stop doing that?” Nora snapped.
She had a look of irritation on her face, although Henry could see the troubled expression lurking just underneath. What was she worried about? The consequence of her actions? Surely, she wasn’t innocent.
He should’ve known. The second he found out she was a hybrid, he should’ve followed his instincts. She was a dangerous woman, even more so than he’d thought.
I killed someone. Of course she had. Just like Carmen had almost killed him. The more he thought about it, the more distance he wished he could put between himself and Nora. At the same time, he couldn’t help wondering whether there was more to this situation than he was aware of.
“Explain yourself,” was all he said. “What happened, exactly?”
Nora pressed her lips together, as though silently debating the wisdom of telling him even more after the way he’d reacted earlier. Not that Henry gave a damn. Damsel or not, if she wanted his help, she was going to have to loosen up that lovely tongue of hers.
“It all happened really fast,” she said. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure about all the details.”
“Right.”
“No, I’m serious.” She shook her head. “My coven was supposed to perform a ritual on the Fourth of July, during the full moon. It was a ritual to strengthen each and every member and the coven as a whole. But then something went wrong.”
Henry lifted an eyebrow, finally unclenching his jaw. “What did?”
Nora sucked in a breath. “In the middle of the ritual, something came over me. I’m not sure what. All I remember is shifting and blacking out. By the time I came to, I was back in human form. And one of the other witches was dead.”
It sounded like a classic werewolf story, especially considering she’d mentioned a full moon. “So you did kill her.”
For a second, she looked like she wanted to debate that, but then she said nothing.
What did she expect him to believe? That she was somehow innocent? That the life lost had been a mere accident? That it had nothing to do with what she was? The fact remained that she was dangerous. What were the odds that she wouldn’t end up killing him?
He should do something. He should tell someone about this, or try to get away from this woman at least before something terrible happened. But all he did was stand there, staring at her. Why he was hesitating, he wasn’t entirely sure.
“How long do you need my protection for?”
She blinked up at him, looking caught off guard by his question. “Huh?”
“How long do you need me to protect you from the hunter for?” He took a step toward her.
“Because according to you, he’s not going to stop hunting you.
You don’t know for sure that I can protect you if the need arises, but even if I could, how long would I have to do it for? A day? A week? Another month or two?”
A guilty look crept onto her face. “Well...I don’t know, actually.”
They both gazed at each other in silence.
Outside, the fair went on. It was almost amusing to think about.
In here, inside this tent, he and Nora were bothering themselves with a grave issue that the rest of the outside world was blissfully unaware of.
If he hadn’t agreed to protect this woman, he might’ve been among the blissfully unaware.
That was merely wishful thinking now.
“You must think I’m some kind of monster,” he heard her say, and for a moment she looked like she was about to curl up in her chair. Hurt flashed in her eyes, and they turned misty. “Like everyone else.”
Henry felt his jaw clench yet again.
“I’m not a monster,” she said before he could respond. “I’d never hurt anyone intentionally. I never wanted anyone dead. I never wanted any of this.”
Guilt pricked at him then. Perhaps he’d judged her too harshly? He brushed it aside. “I don’t think you’re a monster, Nora. But I also need to look at the facts. According to you, someone’s dead because of you. I can’t overlook that. And I just—”
“Well, if it isn’t our number-one salesman!” a voice called from outside.
A second later, Cal Stein poked his head into the tent, a big grin on his face. His blue-gray eyes roved about, taking in his surroundings, then lit up as they landed on Henry.
“Melissa and I came to check up on you,” he said, and his fiancée stepped into the tent behind him, the pair of them holding hot dogs. “And, of course, check out the rest of the fair. Tell me the sales are going great.”
“Hey, Melissa,” Henry said, rising to his feet and shaking her hand. He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Man, you’ll never believe how much we’ve made so far.”
Cal’s eyebrows rose. “Don’t tell me you’ve hit five grand already.”
“No, about a hundred bucks.”
His friend’s expression seemed to deflate. “That’s a shame.”
“Wouldn’t have made half of that if it weren’t for Nora here.”
Cal and his fiancée seemed to notice Nora for the first time. His eyes widened. “Oh, hey, there. Who’s this, Henry? Didn’t know you were coming with company.”
“This is Nora. She’s a witch.” A hybrid, actually. “Long story.”
“A witch?” Melissa’s green eyes focused on Nora for a few seconds, fascination flickering across her face. “I’ve never met one before. I have so many questions.”
“Well, you two will have to wait until some other time to ask them,” Henry said, seeing Nora recoil a little. The hybrid was clearly uncomfortable with the unfamiliar presence. “Get out of here, unless you’re buying something.”
“What are you talking about?” Cal lifted an eyebrow. “We’re animal rescuers, too.”
“Out.” Henry placed his hands on their shoulders, leading the couple out of the tent.
Once they were out of earshot, Cal stopped and turned to face him, a deep frown on his face.
“What the hell’s going on, Henry?” his friend wanted to know. “Who’s that woman? Something tells me she’s not just some woman you’re hitting on.”
Henry shook his head slowly. Where was he even to begin from? “She’s not. She appeared just after you went back in the house this morning.”
“What do you mean, appeared?” Melissa asked, looking most intrigued. “Is teleportation part of magic?”
“She’s been trying to learn whatever she can about the supernatural ever since we got engaged,” Cal said, giving his fiancée’s hand an affectionate squeeze. “But what do you mean, Henry?”
They walked a little further, even past Angelica’s booze stall, and Henry began narrating everything that had happened, right from the moment Nora had tumbled out of a portal and almost ended up as a stain near the front porch.
Both Cal and Melissa were stunned out of their wits by the time he was finished talking.
“That...that’s something,” Melissa remarked, brushing her wispy bangs out of her face. She glanced back toward the animal rescue tent, where a couple of customers had appeared and were, to Henry’s relief, being attended to by Nora. “I didn’t even know hybrids were possible.”
Melissa didn’t know a lot of things about the supernatural. In fact, she’d been terrified of it up until last month. It had driven a wedge between her and Cal for ten years before that. Henry was glad to see she was changing her stance on things.
It certainly made him wonder about his stance.
What was it Nora had said earlier? You hate us because you don’t understand us.
It’s the same way humans feel about us in general.
Yeah, she’d definitely had a point there.
Sure, it was in part due to his own past experiences, but the fact that she was a hybrid had left a not-so-pleasant taste in his mouth from the moment he’d learned it.
“And where’s this hunter now?” Cal wanted to know.
Henry gave a shrug, looking around in case the eyeless man had reappeared.
Still no sign of him. “I don’t know. One second, he was here, and the next...
poof. Gone. Good for Nora, I guess. Although now I’m a bit confused about whether to keep helping her, and I’m in too deep to simply withdraw my help. ”
A thin smile tugged at Cal’s lips. “Looks to me like the animal rescuers are always getting neck-deep in some problem or the other.”
Henry couldn’t argue with that. Just last month, they’d had to deal with a hunter killing animals in the woods for sport.
Things had gotten dark and bloody really quickly, and if Cal and Melissa hadn’t stopped the trophy-keeping bastard, there would’ve been no animals for the sanctuary to rescue.
Cal and his fiancée had bonded pretty nicely in the process and gotten reengaged.
Henry was happy for them, really, though he couldn’t help but wonder if that would be the case with Nora.
It couldn’t be, especially after what he’d learned about the hybrid since he saved her life this morning.
His thoughts strayed to the kiss they’d shared just outside the tent earlier.
He’d conveniently left that detail out of his narration to Cal and Melissa.
“Damn,” Cal said, shaking his head. “This is rough. Just this morning, all you had to worry about was making five grand. And now...this.”
Henry couldn’t help feeling a spike of irritation at those words. This would all have been a lot easier if I’d had more help, he wanted to retort.
But Theon hadn’t asked Cal or Melissa to help out at the fair, had he? He’d asked Henry. This was his job for today. Not to mention Henry had chosen to help Nora. That was entirely on him, not on Cal or anyone else.
“Don’t worry, man.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder, putting on the calmest smile he could muster. “I’ll figure it out. I’ll get through all of this. You two should go ahead, enjoy the fair. Grab a hot dog or two for me, will you?”
Cal shot him a look, as though he was trying to figure out what was going on inside his head. After what felt like a full minute, he nodded. “Alright, Henry. If you need anything, just let me know. It’s been a while since I last shifted, anyway.”
With that, he and Melissa said goodbye and left his side.
Henry watched them go until they’d disappeared through the crowd, and expelled a breath through his nostrils.
They looked so peaceful, so relatively unconcerned with anything—just like almost everyone else at the town fair, if he was being honest. He ran his fingers through his hair.
God, what he would give to have a regular day like theirs.
Just hours ago, his biggest problem had been having to spend time at the fair and potentially dying of boredom.
Now, due to his association with a hybrid woman, it wasn’t just boredom that threatened his life.
With another sigh, he turned and headed back to the animal rescuer tent.
The customers he’d spotted earlier were still there.
But something was wrong. Nora stood outside the tent, a look of distress on her face.
And one of the customers was gesturing wildly, saying something Henry couldn’t hear over the crowd.
Dammit. Just when he’d thought his day couldn’t get any worse.