Chapter 10
TEN
“What are we looking at?” Nico stood at the end of the desk we’d pushed into the middle of the room. We’d rearranged the space to maximize our usage. The RV was often too tight for all four of us to conduct research comfortably, so whenever a client had extra space, we took advantage of it.
We shoved the twin beds against the wall along with our luggage. Case after case of tech Nico collected (and perhaps stole from the Guild) made the space feel like some government operation.
“This is a map of the ranch.” I laid out the printed sheets of paper that pieced together a visual of Elmwood.
“And these are known hotspots.” I circled the second floor of the house, a spot in the yard, and the stable in red. “We need to get a handle on the history. Octavia and her brother don’t know the previous owners, so we’ll have to take a trip into town to see if their library records are decent.”
“What about online?” Jonah leaned on the desk, staring hard at the map.
“You can try it,” Nico said around a mouthful of ice cream.
The Daniel siblings made their own, along with butter, bread, and pasta.
It was all very domestic and sweet. Ranch life seemed peaceful without a haunting hanging over one’s shoulders.
“But I already scoured, and this place is in the Stone Age. I’m talking dial-up and no interest in digital archival. ”
“A shame but not surprising. There’s still a working payphone at the gas station.” December stuffed her face with her own bowl of ice cream. I wrinkled my nose, a little irritated by their symphony of smacking. Jonah caught my eye, and we exchanged raised brows.
“We’ll clear it together,” I said and quickly added, “Nico can’t do it on his own.”
December’s shoulder deflated. She wanted to resume her admin work since their check-up gig was cut short. Jonah puffed up his cheeks and let out an inaudible sigh, nearly as disappointed as my cousin. He’d been laser-focused on physical aspects of the job.
“It’d take months to sift through the data if one person was doing it,” I explained as Nico opened his mouth in protest. He didn’t like our roles on the team crisscrossing if he could help it. Nico had systems that only made sense to him and believed sometimes teamwork slowed him down.
“We’ll be lucky if we have weeks before this thing escalates again. And next time…it could be fatal.” My pulse drummed at the thought, nearly deafening me.
“So, it’s official? Last night’s readings confirmed this is a cat five?” Nico asked.
Jonah’s gaze landed on me only for a second, but it was enough to set my cheeks on fire. I resisted the urge to tuck my hands underneath my armpits and make myself as small as possible.
Because I cut last night’s monitoring short, we didn’t have much of any on-paper proof of activity. The spike Jonah and I caught on camera manifested as a simple bump on our data graph.
I was lucky we didn’t have to report to the Guild.
“It’s official,” I claimed. I’d seen it with my own eyes. To the professional hunting world, that wasn’t enough. But here, it could be. It had to be, or else Octavia and everyone else who stepped foot on Elmwood would continue to be in grave danger.
“Shit,” Nico murmured.
“It’s kind of cool, though…” Jonah said in a low voice.
December shook her head. “It’s a potential death sentence for residents. Not cool in the slightest.”
“Sorry…” Jonah’s gaze dipped to his hands. “It’s just…my first five…and—”
“Wonderfully exciting, we know. But novice hunters like you don’t get cleared to hunt past fours for a reason.
Don’t get too caught up in the novelty; that’s how you lose focus.
” December set her ice cream on the desk, pushing away the bowl even though it was half full.
She opened her laptop; her calmness melted into a fit of nerves and determination.
“Do we know who Octavia pissed off?” Nico booted up his laptop, too, but continued to eat his ice cream.
“No.” I massaged the space between my thumb and index finger, trying to soothe an impending headache. Between last night and setting everything up this morning, I hadn’t kept up with eating and paid the price. My CGM app scolded me earlier, nudging me back on track.
“Do we have a list of potential suspects?” Nico glanced over the top of his laptop.
“No one.” I snatched my hand down and grabbed my water. “She hasn’t pissed anyone off.”
December raised a brow. “I find that hard to believe; this thing tried to kill her.”
I winced; flashes of Octavia coughing up sand blurred my vision. My knee bounced, and my ankle screamed as I tried to keep calm.
You’re Rae. You’re here in this spare room with the people you know best. And you’re working for people who are counting on you to be a Jones. So, be a goddamn Jones.
“Maybe it’s someone else?” Jonah asked. “Wilson…though he seems nice. Or maybe their hand, Esther? She also seemed nice.”
“Could be someone else, sure.” Nico leaned back in his seat, lacing his hands behind his head.
“But if someone hurt her ranch hands and then tried to kill Octavia, that’s an escalation we shouldn’t overlook.
Cat fives don’t wander around in confusion.
They’re that strong because they’re that aware of who they want to target. ”
“You should be taking notes on this, rookie,” December murmured to Jonah.
He scrambled to pull out his phone, taking down the note. I scrambled to keep up. They were all talking a mile a minute, making my head spin.
“We have to schedule interviews with everyone who has been on site,” December said. “And then people in town.”
Nico raised a brow. “I don’t think we have time for that.
This thing’s been here for months and is escalating.
From my experience, it only gets worse after the entity figures out what it can do.
I don’t think interviewing dozens of people will get us any closer to figuring out how to subdue it. It’ll be a waste of precious time.”
“And I don’t think we can go in blind and hope to stumble on information about who this thing was before it passed on,” December argued.
Their voices rose, drowning out any chance I had of coming up with a calm, rational thought.
“You really want to sit the whole town down for a good cop, bad cop shtick, and hope they will reveal something to a group of strangers?” Nico asked with a humorless chuckle.
“It’s better than going into a cave blindfolded and hoping to come out on the other end.” December clicked the cap of her pen, triggering sparks in my headache.
“We’re racing against the clock, Berry. Once this thing’s geared up, we’ll witness whatever torment it’s had its entire post-life to contemplate. It’s very boring on the other side, being dead and all.”
“Alright, guys! Shut up for a sec.” I pushed out of my seat and went to the window. “Let’s take a breath.”
I led by example, sucking in as much air as my lungs would hold. Wide-eyed Jonah (who’d been scared out of his excitement) followed my lead. The other two weren’t playing ball.
“Breathe,” I ordered, voice harder. “Everyone.”
December straightened her back and sucked in a few breaths. Nico tilted his chair back, making a show of breathing in through the nose and out through his mouth.
“We’re guests in this house,” I reminded them in a hushed, dry tone.
“And professionals. Which means, as long as we’re within hearing distance of our clients—which will be all the time—we’re void of all emotion.
Robots. Because if you two continue to panic, Jonah panics.
If he panics because he doesn’t know how to hide it yet, the clients will panic.
And then, this thing’s got a whole buffet to feed from.
We’re not in the business of panic, okay? ”
Jonah was the only one who nodded. December looked at her lap, shame nudging her shoulders down. Nico met my glare with a slight smile, a tinge of pride in my ability to pull us back to center.
“Here’s the plan: we gather information, monitor the hotspots, and watch each other’s backs,” I continued, my headache slowly fading as I pushed against the bubble of thoughts repeating, you already fucked everyone over by not admitting you screwed up the data, you’re not qualified to do much more than smile and pose for photos, what do you offer them beside the name?
Nothing. Nothing. All a bunch of— “Like always. This is a problem, and we’ll fix it, like always.
But do not fuck around and sabotage us before we’ve truly begun. ”
No one responded, but from their softened looks, my words seemed enough to convince them to at least feign maturity. Before I could open my mouth to relay more orders, there was a soft knock at the closed door. December looked at me for permission before opening it.
“Hi,” Esther greeted softly. She did a double take at my cousin before glancing over December’s shoulder to the rest of us.
“Hello.” December opened the door wider and stepped out of the way. “Welcome in.”
Esther stayed in the hall, cheeks speckled with red but tone steady and nonchalant. “We’re heading into town for some supplies.”
Esther looked at me as she offered the information. “Octavia wanted to know if you all need anything? She said, boots, maybe?”
Nico frowned, sending a confused look my way and mouthing, Boots?
“I think we’re—” December started.
“We’d love to tag along.” I grabbed my bag. “It’ll be nice to get a lay of the land. A chance to check out your library.”
Esther’s brow furrowed. “Sure…I will warn you, there isn’t a ton of material there.”
“There’s a record collection, though, right?” Nico asked.
She considered it. “I don’t think I ever thought to ask.”
“One way to find out.” I gestured for the others to grab their things. They followed the command without protest, stuffing their bags with the most portable pieces of equipment.