Chapter Thirty-two
From his chair on the platform, Ripper eyed the townsfolk closely. Fifteen minutes ago he’d revealed his clan’s findings at Bloodhill. Faces had stared at him, awash with varying emotions such as shock, disbelief, anger and horror. Then the yelling had begun.
And it hadn’t yet stopped.
For once, nobody was accusing Emberlyn of anything.
The clans were shouting at the coven, and the witches were either defending themselves or pointing fingers at each other while demanding people ‘fess up’ to being part of the faction.
Emberlyn was literally the only witch in town who couldn’t be part of it, so not one person suspected her.
Normally, Ripper would have demanded that they calm the hell down.
But he was interested in hearing just where everybody’s suspicions lay; in what names were most often thrown out as potential culprits.
It must have been the same for Shane, Carver and Reena – none of them had asked for silence, either. Like him, they simply observed.
So far, though, no subtle looks were being exchanged among the coven. No expressions harbored any guilt or smugness. But then, the faction had been flying under the radar a long time – they weren’t suddenly going to give themselves away.
Ripper glanced at his witch. She sat in the front row between Kerr and Logan.
To look at her, you would assume she had no interest in the current proceedings.
She was calmly reading a magazine, one leg crossed over the other, one ankle idly doing the occasional twirl.
Like someone passing the time in a waiting area.
Ripper didn’t doubt that she was listening to every word. And he would bet she’d chosen purposely to appear indifferent to rub the faction up the wrong way.
Well . . . if you were part of an inclusive group and considered yourself High Priestess material, it would gall you that the most powerful witch in town seemed to feel she had better things to do than discuss your existence.
A red-faced Dez leaped to his feet, glaring at Getty. ‘Would you stop pointing fingers at me! I have nothing to do with this!’
‘Ignore her, Dad,’ Ames advised as he tugged on his father’s arm, pulling him back to his seat.
‘Come on, Gill, you have to admit that Dez makes a good suspect,’ said Getty, batting at her graying bob.
Gill sighed, throwing her head back. ‘Why would he want to be part of some secret society that’s too scared to admit it exists? He has more self-respect.’
‘Thank you,’ said Dez. ‘Sera, you’re a member for certain.’
Bristling on her daughter’s behalf, Penelope frowned. ‘What secret society would welcome someone who can’t keep a damn secret?’
Sera gaped at her. ‘Mom!’
‘Well, I’m not wrong,’ Penelope defended. ‘Everyone here knows you’re a blabber. Personally, I’m thinking Hank is involved. Maybe also Patrick.’
The spines of both males snapped straight.
‘And I’m thinking you’re all playing dumb.’ Colton twisted in his seat to face the coven. ‘You can’t expect us to believe that none of you have a clue who’s part of the faction. You’re just trying to protect them from us, which makes you as bad as they are.’
Crew nodded, his eyes blazing. ‘We deserve to know the truth. Several Rabid might have died in that little spot near the sigils. Those werewolves will now never be brought back to themselves and to their families – their chance at getting their life back is gone.’
‘Which is heartbreaking,’ said Ward, his expression sympathetic, ‘but we can’t tell you what we don’t know. All we have is conjecture.’
‘You have to understand,’ began Patrick, ‘this faction has existed for a long time. It is accustomed to keeping itself secret. We think that members might even be magickly bound to withhold names of their co-members.’
‘Well, I have no problem revealing names of obvious suspects,’ Getty piped up.
‘Names of people who you find obvious suspects,’ Gill emphasized. ‘You have no proof of their involvement. In fact, you had no interest in spouting names at all until others started throwing suspicion your way. Suddenly, you’re full of opinions. Deflecting, are we?’
Getty narrowed her eyes. ‘Where’s Mari, Gill? I don’t see her anywhere.’
Gill’s back went ramrod straight. ‘At home. She’s unwell.’
Getty winged up a brow. ‘Unwell, or uncaring what happens to those in this town? Anyone so uncaring probably has something to hide.’
‘It’s not enough that you accused both my husband and brother? Now you want to accuse my daughter as well?’
‘They were both involved in what happened to Emberlyn not so long ago,’ Penelope cut in, glaring at Gill. ‘She’s their family, but they didn’t care.’
‘Mari didn’t mean for Emberlyn to get’ – Gill paused and shook her head fast in exasperation – ‘Why are we even talking about that? It has nothing to do with the faction.’
Ethel folded her arms. ‘I want to know what Emberlyn thinks.’
Everyone went quiet, the entire room sliding their attention her way.
Emberlyn appeared entirely engrossed in her magazine, but Ripper knew that his woman had heard Ethel just fine. She was simply fucking with the faction.
Kerr exchanged a knowing amused look with Ripper and then gently nudged her.
Emberlyn blinked at him. ‘Hmm?’
‘Ethel wants to know what you think,’ Kerr told her.
A fine line appeared between Emberlyn’s brows. ‘About what?’
‘Surely you have some idea of who makes up the faction,’ said Ethel.
‘How can she have any real clue who it could be?’ Ward demanded. ‘She doesn’t know us all well enough to be able to weigh in on this.’
‘Let’s leave Emberlyn out of it,’ said Hank. ‘Lord knows we’ve dragged her into our messes far too often over the years.’
‘True,’ Ethel allowed, ‘but you’re only saying that because you’re in Ripper’s bad books and don’t much like it. Emberlyn, really, who do you think it is?’
Emberlyn gave a delicate shrug. ‘Can’t say I’ve put much thought into it. The faction doesn’t interest me.’
An almost unified gasp came from the coven.
Thad spluttered. ‘They’re causing mayhem.’
‘They’re causing pain. Anyone can do that.’ Emberlyn flicked a dismissive hand. ‘The faction isn’t worth your fear. They’re just a bunch of mediocre witches dabbling in things they don’t fully understand – they’ve proven that with how sloppy their spells are.’
Ouch, baby. That had to have stabbed some egos.
Some mouths tightened. A few heads lowered fast. A person shifted stiffly in their seat, their nostrils flaring. Offended because they were part of the faction, or annoyed that they’d allowed themselves to fear a group of people who in truth weren’t at all scary?
Ames blinked. ‘How can you say they’re mediocre? Look at all they’ve done.’
Emberlyn’s brow pinched. ‘They’ve “done” plenty.
They’ve accomplished nothing. Reena is still High Priestess, I’m still alive, and the faction is now considered a stain upon the town that needs to be eradicated – everyone is out for their blood.
’ She sniffed, an element of condescension in her tone as she added, ‘In their shoes, I’d be embarrassed. ’
Oh, and now she was sinking the knife even deeper.
Paisley snickered around the lollipop in her mouth, her eyes dancing. ‘Agreed,’ she mumbled, to which many wolves nodded. That only seemed to annoy the coven more.
Ripper’s aunt leaned forward in her seat to touch his witch’s shoulder. ‘You’re truly not worried about them?’
Emberlyn glanced at Yvette. ‘I worry that they’ll keep harming Rabid and innocent people, but I don’t feel that these witches are at all noteworthy.
They can’t be very powerful or they would confidently step out into the light and establish themselves as a separate coven.
I proclaimed myself a lone witch and set up shop. It isn’t hard.’
A silence hit the room again, short and pensive.
Dez rubbed at his jaw. ‘You know, I never thought I’d say this at any point regarding anything at all, but I agree with Emberlyn.’
Getty looked at him, her brow hiking up in challenge. ‘Why? Because you think it makes you look less guilty?’
Dez clenched his jaw tight. ‘I’m not part of the faction, Getty. But I agree with every person here who’s swearing that you are.’
Tyra threw up both hands. ‘Can we all stop accusing each other already! It isn’t helping.
Are we sure there’s even a faction at large?
How do we know it isn’t just one witch working alone?
A witch powerful enough and shrewd enough to do all this and get away with it, enabling her to cause divides within the coven and turn the clans against us?
Does that not make more sense than for an entire faction to remain unmasked for so long? ’
Picking up on the insinuation that the witch in question could only be Emberlyn, Ripper didn’t bother biting back a low growl of warning.
‘What witch would you be referring to?’ he asked, his voice daring her to be so fucking stupid as to finger his witch – who’d gone back to reading her magazine, ignoring Tyra completely.
Her eyes flickering, Tyra licked her lips. ‘I’m not naming names. I just think it’s a theory we should consider. Some witches in this town are creatively vengeful and don’t much care about how much destruction they cause.’
‘Name them,’ said Shane. ‘I’ll look into them.’
Tyra dropped her gaze. ‘I’m not comfortable doing so when I have no proof.’
Kage snorted derisively. ‘You mean you’re not comfortable admitting that you’re referring to Emberlyn, because you know what the consequences will be and you don’t want to face them.’
Carver grunted his agreement. ‘She’s the ideal person for you to blame because it would shift the anger from the coven onto her, that’s all. And let’s face it, Tyra, you have personal grievances with her.’
Considering Carver had months ago referred to Emberlyn as ‘the devil’s witch’, Ripper was more than a little surprised by the Alpha’s vote of confidence.
‘I won’t buy for a second that it’s Ripper’s woman,’ said Shane. ‘Emberlyn has a reputation for being vengeful, but she’s specific about who she targets. There’s never collateral damage – you all know that. So, let’s discuss who could really be behind this.’
Tyra wisely snapped her mouth shut, not looking happy about it.
‘I personally don’t believe that it’s only one person,’ said Bennet. ‘But I do think the number of witches involved is small. The things that have been done . . . Very few in our coven would condone it, and even fewer would be part of it.’
Nods and murmurs of agreement came from most of the coven.
‘I think it’s worth looking at witches who’ve mated with werewolves,’ Ruben cut in. ‘They’re still in our coven, yes, but maybe their loyalties have shifted.’
Carver sat up straighter. ‘No werewolf would ever ask a witch to target the Rabid.’
‘In your opinion,’ said Ruben, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘I’m entitled to my opinion.’
The two fast fell into an argument.
Shane leaned a little toward Ripper, saying, ‘The names I heard most often repeated were Dez, Hank, Sera, Getty, Ames and Ruben.’
Ripper gave a short nod. ‘I’ll be taking a closer look at them.’
‘How many members do you think the group has?’ Shane asked him.
‘Probably not very many. Maybe twenty or so. The only way to keep an inclusive club secret for so long in such a small town is to keep its numbers low.’
Chewing on that, Shane dipped his chin. ‘You have a point there.’ He paused. ‘They all need to die, Rip. They have blood on their hands. That can’t be overlooked.’
‘It won’t be.’
Just then, Carver slammed a hand on the table. ‘Enough,’ he barked at Ruben. ‘Your theory is pure bullshit. You’re just trying to turn the attention away from yourself – anyone can sense that. I’ve seen a lot of that happening here tonight.’
Shane leaned forward in his seat as he addressed the townsfolk. ‘I’m gonna make something clear to the faction members – you know who you are. Your time on this Earth is limited. I don’t care who IDs you first, Reena or the clans, you will die. All of you.’
Almost as a whole, the coven uncomfortably shifted their attention to their High Priestess, clearly waiting for her to object.
Instead, Reena shrugged one shoulder. ‘Why should I fight for the right to punish those traitors? They are not worth the trouble it would cause. They skulk around practicing immoral magick, implicate and bespell others, and here tonight remained silent when others pointed fingers at innocent people. They are not one of us, they are against us.’
‘Hear, hear,’ said Ward.
Other members echoed his sentiment.
Reena fluidly rose to her feet. ‘I declare the meeting over – there’s nothing else that can be said.’
With that, the townsfolk stood and talked amongst themselves as they made to leave.
When Reena went to step down from the platform, Carver spoke. ‘Reena . . . I hadn’t expected that of you. It can’t have been an easy concession to make. Know that it is appreciated.’
‘This isn’t a coven issue, or a clan issue, it’s a town issue,’ she stated. ‘We should be working together, not apart, or the faction will win. So if I have to leave the punishments in this case to you and the other Alphas, it’s exactly what I’ll do.’ She then walked off.
‘She isn’t wrong,’ said Ripper, rising to his feet.
‘No, she isn’t,’ agreed Shane as he also stood. ‘It’s a shame she didn’t do this years ago, though, isn’t it?’
Knowing the Alpha was referring to what had happened with Rosemary, Ripper shrugged. ‘No sense in me forever being bitter about it. What’s done is done.’
Shane spared Emberlyn a slight look. ‘I wouldn’t have ever thought you’d end up so entangled with a witch, but I can see how it’s happened. She’s . . . extraordinary.’
Ripper narrowed his eyes. ‘Not sure I like the amount of admiration in your voice as you speak of her. In fact, I definitely don’t fucking like it.’
Shane laughed. ‘You’re gone, Rip. Completely gone.’
Yeah, so he’d heard.
Ripper descended the platform and stalked straight to his witch, who was chatting with his aunt. He looked down at the magazine she still held. ‘Interesting read?’
‘Oh yeah, riveting,’ Emberlyn deadpanned.
‘It proved to be an effective prop.’
‘It did indeed.’ She twisted her mouth. ‘Do you think Reena really won’t demand the right to punish the faction herself?’
‘I think she’d be a fool to do anything but, and Reena’s no fool.’