Chapter 10 - Mason
“Are there any connections between the library and the bakery?” Jackson asked, his gaze narrowing on the Honeycreek map we have in front of us.
“Nope,” Theo answered, spinning around on the leather office chair, beat up and creaking, to face the map again. “We initially thought the bakery was a freak accident, but—”
“It still could be,” I pointed out. I couldn’t help but cling to some notion that djinn aren’t targeting my town, that normal fires can be analyzed better, and that I desperately didn’t want this all to be the cause of demon attacks.
I didn’t want to have bigger issues on my hands to save my pack from.
“Get your head out of your ass,” Theo snapped.
“I hate to agree, but Theo’s right,” Jackson muttered. “We need to actually look at this from a demon attack point of view. That’s the only way we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
“I’m not trying to be avoidant, I just…” I shrugged, folding my arms over my chest. “I have to protect everyone, and dealing with demons is a far fucking bigger problem than a faulty oven or broken light.” I sighed and slumped back in my chair.
We had a map pinned to the old corkboard in the fire station’s office, pins and string connecting a dozen locations across town where we’d put out fires.
It was strange; Honeycreek felt so small some days, but looking at it on the map, faced with the reality that I couldn’t have my pack everywhere at once with the manpower we needed to have, it felt far too big.
“You have to face the pressure at some point,” Theo told me, throwing me a sympathetic look.
I shot him a glare that silences him. I was facing the pressure in every way that he couldn’t even imagine.
The pressure of these fires, Bryce’s return, pack politics and unrest at that return, and now the possibility of the town’s museum being built on top of old ley lines.
I wanted to ask June about it. I needed to know if the builder had known, if it had been strategically placed for a reason lost to time, or if it was never known in the first place.
“Okay, so where else has been hit?” I asked, dreading the answer.
Jackson lifted a printed-out picture of the motel on the border of town and pinned it to the map. “No casualties, thankfully. We had a team stationed there that day after going out to a call at the high school.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And the medic center, too. That was probably the worst for damages and losses.”
Theo pinned that one, too.
I stood back, looking at how much destruction had been wrought through Honeycreek in such a short time. These fires had been getting worse in the last few weeks.
“Mr. Harvey at the bakery said that they’ve recovered all profits thanks to the school bake sale, but there’s still a huge scorch mark in their store room, where the djinn entered,” Nate said.
“And Mrs. Thomson reported a scorch mark in the foyer of the library,” Jackson said. “I interviewed her yesterday about the damages and state of the place.”
“Shit,” I sighed, dragging my hands over my face. I was exhausted between this and watching over Bryce, but every eye was on me. Everybody needed answers from me—my pack, Bryce, the townsfolk. It wouldn’t end just because I was tired.
Once more, my eyes ran over the notes and pictures, trying to find a common denominator
except for the fact that they were all in Honeycreek.
“Any conclusions?” Theo prompted.
I couldn’t answer for a moment. I only stared at the map, at the destruction, and felt the pit in my stomach. That helplessness plagued me when I was faced with another fire or being reminded of just how many places had been targeted. Theo stood up, growling under his breath, pacing the office.
“I mean, are we safe?” he asked. “Are we able to keep the town safe?”
I stayed silent, not knowing any answers. I could feel more eyes on me.
“I have a little sister in the elementary school,” he continued. “Is she safe? The longer we go without answers, the longer we’re risking people in this town.”
“I’m thinking,” I growled.
“Think harder,” he snarled right back. Jackson stepped forward, at my side, and Theo cringed back. “Sorry. I’m just restless. I hate not having answers, and I hate the risk these attacks are posing. It’s hard to sit with the unpredictability of it all.”
“I know,” I sighed. “And we’ll get to the bottom of it all. I just… It’s a lot to try to think of when we don’t know the motivation. There’s no connection between each building. It all looks too random, and that’s what I don’t like. There has to be something we’re not seeing.”
Before anybody could answer me, three other shifters from my pack came in. One stepped forward. “Mase, we caught sight of a demon on the edge of the woods. It’s not as far inward as it could be, but it disappeared at the sight of us, so who knows when it’ll next show?”
I nodded, already making a note to get more patrols in that area in that case. “Thanks. Are you guys up for patrolling around the woods near the compound? We need eyes on there.”
“Connor and his team already have that side covered, but we can provide extra bodies there,” he said, but I shook my head. God, what was wrong with me? I was forgetting everything.
“No, stick to your designated areas, then.”
“On it.”
The three of them left, and I could only hope that there wouldn’t be another fire. The most recent one had been put out before it could begin at one of the clothes stores in town, and I couldn’t stop racking my thoughts for why. Why did the demons want to hit this town in particular?
“We need more patrols on the museum,” I said, thinking about what Bryce had said about June’s research. At that, Jackson perked up.
“I can do it.”
“Yeah? Great. You and Nate can patrol there, and you know you have backup if you need it.”
“We’ll factor that into our normal shifts,” Jackson promised. He planted a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. I want this over with just as badly, especially now that Bryce and Cassie are back.”
I nodded solemnly. But at the thought of Bryce, I couldn’t stop feeling antsy.
I also hated the thought of her not being watched, especially if demon activity was growing in the woods.
I couldn’t even bring her into town with the recent fires, either.
She was safer with us, but I hated that I couldn’t guarantee her all-around safety.
All I could hope was that I watched her closely enough and would always be there should something happen.
It had taken every ounce of willpower not to storm the house when I’d seen her having those anxiety attacks, hating how they had her eyes rolling back, and her head wrenched painfully. But I frowned, thinking of them, moving away from the others.
Anxiety didn’t look like that. I’d seen her have those, now that I recalled it.
In high school, she’d often suffered with her anxiety, and she’d trembled like a damn leaf, her speech coming in fast, uncontrolled speed, her mind whirring at full pace.
What I’d seen through her bedroom window was nothing like that.
But the actions were familiar, and maybe that was why I’d connected the two.
Where had I seen those actions before?
I paced the office faster, thinking over June’s research, and the demon attacks, and—then it hit me.
My grandmother’s stories. Her old legends of demons and leylines.
Of magic and spirits, and how my father had put it down to silly tales.
I recalled questioning the existence of shifters if he didn’t believe in magic.
Your grandmother is an old sort, he’d once told me when I was a child.
But she said she sees things, Dad. I saw it happen!
And I realized that was where I had seen Bryce’s attacks—my grandmother’s ability to see things nobody else could ever see.
She’d called it a name—clairvoyance. A vision into something that wasn’t there.
At least not in plain sight. My thoughts and conclusions were disjointed, and I knew I couldn’t write them down and pin them up for the whole pack to see, but I could quietly ask Jackson if he knew anything about Bryce having clairvoyant abilities.
The thoughts weren’t strange to me. Despite my dad’s warnings, I believed anything could exist.
But why wouldn’t Bryce have mentioned anything?
Her words from earlier came back to me. I’d tried to rile her up just to get her to keep talking to me, but she’d given me her truth plainly. I’m comforted by you protecting me and grateful, but I don’t think I can trust you again.
It made sense that she wouldn’t confide in me about anything, especially potential abilities she had. But… was that how she’d learned the demons were djinn specifically? What else could she tell me? What else could this potential ability aid with?
Would Bryce be able to know where a target would be hit beforehand?
“What’re you thinking of?” Jackson asked, cutting through my whirlwind of thoughts.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “Do you still have the reports you made on each fire? I want to go through them, and I wasn’t here for a handful. There’s got to be a connecting element somewhere.”
Jackson eyed me sharply before he nodded. “They’ll be in the other office, second drawer down.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Theo, I want you to head out to speak with Mrs. Hartley, all right? Find out what she can report about her recent attack, find out the damages sustained, and conclude where the fire started in her building.”
“Got it,” he called, and I was thankful for his cooperation, too high-strung to deal with his arguing at every turn.
Dismissing the rest of my pack, I shut myself into the side office and yanked open the drawer, pulling out the files Jackson had made on every fire in the last month.
Sighing, I sat down in the vinyl chair that was uncomfortable as hell but good enough.