Three
Ofelia didn’t know what made her do it — later she would ask herself why she’d made the move — but she was fast when she hurried up to Angelique and yanked the arm of her shirt down.
Confusion had Angelique’s eyebrows knitting together, and the way she searched Ofelia’s face had everything inside of Ofelia going weak before it solidified. “What … ?” She didn’t finish it out. She didn’t have to.
“Don’t tell them,” Ofelia whispered as she smoothed her hands over the shirt. “Just don’t tell them.”
“Who?” Angelique swiveled when Ofelia jutted her chin toward the area behind her. The way her eyes widened told Ofelia she hadn’t realized that the cavalry had arrived. “What do you think they’ll do?”
Ofelia didn’t have an answer for that question. She didn’t want to alarm her friend and tell her that she was frightened; she’d put an idea in Sully’s head that would bite both of them in the ass. “Just don’t tell them,” Ofelia insisted in a low voice.
For a moment, Ofelia feared that Angelique would argue with her. She was a blunt woman who said whatever was on her mind. Instead, the siren nodded. “Okay.” Her voice was much weaker than Ofelia was comfortable with, but the witch forced herself to shove that worry away until later.
“Let me do the talking,” Ofelia insisted as she straightened. She’d caught sight of two members of the paranormal unit heading in their direction. Luckily — or maybe unluckily — she knew them both.
Jack Dunham was Sully’s immediate boss, his captain. He had an air of authority wafting off of him as he surveyed the scene. “Are you okay?” He focused on Ofelia, his eyes roaming her dress, which hadn’t been as much as mussed during the fight. “Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine.” Ofelia straightened. She was surprised that her voice sounded so calm. “I wasn’t hurt. In fact, it happened so fast, I assumed nobody was hurt.”
To Ofelia’s relief, Jack didn’t question Angelique. She had no idea how her friend would react. “That’s good,” he said. “I’m sorry your party was ruined.”
“Oh, the party was ruined before the banshees showed up.” Ofelia’s smile was more of a grimace. “That was on our mothers, though.”
“I kind of figured.” Jack looked around. “This doesn’t seem like your type of shindig.”
That’s when something awful occurred to Ofelia. “Wait … why weren’t you here?”
Jack smirked. “Are you wondering if we weren’t invited?”
“I’m a little afraid you weren’t. Your name was on the guest list.” When she thought about it, there were other people she’d put on a list to be invited who hadn’t been at the party.
Now was not the time to kill her mother — she had other things to worry about — but she couldn’t help herself from being angry.
“Were you not invited?” Her voice was icy enough that it had Jack backing up.
“We were invited,” Jack assured her. “Sully told us not to come because it was going to be an overblown affair. We were going to meet you guys at a bar in an hour.”
Of course, Ofelia mused. Sully had known the party was going to come off the rails. He’d anticipated it. Did that mean he’d invited the few friends she hadn’t seen? That would be just like him.
“Well, maybe another night.” Ofelia glanced around at the destroyed party. “It feels sort of like a vindication.” Then she remembered Angelique’s arm. “I don’t think anybody is in the mood for a party tonight.”
“Unfortunately, we’re going to be busy.” Jack’s smile disappeared, and his eyes went flat. “Sully texted about potential scratches when he sent out the SOS. Thankfully, we were only a few blocks away. I’m afraid we’re going to have to take some of your guests into custody.”
The hair on the back of Ofelia’s neck stood on end. She had to fight to remain neutral. “What do you mean?”
“Sully says that those who have been scratched can turn into banshees. It was a garbled text, but I got the gist of it. We need to check all the guests.”
It took everything Ofelia had not to move closer to Angelique so she could protect her. “Well, everybody is over there.” She offered up a vague wave. “I don’t know if anybody was scratched. It really was a hit-and-run attack.”
“Did you have something to do with that?” Jack’s smile was back.
Ofelia shook her head. “I barely did anything. I was just getting into it when a pack of black panthers attacked and took the fight out of my hands.”
“Ah.” Realization dawned on Jack’s features. “I guess I should be talking to Sully then.”
“Definitely.” Ofelia tried to act as normally as possible, but it took effort. “When you see him, can you tell him that I took off with Angelique?”
“You don’t want to stay until the end?” Genuine surprise registered on Jack’s distinguished features.
“I don’t want to hear an earful from my mother about how her party was ruined.” The lie rolled off Ofelia’s tongue easily. “We were just figuring out how we were going to make our escape when it happened. I’m officially done with my mother tonight.”
“I don’t blame you.” Jack blew out a sigh. “I’ll cover for you, but only because I feel guilty that your engagement party ended like this.”
“Yes, well, it wouldn’t be a party without a little mayhem.”
“Isn’t that the truth?”
OFELIA PRETENDED TO WHISPER WITH Angelique as Jack and the others wandered off. Nobody questioned them. The moment she felt it was safe; she grabbed Angelique’s hand and pulled her out of the park.
“What are we going to do?” Angelique demanded when they were out of earshot. “Shouldn’t we turn around and own up to what happened to me?”
Ofelia wasn’t much of a liar. She did it when necessary, but it was never her natural instinct. Somehow, this time, she knew lying was the way to go. “We’re going to handle it ourselves. You’re not going in a cage.”
Angelique followed Ofelia to the sidewalk. “How are we going to handle it ourselves? Do you know how to handle it?”
“Well, first off, we don’t know that you’re infected. There might be nothing to handle but antiseptic and antibiotics.”
“We don’t know that I’m not.”
“Don’t be a pessimist,” Ofelia chided. “You’re not the type who will turn into a banshee.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Well, for starters, you’re not an angry person.” The second the sentence was out of her mouth, Ofelia had to reconsider it.
Angelique was nothing if not self-aware. “I’m not exactly Bruce Banner, but I tend to be angry at least once a day.”
“Only at stupid people.”
“Yes, because that will feel like a notable distinction as my fingernails are growing into claws,” Angelique replied dryly. She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt to look at her arm again. The wound was red and angry. “What if I turn into a banshee?”
Ofelia wasn’t certain she’d meant to ask the question out loud, but the witch answered it anyway. “We’ll deal with it.”
“You’re going to just be besties with a banshee?” Angelique was understandably dubious.
“If it comes to it, we’ll make that work. It’s not going to come to that, though.”
“How can you be sure?”
Ofelia didn’t blame Angelique for being worried. If their roles were reversed, she would be terrified. That’s what allowed her to remain calm despite her friend’s emotional spiral. “Because I won’t lose you.” It was the simplest statement she could muster.
Angelique fell silent for several seconds, then nodded. “Okay. I believe you. We have to come up with a plan, though.” She swallowed hard. “Just in case.”
Ofelia had already been working that out in her head. “You can’t go home. We’re going to have to put you in a place where you can be alone, isolated, and comfortable. I’m thinking we can use one of the rooms in my building.”
Angelique’s eyebrows went up. “The building that is under construction?”
“They’re going from top to bottom,” Ofelia replied. “They’ve already got three floors finished. I figured we would put you in a room on the middle floor of those three. They won’t be on that floor for any reason. I’ll ward a room for you, and we’ll wait it out.”
“You mean you’ll wait to see if I turn into a banshee and then kill me.”
Ofelia reared back as if she’d been smacked. “I will never kill you.”
Angelique rounded on her quickly and grabbed the front of Ofelia’s dress. The look in her eyes told Ofelia she was deadly serious. “You have to,” she insisted, her voice breaking. “You don’t have a choice. If I turn and I’m a danger to the people I care about, to Ben, you have to kill me.
“I don’t want it to be you, but you’re the only one I trust,” she continued. “I know you won’t let anything bad happen to Ben.”
Ofelia wrapped her fingers around Angelique’s wrists. “I won’t let anything happen to Ben,” she promised. “I won’t let anything happen to you either. Let’s just get you in a safe place, and then we’ll figure the rest out.”
“What else is there to figure out?”
“A cure,” Ofelia replied, not missing a beat. “Also, we need to figure out who those banshees were targeting.”
Angelique’s eyebrows moved toward one another as she dropped her grip on Ofelia. “What do you mean?”
“They didn’t just happen upon my engagement party. They were there for a reason. We have to figure out what that reason is.”
“Huh.” Angelique’s shoulders drooped. “I hadn’t even thought about that.”
“They were there for a specific purpose. We’re going to figure out what that was. If you’re infected, we’re going to fix that, too. You just need to have a little faith.”
Angelique pressed her lips together to stave off tears and nodded. “Okay.”
“Great.” Ofelia took her hand, and they resumed walking. “Make a list of the things you need from home when we get there, and I’ll get them for you.”
“Are you going to tell Sully and Ben?”
Ofelia hesitated. “I hadn’t gotten that far yet.”
“You’d better. You’re a terrible liar.”
“Yeah, let’s just get you settled. The other stuff will work itself out.”