14. Fourteen #2
Ofelia rolled her eyes. “She is a true banshee. The difference is that the banshees are in the middle of an evolution. Some of them — more than just Biff’s mother — are controlling their realities.
The banshee gene is prevalent in Biff’s family.
I’m curious what it does to men, but not curious enough to let that distract me right now. ”
“How do you know that?” Biff challenged. “That’s a secret.”
“Let’s just say I found your mother’s book,” Ofelia replied.
Biff’s eyes narrowed. “You were in my mother’s house?” He took a menacing step toward her, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “How dare you let yourselves into my mother’s house.”
“Ofelia.” That was all Jack said. Her name. He was unbelievably nervous.
Ofelia ignored him. “Zach is missing. Your mother grabbed him.”
“Were you in her house? Maybe she was trying to protect herself.”
“I will hurt you,” Ofelia warned. “Keep pushing me and see what happens.”
Defiance lit in the depths of Biff’s eyes. There was a great deal of fear there, too. “I don’t answer to you,” he growled. He squared his shoulders and took a purposeful step toward Ofelia. “You’re not my boss. In fact, you’re not anything to me.”
Ofelia smirked, prepared to start throwing magic at him in exchange for answers, but Jack inserted himself between them before she could.
She had to give him credit — he looked terrified — but he was the one in charge of the paranormal division.
If two members of his team were going to start ripping each other to shreds, he was the one who would try to stop it.
“Biff, I’m not sure I fully understand what’s going on here,” he started, casting a worried look toward Ofelia before pointing his “boss” face at Biff. “She appears to have questions, though. I think it would behoove you to answer them.”
Behoove. What a weird word, Ofelia mused.
“I don’t have anything to say to her,” Biff fired back. “I don’t even know what she’s talking about.”
“He’s lying,” Ofelia snapped. “His mother is a banshee. I’m not sure if she arranged for her husband to die or if the other banshees did it because she’s at war with them. I’m still figuring that part out.”
She watched Biff closely for a reaction, but he didn’t let her see anything but the muscle working in his jaw. Well, fine, if he wanted to play the game that way, so be it.
“Zach is missing,” she continued. “He was in that house with me and then he was suddenly gone. She took him.”
Jack dragged a hand through his hair, clearly agitated. “Ofelia, I don’t want to upset you further —”
“She must be on her period or something,” Biff interjected. “Does that make witches crazy? I’m guessing it does. That might explain all of … this.” He wrinkled his nose and waved his hand back and forth, gesturing toward Ofelia.
“I would be very careful right now,” Jack warned as Ofelia made a snarling noise that sounded like something Sully might make. “You’re not helping matters.”
“She came in here to attack me,” Biff fired back. “Why would I possibly want to help her?”
Anger the likes of which she’d never felt before coursed through Ofelia and it took everything she had not to launch herself over the table so she could wrap her hands around Biff’s neck.
“Tell me how you even started looking at Biff’s mother,” Jack prodded. It took Ofelia a moment to realize he was asking the question of her.
“She was on a list of people we were looking at,” Ofelia replied blandly. “We stopped to see her yesterday, not knowing she was Biff’s mother, but she wasn’t home. We went back to see her today.”
“And why was she on your list?” Jack asked.
“Because she was one of three people in the last few weeks who lost their husbands in attacks that left claw marks behind.”
Genuine puzzlement took over Jack’s features. “Why wouldn’t I know about that?”
Ofelia shrugged. “Zach assumed that the responding officers didn’t realize it could be paranormal and just chalked it up to a regular attack.”
“But … that stuff normally crosses my desk.”
“Perhaps Biff here has somebody in the department who keeps that stuff from crossing your desk if he doesn’t want you to see it,” she suggested.
“Don’t you ever suggest I’m a crooked cop!” Biff roared. “How dare you break into my mother’s house, without a warrant, and then suggest that I’m the one who did something wrong here.”
Ofelia rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous. You’re trying to go on the offensive to make it so Jack doesn’t look too closely at you. I’m not an idiot.”
“Obviously, you are if you came in here and admitted to breaking into my mother’s house.” Biff puffed himself out. “I want her arrested.”
“Don’t push it,” Jack warned. “I have some questions about your mother. I mean … is she really a banshee?”
“No, she is not,” Biff replied. He said it a little too soon, Ofelia noted.
He sounded jittery. Would that pass muster with Jack?
She had no idea. “She’s making that up. She was attacked by a banshee, as I said, but overcame the injury.
She is not a banshee, no matter what this …
witch … says.” He gestured at Ofelia again, this time with even more frustration. “She’s lost her mind.”
“I’m not making it up,” Ofelia said to Jack. “She’s a banshee.”
“She’s not,” Biff hissed. “Banshees don’t have families. Let’s say she was upset after my stepfather died a few weeks ago — and she was obviously upset — I would have noticed if she turned into a banshee.”
“She was always a banshee,” Ofelia replied, her tone lifeless and uneven. She recognized now she wasn’t going to get anywhere here. Not with Jack being so far behind. Plus, Jack was loyal. He would give Biff the benefit of the doubt. “It runs in their family.”
“Can you tell me how?” Jack prodded. “How it runs in the family, I mean.”
“I’m not sure how they managed it. I just know that one of Biff’s ancestors talked about a wailing woman who had her wits about her,” Ofelia replied.
“She approached the women, learned some tricks of the trade, and introduced it to the family. That first ancestor was turned into a banshee. The rest were born into it.”
Jack turned his expectant gaze to Biff. “Is that true?”
“No,” Biff replied. “I know what book she’s talking about — and you’d better give that back because it’s a family heirloom — but there’s nothing about being banshees in there. Ask her to bring it in and show it to everybody if she believes that.”
Ofelia had no intention of doing that. She recognized what Biff was doing. He wanted the book out of her hands. He was afraid of what she would find in it. He likely figured they would need to get a translator in, and that would buy him enough time to steal it back.
Jack sent Ofelia a hopeful look. “May I see the book?”
“No, you may not,” Ofelia replied.
Biff threw up his hands in triumph. “See!”
“I’m not giving that book back,” Ofelia replied. She’d warded Sully’s truck when she left Shirley’s house. Nobody was getting that book. “It’s my bargaining chip for Zach.”
“I just want to see it,” Jack prodded.
“I said no.” Ofelia respected Jack. She knew Sully not only respected his boss but liked him as a person. She wasn’t going to risk Sully’s fate in the hands of this man, however. Especially if Biff could somehow bamboozle him.
“Okay.” Jack used his most reasonable voice, as if she were a bomb about to go off. “What do you want to do here? What do you want me to do? Do you want me to send a unit to the house to look for Zach?”
Ofelia’s initial reaction was to tell him it was a waste of time. Then she thought better of it. “Yes.” She turned her full attention to Jack. “Search the house. He’s not there. You’ll find a few interesting things, though, and you’re no good to me as long as you’re trying to play peacemaker.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Jack insisted. “I’m just trying to understand.”
“Let Biff explain it to you.” Ofelia moved toward the door, then stopped herself. “When you talk to your mother, tell her I’ve got her book, and I know what I’m dealing with.”
“You’re being an idiot,” Biff fired back.
Ofelia merely smiled. “Also tell her that if one hair on his head is out of place when I get him back — and I will get him back — that I’ll kill you and burn her precious book, and that’s after I unleash unholy hell on every banshee in this town, whether cognizant of their surroundings or not.”
It was in that moment that Ofelia saw Biff’s reaction for what it was. He looked at her, and she saw hate. He had always looked at her that way. He might have tried to pretend otherwise at times, but that wasn’t the case today. No, he was ready to show her the hate.
That was good. She was prepared to show it right back.
“Do we have an understanding?” Ofelia prodded when the silence had continued to stretch for too long.
“You’re crazy,” Biff said, sticking to his story. “I don’t know what happened to you, but you’ve lost your mind. Mental illness runs in families. I’m sorry this happened to you.”
Ofelia refused to let the statement get to her. “Your mother better return my fiancé. If she doesn’t, I’ll burn her whole world to the ground.” With that, Ofelia swept out of the room.
She knew exactly where she was going.