Lasting Fury (Hexing House Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to.” Alecto smiled briefly when she saw she’d scored a point. “I assure you, we pay our taxes. But not to the IRS. We have some… special arrangements.”
    Holgersen crossed his arms. “Is that supposed to intimidate me?”
    Alecto laughed. “Detective. We can play power games all day, but I promise you, you will lose. And I do have work to get back to. Ask Thea your questions, or don’t.”
    After a few seconds of glaring got him nowhere, Holgersen huffed and sat down across from Thea.
    Alecto stayed standing, leaning against her desk, and cut off Holgersen just as he opened his mouth to speak. “Thea, you have my permission to tell the detective the entire truth.”
    Thea looked carefully at Alecto, trying to figure out if this was just for show, or she really meant it. Alecto nodded. “All of it. This wasn’t our doing, and now that the detective has found us, I do not want to be put in the position of hiding anything, or seeming to hide anything, or perpetuating any sort of dishonesty that might make us look guilty.”
    Okay. It was an interesting approach, but then directness was one of Alecto’s virtues. Thea bit her lip, hoping there wasn’t some encoded message there, some signal she was missing. When Alecto didn’t say more, Thea turned back to the detective.
    “All right. What do you want to know?”
    “Why don’t we start with Hemlock Heights?” Holgersen said. “What happened yesterday? How did you come to be there to get your picture snapped by a citizen who was more excited about the presence of aliens—or demons—in his neighborhood than he was worried about the destruction going on there?”
    Thea raised an eyebrow, surprised not that he felt contempt for whoever had taken her picture, but that he was willing to show it. Up until that point he’d been carefully neutral. But the slip, if that was what it was, was short-lived. His expression was indifferent again as he opened a notebook and took a pen out of his pocket.
    “Old school, huh?” Thea asked. “No tablet or anything?”
    “Hemlock Heights?” He prompted without answering.
    “It’s kind of a long story, if I’m really supposed to tell you everything.”
    Holgersen’s face didn’t change as he said, “I have an extra pen, if it comes to that.”
    Thea studied him, wondering whether his sense of humor was really that dry, or whether he wasn’t actually joking. She cleared her mind and reached out, searching for his vices and virtues. He was brave. (Although, she reminded herself, that didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t stupid, too.) He was also loyal and temperate. But he wasn’t entirely honest. Not deceitful, exactly, but secretive.
    He wasn’t a man to be trusted. But then, she wasn’t one to trust men, anyway.
    With one last glance at Alecto, hoping her boss had meant what she said, Thea told Holgersen about Fury Unlimited and the superhex, starting with her own experience at the lab. He took notes without interrupting while she talked for twenty straight minutes, until she got to their meeting with Megaira the day before, and their flight to try to help Hemlock Heights. How they’d arrived too late, and were only able to help one little boy.
    “How is he, by the way?” Thea asked.
    Holgersen hesitated, then shrugged, as if deciding there was no harm in answering her. “He’s fine. As fine as he can be, anyway. His parents and younger sister were killed.”
    Thea nodded and looked away, at the floor, her hands. She hoped she didn’t look guilty. Because she felt guilty. And had no idea why.
    This wasn’t us.
    But we were too late.
    She narrowed her eyes at the detective. “You don’t look very surprised by anything I’ve said.”
    “I’m sitting in a room with two purple women who can fly, and the things you say are supposed to surprise me?” Holgersen asked.
    “You don’t seem surprised by the purple flying people either,” Thea said. “Had you heard of us before? Used us, maybe, or know