Page 89 of The Hunting Moon
Tests Administered: 2734
Positive Results: 0
AVAILABLE TESTING LOCATIONS:
Monday hospital,by appointment only
Sunday estate auditorium,under age 18 only
Floating Carnival,all ages welcome
DO YOUR CIVIC DUTY AND GET TESTED AS SOON AS A SITE IS AVAILABLE NEAR YOU!
CHAPTER46
When the Tuesday Alphas arrive at the location sent to them by the Wednesday Lead Hunter, they do not find a slain werewolf. Instead, they find two bodies roasted beyond recognition with hound masks melted against their faces.
Though no one actually says it, the Alphas are all thinking the same thing:This night just gotwaymore interesting.After all, this was what their clan was originally formed to do: to fight an enemy that didn’t vanish when the mist did.Strength of body and heart,their motto says.We hold the line.
Now they have something to actually hold the line against. There are two dead Dianas in the middle of the forest. Two dead enemies in Hemlock Falls. And that meanswarin Hemlock Falls.
Jeremiah Tuesday is going to be so happy.
Two Alphas make a halfhearted attempt to track the werewolf—which clearly came here at some point, since there are six bloodied arrows on the charred earth and tufts of white fur all over—but they only find human footprints in the area. Yes, there isoneset of bare feet mixed in there that appears to have gone west, and later Isaac Tuesday will think,Hmmm, could that have been the wolf turned human again?But right now, he and everyone else is too excited by evidence of Dianas to really focus on much else.
And that excitement is only enhanced by the knowledge that in less than an hour, the Tuesday Lambdas will show up here, take over the crime scene,and force the Alphas to leave since this is technicallytheirjurisdiction—and don’t they just love to flaunt that in everybody’s faces? Then all the details about this site will go hush-hush, and none of these twelve Alphas who actually discovered the dead Dianas will ever get any of the details.
Or any of the credit.
It’s why Isaac Tuesday snaps a few photos of the bodies with his phone. A big no-no, of course, but it’s not like he’ll ever show it to anyone other than his girlfriend. And maybe his sister. Okay, and his dad too, who will probably want to show it to Isaac’s stepmom.
But that’s it. No one else will ever see how these masks have melted into grotesque versions of a dog’s head, as if the forest spat out a new monster just for tonight. The edges of their magical sources are visible where the snouts used to be, and it brings to mind something Isaac studied years ago, during his brief stint with Lambda training before he decided it was too much homework without a worthwhile salary increase.
Dianas will put their sources directly into their masks,he learned,which not only gives them constant access to the power in their source, but also modulates their voices into unrecognizable snarls.
As Isaac considers whether maybe he should have just stuck with the Lambda program so nowhecould be the jerk swooping in to claim jurisdiction, it occurs to him that the witches under these melted masks could be people he actually knows.
It makes his stomach curdle for the first time tonight. Not enough of a curdle to make him pull out his phone and delete the snapped photos, of course, but enough to make him wish for the warmth of his bed and the bright, twinkling lights of downtown.
Isaac doesn’t dwell on that curdle for long. It’s probably just hunger anyway.
Good thing he bought that pizza to eat at the end of his shift.
CHAPTER47
The will-o’-wisps float just ahead of Winnie for miles, always at the margins of her vision, always swooping and shimmering and seeming to have no logical aim. Winnie follows and follows because she doesn’t know what else to do. Straight through the changeling’s domain—although all that remains of it now are bloodstains on the ground and bits of auburn hair—then straight across the stream.
Where the running water does nothing to deter them.
Eventually, after hours of trudging along, the will-o’-wisps lead Winnie to the southwestern edge of the forest. No nightmares get her along the way. No Tuesday scorpions or Wednesday hunters either.
And no crow with half a mask and gray hair streaming down.
Strangely, despite the fact that the will-o’-wisps can easily fly past the red-staked boundaries of the forest—as Winnie has seen them do before—they remain inside the trees and watch Winnie leave.
She files that detail away for later analysis. For when the night is done and she is safe in her room with the trusty Compendium open upon her closet floor.
Will-o’-wisps showed no interest in exiting the forest for prey, however did exit to witness death of a fellow will-o’-wisp.
