witches,” Margot said. “Or a single really powerful witch who has a secondary affinity for the moon. Or … I hate guessing.” She started the car and we motored on to the next-closest site. And then the next. By midnight we had visited five sites and I had tested each with the psy-meter and a fingertip. I felt maggots at almost all the sites and magic at one—levels one and four. Vampires were part of this—whatever this was. Or maybe even witch-vamps. Was the witch also a vampire? I had a lot to talk about to the team, and since Margot was driving, I typed out the bones of an outline for a report. Ninety-nine percent of my job was paperwork. I had always been good at it and I was getting better.
We brought hot Krispy Kreme donuts back to HQ, where I found my sister watching a horror movie on the biggest screen in the conference room, sitting with Tandy, earbuds in her ears. Mud’s eyes were wide and her knees were drawn up under her chin. When she saw me she pointed at the screen and shouted, “Aliens! There’s such a thing as aliens!”
I was surprised that Tandy would watch a horror show, but he seemed fine with Mud’s emotion. He paused the film and Mud tugged out her earbuds. I said, “You had to start her out with Aliens? Why not Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or Snakes on a Plane?”
“Creature from the Black Lagoon,” Margot suggested, sliding the donut box across the large table and plopping her gobag onto a chair. “Killer Clowns from Outer Space.”
Mud’s eyes went wider than I had ever seen them. “Really? Clowns are from space?”
“No. Not really,” I said severely. “These are movies, not reality. And my coworker—the empath—should have known better.”
“The empath”—he pointed at himself—“did know exactly what she needed to see. Something horrific that could be overcome. But no clowns. Never clowns.”
“Wimp. Scaredy-cat,” T. Laine said, coming back into the office.
“The weres may be scaredy-cats,” Tandy said. “I am not.”
“Right,” Margot said. “The weres. I need to use the ladies’ and stuff a few things in a locker. Who do I see about getting one?”
“Pick a locker with no lock and nothing inside,” T. Laine said. “Locker room is near the stairs you just came up. Sign on it says ‘Locker Room.’”
“Har-har.” Margot picked up her gear and headed back the way we came.
I pointed to the earbuds and Mud put them back in. The movie restarted. Quickly I updated them, saying softly, “Circles were all constructed in the waning moon. Maggots were at half of the sites. Vamps and witch are absolutely working together.”
T. Laine asked, “Any reason why we’re not telling our new feeb?”
I didn’t know why I hadn’t told Margot about the maggots. But … she had indicated a strange interest in Occam and Rick and the werecats’ sexual habits. It had felt oddly predatory and had aroused a protective instinct in me. I glanced at Mud, who was staring at the big screen as an alien burst out of a stomach cavity in an explosion of blood and goo. “No real reason,” I hedged.
Tandy looked at Mud and stood, stretching. “Come on, Mud,” he said, pausing the film. “I have a window that needs a window box with herbs. You can give me some suggestions. Then I think your sister will say it’s your bedtime.”
They left together. To our resident witch, I quickly detailed Margot’s odd interest in the werecats and shared her specific questions about Rick and Occam. T. Laine listened with narrowed eyes and a deep-rooted sense of suspicion. Then I added a few more details on the maggots, vamps, sacrifices, and the witch circles.
T. Laine said, “Noted. While you were gone, I think I put the runes together with the different sacrifices. The working where the white rats died had a single rune in an inner, tiny circle just big enough for the rats and the rune. Nauthiz. This one was the only rune not reversed. Nauthiz symbolizes distress, confusion, conflict, and the power of will and magic to overcome them. It’s both a recognition of one’s fate and an indication of self-initiated change. I think she’s using this circle to heal herself from something painful at the same time that she’s getting revenge. Or more clearly, using the revenge to heal herself.”
“Okay,” I said, glancing up the hallway. “What about the ones with the black cats?”
“They have Nauthiz merkstave, or upside