feel different.”
“Mad is good. Lets give that emotion a front row seat and figure out the next step. Google, we need to,” he paused, “my training didn’t prepare me to track down werewolves. First things first, we don’t have anything going on for another week so— no, change of plans, get your shoes on. We are going for a little drive.”
“Where are we going and how will a drive help us?” Gracie asked.
“We can search the internet until the world ends and not get the answers we can get by going straight to the man himself.”
“He isn’t there. He said, his text said, he sent a text last night. He said he had gone home. Do you think the man they sent to replace Kelvin turned him into a werewolf? That was him watching last night. The one that took our drone, that was his new partner. Do you think the man made him leave? Maybe Hendrix told him about me and the man made him leave.”
“That explanation might work if Hendrix hadn’t been texting you the last two weeks complaining about the man. Besides, that man wasn’t the one who turned into a werewolf, Hendrix was, so, I applaud your effort but get your shoes on. We are taking a little drive. Even if they left maybe he left a clue behind for you.”
Ten minutes later the two were staring at the ruins of the house. Smoke still poured from the charred remains. Halo turned his head to look at Gracie. “You know, we still have footage from the other drone. The one we had watching the front door.”
“Do you think someone else found out he was a monster and came after him?”
Halo paused before answering her. “The new guy saw the drone. He took the drone. You said you got a text from Hendrix telling you he was going home. Now if I were them and I found a drone watching me while on a mission I would pull back from the mission and come at it another way. The guy has our drone so he knows someone saw Hendrix turn into a werewolf. So no, I don’t think someone else found out about him. I think our drone spooked them and they ran.”
“So it is my fault he left.”
“Do you hear yourself? He is a werewolf. A werewolf. That was not a human, it was a creature. You called him a monster. That monster acted like everything was fine and he took advantage of you.”
“Well now I wouldn’t go that far.” Gracie protested.
“Are you seriously going to sit there and defend the man, creature, beast, whatever it is?” Halo demanded.
“I, no, I, would you think me weak if I said I wanted to go back to the house and crawl in my bed and pull the covers over my head and pretend everything will be fine when I get up?”
“Do you think me weak for drinking these last few weeks to try to wash away the memories? No, Gracie, I won’t think you weak. You are one of the strongest women I have ever met. But this, this is beyond what a strong woman can be expected to deal with. In fact, it is beyond what a strong man can be asked to deal with. I want to go back to the house, grab a bottle, and retreat to my room and pretend all of this didn’t happen. But I am not going to do that and you are not crawling in that bed of yours. We are going back,” Halo turned the car around as he spoke, “and we are going to watch the other drone footage and we are going to get to the bottom of this. Then, one of us is going to track down the monster and kill him. We swore an oath to kill monsters before they could destroy any more lives. The fact that this monster isn’t human doesn’t matter.”
“I know it shouldn’t but,” Gracie shrugged, “what if we can help him? What if there is a cure somewhere?”
“Do you believe that? I mean really believe it? Let me be the voice of logic for a minute.” He lifted his hand off the steering wheel and held up a finger. “One, if the man wanted to be cured and there was a cure he would have taken it. Two,” a second figure went up, “if there is a cure he would have found it, finding is one of the things we