Mike came out after that, explaining that the last of the spawn had simply dropped to the floor a few minutes earlier, probably the same time Strickland’s simulacrum had turned into mud. The hostages had all been safely moved out of the manor house, all of them traumatized out of their minds.
Hadley got to watch as Carter, Mike, and Gage put their heads together, coming up with a lie that might explain everything that had happened. She was stunned at how creative they were. It was clear that they’d done this type of thing a lot in the past.
She’d stood in the background as the chief of police and Ferguson showed up, the latter clearly upset about not being involved in the operation, especially when he saw Strickland’s body––or rather the body he’d been in––lying dead.
“What the hell did I miss?” the FBI agent asked in confusion.
Hadley was truly impressed as Carter spun a tale of Strickland kidnapping her for a ritual involving a circle dug in the ground, water, and mud. “I barely got here in time to stop him from killing her.”
Marshal Turner arrived before Ferguson could say anything else, explaining about the hostages that Strickland’s followers had grabbed as being part of an initiation ritual they’d planned to accomplish in the manor’s empty swimming pool. “He expected them to eat the hostages to show their loyalty. We stopped them in time and arrested the last of the prison escapees. But they’re all drugged up on something, so I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to put them back in with general population at Coffield.”
There was more complaining from Agent Ferguson about being left out of everything, and some curious looks from Chief LeClair, but surprisingly, nobody questioned the details.
Hadley was still wondering if all people were that gullible when Carter showed up with their food. Actually, he’d brought enough food to feed about four people, but she was getting used to that.
“You’re having steak with your Thanksgiving turkey and ham?” she asked, eyeing all the different proteins on his plate. “Who does that?”
“Werewolves,” Carter said with a grin, taking a big bite of steak.
She laughed and tried the turkey, amazed at how juicy and flavorful it was. “This tastes amazing!”
“Thanks for the compliment,” Mike said as he took a seat at the table, quickly followed by Gage, Trey, Hale, and each of their soul mates. “I did all the grilling today and deep fried five turkeys. That’s what keeps them so juicy.”
“It’s excellent,” Hadley told him. “Thank you for all the hard work.”
Everyone else at the table complimented the food right along with her. Of course, with a building full of SWAT cops, conversation soon turned to shop talk, most of it centering around Strickland and his spawn.
“Whatever happened to the ones that made it out of the manor?” Lydia asked curiously from her side of the table after Mike mentioned that the prison break investigation had been officially closed. “I haven’t seen anything in the papers, but I know they looked pretty out of it.”
Hadley knew exactly what Lydia was talking about. She’d helped the paramedics not only treat the hostages who’d been injured during the raid, but Strickland’s spawn as well, not that there was much she was able to do. The men had been completely catatonic, like puppets with their strings cut. The fact that the papers had been so silent on the subject probably wasn’t a good sign.
“They’re being transferred to a long-term medical treatment facility run by the feds,” Gage said. “The warden at Coffield and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had been hoping to question the men, wanting to confirm one way or the other if someone inside the prison might have helped with the escape, but whatever Strickland did to those men isn’t wearing off. The guards and doctors can’t even go into their cells without the risk of being bitten. There’s no chance of getting anything out of them. They’re completely feral and non-verbal.”
The psychiatrist in Hadley wanted to meet with the men and see if she could get through to them. Then she remembered how horrible it had been when Strickland had grabbed her with the intent to take a bite out of her arm in Coffield, and she decided to curtail her professional curiosity.
“With the prison break case officially resolved, I assume Turner and his team will be leaving Dallas?” Carter asked after finishing the last of his steak. “Though truthfully, I’m not sure why they were staying around anyway since they already knew Strickland was behind everything.”
“Turner’s boss would have been fine with them leaving weeks ago,” Kat said, surprising everyone when she answered instead of Gage. “But he stayed so he could work on a side project with me.”
Connor didn’t even glance up from his plate of food, so he obviously knew what was going on, but everyone else looked as uninformed on the subject as Hadley.
“Secret project?” Mike prompted, lifting a brow.
“Well, as you probably already know, in addition to tracking down criminals who break out of prison, Marshals also go after dangerous fugitives wanted on arrest warrants,” Kat explained. “The part you might not be aware of is that there are more than five million people wanted on warrants in the U.S. at any one time. Statistics being what they are, some of those wanted people have to be supernaturals.”
Hadley stared, along with everyone else at their table and the ones nearby. “How would the Marshals know if a person was a supernatural one way or another?”
“That’s where Turner and his team come in, along with that special project I mentioned,” Kat said, sipping her iced tea. “Because the whole time they were looking for the skinwalker who killed Turner’s brother, they were also building a database of people who exhibited unusual abilities that the Marshals couldn’t seem to catch. It turns out, there are thousands of people in their database wanted for violent crimes fitting that description. Turner got approval from his leadership to head up a new group dedicated to tracking these people down and arresting them.”
Carter grinned. “And the Marshals have decided that having someone around who can do a Find Me charm might come in handy. Is this a full-time gig or an occasional thing?”
“Definitely a part-time thing,” Kat confirmed, giving Connor a smile. “Just in those situations when they run into something they can’t deal with on their own. They’ve even talked about bringing Karissa and Knox in when they need some heavy hitters. The important thing is that they’ll have me on a full-time retainer for consulting.”
Everyone continued eating while Kat told them more about her new job. It was obvious to everyone that she was excited about the work. She noticed Connor was smiling every once in a while, and Hadley gathered he was pleased that his mate would be getting a chance to use her magic to help people.
“I’m going to go grab some pumpkin pie,” Carter leaned over to whisper in her ear. “You want a piece?”
“I’d love some but make it a small slice. I’m still working on my turkey,” Hadley said, glancing down at the plate that she’d barely put a dent in regardless of how delicious everything was.
