Page 17 of Hextreme Measures

“Just checking.”

OFELIA ASSUMED HER MIND WOULD be too full of possibilities to allow her to relax. She was ultimately wrong because the second her head hit the pillow, before Sully even joined her in bed, she was dead to the world.

When she woke the next morning, Sully’s arms were around her, and his eyes were open and on her face.

“Hey.” She instinctively reached up to wipe away potential drool. “Good morning.”

He smirked as he stroked her hair away from her face. She was beautiful. That was the first thing he’d registered when they met. After that, he’d become just as infatuated with her mind. Even now, he marveled at her beauty at the oddest of times.

“Hey.” He gave her a kiss because he couldn’t help himself. It was soft and sweet. “How are you?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been better.”

“We don’t know Angelique is going to turn into a banshee, right?”

“We don’t know it,” Ofelia confirmed. “We won’t have an idea right away. At least I don’t think we will, unless her infection spreads fast because the wound was so deep.”

“What would make you think she would make a likely target?”

Ofelia had to consider it. “She’s a siren. Banshees are drawn to magical women to make their own.”

“What else?”

“She’s saucy. She has attitude. Some of that attitude is based on rage.”

Sully sighed. He understood what she wasn’t saying and nodded. “Okay, well, let’s hope that she’s not really angry, just annoyed.”

Ofelia had no idea if that would make a difference, but she nodded all the same. “I’m going to want to check on her first thing.”

“Of course.” He’d expected that. “We have breakfast with your father this morning.”

“Oh, geez.” Just picturing how that was going to go had Ofelia grimacing. “He’s going to have questions. I didn’t even see much of him at the party last night.”

“He was hanging around with some friends in the corner and seemed to be having a good time. He wasn’t on the list of those injured.”

Ofelia rocketed to a sitting position. She hadn’t even thought about that. “Who was injured?”

Sully arched one curious eyebrow. “I don’t think anybody you would care about. Well, other than Angelique.”

“I still need to see the list.” Ofelia was insistent. “If one of them was the main target, it might help us track down the banshees.”

“Because you think they can help you with a cure?”

Here, Ofelia hesitated. “It’s unlikely,” she said. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility. I have to try, though.”

“Of course you do.”

“I also need to track down the banshees and destroy them,” she added as if it were the most normal thing in the world to say. “They’re a threat to the community. We can’t just leave them out there.”

“If you can cure Angelique, which you’re determined you can, can’t you do the same for them?”

Ofelia fell quiet for several seconds, her thoughts serious enough that she had to mull over them three times before answering. “Some banshees — not all, but some — choose to turn into angry spirits,” she replied. “The choice isn’t foisted on them. They make the decision. They want to be angry at the world, so they embrace a life where all they have to fall back on is anger.”

“I see.” He wasn’t sure he did, but he nodded for her to continue anyway.

“Those people can’t be helped, Zach,” she said in a low voice. “They were gone the moment they embraced the lifestyle.”

“Okay. You’re basically saying they’re lost causes.”