APEX - Season 2

Ch. 12: Incognito

Calla

Long, tight blond curls cascaded around my shoulders, ending midway down my back—just slightly shorter than my natural hair. The wig made my scalp itch, but I resisted the temptation to scratch it. I'd paid a fortune for this new look—enough that it had better come off as the real deal instead of just Calla in an ill-advised Halloween costume. A set of oversized, pink-framed glasses, a long-sleeved pinstripe blouse, and a laptop completed the ensemble. I was hoping to come across as a young human professional hitting the bar to grab a drink while doing her capitalistic duty of spending her evening glued to spreadsheets.

The Lucky Seven was a human haunt, so as long as no one recognized me, it was unlikely a werewolf would be present to sniff me out as a shifter either. I sat in a back booth with a clear line of sight to the entryway, allowing me to scope out new customers coming through the door without placing me in the center of the action.

When I let my mind wander to what I hoped to achieve tonight, a thrill ran up and down my spine. The line between excitement and anxiety seemed to be blurred beyond my ability to distinguish between the two these days. My adrenaline was raised nearly to what I experienced during full moons. All my senses were on alert.

What was I thinking? I was taking a huge risk by coming here. If Rhys knew, he'd probably pop a few blood vessels. I could hear him now:

"At least I stayed in my car, Calla. And I had no clue they'd follow me, ram into my car, kidnap and poison me. You have that information at your disposal and yet you still chose to walk into the lion's den. Why?"

Why, indeed.

The answer was obvious to me, but I didn't expect Rhys, or anyone else for that matter, to understand. My best friend had undergone a traumatic experience that had led her to mistake me and everyone like me as a predatory, evil monster. Vicki, the woman with whom I'd shared my deepest secrets and dreams, saw me as an enemy. As other. As someone who needed to be removed from human society.

Part of me could not accept this change in our relationship. It meant some of my most cherished memories were now tainted. I couldn't be satisfied by leaving unanswered text messages for her. If I was to make sense of this—if I was to stop Humankind First from enacting their agenda against us, I needed to see her for myself.

Without her answering my texts and voicemails, coming here and waiting for her to show up was what I needed to do to connect with her. Maybe then I'd understand what had happened to her to make her go from best friend to nemesis.

Obviously, she'd been traumatized. Her gravitating towards an extremist group was a trauma response—a way of coping with the inner turmoil the bastard who attacked her had invoked. I sympathized as to why she would hate that werewolf, and even why she might be leery of werewolves in general. But she had turned on me. If she only understood what I'd tried to do to find her, however imperfectly, maybe she'd forgive me. Maybe she would no longer wish to see my head on a plate.

The details of how I would confront her and earn her forgiveness were a bit shaky in my head. I may still be in Apex territory, but this tavern was enemy territory. I'd had the wherewithal to disguise myself, but if I approached Vicki, I'd be outing myself, leaving me vulnerable to attack.

The longer I sat there, the more I realized this night wasn't going to end the way I wanted it to. There were too many ways it could go wrong. Most likely, Vicki wouldn't even show. If she did, I'd have to sit here and helplessly watch her or risk my own life by revealing myself to her. And even if I saw a way to safely do that, she'd likely reject me and call in the troops to dose me with the same bioweapon her people had given Rhys.