Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

B2: Chapter 30 - Four Days Later - IV

  The doors swung open again. Jeremy looked up from his spot in the front corner, but it wasn't Hailey. Just Josh Miller again, accompanied by a teenage girl with a hawk perched on her shoulder, stunning purple eyes, and a deceptive amount of muscle filling out her small frame. She wore a thick, military-style green overcoat, tight dark jeans, and—if Jeremy wasn't seeing things—had actual pointy elf-ears just barely peeking out through her brown hair.

  "Who the fuck are these people?" whispered Maddie, also watching the girl wander in. The hawk took a few fluttering steps, and seemed to glare straight at Jeremy for a second, but the girl made a beeline for the Silverdale parents toward the other end of the room and the hawk soon lost interest.

  "Thought she explained everything to you," Jeremy murmured, referring to Rachel. They'd agreed not to mention her name once they were at the funeral. Rachel refused to attend, for one reason or another she declined to share, and had made it quite clear she wanted to stay in the shadows.

  "Not about the goddamn elf-girl with the pet hawk. And that cult seemed way nicer in her description," she added, nodding toward Cinza and her three companions, who were talking to Rika Nishimura and Ryan Walker, recovering well from the injuries he'd sustained. Malton's men had been as gentle as a kidnapping could be, since he was wanted as a lab specimen, so Walker was going to be just fine—scared and jumpy, but fine.

  Small fuckin' mercies...

  "You talk to them yet?"

  "Shit, Jere-bear, I'm still workin' up to talk to the damn billionaire in the room," she said quietly, stealing a quick glance toward the front. "Least she seems normal."

  Kendra Laushire was seated in the front row of benches, tapping away at her phone as if she were sitting at home, paying little mind to anyone else in the room. Her fiery hair was pulled up tight, partly concealed under a wide-brimmed black hat, and she wore an elegant black dress that matched it perfectly.

  Everybody's wearing black except those cloak freaks and the teenager... Whose idea was it to make funerals all about wearing black? Make a depressin' day even more fuckin' miserable.

  "I'm gonna—" Jeremy started.

  Maddie waved him away. "Go, I'll keep Courtney from pissing anyone off."

  Jeremy wandered away. He didn't really have anything particular in mind, since he had no clue where Hailey was, so he just hovered past the different clusters in the room—listening in, hearing their conversations, waiting to see if he could pick up any more information about magic, and Rachel, and everything else going on.

  He'd passed on all the information about Brian and his location, as well as his ties to Felix Wieczorek, to the FBI, but they still came up with nothing. Aderholt was getting everything he asked for after the devastation of the neighborhood in Lakewood, but they had no idea what they were really looking for. Two men they couldn't find and unsupported accusations against a multi-billionaire across the Atlantic didn't really lead to results.

  On top of which, Aderholt still refused to let Jeremy back into the Bureau. Spiteful motherfucker.

  "...seriously, Joe's alive?"

  Jeremy stopped a few meters away from the cluster of Greycloaks, where a black-suited and bruised Ryan was looking flabbergasted. Nice suit, though...

  The shortest of the group nodded, the shining gems and charms that adorned her neckline catching the light as she did. Her voice echoed in an unnatural way with every word. "He's one of us now."