Page 19 of Out of My Flocking Mind

“Why did you come?” the woman asked.

“Do I need a reason?” Harrison responded.

She jerked her head back and forth, as if trying to immediately backpedal. “Of course not. You just rarely come to these. I was worried you might have come today because there was a problem.”

Harrison shifted his gaze, taking in each of the people seated in the room, a heaviness in his look that implied there were other facts I wasn’t privy to. It felt more like an interrogation than a simple meet and greet.

And when I had no idea what else to do, I lifted the muffin to my mouth and took another noisy bite.

The sound made Harrison look my way and narrow his eyes.

“Sorry,” I said around the mouthful of sweet, tasty goodness.

Still, the action broke the tension and it almost seemed as if everyone took a deep breath.

“I am sure you have heard about the recent attacks by Minds,” Harrison said.

The woman nodded, fidgeting in her seat—not the best sign of innocence. Then again, I was pretty sure almost every person would shift like that under Harrison’s harsh gaze. “I’ve heard about them, but I can assure you, no one here is involved.”

“Are you certain?” Harrison took a few steps closer, stopping just beside the chair I sat in. “Everyone in this room is a Cloud addict, after all.”

Cloud?

The word meant nothing to me beyond the vague place where people sent files from their phones.

However, I had a feeling me speaking up would only hinder the whole conversation. Better to stay quiet and piece it all together on my own—at least until I got a bit more information.

Just the mention of this cloud stuff had everyone avoiding Harrison’s gaze, just like when a personal trainer talked about desserts. Still, the woman spoke up, her voice shaky. “That’s why we’re here, why we meet every week no matter what. If we were using, would we be here?”

Harrison nodded. “A fair point. However, backslides happen. People believe they can have just one more taste, then stop yet again. How many have joined such groups as these only to disappear one day? Now, I am not here to accuse those here today—I wish to know if there are any who have recently stopped coming.”

The woman sighed, her shoulders dropping. “There are always those who come once and never again.”

“The person I’m looking for would have stopped coming two months ago.”

I twisted to look up at Harrison. Two months ago implied he’d been aware of the person that long, which he hadn’t said a word to me about. It said he’d tracked this person since before my whole mess with the vampires.

Which said he’d left a lot more victims than I realized.

The woman shook her head. “No one stands out, but I’ll give you the records I have.” She hesitated, then asked, her voice softer. “I heard about a few deaths. Do you think it’s the same person?”

I expected Harrison not to answer. In my experience, he was fantastic at not giving the information requested when he didn’t want to. However, he did the unexpected and nodded. “I believe the same addict has been targeting people for the past two months. Given the attacks occurred before an influx of Cloud, I believe the person manufacturing it is the same who is using it. Thus far, twelve have died and one victim survived, unharmed. All evidence suggests they had the same perpetrator.”

“A survivor?” The woman leaned forward, her attention rapt. “I’ve never heard of someone surviving intact. Were they a Spirit?”

“Yes, they were.”

“What clan?”

“Chaos.”

The woman frowned, then darted her gaze toward me.

“Is this where I introduce myself?” I asked.

Harrison set his hand on my shoulder, the weight surprisingly comforting. “This is Grey, the head of the Chaos Clan. The perpetrator attacked her twice.”

The woman got to her feet, her gaze sharp and surprisingly terrifying for such a small woman. “She survived two attacks? How is that possible? Cloud victims don’t recover.”

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