Page 94 of Wicche Hunt

Declan took the bag with the award from my lap and returned it to the coffee table before reaching for my hand.

“Did you get last names?” Hernández asked.

I shook my head. “There’s gotta be a list of graduating seniors somewhere. Dorian isn’t a common name. And if he’s around campus—enough to be arguing with the dean early in the morning—other staff members must have seen him. That new housemaster probably knows his name.”

Osso nodded. “We’ll check.”

“He was going to put the award back on the table after he cleaned it, so no one missed it. People were waking up and moving around the halls, though, so he tossed it out the window of his bedroom that overlooks the pool.”

More scribbling. “Anything else?” Osso asked.

“One thing. He was excited about having a friend to share his passion with. He talked about them being superior and rules not applying to them.”

Hernández looked up. “Oh. Only us peons have to follow laws, huh?”

Nodding, I explained, “As superior individuals, they set their own rules. They aren’t obligated to follow the laws created by mediocre minds.”

“Once you identify them, you should probably check their colleges,” Declan suggested, “see if there are any unsolved murders.”

Osso nodded, standing up. “Yeah, I know.”

Hernández picked up the black bag and stood. “We need to get on this. Thank you again.”

After they were gone, Declan got up and led me to the couch, both of us collapsing onto it. “You’ve done what you could. You’ve given them the killers. Now they need to do their job.”

I nodded slowly, bone weary. “I hate having those voices, those thoughts in my head. They make me sick to my stomach.”

“Like you said to your aunt, that’s because you’re not like them.” His stomach growled. “Sorry. I could go get us food or maybe order a pizza.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” I had to do a better job of having more food around for the poor guy. I pulled up a meal delivery service on my phone and ordered two large pizzas.

“Thanks for getting two.”

I leaned into him, and he wrapped an arm around me. “Sixth grade. She was eleven years old. And you know a school like that was probably all about their high standards and academic integrity. She’s new. Trying to do what they told her was proper in that school. A creepy kid’s cheating off her, so she goes to her teacher. That was it. She was on borrowed time after that. He was just planning how to do it and get away with it.”

Declan kissed my temple, listening.

“A little over ten years later, he’s her first boyfriend. She was painfully shy. He comes in and sweeps her off her feet so he can involve her heart, so his attack is not only terrifying but heartbreaking and humiliating. She’d thought he liked her, but he was just biding his time until it hurt more.”

“You found her killer and he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars,” Declan said.

“Yeah. It doesn’t bring her back, though.” Her poor mother would never be the same. “I can’t imagine everything you go through as a parent. All the colds and skinned knees, the heartaches and joys, school, friends, hugs, conversations, adolescence, periods, bras, all of it. A life. And he decides he can’t handle being reprimanded in middle school, so that life is snuffed out.”

His thumb brushed back and forth on my arm. “You identifying him means other innocent people, like Pearl, won’t lose their lives because he felt offended or inconvenienced.”

Tucking my shoulder under his arm, I rested my head on his chest. “I don’t understand it. I don’t think I ever will. Most people are just living their lives, trying to do what’s right. He considers them limited, mediocre, the weak ones who knuckle under to society’s rules. He, though, is special. Superior. He leaves mourning loved ones in his wake, and it doesn’t signify.”

He was like all those men who had been preying on me all my life. Who I was, what I wanted, those things weren’t important. I wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was that their own needs be met. It was like the rest of us were background players in the story of their lives. We pantomimed actions and mouthed nonsense, waiting to be addressed by the lead, waiting for our lives to gain meaning through them.

My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket. I had a reminder on my screen. The full moon was tomorrow.

“You put it in your calendar?” He sounded surprised and amused.

“I’m dating a werewolf, so it seems like pretty important information. And this particular full moon has me scared.” I hugged him tighter. “Please can I come? I’ll stay in the truck. You won’t even know I’m there.”

“No.”

It was essentially Declan against a pack of wolves, but I was supposed to sit back and have faith that all would be fine?

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