Page 17 of Hexy Bear
He opened the journal to reveal a family tree so complex it required three pages to contain all the interconnected relationships. "The entity we're dealing with didn't just consume Mordaine Ashglen. It studied her, learned from her, and then spent the next two hundred years systematically infiltrating every supernatural bloodline that posed a potential threat to its long-term goals."
"What goals?" Mara asked.
"Complete integration into the physical realm," Aerin said, pulling up another set of data that made the magical readings from the past week look like minor fluctuations. "Every person it's consumed, every fragment of consciousness it's absorbed, has been adding to a collective intelligence that's been learning how to exist independently of any single host body."
Tilly suddenly spoke up from her position on the sofa, her young voice carrying the ancient wisdom that still made Griff's protective instincts flare. "She doesn't want to just wear people's faces anymore. She wants to make a face of her own, one that can never be taken away or destroyed."
"How do you know that, sweetheart?" Mara asked gently.
"Because I can feel her thinking about it," Tilly said matter-of-factly. "She's been touching my dreams ever since the ward thing happened in the forest, trying to see inside my head. But now that Daddy and Miss Mara made the sparkly barrier, she can't get all the way in. She's really mad about that."
The temperature in the parlor lowered as the implications of Tilly's words sank in. The entity hadn't just been observing them from a distance. It had been actively attempting to infiltrate the mind of a six-year-old child, probably for weeks or months.
"That settles it," Leo said, his voice had a dangerous edge that meant his lion was demanding action. "We evacuate the town. Get everyone to safety while we figure out how to deal with this thing without putting civilians in the line of fire."
"Evacuation won't work," Nico said, closing his journal with an expression of grim certainty. "I've been researching what happened to the other communities that tried to flee when they realized they were being targeted. The entity followed them. It doesn't just want the founder bloodlines, it needs them. And it will hunt them across continents if necessary to complete whatever working it's been building toward for centuries."
"Then we fight," Cade said simply. "We make our stand here, where we have home territory advantage and the support of an established supernatural community."
"Fight with what?" Griff asked, his bear prowling restlessly with the knowledge that his family was in danger from something he couldn't simply attack and defeat. "We're talking about an entity that's been consuming powerful supernaturalbeings for centuries. It has the accumulated knowledge and abilities of dozens of founder descendants, plus whatever powers it originally possessed."
"We fight with what we've always fought with," Lyra said, her founder's mark glowing faintly as her magic responded to her emotional state. "Community. Connection. The bonds between people who choose to protect each other instead of just themselves."
Aerin was nodding, her academic mind clearly working through possibilities. "The shadow beings were able to break free from its control when we offered them healing and connection instead of trying to banish or destroy them. And our research into the betrayal sigil suggests that the original founders built safeguards into their magical legacy specifically to deal with this kind of corruption."
"What kind of safeguards?" Mara asked.
"The kind that activate when descendants of all four founder bloodlines work together voluntarily," Nico said, opening another ancient text that blazed with its own inner light. "Not through coercion or manipulation, but through conscious choice and mutual trust."
Before anyone could respond to this revelation, the air in the parlor suddenly grew thick with magical pressure that made it difficult to breathe. The protective ward around the house flickered like a candle in high wind, and through the windows, they could see shadows moving in the morning sunlight with purposeful intent.
"She's here," Tilly whispered, pressing closer to Mara and Griff. "The pretty lady is here, and she brought lots of friends."
The front door of the inn opened without anyone touching it, revealing a figure that made everyone in the room go still with recognition and horror. It was Ruth Blackthorne, but not the corrupted version they'd encountered in the bookstore. Thiswas something wearing Ruth's face like an ill-fitting mask, her features constantly shifting between familiar and alien, her movements too fluid for human anatomy.
Behind her stood a small army of people who might have been the missing residents of a dozen supernatural communities. Men and women of various ages, all with expressions of blank contentment and eyes that held no trace of individual consciousness.
"Good morning, children," the entity said, and its voice was a harmony of dozens of different tones speaking in perfect unison. "I do hope you slept well. We have such an important day ahead of us."
"You're not Ruth," Leo said, his hand moving automatically toward his weapon despite knowing it would be useless.
"I am Ruth. I am also Margaret from Portland, and David from Seattle, and Catherine from New Orleans, and forty-seven other beloved community leaders who made the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good." The entity's smile was wrong in ways that made Griff's bear want to flee and fight simultaneously. "I am the culmination of centuries of careful work, the synthesis of every lesson learned from every supernatural community that chose cooperation over conflict."
"You're a parasite," Aerin declared, her voice strong despite the magical pressure that was making it hard to think clearly.
"I am evolution," the entity corrected. "I am what supernatural society becomes when it stops pretending that individual identity matters more than collective purpose. Every person I've absorbed, every consciousness I've integrated, has become part of something greater than they could ever have been alone."
Tilly suddenly moved from the sofa, the air around her shimmered with protective energy. "You're lying," she said with absolute certainty. "The shadow friends told me what reallyhappens. You don't make people part of something bigger. You break them into pieces and keep the pieces in cages so they can't remember who they used to be."
The entity's expression flickered, revealing something ancient and infinitely patient beneath the stolen human features. "The child sees more clearly than the adults, as children often do. Very well. Let me be more direct."
It gestured, and the assembled crowd of consumed individuals arranged themselves around the parlor like soldiers taking positions for battle. Each of them began to glow with different magical signatures, creating a display of accumulated power that was both beautiful and terrifying.
"I have spent two centuries collecting the most gifted members of supernatural society, preserving their abilities and knowledge within a collective consciousness that has grown beyond the limitations of any single form. I am stronger, wiser, and more capable than any individual could ever be. And now I am ready to take the final step."
"Which is?" Nico asked, though his expression suggested he already knew the answer.
"Integration with the founder bloodlines that created the original binding. Your combined magical signatures will provide the final component I need to exist independently of any host body, to manifest permanently in the physical realm with all the accumulated power of every supernatural being I have ever encountered."
