Page 81 of The Hive Queen

“Are they still witches once they’re turned into drones?” Troy asks.

Sharpe hesitates. “We’re not sure. The two we encountered last night didn’t try to use magic.”

“They’re not.” Flint shifts uncomfortably in his chair. “They didn’t have even a scrap of ley line energy in them. If they had, I could have used it to stop them.”

Johannsson’s shoulders slump in relief. “That’s a small blessing. I don’t even want to think what it would be like to face an army of witches controlled by that thing.”

“The hospitals have reported several cases of unusual bee stings within Clearhelm over the last month.” Sharpe paces back and forth. “I’ve dispatched people to bring them in, but we have to assume that most of these victims have already been converted, and for everyone who was brought in, there will be more who did not report the injury.”

Sharpe looks around the room. “The venom works quickly to make the victims forget the injury until it’s too late. So, we have no way of knowing how many of these drones the Hive Queen will have with her once we track down her location.”

O’Hara’s hand drops to the wicked-looking hook that dangles from his belt. “Do we know how to kill this Hive Queen?”

Sharpe hesitates for only a moment. “There’s a specific weapon called the Shard of Destiny.”

A scoff comes from Johannsson. “Just one specific weapon? Are we in a B-rated horror movie here?”

Sharpe ignores him. “This brings us to our next person of interest.” He clicks the remote in his hand, and Amalia’s image appears on the whiteboard. “This is Amalia Wolfe, a bounty hunter who is also after the Hive Queen and the current possessor of the Shard of Destiny.”

Johannsson’s curses fill the room.

“If you see this person, approach with caution,” Sharpe continues. “She has already injured one of ours. She should be handled with care.”

Troy rubs his chin. “Shoot first kind of care?”

Sharpe’s gaze flickers toward us.

“She’s well trained in hand-to-hand and adept at using most weapons, though she prefers to avoid guns,” I say, ignoring the hiss that comes from Flint. “She’s witchblood, but not diverse. Her primary power is charging items with ley line magic to explode. She’s what we’d call a conduit. Cut her off from the ley line, and she’s about as dangerous as a human with a black belt in street fighting.”

O’Hara grins. “Magical explosions don’t bother us.”

“It will bother you when she blows up the car you try to bring her in with,” Flint growls. “Don’t think that just because magic doesn’t touch you, it can’t kill you.”

Johannsson twists around in his chair. “So, how do we cut her off from the ley line?”

Flint’s hands curl into fists. “I can do it if it becomes necessary.”

“Then maybe you should have done it last night.” Johannsson’s lip curls. “Then maybe you wouldn’t be limping around.”

Pen rises from her desk. “Shut it, Paul, or Flint won’t be the only one with a limp.”

I reach out to touch Pen’s arm. Everyone’s tempers are running short from exhaustion, and now isn’t the time to be picking fights.

Johannsson bursts to his feet. “Your boyfriend almost got our boss killed last night because he didn’t take the proper precautions when approaching a dangerous suspect. Someone you all vouched for, I’d like to add. If you’d been upfront about how dangerous she was when I had her in custody, she’d be behind bars right now instead of running around the city with some mystical spearhead!”

“Don’t blame us for your lack of attention,” Pen snarls. “If you’d kept your eyes on her, she wouldn’t have slipped your grasp so easily.”

“Enough!” Sharpe strides to the wall and turns on the light, making everyone flinch at the sudden brightness. “We’re not here to point fingers. We’re here to come up with a game plan. Even without this magical Shard, we can still bring the Hive Queen in and lock her up in the Ward until we can figure out how to kill her.”

His angry gaze sweeps over the room. “So, stop bickering like children and start giving me ideas.”

Flint shifts in his seat and winces. “I can track Amalia down again.”

Sharpe gives him a hard stare. “Can you in your current condition?”

Flint grimaces. “My head’s still pounding from locating her last night. It will take longer, and she knows we’re looking.”

“We’ll keep that on backup for now.” Sharpe looks at his partner. “What about you, Mayn? Were you able to find something you can use for tracking?”

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