"No! Absolutely not!" Adrianna swore. "Are you insane?"
Mason's growl still raised her hackles, even over the phone. "Look, we're running out of options."
"I didn't ask for this," Adrianna snapped, then glanced up from her desk. She had closed the door, drawn the office room shades, but even so, sometime her voice carried out. When she had started this job, it became a joke that Dr. Waverly's semi-often irate phone calls served as in-office entertainment, because everyone in the office could hear nothing but them. It was pretty much impossible once he started swearing and telling them to go do anatomically impossible things to themselves.
"I know. I hate asking this, for more reasons than just that, but it's one of them." Mason sighed. "You're involved in this whether you like it or not. You were chosen."
Adrianna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You make it sound like you're saying I'm some dumb schlock fantasy novel hero. Chosen by a weird wizard for a quest."
"Sadly, looks like it was a witch that chose you. And not for a quest. It seems like you're the inside man for a job."
"An inside man?" Adrianna asked. "This sounds like... I don't even know what it sounds like, to be honest."
Mason sighed. "I... I don't want to tell you this, but I think they're gonna be hitting your museum."
"Hitting it? Like... a burglary?" Adrianna asked.
"Precisely," Mason said.
Adrianna's blood ran cold. "What? How? You have to tell me the proof, we need to get the police involved."
"No!" Mason shouted. "That's a bad idea. Trust me on this, I've been in situations where Unwary cops get involved. It's ugly. It's always ugly."
"They're trained to stop crime," Adrianna said, "and a burglary is a crime."
"Yeah, but they're trained to stop normal stuff. Muggings and assaults where the perp's using a normal weapon like a gun or his fists." Mason went quiet on the other end of the phone. "But a witch with corpse powder? A bokor channeling one of the pissed-off loa? A werewolf? Last time I checked, Philadelphia police ain't issued silver bullets."
Adrianna grunted. "So we've got nobody," she said.
"Adrianna... Doctor Marcionne. That's what we're for. That's what the Van Helsings are for. That's what a dozen different organizations are for. We clean our own house."
"Well, that's fine if it's your house," Adrianna said, "but this is... it's a normal person's house."
"Maybe so," Mason said, "but that house is being messed up by very abnormal people. And those abnormal people will get folks killed."
"Then you deal with them. You're not normal, after all. But just... leave me out of it. I'm not interested in this weird world you all seem comfortable in." Adrianna massaged her temple with her other hand. "I'm not part of your world," she said.
A sigh nearly deafened her. "Look," Mason said, "I understand you didn't ask for this. None of us did. Well, maybe my friend Tim did, but he's just a braucher, not like you or me or Vince." Another long pause followed. "But here's the thing, what someone told me. You can moan and whine about your bad lot in life. But everyone who has a sucky fate does that. We don't get that choice. All we can do is choose what to do with the piss-poor hand the world dealt you."
Adrianna narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to paraphrase Gandalf? From Lord of the Rings?" she snapped.
"Uh... no... wait a minute, that's why it sounded familiar!" Adrianna heard indistinct grumbling on the other end of the phone. "I was paraphrasing a friend," he said, "but it turns out that he was quoting someone else. Someone fictional. But," Mason said, "the point still stands. You're part of our world now, even if you didn't ask for it. You're one of us, and you can either bemoan that fact and prevent yourself from fixing your life, or you can accept it and decide what to do from there."
Adrianna sighed. "Fine. What do you want me to do? Who is this witch?"
"You've probably heard of her. Dr. Tessa Tondichee?"
Adrianna blinked. "What? Dr. Tondichee? A witch? I know her!" Adrianna paused. "I was the one who invited her to speak. She's an anthropologist. I've read some of her papers. They're... not witchy."
"What were they?" Mason asked.
"Kinda dry, to be honest. Read better, but it was good research, and she's a good speaker," Adrianna said. "A witch?"
"Yeah, what they call a skinwalker. If you see her, try to snap a picture of her with the flash on your camera on."
"Why?" Adrianna asked.
"Something Mad Charlie said," Mason explained. "There's a couple stories of them having reflective eyes in human form. You ever see a dog's eyes light up? Well, hers might do that too."
"Um... that's not exactly a simple thing to get," Adrianna said. "I can't just walk up to her and go 'Hey, a friend of mine thinks you're a witch. Mind taking a photo?'"
"Well, no duh," Mason said. "Figure out a way to make it tactful."
"And then what?" Adrianna asked. "Seeing as I'm your new double agent."
"We play it by ear, just... I gotta run." The phone fell silent.
Adrianna let it clatter to her desk. This... this life was draining. This madness that was her new life, though she hated to even acknowledge that it was her new life, left her sleepless, yet oh so tired. It was like she was running down a long corridor, aching to reach the end of it, yet it kept receding out of her reach.
Her pity-party ended, however, the second she heard the knock at her door. She glanced up to see one of the interns poking her head in. Celia? Serena? Adrianna couldn't recall her name. "Uh, Dr. Marcionne? Someone at the front is calling for you."
"Who?" Adrianna asked.
"She says her name is Dr. Tessa Tondichee."
***
Dr. Tessa Tondichee was a severe-looking woman with dark hair pulled back into a bun. Her skin gleamed like bronze beneath the atrium lights. She wore a well-fitting suit, with a string of onyx beads around her neck.
She glanced up at Adrianna's footfalls, and she smiled. "Dr. Marcionne! So good to see you again."
"Thanks for coming on short notice," Adrianna said. "Our last speaker was supposed to talk about Etruscian burial rites, but he only agreed to that because the Italian government blocked the archaeologists from the dig he was supposed to go on."
"Let me guess," Tondichee said, "some minister got part of himself caught in a model and is facing accusations of infidelity? And now that dig's open?"
"Not sex, embezzlement. He got his hand caught in the cookie jar," Adrianna said, "and everything he's doing is coming under scrutiny. Turns out, blocking that dig was contingent on some infrastructure thing. A highway or a reservoir."
Tondichee rolled her eyes. "Building an infrastructure thing on top of an ancient grave? Are they asking for a haunted highway or a ghost-infested reservoir?"
Adrianna chuckled. "You'd think they'd at least hesitate to bulldoze an ancient burial site. If not for respecting cultural heritage, at least, then for the many movies that go into gory detail on why that's a bad idea.
The anthropologist laughed at that. "If only. But I'm glad the dig went through for your other choice. You know how it is when you choose to focus your archaeological career on a specific culture. A poor friend of mine studies the Assyrians, but given how awful the situation in Syria's been, he's not been on a dig in years!" Adrianna grimaced at that.
"Well, I'm glad you could spare some time," the historian said. "However... you're not supposed to be here for another two weeks. Why'd you show up?"
"Ah, yes, sorry about that," Dr. Tondichee said. "I was in the area, thought I'd stop by. Sorry to spring this on you on short notice, I probably should have called ahead. I just wanted to take a look around, if you don't mind."
"No, no problem," Adrianna said. "We've still got the main exhibit under construction, but I can definitely take you on a bit of a tour of the place."
"Ah. No secret tour of the exhibit?" Tessa asked. She gave Adrianna a faint, mischievous smile.
For a moment, Adrianna froze. Why did Tessa want to get into a half-finished exhibit? Unless, of course, Mason was right about her. Right about Tessa being a witch. But the very thought was preposterous. Dr. Tondichee, respected anthropologist and archaeologist, a witch! It was laughable!
But doubt nagged her. She and Dr. Tondichee were friendly, but they were hardly friends. Dr. Tondichee had spoken at a few historical conferences with Adrianna, they had exchanged pleasantries, and occasionally helped each other out on papers they were writing. Yet that mischievous grin Tessa wore seemed to fit on a lifelong friend more than a friendly acquaintance, the kind of friend whose bond with Adrianna had been strengthened by daring escapades and lucky escapes from getting caught for their troublemaking.
And why would that even come up? What did Dr. Tondichee want to see, apart from cordoned off plinths and empty displays and half-set-up security measures? What if... what if Mason was actually right about her? What if Dr. Tondichee was a witch? What if she was trying to rob the Institute? What if everything Adrianna thought she knew about Dr. Tondichee was a lie?
No. It couldn't be. It had to be the opposite. Work was the one normal place, the one part of her life this damned curse didn't twist and corrupt. If she had to be a workaholic to escape the madness and the nightmare that the rest of her life was becoming, so be it. She'd be wedded to the job, but she'd be normal.
"You know the rules. Security gets all uptight about it. Sorry," Adrianna said.
"Eh, worth a shot," Tessa said. She shrugged. "Hey, uh, remember that conference we were both at? The one that devolved into a sorta protest?"
"The one about preserving archaeological digs?" Adrianna asked. She remembered that one. It had mostly been lawyers presenting, talking about different cases of governments bulldozing ancient cairns or paving over temple foundations. And for what, a supermarket? A parking lot that they could have moved a half mile away and not had a problem with? But somehow, one of the historians got up in arms over something someone else said, and it devolved by the third day.
"Yeah, that one. Did that guy ever get your number?" Tessa asked.
Adrianna frowned, trying to recall that man in her mind. Shorter, thinner, with a nervous habit of looking over his shoulder like a spooked rabbit. "No, not really interested in him. Looked like a deer in the headlights the entire time, that guy?"
Dr. Tondichee shrugged. "I thought he was kinda cute, to be honest. But well, to each her own." She paused. "Is there a bathroom nearby?"
"Sure," Adrianna said. "Right this way."
***
Tessa waited until the woman in the stall left.
She glanced back. "Let me explain something to you," she said. Her voice had lost all of its friendliness, and an icy venom had crept in. "You're not my friend. You're not my associate. You're the help here, and you're going to do exactly what I say."
Adrianna blinked. "Come again?" she said.
Dr. Tondichee pinched the bridge of her nose. "Really? I thought that you were briefed on this. You were prepared for this, were you not? From your Sire?"
Adrianna's blood went cold. Mason was right. No, this was impossible! Nothing... absolutely nothing was free of the curse's influence. She didn't know what horrified her more, the fact that Mason was right and Tessa Tondichee was almost definitely a witch, or that even her office job wasn't safe from the madness that had infected her life.
But... the part. Right, play the part. What had Mason said before? That a Sire could dominate his creation. But what did that look like? Uh, probably eyes downcast, generally looking like she's in shock. That'd be a safe guess.
"He... he didn't say much. Just that I'd know when I made contact with the leader of this operation."
"Of course," Tondichee snapped, throwing her hands up. "Damned amateurs. I told him not to involved the werewolf." Adrianna listened. Whoever this him was, it didn't sound like the werewolf. A boss, perhaps? Great, now she was thinking like some sort of spy. She never wanted that.
But Adrianna never wanted to be a werewolf, and look how that turned out. Besides, that information —intelligence, if Adrianna wanted to be technical— could be useful to Mason.
"Hey," Adrianna said, "I've got to deal with amateurs in my business too, and I find it—"
"Oh, shut up!" Tondichee said. "We're dealing with things that could get us killed. We're not paper-pushing imbeciles, and I didn't recruit you because I wanted your inane advice."
"Oh, sorry." That was right, Adrianna. Keep your head down, show submission. And then, pray Dr. Tondichee's arrogance betrays some secret to Adrianna.
"Look. There's not much time, and I won't be giving you the rundown here, especially given that this is just supposed to be first contact," Tessa said. She glared, staring at her reflection in the mirror, before turning angrily to face Adrianna. She reached into her suit, and Adrianna flinched.
"Ugh, really? I'm not about to do you in in a damned bathroom," Dr. Tondichee said, throwing an envelope at Adrianna. "There's more instructions in here, alright? An address where we're to meet tomorrow. Make sure you're not followed, make sure there are no police or anything. Because the second police get involved, there'll be bodies. And the second there are bodies, it makes our jobs a lot more complicated."
"You're not worried?" Adrianna asked.
"Wow, you are new," Tessa said. "Police? They're a freaking joke. We've got enough clout to deal with the entire Philadelphia Police Department twelve times over." She lowered her voice. "And besides, guns and handcuffs are useless against what I am capable of. Understand that?" Adrianna nodded. "Good, now, make sure you're presentable. We're going out again, and when we do, we're going to be good colleagues enjoying a stroll, nothing more. Understood?" she asked. Adrianna nodded again. "I said, understood?"
"Yes," Adrianna said. It infuriated her that she had to answer this... this traitor like that. Yet, as she thought, Adrianna realized that she hadn't felt the beast within stir against her. The only people that didn't happen with had been Mason and Leslie. Was Tondichee that dangerous?
"Bah, hold on. We're not going out yet." Tondichee reached into her purse and drew out some mascara. "Stupid stuff won't stay on." She opened her eyes, leaning in to the mirror to apply it.
A thought crossed Adrianna's mind, and she withdrew her phone. Tessa was too focused on her reflection to notice it, as Adrianna turned on the camera and switched on the flash. And then, as if taking a selfie, she snapped a picture.
Tessa blinked, and the mascara wand clattered to the ground. "Seriously? You nearly made me stab my eye out!" Adrianna bowed her head meekly, but her work was already done; she had sent the picture to Mason. It wasn't terribly flattering; Tessa's face was all odd due to her pose, her chin jutting out at a painful-looking angle, and it was a bit blurry.
It did, however, show off the glowing, reflective eyes, shining like a wolf's eyes in the night.
"Delete that picture," Tessa ordered. Adrianna nodded, and a few minutes later the image was off her phone. "Now," she said, "are we going?"
"Give me a moment," Adrianna said. "I'll be out soon. I just need..."
"Fine. Don't keep me waiting long." With that, Tessa Tondichee left her alone.
Adrianna leaned against the sink, staring at her reflection. How much? How much of her life had been already tainted by this madness? How many people had been witches, had been vampires, had been werewolves? How much of this had gone unnoticed by her blindness?
How many vampires had she invited into her home, unaware that they were dead? How many witches and warlocks had she broke bread with, unaware of the double lives they led? How many monsters had she invited into her home by mistake, thinking they were people? How many times had a guest smiled over the generic store-brand coffee Adrianna brewed them, sipped it and made casual chitchat, all the while sizing her up like she was a piece of meat?
There was no escape from the madness. She was a fool to think it, really. She had seen the face behind her face, the monster lurking within her. What a naive idiot she was, really, to think that she could run away from that. No matter where she went, her own personal hell followed her, her ever-present shadow.