Read Online Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1) by Jen Rasmussen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jen Rasmussen
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but Thea, distracted by the spectacle, hadn’t noticed her until she spoke.
“Who is he?” Thea asked.
“Nobody knows. He’s been coming around once in a while the last few months, screaming about demons and evil. Seems like he wants something, but we don’t know what.”
“How is that possible?” Thea remembered what Graves had told her when he brought her onto campus the day before. “He shouldn’t be able to get in here. And even if he found a way, it’s just supposed to look ruined to him, right?”
The fury looked at Thea, as if taking her in for the first time. “Who are you?”
“I’m Thea.” She held out a hand that she hoped wouldn’t be noticeably damp. “I’m a new hire.”
“The human transformation! I heard about you.”
Did you hear I’m a harlot?
“I’m Mirabella,” the fury went on. She shook hands and smiled, then gestured in the direction the security guard had flown off in. “To answer your question, that only works if they’ve never been here before. Once they see it on an authorized visit, they can always see it. Facilities has been looking for a weak spot in the fence, but so far they haven’t figured out how he’s getting in.”
“So he was authorized to be here once?”
“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? We haven’t tracked down any files on him. We don’t even know his name. Hence Mr. Fanatic. What are you doing here, by the way?”
At first Thea thought she meant at Hexing House in general, and for one sickening moment thought Mirabella had seen her sins ( harlot ), and knew she was there under false pretenses.
“Did you need to see someone specific? Because I’m the only one in today,” Mirabella said.
Thea realized she just meant the building. “This isn’t FR?”
“No, this is HRI. Human Relations and Investigation. FR is the building behind this one.” She gestured for Thea to follow her to the walkway, and pointed to the building in question, which looked exactly like the building in front of them. Thea wondered if she could ask somebody for a map.
With a quick thanks to Mirabella, she hurried off. The last thing she needed was to be late for her first day of training. She was already in enough trouble around this place, and her second day here wasn’t exactly starting well.
Serving the demons, are you?
No, sir, not anymore. The demon paid me twenty-seven million dollars and let me out of my contract.
Things didn’t get better when she reported to a training room in FR to find that Philip, the hostile fury she’d met at dinner the night before, and two of his friends were the other new hires. A quick glance told her that one of the others was male, the other female, before Thea shifted her eyes downward. She didn’t look at them again, but she could feel them looking at her.
The instructor glared at her with obvious distaste, before finally introducing himself as Stefan and telling her he supposed she ought to take a seat. He was big but soft and running to fat, with thinning yellow hair. For some reason it struck Thea as funny, that furies went bald, too. She quickly converted the mocking smile that came unbidden into what she hoped was the expression of an enthusiastic pupil, and chose a seat at the end of the table, next to an empty chair. There was a notebook and a pen in front of her, and a bottle of water.
“I’ll be up front with you, Thea.” Stefan’s voice was slightly shrill and bound to become annoying. “You’ve got a long way to go to prove yourself. We haven’t had a human transformation in over half a century.”
Thea nodded. She’d heard that repeated plenty of times already.
“But more importantly, you are not an authorized hire.” Stefan narrowed his eyes at her. “As the head of FR, I do the recruiting here. Graves went entirely outside of protocol.”
Thea wasn’t sure whether he was expecting her to apologize for Graves’s overstepping his boundaries, but she didn’t say anything.
“Very
“Who is he?” Thea asked.
“Nobody knows. He’s been coming around once in a while the last few months, screaming about demons and evil. Seems like he wants something, but we don’t know what.”
“How is that possible?” Thea remembered what Graves had told her when he brought her onto campus the day before. “He shouldn’t be able to get in here. And even if he found a way, it’s just supposed to look ruined to him, right?”
The fury looked at Thea, as if taking her in for the first time. “Who are you?”
“I’m Thea.” She held out a hand that she hoped wouldn’t be noticeably damp. “I’m a new hire.”
“The human transformation! I heard about you.”
Did you hear I’m a harlot?
“I’m Mirabella,” the fury went on. She shook hands and smiled, then gestured in the direction the security guard had flown off in. “To answer your question, that only works if they’ve never been here before. Once they see it on an authorized visit, they can always see it. Facilities has been looking for a weak spot in the fence, but so far they haven’t figured out how he’s getting in.”
“So he was authorized to be here once?”
“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? We haven’t tracked down any files on him. We don’t even know his name. Hence Mr. Fanatic. What are you doing here, by the way?”
At first Thea thought she meant at Hexing House in general, and for one sickening moment thought Mirabella had seen her sins ( harlot ), and knew she was there under false pretenses.
“Did you need to see someone specific? Because I’m the only one in today,” Mirabella said.
Thea realized she just meant the building. “This isn’t FR?”
“No, this is HRI. Human Relations and Investigation. FR is the building behind this one.” She gestured for Thea to follow her to the walkway, and pointed to the building in question, which looked exactly like the building in front of them. Thea wondered if she could ask somebody for a map.
With a quick thanks to Mirabella, she hurried off. The last thing she needed was to be late for her first day of training. She was already in enough trouble around this place, and her second day here wasn’t exactly starting well.
Serving the demons, are you?
No, sir, not anymore. The demon paid me twenty-seven million dollars and let me out of my contract.
Things didn’t get better when she reported to a training room in FR to find that Philip, the hostile fury she’d met at dinner the night before, and two of his friends were the other new hires. A quick glance told her that one of the others was male, the other female, before Thea shifted her eyes downward. She didn’t look at them again, but she could feel them looking at her.
The instructor glared at her with obvious distaste, before finally introducing himself as Stefan and telling her he supposed she ought to take a seat. He was big but soft and running to fat, with thinning yellow hair. For some reason it struck Thea as funny, that furies went bald, too. She quickly converted the mocking smile that came unbidden into what she hoped was the expression of an enthusiastic pupil, and chose a seat at the end of the table, next to an empty chair. There was a notebook and a pen in front of her, and a bottle of water.
“I’ll be up front with you, Thea.” Stefan’s voice was slightly shrill and bound to become annoying. “You’ve got a long way to go to prove yourself. We haven’t had a human transformation in over half a century.”
Thea nodded. She’d heard that repeated plenty of times already.
“But more importantly, you are not an authorized hire.” Stefan narrowed his eyes at her. “As the head of FR, I do the recruiting here. Graves went entirely outside of protocol.”
Thea wasn’t sure whether he was expecting her to apologize for Graves’s overstepping his boundaries, but she didn’t say anything.
“Very
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