Free Hexomancy by Michael R. Underwood

enough to the form of a panther as to be indistinguishable. If panthers could climb and hang on walls, which as I recall, they mostly cannot.”
    “Less taxonomy, more explain-y,” Ree said.
    The sound of ripping duct tape came over the phone, and then more wincing. “The panther crawled down the side of the building and leaped at me. I pulled Priya back into the alley and threatened the panther with my handgun, but it pressed the attack. I fought back, but the beast was blindingly fast and quickly had me on the ropes, mauling me against the sidewall, my gun cast aside. I’d thought that we’d be safe; the crime reports for that neighborhood are consistently two orders of magnitude lower than others, and with monster attacks trending within three percent of those crime reports, given the Doubt—”
    Ree cut him off again. “The parts about Priya, please,” Ree said, anger at having to get Drake back on topic doing nothing to diffuse her rage, though it was entirely familiar. In better circumstances, this would be a gentle ribbing, not an interrogation.
    “She sprayed the panther-thing with her mace—quite bold, but it had little effect. The creature cut her face before returning to me. I managed to wound the creature with my knife after it gouged me, and then the beast thought better of the fight. It scaled the walls, disappearing onto the roofs.
    “After that, I escorted Priya home. I told her that if I was so careless as to not be able to protect her from the dangers of the city, then it would be far better for her if I removed myself from her life, as I did not deserve her affections.”
    “Bullshit, Drake. This random-encounter shit happens to everyone. If you’re embarrassed about being underprepared, then prepare better. And the only person who gets to decide if you’re worthy of Priya’s affections is Priya. If you asked for her to forgive you—did you even wait for her response, or did you just go gallivanting off into the night to take a page from Eastwood and get your brood on?”
    “I thought to spare her the shattering of her worldview that would come from sustained activities in contravention of the Doubt. Better to think poorly of me and be safe.”
    “Nope, nope, and a whole lot more nope. You can’t just turn tail and leave her friends, including me, to clean this up. I’m telling her what really happened, and then you’re going to apologize again, this time so she’ll remember for real. What happens after that is up to her. You hear me?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Drake said, cowed.
    “Good. Now get yourself patched up and wait for my next call.” Ree took a breath.
    “And Drake?”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m glad you’re both okay. If she was on her own, she might not have made it. You fucked up, but not all the way.”
    “Thank you, Ms. Ree,” Drake said, reverting to the more formal address.
    “Night,” she said, and hung up.
    Ree dropped her phone back into her jacket and stared at the midnight street. Lights buzzed sodium light onto the ground, joining only two lit windows on the block of apartments stacked on top of bodegas, cell phone/TTY/SIM shops, Thai restaurants, and the one trendy boutique stuffed between the working-class businesses, a single sprout that promised more gentrification to come.
    That idiot . Her heart had a knife through it and a seeping bullet wound besides, then it had been tossed in a fail blender, thanks to her protectiveness of her friend and her unresolved feelings for the foolhardy, self-righteous jackass she’d just dressed down like he was an army recruit who’d shit his pants.
    Ree buzzed Priya’s apartment again and walked back up the stairs when the door opened.
    Scaling the steps, Ree remembered to be quiet again, which gave her the time to try to tamp down her rage into something slightly more manageable. If she was going to break the masquerade for Priya, this was going to be a very long night, and Drake wouldn’t be the only one coming off