Read Reign of Evil - 03 for Free Online

until its mission is complete.”
    Walker mused for a moment. Where was Laws when he needed him to simplify things? “What does this Wild Hunt do?”
    She smiled patiently. “It’s a supernatural hunting party that hunts specific things. What those things are depends on the mission.”
    “And what’s its mission?” Ian asked.
    She shrugged. “Think of this like a homicide. If you were a detective, what would you want to know? The motive of the criminal, right? Knowing the motive will help you narrow down who it was who committed the crime. If we can figure out the motive of those who brought it back, we may know its mission.”
    “Wait a moment,” Jerry said, crossing his arms. “Are you saying that there’s a supernatural wild hunt out there killing people?”
    Ian looked at Walker. “Jerry’s new. Only been with us for a month.”
    Walker nodded. “I can relate. I fought homunculus the first day on the job.”
    “What’s a homunculus?” Jerry asked.
    “Little fucking Freddy Krueger–Stretch Armstrong serial-killing mini-golem.”
    Jerry blinked. “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds terrible.”
    “It is. I’ve made my share of them too,” the witch said. “Making them is even harder than killing them, if you can believe it.” She winked at Walker. “Back to the Wild Hunt. The reason Trev called you, Ian, was because I think I might know who it was who held the ceremony.”
    “The one who apparently called forth the Wild Hunt—that ceremony?” Ian asked.
    “The very same. So normally, it’s the British Druid Society who puts on the show and performs the ceremony at both solstices. They’re a mundane, fairly lame group of non-magicals who do a lot of pretending.”
    “Like reenactors,” Walker noted.
    “Exactly. Their shows were—”
    “Wait, what are reenactors?” Trev asked.
    Jack responded, “Middle-aged men with bad hobbies who dress up in American Civil War or American Revolution uniforms and pretend to do battle. Like the Society for Creative Anachronism except with guns and using real history?”
    Trev shook his head. “I only understood half of what you said. Do they ever reenact the American Revolution where we win?”
    “Uh, not that I know of,” Walker said.
    “And back to me.” The witch rolled her eyes and pointed both thumbs at herself. When she got full attention, she continued. “So the British Druid Society is really just a bunch of actors. It’s why none of us magicals ever worried about them performing ceremonies, because we knew they didn’t know what the flaming hell they were doing. As it happens, and we’re just now finding this out, except for those of us who felt a shuddering of the veil, a different group arranged to perform the ceremony this year.”
    “And this group is?” Ian asked, losing a little of his patience.
    “The Red Grove. A magical I know contacted the chair of the British Druid Society. The society was given a hundred thousand pounds to silently not show up and my magical friend says that the check was written from an account owned by the Red Grove.”
    Ian nodded, hand beneath his chin. “So it’s a business. We should be able to track financial data through our associates at MI5.” He looked up sharply at the witch. “Have you ever heard of this Red Grove?”
    “ The Red Grove, and no, they’re new to me.”
    Ian nodded, deep in thought. “Anything else?”
    She shook her head.
    “Right then. We’ll be leaving you be. Jerry, clean your bloody plate for the lady.”
    “There’s no need. One of my cats will take care of it. Plus, I have my own little homunculus who cleans for me.”
    “Can I see it?” Jerry asked.
    Ian grabbed Jerry by the shoulder and pushed him toward the front entrance. “I apologize for my man, Ms. Moore. He doesn’t get out much.”
    “Quite all right,” she said. “And please call me Sassy.”
    Ian leveled a gaze at her. “Not on your life, ma’am.” Then he swept the other three