“Hey, I need to talk to you.”

“Oh God, what about?”

Graham was sitting on the couch eating a sandwich when James walked out of his office. He looked up at James cautiously. “Do you need me to come in there, or…”

He gestured toward the sandwich wrapper laid out on the coffee table, with his bag of chips and soft drink on top of it. “Oh, no,” James said. “No, I can come out here.”

He took one of the chairs by the computers and turned it to face Graham. It was quiet in Headquarters right now, with everybody else working on other things. Graham watched him apprehensively as he sat down.

“Stop looking at me like I’m about to murder you,” James said. “This has nothing to do with Chris.”

“Oh, thank God,” Graham said. “I thought you were about to tell me you were moving, too.”

James laughed. “I can’t afford my own place,” he said. “No, this is work-related. Amelia and I were talking the other day. We’re thinking about getting the team more specialized, trying to split the work up a little more efficiently.”

Graham nodded, reaching into his tiny chip bag for a Dorito. “That sounds cool,” he said.

“Yeah, Brad’s been doing logistics and finance for years, but a lot of teams have everybody choose a specialty, and it seems to work well for them. I’m thinking Gabriella on research since she’s basically our researcher in everything but the title right now. And I want to talk to Madelyn later today about tech.”

“Good call,” Graham said. “She’s been studying for that tech seminar pretty much nonstop lately.”

“Do you have anything you’d be particularly interested in?” James asked.

“I refuse to be team psychologist,” Graham said. “I left that life behind, and I don’t want to know any of your weird secrets.”

“Done,” James said. “I know you’re still pretty early in, so don’t feel like you have to choose something now. But if there’s anything that’s really caught your eye since you’ve been here-”

“Cryptids,” Graham interrupted.

He ate another chip, nodding. “Yeah, I think I’d like to learn more about cryptids. Something about almost getting eaten by a bear monster on campus last summer really sparked a new love in me.”

James could have kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Of course they needed someone to focus on cryptids. Leominster State Forest was, like, a mile from them, and it was teeming with weird creatures. “That… sounds perfect,” he said. “I’ll look into what the Foundation offers for training on cryptids. I know there are a lot of workshops and modules and stuff. So we can put something together for you if they haven’t done it already.”

“Even if they have a program set up, I’m not sure I trust it,” Graham said. “Did you know that the new agent training program thinks we’re in New Bedford? I learned more about sea monsters than I did about anything that might show up on Fitchburg State’s campus.”

James wished he could be surprised by that. But instead, he just laughed and took one of Graham’s chips.

---

Gabriella was next. While James was all but positive she’d say yes to becoming the team’s official researcher, he didn’t want to make any assumptions before sending his proposal over to McGovern. So, before he left for the night, he made his way over to the pink bedroom and knocked on the open door.

Gabriella looked up from a demonology book he recognized from his office bookshelf. “Hey,” she said, setting down her pen. “What’s up?”

“I’m heading out in a few minutes and just wanted to talk to you real quick.”

She looked nervous at that, and he waved it aside. “It’s not bad,” he said. “You’re not in trouble or anything. What are you working on?”

Relieved, she glanced back down at her book, where a sketch of a demon munching a human arm looked back up at them. “Just working through all the resources we have on demons,” she said. “I know that the Carr case is over, but I wanted to get a full collection of notes together before working with Bradley to set up more educational material.”

She glanced out the door, then lowered her voice. “I don’t want to hear about it if I’m missing something.”

James laughed, then glanced down the empty hallway too. He stepped inside and closed the door. “Yeah, he’s in a mood lately,” he said. “But hey, that actually ties in with what I wanted to discuss.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. So, listen. Amelia and I were thinking we want to get the team more specialized. You’re already basically our team researcher. But what would you think of making it official?”

Gabriella’s face lit up for a moment, then she schooled her features into something more professional. “I’d love that,” she said. “Um, what would you need from me?”

“Input on creating the position,” James said. “I guess that’s pretty much it. Like I said, you’re already doing the work.”

She nodded, but he could see her trying not to smile too broadly. “We’ll get everything official once this Delinsky nightmare is over,” he said. “But take some time to think about it, okay?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do you need anything before I head out?”

Gabriella shook her head. “Nope, it’s me and Madelyn tonight. So I’m going to just keep working on this unless anything comes in. You’re going home, right?”

Any crack he was about to make died on his lips at the stern look on her face. “Yeah,” he said instead. “Yeah, I’m heading home now.”

She immediately brightened. “Oh good. Have a good night!”

She turned back to her work as James opened the door and walked out of the room, feeling slightly unsettled. When, exactly, had his baby cousin Gabriella gotten scary?

---

The next morning, James had a meeting scheduled with Madelyn to discuss setting her up with an official specialization as well. So of course, his work shirt had vanished. He’d gotten out of the shower, come into the bedroom to get dressed, and the button-down shirt he’d laid out for the day had disappeared from the top of the dresser.

Goddammit, he didn’t have a backup and his workout shirt stank of sweat. And now here he was, standing shirtless in the middle of the room, glaring at the empty space where his shirt had been. He’d told Madelyn he wanted to meet with her at nine, then given himself plenty of time before that to clean up after his workout. Now he was running late and wasting her time.

He looked on either side of the dresser. No luck. He really needed to bring a backup in again. Maybe Graham had one. Or Bradley. Not that any of them were the same size, but he could deal with it for a day.

This place couldn’t be haunted, there were too many protections up. Anything powerful enough to get past them would have much more malicious things in mind than stealing his shirt. No, it had to be here somewhere, and he was going to find it.

Ah! He pulled back the dresser from the wall and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the shirt crunched on the floor at the bottom. He fished it out, then pulled it on. It was a little dusty and wrinkled, but whatever. He’d deal with it later.

James walked out of the bedroom, fastening the top buttons as he walked. Madelyn was nowhere to be seen, but it was no big deal. If she was wrapping things up from the overnight shift, he would just go wait in his office for a bit, then find her.

As he walked in, he glanced down at the couch and jumped slightly again as he saw that Madelyn was already there. She was sitting on the far end of the couch, feet on the ground and head tilted back against the cushion. Her eyes were closed, but she opened them as he walked in. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

He sat down on the other side of the couch. “You like my new couch? I think we’ve all fallen asleep on it by this point.”

“Yeah, it’s comfortable. I figured I’d wait for you here since I wasn’t sure when you’d be done.”

Her voice was low, a clear sign she was having a rough day. Even after six months, James still didn’t know exactly how she wanted to handle these things. But considering what they were going to be talking about, he’d need to.

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked.

“You mentioned a while back that you were doing the Foundation’s technology program,” James said. “I was wondering what you would think of specializing further and becoming our team tech person.”

She raised her eyebrows at him, tucking a stray lock of short, dark hair behind her ear. “What would that mean?”

“I don’t know all the details yet,” he admitted. “But I want us to get a bit more specialized than we are now. I don’t think anyone can make our computers run well, not unless we have a magic division in-house. But the Foundation keeps talking about different tech they’re sending our way while we’re still trying to figure out how to incorporate what they’ve already sent. You’ve got a head for that stuff and I can barely get my phone to work.”

Madelyn laughed, then paused. “Would I be out of the field for good?” she asked.

“I don’t want you to be,” James said. “Unless you think it would be best.”

“I don’t,” she said quickly. “No, I want to be back out there. I don’t know when, but doing observations and interviews has made me feel more like I’m part of things again.”

James wanted to jump on that immediately, to tell her she’d always been part of things. But he knew that despite the rest of the team’s best efforts, things had changed.

“You don’t have to answer this,” James said. “But have the doctors given you any kind of prognosis?”

He cringed a little, but she didn’t seem to mind the question. “I mean, I’m going to live, if that’s what you mean.”

He shot her a look. “Not even a little.”

“Sorry.” But she didn’t look sorry. “No, I mean, we don’t know? It’ll probably never fully go away, but I’m hoping it’ll get easier to function with time. I’m in treatment and it’s going well. And by now I’ve come to grips with the fact that this is my life. But I need to keep going at it as though I’m definitely going to get back out in the field regularly at some point. Does that make sense?”

“Completely,” he said. “So, how about this? You think about the technology thing-”

“I don’t need to,” Madelyn interrupted. “I’m in.”

“Awesome. We’ll figure that process out between the two of us. Maybe Bradley too. And we keep on with your plan. As long as you’re safe and healthy, I’m open to any ideas you have about fieldwork.”

Madelyn smiled at him. “What?” he asked.

“You’re a good captain,” she said. “Not that I thought you wouldn’t be. But… you’re good at this.”

“I just lost my shirt behind the dresser for five minutes. Don’t be so confident.”

She laughed and stood up. “I’m going to get ready to go,” she said. “Do you need anything before the end of my shift?”

James shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

She left, and he stretched out on the couch for a moment, putting his hands behind his head. There was a lot to do today, but he could take a moment before the Delinskys and their bullshit needed to be dealt with.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 18