The Wicked City. Megan Morgan

stepped into the room. June found her pretty in an overbearing sense: Amazonian and bodacious, leggy and curvy in a way most guys liked. All the things June wasn’t.

      “She likes you.” Cindy wore white pajama pants and a pink T-shirt stretched tight across her ample bosom. “It must be your charming personality. Or you smell like Micha.”

      June glanced over at the sofa. Micha had his back to them, covers bunched around his waist, his white T-shirt twisted and hair a tousled, mottled mess of brown and gold. Despite Cindy’s friendship with Micha, she pointed out repeatedly that she was not a “paranormal activist” like him. June didn’t blame Cindy for wanting to be clear. June had actively avoided paranormal activists until she committed the grave mistake of coming to Chicago.

      “He’s been sleeping a lot.” Cindy indicated Micha. “Is that one of the side effects?”

      June ground her cigarette out in the bowl and sat the bowl next to her hip. “Hell if I know. I’ve never accidentally messed up someone’s mind so bad I couldn’t reverse it.”

      Cindy left the room. She returned shortly with a newspaper.

      “Look at this.” She walked to the bed and thrust the paper at June.

      She gave June the Paranormal section of the Chicago Tribune. June had been reading it every day for some mention of Jason. She’d also been reading news online, on Cindy’s laptop. The Chicago Institute for Supernatural Research, the first and biggest facility to be given government approval for paranormal research, kept the city alive with supernatural intrigue and gave bloggers something to endlessly blather about. The Institute’s presence didn’t mean folks in Chicago were hugging their neighborhood telepath, however. The freaks still got persecuted, like in Sacramento where June lived.

      The headline on the first page said: HAVE THE SIREN TWINS LEFT CHICAGO? INSTITUTE NOT FORTHCOMING.

      June’s heart jumped and then sank again after she read the article. The reporter speculated she and Jason had fled, “shaken profoundly by the horrific and untimely death of the Institute’s top vampire researcher, Rose Bellevue, her vicious murder still a hot topic of rampant speculation.” The article went on to say paranormal citizens were pointing fingers at a normalist group called the Secular Normalists of Chicago or SNC, “a dastardly force polluting this city with misinformation and blatant ignorance.”

      June could end the speculation, if she dared come out of hiding.

      The article also said police were still investigating the possible kidnapping of Micha Bellevue, Rose’s husband and one of the paranormal community’s most lauded advocates: “last year’s recipient of the J.B. Rhine Award for Advocacy, friend of many paranormal people. His generous admirers hope fervently for his safety and the punishment of those involved in this horrendous crime.”

      June had seen plenty of bloggers speculating Micha had something to do with Rose’s death and was on the run, and one particularly amusing guy was convinced Micha had been abducted by the CIA. June could be sneaky, but she wasn’t on level with the government.

      “I can’t believe how lurid this shit is.” June tossed the paper on top of Dipity. She emitted an angry mewl and got up. “Reads like a tabloid.”

      “Ethan Roberts.” Cindy lifted the paper off her cat. “He’s been the lead paranormal reporter for the Tribune for years. He might be colorful, but he knows what he’s talking about.” She tucked the paper under her arm. “My friend will be here soon. So haul your ass out of bed and get dressed.”

      Dipity jumped off June and padded slowly around the bed.

      “I tried to warn him.” Cindy looked over at Micha. “All those years he thought the Institute could do no wrong. He sure took it up the ass without lube this time.”

      June didn’t comment.

      “It sucks, though.” Cindy dropped her voice a little. “He didn’t deserve to lose Rose.”

      “Look at it this way. Now he can be an advocate for the right people. Knowledge is power. Fight the Man. Rah rah.”

      June sat up. Dipity moved behind her and rubbed across her back in a sleek caress. Cats forgave easily.

      Cindy turned toward the door.

      “Hey,” June said.

      Cindy stopped.

      “What’s the SNC? I keep seeing them pop up in these articles.”

      Cindy scrunched up her face. “They’re a paranormal…protest group. Can’t say ‘hate group’ since the treaty. The Secular Normalists of Chicago. They wanted to set themselves apart from the Bible-thumpers and fundies, but they still like to beat us up.”

      “I didn’t realize they needed an organized group to do that. Where I come from, that’s called a gang.”

      “It was founded by this guy named Alan Jenkins. He died like five years ago and his son Aaron took over. Aaron says he wants to clean up his father’s dirt.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t believe him.”

      “Quite a city you got here.”

      Dipity hopped off the bed and landed on the floor with a thump.

      “I don’t know how you sleep at night,” June said.

      “With one eye open.” Cindy turned and left the room. Dipity streaked after her.

      Micha, undoubtedly having been awake for the entire conversation, stirred and rolled partially onto his back and twisted his head around. He gazed at her with bleary, unfocused eyes. She fought the urge to walk over to the sofa and lovingly smooth his hair back; then grab a fistful.

      “I like your ink,” Micha said groggily. “I have some. On my back.”

      June blinked and stretched her exposed arms. She had countless hours and thousands of dollars worth of tattoos up and down her arms, across her chest, some on her back, one down her left side. A lot she’d done herself. She also had multiple piercings: six in one ear, four in the other—minus the gauges—one in her tongue too, not to mention a few other places. A “rebel,” her mother called her. She caused soccer moms to cross the street on a regular basis, even when doing nothing more malevolent than smoking a Parliament while holding a latte and texting.

      “Thanks,” she said. “You’ll have to show me sometime.”

      Micha rolled fully onto his back and stretched, arms over his head, long legs stiffening beneath the blanket. He didn’t fit on the sofa, but he’d insisted on taking it, like a gentleman.

      “God, what time is it?” he asked.

      “A little after nine.” She needed to say something but took a moment to choose her words carefully. “I feel bad about you missing your wife’s funeral today. But until I figure out how to fix what I’ve done to your head, I can’t send you back into the wild. Let them keep thinking you’ve been kidnapped by the CIA or whatever. I have a feeling if you surfaced right now you’d fall into the Institute’s net anyway.”

      Micha put his hands over his face. The light caught on his gold wedding band.

      “I’m so confused,” he murmured through his fingers. “Not only about this woman who’s supposed to be my wife, but about the Institute.” He took his hands away. “I supported them. I thought they were doing the right thing. I believed they were helping the maligned and oppressed.”

      June couldn’t believe he’d used the words “maligned and oppressed” in seriousness.

      “I’ve done so many seminars there,” Micha said. “I’ve lauded them as a safe haven and a place for paranormal people to understand themselves and help others understand them. When I think of all the people I’ve sent there…”

      The sunlight blazing on the white walls magnified the color of his eyes, making them some inane interior decorating color like cerulean.