Page 3 of (Mostly) Human Resources

A prickle of unease crept up her spine, but she didn’t have time to consider it. She silenced her office phone and opened the list of pending case files—20 in total, and the leadership meeting loomed. No way in hell was she walking in with this much work to do.

She took a sip of lukewarm coffee and started skimming: Bigfoot sighting in Kentucky; low priority. She shrugged apologetically before assigning it to Hank. She scrolled. Bigfoot, more Bigfoot, followed by a Werewolf sighting and another Bigfoot. She carried on, flicking through a series of banal cases.

That’s when she saw it.

‘Otherworldly’ night terrors.

Alexys bypassed the initial client information and clicked straight on the questionnaire. She refused to get her hopes up, but it didn’t stop the flutter in her chest as she read. The case involved a child in Virginia, a boy, experiencing recurrent and disruptive night terrors. The mother, one Rebecca Sims, was unable to wake him when he was in such a state. Alexys kept reading: No family history of sleep disorders, no abnormalities in the boy’s bloodwork, and no underlying neurological conditions that may be affecting his sleep. Parasomnias had also been ruled out.

Alexys swallowed.

Could it be?

Her gaze flicked to the faded Post-it note that she’d taped to her monitor. On it, the random combination of numbers and letters that entitled her to an employee discount. Its presence served as her daily reminder, the reason she worked as hard as she did. Alexys wrote it down nearly three years ago, but she hadn’t had the chance to use it. The discount was small, admittedly, but any reduction in price would help. As the industry leader, Entity charged enough per investigation to make even the hardiest demon wince.

But there was no one else who could help her. If, like this boy, her dreamswereotherworldly, she didn’t have another choice. And maybe, just maybe, one of her very own Wardens could help figure it all out. There was no denying that the lack of sleep was taking a toll on her body and her caffeine addiction was barely tempering her exhaustion, but she still couldn’t bring herself to file an official report. Not yet. Not until she could afford the whole package.

Whatever was going on with her dreams, supernatural or otherwise, it’d just have to wait.

CHAPTER 2

“Collaboration is key to our success as a company, and every team member’s contribution is essential. Every team member is expected to work with the other departments to the best of their abilities.”

Entity Employee Handbook: R&C Edition

Alexys was the first one to arrive at the conference room, armed with a tin of cookies courtesy of Elliot Harman’s grandmother. She hadn’t known baking ran in the family when she hired him, much less that his grandmother might be the best baker this side of Tennessee, but she was more than happy to discover it.

She had just settled into her seat and begun arranging her notes, when the familiar click of Natalie’s heels echoed down the hall.

“Hi,” she said as she walked in. She plopped into the seat across from Alexys. “You have makeup under your eyes.”

“I do?” Alexys tried to rub away whatever Natalie could see. When it seemed to linger, Natalie leaned across the table, tried to wipe it away with her thumb, and then tsked.

“Sorry, I don’t think it’s makeup.”

“Great, that’s just …great.” Alexys exhaled and took a sip of her coffee.

Natalie shrugged apologetically before kicking her feet up onto the conference table. Her dagger-point, red-bottomed heels narrowly missed Alexys’s meticulously organized paperwork.

“Trevor called again.”

“Trevor as in your First Quadrant Trevor?” Alexys batted at Natalie’s feet until she dropped them off the table. “That’s the third time this week, and it’s only Tuesday.”

Natalie nodded. “I know, but get this: he swears on his life it’s a Thunderbird this time.”

“A Thunderbird? In Maryland?” Alexys couldn’t help but laugh. The sheer absurdity of it!

Of course it was Trevor. It wasalwaysTrevor. He had a reputation for consistently misclassifying monsters in District 16, which made him a Research and Cataloging Department nightmare. The week before, he called Natalie to inform her that he’d spotted a beast in the Chesapeake Bay that looked exactly like the Loch Ness Monster. When told it was probably Chessie, he emphatically disagreed and actually tried to imply the Loch Ness Monster herself might be migratory andvisiting Chessie.

“Nat, that’s ridiculous. Did you tell him it wasn’t even worth a call to R&C?”

“Of course.” Natalie scoffed and flicked one of her long braids over her shoulder. “But you know Trevor, he never listens. I promise you, his call transferred for all of twenty seconds before they sent him back to me. He’s livid.”

“Did you tell him to just submit the case to your inbox?”

“Of course I did. I told him in the meantime I’d talk with Caleb down in R&C myself and get back to him.”

Alexys frowned. “But there isn’t a Caleb in R&C.”