Page 60 of Ascension of the Pack

I appreciated the fact he said ‘when’ and not ‘if’. ‘We talk to him.’

‘And if he’s evil?’ Tarkers was virtually bouncing on his seat.

I met his eyes in the rear-view mirror. ‘If he’s evil,’ I said firmly, ‘thenwe can kill him.’

Even if it killed me to do so.

Chapter 38

David’s parents’ house was a little like him: relatively nondescript but neat and tidy with no bells and whistles.

I rang the doorbell. Moments later, a woman in her early sixties with short grey hair answered the door. She gave a welcoming smile even as she registered that she didn’t recognise any of us. As I’d expected, her forehead was clear of the Other realm symbol: she was a Common realmer.

‘Hi,’ I said warmly. ‘I’m Lucy. We work with your son David?’

‘At the mansion?’

‘Yes.’

‘Gosh,’ she said and eyed us all. ‘That’s a lot of groundskeepers.’

‘There’s a lot of ground,’ Greg said evenly.

‘There must be. How can I help you?’

‘Is David here?’ I asked casually. ‘He didn’t show up for work today.’

Her brow creased with worry. ‘That’s not like him. Have you checked his room?’

‘First thing we did, ma’am,’ Greg told her. And it had been. We’d rifled through it in case he’d left any clues as to his whereabouts. His room had been surprisingly bare.

His mum pulled out a phone from her back pocket and rang him. The call went to voicemail and she left a terse message asking him to ring her. Tension had entered her body when he failed to answer, and I felt bad for that.

‘We’ll keep on looking for him,’ I assured her. ‘Is there anywhere you think he’d go?’

‘Instead of work?’ she asked, scandalised. ‘It’s not like David to play hooky. But he loves Cliveden and our local garden centre.’

I suppressed a grimace. She didn’t know anything that Daniella hadn’t already told us. ‘Is your husband in? Perhaps he’s heard from David?’

‘Derrick!’ she called into the house. ‘Have you heard from David?’

‘No!’ a voice hollered back.

‘Have you checked his old flat?’ his mother asked suddenly and the tension eased from her shoulders. ‘Perhaps he got his days muddled – I expect he’s doing some jobs at his old flat.’

‘Where is that?’ Debbie grunted.

She rattled off the address and Tarkers noted it down.

‘We’ll check there,’ I promised.

‘You’ll let me know?’ she asked, a hint of worry creeping in again.

‘Of course,’ I promised and took her number.

I felt bad for David’s parents; not only had they not seen their son but they were in the Common realm. They had no idea David was a werewolf, let alone a nefarious one.

We thanked his mum for her time and left to check out David’s flat.

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