Page 46 of Prey

KADI

Watching Shasta and her family made my heart ache for her. I grew up with both of my parents, and even though Ethancame to us without his parents at a young age, I myself have never known a loss like that. The pain that they have all felt all these years must have been a lot to bear.

Watching Ethan struggle with it his whole life gave me an appreciation for my parents that most kids don’t have. They’ve always been there for me, and Ethan too. But for Shasta? Not only did she lose her father, she lost her mother to her own grief. I’m so glad that she had Winnie, but I can’t imagine the pain she’s felt her whole life. Watching them cry and release years of pent up grief was…well, it was heart rending. I never want to see her go through pain like that again in her life.

I realize that I can’t protect her from everything. But I can damn sure kill anyone that tries to hurt her. And I will, without a moment's hesitation. The problem with emotional pain though? I don’t have anyone I can take out for her. It justis.

I can’t fight an invisible foe. What I can do, though, is try to make sure she is safe and protected. I know Ethan feels the same and I see him look at me and nod as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking.

I’m so glad he pulled his head out of his ass. Having to deal with his bullshit amidst all the stuff with the Society has been too much. We need to make sure our focus is on taking them out. Even if it’s justthisparticular faction for now.

The unfortunate thing about the Society is that they have many heads. Like a hydra. You cut one off and another grows back. We need to hit them at their heart but that's going to be a much bigger operation than what we are running now, and it’s going to take a lot of people to do it. We are just three people. After this is over, we can get with the rest of the Club and the Convocation and try to come up with a bigger plan.

We pull up to Winnie’s and get out. Once we get inside, we stop for a couple waters and drink them down before heading down to the basement. Shasta hasn’t eaten anything sincebreakfast this morning. Well none of us have, but I’m more worried about her. She’s spent a lot of energy already and I know she said she’s fine but she needs to eat. We don’t really know yet how these new powers will affect her and trying to figure it all out in the midst of drama isn’t ideal.

That’s priority number one when we finish with Michael.

He’s a mess. Laken and Joaquin have worked him over pretty thoroughly and I see Shasta wince when she sees him. That’s saying a lot considering I know she, herself, wants to eviscerate him. Vampires are violent creatures. They live and diebyblood andforblood. Laken has a blood play kink anyway so he really gets off on torturing people. He scares the shit out of even me at times. I don’t know what kind of shit he went through when he was a Samurai, but they have a very violent history, so I can only imagine. It’s not something he talks about often, if at all.

Michael is crying like a little bitch.

The big bad Society leader is blubbering like an idiot and pleading for his life as we walk in. Shasta sneers at him and says, “Begging? How many times did my father beg for his life while you all tortured and…rapedhim?” Her words catch on that last part. I know it took everything in her to say that. I also know it was something she needed to get out after hearing what Jessa had to say at the healing center.

“You tortured him for years.Years. And you expect me to have mercy on you? You want pity? I don’t have a fucking ounce of anything to give you except pain and suffering before we kill you. Because, know this, you willnotbe leaving this room alive.” She takes this moment to zap him with a blast of electricity so hot his skin starts to smoke. I see Ethan wince. He’s been on the receiving end of a much lighter version of that.

Michael screams. I can smell burned flesh. They’re high pitched and I wince at their volume. He’s wet enough with blood that I’m sure that felt like he was being electrocuted.

While I want Shasta to get what she needs from this interaction, I also don’t want her to do anything she can’t come back from either. This is why she has Ethan and I. We can do these things for her. I’m afraid she’s going to take this too far in her anger and I don’t want her to have more blood on her hands today than she already does.

“Shasta, come here,” I say, leading her to the side of the room. “Are you sure this is what you want to do? What I mean is, we don’t mind killing him for you. By all means, watch. But are you sure you want to do this yourself?”

She’s angry. All the rage she felt earlier came back with a vengeance the moment we stepped into the room. But she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. I can feel her trying to sort her emotions through the bond. It’s a roller coaster. But after a couple of minutes she nods.

“You’re right. But I also don’t think it’s fair of me to ask you to do something like that either. I don’t want it on your conscience any more than you want it on mine.”

She flicks her eyes over to Ethan and he walks over to join us. I know with his shifter hearing he heard what we were talking about. I’m also sure that Joaquin and Laken could hear since they both walk over as well.

“Listen, Princess, this is our job. It’s what we do every single day. Taking out the Society is the biggest part of what we do. So this?” He points to Michael. “We live for this. You aren’t asking us to do anything that we aren’t already okay with doing. More than okay actually. It’s the best time of my life.” Laken laughs evilly as Ethan and I growl at him for calling Shasta ‘Princess’ again.

Ethan shoves him into Joaquin. “Point made. Stop with the Princess shit. Immediately.” Laken only laughs before winking as he walks away. Joaquin just rolls his eyes, puts his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ pose and follows him.

Shasta shakes her head. “Those two are a hot mess. But I get what you all are saying. I can step away but I still want to be involved with the questioning. Or whatever ‘questioning’ is left.”

“We can work with that.” I say, looking in her eyes to see if she feels resentful. She doesn’t and I don’t feel it in the bond either. I sigh with relief and I see Ethan’s shoulders lose a little of the tension they were carrying as well.

Taking care of a mate who can handle herself well is going to be a job, but at least I can say she concedes when she needs to instead of being stubborn about it. She walks over to stand by the table loaded with tools that Joaquin and Laken always have on them. Those two are serious about their job.

Laken stands behind Michael as Ethan and I walk up in front of him. His eyes grow wide and I see a wet spot form on the front of his pants. Gods, did he really just piss himself?

“Pathetic. You’re supposed to be a leader of the Society and you piss yourself when a couple shifters stand in front of you? You weren’t acting like this at your store. You don’t like our brand of hospitality?” I lean down and put my hands on the arms of the chair on either side of him and get real close to his face. “Boo!”

He writhes in his seat trying to get away from me.

“Stop! Please just stop. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But I already told these guys most of it. She has the power to do a spell for immortality and they want her to perform it for them.” The stench of fear and urine is so strong I want to gag. Sometimes having a shifter’s sense of smell is the worst.

“Tell us something we don’t already know, asshole. Like locations of other factions. Or, how about the location of the heads of the Society.” I shake his chair at my words for good measure.

“N…no one knows that except certain people. They don’t ever share their main location.” He stutters in fear as he says the words.

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